Spring Follows the Ups and Downs of Our Little World...

Last year, we incubated and hatched lots of eggs, and kept or sold a fir number of chicks.  Somewhere in it all, we ended up with one single (hopefully) pullet in this age range. Not one of our better planning moments, but I had mandated that we turn off the incubator during the holidays, so there weren't any younger ones coming along to keep it company.

The little one, on the left in the photo below, was living in the house, mostly in the tough brooder.  As the only one, her interaction was with us, as well as with Shadow. As she had grown, she would get out of the brooder, go for a walk around the house, hang out with Shadow while watching Wyatt practice piano, and chat with me while I put on my shoes in the morning.

She has not been a tidy roommate, as you can imagine, but I just couldn't seem to come up with anyone for her to hang out with. Then, I found some black sexlinks, fully feathered, and near to her size at a nearby feed store. While I am normally not big on hatchery chicks, I needed someone to teach the little pullet that she was, in fact, a chicken, and help her transition to her pen. So Saturday afternoon, on my way home from work, I brought her friends and Wyatt got them all set up in the first step of the grow out pen. So far, so good...

While I was at it, Friday night, Wyatt helped me dig a hole for the lower section of this pond insert that Grandma didn't want anymore. He even helped me situate the bricks for steps.

The geese are truly loving their new pool!

The geese are also laying. Wyatt is concerned about the fact that some of the hatching didn't go so well last year, and because the first egg that Mother Goose laid was pecked by Miss Friendly. The clutch was at three eggs at last count, though it got dark quickly this evening when we got home and we didn't get to check. What would you do? Incubate or let them try to raise the little ones?

You saw the project Wyatt helped me with, but on Monday, as the boys headed off to pick up the feed store and Bailey and I were heading home from town after the gym, we knew this was to be our big project!

We started by pulling EVERYTHING out of the tack shed.

The only thing that remained was the shelf unit, which was pulled well forward and wiped down. The walls and floors were cleaned, and we organized and cleaned as things went back in.

It was dark when we finished, but so worth it to get things cleaned and ready for Spring, and especially to do it before the feed order went in.

And this was the end result! What do you think?

Well, with Sunday night closing out, and a new week beginning, more big projects await and more always being added to the list, it is time for rest and recharge before the coming week.

What is on your list for this week?

Up-cycled Projects for Sustainable Farming

This dresser was yellow was it came to Arizona before our daughter was born. It had lived through my family, having been well constructed, though over the years it began to have troubles. We reassembled the drawers, reattached the bottoms, reattached the faces and back corners, over and over and over again. That is,  until this Spring, when I just couldn't get it to go back together again.

I thought hard about how to re-purpose it, rather than give up on something that seemed to still have life in it. I considered adding board for shelves, but realistically, I could see that causing a TON of dusting, without really adding much convenience. I considered the shelves and using the drawer faces like flip up doors, but when I got into the actual design on that idea, it really didn't work. Nothing would fit right.

I poured over Pinterest. That's what I tell the 4H-ers to do.

So it sat on the back porch, waiting for my crazy over attached to tradition self until I finally just realized- the greatest need around here was the organic and sustainability projects. So a plan was hatched- this dresser would be phase one- of the livestock salad bars.

Salad bard for livestock. you ask? Why yes. By creating planters where the sprouts continue to grow, proving more greenery to the chickens and goats, we hope to supplement their organic nutrition with things more naturally eaten in the wild. Besides, what we grow ourselves, when know where it comes from, and it is more economical for feeding organic.

So we took this old dresser, and the kids and I got to work.

The main frame of the dresser went to the doe pen. Sorry, it was getting a bit dark.

Wyatt took the first of the drawers with no base out to the Big Pen.

He picked a spot where the chickens keep digging hols for him to fill (two birds, so to speak.) Not far from the waters, though. We won't water it with chicken water, but we do want to make watering pretty easy!

They filled them mostly full with garden soil from my re-potting pile. They left a bit of room at the top, so the animals would not have enough leverage or grasp to pull the plants out from the root. Then came chicken wire.

I had originally thought to use hardware cloth to keep the from pulling too much, and had been following the progress of a few similar projects. It turns out, at least one person was having trouble with hens getting stuck walking on the hardware cloth and losing toes. Who! I hadn't even though of that! Glad for someone else's honesty and experience. Hope those hens are getting around okay!

This one is outside the doe barn. Once we catch the water harvesting system up, we plan to have one there, too, and stationed this so that there was just enough room by the roof, but against the wall, for a water harvesting barrel, and this could easily be watered from it. She added plenty of seeds that had been soaking for a couple days.

Then she got to watering them two to three times each day.

This is what is coming up. I have some more for her to reseed later tonight.

This is the chicken one in the Big Pen. Too bad I didn't get a photo of this one earlier, since they are REALLY digging on their sprouts! Wyatt will be adding more seeds, but just because they weren't as established as we had thought they would be when the ladies began eating them. They like to work together to get the best grasp on the sprouted grains while one stands on the wire, the other puts her head through to munch!

It is doing quite well, but we will continue to work with it!

Next up, after reseeding? The Bucks and the A Pen! The more natural the food is, the better!!!

New Feeders! Always Trying to Improve!

For those of you who follow the blog, you are likely aware of the stages we have gone through with feeders. The chickens like to dump their food on the ground, and we also have issues with summer monsoons bringing water nearly parallel to the ground, wind gusts and micro-bursts, and also with wild animals. It is the wild animals that bring us the greatest concern, since they not only eat a lot of food, but also can bring disease, so we have been through several versions of feeders to try to come up with the best solution for our animals, who rather enjoy their treats along with their soy-free, corn-free, non-gmo organic feed!

Wyatt recently found these feeders he was hoping to try. So we purchased one and brought it home, hoping to see of it would help with all of the competing needs. The Silkie pen was first for this new feeder. 

Being that there was already a hook in the pen, and they don't have as much rain reaching the area where that would put hte feed, it was a good first choice. I added a scoop of feed, which would usually last 2-3 days with them. I didn't figure that would require filling it all the way, which would also mean that I didn't have to fret so much about losing a lot of feed if this idea was a bust with them!

I raided Bailey's stash of bailing twine, and tied the feeder to hang high enough that the Silkies stand properly as they eat, nothing can jump in it, but that the geriatric White Faced Black Spanish hens that are in retirement in the Silkies' pen can still eat just fine. This was very early last week, and it took them much of the week to go through the scoop I put in there. I regularly saw all of the different chickens that reside in there munching away, so I decided it was worth trying a wider spread application of the new feeder.

We cannot afford to purchase new feeders for all of the poultry at one time, but I did go ahead and buy two more last Saturday, and Wyatt and I stood and decided the next to pens for roll out were the main laying pens, the A pen and the Big pen. These pens usually go through about a scoop per day in this weather. So we started in the Big pen, where this 4x4 is angled near the doorway of their barn, helping re-frame it after a micro-burst several years ago. I ran in a longer, thicker cup hook. It wouldn't angled or hang properly if I left it on the hook, so  we put it high enough that the feeder would swing freely and not have any pests feeding on it from the support beam, but still have it centered in and back far enough from the opening of the barn.

As soon as Wyatt poured the scoop in, we were surrounded by hens who felt the need to push us out of the way so they could be among the first to enjoy their new feeder.

The A pen was a little more challenging. There is a metal support for the roof, which was pretty easy to tie the feeder to, since the corners are favorite roosting spots and we didn't want accidental poop in the feeder or rain from the monsoons. The blue in the edge of the photo is a plastic tabletop that we use for nesting boxes to sit on, and that arrangement may have to be revisited if they fuss over the feeder or knock into when they fuss over next boxes (don't all hens want to use the same box at the same time at your house, too?)

So far, all of the new feeders are working beautifully. Feed economy might be slightly improved, although Wyatt is having a hard time with filling the feeders which are slightly smaller than the feed scoop. I will have to help him find a better solution for that this week. We also found a couple white buckets that still have the handles on them, which we plan to try to rig as temporary hanging feeders in the grow out pen and a couple of the breeding pens, I will try to take photos when we work on those so you can try it too, just as soon as we get the buckets unstuck!

What all have you all tried? Where do you put the fodder feed for your chickens for those of you who also use fodder? Please share your photos and solutions with us, and let me know who to credit so that I can share them with others trying to learn! 

Have a great day!

Sprouts and Seedlings and Reaching for Spring

Some of you have been following or helping me with the sprouting project. The goal here is that because feeding our chickens all organic, soy-free, corn-free, non-GMO feed is so expensive, we are looking for healthy ways to give the chickens high quality feed without losing money on each dozen of eggs and while maintaining the standard of living we want for the flock, with natural poultry behaviors encouraged and lots of space. That is, of course, easier said than done.

We recently switched to a new sprouting tray type. This is the first new tray we have had grow and be ready to feed. The chickens really enjoyed it yesterday!

Some of the others really are taking their time to sprout. I am trying to get it all down to a system, and I will post a chart if I can get a definite one going.

this was right before I took the tray out yesterday, with the sprouted grass growing right through the top!

I don't think I have the stuff right yet, though, because I had quite a time getting the sprouts and the roots off the mesh I put in the bottom of hte tray. Going to have to check back with my mentors on that.

Have a BIG problem with a couple of sneaky chickens eating my seedlings! Managed to cover one of the planters, though it may be too late. I don't have any way to cover the greens where they plowed through much of the spinach and some of the kale yesterday. Any ideas for me? That is on the list this afternoon. Step one will be finding how they are sneaking out, though I think they have help from other flock members!

Well, I have lots more fun stuff to share, but will be glad to learn and share along with you all so we can all do better for our flocks!

Lov eto all.

Catch-up Day!

I took this photo leaving the farmer's market last night. Hard to believe that market will only be going through February. We are thinking for the time being, I will put more time into our own farm stand before committing to another market.

The sunsets certainly are beautiful!

While Bailey was at her town class today, I got a few errands run, checked on a friend, and got a little time for cardio! It was only 2.5 miles on the elliptical, but I was so thankful to do it with all the ways I have barely been teaching classes and students and athletes since I got sick a couple weeks back.  Moderate intensity, but consistent, a good step back so soon I can do more!

I knew I had made these and set them aside, but it took me until today to find them to go with another project.  Sometimes I feel certain I could misplace my own head if it weren't attached!  And all because I put things where I think they will be safe and easy to find...

Some of the plant cuttings I had rooting were ready to be transplanted.  These are a couple of them, but also two mint plants and one of the red leafed house plants I have somehow kept going since one of my clients, who was on the Game and Fish board, gave it to me years ago in a glass jar, just a cutting with a beautiful root mass.

These are all new plant cuttings in water for the next batch of mint and house plants to filter the air.  It is hard to see, but there are still a couple jars on the left where I will start some more mint. I have a special experiments I hope to try with the mint in the coming months!

One of the many things that I lost track of when I was sick for a couple weeks in there was the sprouts. We dumped the remains int he compost late last week and let the containers dry.  On Monday, I set the first batch of the containers in to soak.  I finally got them clean early this afternoon, and got the last of them in to soak.  I am still hoping to switch to different trays soon, my friend and I are planning a trade for soap, but she is as busy as I am and on the other side of town, so we ar working with the prototype models for now!

I had started the Barley soaking on Sunday after church, so those went in to three of the cleaned sprouting containers to start.  When we were recently out working on the goat projects, we checked out the sprouting setups of a few of our friends, and Charlene mentioned using a splash of ACV in the first soak to combat the growth of mold in the sprouting system, so we are trying that too, this time. We will let you know how that works for us =).  Have any of you tried that?

These are the next jars of Barley in their first soak.  They will be started Friday night, I hope!  A big thank you to Lynn for the tip of using the plastic needlepoint canvas in the jar rings for straining and keeping unwanted visitors out while soaking.

Also finally got around to candling the egg in the special hatch in the incubator. Unfortunately, the ones we have had in there were infertile, though we have several in there to hatch for ourselves. The six little ones in our brooder- three Brahmas, one Buckeye and two Silkies are doing well.  Wyatt also has new roosters nearing the end of their time in the quarantine pen. They have beautiful plumage on their heads, so we are looking forward to seeing what they bring to the line here. 

These are this yer's strawberry plants- yummy!

And the bright beautiful moon above us tonight had me wondering when the full moon would arrive for this month =)

I had the random idea that in this area along the side of the house, I would like to have additional asparagus patches and lavender. The melons I tried last year didn't work so well, so I figure this might? We shall see. But I needed a more defined space, so I took some scrap wood and made a little planter space for the asparagus starts I brought home today.   I ran out of daylight, so I will do the other little patch tomorrow morning!

I think I mentioned back when we had our first freeze, that despite the really nice frost cover, our pichu plants took it pretty hard. The stalks were still green, so we were letting them limp along and try.  Earlier this week, I was beginning to lose hope. But then, after transplanting the rooted cuttings and making the asparagus patch and beginning the watering...

I found new leaves!  Now I will need to share them on one of the gardening pages, because I really don't know when to cut back a Pichu plant!  Wyatt loves the fruit, so I have several saved to pull the seeds out of, but I really hope the plants we have can make it through the winter. 

The boys also worked on Wyatt's Science Fair project- a cycle powered generator. It is beginning to take shape, but now tomorrow Wyatt needs to try to resurrect an old laptop to try to power with it, and look up answers to some of the questions that are coming up as they work. The paper is also requiring some attention!  Wow, so much to do, but we are plugging along as usual.

Well, I suppose it is time to get the laundry rotated and the dishwasher started, and get some sleep to get on to the next part of the list tomorrow!  Hope you all have a great night!  Love to all.

Sprouting Project, Side by Side Barley and Sunflower comparison part 2

The last I share photos on this topic was Thursday. For those of us working to learn all that we can about being able to afford to feed our livestock and produce food organically, with out soy, corn or gmos, the more we see of the process, the better.

Therefore, I am taking nightly photos of the identical bins that I started together, two of sunflower, tow of barley. The photos in the last edition of this series were from Thursday, so here is what has happened since...

On Friday night, there were clean thick short sprouts on the Sunflowers. While not much more than the day before, more of the seeds had the sprouts.

Also on Friday, lots of the thin shoots sprouting off the barley were filling in, up to and even over an inch in height. Lots of filling in to do, though!

On Saturday, the little sprouts were curling around the sunflower seeds.  Rather cute, really, but not much in terms of getting feed ready!  I have limited space, the longer the fodder takes, the more fodder containers I need in the setup.

The Barley is filling in, and was standing tall over an inch in height.

This was a few hours ago, with the sprouts beginning to stand up in the sunflower bins, more grasses filling in and height growing in the barley bins.

These are the four bins stacked together. I wish I knew the proper recipe for how thick to make the seeds in each fodder tray, but since I have not found that anywhere,  I am still experimenting! (If you happen to know, please share so we can all learn!)

Well, I am learning as I go, but certainly improving.  All knowledge is welcome, the more we share with others, the better we all do, and the more we learn from one another!