Arrived!

Welcome our newest addition to Two Blue Houses! (No, it isn't Lauren's baby, but any day...) This arrival came via snail mail.  And I'm happy to report that the kids are loving their new little ones.

Another spring, another order of chicks.  I'm not sure if this says we are bad owners or determined to succeed.  Either or, filling the house with their surprisingly loud "cheeps" sure makes us smile.  Seriously, a sleeping day-old-chick is just about the cutest thing I can imagine.  They fall asleep and kind of just flap down.  You would swear they were injured by looking at they way they are awkwardly sprawled all over. Little overlapping piles of yellow fluff.  Sigh.  Adorable.

Since we are no longer day-old-chick newbies, our brooder has gotten less and less complicated and I think last year we nailed it so here it is again...

Three large cardboard boxes fashioned into one piled with a couple inches of straw.  Totally disposable, compostable, and my favorite, just about free.  Every couple days I gently scoot the chicks to one side and sprinkle some fresh straw.  They may be small, but boy do they "go" a lot!

It is hard to believe they have been here for almost a week.  Only 19 weeks to go until they are laying eggs.  Patience... patience...

Any happy signs of spring at your place?

Good News Bad News

Good News:

We have lovely garden this year. Lots of new things...

Grapes trellised and producing teeny tiny grapes for the first time ever.

I think they enjoy being off the ground and not getting beat up by the lawnmower and little feet.

New raised boxes that enabled us to start more perennials and get the early cold crops in the ground before the big garden was plowed. We added 4- 4X8 beds (peas, greens, and 2 strawberries), 1 - 4X24 bed (asparagus and garlic) and a super long 2X32 bed for our blueberries to our herb and strawberry beds from two years ago. The backyard is really taking shape. A big change from the clay slip and slide it used to be.

This is my greens bed: kale, spinach and arugula.

No wimpy lettuce here, all hearty greens!

And a new north-south orientation of four foot rows for the garden.

This was taken about 10 days ago. There has been more waterfall and more growth.

I'm always amazed what rain and sunshine can do for a garden!

And here it is yesterday... amazing, huh?

Bad News:

This self-proclaimed farm now only has one lone chicken. Sadly we lost all but one of our chickens to a wild animal. Each spring we reinforce our coop to withstand nature, be it weather or predators. It is inevitable that each season we will at some point lose the battle (and a few of our flock) but we have always won the war. Last week I was not awoken by my annoying rooster and that sent a wave of panic through me. At my coop door this is what I found.

No feathers, no struggle. So sad. The chicken yard is fenced and gated and the coop itself was locked tight for the night with all my little ones falsely safe inside. The animal jumped (?) the fence and tore open the vent to get to my sleeping flock. Only "Puppy" is left.

She was always more of a pet than livestock, following us around the yard. She survived because she refuses to roost in the coop at night but instead (and much to my frustration) prefers to stay on my front porch. A devastating set back. It is difficult any time an animal under your care perishes in a way you never intended and I don't believe I will ever get used to it. I am hoping to purchase a new batch of chicks since the weather is still nice to brood them out in the coop. This way by next spring, I will have a new fresh group of laying hens. A small flock of chickens in imperative if I want to call my place a farm. We are even tossing around the idea of raising a couple of turkeys (separately of course) specifically for our Thanksgiving table. Anyone out there raised these large birds before? It would be new to me so any advice will be welcomed. Thanks!

The Chicks have Flown the Coop...

The Best Part of Keeping Chickens...

This is a wonderful short post by Jackie that was posted back in February. For whatever reason (Blogger glitch) it reposted when I updated the label... not realizing Jackie had already updated the label. No matter what it shouldn't have reposted, but it did. So enjoy it again!! **Wink**

Begin a recipe only to find you have no eggs.

Run to the coop and gather the exact amount you need.

A happy blessing.

I'm making brownies by the way...

Baby Chicks

The call came from the post office. Little peeps. 6 a.m. They are here. Always a novelty. Last time the postman told us that there used to be lots of chickens coming by mail to our fair community. Bees too. Not so much now a days. When we started keeping chickens there were no regulations on them. They weren't considered livestock. You could have a rooster, as many birds as you want, it was the coop they were worried about. We were told it ("it" being the coop) would bring coyotes. Really.

The shipping box from Meyer Hatchery in Ohio. Hurray local!

They are here. Great I was completely irresponsible and up until 2 a.m. and great we are about to get hit by a snow storm. I was banking on the end of March being warmer than the beginning. This group is supposed to go in a brooder in the garage. Right now the garage is cold, stinks of gasoline because of the tractor, and is cold. I know I mentioned that.

Huddling chicks. The are right under the heat lamp.

Out of the box they were cold and huddling. Each got a beak dipped in water until they drank. The one has a semi pasty butt already nothing is blocked. I will clean it when Gary gets home. All behinds will be inspected then. Corey came out in a hurry to see them only at Gary's insisting. He seemed completely unimpressed. Sixteen year olds can't "be impressed" by chickens. He would have been more so two years ago when the last group arrived. He was a better age for it all back then and hadn't yet been jaded by the heavy **Wink** burden of taking care of adult chickens.

In less then five minutes they had relaxed and were exploring their new home.

When we left them in the garage secure in the knowledge they had drank, were exploring, and no longer a heaping pile it was clear novelty had definitely worn off. I am tired. My pictures are not great. They are wonderfully cute but I don't feel the necessity to peer in every few minutes to make sure they are still alive. They will serve their purpose and will be a great addition to our mini farm.

Two roosters and the rest hens (well will be when older). They will be replacing my laying flock in September.  Hopefully the majority of them make it like my last group of chickens. Some loss is to be expected. The general idea is that this group will replace and/or add to themselves. Either by going broody or by us incubating their eggs.

No decisions on what will happen with the old flock yet. I am grateful to them for their service but I would like some long roasters or maybe lots of chicken soups with homemade stock.  They could also be sold on Craig's List to a beginner(s) chicken keeper(s). An easy beginners flock.

The baby is wide awake and bushy tailed. He shouldn't be up. I hope to get him to lay down very very soon and I will follow his example. How does he know I am not sleeping soundly in my bed? Baby's must have sonar or something. Perhaps his bottle will convince him it is still sleep time?

Well I am enjoying a breakfast of champions. Dry granola and coffee. Until next time.

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The Price of Chicken Food

I hope I don't make any enemies with my ideas of feeding chickens. I really do have healthy and happy birds. I don't stand for animal cruelty but I do believe that chickens are animals for utility purposes. To me they are not pets...

When we first got chickens the only place we could buy chicken feed was at a feed store 30+ minutes way. Trust me I looked. I would buy the cheapest stuff they had and forget the grit and oyster shells (once on layers ration). If you allow your chickens access to outside and offer a variety of table scraps they do just fine. Sometimes I consider buying the grit but I know my helpers won't remember to give it to them anyway and for 15-30 chickens the small bag of grit for $9.99 would be gone in a flash. I discovered early on if allowed free access to grit they eat it like candy. Filling their gizzards with grit instead of food. I was shocked by that kind of behavior. I would ration their grit and things worked out much much better for all of us. It kinda makes me think of all those poor souls who buy hay for their rabbits in pet stores. Seriously, you just spent $9.99 on ONE flake of hay. Buy a bale (or two, even three depending on where you find it) for that price! A bale. Many, many flakes. I digress.

Back to chickens. If you have baby chicks and/or don't allow your chickens access to the outside PLEASE buy them grit. They really do need it. You should feed crushed oyster shells but we don't. My chicken's egg shells are hard as a rock and they get a pretty varied supply of kitchen scraps several times a week. The greens provide calcium and the other scraps help supplement the worms and bugs they eat when outside. Oh yeah and they LOVE fresh cut grass. We don't treat our lawn with any toxic chemicals (or anything at all) so feeding them grass clippings isn't concern. However it has been a long time since grass clippings and many bugs were available to our birds. The cold Ohio weather sort of puts all of that on hold for quite sometime. Off to the feed store we go.

Now we live near a large number of horse barns. In fact, that is how Gary and I met. It made great sense for a feed store to open in our local shopping center just around the corner and Gary and I both kick ourselves repeatedly for not thinking of it first. Trying to support local, save on gas money, and enjoy great convenience we mostly buy there now. I have long thought that they were priced roughly $2.00 to $3.00 higher that the feed store 30+ minutes away but the three reasons for shopping around the corner overrode that dollar difference.

Today we needed to get food for the chickens and we were going to be out by the "far" feed store so we decided to pick it up there. I was pretty thrilled about the idea of saving a buck or two in the process. Wow, was I wrong! In the 2+ years we have had chickens feed prices have crept up. There was no price savings between our local, just around the corner feed store and the 30+ minutes away feed store. None. A 50 lb bag of chicken food now costs over $13.00! The price whether driven up by inflation, trend, or who knows what certainly is making keeping a backyard flock on commercial food expensive.

An idea has been playing in the back of my head about cheaper ways to feed my animals. I will confess I always think about and even worry about how to do all things cheaper. I can not believe that throughout history we are the only successful animal raisers because we have invented convenience feed that comes in the form of a pellet. Granted I am not willing to spend more or buy crazy never heard before grains to feed my flock. I am, however, all the more motivated to find ways to feed our chickens and rabbits in noncommercial ways. There has to be some better way!

The research has begun. I will be looking for books, reading article after article on the internet and hoping to discover a way. A way we can afford. A way that is good for the animal and good for us. We keep animals to provide fresh and healthy foods but we certainly aren't making more money and prices are certainly going up around us on all things. So it is time to find a better way...

How do you feed your chickens?

Spring in February

Well I just had to take a moment to document that it feels like spring today at nearly 60 degrees. Despite the fact that Wade and I are still fighting a cold we had to step outside for a moment and enjoy the sunshine!

Wade was less than thrilled about the wind. He also
couldn't take his eyes off the chickens!

I had to let the chickens out to eat some worms and play in the mud and was grateful for my mud boots!

The best news of all is that our green house project is getting started today and I have finally organized my seeds. Here are the plans for the green house drawn up by my lovely hubby (my man knows how much I like plans and drawings). Don't expect much with the green house. It will be functional and hillbilly made from free stuff.

Gary's Drawing

Up Close

Beagle helpers. Rocky placed his paw print of approval on the drawings.
The chickens are in the background looking for a hand out of scraps.

We have plans for back by the chicken coop too. Not to mention a pile of fence to put up in the jungle. You can see the jungle to the right in the picture above.

Notice the mud. We use wood, stone, whatever all winter to keep the mess to a minimum. Do you see the large tree in the background by the dog pen? That tree is coming down before real spring hits. We are sad to lose it but it is sick... so better to take it down for firewood then have it fall on the garage.

Anyway! Time to plant very, very soon! What changes are happening around your place?

Chickens

Well the hubby and I had a great debate regarding the chickens. Should we order more. Should we not. Should we get a rooster. Should we not. It is finally over!

Say hello to our new flock of chickens or soon to come I should say.

Silver Laced Wyandotte

These birds are strikingly beautiful and practical. They are described as follows:

With silvery-white edging on their shiny black feathers, Silver Laced Wyandottes will be a lovely addition to your flock. These deep, wide- bodied birds are good layers of brown eggs and are very docile. Their close- fitting rose comb is an advantage in cold climates where single combs sometimes freeze. Average mature weight: roosters 71/2 lbs., hens 61/2 lbs.

I ordered them via the Ohio Meyers Hatcher (I wanted to support "local" business) and they will arrive in early March. We settled on 14 hens and 2 roosters, just in case we lose the common 10% we should be covered. The current flock will be retired and Jo-Jo my spunky Polish rooster will be re-homed (hopefully). Next spring we will purchase an affordable incubator and will try our hand at hatching our own replacements. The goal with these girls will be to let them have the run of the yard as our first flock did before the board fence went up. If that doesn't work we will be hastily creating chicken tractors for them.

No more frozen water!

As a splurge we purchase a electric water heater base for our chicken waterer. The boys (the hubby and teenager) are thrilled! Hope they are as thrilled to have another rooster or two in the coop. For some reason they are the only ones attacked by roosters. Weird.

I sometimes second guess myself when it comes to keeping farm animals in the suburbs. Mostly because it is so much more expensive then just going to the store and buying eggs or chicken meat. Sometimes the bottom line is all I can see, but the truth is that this idea of keeping animals or growing vegetables is the healthy choice and the right and humane choice for our family. I can't second guess that.

P.S. 
A friend called my hubby and told him he saw a fox crossing the street two doors down from us. We have had raccoons (that is a ridiculous story for another time), possums and skunks but have only lost a chicken to a Chicken hawk. The fox is new.

Love Me Some Chicken

I love the expressions! I want to love me some chicken very soon......