Well, here it is, finally (almost) finished. The feeders have been hung by now and the chickens have moved in. They are getting used to having a "real' coop vs the lean-to that they had before. There is still some outside trim work but that can come later, no real rush. Now I would like to get a couple more chickens, but a different breed. I don't want to start with chicks since I would have to keep them seperate for awhile. Checking craigslist to see if I can find some buff orpington or black astrolop pullets. We will see.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
New chicken coop
Well, here it is, finally (almost) finished. The feeders have been hung by now and the chickens have moved in. They are getting used to having a "real' coop vs the lean-to that they had before. There is still some outside trim work but that can come later, no real rush. Now I would like to get a couple more chickens, but a different breed. I don't want to start with chicks since I would have to keep them seperate for awhile. Checking craigslist to see if I can find some buff orpington or black astrolop pullets. We will see.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Decrative landscaping
I have one garden bed in the front yard which has always been flowers, this fall I decided to go to vegetables. So radish, lettuce, red kale, cabbage, brocoli and swiss chard.
Feeling like a farmer
It has been a crazy week. Yard is busy, finishing the new chicken coop and running to feeds stores to pick up feed, compost, potting soil, etc... I have to go pick up grape vines soon and figure out how I am going to plant them with the lettuce still in the bed. So much to do and so little time, considering I work a normal 40 hr work week job. Since there is only lettuce, spinach, radishes and a few other things I will probably hold off going to Farmers' Market at least one more week to finish painting the chicken coop and maybe even prep the last garden bed from fall, mow the new rye grass against the fence and fill the rope totes with soil for the potatoes. Plus there are seeds to start, woodturing to do, etc....
It will get done. I am just glad it is a 3 day weekend. :)
It will get done. I am just glad it is a 3 day weekend. :)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
A New Year
Well, it is a new year and a new title for the blog. Since I now have chickens plus the garden I thinking I am starting to have my own micro farm in the backyard. I hope to post more often this upcoming year with some help from some new technology that I have recently acquired. For now here is a picture of what is growing in one of the beds. Lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes and agrulua.
Enjoy!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Peppers and chickens
The chickens are growing. After a couple of issues I am down to 14 and they are about 3 lbs at 4 weeks old.
Meanwhile the garden is doing well. Harvested a basket of peppers today and hope to get a few more for Saturday's Farmer's market this evening.
A cold front has come in and is giving everthing a chill. It will be in the 40's the next few nights but the high is the low 70's which means I can get work done in the yard in the middle of the day! Still a major lack of rain. :( At least the heat is not as bad.
Meanwhile it is war with the squirrels again. I planted seeds in a new flowerbed for some lettuce and am finding spinach seedlings dug up just from their random digging. It is bad enough they do it in the lawn, I just wish they would leave my raised beds alone. Plus the birds have found the peppers so there is bird netting over the peppers that are changing color. Nothing more dissapointing they seeing a beautifully colored pepper from a distance just to find bird holes in it.
Meanwhile it is war with the squirrels again. I planted seeds in a new flowerbed for some lettuce and am finding spinach seedlings dug up just from their random digging. It is bad enough they do it in the lawn, I just wish they would leave my raised beds alone. Plus the birds have found the peppers so there is bird netting over the peppers that are changing color. Nothing more dissapointing they seeing a beautifully colored pepper from a distance just to find bird holes in it.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
New creatures
Well, the laying chickens were sent back for the summer to my friends farm, just because I felt so bad that they were in an enclosed space with the heat. (City regulations does not let them be free roaming.)
The weather is cooling down slowly (high of possibly 90F today.) So earlier in the summer I had decided to get some meat chickens for the fall. Can't be that hard, right?
The original plan was to go in on an order with another person, but that didn't work out. And hatcheries have minimum orders so what started out as 8-10 chicks is now 16! I had ordered 15, and the hatchery threw in an extra.
I drove to the local hatchery to pick them up and got them home, set them up in the brooder, no problem. Except in a couple of days I realized it was going to be too small. So, the layer hens are not back yet so that became the new brooder. Works really good. I also got their 'chicken tractor' build so that is complete as well and they will move in there as soon as they don't need the brooder light at night.
These chickens can grow! I didn't weight them when I got them last Wednesday but last Saturday I did and they were 2-3 oz average. Then I weighed them this wednesday and they were 5-6 oz. Which the exception of the 'extra' chicken. That one is still just over 2 oz and probably feels that it is living with giants.
The weather is cooling down slowly (high of possibly 90F today.) So earlier in the summer I had decided to get some meat chickens for the fall. Can't be that hard, right?
The original plan was to go in on an order with another person, but that didn't work out. And hatcheries have minimum orders so what started out as 8-10 chicks is now 16! I had ordered 15, and the hatchery threw in an extra.
I drove to the local hatchery to pick them up and got them home, set them up in the brooder, no problem. Except in a couple of days I realized it was going to be too small. So, the layer hens are not back yet so that became the new brooder. Works really good. I also got their 'chicken tractor' build so that is complete as well and they will move in there as soon as they don't need the brooder light at night.
These chickens can grow! I didn't weight them when I got them last Wednesday but last Saturday I did and they were 2-3 oz average. Then I weighed them this wednesday and they were 5-6 oz. Which the exception of the 'extra' chicken. That one is still just over 2 oz and probably feels that it is living with giants.
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