Chicks & Bean

So do you remember those chicks that I saved from their murderous mom? They left my living room this weekend. I'm kind of sad. I kinda like chicks in my house. The cute little peeps that welcome me when I come into the living room, their sweet little faces staring out from the little window. But alas they had become teenage chicks and weren't so little and fuzzy anymore. Plus they make a lot of dust in the house. No, they need to go join the flock and hopefully get along with their evil moms. They are being kept in a pen inside of the hen house until they are around the same size as the other hens. Oh and as for whether any of them are roosters, I have at least one....which I'm kind of excited about. I've been keeping chickens since 2010 and never had a roo.

On nice days they get to go outside.

Our little Bean is integrating nicely into the household. It's like she's always been here. She's already situated herself as alpha dog and bosses all the boys around. Every morning when I put my shoes on to take the kids to school she jumps up on me and waits for me to take her to the car. She sits between the kids when we go to school and rides on my lap on the way home. It's our little routine. I feel bad not bringing all the dogs be she's so tiny and calm compared to the others.

I tried to get a selfie with her and she went all "spazy" but it made for a funny picture.

Did manage to get a good one.

Odds and Ends

September is always such a busy month. Lots of little things that keep me running. Mainly these two little things.

I feel like a glorified chauffeur lately. Taking them to school, taking them to Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, church and school events. It's been exhausting but they are having fun and learning lots so it's all good.

Sean has been wanting to fix up a milling machine that he purchased several years ago and has been sitting in pieces in the back of the shop. Well to fix it up he needed several parts. Then, about a month ago, he found someone selling their milling machine on eBay. It was a good price but it was in Chicago. So after quite the ordeal (I'll save you the details) it has been shipped to us. He was able to get a trailer and pick it up at the shipping dock. The nice part about getting it here is that we now have something to unload it with! The mill weighs 2000 pounds and normally it would be unloaded by hand and engine hoist. Which really sucks. But now we have a skid loader! Yay! Sean had it off the trailer in less than 2 minutes. Pretty cool. So now he has all the parts to make a really nice milling machine that he plans to CNC.

Poor Sean stays pretty busy with projects around the house....some of which I create for him. For instance when I mow around the koi pond and get a little too close to the limestone rocks around the pond, suck one up and shoot it out at the open garage hitting my car. Funny thing is I didn't even know I shot a rock out until I was walking by my car and saw the carnage. Thankfully no kids were outside.

Do you remember those adorable little fluffy chicks we got a few months ago? They are now free ranging with the older hens and are nearly full grown. Crazy how fast chickens grow. They are 16 weeks old and could logically be laying eggs in four weeks (unless the shorter days cause them to wait until Spring). They are still small enough to squeeze through the wrought iron fences (unlike the older hens) and I routinely find them scratching around the dog pen. I don't think they know the dangers of free ranging in the dog pen and I have to check the pen each and every time I let the dogs out to go potty. Crazy chickens don't realize the quick meal they would become.

A couple of years ago my Mom gave me one of her tropical house plants. She and my Dad travel a lot and she thought it might stay alive longer if she gave it to me to take care of. It's kind of a special plant because I remember helping her plant the three baby plants in that pot when I was just a little kid. It's probably close to 30 years old. The plant has been in the same pot as long as I can remember and it's a healthy thriving plant, especially when it's outside all summer under our big oak. This summer I decided to re-pot it since it's root bound and was able to find a pot even bigger than the old one (I wasn't sure I could find a bigger pot but I did). It looks so happy in it's new pot. It's going to come inside soon because of the cool weather coming and I'm a little worried about how I'm going to move it. Perhaps it needs wheels.

Chicks & Goats

The chicks are around 6 weeks old now and have entered their gangly, teenage weeks. They get loaded into their cat carrier and taken outside during the day to peck at the grass and go nutty over every insect they find. Then at night they come back inside to their brooder in the living room. It's working for now but next weekend they will move into the hen house. I'm ready for them to be out of my house (although I will miss the tiny peeps).

The laydies are super inquisitive about the chicks.

The goats wanted to be photographed too so here they are (minus GoatMan who's a grumpy old man).

Wooden Boxes Everywhere

We have a new member of the family. Last Friday the kids and I ventured out to pick up a bunny we found on a rehoming site online. I've had my eye out now for a few months and thought if the perfect little one came along we might get one. Our little bunny is a spayed female almost a year old. We don't know her breed but I'm guessing a mixture of Hotot and Lionhead. She's such a sweetie and the kids love her. She came with a small wire cage that she'd been living in but after getting it home I realized she'd new something bigger. So I started wandering around the house in search of ideas and ran into the old tortoise table (the pen the tortoises were in when they were babies before getting big).

I could picture some cool indoor rabbit hutch so we drug it out to the shop for "modifications". I went to the farm and ranch store and picked up a roll of rabbit wire, hinges and a latch. Then Sean and I built a fun new house for the new bunny. It has three levels that are connected by ramps. It took about a day and cost less than $40. Not bad! A big thank you to Sean for spending his Father's Day building a hutch. He rocks! We hauled the finish product into Greta's room and put Tuttles the bunny in it on Monday.

The rabbit seems to really like it. She can be found lounging around on the upper deck most days. I put a litter box in several corners and she seems to be potty trained which is a bonus. Welcome to the menagerie Tuttles.

All the pictures looked like this, such a friendly and inquisitive bunny.

On a side note: the chick brooder is officially back in my living room. It was too difficult to maintain a comfortable temperature out in the shop for the baby chicks. I was turning on the window air conditioning unit 4-5 times a day and it was still hot. The little ones were panting with their mouths open and lying out all over the ground trying to cool down. It was easier to just haul the brooder inside. It's nice not worrying about them. They seem much happier indoors.

Out in the Shop

Sean has been busy out in the shop working on restoring an old upright air compressor that he got from the old farm he was raised on when his parents moved. It has sat in the corner of the shop, I think, since we moved in here twelve years ago. He's been putting new gaskets, and a new motor on it. As well as making parts for it on his lathe. He's been working on it for months now and is at the point of actually turning it on and seeing if it will hold air successfully.

I went out to the shop that first day I got the chicks and saw that they had red metal bands around the base of their wings. This was done by the hatchery (Ideal) to mark them as pullets. I thought it would be a good idea to remove the bands since the chicks were often seen pecking at them. Since Sean was out there I asked for his assistance. I held a chick while he used the needle nosed pliers to unclasp the ends of the band. Then we thought it would just come off since it looked like it was just floating around the base of the wing. Nope, that metal band was punched through their tiny day old wing. The skin and muscle had adhered to the band and it wasn't coming out. So we did what any person would do and we Googled it. Apparently Ideal Hatchery is the only one that does this barbaric act and there were all sorts of people asking the same question on the chicken forums. The consensus was to either leave the band and let it grow into the wing of the adult bird (um no). Or to pull it out. So we pulled these bands out of five screaming baby chicks. It was awful. Ideal Hatchery will be getting an unhappy letter from me.

Notice the feathers and skin. Gross.

Five Feathered Fluffers

Over the years I've learned a few things. One of them being that I cannot go to the Humane Society to say hi to all the lonely dogs. I've brought home too many. Well I think I'm going to have to add "Feed Store" to the "dangerous places to visit" list. I have resisted the baby chicks for several months now. They usually start getting in the spring chicks in March. I've done good. I walk past them without looking, get my feed and get the heck out of there. Well, I stopped to look at them yesterday. They were all cute and fluffy and chirping "take me home!". But I resisted! Until I got to a bin of little black chicks with the labeling "Cuckoo Marans". Oh no. Not Cuckoo Marans. I've wanted a few Marans in my flock for awhile (that and Cochins) and thought if they ever got those in I might be tempted.

Cuckoo Marans are a rare breed of chicken that lays dark chocolate brown eggs. They are making a come back and the major hatcheries are breeding them. The chicken is a barred black and white coloring, nothing real special. But those eggs! Beautiful.

So you know where I'm going with this. I brought home five tiny girl cheepers. They are precious and fluffy and the kids love them.

 The first batch of chicks were kept in the brooder in our living room. This was not a good idea in the long run. They were way too dusty of creatures to be in the living room. So the next batch of chicks went into one of the unused bedrooms upstairs where we keep the cockatiels and tortoises. This worked better but carrying that giant brooder up the stairs was no fun. This time round I asked very nicely if we could put the brooder out in Sean's side of the shop. It's insulated and stays pretty constant in temperature. It also has an air conditioner if needed.

Welcome to the menagerie little ones.

The Chicken Butler

My husband has been one busy man over the holiday break. He had two weeks off and spent the majority of it working on something for me (what a sweet man I married). The dining room table was covered in wires, circuits, soldering irons, twinkling lights and humming motors.

 He got to utilize so many of his gadgets for this project, I think he was in hog heaven. The 3D printer, the table saw, milling machine and the lathe all got used. Once he was done inside putting all this stuff together (I'd like you to believe I know what all this stuff is, but I don't), he headed out to the shop to work on the other half of the project.

Still no guesses? I'll help you out. He made me an automated chicken coop door opener. You see, the chickens like to head outside at day break and I like them to be shut away safe at sunset. Some days I'm not on time and this contraption will help them be shut away safely.

I've got to say he outdid himself on this. It is very cool. It doesn't just open and shut the coop door, it also turns on and off the coop light at sunrise and sunset. There is also a webcam set up so I can go to a webpage and check to see if all five of the hens are safely inside before the door closes. The door is also programmed to open and close with the changing times of sunrise and sunset (earlier in the winter, later in the summer). He really did think of everything. It will make my life a lot simpler which is always appreciated. Below is small video of it in installed in the coop (disregard the messy coop, it doesn't get cleaned much in winter). Thanks Hubby, you rock!

Update through pictures

As I write this post I'm smelling the lovely scent of dehydrating mango and bananas. Every time I go to the grocery store I scope out the produce section for new and exciting fruits to throw in the dehydrator. This past weekend I found organic mango! Score! They smell heavenly. I'm enjoying the dehydrator.

We've encountered a new challenge to dog ownership. Chance, our little 13 year old terrier mix, has decided to start marking our house. He does it primarily when he gets super excited. So, for instance, say the neighbors dog walks past the back fence, he and the other two idiots go barking madly at the window. Then he finds the nearest thing to urinate on and lets loose. It is incredibly maddening. Sean mentioned perhaps he needed a diaper (the dog, not Sean) and so after a search on Amazon I discovered this is a common problem amongst male dogs. So much in fact that they make a product called a "male wrap" that wraps up the problem area much like a diaper. So I ordered one and once it arrived I strapped it on the little leaky terror terrier. He absolutely hates it. He's normally a frisky little dog, with oodles of personality. Well he turns into a statue when I put on his diaper. Will not move. He just moves his eye balls around in their sockets, head perfectly still. It's pretty funny, but also a little sad. I don't want him to stop being Chance, I just want him to stop urinating. Maybe he just needs to get used to it.

Greta and I started a whole lot of seeds last week. We planted kale, cabbage, lettuce and three varieties of tomatoes. Now a week later and they have all come up and look pretty good. The nice weather is enticing me to think about garden designs and ponder tilling methods. Greta seems to find enjoyment in watching seeds grow so perhaps I've passed that hobby on to my youngest.

The beautiful Spring like weather is making all the outside livestock happy campers. The goat family has weathered another semi rough winter. Each winter I think might be Dym's last, but she keeps on truckin'. I've created a pretty good combination of warm beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, a nice warm fleece jacket and regular de-wormings to keep her in decent condition. Older animals take quite a bit more work to maintain, but she's worth it. Such a sweet goat.

Wesley is a crazy tooth losing second grader. He lost his other big front tooth so he's got no teeth when he smiles. It's actually his sixth tooth. Poor kid can't figure out how to take bites out of food. I bet it feels odd to say the least.

With the nicer weather comes more eggs! The chickens have been ramping up production with Spring on its way. This winter I didn't try to force egg production with a light bulb in their hen house. I usually do that and it keeps me in eggs year round. But after last winter and the dreaded January molt (losing feathers in the coldest month sucks) I decided to give them a break. They look great this winter, five fat and happy hens. They are back up to giving me three eggs a day, which seems to be the perfect number for our family. It's great not buying eggs anymore.

Egg Victory

Farm fresh eggs are wonderful. I find great joy in collecting my own eggs every evening. Chickens are one of the few (if only) animals to pull their own weight around here. The only problem with fresh eggs is they are completely horrible when it comes to hard boiling them. You can ask anyone that has hens and they will tell you the same thing. The fresher the egg the harder to peel. Usually a large portion of the egg white comes off with the shell. It looks like this:

It's so frustrating. To the point I buy a carton of eggs from the grocery store if I plan on doing some hard boiled eggs. Pretty much defeating the purpose of having hens. I gave up on the idea of hard boiling my own fresh eggs until I ran across an article online from another gal having the same issues. She swore by a certain method and I thought "what the heck, let's try another way!" Since, you know, I've tried every other method in the book.

She said just boil a big pot of water and slowly lower the eggs into it with a slotted spoon. Cook them for 12-15 minutes and put in a cold water bath (like the normal method). So the only thing different, from the normal method, is to wait until the water is boiling to put in the eggs.

OMG! *Yes, I just wrote that!* It worked!

 I now have a way of using the hordes of eggs I have in the fridge (my kids LOVE hard boiled eggs).  It's so exciting. Anyways, just thought I'd share my victory over the eggs and perhaps pass on my new found knowledge to another frustrated hen owner.

Rough Life

I was waiting for the farrier to arrive on Monday and caught the goats taking their afternoon nap with the chickens. It's a rough life.

In the back yard

Oh July where you have gone? Crazy to think this month is nearing an end and next month the kids go back to school. July is usually the month where I harvest the most out of the garden. But not this year. I have not been into gardening this year. I planned it out, planted the seeds, mulched the tomato seedlings and that's pretty much it. Everything came up pretty good but the weeds came up too. Oh and the grasshoppers. Well, let's just say they were worse than last year and last year was bad. I had thought the super cold winter we had would have killed off some of the eggs but to no avail. They've stripped every plant in the garden down to just bare stems. Everything but the tomatoes. I've read tomatoes plants are toxic, that might be what's keep the grasshoppers away. The tomatoes are flourishing. I started twenty organic tomatoes from seed and now I can say there are hundreds of tomatoes back there.....mostly cherry tomatoes. One new variety I tried is called Organic Green Zebra and they are really pretty. It's hard to tell when they are ripe though. We'll see how they taste.

Every day I trot back to the garden and pick as many cherry tomatoes that I can fit in my t-shirt. Then I walk up to the goat pen and am treated to this sight.

Goats love tomatoes. GoatMan, there on the right, is nearly blind I think because he just snorts around with this mouth open until you put a tomato in it. Then there's Dym (the black one with her tongue sticking out), she could survive on nothing but tomatoes and would be quite a happy goat. Her offspring are learning to love produce by watching their mom eat it. I'm happy to say Heston survived his blocked urethra problem he had earlier this summer. He's now getting ammonium chloride daily sprinkled on his black oil sunflower seeds to prevent that from happening again. He's one lucky goat.

I then walk over to the tortoise pen and offer each tortoise a cherry tomato. They gobble them down. It's a special treat and one they get rarely since the majority of their diet is grass. The other day I had a melon that was past its prime so I chopped it up and went to see if the tortoises would be interested. Talk about a treat! I had to take it away or they would have eaten the whole thing. Here is Billy Bob, the young sulcata, and Big Guy the 30 year old leopard tortoise.

 About a month and a half ago the kids found a few seed packets that I hadn't planted back in the garden. They really wanted to plant them so we decided to do so in some non traditional places (you know since the garden is a hot bed of insect activity). We planted the giant pumpkin seeds under the swing set. They don't get morning sun so I don't know if they will actually produce anything, but they are flowering right now so we'll see. The kids enjoy watching their progress as do I.

Last night I put on my gardening gloves and proceeded to catch as many grasshoppers as I could. I think I had about 12 in my fist when I finally called it quits. Do you want to know what I did with those grasshoppers? I fed them to these lovely laydies. Call it retribution for eating my garden.

I have six hens and they were looking pretty bad. It's kind of like a molt that would never end. So a few weeks back I decided to stop locking them up in their outdoor enclosure. I thought maybe if they were free ranging they would get the needed nutrients to stop looking like roadkill. Well after a few weeks now I can't say they look any better but they are much happier chickens. They stay in the fenced in goat pen in the walnut grove and lounge under the horse trailer during the heat of the day. There is not a single insect in that entire pen. They put themselves to bed every night in the hen house and I shut their little prop door every night at dusk to protect them from predators. It's a good arrangement for now.

That's about all that's happening in our back yard on this hot summer day.