New additions

Our new Rooster and Hen pair. They are tiny but he has already proved his dominance.

We also got 22 ducks, yep that's right 22.

First eggs of the year

Well two of our teenagers have started laying, which I guess means they have moved on to be adult chickens. I guess I will just start referring to them as the hens. We haven't had eggs in gosh 3 or 4 months so this is really exciting for us. I don't think that we have bought eggs but maybe once during this period, so this is providing a large change in our diets. 

We still have four ladies that haven't started laying yet so hopefully we will have even more soon.

Turkey with sinus infection

So I went out to check on the birds one day and this guy had a swollen face. Of course I had to Google turkey with a swollen face and decided that he had a sinus infection, they all had runny noses and were sneezing.

After some research Patrick found out we needed Tylan 50 and 3cc needles. we had to hold him up side down with his feet in the air and inject it on his breast right below his skin. 

He is not completely better yet but the swelling in his face has gone down enough that he can see out of that eye again.

A tour of our coop

The last year has really been a learning process with our Chickens and what they need. I am constantly learning what else would be good for them. Last year we had just a little coop, this year we have a mansion.

Our Mansion started out as a simple shed, that we are re-purposing, it needed some repairs and some chicken friendly updates.

 The first and most important thing we did was put in electricity! Our chickens are going to be living the high-life this winter. This is going to help in so many ways. We can have the light on a timer to keep them on a longer day schedule in the winter so they will lay all year round and a heater keep them and their water from freezing.

We painted then painted the floor of the coop with special paint that is supposed to protect the wood and make it last longer. I am also hoping that it makes cleaning up a little easier as well.

We moved the brooder that we built out into the coop for the new additions, I am hoping that having them in the coop will help the transition process as they get bigger.

Of course we needed nesting boxes so we found some old milk crates from my grandparents old coop, and decided to use them. We also built roosts in front of their nesting boxes.

And some golf balls just what every coop needs. We have had problems in the past getting our ladies to lay where they are supposed to, which results in them hiding in random corners of the yard for the dog to find much later YUCK. The run should keep them contained and hopefully the golf balls will be just the suggestion that they need to stay in the nesting boxes.

Patrick built a feeder that goes out to the run that we can fill up from inside the coop.

We have the different foods for the different types of birds and the different age levels separated into metal trash cans with lids to keep pests out as well as chickens.

Patrick built them a door that goes out into the run. It is on a pulley so we can easily shut it at night from outside the coop

Speaking of the run it is about 50' x 15'. We made it with 6 ft fence and then we covered the top with netting. We raised the netting up by using wire. It looks kind of like a big top, and gives us plenty of head space and will hopefully let the snow roll off.

We have spent a lot of time over the last year critter proofing and that is sadly what has started us working on this project. I am tired of raccoons and hawks picking off my flock and we had to come up with something to do about it. I really hope that we have done enough it has been such a struggle.

And to end the post here is a happy kid with a turkey on his shoulder.

Vanilla Ice cream

 Our kids love home made ice cream, and so do I! When I was growing up home made ice cream was a special treat my uncle Mickey made once a year for family reunions, down at great grandma and grandpas farm. I was always so excited when I went around the corner of the old farm house and there was the ice cream maker churning away. 

Well we were walking through Menards one day and Patrick saw a ice cream maker on sale so we had to get it. It's such a simple and yummy treat.

6 cups cream

4 1/2 cups half and half

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in Canister.

Do not fill the Canister more than 2/3 full, as the mixture will expand during freezing.

Stir well until sugar has dissolved.

Freeze until Canister is cold to touch.

Diced tomatoes

I have been so excited to try some canning that when we got a nice little pile of tomatoes I jumped right on the chance. Now we didn't have very many so I only got two pint jars worth but I thought a little batch was a good place to start.

Since we are new to this I rely heavily on my Ball Blue Book. I was a nurvous wreck during the process, afraid I was going to mess something up, but it worked! 

I can't wait for the rest of my tomatoes to ripen so we do it again.

Now I have some cucumbers I need to figure out what to do with. Should I make lime pickles or sweet pickle relish?

Guinea Keets

These are our 4 guinea keets. Clearly we didn't have enough birds yet, lol. Guineas are supposed to be really good about cutting down on pests such as ticks, mice and small snakes. They are a loud bird but they haven't gotten to that point yet.

This is an adult guinea.

The ticks this year have been out of control. I can't wait for them to get big!

A Coops Progression

We have been working hard in the evenings and on the weekend to get the coop ready. Well first things first we got the tractor and pushed it back into position.

Tada

Ok we boarded up the bottom of the shed so predators couldn't get under it and into where we are building a run.

Then it was time for the fence posts and to roll out the fence. Our run is 16' X 50'

We have three of the 4 sides of the run done at this point, and then we have to figure out the top. We haven't decided what material we are going to use for it yet

We have been letting all of the chickens run together when we are working on the coop. They seem to be getting along relatively well. We are dealing with some of the pecking order stuff, which is to be expected, however we are not putting them together at night yet.

Reba here is still broody and she is quite the grouch. I really hope she and Marie get their feathers back soon. that is why we separated them from the roosters to begin with. They really don't look much better at all.

As the Garden Grows

Our garden has really started to produce we have strawberries

Tomatoes

Dill

Corn

Cucumbers

Peppers

A lot of our plants are starting to bloom so hopefully we will have more produce soon. I cant wait to do something with it this year :) The rain has been good to us!

Gobble Gobble Cluck

We decided that since we already had two recently hatched turkeys in our house that we would just go ahead and take care of the baby chicken inside as well. I wouldn't have done that had we not had others to put it with, but since we did I jumped on it. I am already concerned with introducing the teenagers into the coop with the moms; I was afraid that their might be more hostility if they felt they had to protect the baby from the newcomers, as well as their place in the pecking order.

Good news they get along just great!

They eat together, and sleep together.

Now let's just hope our little chicken doesn't grow up thinking it's a turkey, lol.

I am also keeping an eye out for another chick in the hen house. It would be nice to have two little ones to introduce together. Everything is better with a buddy.

A Bigger and Better Coop

Like I mentioned in my last post we have been wanting to get a bigger coop, so we can put all of our chickens together. 

We have been blessed or cursed depending in how you look at it with multiple sheds all over the property. They are all full to the brim with junk and some are in better shape than others. We cleaned this one out and went to move it up the hill to where the other coops are.

It is in pretty good condition and has the barn look like our little coop just on a larger scale. We don't have it just where we want it yet but it is in the right part of the yard now. We are also going to make a larger run for all of the coops. 

There are also a few adjustments that have to be made to make it chicken friendly: Roosts, Nesting Boxes, Chicken Door. Hopefully we will have it all ready soon!

Getting used to the youngsters

So we have been keeping the Mama Chickens separated from the teenagers, we had to wait for the little ones to get big enough to hold their own. 

So recently we have been slowly introducing Reba and Marie to their new friends two at a time. Reba has been sitting on eggs so she has been really agitated lately, however we put these two in the coop with them for 10 or 15 min and they all did really well together. Hopefully this means that when we get the bigger coop in the back yard and we move everyone in together we won't have any big fights. At least that is the goal.

A Broody Chicken

Well our hens were losing feathers due to the number of roosters that we had so we separated them. The ladies went in the coop. 

We got eggs really well for the first week or so. After a little while Reba started to get a little broody and we stopped getting eggs she stopped laying as many and wouldn't let us anywhere near them. It didn't matter if she or Marie laid the eggs Reba sat on them.

I was beginning to wonder if there was anyway they could even be fertile since they hadn't been with the gents in so long, but we marked the eggs anyway just to see what would happen. Then yesterday when we came home all the waiting paid off! :) She hatched an egg!

Meet our new chick!

New additions to the farm!

We got two turkey poults today.

they like to cuddle.

Farm Dog

Meet our newest member of the family! This is Boone. 

He is a Bernese Mountain Dog. He is little now but he wont be for long.

The boys love him and he has been doing really well with the chickens and the ducks. They aren't to sure about having a dog around but he just likes to sniff them. I think he is going to be a very good farm dog.