Tag: chickens

Garden Day, Finally

Tomorrow is our last average frost date and it seems that we have gone from winter straight to summer, so we aren’t afraid of more cold nights. After our weekly jaunt in to the Farmers’ Market for salad, asparagus, a bit of meat and some more pepper seedlings, we started on the garden to do list. First up was removing the remaining 4 pods of the old compost bins. They were constructed 9 or 10 years ago when the property had been purchased, but the house was only under construction. My current compost bin is up from the chicken coop and serves me well. The very large multi-pod bin was necessary when the gardens were just started, filled with composting leaves and horse manure from down the road. They have served as temporary shelter for cull birds and last year for sweet potatoes, winter squash and pumpkins. Today we deconstructed it. SIL knocked it apart with a sledge, Daughter and I knocked nails through the boards and pulled them, dropping them in a bucket for later disposal. Many of the boards are Chestnut and still sound, so they were stacked with the idea of using them to construct a more permanent meat bird coop.

While we hammered and pulled, our helpers started on the weeding, to keep them away from the nails. Unfortunately, SIL missed and swears my middle name must be Vlad as he impaled one of the smaller finishing nails through the sole of this boot and into the instep of his foot.

Once the wood was stacked, we tackled the former grape bed that had not been weeded very well last year and had many large clumps of Bermuda grass growing in it. While Daughter and I weeded, SIL hauled rocks and put them in the tractor bucket. Daughter was given her first tractor driving lesson today and by the end of our workday, was driving the tractor alone to dump the buckets of rocks onto one of the dozens of rock piles on the farm.

The chickens loved having clumps of grass, chickweed, burdock, thistles and other greenery with roots tossed into their run. They are still penned up, because we still haven’t moved all of the fence to keep them out of the gardens.

Romeo standing guard.

Today was a great start on the garden. When it cools some tonight, I will set the peppers, tomatoes, and tomatillos in the beds prepared for them. The former raspberry bed still needs further clean up, many volunteers pulled and weeds removed and we will get the beans and other seeds planted. The barren end of the chicken run will be planted with winter squash, the area where the compost bins stood, we will plant the Seminole Pumpkins. Until they get large, I will continue weeding the area between where the bins stood and the chicken run. Sunflowers will be planted along the edge of the garden for their beauty and for the seed for the chickens.

Love this time of year, just wish it wasn’t quite so hot already.

May 9, 2015
Olio – May 8, 2015

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

Hardened off veggie plants waiting for the garden that isn’t ready for them.

The last free range time until we get the fencing up around the garden. The fluffy critters ate half of the sweet potato plants I put in earlier this week.

The annual spring Turkey dance. Flocks of 14 or more with the Tom fluffed up with chest puffed out and tail spread like the children’s drawing of a Thanksgiving bird.

Nearly 400 yards of undyed Dorset lamb plied and 200 yards of Coopsworth spun and plied. I can’t decide whether to dye the Dorset or what to do with it, but the Coopsworth is for me. A sweater once the huge bag full is all spun, plied and measured.

The first flowers from our garden.

A nice weekend ahead with plans to deconstruct the compost bins, weed the remaining garden beds and get the seeds and plants in the vegetable beds.

We are half a week from chicks, we hope. Broody Hen is being a great Mom, I hope she is rewarded for her efforts.

Loving our mountain farm.

May 8, 2015
What to do when you can’t garden

I want to get in the garden and get the weeds out, to get the seedlings and remaining seeds in, but it is too soon and too wet and I have a problem with the chickens digging up a couple of beds that I have started. I covered them with row cover and the spring winds keep blowing it off. As soon as the cover is off, one or more chickens are in. I have planted Daikon radishes twice to find them scratched out before they are a couple inches high.

The tomato, tomatillo and pepper seedings are being hardened off with a bit more sun each day and brought back into the house for the night. We are still 9 days from the last average frost date here when we will put them in the ground, plant the other seeds and start on maintenance until the produce starts coming in. Many of the locals haven’t even plowed or tilled their gardens yet.

Before we do this, we are going to reduce the chicken runs so they can have more free range time and use the fencing to keep them out of the gardens.

In the mean time, as we have had a couple of days of rain, I have been spinning. At Hawk’s Nest Retreat, I bought enough if a beautiful Coopsworth 2 way swirl from Debbie Martzell, one of the vendors, to spin then knit myself a sweater. The beautiful roving has been sitting in a plastic bag waiting for me to get my Etsy shop up and running and to finish spinning some fiber I had started. I had 8 ounces of undyed creamy white Dorset lamb from the prior Hawk’s Nest Retreat on too many bobbins that were awaiting my jumbo flyer in order to ply them. That has been plyed and is now awaiting a large skein winder so that I can see how much yarn I actually created, my Niddy Noddy isn’t large enough for the skein I have to create. Yesterday, I started spinning the Coopsworth. It is a delight to spin and the color is so lucious.

My knitting and spinning friends will grin, the color is so me. Someday, I may venture to other shades, but teal and blue seem to grab me most.

On the chick watch, we are on day 4 for 5 eggs and day 3 for the other 5 eggs and Broody Buffy is being such a good Mom. She leaves the coop first thing each morning for a bit of food and a drink and goes right back to her nest. Every evening, as I move her off the nest briefly to check, there are always one or two extra eggs that other hens have laid and she has pushed under her. The second Ms. Broody hasn’t committed to really being broody yet, so we don’t have two sitting. I’m still hoping for another brood of 10 before too long.

May 1, 2015
Funny Birds

Toward the end of my first year of raising chickens, I decided I wanted a heritage breed with a rooster and culled out all but my two Buff Orpingtons and my Easter Egger and bought more Buffy pullets. The Easter Egger became the victim of a neighbor’s dog along with a cull and a Buffy pullet, but we carried on with the ones left. Ultimately, the rooster, Cogburn became too aggressive toward others and finally toward me, so he too was culled and Romeo was obtained from the farmer from whom I had gotten the pullets. He was a beat up fellow, but has matured and after a molt has turned into a nice looking rooster and so far, fairly docile.

Last fall I raised a separate flock of Rainbow Rangers for fryer/broiler use, but really didn’t want to deal with day old chicks, brooder, heat lamp and the mess, smell and fire hazard anymore. Son and I discussed whether we could raise just the Buffys and have enough older birds and cockrells raised by the ladies to keep the freezer stocked. The first Buffy went broody when there were still other breeds in the mix and since I couldn’t identify only the Buffy eggs, I took the eggs each day and finally broke her broodiness. The next one to go broody was in November and there was no way I was going to even let her try to raise a brood with winter coming on.

This spring, I bought four 8 week old Americaunas to provide some color in our eggs collection, knowing that I will be able to identify them and not let any hatch.

I lost another hen to dogs just a couple of weeks ago and son and I had just about concluded that the Buffy raised meat birds was a failed project. A few days ago, I realized that there were too many feathers in the coop for this time of year and found a hen sitting a nesting box and “growling” at me when I wanted to collect eggs. The next day she was there again and so I did a bit of research to see how many eggs to leave under her. Like other info on the internet, I saw everything from 10 to 16. Wanting her to actually sit and not abandon the nest, I marked 5 eggs.

I figured I could sacrifice 5 eggs if she abandoned them but she was still there yesterday, even while I cleaned the coop. Yesterday, I heard a commotion in the coop and went to check on it to find another hen trying to lay an egg in her box while she was still in it and another 2 trying to occupy another box simultaneously. There are 6 nesting boxes, but they all seem to want the same two. Last night, I slipped 5 more marked eggs under her, hoping she can raise 10 chicks. She is still sitting them and this afternoon, I found two more eggs under her that were removed. If one more will get broody and I can get her to sit 10 as well, we will replace some of the older hens with pullets, cull the cockrells and succeed in putting about 25 or more birds in the freezer this fall. These chicks should hatch about the time the Americaunas are old enough to eat layer feed and can be moved in with the hens and the chicken tractor will become the nursery until they are old enough to socialize and I can select who get culled and who stays for the winter.

April 30, 2015
More Wet Stuff

Our region is under water. The forecasts have flood warnings, many roads closed, schools today had a 2 hour late start due to the flooding. The morning dawned beautiful, but the afternoon brought more heavy rain. You would think that in the mountains that flooding wouldn’t really be a problem, but the rivers and creeks are over their banks, fishing camps and river front yards are under water.

I turned the chooks out this morning to free range and graze on the new grass and emerging bugs. When daughter and granddaughter came back from taking grandson to the bus stop, the dogs all slipped out. Lately they have seemed to leave them alone when dogs and chickens were sharing the yard. For some reason, I looked out to check on them and found our two chasing the chickens and daughter’s Golden Retriever eating one. I don’t know who actually caught the bird, but I do know that we now have a problem. The dogs and the chickens aren’t going to be able to be out at the same time again. One of the dogs realized that opening through the electric fence that had a rope across it wouldn’t hurt them and barged right through. This required me to move the fence around to create a new opening, narrower and on a different side of the fence.

I had planned on culling a few of the hens later in the summer, but didn’t plan on sharing them with the dogs. After today’s stress, we only got 4 eggs. Maybe the one they killed was the one laying weird eggs. I guess we will see in a day or two.

Since the weather wasn’t good to be out and about much, I made Mozzarella and lasagna noodles and made a homemade vegetarian lasagna for dinner. I love being able to make the cheese and noodles at home. I noticed at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday, that I could get raw cow and goat milk for a donation, perhaps I will try raw milk Mozzarella or yogurt.

April 20, 2015
The Good and the Bad of Spring

Forsythia blooming, Lilac leaves unfurling. Frightful and her sisters have found the perches in the chicken tractor and instead of being Frightful, she should be Frightened as they won’t come out and play in the yard. Apples, Asian Pears and Peaches are blooming. The Buffys are being generous. The Maples are all lime green with flowers and oh the pollen.

The dogs are shedding fiercely requiring daily vacuuming. The garden is going to require some sort of major rework to keep the Buffys and Romeo from scratching up every seedling that is emerging.

I am in a fog. Though I was never allergic to things growing up, I seem to be developing more and more allergies as I age. It started about a dozen years ago with my first and major case of poison ivy, followed by more and more serious reactions to paper wasp stings and this year my eyes are gritty and my head stuffed full from the indoor and outdoor spring allergens.

Because of the reactions to stings, our youngest son with funds we fronted has established a bee hive in his yard in Virginia Beach and applied for a grant that will refund part of what was invested and with that he hopes to get a second hive. He will maintain the hives and we will enjoy our share of the honey they produce. That is a win/win as far that they and we are concerned. I wish the hives could be here to benefit our garden and flowers, but it is not a risk I am willing to take with the nearest medical facility at least 20 minutes away. The same son is a Paramedic and he said that most Doctors won’t prescribe an Epi Pen to seniors due to other risks. I guess I should visit our Doc and inquire.

April 13, 2015
Signs of Spring

Leaves on the Lilacs
Blooms on the Forsythia, my favorite spring shrub.
New chicks

Frightful on the left behind the waterer. Three are Redtail Hawk colored, one is more black and gray with just a bit of reddish brown in her wings.

The four new Americauna pullets were picked up today. Not wanting to order chicks, set up the brooder and raise them until they could go outside, I spotted a post on one of my Facebook Groups from a lady who offered to include your order in hers and you could pick up your day old chicks from her for cost or she would raise them to 8 weeks for a fee. Wanting to keep a heritage flock of the Buffys, but missing the green eggs from the Olive Egger, I ordered 4 Americaunas from her and agreed to pay the fee to let her raise them til feathered and able to be outside. By fall we should have green, blue or pink eggs.

Daughter and I used a roll of heavy mil plastic and stapled it to the sides of the chicken tractor, put the food and water inside and introduced them to their new temporary home. In a few days, they will be released into the pen to run around and graze and get acquainted with the Buffys through the fence. In 8 more weeks, once they can have the whole grain feed mixed with layer pellets, they will move to the coop. I hope by then that one or more of the Buffys decide to get broody and sit a nest. They will be moved to the brooder pen once they hatch which might expedite moving the Americaunas. Daughter has decided that the largest one with the Retail Hawk like coloring and the dark head should be named Frightful after the Falcon in My Side of the Mountain. The other three are still unnamed. I don’t name birds that I know will eventually end up in the stew pot, so I don’t know if they will be named.

The Buffys got free range time while all of this was going on and every time I moved toward the house or back out toward the pens, I felt like the Pied Piper with the flock so close to my feet that I had to walk with a shuffle to keep from stepping on a hen. They will eat out of my hand, but they don’t want to be petted.

April 6, 2015
Another Sunny Growing Day

before the next rain and drop back to normal temperatures. After Grandson was dispatched via school bus and breakfast was prepared, eaten and cleaned up for Granddaughter, we set out on errands.

One errand was to locate some inexpensive pots to plant the salvaged raspberry canes in for Son #2. It was sticker shock to see how much clay pots cost these days, even the cheap plastic ones were much more than I had hoped, but 5 were purchased as they are after all for Son #2.

Raspberries, neatly pruned and potted and awaiting transport to him in April.

The next errand was to get a new chess set. Decades ago, I gave Mountaingdad a carved Olivewood chess set. The pieces have always been close in stain, but the years have faded them to an almost imperceptible shade difference making playing with the set difficult even in good light. About a decade ago, while in El Paso for a family funeral, we travelled by bus over to the markets in Juarez when it was still safe to do so and came home with a huge set of the Aztecs vs the Conquistadors which safely made it back to Virginia on the plane, but it too is difficult to distinguish the pieces. We have a leather suitcase set that had backgammon, checkers and chess, but the grands have lost two pieces from that set, making it also unusable. Mountaingdad enjoys playing with the grandsons, working with them on strategy and confidence, so off to Target we went and came home with a folding wooden box that has the board on the outside and pieces for chess and checkers that are white and dark brown. The grandson living here will be delighted tonight.

While there, we found a tiny clay flower pot with a grow pellet and a packet of sunflower seeds in it. Grandson is growing a seed at school, so granddaughter gets to grow one at home. Little miss with her newly planted dwarf sunflower. Now to keep her out of it as it grows. She insisted for a few minutes that she was going to stand there and wait for it to sprout, a reminder that 3 year olds don’t have the concept of time yet. Each time we leave the house, she comments that her Mom will be home when we get back, though her Mom won’t be back for 8 more days and we have repeated that over and over, even showing her on the calendar.

The planting efforts outside resulted in some weeding and the chooks got a green treat of their favorite snack, fresh chickweed.

If I could control where they grazed, I would direct them to the front shrub bed that is quickly being engulfed by chickweed. In between other tasks, another 2 five gallon buckets of whole grain chicken feed were mixed, so they have a good diet to hold them until we can let them free range again and just supplement their feed.

I need to make a batch of hand scrubbing soap for the household. With gardening chores and weeding beginning, the dirt stained fingers and nails will soon be in need of good scrubbing each day.

March 23, 2015
The Crystal Palace

The storm of yesterday has passed, again creating a snow covered swathe diagonally up across Virginia and to the north east. Today the sun is brilliant and the day so far is frigid. Yesterday afternoon, the chickens were huddled underneath the coop as the snow fell, they were soaked and I was worried about frostbite. Have you ever tried to herd chickens? Not an easy task, but one by one they were prodded out from under the coop to a small patch that I cleared right by their ladder and most willingly went inside. A few had to be picked up and placed inside, the pop door closed and a couple of extra scoops of whole grain feed tossed down to both entertain and warm them as I hoped they would dry before the single digit cold arrived and arrive it did. We plunged from the mid 30’s yesterday morning to 6f (-14.5c) early this morning.

The brilliant sun is causing the ice coated trees and shrubs to sparkle and glitter, the snow blindingly white. Our total on this storm was only about 6″, but it is on ice. The muddy ruts that had formed in our driveway are now frozen ruts but the next week is going to be spring like with a few periods of rain, so the ruts will return.

The chickens pen was cleared of enough snow to toss down their grain and coax them out to feed.

School has been cancelled for the second day in a row, the 14th day this school year. Only one of those days has been made up and only 4 more make up days are currently in the schedule. Their options are to extend the school day or add more days on to the end of the year. They don’t really haven’t any vacation days built in to take that haven’t already been taken. Spring break is only the Friday and Monday bracketing Easter Sunday.

The day is beautiful and the scenery is photo worthy, we didn’t lose power, but I am ready for winter to exit.

March 6, 2015
It’s Got a Hold on Us

Late winter that is. We have Had weeks of well below normal temperatures. Last week we got a total of 19 inches of snow over two separate snow falls. School for Grandson hasn’t occurred in over a week. President’s Day in the US is typically a holiday for schools, but his school had scheduled a makeup day from a previously missed weather day and the makeup day was cancelled along with the rest of the week and Monday and today of this week. We weren’t quite sure why today was cancelled as the roads seemed to be mostly cleared, the forecast for a very cold night last night and normal cold day today. The Superintendent must have an inside track to the weatherman as we woke to more snow. The areas that had cleared on our one aberrant warm day are again lightly covered. I don’t think we will see much but even another inch or two is not welcomed. Most days are hovering just at or below freezing and nights about 10 to 15 degrees colder, but a few day ago, we thought spring had come, the thermometer said it got up to 50f (10c) a real heatwave. The snow started to melt, the driveway became a muddy mess as our farmer friend had been too over zealous in his scraping, piling huge mounds of snow 4 or more feet high in front of and beside the house. Then it got cold again and the melt became an ice slick. We haven’t had mail delivery in over a week though we have been able to get in and out all but a couple of days.

The freeze thaw freeze cycle has made chicken chores a challenge. One of the scrapes to a mound is just outside the garage door on the side of the house. The footprints from walking over have become crusty with ice under them and the walk over a slick tricky path. Trying to create a new path involves taking a step on unbroken snow and not knowing if it will hold or break through a couple of inches or knee deep. Water sloshes, feed scatters then the chooks don’t want to come out at all.

So what’s a girl to do, why order yarn to knit and spin fiber of course. I had been dallying on a spinning project of some roving that I ended up not liking very much. It was white through shades of pink to maroon then white to shades of gray to charcoal. I ended with one full bobbin, knowing if I plied it on itself, I wouldn’t have much yarn from it. In my fiber basket was a ball of maroon merino roving, so I spun a second solid single of it and used the two together to make yarn.

It isn’t really my color choice, but I ended up with almost 300 yards of DK/Light Worsted yarn. It may be sold, perhaps I will find a project for it.

Earlier this winter, I knit a yoked sweater of Brown Sheep yarn to go with my Hitchhiker scarf.

I ended up realizing that after years of knitting Raglan sleeve sweaters, that I much prefer the Yoke style. I love the pattern that I made and love the sweater, but hate the yarn. It is soft and pills terribly. Another sweater of the same style seemed in order and I had made a sweater a couple of years ago from Bovidae sport weight yarn that I had purchased at the SAFF festival and though that yarn isn’t soft, it is warm, holds up beautifully and doesn’t pill. An order was placed for more of that yarn in a color similar to the Brown Sheep and a new yoke sweater has been cast on.

Last night as I was about to do the second increase row, I realized there was an error about an inch back, so about a third of my progress was ripped out, stitches picked up and today I will progress on. My last knitting project prior to the current sweater is a gradient moebius cowl of sport weight yarn. I have decided that sport weight is my preferred knitting yarn.

Modeled by my beautiful daughter. Hmmm, do you see a color preference here?

In two days, I will abandon Mountaingdad, Daughter and the two grands for a few days at a spinning retreat in West Virginia. A couple of days of socialization and no responsibilities. A mini vacation and time to unwind and recharge.

February 24, 2015