Life on the Farm – Page 2 – Crack of Dawn Farms

Snow: All Cooped Up and Still Laying Strong

For all the cold weather we’ve had this year (and last Fall), we finally got snow to go with it. Now, this makes my kids happy. Understatement of the year. Need proof?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkunuyYviOk

The chickens are not so happy about it. In fact, I am typing this on Wednesday afternoon, and they have not stepped foot outside the coop since the first layers of ice/snow covered the ground Monday morning. I cannot imagine the cabin fever they must have.

08-20150218_114842 — Giving me the Cabin Fever stink eye.

It is ironic, though, because Monday was the day our Buff Orpington “chick” decided to lay her first egg. We now have 7 layers out of 10 chickens, and it is somewhat surreal to see the winter wonderland outside and realize we are getting more eggs than ever!

One distinctly small egg from our Buff O

We are all pretty excited to have our first layer from chicks we raised (granted, they were 4 weeks old when we got them, but they were still so tiny!).

Jerry was able to make it out to the local store yesterday and got us some straw. We got another inch+ of snow last night and this morning, so I put some of the straw out today to try to coax the girls out of the coop into the sunshine.It was hard to really get it scattered well since the hawk netting is hanging VERY low due to all the ice. If they do decide to venture out, it should give them some dry piles to roost on and scatter and soak up some rays.

03-20150218_114740 — Thinking about coming out…

05-20150218_114758 — I couldn’t spread the straw well due to the sagging netting.

I really hope they do… it would be a shame to have egg production reduce because they are literally all cooped up!

Thinking about it. Maybe.... — Thinking about it. The sun is so tempting.

Well..... since you put the straw out I'll think on it some more... — Well….. since you put the straw out I’ll think on it some more…

11-20150218_114110 — I don’t THINK so. Get back in there… I’m not putting my feet down on that stuff!

Oh, and in case you wondered… our 9 month old pony, I mean Great Pyrenees, is LOVING this weather. This is the type of weather he was bred for, and you can tell he is right at home in it. He’s busy barking to keep the wild birds out of the chicken yard since the girls aren’t out there. He did decide to take advantage of some of the straw to lay on top of the snow.

01-20150216_121448 — Snow Day 1 – his fur is crunchy from the ice!

04-20150218_114752 — Snow Day 3 – Even an Atlas likes a pile of straw.

Waaaayyyyy overdue update!

I’ll spare you all the “sorry I’ve been bad about updating” spiel. We’ve been busy and I just haven’t taken the time to do it. Nothing more, no excuses. Hey, it’s a free blog… you get what you pay for, eh? 🙂

All is cruising along nicely at the Crack of Dawn Farms. We’ve been in a bit of maintenance mode for the most part. All 6 of the “big girls” are laying, and we are anticipating the four “chicks” to start laying really any time now (they are almost 6 months old now!). It is REALLY nice to not be buying eggs. I haven’t bought bread in a while either, and have really enjoyed using these farm fresh eggs in my bread. In fact, we are considering a plot of wheat (likely winter wheat since we won’t have things prepped until Fall), but that’s a story for another time.

Atlas is almost 8 months old, and he is starting to mellow – a bit. BUT, he keeps it all interesting. Just when we were really getting into a maintenance mode, he decided to start going under the chicken fence into their yard. Blocked his entrance one place, he found another. Finally, we put up some hot wire at the weakest link. We decided to use a polycord-type of rope/wire (it’s actually a horse/pony fencing) instead of traditional wire thinking it would be more visible, and he would be better about staying off it once he recognized the zing. All was working well, until he decided one night – while it was off – to chew through it.

So now, we have replaced the lower part with actual wire wire, so he moved to a non-electrified part to go under. We came home from Ryan’s tennis practice Wednesday morning to find him standing IN the chicken yard. Fortunately the chickens have caught on to his reindeer games, and they just scoot to the coop.

We spent some time with him today while the chickens were out in the big yard, and he is doing much better about chasing to play. But, the instinct is still there and he requires CLOSE supervision when they are all out together.

Trying to occupy the big dog with basket-soccer while the ladies are roaming in the outer rim.

All this to say, I can see that in a year or so Atlas will probably be ready to “live” with his chickens, but until then we’ll also be extending the electric wire (real wire!) all the way around the chicken yard to deter unsupervised visits.

As a compensation for the lag in posts, I’m going to end with a bunch of farm pics from the interim. Spring is coming, y’all. We’re trying for a bigger garden, so I doubt the posts will be super frequent! 🙂

The Rhode Island Reds are getting BIG (pic from December)

Engine crate pallets are fun for chickens

My boys enjoying a little quality time with the chickens

The younglings like the roof of the "dog house" — The younglings like the roof of the “dog house”

In the outer rim getting some fresh scratching on a sunny day

A new roost in an attempt to combat winter boredom

The snow made a pretty image on the hawk netting

More boredom busters... fresh straw piles to scatter — More boredom busters… fresh straw piles to scatter

The younglings getting in on the straw spreading action

Almost 8 months old, and almost 12. They grow up so fast!

Until next time… Happy farming!

Wendy

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Quick update from the farm. The kids and I were gone for over a week, and we left Jerry to look after things at home since he had to work.

Just a few days before we left, we had our first case of Atlas getting hold of one of the chicks and over – playing. That was a tough loss, but somewhat inevitable with a livestock guardian puppy in training.

All seemed to be going well while we were gone until Friday. Jerry came out to find chicks outside the fence, and one was not ever found. Our suspicion is that she was snagged by a hawk. We’ll probably not know for sure, but if it was a hawk, I am concerned that it will return now that it has had a taste.

There is some “good” in this update… promise 🙂

It seems that one of our black stars has decided she doesn’t want to be Christmas dinner. Yesterday – approximately 30 weeks post-hatch, we got an egg!! So, we are back up to 2 a day for 2 days straight.

We are definitely doing the happy dance, and looking at the silver lining in the midst of our chick losses.

(I’ll try to get pics up soon… Atlas goes for a weigh – in today so we can get more heartworm prevention. He seems to have added a good ten pounds while we were gone!!)