A Year in the Life...

I'm back.  For those of you that follow my blog, you may have thought that I fell off the face of the earth.  Although some of the events that took place since my last post (October 22, 2012) made me feel like I had fallen off the face of the earth, I am still here.  The earth being a round sphere also makes it a bit difficult to "fall off" the face of the earth.  The best I could do is just run in circles.

So many things have happened and I want fill you in.  I'll hit the highlights in this post, and then give you additional topical updates on the bees, chickens and other things around the home in separate posts in the next week or so.  Here we go...

My posting vacancy started with a Thanksgiving week family trip to AZ to visit dear friends we left behind when we moved to VA.  The one thing that I wanted to do while I lived in AZ that never happened was put on the priority list of my visit.  I quick suggesting to my old college roommate, who was also my co-worker in Phoenix, and we were on our way to Antelope Canyon.

It really is that beautiful and amazing.  The colors that come down from above and bounce off the sandstone are incredible.  Our guide told us that when they have a flash flood through the canyon, it can add or remove up to nine feed of sand, raising and lowering the canyon floor.  NINE FEET!  It is hard to believe until you see footage of a flash flood in that area.

Our guide did a great job of keeping other tourists out of our photos.  During the busy months the five licensed tour companies take an estimated 1500 people through the canyon per day.  If you haven't been there and seen Antelope Canyon, I highly recommend it.

Upon returning to VA after our family vacation, I got laid off from my job.  How is that for timing?  Never having been laid off before, I was a bit nervous to say the least.  I think the Good Wife took it all better than I did.  My severance package took me through the end of the year, so at least I could enjoy the Christmas holiday.

First some friends from AZ that moved to WA before we moved to VA came to visit us for Christmas.  We happened to be touring through Washington, DC when the NRA was making their public statement after the Newtown shooting.  We got swarmed by foreign reports looking for sound bites.

I'm not sure why they latched onto us for questions, other than we were the only ones in the area wearing camo jackets and blaze orange hats.  They figured we must be pro gun.  They were right!

Once they headed back to WA after a very nice visit, I headed to WI with the boys.  Remember, I'm unemployed at this point, so why not?  I left the Good Wife home to work some extra shifts at the ER.  At least she said she was working!

They were having some very cold weather in WI during our visit to my parents, so the boys got to experience walking on water.  Or at least walking on ice on water.

Once we got back from WI, it was time to get to work.  Finding a job that is.  They say it is a full time job finding a job and I have to agree.  Sitting at the internet surfing job sites doesn't work.  Getting out and meeting people face to face and networking is what works.

We did take a little time out to go squirrel hunting at our friends cabin.  We saw tons of squirrels in the fall while hunting turkey, but didn't see any on this trip.  We did come across a snake though and Oldest Son dispatched it quickly.

I'll give a separate post later about the bees, but it was a good and bad year.  Good in that all my hives made it through the winter.  But bad because we had so much cold and rain in the spring with a couple weeks of mid-summer temperatures, that all my hives ended up swarming.  I'll elaborate more later.

I was able to find a new job here in the Richmond, VA area so we didn't have to go anywhere.  That started in mid-March, so I am finally settling into my new position and enjoying the work.

We did another batch of meat chickens this spring.  One of the Oldest Son's friends wanted to experience the butchering, and jumped right in and did a large portion of the killing.  He also got projectile pooped on during the process.

We took a family vacation, that was planned before the layoff, to Morocco to visit the Good Wife's parents.  We all had a great time and I will post separately about that.  Concerning our rural living experiences, the Oldest Son got to learn how to butcher rabbits.  That was a highlight for him on that trip.

Our egg chickens are doing fine, but we have a coyote or fox that is slowly picking off our chickens one at a time.  That is making us keep them locked up in their run for most of the day until the boys get home from school and let them out to free range while we are around.  Some of our broody hens hatched out a few chicks and the Oldest Son bought a rooster at a chicken swap.

Are you starting to see a trend here?  Oldest Son seems to keep getting us involved in more and more activities when we are trying to take more time to ourselves and slow down a bit.  I don't think it is going to happen until he heads off to college.  The scary part is, it will be less than four years!

I know this is a very abbreviated post since I finally broke radio silence after almost a year.  In the next week or so, I'll have more detailed updates on the chickens, bees, our trip to Morocco, meat rabbits and our garden.  I'm glad to be back!

Cornish Cross Meat Chicken Butchering

The time has come.  Seven weeks and three days from the day they were hatched.  It was time to move the chickens from the pasture to the freezer.  A small bit of work would be required to make that transition, and this time we were ready, having learned from our previous chicken butchering venture.

The process was reviewed, bottlenecks analyzed and new equipment prepared.  It was go time!

Cornish Cross Meat Chickens - Week 5

So maybe I'm not as diligent as anticipated in getting photos and posting in a timely manner.  There won't be any more promises made at this point, since life seems to get in the way of everything that needs to be done.  Priorities?  Another post another time.  Back to the topic at hand, meat chickens at five weeks old.

OK, last time, the pictures were from four weeks, and the post was late.  This time, both the pictures and the post are late.  These pictures were taken Wednesday evening, which technically was a day short of six weeks of the hatch date on these chicks, although we didn't get them until later that week.

Everything that was read online about the Cornish Cross chickens is that they have a 10-15% mortality rate while raising the chickens.  We had been fortunate at receiving 132, having two DOA (Dead On Arrival), and then losing three in the first couple weeks.  Not counting the two that were DOA, that is only a 2.3% mortality rate, which is really good.  Unfortunately, things aren't holding so well.

Earlier this week we had a hot spell into the upper 80's, with humidity.  It wasn't pretty, and one of the coops ran out of water before I got home from work.  One chicken was not looking good, and died that night.  Shovel in hand, out to the woods, and bury the dead chicken.  A bit of lime over the chicken to help it decompose and to keep the dogs from digging it up.

Wednesday evening, after pulling one of the chicken tractors forward, the Middle Son declared that one was left behind.  After questioning, I found out that it wasn't so much left behind as it was dead and didn't move while the tractor did.  Shovel in hand, and back to the woods.

Thursday evening, our local beekeeping club had their monthly meeting that I had planned to attend, so Scott did the evening watering and feeding.  Calling on my way home, there were two more down.  One was found dead, and the other was culled.  Asking about what he did with the dead chickens, Scott said he walked towards the woods and chucked them in there.  So much for the shovel method.

The chicken that was culled had a problem with its leg and wasn't moving or able to get to the food and water.  We had been setting it next to the waterer and putting food in front of it, but the other chickens had been walking on it and it hadn't been growing.  No sense wasting food on a chicken that wasn't going to get to size.

With the seven total that have died, we are now up to 5.3% mortality.  Higher than we had with the Red Rangers this spring.  Apparently in all the reading online, people forgot to mention WHEN the chickens had died.  At this rate we may hit the average rate of 10-15% by the time butcher day comes around on October 13th.

However, the chickens that are alive are getting big.  They are growing day by day.

The picture above makes the chickens look like monsters with their glowing eyes from the flash.  Unfortunately I remembered to take the pictures of them too late in the day and it was starting to get dark.  Hopefully the rest will hold on for the remaining week and a half so we can do the job rather than nature doing the job for us.

Cornish Cross Meat Chickens - Week 4

It was hard to believe when the little yellow balls of fluff arrived, that they would be ready to butcher at seven weeks old, but these wide legged white monsters are growing daily.  Looking straight on, they are stocky like a cross between a pit bull and an offensive lineman in the NFL.

Although this post is a bit late, these pictures were taken last weekend, just a day or two over their four week point of being with us.  Most of them are growing rapidly, although not totally feathering out, leaving pink bald patches here and there, with more up front and less in the back.  It is assumed that is another characteristic these are bred for, having fewer feathers, especially the little fluffy downy feathers underneath, making plucking easier.  We will know in three weeks.

They are very broad breasted and you can see that they are getting meaty.  These do sit around a lot more than the Red Rangers we had last time.  We do have about four or five that are medium size, and don't seem to be growing very fast.  These may not have gotten the genetic traits of their brothers, or they may be hens.  These will turn out to be "Cornish Game Hens", which are Cornish Cross chickens processed at about three weeks.  There is one that is tiny, and seems to be growing about at the same rate as a normal chicken.

Although 'Tiny' does have large feet.  For some reason, as soon as we go into the coop or let them out, the smallest ones run to hide out between our legs, maybe looking for cover not to be picked on by the bigger chickens.  All that fast growing and testosterone is starting to show as the chickens face of with each other in their pecking stare downs.  'Tiny' may get a reprieve on October 13th if he doesn't start bulking up.

So far so good overall.  We did have a hot day yesterday, and we ran out of water in one of the coops by the time I got home from work.  Several were panting heavily and we got water to them right away. One seemed lethargic, and I am assuming that was the one that was found "belly up" this morning in the middle of the coop.  

Having to feed and water them isn't too bad in the morning, although it doesn't get light until about 6:45am, so chores can't start too early.  But having to dig a hole in the woods to bury one before work, isn't my idea of a good time.  Youngest Son and Middle Son came to watch, and apparently found it amusing.

We added an extra waterer and feeder, so total we have two waterers, 3.5 or 5 gallons each, and three feeders in each coop with approximately 60+ chickens in each.  It isn't as tight as the 95 Red Rangers in one coop, but these sit around a lot more, which makes it look tighter.  We try to let them out as much as possible when we are home, which helps move them around a bit more.

It is supposed to cool down this weekend, so I will try to get my week 5 post up as on time as possible. Until then, thick nuggets!

Fall Meat Chickens

Summer has come and gone, and with the cooler temperatures, comes a new batch of meat chickens.  As all great planners know, the ability to change plans and adapt on short notice is crucial.  That is true in all facets of life, not just chicken farming.  But it became relevant at the end of this summer.

The same crew that ventured out this spring on a meat chicken journey, decided that the journey was worthwhile, and worth doing again.  Everything had gone well, so the plan was to follow our template on the first go around, with the small change of expanding our numbers.

The Red Rangers were ordered and all we could do was sit and wait for them to arrive at the end of July.  This would give us approximately 10 weeks until Columbus Day weekend, the first weekend in October, to get them to weight for butchering.

The day came in July, and no calls that our chicks had shipped.  Checking online, there was only a notice that the supplier had run into a "predator problem" and that starting the week we were supposed to get our chicks, they would be shipping no more chicks the rest of the year!  Oh no!  Now what?

Turning a Rooster into a Meal

This past spring, we fell for the trick at the local feed supply store, where if you buy a bag of chicken feed, you get six chicks free.  We split them with a friend, and they were supposed to be pullets, or female chickens.  Apparently someone at the hatchery isn't very good at their job, or the feed store got a deal on chicks and didn't care what they were.  Either way, the three chicks we raised and nurtured, hoping that one day they would repay the favor with fresh eggs for our family, turned out to all be roosters!  All of them!  Roosters!

With a flock of only 15 hens, having three roosters is at least two too many.  Once we figured out that at least one was a rooster, he ended up on Craigslist.  The rooster was posted just before I left for work on a Friday evening.  Before I could get half way home, I already received a call.  The post was very clear that I didn't care if it was for breeding or for their pot.  The rooster had to go.  One down.

The Oldest Son got somewhat attached to the other roosters, and was trying to convince the Good Wife and I that we should keep them, at least one.  Since it was warm this summer, the windows were closed, and the chickens in their coop at 5:30 in the morning when the roosters would start to crow.  Their crowing could be faintly heard if already awake, but it wasn't too strong to wake you up early.  Kind of a novelty around the place, having a rooster that actually crows.

This happy, "Let's keep the roosters!" attitude all changed a couple weeks ago when they started getting aggressive and attacking the boys.  One chased the Oldest Son all the way from the coop to the house.  When Youngest Son went to get the eggs in the afternoon, he also go chased away from the coop.  These "stories" were brushed aside.  Until one chased the Good Wife.  At that point, everyone else in the house was abandoning their chicken chores, and I was getting stuck having to feed them, water them and collect the eggs.  The roosters had to go!

The family and the Good Wife's sister headed to Virginia Beach for Labor Day weekend so the Good Wife could run in a half marathon.  I stayed home since the usual dog sitter was not available.  No time like the present to "turn the roosters into a meal."

**WARNING - From this point on it is more of a pseudo tutorial on processing a chicken.  Some photos may be graphic to some people.  However, if you eat chicken, it is a fact of life.  **

Guineas Galore

Early May, our black australorp hen decided to go broody.  For those that don't know, that means that the maternal instincts are kicking in and she is wanting to hatch some chickies.  Except, there are two problems with that scenario.

1 - We don't have a rooster, so none of the eggs the hens have been laying have been fertile; and
2 - We collect the eggs every day, and once she went broody, she stopped laying.

That means that she was trying to hatch a nest full of straw, which doesn't work too well.  Thinking that it was a passing thing, we just ignored her.  And she continued to lay on that nest of straw.

Chicken Snow

This has been a crazy winter and spring here in Virginia.  One day it is 70+, the next day 5 inches of snow, and then another day of 70+ temperatures.  Although every other day feels like either spring or winter, we know that spring is near.  This is confirmed by the arrival of chicks at all the Tractor Supply Co. and Southern States stores.  That's chicken chicks, not the other kind.

This morning I received a text from my meat chicken co-conspirator, letting me know that it was starting to look like "Chicken Snow". You may be wondering, "What exactly is Chicken Snow?", which is exactly what I was thinking as I read the text.

Chicken snow?

He was kind enough to follow up with a full definition:

Chicken Snow -n. A snow event in which you accumulate more chickens than actual inches of snow.  

Once the boys learned that school was closed for the day, they connected with the meat chicken co-conspirator and his boys to head to the farm stores.  It didn't take them long to end up with small Happy Meal sized boxes full of chicks.

Once home and in the makeshift brooder, our second annual journey of egg chickens had begun.  In keeping with our eclectic flock of chickens, we added some new breeds.  To our existing two Barred Rocks, Black Australorp and two Ameraucanas, we added three Rhode Island Reds, three White Leghorns, two Brown Leghorns and three more Barred Rocks.  This will help increase our flock to get more eggs, while getting some white egg layers and some more prolific egg layers.  Hopefully this will allow us to get more eggs so we will be able to supply more customers than our current one regular customer, in addition to our family.

They are small now, but come June or July, we should be enjoying white and brown jumbo eggs.  Now where are we going to put them once they get out of the brooder?  Hmmm.  Haven't thought that far through.  I guess I better get building on the new expanded chicken condo!

Meat Chickens - Part I

So from the title of this post, you can guess what decision has been made.  My BIL from Knoxville along with a local friend have decided to raise some meat chickens this spring.  Our original intent was to just raise a few to try it out for ourselves to 1) Rely upon ourselves for more of our food, 2) Have food that is more natural and not stuffed with antibiotics, hormones or any other unnatural food stuffs, and 3) Take our chicken loving to the next level.

Once the decision was made to do the chickens, there was the discussion of what chickens to raise.  There is the common Cornish Cross that is the Franken-chicken of the industry.  It grows out to butcher size in about 8 weeks and has the best conversion rate of food to meat.  This is the type of chicken that you buy in the grocery store and that Tyson raises.  But again, this is a chicken that can't breed on its own, and because it grows so fast, the rest of its body can't keep up, so they often have a high mortality rate while growing and can have leg problems and heart failure.  From a production stand point, sounds good, but it isn't why we were trying this.

After looking around, we settled on the Freedom Rangers, or Red Rangers, or whatever variant that people call them.  We won't go into all the naming nuances, but it is more of a heritage breed of chicken that takes a bit longer to fill out, but will tend to forage more on its own if given the opportunity.

Please remember though, this is all information coming from someone who hasn't done this before and has just read a lot of information on the internet.  For this reason, I will try to keep you posted on all our adventures in the meat chicken front as we progress.

After the breed was selected, it was time to place our order.  Again, more internet reading and research.  We finally decided on MT-DI Poultry Farms.  To get the price break, we ended up buying 76 chickens!  (Remember the beginning of this post of wanting to do a "few" chickens?  Oh well.)  Now we are committed.

The chickens should be arriving the second week of March with the anticipation of having our big processing celebration on Memorial Day weekend.  That way my BIL can come up with his family from Knoxville to guide us, as he is the only one of our group that has done this in the past.  It may be a long weekend!

Time is running out before the chickens arrive.  They need food, a place to brood, a place to pasture.  Oh my.  What have we gotten ourselves into?  Tune in to find out if we are over our heads or can handle the pressure of being chicken farmers processors.

Chicken Down, Chicken Down!

 Friday night, after getting home from the spaghetti dinner and silent auction fund raiser at the elementary school, the chicken coop was needing to be closed.  After dropping my stuff in the house and grabbing a flashlight, I headed down to the coop to lock up.  There is a routine: close the fence door and flip the latch, look through the gap in the door of the Guinea Ghetto with the flashlight to count the ladies, walk around to the Chicken Condo to collect any eggs, and then head back to the house to deposit the eggs in the fridge.

This night was different.  When counting the ladies with the flashlight, there were only five.  Five?  There were supposed to be six.  Occasionally one will split from the crowd and go upscale and roost in the Chicken Condo.  After checking there with no luck, my attention went back to the Guinea Ghetto.  A couple times one or two would sleep on the floor of the Ghetto.  After opening the door to the Guinea Ghetto, and counting to five again, it was time to look elsewhere.

First up on the deck, where the lone guinea usually hangs out.  Not there.  

Then under the stairs of the deck where some of the ladies hang out during the day.  Not there.

Then a thought came to me.  When I picked up Oldest Son at the house after work before heading to the school for the big event, I noticed the dog sniffing around the garden.  He seemed very interested in something.  Being in a rush before, not much attention was paid to the anomaly.  

Upon arriving a the garden, the hen was discovered.  It was the Buff Orpington.  The head was gone and a bunch of feathers were off and around the body, but that was it.  The rest of the hen was still intact.  Not sure who the guilty party was, but we are now down to five laying hens.  

It's a good thing that spring is in the air and Southern States usually has a deal where you get six chicks if you buy a bag of feed.  We are going to need to replenish our flock to keep the eggs coming.

 

Buffy will be missed.  She was one of the friendliest and didn't mind being held, even by guests.

 

Molting Poultry

We have been wondering when it was going to happen.  Other blogs have been talking about their chickens molting and not laying eggs any more for the winter.  Fortunately, that hasn't happened to us...until now.

We are only getting three eggs a day right now out of our six chickens, which still isn't too bad.  The only chicken that we can tell is actually molting and losing its feathers is the Black Australorp shown above.  She looks so pitiful with her neck feathers all falling out and her body feathers looking a bit spotty.  Fortunately the other chickens aren't bothering her and she is still able to stay with the others in the same coop and run.

We have been wanting to get a ditch dug between the house and the coop so we can get some electricity down there.  When the Chicken Condo was built, I installed a light bulb fixture and an outlet inside.  When we ran an extension cord, the neighbor's dog ate through two of them that were linked together.  The only problem now is that the chickens roost in the Guinea Ghetto instead of the Chicken Condo.  Aaargh!

Pumpkin Time

October is pumpkin time.  So off we went and headed up to Carter Mountain Orchard.  Not only do they have great apples, they also pumpkins this time of year and a whole lot of festival every weekend.  It took us about 45 minutes to get up the road to the orchard, but parking was quick and they really know how to process a lot of people.  

After the three sons each picked a pumpkin, we picked a few apples, bought an apple cider slushy for each of us, and a dozen apple sauce doughnuts.  Being gastronomically satisfied, we headed home.  

First step is to cut open the top and get the guts out.  We weren't prepared to roast the seeds like we have in the past, so the Good Wife figured the chickens and guinea would enjoy the spoils of their work.

The initial processing took place down by the Chicken Condo and Guinea Ghetto so the ladies wouldn't have to go far from home to get the goods.  It took a couple days to finish it all, but they seemed to really enjoy the pumpkin inners.

Once the inside was cleaned out, each of the boys sat down to work their artistic magic on their pumpkins.

Oldest son went for a traditional face.  The triangle eyes and the fanged smile looking back at him as he worked his magic.

Middle Son used sticks on the sides to add arms to his pumpkin.  He made a traditional face on one side and a more modern robot face on the other side.

Youngest son went to work and cut multiple face on the his pumpkin, if you can call them faces.  There were eyes, a mouth and what appeared to be a lot of extra wounds on the pumpkin face.  I guess he was going for the scary look with his pumpkin.

For some reason a final photo was never taken of the pumpkins.  They are still on the patio to enhance our fall atmosphere, but they are slightly wrinkled and somewhat compressed as they have not handled the heat of the midday sun very well.  Carving pumpkins is a fond memory of mine growing up, and I hope it passes down to my boys.

Fresh Eggs

Fresh eggs are hard to beat.  Everyone said that once you get used to fresh eggs, you'll never want to eat a store bought egg again.  The first fresh eggs we ate was good, but it had a unique taste.  More than just having a unique taste, it had a taste.  Store bought eggs are more of an egg looking item that just takes up space.

Fresh eggs have such bright yolks.  It is one of the things you notice right away with fresh eggs.  After a little while, you get used to it, and then when you end up at a hotel buffet with scrambled eggs, you notice the dull color of the eggs languishing in the Sterno heated tray.

Fresh eggs to go with the pancakes.

The exciting thing is that we seem to get more double yolks than with store bought eggs.  Not sure if that means we have defective chickens, or they are still getting their systems figured out with this whole egg laying thing.  

The main point of this post is how easy it is to have a few chickens and get some fresh eggs on a daily basis. While living in Phoenix we had thought about having chickens but were weary about all that was involved.  In reality, we could have made a Chicken Condo like the one we have here, changed the door to a ramp underneath the coop and closed in the bottom with chicken wire and we would have been set.  It would have been a perfect home to two or three chickens.  Why did we wait so long?  

Chicken Gone!!

This chicken thing is fun and frustrating all at the same time.  Fun is seeing them grow up from chicks and get to know us, so that they come running to me when I get home from work.  Fun in lifting the lid on the nesting boxes and finding fresh eggs waiting for us every day.  Fun in listening to them talk to each other and us as they wander around the yard, eating bugs and grass, free-ranging to their hearts content.

Frustrating in watching them wander over to the neighbor's yard and hang out over there.  Frustrating in watching them start to roost in the Guinea Ghetto instead of the wonderful Chicken Condo I created for them.  Frustrating in watching them disappear, which is what happened this time.

At last count, we were seven chickens and one guinea.  One of the Black Australorp chickens went missing.  This time there was no evidence as to what my have happened.  No feather trail through the yard like there was when we lost four of the guineas.  Nothing.  Not a trace.

Last Black Australop left in the flock.

The feathers on the Black Australorps have a green tint when the sun reflects off them.  They are really a good looking chicken.  We started with pairs, and now the Black Australorp and Buff Orpington are singles.  The Ameracauna and Barred Rock chickens are still pairs.  Not that it matters since they are all hens and all seem to get along fine.

The most disappointing part is that they are all laying eggs, so we were getting a solid seven eggs a day, and now we are down to six a day.  Nothing to shake a stick at, but one less than before.  We're a little more cautious now with the chickens, keeping them in the run if we are going to be gone all morning and letting them out in the afternoon when we are home.  This seems to keep them closer to the house than if we let them out first thing in the morning.  It seems to be working and they are all hanging around closer to the house.  Hopefully, this means we will be at a steady six eggs a day until winter comes.

Somebody is Watching!

From checking the blog stats here, it is known that a few people here and there have been checking out my blog and following my haphazard adventures to living the country life.  But now it is proven.  Concrete2Chickens has been given the "Liebster Blog" award by the nice couple over at Broken Road Farms. It was the bonding we had over waiting for our first eggs this summer from our first chickens.

From "Our Life on the Broken Road": "Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Liebster is awarded to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.  Concrete2Chickens definitely fits into that category with less than 200 followers!



There are a few rules associated with the Liebster Blog award.  So without further ado, here we go.


1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.


     Thank you Broken Road Farms! This award may seem insignificant to some, but it means a lot to me to get some kudos from someone other than family and pre-blog friends.


2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

     This is not an easy task as there are a lot of blogs I watch and I don't want to offend those that are not listed below.  There will actually be six mentions, but one of them gave the award to me, so I assume I can't give it back.  With that in mind and Broken Road Farms already mentioned more than once, my top 5 picks are as follows:


     1 - Haphazardly Coherent - Full disclosure: Cookiedough was my college room mate and we worked together at my last job in Phoenix.  Even with that going for him, his blog stands on its own.  Most of the posts focus on two of his favorite things: mountain biking and food.  Not just any food, but unique combinations of food, and a lot of it on the grill.  His photography is excellent and I know he works hard to get better and better.  In 2010 he challenged me to do a Photo a Day with him.  Well, I made it through about May which is when we moved to VA and everything got really busy and I got distracted.  He powered through and completed the entire year with only missing about two weeks total.  If you haven't tried this yourself, you can't imagine how impressive that is!


     2 - Life in a Little Red Farmhouse - Although I have not met Kim, I feel a bit of a bond with her as we both have three boys and have moved to the country from city life.  Her posts are filled with great pictures, and that "Little Red Farmhouse" is awesome!  Her and her family built the house by themselves and made it the way they like it.  Some country, some modern and a little bit of whatever they want.  They also have patience beyond measure.  They have been taking horse riding lessons and spent a lot of time just training the horses without even riding.  I'm not sure I could have been that patient to wait.  And their menagerie of animals on their farm keeps me coming back to find out what they are going to be doing next! (After I wrote this glowing review, I realized that Kim has over 200 followers.  I still think she deserves the award though, so I am going to keep it listed here.)


     3 -  Rurally Screwed - I'm not sure how many followers Jessie has, so I am including her.  Jessie is another one that left city life and moved to the country.  And her husband is over in Afghanistan serving our country in the US Armed Forces.  She is also getting settled into country living and her posts are loaded with photos.  And Jessie tells it like it is.


     4 - The Locavore Hunter - Again, I'm not sure how many follower Jack has, but his blog is intriguing.  I just ordered his first book "The Beginner's Guide to Hunting Deer for Food".  The oldest son has a lot of friends that are into hunting and he wants to give it a try.  This is a whole new topic for me that I won't get into here.  Jack is also working on a new book called "Eating Aliens".  Although it sounds odd, it is all about hunting and eating invasive species that can actually make natural species go extinct in certain areas.  And I love reading his hunting stories.


     5 - Apple Pie Gal - I have just recently started following Apple Pie Gal, but I have spent a little time checking out some of her older posts.  She definitely has variety, from hunting, to gardening, to canning, to chickens, to bees, to just about anything.  And the best part, they have a tractor that any homestead would love to have.  They have done a lot of the things that I hope to do and her blog is a wealth of information to be learned.  Looking through her blog I noticed that she has already received the "Liebster Blog" award, but hey, people can get multiple Grammy's and Emmy's, so why not multiple Liebster Blog's?


3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.


     Done above.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

     I'm sure they will as all of them have been friendly and welcoming.  

5. And most of all - have fun!!


     Sometimes my posting has gaps due to either work or personal life, but I try to catch up, even if everything isn't in chronological order.  I hope that all of you have enjoyed following everything that is going on here at our home, and please, feel free to leave comments.  It is the small affirmation that what I am writing resonates with someone else out there!

General Thoughts and Musings...

Sitting here in the middle row of the Ford Expedition heading south, time has presented itself to me. It's not time at home, which could be put to use doing a slew of tasks, including finishing any of the half started projects laying around the house. It isn't even time at work, which could be put to use looking forward and getting a development plan in place, or coming up with the next great thing. This is time sitting in a car with only the resources in my lap. Luckily my resources include a 3G iPad2. This is new to me as the driving duties traditionally fall to me. With this unheard of extra time, you will get a preview of some of my thoughts.

Chickens & Guineas
Only one guinea remains, and it decided it doesn't like us anymore. The last two nights it hasn't come to roost in the coop or the run. It is still around, but seems to spend more time at the neighbors than at our house.

Why do the chickens not roost in the Chicken Condo? They all have decided to bunch up in the Guinea Ghetto. There are two roosts in the ghetto that would hold all seven chickens, but three or four will use one roost and the others will lay on the bottom screen. They have a nice Condo with a roost, two four-pane windows and three luxurious nesting boxes. Luckily they still lay their eggs in the nesting boxes. That is except for one Americauana. It has decided to lay it's eggs in the woods. Hearing it do the egg laying sqwauk one day, I ran down to the woods but couldn't find the chicken before it finished it's duty. That chicken needs to be kept in the run for a few days so it will learn that the nesting boxes are where it should lay the eggs.

Bees
Daylight time hasn't been available as I haven't had a chance to inspect my bees after the hurricane, but I assume they are all still standing as Possum hasn't called to notify me of any issues. The Oldest Son went with me to my bee club meeting last night. After hearing the discussions there, my bees need to be fed to get their winter stores up before the cost sets in. Their feed isn't just sugar water, but also pollen so they have the right nutrition. My confidence level is high that two of my hives will be fine this winter, but I am nervous about the third. It looked weak at the last inspection. The gentleman from my church that gave me my first hands on experience this spring has wanted to see my hives, so I need to schedule a time to get together with him to go through my hives.

Around the House
There are so many things to do: finish replacing can lights and sealing outlets from the home energy audit, finish pressure washing the deck and then seal/stain the deck, get a quote for installing a retaining wall and leveling a lower patio area in the back yard, get an estimate from the lumber yard for the materials to builds the detached garage/workshop, build a new larger coop and install a second run for a second attempt at the guineas next spring, replace the fruit trees that didn't make it this past year, install some trees along the driveway for the Good Wife, clear out the woods behind the house for the Good Wife so you can see further into the woods easier, wax both cars as it has probably been years, and all the regular maintenance that needs to be done, such as cutting the lawn and general clean up. Hmmmm. Time to prioritize a few of these tasks and get some projects completed.

A friend has also brought the possibility of raising a couple beef cows. I have a horse pasture we aren't using, and figured why not put a cow or two out there. Neither of us have a clue how to raise cows, but one of the Oldest Son's friends has some calves they are willing to sell us to start our project. The meat sounds real good, fresh grass fed beef without hormones or antibiotics. Not sure why we haven't started that project. Another thing to add to the list.

But not this weekend. This weekend we are heading to the beach with some friends. The mom of the family that is joining us grew up with the Good Wife, and they are both a lot of fun to hang out with. I'm just not sure who picked a shark infested beach to hang out at! The Good Wife's older sister is going with, and she is in the passenger seat of our car right now, which is why I am in the back. The Good Wife's other sister and family from Knoxville were supposed to join us also, but their schedule didn't work out. I am really going to miss them as I really enjoy hanging out with the Good BIL (Brother In Law). He is the one that is discussing the possibility of doing meat chickens with me. I have no clue how to process a chicken and he has done it in the past, so I have offered to raise them if he will head up the processing. I'll help, but not sure how helpful I would be as it would be all new to me. This opportunity is still in the discussion phase. Maybe next year.

Postscript
There was a bit of a problem with this post and my iPad, so it didn't get posted Friday afternoon as intended.  After finally getting it to work, it is now getting posted as we are getting ready to head home after the weekend.  Everyone a bit sunburned, but still alive and no sharks to be seen!

Batten down the hatches...HURRICANE!

Moving to Virginia from Arizona has been quite the adventure on so many fronts.  But it has been especially adventurous on the weather/natural disaster front.  As if the tornado and earthquake weren't enough, now it is time for a hurricane!  It is no surprise to anyone in the world that has any connection with the outside world that hurricane Irene is hitting land in North Carolina and heading north.

We are located just west of Richmond, so we have the advantage of having more distance between us and the coast, but according to this radar image that was just pulled off AccuWeather.com, we are right on the edge of the hurricane's outer effects.

For the most part, we are ready.  Fortunately when we bought the house, it came with a built in generator, that has proven itself useful more than once already.  That is a bonus that was never realized when the house selection process was taking place a little over a year ago.

We have taken all the patio furniture and put it into the garage.  We have left the chickens and guineas in their run so they don't get blown away, although they may be better if they were let out and went into the woods to hide from the storm.  All other loose items outside have either been put into the garage or strapped down to something secure.

Yesterday after work I took the boys and we went and strapped down the bee hives.  I used the dog run curly stakes and ratchet straps.

The one hive with the regular screened bottom board was shorter than the other, and I couldn't get a stake into the ground between the hives to ratchet each individually, so one ratchet strap went around the shorter hive to keep it together, just in case it fell over, and then a second ratchet strap went over both hives pulling them down onto their stands.  It seemed secure, so we'll have to wait and see.

The hive at Possum's garden was easier since it was one hive on blocks.  Two curly stakes and a ratchet strap was enough to hold that hive down securely.

The Good Wife took off to Texas Friday morning to help out her parents.  They both had recent surgery and she went for a little bit to help them out.  From the sounds of it, she is working more than "vacationing."  The Good Wife's sister is coming down from the DC area today for the weekend, so we will have company to help keep the boys entertained.

Right now the electricity is still on and the kids are playing in the house.  If all goes well, we will get some rain, a little wind and life will go on.  The one good thing that may come out of this hurricane is there may be a lot of firewood available.

Chicken Update...aka Egg Update

The chickens have finally started laying eggs as was posted previously. Small light brown. Medium dark brown. Medium light brown. And small dark brown. First it was one egg a day. Then two eggs a day. Then tree and four eggs a day. But there are seven chickens. Who was laying what?

The boys had identified a few of the layers by keeping an eye on the coop and tracking who was spending time in the nesting boxes. The Buff Orpington was the first to lay an egg. Next was one of the Barred Rock chickens. They also believe one of the Black Australorps has been spending some time in the nesting boxes.

Today we know for sure who one of the eggs layers is. It is one of the Americauna chickens, also known as an Easter Egger, due to the green and blue tinted eggs they lay.

Our first "Easter Egg."

Every day going to the coop and getting the eggs is an exciting event for the boys. They race to the coop to see what might be waiting for them. Today it was an extra special surprise with the green egg.

We still have two more chickens that need to start laying, and we are sure it will only be a matter of days now. All these weeks of raising the chickens from just day old chicks is now paying off.

One of the Americauna chickens at only a few weeks old.

Eggs don't get more fresh than right out of the coop and into the frying pan. Less than 50 yards and a matter of minutes from the egg 'factory' to the frying pan.  No nasty chemicals or processing.  And our chickens are free ranging and happy! We can tell by how they come running up to me when I get home from work.

The added bonus this week is that our friends nearby that have chickens are on vacation. So they asked us to take care of their chickens. The payment is that we get the eggs while they are away, and they have 14 chickens, although only six are currently laying. Next week they are going to take care of our chickens while we are gone for a few days, and they get to keep our eggs. By quantity and size, we get the better end of the deal. But from a good looking carton of eggs, they definitely will come out ahead!

Poultry Watering System

A little while back, after reading a bit on the forum of Back Yard Chickens,  I bought some poultry nipples from QC Supply.  The Oldest Son thought the name of them was funny.  Every time the words "poultry nipples" were mentioned, he would get this silly grin on his face and laugh.  I'm not sure if he was trying to picture nipples on a chicken or what he had in mind.  But he really thought it was funny.

After having the poultry nipples for a few weeks without doing anything, it was time to get started.  This is the first time I am trying to do a step by step process so someone else can learn how to do it, so please, bear with me.

First, a few supplies were needed.  A piece of 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe, some end connectors, some tubing and an empty bucket.  Everything was purchased, except the bucket, which I got from the bakery at the local Kroger bakery.  Someone on the chicken forum said about getting buckets at the bakery, so I went and asked.  Surprisingly, they went into the back room and came back with three buckets with lids for free. You CAN get something for free these days!

Chicken Waterer Parts

 Next the tools were gathered together.  This was so that everything would be on hand when needed, and I wouldn't have to go all around looking for tools.

Tools for making the chicken waterer.

Cordless drill with 11/32" drill bit, PVC pipe cutter, PVC pipe primer and glue, teflon tape, measuring tape, pencil and an open end wrench (can't remember the size, but it fit the poultry nipples).

The PVC pipe was cut to the length that was needed for the waterer.  I made two watering systems.  One has three poultry nipples and one has six poultry nipples.  I spaced the poultry nipples 10" apart, which seems to work well.  So after marking the 10" point, a 11/32" hole was drilled at each mark.

The poultry nipples were then wrapped with teflon tape, to make sure that they didn't leak once installed.  You can never have enough insurance on avoiding leaks.  The next step is to screw all the poultry nipples into the holes in the PVC pipe.

Easier said than done.  A few went in easily and threaded really nice.  The rest were a real struggle to get in.  One other thing to note, be sure to try and keep the poultry nipples in a straight line so they are all pointing the same direction.  I know this should be assumed, but you never know.

One trick used on the second system I made, was to use a propane torch to help get the poultry nipples threaded.  Using a propane torch, I heated up the hole in the PVC pipe to make the pipe soft.  Just make sure you don't over heat it and deform the hole.  Then I threaded in a poultry nipple without teflon tape, and then removed the nipple after a minute once the PVC pipe cooled.  That left nice threads in the hole to put the nipple into once it had the teflon tape.

After putting on the end connectors, the main portion of the watering system is complete.  I used more connectors than was necessary on the ends so I could unscrew the end and clean out the waterer if necessary.  After having it going for a month or so now, I think that was overkill as it is staying really nice and clean, even in the summer heat.

The bucket had a hole drilled in the bottom and a PVC connector was installed.  Then it was about installing the system in the chicken run.  I put one inside the run and one on the outside.  That would allow both free-ranging birds and birds in the run to both get a drink, not knowing at the time what was going to work.

The poultry nipples were installed approximately 19" off the ground as that is how big my chickens were when I installed it.  That allows them to look up and get a drink.  Be sure to install it with the hose end slightly higher than the closed end, so the air will flow up and go up into the bucket, allowing all the nipples to drain water.

Now, with this system, I only have to fill the frosting bucket about every two weeks, with my nine birds.  When you can eliminate all the wasted water and the dirty water in the other watering dishes, they actually don't drink that much water.  It may also be due to the fact that all my chickens and guineas free-range all day and are able to get water from the dew on the ground in the mornings.

Water drops on the PVC is from rain.

Whatever the situation, I highly recommend a watering system such as this.  It makes it so much easier to water the birds and eliminates a lot of time dealing with the traditional watering trays.  It also has to be better for the birds since it is always clean water they are drinking.

Hopefully these instructions were clear enough to give you the basics of how to make a similar system.  If you have any questions or feedback on a system that you have made, be sure to let me know.

First egg...from a chicken!!

Doesn't it look beautiful?  I never thought I would be so excited about something so simple.  Wednesday we left the chickens in the run most of the day until I got home from work and let them free-range for a little bit before dark, but nothing.  Today I let them out of the coop before I left for work thinking they must not be ready yet.

Tonight when I went down to the run to close it up for the evening, I opened up the lid of the nesting boxes and there it was, tucked down in the corner of the straw.  Not the biggest egg, but it is the first.  No idea which chicken laid the egg, but it is a start.  Let the eggs begin!!