Empty Nesters

The chicks moved out today...to their new coop. They seemed pretty happy to have more room to run around. We hung the heat lamp on a chain attached to the ceiling and zap strapped the wire up the chain, along the ceiling and out of the playhouse coop. We closed the coop door tonight to keep it warmer but we'll open it during they day so they can have the outdoor part to play around in, too.

We had 4 fresh eggs again for breakfast and then a giant harvest of our veggies for dinner!

Yup, that's the giant harvest. 8 arugula leaves. That's ok, they topped our delicious homemade pizza.

 Hot genoa salami, green olives, onion and garlic (and the patented sesame seed crust). 

Ham, sundried tomatoes, blue cheese, onion and arugula. 

Eggs!

Look what we woke up to! Well, kind of. It seems that we are up earlier than our new hens lay their eggs. They laid these for us at 10 so we went back inside and had a late breakfast.

Perfectly poached eggs! They were delicious.

Two of the chickens went on a little adventure before going back into the coop to pop out their eggs. They somehow got out of the fenced area (maybe flew over the low fence near the garage) and were clucking around in the driveway. We brought them back into the fenced area and they happily stayed there all day until they (the same two) escaped again in the afternoon. The other two had gone back up into the coop on their own like good chickens...a wing clipping may be in order tomorrow for the offenders. We want to let them free range eventually but we don't want them free ranging over the fence into the neighbour's yard!

Speckles is definitely the ring leader.

We built a door for the playhouse coop today and let the chicks hang out in the sun in there all afternoon. They're fun to watch! 

Everything that we transplated into the greenhouse yesterday looks good today! We woke up to a frosty car and were worried that the tomatoes might have died, but they seem fine. Tomorrow we'll prepare the soil in the other half of the beds and transplant the cucumbers and melons and start some more seeds.

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.

Prepping

We got the playhouse-coop done! Well, almost. We just have to attach the first 'level' of mesh to the second one, and attach the top netting to the mesh. Oh, and make a door.

We also got started on the hutch-coop today. It shouldn't take too much more work before it's ready for the 4 laying hens that we can pick up tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out what kind of material to put on the floors of the coops - it sounds like straw, pine shavings and sand all have their pros and cons.

The chicks are still sniffling but original sick-y sounds better so hopefully they'll all get through it. Zebra Head sounds the worst right now.

Yesterday after we finished mulching we went and picked up Nathan's aquaponics tank from the hatchery. They gave us 3 smaller tanks too - they were so nice to give them to us! Today we got the rest of the supplies (clay for the growing medium, a shelving unit, polypipe, etc.) - just need some fish!

The new tank and the bathtub.

None of the seeds that we planted outside or in the greenhouse seem to have germinated yet...but the seedlings all look good. They seem to be doing ok even though it's been getting down to 3 degrees at night.

Number 26

The farm has a new visitor for awhile. I guess he stays until his tough duties with "Meghan" and "Meghan's calf" (she is a consenting adult, don't worry) are done...

His name is "26".

He doesn't seem to be taking his duties too seriously. He spent a lot of time tackling the compost pile...

It was a beautiful day on the farm today so we got to work on the main chicken coop. The entire thing is going to cost us $20 (for the craigslist hardware cloth) plus a bit for netting over the top. Everything else is recycled.

First I cut the fronts off of these crates - they'll hang low on the wall and will be the nest boxes .

Nathan cut lengths of plywood to line the inside of the drywall playhouse (so the chickens won't peck at the drywall).

 One piece of plywood screwed to the wall. We're ignoring the creepy "god loves liam" writing all over the walls. 

The natural roosts that we found.

Ryan helps to recycle everything...

He and Abby are becoming real farm dogs. Abby's even got the grass chewing down.

Ryan got invited by Jim to help bring the horses in this afternoon. He was so excited that he was pretty much useless. Here are the horses coming in the right direction, with Ryan nowhere to be seen.

Here are the horses going in the wrong direction. Ryan is behind that post on the right about to come running back to us, terrified.

(the horses don't care about dogs at all and I don't let the dogs chase them, ever. Too dangerous!).

Back to the coop...Here it is with the two posts in and a trench dug to bury the hardware cloth (our landlord used his tractor to make holes for the posts). The trench took forever because the ground is so rocky.

Putting in the braces for the hardware cloth and posts.

Attaching the hardware cloth to the wood - we had to use nails and bend them over the cloth because the wood was too hard for our staple gun. Tomorrow we just have to put up the upper level of hardware cloth and get some netting for the top.

 Hopefully all the chicks will be healthy for their new coop. The snuffling chick has been separated from the others and seems to be the same as this morning. Zebra head in the top left corner is huge!

The plants are definitely healthy in the greenhouse. 

Peppers and cucumbers.

Tomatoes and melons.

Starting the Coops

Today was the first rainy day on the farm but we still worked outside all day. First thing this morning we ran outside to check whether the seedlings had survived the night - they are all alive! We might have a bunny problem in our outdoor garden since we saw a rabbit there a few days ago. So far so good though. 

Next we cleared out and weed whacked the side yard where we want to keep the 4 adult laying hens (that we pick up on April 15th) at first, before they can be with the chicks. We might end up separating the meat and egg chickens and keeping the meat chickens in the side yard and the egg chickens in the converted playhouse. 

After that we took a lunch break and went to the bakery in town to buy a delicious loaf of fresh bread and a cinnamon bun. Good thing we're getting lots of exercise...

Then we did some work for the landlord (we're working about 20 hours a month for reduced rent) levelling out the rows in his orchard and weed whacking to prepare for adding mulch in the next few days. We thought that would take us a few hours but it only took us an hour total. 

Next we cleared out a little yard that had a rabbit hutch/chicken coop structure in it. We're going to drag that into the side yard to use as a coop in there. After that we started 'predator proofing' the playhouse-coop. 

This is the kind of predator we're trying to keep out....

Digging a trench to bury the hardware cloth:

We used a staple gun to attach the wire to the wood but had to hammer the staples in the rest of the way - need a stronger staple gun.

Meanwhile, Abby has become a horse instead of a farm dog. Grazing together...

Ryan, too. They keep finding bits of hoof trimmings.

Hardware cloth folded along the ground and ready to be buried. The ground is pretty hard and rocky so it would be hard for anything to dig in, anyway. We also put that piece up on the left side of the porch and we're going to make a door on the right side of the porch.

All buried:

Later in the afternoon there was time for chick training...now when I open the crate door most of them come out and sit on my arms and in my lap. Ignore my highly fashionable attire. And yes, there is chick poop on my right knee.

First Few Days

It has been a busy few days but we are finally moved in! We spent Thursday on a (failed) mission to find an aquaponics tank while we had the uhaul, then packing up the truck, getting on the ferry and unloading the truck at the other end. The plants and chicks (and dogs and us) all survived the trip over! I was worried about the chicks getting too cold but they huddled together in the car and seem none the worse for wear. 

On Friday we met with the landlord and explored the farm and then proceeded to tidy some stuff up that we'd seen the day before and said we wanted to do "eventually" (so of course we got right to it...). Nathan fixed up the main gate; he braced the post that was falling over and took off a bunch of wire and rope that must have been used to keep some small animals in at some point. The entire farm property is fenced, which I didn't realize. Our house, though, isn't - there is a fully fenced yard about 10 m from the house but I'm lazy and I like to be able to let the dogs into a yard right from the door with bare feet and pjs when it's cold out. To fix that problem we extended the yard right up to the door of the house. It isn't the most beautiful fencing job (a mix of different sizes of hardware cloth and an xpen at one end) but it actually looks better now than it did when there was a separate yard away from the house. 

Yesterday we had to drive an hour south to return the uhaul truck (so glad we had a one way rental - Thursday would have been awful if we hadn't). We stopped and got some small tools, plants for the front of the house and a *lot* of food. The only grocery store within 20 minutes is small and expensive so we stocked up...and could barely push the cart through the store. 

The greenhouse is pretty much ready to go. We just have to add some compost to our half and rake through it, and then lay down irrigation. The pump and supplies are there so it shouldn't take too long.

I want to get the broccoli and kale seedlings in there to free up some space inside, and plant the lettuces. We're going to make a small outdoor bed at the end of the greenhouse (in the deer fenced section) for peas, arugula and some herbs. The first tomatoes that I planted a month ago are getting huge! They're already over 6" tall.

Happy farm dogs!

Today we are off to a poultry swap...just to look.....

 The old playhouse that we're going to convert into a coop.