Our Coop

Our coop started at a $10 shipping crate that I found on Craigslist.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of ours but it was similar to the ones in the middle of this picture:

I started by raising the lid to create a slanted roof so that it wouldn't hold snow and rain and the gap was needed for ventilation with chicken wire keeping other creatures out.  We used a pack of shingles on the roof.

Then I used hinges and some hooks and handles to create a door on the back so that I could lift it up to retrieve eggs, and lower the bottom door when I needed to clean out the coop.

Then I built a simple shelf for nesting boxes 

and cut the hole for the door to the chicken run.

After a few weeks I installed some plastic storage bins to create more nesting boxes and our coop is complete.  (Yes I know the one on the far right is lower - I did that for a reason).

We use pine shavings in the nesting boxes and on the floor.  I also put in some lime and some "DE" to help with the odor, moisture, and flies.

There is a water feeder and a feeder with grain for them inside the coop, as well as everything outside of the coop.

Frustrated on the Farm

I bought the 8 chickens from someone I thought was a friend.  I told him I wanted a specific breed of chickens, he said they were.  I found out the day I picked them up that 3 were purebred and the other 5 were mixed with the breed I wanted.

It's been about 5 or 6 weeks now and I just found out that NONE of them are the breed I wanted.

Oh wait it gets better.

There are only three females, and 5 males... plus I bought the white male rooster so that's 6 males.

Roosters are like typical steroid gym guys at a bar - they'll fight over the chicks and try to show who's more powerful.  That also means that I won't be getting many eggs - chickens lay (on average) 2 eggs every three days.  So in a week I'd get about 7 eggs with my current batch.  I had been planning on getting about 18ish every week so that I could share with friends.

This all came about because I'd decided to name them and I took pictures to help keep them separated, and then after some research with the pictures I found out the truth about my bunch...

So I'm looking for new homes for 5 of the guys and when the fair comes to town in 2 weeks I can buy some new females since I saw them selling last year.

Here are the men:

The rooster that we are keeping - he already crows

Both of these are boys

And here are the girls:

The girl is the one in the back

Death is just a part of life

One of our guinea died today....

Poopers was the only bird that we had named so far, and the only guinea that will ever get a name since they're so hard to tell apart.  Poopers was the baby chick that had a protruding vent when she was a week or two old and we had to clean her rear end several times a day in order to help her poop, which she needs to do in order to survive.  That's how she got her name.

Shortly after she recovered from the protruding vent issue, she hurt her leg.  Unfortunately, it was broken, and it healed the wrong way.  She was already smaller than the other birds because of her previous health issues, and now she wasn't able to keep up with the birds and it was hard for her to walk.

The vet came out today and I asked her what we should do.  The other birds had begun to attack Poopers and go after her pecking at her for no reason.  The vet also said that because she was walking on her elbow, she would end up getting cuts and infections and they would be very painful and would eventually cause her to die.  Basically the most humane thing to do was to put her down.

I asked them if they could do it, because I am not country enough to take care of that myself.  I also asked them to do it somewhere that I wouldn't be able to see.  They took her back to their truck and gave her a shot to put her to sleep.

I explained to Jeremiah why they needed to put her to sleep and after a moment he said "and then they will bring her back?"...  I had to explain that she would never wake up from this sleep.  He was quiet and after a minute he walked about 50 feet away and sat down to cry.

This was the first time I've ever had to deal with an animal in my life dying when I've been around.  I've had dogs die, but it was after I hadn't seen them for a couple years and they lived with the parent that I didn't live with.

The boys have never known anyone or anything to die besides bugs and snakes, although they know that the animals at the barn are killed for food.

Poopers is in this video - she's the bird on the bottom right corner next to the brown block of grain treats... She's slow to move but when she does you can see how she has to hop everywhere...

We dug a hole tonight, wrapped her in a large piece of pink felt and tied a yellow ribbon around it, and then buried her next to one of our big trees.  We'll be making a marker for her tomorrow.

RIP Poopers...

Who's the boss

Three days ago when Jeremiah came into the goat pen to help put the guinea away, Carrie went on the attack.  She was head butting him and with horns that are pointing out away from her head I'm sure you can imagine how this could hurt.  She even got on her hind legs at one point and was walking towards him.  Jeremiah was freaked out (understandably) but I also knew that if he didn't stand up for himself it wouldn't stop.  Spanking her didn't stop it, nor did yelling at her so I googled.

I quickly found the same information on each of my go-to goat sites.  They said that Carrie was trying to make it clear where her place was on the pecking order - above Jeremiah.  Jeremiah hasn't been around the goats very much because he's just not that interested in them.  He's also not that much taller than the younger goats.  It makes sense that Carrie saw this as a "new" person coming around and she probably thought she could put him in his place because of the size similarities.

The solution according to the experts is that Jeremiah would need to flip Carrie over and pin her down immediately after she attempts to head butt him.  I explained this to Jeremiah and the next day I showed him how he would have to do it.

He's a bit too short and she was a bit too tall so I had to step in a little to help him grab her legs and lay her down, but once she was pinned I stepped back.  I wanted her to understand that HE was the one in control since that's where the issue lies.

I don't have video (yet) of the complete flip, since I was involved in doing it and I only have two hands, but I do have video of him once he got her pinned.  I'm sure you will notice the look on his face.  He is a bit more hurt that he has to prove his place to her and he wasn't so angry looking the second time.

Experts say that this only has to be done once or twice before Carrie will understand she isn't above him on the pecking order and she'll stop going after him.  Experts were wrong.  She's definitely decreased and now only seems to try to sneak in a side rub against his leg and then sort of tilts her head so a horn touches him.  Definitely not hurting him, but we just can't figure out if she's trying to sneak a subtle jab in or just get his attention for more petting.

  

Same video - uploaded a different way in case you can't see the first one:

He's ready to flip her and pin her down if he needs to though.

Blackberry Pie

When you live in the country you just HAVE to pick wild blackberries and make a pie!

Okay, so the neighbor had cleared the blackberry bushes and we literally found 2 tablespoons of wild blackberries.  Giant (grocery store) provided the rest.

I made my first ever blackberry pie and ate my first ever slice of blackberry pie...



Here's the recipe I found online:

             Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Combine 3 1/2 cups berries with the sugar and flour. Spoon the mixture into an unbaked pie shell. Spread the remaining 1/2 cup berries on top of the sweetened berries, and cover with the top crust. Seal and crimp the edges, and cut vents in the top crust for steam to escape.
3. Brush the top crust with milk, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.                 

Free Range

Yesterday I decided to let my chickens be free range....

I opened the door and walked away.

They were out all day and in the late afternoon Jeremiah and I went out to herd them back into the kennel.  They all went back in fairly quickly.



I'm sure they were happy to be free all day and I am happy that they're helping the guinea to eat all the bugs. And they're helping to clear things out  - every day I find things they've uncovered in the ground :)

Peach Pie

When you live in the country... You have to make a peach pie.  :)

"Taa Daa!"

Tomorrow we are picking wild blackberries from the property next to us and I'll make my first blackberry pie too :)


Here is the recipe I found online:

Simple Peach Pie

• 
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Servings: 8

About This Recipe

"This recipe is from C.A. Lynd of lyndsgourmet.com. Every year we anxiously wait for Lynd's farm to put out their peaches. They gave us this recipe with the peaches I just bought and it is simple and wonderful."

Ingredients

• pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie
• 5 cups fresh peaches, sliced
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Stir together flour, 1 cup sugar, and cinnamon and set aside.
3. Wash, peel, and slice fresh peaches.
4. Mix together peaches with the combined dry ingredients.
5. Turn into pastry-lined pie pan and dot with butter.
6. Cover with top crust, cut slits in it, seal the edges.
7. Sprinkle top with 2 tablespoons of sugar.
8. Cover the edges with foil to prevent over browning; remove foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.
9. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust.
10. Pie may be frozen for future use.

I also added it to my cooking blog

http://leanneiscooking.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/simple-peach-pie/

Goats can fly...

Words don't do this justice....  This was the third time she got out in 5 minutes - right in front of us each time.  I was determined to get a video of it before I blocked her exit with a taller fence...

A good old fashion garden

One major projects I wanted when I moved was a garden.  We had previously tried a garden in our rental with some luck.  The two issues were space in the small townhouse backyard and the squirrels that would eat anything that grew before it would be completely ripe for us to pick.  I even went so far as building a cage around the garden the second year in an attempt to keep the squirrel out.

It worked, but still it wasn't much space.


When we moved into our home last summer, I immediately knew where the garden would go.  It was a large area, fairly flat, and directly out the kitchen and breakfast nook windows for a nice view.

I started searching all of the plants that I wanted to grow including fruit trees in the winter.  When February rolled around, I knew I wasn't going to have the budget for all of my major plans so the fruit trees were put on hold.  I started buying seeds and indoor starter kits and I grew a very detailed map of exactly what I wanted to plan and where it would be planted.

In March we had a starter tray of various vegetables ready to go.








I had the cable company come out to mark where they buried our cable and phone lines and then I rented a tiller from Home Depot and got to work.  Unfortunately it had rained so the dirt was more like mud.  While there was a lot of great dirt, there was also some clay mixed in.

The neighbor brought over loads of composted horse manure in a Bobcat for us and eventually I ended up buying a couple cubic yards of soil to help.

As the plants in the starter tray started getting too big, I knew I just needed to get them in the ground and so I ended up planting things in a less organized way than I'd planned.





I admitted to myself that this was my "practice year" and I wouldn't put too much pressure on myself to get everything growing.  I just wanted to see what would grow.








We've had a lot of luck with the tomato plants and the watermelon plant looks pretty good.  In fact, today we saw that we have our first watermelon.

We had two heads of lettuce come up, but a rabbit feasted on them each time they'd produce leaves.  We have some small corn stalks growing and a lot of scallions and garlic bulbs.  The pots of potatoes look pretty good and if the carrots weren't over crowded, they would probably be doing well too.

I'm happy with what I've seen and learned and it gets me more excited about next year.  I will tiller the entire garden area this fall and mix in a lot of compost material and maybe even some more soil.  Next year I will be sure to space things out a bit more and follow the map.

Good Morning, goats....

This morning I managed to sleep in until almost 8AM.  I am normally up before 7 so I felt a bit groggy and gross.  I got up pretty quickly because I knew the animals were hungry, but I was surprised that I wasn't hearing them making any noise.

The renter walked out the door to leave for work and I looked out the window on the door as she left to see where the goats were.  I didn't see them at the fence screaming for food, which is odd, but I also didn't see them come running across the yard like they are known for.

I looked at her face as she looked around the yard and got in her car.  She hadn't seen me before she left, but I could tell that she was also wondering where they were.

I felt a little nervous suddenly - was this the end of the goats??
Did they actually leave the yard?
Are they by the road?
I felt a panic start to rise.

I stepped outside, I'm not even sure that I had shoes on, and walked into the driveway and saw the renter stopped about 50 feet down the drive, laughing with her window down.

I felt relief because I was sure she was looking at them - but then also realized where she was looking.

"Are they eating my rose bushes?!" I asked.

She laughed and took a picture of them before leaving...

I once had 4 rose bushes and three unique flowers - all blooming with color... right there.

Good morning to you too....



UPDATED: to add pictures of what WAS in that area...

How to round up a chicken

Yes - I took a video of me corralling the loose chicken.  I have gotten smarter and am leaving a large piece of plywood leaning against the coop so that I can lean it up to help make a funnel into the door, as you can see.

Goats like to nibble

Jeremiah just said something to me that made me realize I had to share this story...

When Carrie was still in the house in her pen, she got sick.  I didn't know what was wrong but she wasn't eating and was just acting strange.  She was about 2 months old at that point.  I googled, because that's how I find the answers to all of life's problems, and realized she was bloated.

Goats have several stomachs, sort of like cows.  But bloating in a goat is deadly if it isn't fixed immediately.  Something about the gas getting trapped in the stomachs.  The home remedy is to feed the goats a half a cup of cooking oil and to massage their stomach until they fart and/or burp.  So that's what I had to do.  I had to use a syringe to get the oil in her and then spend 45 minutes massaging her belly.  I will just say that goats really do fart and burp, and they do stink.  She had diarrhea the next day, but then was back to normal.

A week before we left on our beach vacation, Carrie had diarrhea for two days and then was acting sick.  After checking her out, I realized she was bloated again.  Bloating can be caused by overeating (especially grain) or of eating bad plants.  Carrie had been out in the yard eating all kinds of plants that day and she had the obvious signs: lack of appetite, acting off, not moving much, and the left side of her body was clearly bloated.

Not my goat - but a picture of what it looks like when the left side shows bloating.

It was about 10:30 at night, and there I was with a bottle of oil, a syringe, and a goat.  I got the oil in her and began massaging her belly. 

Kelly was constantly coming around behind me, or climbing on top of the dog house next to me and nibbling at my clothes.  Kelly would be pulling the bottom of my shirt in the back and Carrie would be biting the front edge of my shorts.

At one point I was leaning over Carrie rubbing her belly, and I turned my head over my shoulder to tell Kelly to stop biting me, and OUCH!  Carrie had gotten a nibble on my chest.  Carrie never breast fed from her mother (or anyone/anything else) and only ever ate from a bottle - but whether it was on accident or she knew what she was going for - it hurt and I was shocked.  I know she considers me her mom, but I never been THAT kind of mom to anyone!

I sat out there with her for 45 minutes, in the dark, that night.  After awhile she didn't want me touching the swollen side of her belly, but she would also get very clingy if I stopped touching her completely.  She never did fart or burp, but I finally went inside and hoped for the best.

The next morning she seemed better, but not completely back to normal.  Her stomach wasn't as bloated so I just waited it out and later that evening or the next morning (I can't remember now) she was back to normal.

Today, Jeremiah was just watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, from the early 90s, and he said "Remember when Carrie bit your boob?"  I knew immediately I had to share the story.




And I'll end this post with pictures of Kelly and Carrie doing what they love to do best... Climbing.  Notice how large the dog house is that Kelly has somehow learned to get on top of....

 

Freedom for the guinea

The guinea are suppose to be able to fly.  They are suppose to fly out of the kennel during the day to search for bugs, and then come back to the coop at night for safety.  This is what I read, so this is what I've been going off.

They had flown to the top of the kennel a few times, and a couple of them did get out of the kennel and wander around.  They are like pack animals though, so they stay near each other even if that means they're all huddled near the fence - some inside the kennel and some outside. 

There are some guinea in front of the kennel - outside it - and the rest are inside it on the other side of the fence.

The problem was, they didn't seem to understand that they needed to FLY up to the top of the kennel to get back inside where the others were.  On those days, we would be out in the dark catching them and putting them back inside the kennel or the coop.

Today I opened the kennel door and was able to get all the guinea to go out the door so they could wander around.  One chicken managed to get out too.  The darn bird was not working with me to go back inside - and since I was working alone I had to try to keep the chickens inside, while also trying to leave the door open and scare the chicken back in with them.  Wasn't easy so I left her outside for a few hours and then went back to try again. 

When I went back out this afternoon to try to get the chicken inside and to refill the water for everyone (heat advisory today) I had more luck.  The goats seem to think it's interesting to go inside the kennel. 





Luckily Carrie and Kelly decided they wanted to hang out near the door and this helped to get the bird to go inside rather than running past the door again.

 

I took some pictures and video of the guinea, I was trying to get video of them making all their noise but it seems like every time I pressed record they would get quiet.

I will admit, I am nervous about them coming back tonight.  They aren't going far from the kennel, but I don't think they're going to want to go back inside on their own and since all 8 are out they have less reason to stick near the coop.  We will see.

On a better note - here are the tomatoes that I picked from the garden today and yesterday :)

Update the next day: It only took 10 minutes (at the most) to get the birds back into the kennel yesterday evening.  With Jeremiah standing by the open gate posing like a linebacker I scooted the birds around the kennel towards the opening.  It was only a minute of hesitation on their part, wondering if they should run around him or straight away from the kennel, and then they all filed into the coop.  Today I was only able to usher 5 of them out of the kennel and one chicken got out too.  When will they learn to fly?

Seriously?!

I spoke too soon.

I went outside to take the lettuce, tomato scraps, and some old trail mix out to the chickens and this is what I saw in my yard.

Seriously Jenny?!!?  Seriously?!?!

I couldn't even think about how she'd gotten out, until I walked over and saw the gate open.  What?  How'd the gate get open? 

Turns out that she must have shoved it hard enough and one of the bars broke because it wasn't welded well.    Oddly, the other two didn't come out.  So I put that piece of wood (in the picture) up by the door, went around and sort of chased her back through the gate, and then latched it onto a part that isn't going to break off.

Darn goats.

And they're out

It wasn't thirty minutes after I posted yesterday that the darn goats were out again.  Happily wagging their tails and trotting around the yard anytime we would come or go from the house.

I saw where the fence was pulled down, so I knew how they were getting out.

This morning I lured them all back into the pen and tightened up the weak area they can climbed over.  I was walking about 50 feet away to get my tools so that I could keep working on the fence when I heard Jenny climbing over the fence, I turned around and yelled at her to stop, but I hadn't taken three steps by the time she finished climbing over and then WHOOP - Kelly just leaped over the fence like a deer.

I hadn't seen Kelly jump like that before, but it put a whole new twist to how I could fix things.  I pounded a few T-posts in  to help hold the fence up straight and then decided that I would add another layer so the fence is about 6 feet tall in that section. 

It took me about 20 minutes to lure the goats back into the pen through the gate, but four hours later, they're still in.

Back where they belong - BEHIND the fence

I got three hours of work done today after the fence was fixed.  I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds in the garden.  The weeds were at least three feet tall, that's what I get for going on vacation.  But I also got two cherry tomatoes, three large yellow tomatoes, and four large red ones.  Lunch was great today :)

Pictures of the tomatoes that weren't picked

What's a little vacation...

One of the reasons I thought chickens and dogs were the only pets I would have is because I thought they would be easy to manage on those rare occasions when we were going on vacation.  The dog typically goes with us on vacation since I rent dog-friendly houses on the beach, and I figured chickens just need a ton of food and water left out and they'd be fine.

That isn't the case, and I realized that within a few days of having all of the birds in the coop.

The chickens have three water dishes outside in the kennel area and one inside the coop.  I clean and fill them each morning and by the afternoon they are disgusting and dirty again.  Each morning I dump a huge scoop of feed for them, and by the afternoon they need more.  They have two big feeders in the coop that last two or three days before I need to put more feed in.  And every night I have to herd them all into the coop and close the door because I am worried about a creature coming to eat them.

When our (new) tradition of a week at the beach was getting closer, I realized I really needed to find someone I could trust to come to the house twice a day to feed the goats and the birds and then to put the birds into the coop at night.  Finding a dog sitter was always hard, this was going to be far worse.

The original plan was that a neighbor was going to come do the first half of the week, and then the girl renting a room in our home would do the second half of the week. 

The first day that we arrived at the beach I received a text message at 7:30, two hours past feeding time, from the renter.  She asked about the animals being fed and said she cleaned and filled their waters because it hadn't been done.  Turns out the neighbor didn't come as promised.  I hated to ask her to help even more, but the renter agreed to take care of the animals for the entire week.

I relaxed because I knew I could trust her....

And then Wednesday came.  The goats were out.  Jenny is about 100 pounds (or more) and does not want people to get near her or touch her.  Kelly is about 30-40 pounds and is also slightly skittish, but not as bad.  And the two were out.

They didn't go far, they know where the food is, so they were just hanging out around the mudroom (where the grain is kept.)

I text a friend that lived a few miles away and he came over to help the renter catch the goats and get them back into the pen.  It was about two hours later that I received word that they had finally managed to get everyone back inside.  They both told me not to apologize, it was a funny story they were ready to tell their friends.  How many people can say they wrangled a goat?

The next morning, they were out again.  The renter got them in on Thursday night, on her own.  Friday morning, they were out again.  I told her to just leave them out, they weren't going anywhere.

We got home from our trip on Saturday evening and all three goats were out by then.  Carrie had managed to tear our screen off the screen door to get into the mud room and when it was raining they all ended up in the mud room. 

Welcome home.

Sunday morning we got out to finish the new goat pen we had been building.  They now have about two-thirds of an acre fenced in for them to graze and enjoy.  The chicken coop and kennel is inside their pen area because I've heard they can help keep other creatures from getting to the birds and I am hoping the guinea will help to keep the ticks away from the goats too. 

It's only a matter of time before the goats get out again.

And then we had fowl

When we bought the property, I knew I wanted to have chickens.  My rule about pets was "it must have fur and be over 40 pounds" because I don't care for small dogs or cats and there is no way I would have a reptile or snake in my house.  My rule for outdoor animals was that it must have a purpose.

Chickens have a purpose.  They give us eggs.  No, I could never eat one after I'd raised it.

So the plan was to get chickens.  Simple enough.

But spring hit, and after a very warm winter the ticks came out in full force.  I happen to be talking to my school principal and she mentioned that she had guinea fowl and they eat ticks.  I started researching these birds and found that a couple things

• They make a loud crazy noise all the time
• They are known for being "alarm systems" and will alert you when anything unusual comes onto the property
• Owners say that once they got guineas, they never had ticks again
• They are ugly

I was sold simply because of the tick issue.  I started looking in to buying some but found that they are pretty rare.  They only lay eggs in the warmer months and are horrible parents so it isn't as easy to get some of them hatched like it is for chickens.  Everything I found had to be shipped from out of state - in groups of at least 50.  Then I found someone on Craigslist that bought a group of 50, but only wanted 25 so she was selling the rest.  I bought 12. 

They were 3 days old when we got them, and after a week they were twice the size and I just knew I had too many.  One day I saw one that was much smaller than the rest and I noticed something was wrong with her rear end.  After some google searching I found out that these birds have one "hole" for laying eggs, mating, and eliminating waste.  I also found out that this little bird had a problem in which her feces was dried up inside of her and it would kill her.  Several times a day I had to clean her rear end with warm water.  She did not like it, but she was small enough to fit in my hand so she couldn't exactly get away.  I also read that Preparation H helps with the swelling so I had to go buy some from the store.  It took a little over a week, but she finally seemed to be better, although she was half the size of the others.  Because she is the only one I can tell apart from the others, and because of her issue, she was the only bird that was named... Poopers.

When they were about 3 weeks old, I sold four of them to someone on craigslist because they were getting big and I knew I had too many.

I also started working on building a coop for them.  It took me about a week to finish the coop, but I figured it was big enough for the guinea and the chickens I planned to get.

At 6 weeks old, the fowl were ready to leave the cage in our basement and so I moved them into the coop, and the next day I got 8 chickens (June 24th).  I picked up a rooster a few days later (June 27th).

We now have our birds settled in.