Cabin Crafted

Tag: coop

  • Knit, Spin, Stain, Cook

    With two days of beautiful weather, I finished all of the staining that I can reach and with the cooler, wetter weather coming, it may be all that gets done this fall.  We will have to finish it this spring.  I made up a gallon of the stain mix this morning and the area that was to be done didn’t require that much, so the excess was used to get about 2/3 of the coop “redecorated.”  The girls were on a walk-a-bout on the farm, being supervised by Romeo, so it was a good time to get it done.  We have a few days of rain due, so the last bit can’t be done for a few days.  The year and a half it has been in use, it has gotten very dry and faded.  The egg hatch, pop door and side drop window are all made of the same plywood siding as the coop and their exposed edges are really showing wear from the weather.  I guess at some point, those three features will have to be replaced with a more weather resistant material.

    Coming in, stain covered and worn out, after a thorough clean up, I turned my waning energy to less strenuous tasks.  I’m working on one of the sleeves of my sweater, the one that is being knit to go with the Hitchhiker scarf made during the summer.

    image

    And an Ouroboros Moebius scarf, a design by a friend Mergaret Radcliff, published in the December 2013, Knit n’ Style magazine.  The scarf will be for Son #1 as part of his Christmas gift.
    image

    Both projects are pretty mindless knitting at this point.
    I’ve looked at “Hot Mess” for enough days that I think the measly 106 yards of tight overspun very fine yarn is going to become a knitted cover for a small sturdy plastic cup to hang from my spinning wheel to hold the machine oil, orifice hook and notions I need when spinning.
    image
    Tonight we enjoyed a “gourmet” meal utilizing some of the goodies from this year’s garden. The basic baked pork chops were topped with chutney that I canned, the Roasted veggies a blend of our yellow and white sweet potatoes, garlic, and rosemary added to farmers’ market potato’s, carrots and onions. A farmers’ market salad mix topped with beets, our radish kimchi and goat cheese.
    Lovin’ life on our mountain farm.

  • Easter Egg Hunt

    The cold winter has taken a toll on egg production and on the cleanliness of the coop.  I use the deep litter method.   For you non chicken raisers, that involves starting with a very clean coop, putting down a few inches of pine shavings or fine straw, then piling dry straw, leaves, etc on top and stirring it up every day or so like compost, adding more straw or leaves as necessary.  If this is done correctly, there is no odor and in the spring, you have a coop full of hot compost to add to your pile for further decomposing.  Because we have hay fields and they are mowed and baled each year, I squirrel away 2 round bales that are stored near my coop and covered with a tarp for use in the coop.  I know, you aren’t supposed to use hay, but so far I haven’t had any problems.  Because hay generally isn’t as dry as straw, I do have to fluff and turn it daily and keep all ventilation holes open whenever the temperature is above freezing, but because of the cold and snow this year, the birds are spending more time indoors than I would like.  As a result, it has been harder to stay on top of the turning and fluffing.

    It isn’t spring yet, but I was beginning to detect odor and knew that something needed to be done.  Leaving the compost part in place, I removed most of the hay from the coop and threw it in their run.  Pulled out the last of one of the big bales that had gotten very dry and added a new thick layer in the coop.

    The chickens are very curious whenever I am doing anything inside their coop and they always come to supervise.  They lean out the open doorway, peck around in the corners, and get just where I need to be.  As soon as I put an armload of hay down, one would push it around and make a bowl shaped nest in it.  I would shoo one away to put hay down and another would be there.  By the time I finished layering new hay in the floor of the coop and under their perches.  Removed and replaced the old hay from their nesting boxes, I had about half of them in the coop making “nests” in the floor of the coop and trampling down the fluffy new hay.

    wpid-20140301_092848.jpg

    I’m betting that today’s egg collection will be an Easter Egg Hunt throughout the floor of their coop.  Funny birds.  I just wish spring would come so that the egg production picks up.  At least I have gotten eggs all winter.

    Live is an adventure on our mountain farm.