Chickens

For my birthday, Abe surprised me with five beautiful hens, which is fantastic, as a homestead just doesn't seem right without chickens. It's not only the eggs that we were missing (in fact, our neighbor gave us all the eggs we could use), it's the scraps. We give some scraps to the dogs, some to the rabbits, and the rest to the Black Soldier Flies, but there have been so many times when I've hated giving the BSF something that was made for chickens. And, of course, we now have something other than fish that will eat the BSF grubs!

There was already a chicken pen here, from the previous owner, so we didn't have to do much to get ready. The chickens are young (about 10 months old), very healthy, tame, and lay a rainbow of eggs. We get between 3 and 4 eggs a day now, and each of them is a different color. We won't be getting a rooster for the time being, as we don't really need one yet.

 

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Chickens

Property Updates

I haven't written much about the place recently, so I thought I'd do a little update on how things are doing.

Building
We haven't done any building since we finished the bathroom and hot water system. We really have everything we need, so no need to hurry on to the next construction projects, at least until well after the baby is born. We'll probably make the pantry (a big cupboard in the entranceway) and another shelf or two, but that's it for the next couple of months.

Hot Water system
This has really changed our lives and is the greatest luxury on the place. There have been a couple of small issues to work out, but Abe figures them out and fixes them. Unless it's cloudy for several days or unless we use the floor heaters a lot, our tank temperature sits happily at 130 degrees and will almost burn you!

Compost Heater
This did not work out as well as we had hoped. Although it heated Leo's wall a lot at the beginning, it does not do so steadily. We will have to tweak the idea to make it more effective. At least we''ll get a big old pile of compost out of the experiment.

Pigs
The three pigs are growing at an incredible rate. They more than doubled (and one of them almost tripled) their weight in the first month we had them. We made a pasture for them and they love to run around in it, root up the dirt, eat grass and play. When you arrive, they come running up to be petted, scratched and fed scraps. They consider Leo one of them. Photos

Chickens
We replaced most of our chickens a little while ago with some young layers. They have recently started to produce eggs. So far we are getting about two a day, but that will increase with Spring. It's Leo's treasured job to collect them (although he is only allowed to carry one back to the house).

Rabbits
The rabbits are amazing. We have kept a lot of the best females to pad out our breeding stock. We now have twelve females, four of which are still not ready to breed. By March, when they are all of breeding age, we will be getting a litter a week. Right now we have a little over 40 of them, of all different sizes!
They are truly the easiest animals in the world to keep and a joy to watch. Photos

Gardens
We didn't plant anything for winter outside. There was a lot going on at the time and we decided to let it go for this year. The inside dining room planter is on the other hand doing great, with all kinds of herbs, greens, carrots and garlic going crazy. We will shortly be doing soil blocks for the living room one.

Road
For the grand old price of $15, we got our road graded the other day. Most people don't understand what this means, but to sum it up for you, our road is long (2 miles), dirt and was in terrible condition after the rains we got this year. It now feels like a super highway, and my increasing belly is very grateful.

The chicken population on this property has grown substantially this week.

We already had 9 grown chickens, 2 of which are roosters, and 2 chicks, whose mama was killed by a predator when they were just a couple of days old.

We let the chicks loose in the garden, which is fenced, and they are super happy there. They disappear into the undergrowth, and stay very busy eating bugs off our vegetable plants. The only downside was that they seemed so small in there, as if they needed a few companions. So when a man came to the village selling chicks, we couldn't help but buy 15, for 45 cents apiece.

They were just a day or so old, and so very susceptible to the elements. We have therefore set them up in the dining room flower bed for now. We bring them into our bedroom at night, in a cardboard box with a hot water bottle under it. When they are old enough – when their feathers start to come in - they will join the others in the garden.

Then today, we went to a small town nearby and ran into a friend who had older chicks for sale. We bought 10 of those as well, for 75 cents apiece. They are not nearly as vulnerable as the babies, so they have gone straight into the small chicken tractor. Once they have become used to roosting in there, which is sheltered from rain, we will open its door into the garden too.

So in total: 9 adults, 12 chicks, 15 newborns. Leo is as happy as can be – everywhere he looks there are chicks to play with.

More photos

Gardens/chickens/worms

This year has mainly been dedicated to building, so we have not had as much time as we would have liked to work on the food systems. Next year we plan to mainly focus on this, with the additions of fish ponds, rabbit tractors, and planting trees, as well as increasing our gardens.

However, we did still plant our garden once the rains started. The soil is so much richer than when we first started – it has grown from clumpy clay to a rich, dark, crumbly soil, all through the addition of compost and mulch. So far we have been eating squash, green beans, collards, cabbage, herbs. We have turnips, beans, corn, beets and various other things growing. (more photos)

We have also started a worm bin. At the moment we are feeding them and letting their population increase. Once we have a lot more, we will start adding them to the garden, the humanure pile and feeding them to the chickens.

We did have some chicks this year, but disaster struck. The mama hen had made her nest outside of the coop, so we did not put her up at night with the other chickens. She hatched her eggs, but was then killed by a predator. We saved two of the chicks. Abe built them a chicken tractor. This is a movable pen, so that they get to graze one area, and then before they do any damage we move the pen. They seem very happy in there and we hope to buy some more chicks to keep them company. (more photos)