Pulling Their Weight

A belated happy Independence Day to all my patriotic readers out there.  Sorry for the delay between posts, but those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook probably are aware that we packed up and headed out to D.C.  for the 4th.  If you don’t follow me, why not?  Anyways, we had a spectacular time out in our nation’s capital with a day trip included up to Fort McHenry.  But all good things must come to an end and it was finally time to return to the homestead.

No sooner had we pulled in, but I went to check on the ladies.  Now, all along I have been planning on an end-of-July first egg, so it was without any particular anticipation that I opened the nesting boxes.  But what should I see when I went ahead and unlatched the boxes to check them?  A couple of beautiful brown eggs!!! 

Farm-fresh eggs!!!

I excitedly called the Web-Mistress to come check out our haul and brought the first harvest into the house.  Now there was a third egg found in the coop, but it didn’t look very well.  I haven’t done this before but I can only surmise that it may have been the first egg laid and the birds weren’t too sure what to do as it appeared a bit scratched up.  I am sure at this point I only have one bird laying, but hey, at least someone has figured out what her God given mission in life is.  And this proves that I don’t have eight roosters out there.

Between this and the way the garden took off while we were gone, I have truly been blessed.  How has God blessed you this summer?

Andy

Chicken Poop

I spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about what comes out of the business end of a chicken, as I am sure you do.  What’s that?  It’s just me?  Anyways, chicken poop is garden gold.  Keep in mind, though, that you can’t put it directly onto your crops and gardens when it is fresh.   It will burn your plants because of its high nitrogen content.  You either need to let it “cure” for thirty days or add it to your compost bin.  I add the manure and pine shavings used to line my coop right into my composter.  This satisfies the necessary brown requirement needed to make my compost bin work.

All of the above is great, but if just starting out or building your own coop, you really need to think about how you are going to “mine” all of the garden gold about to come your way.   Let me share some tips as this was a part of the coop design I spent the most time on. 

The one thing to bear in mind is that a coop which is easy to clean will get cleaned more often.  So whatever route you go, you need to make things easy on yourself.  I ended up putting a side door into my coop just for cleanup.  Whether you go with only a main door or decide on a second access point, don’t forget to measure your broom.  Your door should be large enough to accommodate your chosen poop tool. 

Poop access point, aka the "mine" shaft

One other key feature was my decision to make my roosting bars removable.  I mounted 2x4s to the walls of my coop using raised brackets.  This allows me to pull them out and I end up with a large 4x6 foot platform I am able to sweep right out into a bucket which is then dumped into the composter.

Behind the curtain.  Note how the boards are set into the brackets for easy removal.

Just a few things I have found useful as I mine for garden gold.

Andy

Odds and Ends

Good news!  It appears that none of our chickens are retarded.  I thought it could have gone either way for a while, but it seems that even the slowest of our birds has finally caught on with how the whole coop thing works.  It took a while for all the birds to make a habit of going in on their own at night.  For several nights I would find 2 birds laying on a third in a corner and wondered if they were protecting the dumb one.  Then, they seemed to get bored with that and left the last one out by herself for the next couple of nights.  I couldn’t figure out what her malfunction was.  But, BEHOLD, all 8 chickens have been waiting for me in the coop the last two nights.  I am not sure I was prepared emotionally to care for a special needs bird.  And I don’t think she is quite big enough to make a meal out of.  All is well for now though.

Our first harvest of the year netted 3.6 ounces of beautiful radishes.

After the last post, I (I mean the Web-Mistress) did some research and we realized it was harvest time for the radishes.  There are still a few in the ground ripening up; however, we harvested most of them.  They taste spectacular.  They aren’t too hot or too woody.  I am very happy with how this first crop turned out.

Any early harvests for you?  Let me know how it’s going.

Andy

Completion and Clarification

It is done!!!  The coop is complete.  One final push was all it took and the girls weathered their first night in it yesterday.  I left them out until it was dark to see whether or not they would venture in on their own.  When I got around to checking on them a little after 9, I only saw three chickens and assumed most were in the coop.  I soon realized my error and began pulling chickens off of the clown car pile by the fence.  At least this group of survivors was following their instincts to stay warm.  I loaded them into the coop and noticed that none moved away from the door as I went inside.

This morning, when I went out to open the coop, it didn’t appear any movement had occurred and I was met with what can only be called “chicken stink eye”.  But with the growing light they began to explore the rest of the coop and I did see them venture forth by the time I headed off to my day job.

Now for the clarification.  If you are still reading, the Web-Mistress took issue with any insinuation that she might be other than a crack shot.  So, for the record, I am sure that should any rabbit come along it will meet a swift and terrible end.

Andy

Soft Opening

The chicken run is done!  On Friday, I was able to get the final boards up and complete the fencing on the run.  After a run of poor weather and honey-do’s (see Bait and Switch), a beautiful day netted results.  The run nets out to about 20x30 behind our garage with a separate area for the coop.  We used cedar 4x4s topped with some solar lights for posts as part of the 5 foot high run.  The lights have a nice effect at dusk.

We celebrated by grilling burgers and corn.  I would like to say the corn was well received by the family but the kids were more interested in chucking their ears into the newly completed run than actually eating any of it.   This led to loads of entertainment as the chickens didn’t seem to realize the kids wanted to make it rain like Pacman Jones in Vegas.  The bird-on-bird fighting over the first few ears was a sight to behold.  Eventually, they settled in to clearing cobs in a shockingly effective manner.

In the end, I was thrilled to check a pretty major project off my list.  It feels great not to have a brooder full of growing birds and not have a place ready for them.  The birds seemed to dig their new surroundings and the kids love seeing chickens in action up close.  There might even be a grand opening if I can just finish the coop.

Andy

Ornamental Chickens

The ring on the left isn't as nice as the one on the right but costs the same.

Since this blog purports to be about chickens, let me introduce you to my flock.  We picked up eight chicks from Tractor Supply Company in early March that were labeled pullets.  Funny thing, I haven’t seen any eggs yet.  So what I really bought were glorified lawn ornaments.  Given what I have spent building their coop and run, I am currently producing the most expensive compost around.  When August rolls around and they allegedly start laying, I will give them credit for pulling their own weight.  Until then, though, they are merely helping my four year old fulfill his lifelong (I know, right) dream of becoming a “chicken farmer”.

Now, we went with TSC chicks because, never having done this before, it seemed best to not pay a whole lot for each bird.  I mean, should they all have just up and died I would rather be in for $10 rather than $40.  I will admit I was probably too invested in their survival.  Between the stressing over every degree of movement in the temperature being read out on the digital thermometer and the countless trips to the garage to check on the babies, you would have thought I was running a NICU ward.  I finally had to remind myself that people have been raising chickens for thousands of years with much less technology and I should probably relax.

So we will see what sort of eggs these eventually produce.  As best I can tell, we bought Isa Brown chickens.  Anyone have any favorite layers I should consider for next time?