The Chicks are Here!

Finally!  I thought Elaine was going to go into cardiac arrest when she saw them.  These might be harder than the pigs.  She worries me...  All fifty made it here safely.  They immediately started eating and drinking, which is a great sign!  That means that they were relatively warm on their trip.  It is supposed to be 90 degrees out today, so that makes sense.  Only a couple of them are hanging out under the brooder. 

Fifty chicks in our makeshift brooder

And the girls are in love!  Is anyone surprised?  Riley even held one by herself.  I love teaching the kids about where our food comes from.  If anyone else wants to do the same feel free to visit us.

Elaine introducing a chick to Riley

And that really is an open invitation.  If there is anyone who would like to come meet our new chicks just drop us a line and we'll let you know when a good time is.

 

Thanks for reading,

-Jay

I think the chickens like their new home!

Happy, free roaming, bug biting, grass gobbling chickens!

 

 

New Chicken Coop, Phase 5

Well, it's just about finished.  You can even see the beginnings of the chicken run behind the first picture.  I have all of the posts hammered into the ground, I just need to get wire to attach the fence, and a lighter weight chicken wire for the roof of the run. 

 

Thanks again to Chris for the help today.  We made some great progress.

 

So, as you can see from the first couple pictures, the board and batten siding is nearly complete.  I have to remove the shutters on the back of the coop (the side that looks like the front), and then I will be able to complete the finish work.

 

Technically this is the back of the coop, but who's checking...

On the far side of the coop there are still some very tedious cuts to be made for the trim work on the upper portion (pictured below).  Then I will be able to finish the battens on that portion and the side will be complete.  I have just a couple pieces to add to the bird doors and they can be mounted.  I also need to build the ramps.

Front - The three bird doors you see are just boarded up because I don't have the hinges for them, and I didn't have time to finish them anyway.  They will have a little framing added to them and will look similar to the main door (pictured above).

Inside the coop there is little left.  I managed to get a very thick layer of sawdust down for them, as well as straw in the layer boxes.  I still need to staple a small piece of chicken wire to the eve created by the roof extension so the chickens don't fill it with droppings. 



Inside the coop - The layer boxes

Inside the coop - The roosts.

The chickens have already been moved in! Elaine and I spent two grueling hours carrying 30 chickens and 2 roosters, that were VERY reluctant to move, two-by-two to the new coop. It was actually a lot of fun, and even Elaine thought so!






















Hopefully tomorrow I will find the time to finish the chicken run.  I want to let them out of the coop, but I'm affraid that they will not head back into the coop for the night when the sun goes down.  The chicken run won't allow them much of a choice. 

Thanks for reading,
-Jay

The Salad Garden

 

Those sticks are the labels for the salad varieties

 After moving the old chicken coop we were left with a square frame that was (I thought) useless to me.  Then I got the hairbrained idea to cover up the patch of grass that I always forget to mow!  I laid down newspaper to kill the grass, then compost, and then soil from the big garden.  We have mache, two types of spinach, kale, chard, and arugula planted.  Sounds like a great salad!

 

Thanks for reading,

-Jay 

New Chicken Coop, Phase 4



The door has since been attached, but this is basically what I'm up to.  Next will be the metal roofing, and the fence around the chicken yard.  Then I can move them in!

Thanks for reading,
-Jay

New Chicken Coop, Phase 3

It hit 81 degrees today!  And I felt every bit of it... and will continue to feel it for the next week!  I have the stupidest burn on my back.  I attempted to put sunscreen (SPF 70 of course) on my neck where my first burn (with shirt) took place, but I guess I got a little over-zealous and now I have a neopolitan (yes, the ice cream) look!  Oops.  I'm sure Elaine will think it's VERY attractive!

In phase 3 I finished the first round of siding.  I will be doing a board and batten siding, and I will finish with the battens and trim in the final phase (whenever that might be...).  My next move will be the bird doors, main access door, and roof.  Then I will put up the chicken run and move them in.  I will probably have to do the battens and trim on the front of the coop prior to finishing the chicken run, because I won't be able to access the front very easily after I fence it in.





Back of the coop, or layer box side.



 

The window in the front is plexiglass, and the ones in the back are screened and will have shutters.  I think the shutters will add a lot of character to the coop.  Eventually I will install a rainwater harvesting system using gutters and PVC piping, and a grain hopper to make feeding them even easier.  But those things will have to wait since this project is taking WAY longer than I expected.

 



Front of the coop, or chicken run side.

Thanks for reading,

-Jay