Flowers and Vegetables Update

I am battling septoria/leaf spot, but hoping these make it. These are the 15 year tomatoes.

The girls enjoying some mac & cheese...

Hydrangea

Marigolds in the garden

Peppers

l-r Gloriosa daisies, Hopi Red amaranth, Black Eyed Susans

Snake skin in the garden

Sunflowers behind the chicken coop

1st Evening Sun sunflower

Chicken Coop Addition Plans

This is our current coop and pen set up:

This was right after we brought the first girls home, so of course there is NO grass left in there now :) The pen is a 12x7 dog pen. We built a small pen last year, but now that we have the four girls, it's too crowded and there is a bit of bickering at times. 

My first idea was to get another dog pen, attach it to this one and let them out in there for limited times so they can graze. I'd have to put a hole in this coop to attach it (Hubby says absolutely not.) or replace this one with kennel panels so I can make two doors. One inside, and then the existing door open inside. Make sense? Sorta? 

The pink would be the kennel doors. This way I could open and close the inner door to let them out on the grass. Obviously not to scale, just a visual idea :) 

Or, some people have taken old trampolines and turned them into chicken tractors. I found lots of trampolines on Craigslist for under $50.

The bottom is wrapped in fencing. You can either do a makeshift gate or make a tunnel to connect it to the pen. If I did that, again, I'd have to make a hole somewhere. Or try to herd them to the trampoline. I think it'd be easier to move the trampoline, it gives them shade and protection from hawks. Chickens can be trained to go to certain areas, but there's a high risk of escape for this set up.

This chicken owner made a "chunnel" / chicken tunnel out of wire.

And there is one last option. When I had my horses, we had a lean-to that blew down. Well, actually blew out of the pasture, across the yard and landed near the barn. Thankfully no one was hurt, just destroyed the lean-to. We still have most, if not all, of the pieces. However, some were horribly bent and it's really not usable for anything. I need to look at it, but we *might* be able to use part of the roof section to make a chicken tractor.

Before:

After:

Without looking it up, I want to say this was 12x20? We still have the fabric sections, but obviously they will blow away in high winds. If we were able to salvage some of this, I would have to wrap it in wire, use some of the fabric on top for shade and really secure it. I think this would be a potential eyesore too. It's hard to hide a big white tarp. The trampoline would blend in and of course the dog kennel would look fine.

Snow!

5 inches of snow last night.

The chickens said "Heck No" and sat inside clucking at me.

Sprinkles peeked out.

And still said "Heck NO!"

They did come out later, after it stopped snowing and the sun came out :)

Pics From The Weekend

New sign on the chicken pen:

I got it at Target on the Easter clearance. It had a stake for a yard sign, which I took off. It was originally $10, I got it for $2.50. I sprayed it with sealer and will remove it before winter. It's not quite what I wanted for the pen, but it's cute.

Surprise in the compost bin:

I checked out the compost bin this weekend and found a pumpkin vine. I plan on taking down the compost bin this week anyway. This just tells me that it's not getting hot enough. I threw in pumpkin hulls in the fall. It should have killed whatever seeds the chickens didn't eat. I will just throw the chicken manure across the back pasture. Rabbit manure can go right on the garden.

Winter in Sight?

Today was 56 degrees F... tomorrow is supposed to be low/mid 20's and 4-8 inches of snow. My husband came home early from work today and raked some leaves out of our walk-out. I asked him to grab his drill since it was still so nice out. We "winterized" the coop. I had him screw three pieces of plywood around the bottom of the coop for a wind-block. We get viscious winds from the south. The blocks are on the north, east and south. The west is where the door is. Yes, bad winds out of the south... strange, I know, but our property is lined with woods on the north and far east. South is a 20 acre farm field with woods on their far south. If that makes sense... :)

Anyway, they were already checking it out. I'm crossing my fingers that they don't start laying eggs under the coop... they are finally using the nest box.

Planning The Pasture

Spring will be here before I know it. Shoot, I feel like it's already here. This winter has been highly unusual for Northwest IN. We should be in the 20's with snow... it was around 50 today. We've had snow on the ground TWICE so far this winter. Now, I don't particularily like winter. I don't like our recent winters where we've had numerous days at or below 0. However, I'm kinda concerned. Either we're going to get slapped with a huge snowfall soon, or we're going to have a horrendous bug season this summer.

Anyway, back to the point, planning the pasture. My girls have a 12x7 dog pen as their enclosure. I'm planning on either picking up a 10x10 pen with double gates or building some sort of tractor. If I can swing the pen, I will let them out in it at limited times, or every other day, some sort of schedule so they don't tear up the grass. At least with a tractor, I can move it around, but it would need to be predator-proof or resistant. I'm leaning more towards the 10x10 pen with double gates. That way, I can line up one door with the existing door and not have to cut any holes in the existing pen. And, I can technically shift the pens to give one area a break/reseed.

The ground cover is mostly clover and weeds right now. In the area where either the pen or tractor will be, I'd like to plant something else. Something more durable, but nutritious. I've been doing some research and found there are special poultry blends of seeds. It also seems like deer forage might work. Basically, a blend of ryegrass, flax, clover, buckwheat, millet, and alfalfa. I'd also throw some herb and wildflower seeds in there just because.

Coop Building - Day 6

Quite a bit has been done on the chicken coop and it's almost ready to go. I have a second coat of paint on the exterior and might still have to do another. I have to do at least two more coats on the inside. The window is in and screened with hardware cloth. I need to find bird netting for the kennel cover and then we'll be ready to go.

The roost will have to be moved. It's not even 2 inches from the back wall and it's supposed to be 12-18 inches.

Not bad for $3 paint from Habitat for Humanity ReStore! I love the trim color. It's Sherwin Williams Wool Skein. The red is Sherwin Williams Rookwood Red.

I'm most likely picking up the "girls" on Thursday. I'm getting three from someone I met on Backyard Chicken. I will leave a spot open for when I find an Easter Egger. I *need* a chicken that lays blue eggs :)

Coop Building - Day 3

Coop building, day 3

Roof panels are on. Clean out door/chicken door combo is cut. Latches and locks are temporarily on.

This area will be painted and covered in hardware cloth. For the winter, I will partially cover this to prevent drafts.

Inside skylight view. My uncle bought smoke panels. Yes, the roof is a pallet :)

For now, the vents are 6 holes that need to be cleaned up. If it ends up not being enough, we will take off the vents and make the openings bigger. There is a vent on the back and both sides.

Looking good so far!

Building the Coop Days 1 & 2

Day 1

My husband and uncle got the floor and three sides done.

I put primer on it, and then 15 minutes later, it started storming, complete with hail.

Day 2

The guys worked hard and now the coop has all four sides and a roof. They used a pallet for the roof. Right now it has a tarp over it, but my uncle is going to come back later this week to finish it.

Tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be nice and rain free. While my son is napping, I plan on finishing the primer and get started on the painting. I found a lovely red at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.