Living in Harmony » Home & Garden

Baby chicks!

AttachedMama — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:29:48 +0000

Back in September, we had one of our hens go broody. I tried a few times to stop her but she was very insistent, so eventually I gave in and put a few eggs under her. I had read on Backyard Chickens that with a mother hen, chicks should be fine even at this time of year. It being our first time, I didn’t move her out of the nest boxes soon enough and the other hens were still laying eggs in her box, so she ended up with about 12 eggs at one point. She also kept leaving them and going back on the wrong box, and we’d find her little nest full of cold eggs. I did eventually move her into a dog kennel inside the coop.

I had the date the chicks should hatch marked on the calendar but wasn’t expecting much. The day came and went with no chicks, and we were trying to decide the best way to get her off her nest full of eggs. Then the next day I walked in the coop and heard cheeping. Despite the eggs having gone cold more than once, she managed to hatch out four chicks over the course of three days, though one was born with a weird bump and she ended up dying unfortunately. The other three are doing fantastic though. It is really amazing to watch a mama hen raising her babies. She keeps them warm, protects them from the other hens, leads them around to food. It has been so much easier doing it this way than inside the house, though we haven’t done a full integration yet. If she’s out with the other hens I make sure I’m right there with them. The other ones mostly leave the chicks alone, though our Barred Rock did peck pretty hard at one and a few of them have gone at the mama.

They’ve mostly been sticking to the coop, but it’s been nice out and they’re getting a bit bored locked in a dog kennel all day, even if it is a big one, so I brought them outside to run around for a bit.

Mama ventured out first to look around, but then the babies followed soon after. They’re around two weeks old now.

Meredith wanted to name them water names, because she decided they like water. So we’ve called them Calypso, Neptune, and Doris. In the above two pictures the other hens were around, and mostly leaving them alone, but then I wanted to go inside and didn’t want to leave them out unprotected yet so I put them in our fenced off garden area.

I threw a pumpkin in with them, and it was pretty fun to watch them go at it.

I went inside for a little bit and came out to check on them (though we can also see that area from our window), and discovered all the other hens standing watching them as if they were watching a movie.

Though a little later we watched a crow swoop down at them, which freaked mama out and she went running. I had a scary moment when I ran out there when I couldn’t find one of the babies, but she was hiding near a log. I ended up locking them back up in the kennel again for a day, which is too bad because they really enjoy running around. The area is way too big to put any kind of cover over though, so I’m going to have to think of something else or just risk it. The cubes we used for the chicks last time have been repurposed as book shelves so won’t work, but we have some scrap wire I could probably bang together into some sort of makeshift tractor for them. Then I can even put them with the other hens and let them mingle but they’d have a safe place to escape to too.

This chicken thing is turning out to be a lot of fun and a good learning experience for us all. We’ve learned so much about chicken reproduction and how they raise their babies through books and, of course, watching it first hand.

Unveiling

AttachedMama — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:53:38 +0000

I got another blog up and running. Don’t expect much, I threw it together during a couple of Fiona’s naps, migrated some posts from this blog over, and added some drafts and quick posts of our coop progress. It’s definitely a work in progress that likely won’t be finished until after our coop and all our gardening is done. You’ll notice the dates go back to December, which is mostly because a lot of the posts are migrated, but I also dated some of the new posts based on the picture dates just so I can go back later and see the progress and the timeline for various things. The blog is going to be mostly about gardening, chickens, and other homesteady stuff, and then I’ll keep the life learning and parenting stuff on this blog. If anyone knows of any great homestead blogs I can add to my blog roll, please let me know about them! I know of a few and now I can’t find any of them.

For anyone who is interested, there’s a page about all our chickens too.

Update

AttachedMama — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:47:43 +0000

I feel like there is so much to do around here that we will never not have something that needs done again. I love it though, really. Occasionally I feel a bit overwhelmed by everything, but mostly it’s so neat to be doing all these things for our own place and trying things that we never had a chance to try before.

Now that the weather has started to get nicer, we’ve been getting out more and meet more people and other kids. We’re actually supposed to be going to an LLL meeting in 15 minutes but Fiona fell asleep and she’s been sick, so I’m not sure if we’ll end up making it or not. Depends on when she wakes up.

There is a local, homeschooled teen who is going to start coming over one afternoon every other week, and in return I’m going to teach her piano. She came over last week and Meredith adored her and had a lot of fun. To start with, she’ll likely mostly play with Meredith while I wear Fiona and get some things done around the house. I’m hopeful that as Fiona gets older she’ll be able to play with both girls.

Anyway, the sun is shining, and there is lots to do! I’m going to try and post more but as the days gets nicer we’ll see if that happens.

Preschool garden project: Seed balls

AttachedMama — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:29:40 +0000

I’d read about seed balls a few times and thought it might be an interesting project to try, but hadn’t got around to it. Basically, seed balls are a mixture of clay, compost, and seeds formed into a ball. The clay protects the seed from birds and insects, the compost gives it something to sprout in, and the seeds are, well, seeds. They are used in guerrila gardening because they are easy to discreetly toss onto a piece of land, and they are protected by the clay until enough rain falls for the seeds to germinate. They’re also apparently good for reseeding dry or patchy areas, and, as I said above, they are good for reseeding areas where birds could be a problem. They can also reseed large areas relatively quickly.

We’ve planted our fruit trees, and the ground they’re in is just solid clay in some areas. I have sheet mulched one area, but realized very quickly that there is no way I will get the entire area sheet mulched this year. A friend suggested a way to kill the grass naturally and help the soil rejuvenate somewhat, but even that seemed like a lot of work considering everything else we need to get done. So I’ve decided instead to use green manures in an effort to bring nutrients to the surface, break up the clay, and provide some organic materials to the soil.

That side of the house always has a lot of birds (unlike the other side, where I’ve hung our bird feeder, go figure), so it seemed like a good time to try seed balls. I will mention now that though I will write the “proper” way to do it, we didn’t technically do it correctly. The seeds are ones I happened to have on hand from a couple of years ago, and I’m not certain they’re still viable anyway. I also miscalculated how many seeds I had and didn’t make enough of the clay/compost mixture for the amount of seeds, but didn’t have room in the bucket for much more. Oh well, we had fun making them and if these ones don’t sprout we’ll do a real batch a little later.

Seed balls

Mix together 5 parts dry red clay*, 3 parts dry compost, and 1 part seeds**. (My materials were all soaked since it’s been raining here, which is the biggest way we didn’t do it “right”.)

Once the dry materials are all mixed together, start adding about 1-2 parts water. You want the mixture to be wet enough it will stick together, but still easy to work with and roll into balls. I’ve seen pictures of people using cement mixers to make these, and when the right amount of water is added they will actually form into balls on their own. This probably doesn’t work as well doing it by hand though. We skipped this step since our materials were more than wet enough.

Next, pinch off pieces of the mixture and form them into balls. The balls should be about pea to marble sized. Lay the balls out in the sun to dry out. (We skipped this step too, and it is fairly optional if you are getting a lot of rain at the time you make these.) Then spread them around the area you are trying to seed. About one ball per square foot is the right amount. Once you get enough rain, the seeds should germinate and sprout.

I wasn’t sure how much Meredith would be interested in this, but she actually seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. She has been asking a lot about the various soils and mulches I’ve been using, wanting to know the differences between compost, top soil, bark mulch, etc, so we talked about about why we were using the materials we used and what they would do for the seed ball. Then she helped roll all the balls and had a blast spreading them around.

This could be a fun thing for kids to make at a party with a butterfly flower mix or something, and then bring some home with them (if you can think of a way to dry them out faster without killing them), or make them ahead and send them home in the favour bags.

* The clay from your garden won’t work as well as potter’s clay. Part of my garden actually has red clay which is what I used, since I didn’t want to go to the expense of potter’s clay if the seed wouldn’t even germinate. I’m sure it’s not the same as the benzonite clay most of the instructions recommend.

** I used some Dutch clover, a revegetation mix meant for our area, and some mustards and greens.

Starting small

AttachedMama — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:28:22 +0000

I’m considering splitting my blog into two parts. One for parenting, family, life learning, etc., and the other for homesteading. People interested in one aren’t necessarily interested in the other. It’s a tough call though, since homesteading is a big part of life learning for us. It is possible to subscribe to just one category and not all of them. Having two separate sections would give me a little more freedom as far as tagging and stuff though. We’ll see.

My plan with this move has always been to start small and build from there, so as not to overwhelm ourselves. So that’s why we will soon have 17 chickens and I placed an order for thirteen fruit trees, as well as various berry bushes and shrubs. Now we just need to build a coop and some runs, clear the area where the trees are going, and dig some holes. I guess that’s my idea of starting small.

The chicks are doing really well. We had a bit of a scare the other night when a tree knocked out the power to our house for about twelve hours. The room got really chilly and the younger chicks were obviously cold, so we lit a fire and I moved them into the small tote they had been in originally in front of the fire. I checked them a couple of minutes later and the heat was up over 100F and the chicks were now obviously too hot. In order to get the temperature right, we had to keep them in the rabbit hutch with the fire going and a window (not near the coop so no drafts) open, and add more wood to the fire about every 45 minutes (and of course this happened in the evening… it was a long night).

Yesterday was pretty nice out, so we brought the two older chicks outside for a few minutes. They pretty much stood in the tote and stared out at the grass. I even tried bribing them with crickets but they’d only go for them if they were in the tote too. The look on Meredith’s face in the picture above pretty much sums up how thrilled she is with having chickens in the house.

The chicks are really comfortable around Meredith, which is nice. Fiona and her fast movements and loudness don’t seem to both them much either. My favourite is the little Dorking cross. She comes racing to the door when I open it, and is really sweet with us. She’s bossy with the other chicks though. She will grab a cricket right out of the bigger one’s mouths and push past them. Makes me wonder if she’ll end up being the top hen. (And if she ends up being a rooster, maybe she’ll be the one we keep if she’s still this funny and sweet when she’s bigger.) Here’s a little video of her running to the door, grabbing a cricket, and then the rest of the birds coming to see what I’m up to. This was taken yesterday. Today, four of the five birds will come right to the door when I open it.

Chicks

Having the chicks actually here has really motivated me to look more into some ideas that had previously piqued my interest but I haven’t had much of a chance to look into yet. I’ve been reading about open-air coops, and have that book coming into our library. (Hopefully soon, we need to get our coop built.)

I’ve also been reading about feeding chickens from the land and homemade chicken feed. That topic is pretty confusing, since so many places say commercial feed only, but since that’s what most people say about cat and dog food too (and we raw feed them), I’m skeptical. I’ve found quite a bit of interesting information now about feeding chickens more naturally, and feel we can probably feed them at least mostly off our land in the summer for sure. I’ve found some information on sprouting grains and homemade food that I want to find out more about before winter.

Chicks

AttachedMama — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:06:13 +0000

We went to a poultry swap today. We didn’t have anything ready for chicks yet, so I’d told Kris I wouldn’t get anything unless there were Silkie chicks, or maybe ducks. There were neither at the swap, but we came home with chicks anyway. We got two Lavender Orpingtons (I love the colour and wanted some of these), two Ameraucana crosses (they should lay olive green eggs), and a Dorking (she has an extra toe on each foot). They should all be pullets, though it’s not guaranteed.

The Orpingtons are six weeks old and the rest are two weeks old. I’m actually kind of glad now that we have them that we started with older chicks. They’re not as fragile as day olds and Meredith can hold them and love on them (gently), and hopefully by the time we get the day olds they won’t be such a novelty. It also gives us a little leeway as far as the learning curve.

Anyway, here they are. I’m aware that the tote they’re in is way too small. That’s what happens when you buy chicks when you weren’t planning on it. We plan to move them into a rabbit hutch we have that’s quite a bit bigger, as well as off the ground and more cat proof. We also ended up moving the light that’s on them. They don’t need nearly that much heat at their age. I’ll take better pictures of them as they become a little more comfortable with us. This was just a snapshot I got last night when it was pretty dark already.

Chickens!

AttachedMama — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:39:31 +0000

Getting chickens is one of the first things I looked into. I decided I wanted Rhode Island Reds and Ameraucanas, and happened to find a nearby breeder who not only has both those breeds, but is also extremely helpful. Her Ameraucanas are bred for colour and eggs, rather than for exhibition (exhibition ones are generally only one colour, hers are several), and she says her Rhode Islands are generally better tempered than they have a reputation for being. She has two young children too who help with her chickens and they are fine with them. She also has Welsummers which I hadn’t heard much about previously, but they are a very friendly bird and an excellent egg layer. So I’m getting three chicks of each breed from her, plus three Mille Fleur Belgian d’Uccles which are a bantam breed which have a great personality and make good pet birds. (I originally wanted Silkies, but haven’t found a breeder nearby. The breeder I’m getting these from normally has them, and hopes to again next year.) The chicks will be unsexed and will be here in just over a month! I’d like to end up with 4-6 laying hens at the end of the summer. The roosters will go in the freezer. (Any bad-tempered hens may too.) Not sure what we’ll do with any bantam roosters. Since they are more for fun/pets anyway, we’ll likely keep them as long as they are friendly and all get along. I may keep one Ameraucana or Welsummer rooster too, we’ll see.

We may also get ducks. Meredith loves ducks and has been asking for one. They are good for eating slugs and don’t dig up gardens like chickens do (though can still do damage). Some people love their eggs. (Others can’t stand them. One of the Cowichan home school moms I was talking to said they always taste like a chicken egg gone off to her.) So, we’re looking into it and I’m keeping my eye out. Lots of information to absorb though.

We went to the library yesterday. They had a story time, which Meredith wanted to sit in by herself, giving me a half hour to browse around by myself! Anyway, we got out some books about chickens and ducks (as well as rocket ships, something she is currently fascinated by). Meredith has been asking to read them over and over. Now when we look at pictures of chickens, she points out the combs and the wattles. She knows that chickens have beaks and ducks have bills. She talks about how ducks have webbed feet to swim with and chickens have strong claws to scratch up the ground and search for bugs. She’s very excited to get baby chicks next month. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with them!

Coming along

AttachedMama — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:17:05 +0000

So we’ve been living here for just over a month, and things are coming along fairly well. We lived mostly out of boxes over Christmas, but Kris had the last two weeks off for us to get stuff done. So far we have managed to get all the bathrooms and the kitchen painted, as well as the play room in Meredith’s room. I’m currently working on the hallway and main rooms downstairs. We have moved most of the boxes into the rooms where they belong, and as we get the rooms painted we will actually unpack the boxes and get things set up the way we like. Click on the images to see them larger.

Before:

After:

Bathrooms, downstairs bathroom before and after:

Master bathroom before (even the ceiling was pink) and after (the old toilet was pink too)

Kid’s bathroom before and after:

Originally we had thought we might put a kid-sized toilet in the last bathroom, but we got an extremely good deal on the toilets we ended up with (there was a mistake in the price that they honoured for us), plus Kris uses that bathroom when he’s working at home.

We are home owners!

AttachedMama — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 04:07:16 +0000

Here we are, our first picture together as home owners! We went out yesterday to get the keys and do the official walk through with our realtor. I actually didn’t carry my camera around for most of it. We have to get our stuff in there (next weekend) and in January we want to paint, and then I’ll take more pictures of the inside. Here are a few I got of the outside. (Click to see them bigger.)

There is a post already set up for two swings or a tire swing. They left behind a toddler swing too, so we had to try it out. They also left us the trampoline, which is a really great, huge, springless trampoline. Meredith had a blast on it after she discovered it. We almost couldn’t get her off of it when we had to leave!

Down behind the house there is a fire pit set up, with a circle of logs all around it.

A river running in the park behind us, and a view of the house from the corner of our property line (though behind that is just more of the same: trees and brush. To the left of the house above is a cleared, mown area. It’s the only even remotely landscaped area right now. If it gets enough sun, we might set it up as a small orchard and the garden. Otherwise it will likely be where we put chickens. We won’t decide for sure until this summer when we see what areas get the most sun and where the best spots for gardens would be. Right now there’s a (run-down) greenhouse and a fenced in small garden to the right side of the house (viewed from the back), which is technically the south-east side, but because of all the trees I’m not sure that it would actually get much sun.

After we did the walkthrough inside with our realtor, Meredith immediately asked if we could go outside and explore. It’s pretty wild right now, and parts of it are swampy, but I think the kids will have a blast here!

Change is in the air

AttachedMama — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:00:43 +0000

So it’s official, we are going to be home owners. Now that all the inspections and uncertainty is over with, I’m pretty excited about it. (It was terrifying for a while, ha!) We’ll be living in a beautiful town, in a really great neighbourhood, near a huge park with tons of trails for hiking, biking, riding, etc. There’s an off-leash dog park, cafes, a pub, beaches, a lake, all close by. Our property backs right onto a protected (but undeveloped) park land that is only shared by the other properties in the area.

There’s also a group of homeschoolers in the area, some of whom I’ve already met and many of whom I’ve talked to online already. There’s a Self Design group that meets weekly, and lots of other group activities to choose from if we feel inclined.

There are a few things I still feel nervous about. For one, we’re up and leaving the little community we’ve lived in the last three years and making a very big change. Our best friends live here, and I think it’s going to be hard for Meredith (and me!) not to be able to call them up at a moment’s notice for a walk or a play date. We are hoping to drive in once a week or so, but planned and scheduled times are different than spontaneous get-togethers.

Also, while we have all sorts of cool things close by to the new place, I’ve been warned by some of the home schoolers I’ve talked to out there that many places in the area are not very walking or biking friendly. It may turn out that even though the park and cafe are only a kilometre away, we have to drive simply because there are no sidewalks (or even shoulders on the roads). Our place is on a quiet, dead end road, but some of the places we could potentially walk to we’d need to go along much busier roads to get. Right now we walk pretty much anywhere we can, so that will be an adjustment as well.

Mostly I think the change is going to be very positive, but there is definitely some apprehension. Hopefully that’s normal! We have plans for chickens, a garden, a tree house for the kids, rabbits, a work shop for Kris, and so much more. Obviously not all at once. The first year we’ll likely get some chickens, have a small garden (I want to live there for a year and figure out where the best spots for gardening are before we go all out, we may end up having to take down some trees), and, hopefully, build a tree house for the kids to play in.

Our possession date is less than a month away; I better get packing!