The Chickens must go

Well, we are definitely heading into chicken abuse territory now. They are probably a little less than pound each now and the boxes we have them in are just way too small. We went to Denver over night last night and one of the chickens made a break for it. Luckily we had them separated off by themselves in the dining room so Finn and Bella did not get their lucky day, but they had also knocked over their food and water in the malay that must have ensued during the great escape. So they were pretty excited to see some new water, after the ten minutes it took me to recapture Ms. Scatch-Alot, she's a wiley one. So we're going to try and get a couple more boxes together and put them out in the garage, partly so they can harden up temperature wise and partly because M had a bad dream about the chickens causing some sort of terrible disease in a small child. We should be done with the coop this week, just a couple pieces to get together before the big construction day. Then they will be living the high life in their chicken condo. I hope to post plans, especially considering all the dam time and effort that went into this thing. No-one should have to go through that if they don't have to.

We up-potted some more tomatoes and will have to bring them upstairs, as we are running out of room under the grow lights in the seed room. Lots of peas and garlic and radishes are coming up in the back forty. I've been making some progress on weeding out the dandelions by our front raised beds, but it is definitely a project which makes one pine for a nice warm bottle of Round-up.

Well here are a couple of the promised photos of the seed room.

Lots of action going on, definitely some things we planted a little too early, like the Morning Glories, which are starting to vine up and try to attached to each other. The leeks and fennels are looking good and lots of peppers and cucumbers and melons are starting to leaf out. We need to get the boxes filled soon, so the soil can come up to temperature. I got an adapter head for the sprinkler to change it from regular to a drip system. Hope it works, or we'll be spending a lot of time watering all these plants.

The chicks are definitely turning into chicklets. Not much fluff left, especially on the Arcona's, they are pretty much feathered out and so can go outside to a coop very soon. Of course that means we have to build said coop very soon. I thought I would have more time, but of course that went by the wayside pretty darn quick. My babies is all growed up. I can see why chicks get abandoned so soon after easter, they look pretty mangie at the ripe old age of two and a half weeks. I put a small, apparently less scary, perch in the bedroom box and some of them seem to be taking to it. I have also raised the water and food, so a lot less crap, both literally and figuratively, gets into them now. They still like to sit on the feeder, but at least the litter and old poop don't get kicked into the food, just the fresh stuff.

We went on a book buying tear. New Eliot Coleman book about managing home and market gardens, a book on how to build earth ovens (yummy fire baked bread and pizza), a couple more back to the earth/community building books. It's kind of funny how all these books talk about the gardening/farming process as a great jumping off point for community building, but I'm not clear when it is that I'm going to have time to build anything other than chicken, more beds, trellises, canning shelves, etc. Seems like between my real full time job and raising a soon to be very active toddler, chickens and growing the plants, that I'm not going to have a whole of time to "share" the experience with anyone other than the quick posting to this site. But perhaps I'm being pessimistic. 

We're already having to transplant our tomatoes into bigger pots, which is a good sign. They won't go outside until mid-May at the earliest, but it's nice to see progress even before the weather turns. The cucumber sprouts are going gang busters, should be a good crop, love the lemon cucs. This is such a jumbled year for the plants. Trying to figure out what goes in when and where, what we are likely to eat and how much, what will store well and where - in the ground,  in the root cellar, pickled, frozen, canned, dehydrated, how the plants need to rotate in the beds, how, when and what to compost with. It's pretty much a crap shoot this year, but we'll learn a lot and hopefully not have too much to give away - please take this produce. I guess in times like these, the worst case would be we could give it to a food pantry or homeless shelter. Maybe we should have a bed of just the hardier stuff to donate to a pantry anyway, everyone deserves fresh produce.

As soon as I decide on a coop plan, I'll try to document the building process, and maybe draw up some plans. Then I'll report back on what was good, bad and just useless. Wish me luck.

Chicks on the loose

The chicks got to experience the outside world for the first time. Pretty exciting. They have had to have a little downgrading in the social world due to our little freak out about Salmonella possibly passing on to Milo. Not that we've let him touch them, but it's possible they could kick something up into the air and he was eating in the same room as they are housed. So, we've moved everything out and they can have the room until we move them into the outdoor coop. They definitely seemed like a flock when I got them out to the grass. At first they just stood in one corner, but after a while they started to range but pretty much always together. They ate some grass, picked at the dirt and pooped a little. Lots of wing flapping which made me a little nervous, but no-one got very far. I'm not sure if it was nerves or if they were just trying things out since they had the space.

As the video shows, they are moving out of the cute chick faze and into scrawny teenage, half feathers/ half fluff. The Arconas - Dot, Dashey, and Ms. Scratch-alot, are having a particularly scruffy time of it right now. The Goldens - Ginger and Carmine, are getting a lot of wing and shoulder feathers but still look cute. The Wyandotts - Veedub and Sleepy, have some wing feathers but definitely seems to be on the slowest growth track.

We're starting to organize the garden and sprouting rooms, and have figured out that this year is pretty much just a wild leap out into the growing season and we shouldn't expect too much or put too much pressure on ourselves to be fully on track. This will be a learning year, figuring out what grows well and where, what we actually will eat and what stores well over the winter. Also, what over grows and can go to the farmers market, and what is easy to grow and can be sold. It looks like we'll probably have some extra tomato plants, so those could be potted up and sold. And herbs and flowers also would be easy to do. Eggs will hopefully be in pretty good supply. We don't need to make real money just supplement what we pay out to get stuff started. Each year we'll add more to the place - a green house, tunnels and cold frames, bees, maybe a goat if we can make it look like a pet.

Photos of the grow room and garden will be posted soon, really. It's just that the chicks are growing at a much more interesting pace, right now, but the garden will take over soon.

Condo expansion

I'm definitely beginning to get the idea that chickens are not so smart and that perhaps I should not get too attached to them. They have been roosting on the feeder a lot, so I thought it might be a good idea to get them something to roost on that didn't include pooping on their food. I got a nice stick from out of the garden and put it in and they freaked out. They all ran to the opposite side of the box as far away from the stick as possible. I left it in there for awhile thinking they just needed time to get used to it, but after half an hour they were still huddled in the corner, so I took it out.

Then I was outside with Milo and we saw some of these bugs that congregate in the spring as soon as it gets warm. So I took one in thinking the chicks might enjoy chasing it around a little and of course eating it. But when I put it in the brooder they just kind of looked at it and then walked away, no interest even when it started to crawl up the wall. My high hopes for them as buggers is fading somewhat. They took so well to the moths that I assumed all bugs were fair game. Hopefully they'll do something to keep the garden bugs under control when they older. Who knows maybe it has colouring to indicate that it tastes bad.

Today the chick condo got a big renovation, doubled in size. I hope they can afford the new mortgage. I put a door between the two boxes, so one area would be for sleeping and one for eating /drinking. We'll how that goes, they seem to be just congregating in the eating area. I also took the lid off the feeder since they were roosting on it and put that in the sleeping area. No traffic yet, but they re having a great time all standing in the food and kicking and eating, so what the heck a little variety in their lives is probably worth some lost food. I just think its a good idea to get them used to the idea of going into different areas since once they are outside they'll have to learn to go out and in and use the nest boxes.

Now the chicks have bloated crops. Not sure what or if I need to do about it. It might be that we were keeping the brooder too warm for them now that they are a little older and they weren't drinking enough water. I'll keep an eye on it and try a couple things that the websites suggest if it doesn't get better soon. They don't seem to be bother by it and they are still eating and drinking, so it's probably not life threatening. Most spots say they need more grit but I don't think the chicks are supposed to be eating anything but the chick food right now.

Almost everything in the grow room is doing great. The onions are a little confusing. They seems to be a little weak but are still popping up, so who knows. It's just not clear that they are worth the space and maybe we should just go to onion sets rather than seed.

Raised beds, Yayyy!

Here you can see the Wyandott forming wings.

Here is the Sexlink with some stubby feathers poking out, but still lots of fluff.

Here are the Arconas with their almost fully formed wings, they are beginning to fly a little.

M was able to get started on building the raised beds today. They will take up a section of the front lawn that gets some pretty blazing sun and it fairly hard packed, I think from having an RV parked on it for some years. So regardless of how much water you put on it, it always ends up dried out and weedy. It should be a really good spot for melons, peppers and others that like it hot and well drained, maybe some strawberries around the edges for fruit and decoration.

Peas went in outside, and we got a bit of snow this afternoon, so that should make them happy. Tons of stuff coming up in the grow room, I'll get some shots of that tomorrow.

The chicks are a week old now and really growing fast. One of the Arconas flew up on to the top of the waterer today so we're going to have to get a bigger pen and probably include a lid. The dogs, unfortunately are also getting more and more interested in the birds. Not sure if its the noise or the attention or a stronger smell as they get older.