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!