Our January List:
This time of year weather plays a huge factor in what chores can be done and what chores must be done. We had a few nice days over the holidays which gave us an opportunity to make some improvements to the chicken coop and add another coop for our younger guinea fowl. I'll post more about that at a later date.
Our January List:
0 Comments
Most first-time poultry owners are likely to be caught by surprise when their chickens seem to lose a substantial amount of feathers for seemingly no reason which is typically the most visible sign of a bird molting. A molt is the replacement of all or part of the bird's feathers. There are a few things you need to know about molting.
Although the weather may not be that pleasant for outdoor chores, there are a few things you will want to be sure to check on as winter sets in.
Here is what is on our December to do list: When building your chicken coop, it's obvious that you need to secure it from predators that might eat your eggs as well as your chickens. However, as devastating as it is to go out and discover you have lost some of your flock to a fox or hawk, it is almost more disconcerting for many to reach into a nesting box and find a snake curled up and likely enjoying your hard earned eggs. After some more alterations, refinements and improvements, you will quickly have a fool proof coop for even the most clever of egg-loving creatures, and are feeling comfortable about the security of your birds and their eggs.
However, one day you go out to your coop ready to gather eggs and notice a broken egg or two. You don't think too much of it, these things can certainly happen, but maybe you find another broken egg that same week. The next week you find some more broken eggs and now you are beginning to see a real impact to your egg yield. What's going on? It is not unusual to occasionally lose eggs as result of the behavior of the hens themselves, which means you will likely need to modify the bedding in your nesting boxes to give the eggs a softer place to land. Here's how we solved our egg breakage problems. Winter is well on its way to most parts of North America. Halloween parties abound this weekend while many of us are aborting haunting plans in lieu of watching Game 7 of the World Series. In the background harried and anxious discussions regarding Thanksgiving Holiday plans are filling the air. Amongst all this, the howling cold of the north wind and some of the goat does letting us know they are ready to breed, it's time to prepare the homestead for November. Here is what is on our list: 1. Lift and move any plants not already in the green house. Many of the citrus are fine down into the 40 degrees F range, but even though they can tolerate lower temperatures, moving them into the green house allows us to enjoy citrus during the winter months as well. 2. Heat loving herbs such as basil are lifted and placed into pots or new plants that have been started from seed in pots are moved into the green house. 3. Check irrigation systems to make sure everything is in good working order and buried or insulated well enough to avoid any breaks and bursts. Ensure all the cold weather crops such as kale, lettuce and spinach are receiving enough water. Harvest any remaining herbs that won't make it through the colder temperatures and put away for drying. 4. Clean off all the solar panels. With the dry weather we've been having, dust accumulates on the panels and can further reduce efficiency during the already shortened hours of daylight. 5. Drain water collection eliminators and clean roof washers. Although this isn't imperative, it's better to do it now and avoid having to potentially perform these tasks during bitter winter temperatures. 6. Check and repair seals on doors and windows. The summer sun and heat can be brutal on seals, and they can break down amazingly quickly. 7. In the chicken coop, we make sure the heat lamps are at the ready and power supplies and any related materials such as extension cords are in good working order. We also inspect the tarp we keep rolled up on the side of the coop. When inclement weather arrives, we simply roll down the tarp and secure it at the bottom. When the days warm again, we can roll the tarp back up. Walk the perimeter of the coop and make sure the structure is secure from animals looking to get in for some extra feed as well as predators looking for an easy poultry dinner. 8. When you rake leaves, bag them for winter goat treats or use them as bedding. If you are too lazy to rake and have portable fencing panels, simply move the panels around to where you want the goats to graze. However, if you are still milking, you will want to keep your goats off the dried leaves as it will impact the flavor of the milk. This activity is best reserved for doelings, bucks and retired does. 9. Be sure the does are getting enough exercise to avoid pregnancy toxemia. 10. Check the barn to make sure everything is in good working order and not too drafty. 11. Lastly, if you live in an area where birds migrate, beware of over-wintering birds of prey. Deciduous trees allow for easy line of sight for predators looking for free ranging poultry, so keep a careful watch on the birds in your area. If you see a bird of prey frequently visiting your place - even if they aren't looking at your poultry - it's best to prohibit free ranging for a few days and allow the predator time to learn they should move on to more fertile hunting grounds. Stay warm and enjoy some downtime from the hectic chores of spring time and summer!
The shortening days of fall and cooler temperatures do not bring to mind baby chicks, but this last week that's exactly what appeared in our coop. Several of our bantam hens are very broody and will sit on what round or baby bird like objects they can find. Sometimes we humor them. Other times when you have a fair number of hens and don't do a head count every evening as they are returning from the field, you don't notice them missing or tucked away in good hiding place for a day or so. Sometimes when this happens you get unexpected chicks.
Normally we are delighted to have new additions to the flock and in the spring and summer we have a fair number of chicks hatching every week. We have an efficient process developed that works quite well where we separate the chicks from the adult birds. We find if we leave the chicks in with the hens we have several problems: 1. Access to water because the nesting boxes are a bit too high for the chicks to safely enter and exit. 2. The larger breed hens will often pick on the bantam chicks. The little Bantam hens will come to the defense of the chicks, but typically two or three bantam hens are still not enough to scare off a 7-8 pound full-sized breed layer hen. 3. The Bantam hens then get all obsessed with the chicks and forget about laying eggs. Also, if we're trying to get more eggs to hatch, the hens will often abandon the unhatched eggs. So, typically the normal process flow kicks in and the chicks are put into the chick play pen with others of appropriate size, a waterer, feeder and warm temperatures until they are old enough to be returned to the outdoor coop. However, this process also disrupts the availability of our guest bathroom for a number of weeks. Having literally just put away all the supplies for chicks two weeks earlier, "delight" was not an emotion I experienced when I discovered a single baby chick. Chickens need a flock and a single chick in the house seemed somewhat cruel to the chick. In addition, several more weeks of yet another stop on the animal care circuit a few times a day was beginning to get a bit overwhelming. Laziness is often the mother of invention, so we tried a new tactic. We have a large dog crate that we have wrapped in hardware cloth and use as a "chicken hospital" when we have an injured bird. We filled the bottom of the dog crate with a layer of soil to provide good, familiar footing, we then put in a small chick waterer and a tray of chick feed. Then we placed the chicken hospital in a corner of the coop free from drafts and potential rain. Next was what to do about a heat source. We have heat lamps that can be used in the coop, but the use of a lamp in a relatively large and somewhat open space left some doubt in our minds as to whether or not that would keep a chick warm enough. We put the chick in to make sure it understood where its feed and water was while the hens stood around under our feet watching what was going on. Once the broody Bantam hens heard the single chick cheeping in its new accommodations they were sitting next to and on top of the crate trying to get to the chick. On impulse I picked up a random hen and put her in with the chick. She immediately ran over the chick to make sure it was ok and scoped it up under her wing. Problem solved regarding the heat source! We closely monitored the conditions over the next couple of days and everything was working great. The afternoon of the second day, another baby chick appeared. Knowing the Bantam hens are very gentle and loving to any hen's babies, I placed the newly hatched chick in the chicken hospital. The hen inspected the new chick and once she was comfortable everything was ok, scoped that one under her wing as well. That was about a week and half ago and the chicks are doing great with their foster mom. We cleaned out the coop to make sure no one was hiding any additional eggs so we didn't have any sad events related to unfound babies and evenings with cooler temperatures than they could tolerate. So all in all, I think I'm going to implement this new process on an on-going basis. It's more natural than the heat lamp method in the house and the care and maintenance for me is much easier. Not to mention the electricity and resources you have by not having to use electricity and bulbs for a heat lamp! Approaching the second half of September, the northern hemisphere is preparing for fall and winter, while the southern hemisphere has spring fever setting in. If you are in the northern hemisphere and practicing, of thinking of practicing, some sustainable urban farming practices, here are a few things to consider for preparation:
When our sustainable living experiment was started exactly four years ago, we suspected there were a few things we were going to need to learn. Fast forward to now and we are still learning things everyday. The reason for this website and blog is to provide a resource for people who are thinking about trying to grow some or more of their own food. There is still a lot of information that needs to be added, and will added over the coming weeks; it was just difficult to realize how long it takes to record all that you have done and learned - while still doing the chores on the farm. The geography in which this experimental farm is located has been experiencing the hottest and most extreme drought ever on record. This has made it especially challenging to keep gardens alive, relieve chickens from heat stress and manage a careful balance of household versus farm needs with a system whose sole source of water is rain water. We have also had a record number of chicks hatch this spring and summer and it is still not unusual to go out and find a newly hatched baby hiding in a broody hen's feathers. To sum things up, the first inhabitants to settle in a new land were a hardy and resourceful breed. Luckily things aren't quite as difficult now and most of us have neighbors close by with whom we can trade food products and resources as needed. However, working on producing even a small bit of your own food, water or energy can be a very rewarding experience and our hope is this website will provide you with inspiration.
|
Loading
MissionOur blog is dedicated to bringing you current information on sustainable, healthy living. Categories
All
|