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A Full Dozen

A full dozen — chickens in the coop, that is. (Not eggs in a day… Yet.)

But first, some coop modification updates…

With any DIY home project, you’re never really done. Case in point, I still have no baseboards and we’ve been in our house for over 8 years! Turns out, the same goes for a chicken coop.

When we got the coop finished in a rush prepping for the “old guard” that came with Atlas back in the summer, there were some things that we knew would need updating/finishing by the time the new residents would move in (and for the winter weather).

One – windows. We just cut holes in the man door and side of the coop and backed them with hardware cloth this summer, knowing that the girls would be fine with the summer temps. But, that just won’t do for winter. we do have some ventilation in the upper eaves, but these holes will be too much to allow the girls to stay warm in the winter. My very clever hubby saved the boards that we cut out, and we rigged them with hinges and closures so that we can have them either open or closed. It now seals up quite nicely, allowing the chickens to build up some body heat and not have the drafty wind.

Two – roost poles. We literally slapped a pole across the midsection of the interior when we built this coop. It has worked great for the existing 6 grown chickens (I can’t call them “layers” because we have yet to get an egg from the 4 Black Star pullets – but that is another story :-)!). We knew that adding the 6 chicks into the mix for winter would require more roosting space. So, Jerry and I put a layered roosting area for them – 45 degree slope with 3 roost poles. The 6 grown chickens have been doing nicely here – all of them snug in nicely on the top roost at night and they have been happy cluckers. They even hang out inside lately during the day with all the wind and cold that has been blowing through lately.

And, now we can get to today’s exciting news… We now have TWELVE chickens in the coop!! The chicks are now 12 weeks old, and with it getting colder we were really wanting to get all of these ladies together so that they can keep each other warm at night AND so that we are not moving the chicks in and out each morning and evening. Not only is it a major hassle, we just really didn’t have a good place to have them outside when there was rain. They are getting big enough that it was too cramped for them in their UHaul box contraption in the garage 🙂 Now they will be able to choose whether to go out in the rain or stay in the coop.

Today turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day as we gear up for the cold front that is coming through later this week. Some call it a “polar vortex,” but I grew up calling it a “cold front.” We took advantage of this late this afternoon and brought the chicks into the hen yard area again. Everyone seemed much more at ease this time, and once the big girls went in and got settled on their roost, I showed the littles how to get in and let them explore. They ended up settling in – half of them on the bottom roost and half of them nesting in the pine shavings on the floor.

6-20141110_185339_LLS — Littles – 3 on the bottom roost and 3 nesting on the floor

I plan to make sure I’m down there at the Crack of Dawn tomorrow so that I can closely monitor the waking and morning activities to make sure there is no unwarranted aggression from the big girls. If all goes well, they can all stay out and enjoy the yard and the sunshine together tomorrow!

Now it is time to get our waterer heater made – it’s supposed to get down in the 20s later this week, and we don’t want frozen water!

Here are a couple more shots from the farm:

Even though he has a sheltered area, Atlas prefers under the coop - even in the rain. Problem is... he keeps getting taller, so he is quite a bit dirtier crawling in and out. — Even though he has a sheltered area, Atlas prefers under the coop – even in the rain. Problem is… he keeps getting taller, so he is quite a bit dirtier crawling in and out.

Poor Dom - she's molting. Barred Rock feathers everywhere! — Poor Dom – she’s molting. Barred Rock feathers everywhere!

Here’s hoping we’ll get eggs soon, with Dom in full-on molt we are down to one egg roughly every day from Red. So, 12 chickens and – at best – one egg a day right now. Rough time of the year 🙂

Who Doesn’t Love Free Housing?

So, you might remember me mentioning that we had started keeping the chicks inside at night. Really is the best for now – especially since it has been so cold at night. Their CamperCoop™ just doesn’t provide enough warmth for them at this stage.

We created this contraption out of our two dog crates in order to give them quarters that weren’t too cramped.

It worked fairly well, but it did have some challenges.

It did not have a way to easily hang the feeder and waterer, so we were constantly battling pine shavings in the trays.
While it has a great opening in the center that can be opened to retrieve the chicks for movement outside each morning, they didn’t exactly congregate there to be scooped up. This meant I had to call upon the smallest Lee to go inside and hand chicks out. Not exactly the most efficient operation.
Freshening the litter wasn’t exactly efficient either. (See previous point…)

So, we were on a quest for yet another home improvement project for the chicks. The general idea was to have a bigger, more-open-at-the-top space for the chicks to hang out when we needed to have them indoors.

My Mom suggested a refrigerator box. We could just put it on its side and cut the “top” off. Jerry then had the suggestion of a wardrobe moving box.

So, I got on the phone this week while waiting for the boys to get done with their Geography tutorial. I struck out at Lowe’s, Walmart was a no-go, and then I tried the local U-Haul in Springfield. While getting dimensions on the various wardrobe boxes, I happened to mention that I wasn’t using it for “traditional” purposes, and the nice man asked me what I was trying to do. It turns out that he had two shorty wardrobe boxes that someone had turned in to him after they were done with them. I asked him how much he wanted for these used boxes since they sounded like just what I needed. He said I could have them for chicken dinner. Hmmmm.

I counter-offered with a dozen eggs in the spring once the gals are all laying, and we struck a deal!

So, after getting the kids, we came home and they got busy on schoolwork while I got busy remodeling the chick housing. It’s really more of a demolition job with reconstruction since the previous housing has since been completely disassembled and disinfected.

I put the boxes end-to-end and taped them together. I ended up punching holes in the top for wire to mount the feeder and waterer. This way they both hang a couple inches off the floor and should not have so many pine shavings in them. I got them a nice layer of newspapers and pine shavings, and I found a scrap of our fence material that bent to fit nicely over the opening. It is easily removed to enable much more efficient cleaning, restocking of water/feed, and chick retrieval

The chicks are right at 10 weeks old, so in the next few weeks, we should be able to start giving them visitation in the big hen yard. My hope is to have them all happily in the big coop by Thanksgiving.

Better than Sliced Bread

What is better than sliced bread? Homemade, hand-sliced bread, of course!

Today's double batch of double-the-recipe bread. — Today’s double batch of double-the-recipe bread.

I started making homemade bread a few weeks ago. This is something I have really been wanting to do to provide my family with a fresher, healthier option for sandwiches and such as we attempt to become a little more “homesteady” in our food choices and methods. After listening to Farm Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I had visions of instituting a baking day – the day set aside for doing the week’s baking. I figured I would start with doubling the loaf since I have this wonderful long loaf pan. That should take my family through a week.

Not.

I never realized how much bread we consumed! I made the bread on the weekend, and by Tuesday I was making another double loaf! And they were getting antsy because it was running low by Friday.

So, here is the question, was I really that oblivious to my family’s rate of bread consumption? Or (more likely) do we just love the homemade stuff so much more that we are eating more now?

My gut tells me it is the latter. I think we are eating sandwiches when we might normally have something else, having a snack of buttered bread, and I know a certain Man of the House that is having French toast for breakfast more than occasionally now 🙂

I imagine (am sort of hoping!) that the novelty of it will wear off a bit… I know I have to work on my own self-control so I don’t undo all of my weight loss of the past couple of years!! But it is sooooo goood 🙂

I don’t think I shall complain about the increased consumption by my fellas, though. I know the ingredients that are going into the bread, and I know they are good. Plus, I really am enjoying the process. It does take time, but if I am going to be around the house, it is not such a big deal since much of that time is waiting on the rise or the bake.

Today I decided to give my mixer a break. I had been using it to do the kneading, but I wanted to see if there was a difference when I did it myself. I haven’t tasted these yet, but I can say that the texture seems much more tender, and I know I thoroughly enjoyed the process! It was very relaxing and rewarding to think about the good I was doing for my family while I was working the dough. Honestly, I don’t think it took that much longer, and I didn’t have to stand over my mixer trying to keep it from walking off the counter!

My first loaf (the long one) didn’t rise properly. I think I did something wrong with the yeast (trying a new brand), but it did eventually rise enough I could bake it. It will be interesting to see how it turns out on the inside… it rose in the pan the whole time I made and baked the second batch (the two smaller loaves).

So, do you bake your own bread? All the time, or just as a treat? I have made rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, and the like (and I love to bake!), but this is the first time I have attempted to nix the whole store-bought bread routine.. I am excited to try new recipes and work into whole-grains rather than this (quite delicious) white bread all the time. Now that I am getting into a routine, I am ready to expand my horizons!