The Farm is Growing

Grazing together

We got a lot done today! First we picked up our 4 new laying hens. They were in a pretty crowded barn and had been replaced with this year's model...they might be a year old, as we were told, but who knows, really. We'll see if they lay us any eggs in the next few days! Omelettes tomorrow? Or roast chicken next week? (just kidding....)

Checking our their new digs. One is big, one has white speckles, and the other two look alike. We had to catch them tonight to put them in the hutch-coop and they weren't very nervous of us. We haven't finished the fully enclosed outdoor part of that coop yet, or they would have been locked in there today to get used to it. 

In their coop this evening. It's small but they'll have the enclosed outdoor area too, and they'll mostly be free ranging.

The playhouse coop with the netting over top. This is when we realized that we'd fully enclosed a chair by accident.

The chicks had their first day outside today! This is how they reacted to the great outdoors at first:

Luckily they had their trusty guardian looking over them.

Perhaps not so much of a guardian...Ryan seems to think he has a stake in a chicken share. Raise the chicks now, get a chicken later?

 While the chicks hung out just outside the greenhouse (the nice warm air blew right out into the xpen), we worked. I transplanted the hot peppers, bell peppers and tomatoes. 

Nathan cleaned the dust off the expanded clay balls that will serve as the grow bed for the plants.

 The bathtub will be the grow bed - it will drain back into the fish tank.

Fred deciding if he wants some hay.