Down on the Farm
After living in the city for way too long, we jumped at the
change to move to a more rural location. In August 2003, we moved up to my
parents' cottage and started looking for land. In May of 2004, we moved to
our new ten-acre parcel. We alread had rescued some chicks, and bought two
more to keep them comany. Before closing, we ordered more, and picked them
up six days after moving in. We didn't exactly drive a U-Haul to the closing,
but we did have our van packed with everything we needed to move right in.
We spent the next couple weeks trying to erase the damage done to my parents'
cottage. Raising three boys is not a tidy proposition.
The pictures below were taken with a really cheap digital camera. I did my best with what I had, though
We got these chicks in the at the end of March 2004. The two yellow ones were rescued. It's a long story. Really. If you want to hear it anyhow, click here..
This is actually our second chicken brooder. The first was a box that worked in a pinch. This tub had originally been used to hold a five gallon beer ball full of home-brewed beer. There is barely room for the waterer and the makeshift feeder. My hand is covering the light at the top-left part of the image to allow the picture to be taken withoug glare.
Brooder #3. The aluminum foil reflectes the light and heat down into the brooder. The chickens move toward or away from the light based on whether they need to get warmer or cool down.
There is more room in this brooder. Using a real chick feeder and waterer reduces problems with junk in the food and water, and reduces the amount of time we need to spend refilling them.
Their first outdoor chicken pen (at the cottage). Note the electric fence around the pen. This was built because two neighbor dogs had gotten in and perforated one of the chicks. The dogs got tossed out on their cans, and are lucky that I let them live.
The shelter is made from a bunch of patio blocks and the stock watering tub that we had used as a brooder. There are plenty of pine shavings inside the shelter. You may notice the feeder is sitting under the shelter/shade.
The white chicks are getting fat and growing much more quickly than the other two. We are certain that they are some kind of meat breed by this time.
Meanwhile, we are still looking for a house. We like this one. It sits on ten acres, about half of which is red pine forest.
Chickens aren't the only things that grow here! I didn't know morels got that big!
Two views out our front window in the spring. The Crimson King maple tree was a very pleasant surprise. The kids like to climb it.
You put up a woven-wire fence to keep them safe from the coyotes and what do they do? They walk all over you!
That toggenburg isn't any better!
Anyhow, the real reason for the fence is because the goats are such escape artists. The final fence ended up having two strands of electric fencing on the inside to discourage leaning, and one over the top just for good measure. In addition, three strands on the outside keep out the predators. After some coyotes managed to short out the whole fence while stretching two outside strands and pulling two insulators out of the tree, I put separate chargers on the inside and outside so that shorting one will leave the other live.
Paul loves his hen Racetrsck -- one of the original four. Racetrack is a black sex link -- a cross between a Rhode Island Red rooster and a Barred Rock hen.
Don's chicken Bluffy -- an Easter Egger (Araucana/Americana)
Don loves his hen Bluffy.
Stripe -- one of the original four. We don't know his breed. He's a handsome bird, though.
Cull roosters on the left, pullets on the right, guineas outside -- all hungry.
The pen on the right was originally a dog kennel. The original four liked to sleep in the doghouse, and the younger chickens ended up sleeping under the two stock watering tubs that were originally used as brooders.
The south door to the shelter now leads to the storage room. When this picture was taken, all there was inside was a concrete slab and the beginnings of the nest boxes
The shelter is at the back of the pole barn. It goes rapidly downhill from there to a clearing in the front red pine forest.
The nest boxes are on the concrete slab, just inside the south door.
A wider view
Before the nest boxes were built, there were piles of firewood on the concrete slab. The goats climbed the piles and knocked them down.
The North door.
Looking inside from the north door.
The entire shelter area is 10' X 28'.
The view was nice before the sides of the shelter went up.
The shelter is still entirely open on the back. This view is from half-way back in the pasture.
View from all the way back. Our house is barely visible to the right of the shelter/pole barn.
A little more detail on the fence. Note the low and middle strands to discourage leaning (goats will eventually trample a woven wire fence), and the strand over the top to discourage perching.
Our goats love sumac leaves. Liberty has more difficulty reaching it than Spot.
Happy chickens
The South ten feet of the shelter has been enclosed. This covers the roost area, nest boxes, and the storage area.
You can see the barn siding on the left. Just to the right of that (behind the Rhode Island Red hen) is a stock gate that keeps the goats out of the roost/nest box/chicken feeder area. The panel to the right of that is a temporary panel to keep the critters out of the storage area. To the right of that is the door from an old camp trailer.
If you look carefully, you can see the roost poles behind the stock gate.
The roost poles were made from dead elm trees. At the bottom right is the chicken feeder. To the left of that is a barried made from part of an old camper. Above the barrier is the double-decker nest boxes. There are no partitians in the boxes.
A better view of the chicken feeder. The gate is open now, and Spot is trying to take advantage of that fact.
The left 1/4 of the feeder contains grit. The next section contains oyster shells. The right half contains laying mash. No goats allowed!
At the bottom, you can see the other side of the barrier that's made from an old camp trailer. To the left of that is the feeder. Above the barrier is the nest boxes. The hens get into the boxes from the roost area, and we remove the eggs from the other side.
This is a view of the storage area. The trash cans, which contain feed, are now under the nest boxes. In that pictuer, they are helping to keep the temporary barrier up. Now, that area contains the manger -- which is loaded from the storage area and unloaded from the animal area.
Don, Gabe, and Paul hold Tan, Harley, and Smokey.
Gabe and Smokey
Don and Paul hold Tan and Smokey. Paul has his puffer and spacer on his lap.