I'd like to say I took a
moment.....some time away from blogging just to enjoy the summer. I'd like to say that but I can't! My summer thus far has been very hectic. I'm not sure how I ever worked a full time job and was a full time Mommy too.I've added to my own stress with a bunch of chickens and ducks...um...um...um....plus a few turkey's which hopefully my husband continues to think are just really tall chickens.
I'm a city girl at heart who has to learn to be a country girl. We lived out in the country once before and I hated it...how we find ourselves out in the country again, in a fairly new state is beyond me. But alas here we are. I have always complained to my husband that it's boring! that was before I started to garden and fell in love with it. I came to the conclusion that country life isn't boring if you have something to occupy your time and MIND!!
Well....One day I saw that my neighbor was erecting a really nice shed...what I thought was a shed until I heard noises. That is when I learned she had purchased a few Cochrin chickens and a few ducks and was building a chicken coop. Oh! how cute were the ducks!!!! so cute that not long after my kids fell in love with them we ended up purchasing two ducks too (see older post). Well at the the time I didn't really take to the chickens. They didn't really appeal to me at all...............................................................
A few months later and Wham! I have chickens (all different varieties) plus the neighbor's chickens and ducks visit everyday. I started out only going to order a few chicks from Idealpoultry.com and for some reason I became amazed and order happy because of all the different varieties of chickens. Who'd have thought there were so many? I ended up purchasing Plymouth rocks, heavy feather legged pullets, Silkie bantams, Wyndottes, Buff orfington's, speckled sussex to name a few......and the ducks, well they had just as many varieties; crested swiss, Penkin's, black runner ducks, fawn crested and on and on......
All was great until I got them all here and realized that I was going to have to come up with some housing and quick. Sure they can live in an old child's swimming pool with straw placed on the bottom and a heat lamp hanging from the garage ceiling...but they grow, and fast!!!!
needless to say that between all the kids day sport camps, fundraising, car-pooling, College campus day's and dentist, doc and general "run me to the mall or I'll die" trips for the kids........I've let the garden slack a wee bit and have been running around myself like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get recycled or free housing and learn to build too.............here are a few pics.......
Sadly...being the chicken novice that I am we lost 13 chicks and 2 turkey's from either a skunk, cat, coyote etc.....my neighbor's lost 5 chicks the next night and shot a skunk so................This was a month or so ago. I took a trip to Tractor Supply Company and while getting chick feed this guy came strolling down the Aisle and happened to ask if I had ducks.........cause he lost 6 of his to coyotes and was telling me to make sure I had at least a six foot fence. Anyhow.......as we talked I asked if he had any experience with chickens and "Oh, sure........" was his response. Well in the course of us conversing he ensured me that if I had a heat lamp on them even out in the open, and a fence around them nothing would get them. Hrmp!! well Tractor supply Man was Wrong! maybe that's why he had a cocky little smirk on his face as he sauntered off.....hmmm........
PS: Don't look like a city slicker when you go to Tractor Supply Company--that's sac religious!!
Here are a few pics of the temporary shelter's I have built, salvaged and found on the side of the road for free (converted Green rabbit hutch into a chicken coop for the silkie Bantam's as they will not grow very tall. The ramp is built with left over wood from my son's "tree house" and an old hose I cut to make the treads. The A-frame I built using three wooden pallets and left over roof paper and shingles again from my son's tree house project. I covered the floor with chicken wire and then put straw onto for warmth and comfort. The A-frame fence was given to my by my neighbor and I made a chicken run out of it using wooden tree branches I staked into the ground on either side to keep it from collapsing and I also wired the top together with left over spool of wire I used on previous fencing and helped give it support by resting it against the A-frame wooden pallet house I made. All of this is portable so I can move it around to fresh grass area's. I plan on making a STRAWBALE CHICKEN COOP in the next few weeks. My love for straw bale garden is extending into all areas of my life...lol...I researched it and turns out it was one of the very first shelters for animals and still holding strong today.
I put a few pics of the garden area's.....they are very overrun with weeds! Since I have been spending so much of my time researching and taking care and building chicken,duck and turkey housing I haven't had much time left for weeds. The center of the StrawBale area has acorn squash, cantaloupe , eggplant, cucumber, sweet potatoes in it. The neighbors chickens and duck are peaking to death the squash and eating the entire plants on some. The tops of the bales were planted with strawberries but they are entirely Gone thanks to little cluckers..... Next year I will put a fence around it to keep out all chickens and ducks including mine...LOL they are so cute it's difficult to be mad......
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