For those of you who need to be able to visualize the project, this is the link to the coop that inspired us:
Sunday, May 29, 2011
The Chicken Palace...err Coop
it depends really on who you ask, hunter or me, as to what it is called. i spent a lot of time researching different styles of chicken coops and this is the one that seemed to be best suited for what i was looking for. i want all my different breeds to have their own space, which meant either building ten seperate small coops or one big coop with different sections for different breeds. hunter managed to salvage a good bit of wood from our original coop, and our neighbor donated his tornado damaged shed to the coop as well. we still have a good bit of fencing materials left from the dogs as well so we will be using it to wire the outside of the coop. we went yesterday and bought our corner posts and spent the afternoon measuring it out and squaring it off. the measurements for the coop are 22x28 containing 5 4x8 stalls and 2 8x8 stalls, there is a hallway rnning between them and there will be a roof over top to help keep the chickens dry when it rains. my friend jacob is going to help us solar power the coop as well to be able to provide air circulation, light, and possibly heat during the winter. we are going to use a rain barrel to help supply water. i am extremely excited about this coop and have to keep reminding myself that it will take longer than just a weekend to get it just right. in the mean time the girls plus captain jack and morgan are enjoying their new and improved dog kennel.
For those of you who need to be able to visualize the project, this is the link to the coop that inspired us:
For those of you who need to be able to visualize the project, this is the link to the coop that inspired us:
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Meet The Chickens
So here are our newest farm addition(s).
Chickens!!
In March of this year we went to Tractor Supply to get dog food, and they had a bin full of baby ducks. Of course I was like "Awww, we have to get some" And Hunter being the sensible one, told me I needed to go home and learn about them first. This is where we decided to switch and get chickens....Ducks are messy creatures and they don't tend to be very smart when it comes to predators. So I bought a book, looked it up online, and joined a forum to get as much information as possible. The book "Chick Days" is a day by day diary of keeping and raising baby chicks from Day 1 until they start laying eggs. It tells you the ups and downs of raising chicks, mistakes the author made, things that worked well, etc. It also breaks down the breeds and helps you see which ones are good for egg laying, are friendly, etc. We looked at that book for a week, then decided we wanted to get Silkies, Buff Orpingtons, Americaunas, Black Australorps, Marans, and a few other bantams. We also said we would only be getting 15 maybe 20 tops....HAHAHA
We found the Silkies first, locally on Craigslist. We stopped at Tractor Supply on the way to get them and ended up buying 6 chicks there as well, 4 silver laced wyandottes, a Rhode Island Red, and Glenda our Cornish Cross. So we came home with 6 chicks from TSC, and 4 silkies(2 white and 2 black) from Mount Airy. That right there took up 10 of my "15" chickens I was allowed to get. So the next day I am on Craigslist again and I find a "Chicken Swap" in Concord the following Saturday. And they were going to have the Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, and Americaunas we wanted. We were also delivering a puppy to a family that lived in the area, so we made plans to go early enough to stop by the "Swap" first. Not only did the family end up meeting us at the "Swap" but they were as enchanted by the chickens as we were. I use we very loosely, but Hunter loves the little birds just as much as I do. We got 4 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Black Australorps, they had sold out of Americaunas, and 2 more black Silkies. So lets see if my Chicken Math is correct...10 at home + 9 at the chicken swap = 19....oh no I can only get one more...and TSC has Americaunas come in on the following Monday (you have to buy 6 when you get them from Tractor Supply) so that takes us to 25 by Tuesday. Then we still needed to get Bantams (which for those of you who don't know are mini chickens) but they don't come until Fridays. We got 12, mainly because we didn't know what they were and we could always sell them later right? Ok so 25 + 12 = 37 plus 3 more Americaunas, and 3 more RIR, and 6 more bantams we are now up to 49 chicks. However we lost 3 bantams (they couldn't take the stress of some really bad thunderstorms we had), sold a trio of Olde English Game Bantams, and then my last 8 Cochins (also bantams) went home last week. Grand total before this weekend was down to 35. But that doesn't include the eggs in the incubators. I found a girl locally who has polish chickens and she sold us 20 eggs for $8 (this is a really good deal for hatching eggs) and they hatched over this weekend, starting Sunday afternoon. We had 10 out of the 19 hatch (one wasnt fertile) and then 9 out of the 10 make it past the "3 day" mark....
And here they are: I will introduce them one by one once they are sorted and Happy in their new coop Hunter and Ely will be building next week.
Chickens!!
In March of this year we went to Tractor Supply to get dog food, and they had a bin full of baby ducks. Of course I was like "Awww, we have to get some" And Hunter being the sensible one, told me I needed to go home and learn about them first. This is where we decided to switch and get chickens....Ducks are messy creatures and they don't tend to be very smart when it comes to predators. So I bought a book, looked it up online, and joined a forum to get as much information as possible. The book "Chick Days" is a day by day diary of keeping and raising baby chicks from Day 1 until they start laying eggs. It tells you the ups and downs of raising chicks, mistakes the author made, things that worked well, etc. It also breaks down the breeds and helps you see which ones are good for egg laying, are friendly, etc. We looked at that book for a week, then decided we wanted to get Silkies, Buff Orpingtons, Americaunas, Black Australorps, Marans, and a few other bantams. We also said we would only be getting 15 maybe 20 tops....HAHAHA
We found the Silkies first, locally on Craigslist. We stopped at Tractor Supply on the way to get them and ended up buying 6 chicks there as well, 4 silver laced wyandottes, a Rhode Island Red, and Glenda our Cornish Cross. So we came home with 6 chicks from TSC, and 4 silkies(2 white and 2 black) from Mount Airy. That right there took up 10 of my "15" chickens I was allowed to get. So the next day I am on Craigslist again and I find a "Chicken Swap" in Concord the following Saturday. And they were going to have the Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, and Americaunas we wanted. We were also delivering a puppy to a family that lived in the area, so we made plans to go early enough to stop by the "Swap" first. Not only did the family end up meeting us at the "Swap" but they were as enchanted by the chickens as we were. I use we very loosely, but Hunter loves the little birds just as much as I do. We got 4 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Black Australorps, they had sold out of Americaunas, and 2 more black Silkies. So lets see if my Chicken Math is correct...10 at home + 9 at the chicken swap = 19....oh no I can only get one more...and TSC has Americaunas come in on the following Monday (you have to buy 6 when you get them from Tractor Supply) so that takes us to 25 by Tuesday. Then we still needed to get Bantams (which for those of you who don't know are mini chickens) but they don't come until Fridays. We got 12, mainly because we didn't know what they were and we could always sell them later right? Ok so 25 + 12 = 37 plus 3 more Americaunas, and 3 more RIR, and 6 more bantams we are now up to 49 chicks. However we lost 3 bantams (they couldn't take the stress of some really bad thunderstorms we had), sold a trio of Olde English Game Bantams, and then my last 8 Cochins (also bantams) went home last week. Grand total before this weekend was down to 35. But that doesn't include the eggs in the incubators. I found a girl locally who has polish chickens and she sold us 20 eggs for $8 (this is a really good deal for hatching eggs) and they hatched over this weekend, starting Sunday afternoon. We had 10 out of the 19 hatch (one wasnt fertile) and then 9 out of the 10 make it past the "3 day" mark....
And here they are: I will introduce them one by one once they are sorted and Happy in their new coop Hunter and Ely will be building next week.
What you are getting yourself into...
Alright I am going to yet again try my hand at blogging. As many of you know I start out strong and then quickly become bored... but I am willing to try again.
So here goes....
Last Summer, Hunter and I purchased a house and some land (8 acres) in Ararat, NC. We bought this house for several reasons and are slowly but surely bringing our dreams to reality. We needed land for the dogs that Hunter raises and trains, but we wanted to be able to garden, and have fruit trees, and try out hobbies,etc. So we built a fenced in area for the dogs, separated it into sections and now they can happily run around and just be dogs. We then bought some fruit trees, it was late in the fall and it got cold a lot quicker than expected so they ended up living in the basement over the winter. We also built our square foot gardening boxes and planted a fall garden. We got some turnips, cabbage, greens and broccoli out of it before the frost took over.
Fast forward to Spring 2011...and where we are now. We (mainly I) decided it would be fun to raise chickens. Hunter agreed and our adventure began with us only getting 6 baby chicks from Tractor Supply...they tell you how addicting raising chickens are, what they don't tell you is there is no cure.
We now have over 50 little chickens of all varieties and ages with plans to get more in the future (this will be discussed more in depth in another post). We survived a Tornado on April 5th, losing several trees, our new chicken coop, and our well house in the process. We also had enough shingle damage to the roof to have a new one put on. Hunter got to help with this process and we made some new friends along the way. We also planted our spring garden this year and I will be updating you on its progress as we go along. The Apple trees have been planted and plans are being made to purchase not only more apple, but peach, pear, and cherry as well. We also have a brand new litter of Chocolate puppies born on May 9th. Needless to say we are very, very busy right now.
So here goes....
Last Summer, Hunter and I purchased a house and some land (8 acres) in Ararat, NC. We bought this house for several reasons and are slowly but surely bringing our dreams to reality. We needed land for the dogs that Hunter raises and trains, but we wanted to be able to garden, and have fruit trees, and try out hobbies,etc. So we built a fenced in area for the dogs, separated it into sections and now they can happily run around and just be dogs. We then bought some fruit trees, it was late in the fall and it got cold a lot quicker than expected so they ended up living in the basement over the winter. We also built our square foot gardening boxes and planted a fall garden. We got some turnips, cabbage, greens and broccoli out of it before the frost took over.
Fast forward to Spring 2011...and where we are now. We (mainly I) decided it would be fun to raise chickens. Hunter agreed and our adventure began with us only getting 6 baby chicks from Tractor Supply...they tell you how addicting raising chickens are, what they don't tell you is there is no cure.
We now have over 50 little chickens of all varieties and ages with plans to get more in the future (this will be discussed more in depth in another post). We survived a Tornado on April 5th, losing several trees, our new chicken coop, and our well house in the process. We also had enough shingle damage to the roof to have a new one put on. Hunter got to help with this process and we made some new friends along the way. We also planted our spring garden this year and I will be updating you on its progress as we go along. The Apple trees have been planted and plans are being made to purchase not only more apple, but peach, pear, and cherry as well. We also have a brand new litter of Chocolate puppies born on May 9th. Needless to say we are very, very busy right now.
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