Which Came First?

In the case of our chickens and their proper housing, the answer would unfortunately be the chickens.  Having raised 3 chicks from day-old before, neither of us were worried about handling a new group of young, locally grown chicks.  We had settled on 16 chicks (8 Australorp, 8 Welsummer), knowing we would likely have several roosters in the bunch.  We needed to make sure we had enough hens for the egg production we hoped for.  We also knew we would need to raise them in the house, as we have no secure outbuildings, but certainly we would have a coop and run ready for them by the time they had feathered out......?

I picked up our 16 chicks from a hobby farm south of us in Duncan, in the first week of April.  We settled them in a Rubbermaid container with food, water, and a heat lamp, and watched them be adorable peeping balls of fluff.

While they spent most of their time eating, pooping, scratching shavings into their water and sleeping - keeled over on their faces for a lot of the time - we planned and built a larger brooder for them to inhabit.

We built big, knowing that in the future we would likely be using it for 40-50 chicks over several weeks' time, and designed it with a divider down the middle to allow for more options with brooding different groups, or for use with a couple of broody hens if needed.  It's assembled with bolts, so it can be stored relatively flat when not in use.

Then, we got started on the 'real' chicken house.  This is the last project to be started in our scary workshop before the building is demolished - it's the flattest spot on the property, given the cement floor, so I'm not sure how we'll manage until we've saved enough to build again.  We assembled the base of the house, covered with linoleum for ease of cleaning, and mocked up the wall framing as best we could so that we could assemble it on site.

We built nest boxes to attach off the back of the house so they won't take up valuable floor space. The build is roughly 8x4, minus the frame, so the maximum capacity for this coop should be about 10 chickens.  We're temporarily housing more while we 'audition' roosters.  There is an attached 10x20 run we've covered with 2-inch stucco wire, to provide them a space protected from the ravens, eagles, and goshawks that might find them a little too interesting. There are also mink and raccoons to think about - even bear and cougars - but we've constructed the coop itself to lock down rather tight at night, and raised it off the ground to prevent digging in.  One can hope that there are other sources of food that would be less trouble to access.  Once the flock has learned where to eat and drink, and roost at night, we can carefully give them daytime access to the additional area outside their run, enclosed by electric net fencing.  Hopefully the rooster we select to keep will be good at keeping an eye out for predators, and there are trees and space under the rabbit hutches in the enclosure for the chickens to find cover if they need it.

In order to prepare the site for the coop, we spent quite a bit of time digging, leveling, and scratching our heads.  I bought a bigger level, just to get it right.

Which only served to show us just how off level everything else is....

Trim work and paint went a long way towards making the coop presentable, and giving it the illusion of being square.  We've added 1x4 boards at the doors, to keep shavings and poop inside the coop until clean out, and we will be adding plastic bins to the nesting boxes, for ease of cleaning.

The wired run is now attached to the front of the coop, and hardware cloth and 2-inch square wire surround the base, to give the chickens a dry covered place for dustbathing in the heat of the day.  The enclosure wire extends 6 or more inches out from the bottom, and is screwed tight to the frame, then pounded into the ground with tent pegs.  Hopefully this will discourage digging by any predators curious enough to make their way past the electrified perimeter.

The chickens are outside and loving it now - and it only took us 2 months to get things sorted out.  Word to the wise - keeping 16 chickens in the living room is not an ideal situation.  Oh, and the current estimate is that we have 6 hens and 10 roosters.  It's going to be interesting.

Spuds, Cukes, and a Chick

Adrian harvested half of our potato harvest last night, while I ground up 8 pounds of cucumbers so that I could can dill relish.  I actually thought I would have enough cucumbers to make some dill slices on the side, but our harvest fridge (our second fridge in the basement, that holds bulk onions, potatoes, blueberries, eggs, milk, zucchini, etc. etc.) had seen fit to freeze some of the cucumbers at the back of the bowl.  I turned the temperature dial up this morning! I wound up actually substituting a bit of zucchini to round out the recipe.

The zucchini, cucumbers, onions and garlic I used in the recipe were all out of the garden (I used the onions that had sent up flower stalks, and damaged bulbs of garlic, since they won't hold in storage).  Fingers crossed that this relish tastes good, since I've had a few let-downs in that department over the past years with new recipes. Some *very* vinegary beet slices are still sitting in the pantry because I assume I'll find a way to use them, and can't bear to think of all those hours of work wasted. 

Since the kitchen was already a bit of a mess, and the food processor dirty, we also made salsa, tabbouleh and zucchini muffins - and then rewarded ourselves with a dinner of local corn after the pints of relish were processed on the stove outside.  You know the garden is in full swing when you're eating dinner by nine!

Celine and her little chick are doing well.  There were no more chicks hatched out, so I removed the remaining eggs on Sunday, to let Celine focus on mothering. I gave them a leftover cob of corn for their private breakfast, and watched Celine peck pieces off the cob and drop them for the chick to eat.  There was a little pasting on the chick's butt, so I quickly scooped it up - to the annoyance of Celine, and pulled off the dried poop - to the annoyance of the chick.

Supplies were purchased to expand the rabbitry with outdoor cages, and that will be our evening project this week.  Spot's ears are still giving him slight issues, so I have been swabbing them with oil to lubricate and to suffocate any mites that are in the ear canal, and leaving him outside during the day to get more sunshine and wind exposure.  The look he gave me this morning was somewhat reproachful. Chun Li and Sakura are both beginning to nest, which is a good sign that we will have kits in seven days. I'm very interested to see what our cross-breeding results are, and the moms seem to have become less agitated over the past few days.

Wins and Losses

You know how they say 'don't count your chickens before they're hatched?' I had a feeling that we weren't going to see a big outcome from the eggs that Celine has been sitting on.  We didn't have space to give her the privacy she wanted, and the other two girls have been pushing her aside because they *need* to lay in the same nesting box - not the one right beside her! I merely wanted to give her something to focus her attention on, since she seemed so darned determined to set.

She is still sitting on 5 eggs, which I doubt will hatch out for any number of reasons. This morning when I went to check on her and give her breakfast in bed, I could hear a muffled peeping.

 

Egg number six hatched into a tiny chick.

 

I had to move Celine aside - and she was not pleased - to get a good look at this little fluffball, and have now moved them to a small dog crate in a mobile dog run, lined top and bottom with chicken wire, topped in a tarp for protection from the elements and predators (and perhaps the other 2 chickens).  My neighbour laughed and waved me off when I apologized for my scrappy chicken/chick run, which she can see from her porch.  I moved the unhatched eggs into the 'nest' as well, and will let Celine have them for 2 more days before I remove them and let her focus on her foster chick.  Hopefully, her instincts will extend beyond keeping an egg warm, or I will have to take over as mother. Chicks can survive without food or water for three days after hatching (having eaten their way out of the shell), but I will hopefully see Celine encourage the little one to drink some water and eat the chick starter I have placed in the run with them.

 

While I was out in the yard, I donned my bee veil and gloves, and hesitantly opened the hive. 

 

No new brood, no sign of a queen.  I think we've lost the colony.  Still an amazing experience, and we're not giving up!

 

 

The Birds And The Bees

Well, the bee hive continues to be a big question mark for now.  I confirmed that the queen had emerged from her cell, removed the langstroth frame, and added a couple of bars (for new building) with minimal manipulation on Monday.  On Saturday, we did a more thorough inspection of the hive, hoping we might observe the queen or evidence of new brood.

Nothing.

We didn't see any sign of Queen number 9, but we also observed normal, calm hive behaviour with a bustle of activity and no aggression.  I'll take that as a good sign, and leave things be for another week.  There aren't a lot more options now, as we are reluctant to buy another queen after losing our import to begin with, and it's getting rather late in the season for nectar flow and re-building the colony numbers.

Celine is still sitting on her eggs, and we *could* see chicks by the weekend.  We've set up a temporary shelter to move her (or likely the 2 older girls) into if she manages to hatch out any little ones.  We did attempt to candle the eggs to identify if we have any potential chicks on the way, but with very little experience and a normal flashlight, I couldn't say for sure what I was looking at.  Two of the eggs appear to match online diagrams showing a late death at 10-16 days, but I'm unwilling to risk viable eggs due to my own uncertainty. I won't be jostling the eggs again until I am sure they are no longer viable.

Another sunny, dry day in the garden... I broke down and got out the sprinkler on Sunday to supplement the drip irrigation lines.

Late July Update

Well, it's been just over three weeks for my gooseberry cuttings, and there was a 50% success rate, which I'm perfectly happy with.  There is evidence of good rooting, and new growth.

The blueberry cuttings are starting to look a bit questionable, but I'll keep watching and watering.  The lavender and hydrangea cuttings seem much happier. I'll be taking cuttings of the currant bushes as soon as I locate my bottle of rooting powder (?!) It's probably somewhere with my spare set of pruners and the gardening gloves I can't find...

In the hoop house, everything is growing like crazy - though more with leaves than with the vegetables I'm waiting for.  It's true that a lot of gardeners judge their gardens by when they have their first tomatoes, and I'm running behind.  The neighbour has already been eating ripe, red fruit - from tomato plants that I gave her (which makes my impatience slightly worse).  Her plants are falling over with fruit, while mine are just showing a few per plant. She dug up the side lawn and plopped them into the ground, while I added rabbit manure, topsoil eggshells and manure tea! It just goes to show that you can't account for all the circumstances in your garden.  Heading into week 6 without rain certainly isn't helping. This is one of the Siletz plants I have my eye on:

Oh well - there's still weeks to go for the tomato season. Just as I'm not terribly sad to see the blueberry bushes finishing up their production for the year, we'll soon be harvesting tomatoes daily in the heat, and wondering what to do with them all.  At least I'm starting to harvest the zucchini and cucumber crops, and the bees are helping with that. I've never managed to have enough cucumbers ripen at once before, for making my pickles - I've bought my supply at the farmer's market. This year may be the first year in my gardening history that cucumbers - and homegrown dill - are ready for pickling in adequate quantities at the same time.

 

The leaves of the shallots and multiplier onions started to fall over, so I finished harvesting them this morning.  They'll cure outside in the sun for a couple of days, then go into the carport to finish drying with the garlic bulbs (which have already had a preliminary cleaning). The biggest of these onions will be planted back into a freshly-prepared garden bed (after the wheat is harvested) at the same time as we put out our garlic in October.

 

The bed that was hosting our garlic plants and peas is now home to chard, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, pole beans and some peas planted for harvesting as pea tips. The transplants were getting a bit root-bound waiting for more space, so I've got my fingers crossed that they will establish themselves and not bolt to seed. The Jerusalem artichoke in the background is flourishing - and escaping into my pathways as it tries to expand its territory. That's fine, as the rabbits are happy to eat the invaders.

 

Celine is still sitting on 'her' eggs, so we're counting down another five or six days and hoping to hear the peeps of a few baby chicks.  I'm prepared to house mother hen and her little ones in a dog kennel and covered run, if the other adult hens seem intent on interfering or harming them.

Tippin, Trimmin And Milkin'

Yesterday, a group of like-minded people got together to learn some essentials for keeping goats and sheep, to mate a few rabbits, and to 'pick' plums. Our host, Jen, gave lots of good pointers and patiently watched as we all tried our best to accomplish new tasks.

Starting in the sheep pen, everyone got a chance to tip, trim, and vaccinate a sheep - to the accompaniment of laughter and expulsions of air as the beasts squirmed out of our grasps.

 

These sheep were a little distrusting of us from the get-go.  I'm sure they knew something was up when they realize how many people were standing in their pen watching them.

 

 

Separating sheep from their herd-mates and moving them into position is a special skill - they're very stubborn, and surprisingly agile. One of the lambs made a break for the door and left the pen while about three feet in the air.

 

Number One.

After all of the sheep had received their shots, and sat for their mani/pedis, we moved on to the goat pen.

 

This was a slightly different setup, using the milking stand to effectively immobilize and distract the goats while we trimmed hooves and vaccinated. Well, as much as you can distract a goat, especially when it runs out of food..... Since we were a bunch of beginners, some of the animals lost patience with us over time.  Having them stand while we worked meant that there were balance issues as well - and I found that the front legs were much easier than the back because of the positioning....

Probably the most anticipated lesson of the day was learning to milk Elizabeth - mother to two little babes on the farm.  We all gave it a whirl, then watched somewhat abashed while Jen showed us how to milk quickly with two hands in a continuous action. There may be some room for improvement!

 

The babies were adorable.

 

We finished off the chores by gathering plums from a very overgrown tree absolutely laden with fruit.  The easiest way to get at that fruit, was to cut down some of the branches out of reach - the tree will either receive a severe pruning in the near future, or be removed to make way for an expanding vegetable garden.

Just before I left, Jen helped me collect several potentially fertile eggs from her flock's nesting boxes.  Celine is broody again, and if she has the perseverance to sit for another 20 days or so, we might have some chicks hatching in our backyard the first weekend of August.

Gypsy and Notch (Jen's Champagne bucks) were mated to Chun Li and Sakura, so we should also be seeing some cross-bred kits in 30-32 days.

A very busy, educational, and enjoyable day. Thanks Jen!