The Farm*Homestead*Garden Blog

All things farm, garden, homestead related from the Catsndogs4us family.

Our life on a wild, woodland homestead.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Egg Bound Hen!

One of our Easter Egger hens was egg bound! Her egg was stuck and she couldn't expel it. I noticed this morning that this particular hen seemed a little off. I checked on her through the day and found her in the nest box frequently. At first I thought she had something different wrong and tried to give her some non dairy yogurt. Upon watching her and examining her I learned that she was in fact egg bound- her egg was stuck. I knew from past research that the first thing to try is a warm epsom salt bath so in the tub she went. I keep epsom salt on hand since it's a very useful first aid item for animals and humans. Thankfully that was all she needed, after about 15 minutes of soaking and a bit of poking and prodding from me to examine her she was able to expel the egg. It was a a large egg and more rounded than oblong. I opened the egg to see if there was anything odd about it but it was just a normal egg that was a bit too large and possibly positioned wrong. The hen was immediately feeling much better, if a bit dazed by the whole experience and was able to be returned to the flock. I might have kept her in the house overnight but this bird is one of our most nervous hens, probably the most flighty chicken we have and I knew that being in the house for the night would stress her.




Sunday, June 24, 2018

Finally, Rain!

The gardens are so happy we've had some rain! It's been an abnormally dry spring and I was worried that it would be another drought summer like last year. So much harder to maintain gardens when there is scant rain. Everything is coming along so well, except maybe cucumber plants which I had to transplant from one spot to another due to the chickens finding them! Hopefully they will perk up after settling for awhile in their new spot which is in the garden the chickens don't know about!

So far we've been harvesting strawberries, kale, collards and some broccoli. It's early days in our growing season but shouldn't be too long before more produce starts to ripen.

Tomato Plant

Brussel Sprouts

Tomato plant

Tomatoes, Cabbages

Collards

Kale

Strawberries

Squash

Squashes, Cucumbers

Corn

Peaches

Blackberries

Plums

Blueberries

Leeks

Popcorn

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

A Bountiful Strawberry Harvest

We've been having a good strawberry season so far. From our plants we've harvested over 6 pounds of strawberries so far. Some have been eaten fresh, some were made into strawberry pancakes for breakfast one morning and some have become jam. Strawberry season for our area is about half over, I hope to harvest quite a few more pounds of strawberries with plenty of help from KitKat of course!










Monday, June 18, 2018

Big Little Chicks

The spring chicks are growing and changing very fast right now. Just a couple weeks ago they were still spending most of their time in their own outdoor run and sleeping in their own little pen in the main coop. Now the little ones are running with the flock and having a grand time exploring every corner of the fenced yard. They've started going into the coop own at nights and a couple are starting to roost with the adult flock rather than sleeping in their own pen or in lower spots. They're all about 2 1/2 months old now. I still can't tell for sure if the straight run birds we got from a breeder are pullets or cockerels. I'm cautiously optimistic that most are females. No crowing yet! One of the little add on silkies is showing boy signs though so I think we've got a paie with the little black silkies (that were supposed to be female marans). 


Little chicks eating with some of the adult birds.

Exploring.






Sunday, June 10, 2018

Poultry yard extension phase 3, 4, 7??? I don't know anymore!

I may not know what stage of the poultry yard extension I'm on but I do know that I moved 100 feet of fencing into its new position today. SO MUCH WORK! Most of the brush on all sides has been cleared and the piece of fencing that was moving the least was ready to be moved. The hardest part was pulling out and then banging in again the t-posts. They've been in for about 2 years and had really gotten quite comfortable in their positions and didn't want to come back out of the ground. After repositioning them they really didn't want to go back into the ground in the new area. I didn't think I'd make it to the end of the line but after about 6 hours I did. Moving the electric fence took about 1 hour, moving the stretch of shorter second level of defense fence took about 45 minutes. Moving the 100 feet of welded wire fencing and all the t-posts took four hours or so. And this piece was only to gain the birds about 10 more feet of ground, well 10 feet of ground all along the 100 foot stretch so it was worth it. They have green within the fenced area again. The next two sections will be much more complex and will gain the birds A LOT more space but that is a job for another day or maybe another week. The 4th side doesn't have to move, thank goodness! That is the chain link dog fence which the chicken/duck yard joins up to.

Got my main tools, I'm ready! I use my cutter and zip ties for nearly all farm jobs it seems.

No turning back now, it's down. Hope the birds don't find me too quickly.

The ducks found me too quickly.

The chickens found me too quickly.

What (not) great helpers I have.

Despite my many feathered helpers the fence is going back up about 10 feet back from where it was.

Near the end, trail of tools that I'm almost too tired to pick up.

New greens to enjoy!

KitKat supervised.

The birds love their new area.

Done!

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Clearing brush and trees for chicken/duck yard expansion

I've been hard at work clearing brush and trees so that we can extend the chickens and ducks fenced yard. This will also enable many of the fruit trees to get more sun and have less competition for resources. We have learned that the fruit trees within the current chicken/duck yard are thriving and doing so much better than before we had the birds there, it makes sense to extend their yard around more of the orchard area. Since there is poison ivy as we get closer to the woods I am doing most of this work since my husband and the kids are prone to getting a rash from poison ivy but somehow I never get a rash. I can't use a chainsaw so had to press the hubby into service for the trees that are too big for my cutters. He wore heavy clothing and gloves and worked in the area for less than 2 hours but still got a small rash.

I've been clearing in this area for a few years now. Previously the entire area I'm working on now was as heavily wooded as the woods that can be seen beyond the new cleared area. I can't wait until this project is done. I know the chickens and ducks will enjoy the new area to explore. The fruit trees will benefit from the birds fertilizing them as well as eating insects that might bother the trees. It's a good solution to several issues, wanting the birds to have more room to explore, wanting to let more light into the side yard and onto the fruit trees, as well as enabling the birds to rid us of more insects and they will keep the brush down so it doesn't grow back so intensely. Having more cleared area might help cut down on potential predators getting close to the coop too.

Of course I have kitty helpers all through this project, mostly KitKat but Rufus and Stormy join me from time to time too.