Nesting Instincts

No, not mine.  I'm talking about he chickens.  I built them a nest box duplex today.  I am pretty proud of how it came out, too.

It's made of 100% recycled materials, except for the screws.  So I guess it's really 99% recycled stuff.  It's all bits and pieces of left over plywood, some old baseboard trim that was hanging around, some left over 4x4s for the base that are from the old playset (still getting mileage out of that thing), and the old closet bar that used to be in the brooder (hence the chicken poo already on it). 

It took me all day to do, surprisingly.  But I am really proud of it (did I say that already?  Ok, I'm just proud).  I have one more to make of the same size, and then I have to make a double to go somewhere else, because I don't think I can fit four across on the wall.  I would like 14 nest boxes total, I think.  Plenty of space for all.

Of course, right after I finished, the work was thoroughly inspected.

Now that these are done, the older gals are moving into the new coop.  I am leaving Fat Black alone so that she can brood her eggs in peace.  I will have to re-teach the older girls to use the new nests.  Today, Fat Black got up and took a stroll around the yard, and someone else went in her nest and laid an egg in it.  Then when Black went back, she found the other hen in her nest, and decided to sit on the eggs in the nest next to hers instead.  I had to shoo out the other chicken, remove her unfertile egg, and put Black back on her nest.  She settled right in, but phew!  What chicken drama.  We're getting so close to the hatching time, I am super nervous she's going to up and leave.  Any hiccups make me worry she'll quit.  Plus, she'll need a space of her own for herself and her adopted chillins, so the old coop is the perfect small broody house.  Lucky girl! 

Can't wait to see those little 'uns.  Can't wait to see what they ARE, mostly.  Three are a dang mystery.  I'll let you know how it goes!  Wish Black luck!

And In Other News.....

It's HOT.  Wow.  H-O-T, hot.
That's not that exciting, but it does explain why things have slowed down here a little bit.  However, I keep pushing on, just slowly.  Heat and I do not agree.

On the building front, the new beautiful chicken coop is now mostly painted and partially trimmed out.  But it is completely roofed!!  My husband and I worked on it and finished it this weekend.  I love this coop so much, I'm thinking of naming it.  I love the luxury of walking into it in the evening to do my head counts.  Chicken coops in the evening are peaceful places, when everyone is singing.  It's so nice.

 
We were really lucky that the previous owner left us a HUGE pile of leftover roofing shingles under the deck.  We used a lot on this coop, I've used some for the goose house, the duck house, and Petunia's house.  Speaking of which:

All done!  She moved in last week, and looked at me like "what the heck do you want me to do in here?"  It's a lot larger than her last digs.  I gave her a chimney, can you see it?  The box of the house came out really well, but the roof was so ding-dong cockeyed that it clearly needed a rickety chimney.  I think it adds character.  And it looks almost like I meant to do that to the roof.  Well, I did, didn't I? 

 Jeez, I hate building.  grumble grumble.

This is how it looks with the boys' house:

Pretty snazzy, I think.

And onto the critters.  The chickens are growing beautifully.  Here's a shot of a few of them:

The one in the front is a Sicilian Buttercup, staring straight at you.  To the right, a Welsummer.  To the left, a Speckled Sussex.  Barred Rocks are in the back.

This is one of the two roosters I am aware that we have right now.  Unless anyone else is a surprise, we have only two, unless Fat Black hatches more.  He's a French Black Copper Maran.  Behind him is one of the females of the same breed.  We will be breeding this type of chicken, and the rooster is turning out to be a fine specimen.  His behind looks pretty good in this picture, no?

Ok, here's his front.  He doesn't crow yet, though.  All our lovely crowing is done by Copernicus, the Welsummer rooster (the other breed to be bred).  He makes a nice deep crow so far.  He's gorgeous too, but I couldn't find him to get a picture.  The fuzzy blob in front of the rooster above is not a dirty mop, it's a Silky.  Just FYI.  Easy to get them confused.

.....Ah, I jest.  The Silkies are really sweet.  Just very, very.....fluffy.

This is a shot of one of the only two Guinea keets we have left.  Out of the four originals, three were eaten.  One came back and would not shut up until I got him/her a friend.  This is the friend.  The one that is the one remaining is I don't know where.  It disappears occasionally, and luckily, comes back.  The one above thinks it's a chicken.  Lucky for me, because that means he/she always roosts when they do.  Score!!

Ok, that's a cat.  Let's move on.

Fat Black is still doing an eggsellent job.  HA!  Couldn't help myself.

See?

I really need to stop picking these eggs up and staring into them.  It's not healthy.  For me, that is.  I just need to see what's going on.  I.  Can't.  Help.  Myself. 

Black's nest of surrogate eggs.  She was taking a break at the time:

Can't I just have five minutes????

Dirt bath.  Fun!

The little duckadoos are getting BIG.  This batch is doing SO much better than the last batch, which leads me to say that if you're going to raise ducks, do it when they can go outside.  Wow.  The difference is just amazing.  Leg problems, back problems, slow growth, they all plagued the last batch.  This group has none of the same problems.  They go out every day, unless it's pouring.  I think it makes all the difference.  They're now two weeks old and being switched from the high protein starter to the maintenance ration.  I don't think they care about the difference. 

And finally, guess what we did today? 

What do you think would be a great treat to do in 93 degree weather with your kids?

Swimming?

Water park?

Ice cream?

NO!  We went blueberry picking in the hot, hot sun.

Aren't they beautiful?  We picked 8 pounds, and they could have kept going.  Let me tell you, these are kids after my own heart.  They were psyched to go, picked like champs, and had a blast.  93 degrees, we laugh in your face! HA!

Freaking Awesome

Babies!!!  Go Fat Black!

Hard to see....

Easier to see....

Easiest to see...

Look at that baby!

Ok.....settling down.....

These little ones are 7 and 9 days old.  There are 4 Ameraucana eggs, 2 brown eggs of unknown origin, and one white egg.  The white egg took the best pictures, as you can probably figure.  That's the one seen in the last two shots here.  I could actually see the baby move and the heart beating, it was so easy to see.  So cool!

Let me show you a crappy picture of what the little ones look like now:

Here's a cool picture of a 9 day old chick-to-be.  Poor little chicken, though.

photo source

I don't know where I find these things.  The internet is just full of stuff.

I showed my daughter the series of these pictures back when Ginger was sitting on her nest.  She asked if they put the baby back in the egg when they are done, so they can take another picture the next day.  I told her yes, and that they just duct tape them back together again.

I am a BAD mother.

I did come clean later on.

If You've Ever Wondered...

What noise an African goose makes, this one is for you...

For me, I never understood what they were supposed to sound like.  I got interested when I was trying to determine whether Emmet was a she or a he, because he used to say "wonkawonka".  I thought that was the noise, but then I'd read they sounded like "doink" or "doiing" or "wonk", but that didn't really tell me anything.  So I offer up an actual recording of a female African goose and the really weird noise they make.

Spoiler alert:  It sounds like all of the above noises, as well as "woink".  You'll see...

Attack of the Chickens!

She wanted to give the chickens a treat.

So she went in for some scratch.

I said "Put it in the scooper.  You know how they are when they see scratch".

But she "couldn't find" the scooper, and she put it in her shirt instead.

And they found it.

I don't think she really minded, though.

Do you?

Persistent Chicken

Are you done YET?????

NOW are you done???? 

A girl can only wait so long. 

As soon as the kitten moved out of the bowl, the chicken moved on in.

Busy, Busy, Busy

What else is new?  This is a farm, y'all!  Life doesn't stop or take breaks!

Ok, I don't really say y'all.  But I wish I did.

Anyway, yep, it's been busy!  And what have I been doing, you ask?

Well....

"Hey flat bills!"  "Hee hee!  Your bills are flat!"  "What happened, did someone step on them?"

The geese have been busy heckling the new ducklings.

"Seriously.  Leave. Me. Alone."

Fat Black (aka Abigail) has been busy being broody and is setting on anything put under her--a plastic Easter egg, a golf ball, etc.  Finally I decided that she needs to put all the broody energy to good use and went to another local farm who has scads of chickens and picked her up 3 fertile eggs.  I'll let you know if anything comes of it.  At least she's working, though.

I've been busy building a new rabbit hutch for Bunnicula, who's been busy chasing Robert all around the world and beating him up.  Dopey.  I don't know what's gotten into him, but I think it has something to do with Petunia. 

The guinea keets have been busy escaping and not coming back.  One has returned, and I caught it to feed it and give it water because it was STARVING, and that caused it to eat and drink and then be busy screaming its fool head off, because it didn't want to be caught and was doing just fine on its own, don't ya know.

The kids have been busy going to half-day summer camp in town, which is great because then I can be busy playing my fiddle and they can be busy not hearing me do it.  By the way, I've kicked Home on the Range's butt, and am working on the next tune.  Woo hoo!

And the kittens?  They've been busy, too.  They've been-er-busy conserving energy.

I swear: they ARE alive.

I am proud to say, though, that they can catch flies out of mid air.  That's got to count for something.

That's not all, though.  The biggest, and most exciting news I have is that we built a chicken coop!  A HUGE one!  We went from this:

Which is lovely and built beautifully, but is really tight even for 9 chickens, to this:

A 64 square foot multi-colored (currently) behemoth!  It's beautiful!  I am calling it the Dream Coop, because I couldn't have asked for anything better.

This baby features a large chicken door that faces the wired run,

 a nice-sized person door on the opposite end that I can go in and out of,

And not one, not two, not three, but FOUR 8 foot perches! 

 

And one short, low perch for the Silkie and the roos, because they don't like to fly up high.

5 perches altogether!  Holy cow!  And still room to spare!  It will eventually also feature 12 nest boxes, but I'm still in the construction stages for that.  The rabbit hutch has to come first.  Stupid Bunnicula.

Can you believe it?  It is so wonderful, I can't even explain how happy I am with it.  It's as of yet unfinished, of course.  It's multicolored because I can't pick a color to go with.  And it's not trimmed, and the windows aren't on, but it will be done soon.  But it's workable so that everyone can live in it and not get rained on or eaten while I pretty it up.  Hurray!

Best part?  We built this with our friends and family.  My brother designed it (with very minimal input from me), and our family and friends came from all around to help build it.  It was a great day.  We talked, joked, laughed, ate, and worked like maniacs.  We never could have done it without everyone's help.  And I love the coop all the more because of it. 

There is something so satisfying about having a coop that you can comfortably fit your chickens in.  It's kind of like the relief I feel when I get the crops planted after having them juggling in small pots for so long.  You put them in the ground, and you feel like "Hey, there it is.  Finally.  Safe and sound"  Same thing here.  It gives me great pleasure to see all the little chicken butts on their perches in that house.  Safe and sound. 

Ahh.  Really, it doesn't get better than this.  It just doesn't.