Random Photos

My son is helping me paint the chicken coop so that it looks like a "Red Barn."  Next payday I'll buy the white paint for the trim.  You might recognize this photo as a sepia-tint photo from a recent post.  Notice how the weeds between the garlic and the chicken coop are not nearly as prominent looking in the sepia-tinted photo!  The weeds keep the sand from blowing around, so even though they harbor bugs, I keep them around until I am ready to plant - which means most of them will make it to viable seed production.  That's ok, though - as the weeds also add valuable green matter to my compost pile.

I will likely never see fruit from my hardy nectarine.  It seems to always burst into bloom shortly after the first 70*F day - never learning that here in the High Desert, that a day like that invariably is followed by a 20*F night later in the week.  Still, it's a beautiful tree all covered in pink.  And it survived two winters where we got into the negative temps for a week or more each.  So I can't complain at all.

Oregano is growing like crazy, tender and strong smelling amid last year's woody flower stalks.

This photo is from a few months ago - a Maran and an Easter Egger hen - my organic weed-eaters. They chickens don't like garlic at all, and are very dainty about not stepping on it.

Happy New Years!

Apparently Scout likes to help with "catching" the snow when it's time to shovel the back patio. Lows in the teens on the overnight, reaching the high twenties during the day. A little more snow predicted for tonight/tomorrow morning, but that should be it for a while. As for me, I'd rather stay inside and dream of Spring.

There are a few thoughts on what to do with last season's "trash." Some maintain that the left over crop residue should be removed from the field and composted, thus removing insect eggs, mold spores and disease. Others believe that the crop stubble will protect the ground, prevent erosion and hold water. Since the desert is in need of keeping every particle of organic matter and every drop of water that it can, I am going with the later method. Besides, I just like the look of dried corn "trash" after a winter snow.

The chickies are not particularly fond of snow, and when they realized I didn't have any goodies for them, decided that they would stay in the confines of their toasty coop.

I am, of course, using the weather as an excuse for not cleaning out the chicken coop. Too windy last weekend. Too snowy this weekend. Supposed to be above 30*F tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow. It isn't too nasty yet, but it will be if I don't get my act together soon. Besides, it's time to get the compost bin filled up with chickie-poo soon if I want more of that good stuff ready for the spring garden. Takes a good 3 months during the summer to cook the excess amonia out of it and turn into to sweet smelling compost. I assume it will take longer when the temps are regularly below freezing at night.

It Starts with Chickie Poo

Several months ago, I cleaned out the chicken coop and piled the chickie poo filled bedding of pine shavings into a pile about 5 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall. For 3 or 4 weeks, the amonia that was released by Billions and Billions (use Carl Sagan's voice, please) of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria totally stank! I watered and turned it diligently, keeping the temperatures down to between 140*F and 150*F, enabling the aerobic bacteria to flourish and pathogens to perish. Around the second month, the temperatures did not climb so dramatically, and the main nitrogen burn off was complete. Still, the pile would rise to the E. Coli and Salmonela killing range of 140*F a day or two after turning and watering. So I continued turning the pile every few days when it started cooling down. And day by day, the pile was getting darker and darker, and smelling less and less.

I had read that the compost would "smell sweet" when it was done, but I had no previous experience with "hot" composting, and I was not sure what the authors meant. So one day, the pile did not heat up after watering and turning. So I watered and turned the pile again. And still, the temperature barely rose to 120*F. So per the advice of the compost mages, I ignored it and let the pile sit for several weeks. And low and behold, after that time, I put my hands into soft, barely warm, sweet smelling compost.

I spread the compost where I will plant garlic in late September or early October (depending when the bulbs get here). I sprinkled some goodies for the chickies on it, and they tilled it into the sand for me. The cycle is complete - they will have chopped garlic leaves in the late spring to help clean them of parasites. ...And now, it's time to clean the coop again and make more desert gold.

Hens, Nests and Eggs

These photos and the video at the end of this post were collected in the late spring/early summer of 2010. The photos taken inside the coop are a little hazy since they were taken with an iPhone3G with only indirect lighting.
A pigeon has decided to build her nest on top of the chicken nest box in the hen house. This pair of eggs are white and about 1 1/2 inch long.

Here, in the actual nest box below, are a clutch of chicken eggs. By the end of June, about half the hens are laying every day and about half are laying every third day or so. Not nearly the production as when they were younger, but not bad for 3 year old hens. The Marans are still out-laying everyone by a large margin.

Hens checking out the next box when it was first built. My husband and son did a nice job, and the hens started laying in the new nest box the day it was built.

My dust-bathing beauties. This is their favorite place to bath. It's in the garden where we once burned a big pile of brush. I had raked the leftover ashes into the sand so it wouldn't blow around - and they love it.

And, of course, what Mama Hen would be worth her salt without a video of her babies!

Battening down the hatches

What a difference a few months makes. Here's a photo from mid-October - nearly done at this point, and ready for winter. Roof is weather-proofed even though we are still five shingles short of having all the roofing on. I guess we're buying a full bundle of shingles to finish it off.

Way too cold for shorts these days - one morning was three degrees last week. My husband forced me to get a warm, hooded, "Carhardt-style" work jacket at Cabellas yesterday. I whined about spending so much money on a jacket... and then I went to play with the chickens this morning, and, ok, so maybe it was worth it! Now I have a heavy jacket and socks. What'll it be next? Snow boots or something?!

Well, it certainly doesn't snow this much where we are. If it did, well, we probably wouldn't be living here! It's pretty, but it isn't fun to drive in, even with 4WD. And it never really snows enough around here for anyone (including me) to actually really learn how to drive in the stuff. Is it summer, yet? Then I can whine about the heat instead of the cold! One nice thing about winter, though - I have lots of time to plan projects for my husband for Spring and Summer next year!

Another Day In Paradise

Although the chickens have been living in the coop for quite some time now, it still isn't totally finished. Sort of like the Winchester Mystery House - there is this urge to "keep building." Son and husband continue to work hard to make sure it is done before the really cold times arrive. You can see the beginning skeleton of the awning that will help provide shade in the summer. What you can't see is that tar paper has gone up on the roof and that the whole south side has been flashed, edged, papered and shingled. The north side is papered - which is a good thing because it actually rained today. See the clouds in the picture - it was pleasantly cool yesterday when those clouds were white. Now those clouds are black and dripping rain. (And slowing down my Internet connection on top of that.)

The Princes Chicken/Rooster/Hen/He/She/It had a tough week last week. Spent a lot of time being beat up by the Roosters. In particular, my other Easter Egger Rooster would make a bee-line for the Chicken and start whacking away at him. Then the other two roosters would join in. We kept the Princess in a dog crate in the coop while I was on travel - with my son making sure it had food and water and some supervised/protected time out of the crate. But my husband seems to have solved the Princess Rooster bashing - he took the instigator and stuffed in in the head rooster's face a few times and after the instigator got beat on a little, he stopped being so mean. Both my husband and I took a broom to the instigator (now known as the PIA Rooster (Pain In the A... Rooster)) and PIA is no longer flying at us, either. Good thing, because the consensus that I've been getting on how to deal with PIA was to roast him. (Ok, a few people said he could become stew, but since he's a young rooster, they felt he could still be quite tender and should be roasted or baked.) I did carry PIA around for a while and discuss these possibilities with him. So far, 3 days now and he seems to have mellowed out quite a bit.

The girls are gaining weight and their hips are broadening. They are definately getting "rounder" in the behind. I believe the same things happened to me when I was ready to hatch out little chickies of my own. And while the Roosters are getting amorous, the Hens are mostly still squawking at them and running away.

Here's a few rare photos of my husband. He is decidedly camera shy. But he was hand feeding some of the chickens so he was trapped - and I got my shot. This photo is taken in the garden as there is not one smidgen of green left in their run.

Here is my husband holding Kick-Start, our lame girl. She knows he will carry her everywhere, so when she sees him coming, she hop-flaps over to him and looks up and waits. She fully expects treats with her transportation and he never disappoints. Here they are in front of the "rescue" apple tree that my husband brought over the Sierra Nevadas for me. It was slated to be bull-dozed to make way for new houses - but instead, it came to live with us in the desert. He's a tough guy, so he blames adopting all the strays on me! Well, ok, so we're both softies - he brings 'em home and I end up taking care of them.


Water has a veneer of ice early in the mornings these days, but the temps usually warm up quickly after sunrise. Still, they appreciate it when I bring them warm water - which is to say "house temperature" water. But the days are coming when the water will be solidly frozen and I will be bringing warm water serveral times daily. Winter adds at least a half hour of hot water hauling to dogs and chickens for my morning chores. It's a PIA, but I am more than happy to pay the price of not living in the suburbs or city.

Here's the Top Dog Rooster. He's actually pretty gentle when not provoked. He can be mean if provoked, though, as the PIA Rooster has discovered. He crows a lot and "talks" to the hens as they go about their business. When he sounds the alarm, everyone mad-dashes to the hen house.

I'm supposed to be planting out garlic, but the weather has not been cooperative and it was much more fun to take photos of chickens yesterday. I'm also supposed to burry the strawberries in shredded paper. I did, at least, throw tomato vine trash on the rosemary, oregano, sweet marjoram and lemon balm, so hopefully all of those will survive the winter.


This chicken pot pie is made with store-bought chicken - but I did inform the PIA Rooster that it could easily be made with Fresh PIA Rooster if he could not figure out how to get along! (Yes, I know, those of you who know me well are probably thinking that I did not really make this all by myself, but I did. So see, yes, you can teach an old hen new tricks!)

22°F this morning in the coop

From Left to Right: White & Blakc Ameraucana, Maran Hen, Maran Rooster, back end of a Silver Laced Wyandotte, White Ameraucana (aka The Princess Chicken).

Of course, that was too cold for me to go mucking about in the wane morning light. All of these pictures were taken in the coop in the evening while it was a balmy 34°F.
Closer view of the Maran Hen (left) and Maran Rooster (right). It's difficult to tell in this photo, but the hens are all quite a bit darker in coloring, with little rose combs. The rooster is a lot larger than the hens, and his comb is traditional rooster looking, not rose at all. And, of course, he crows. A lot. And not just at sunrise, but whenever he darn well feels. He crows at me when I enter the coop and startle him, and he crows at my german shepard. I think he just likes to hear himself crow. The other two roosters don't crow nearly as much.
A trio of Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. They have almost no combs. I chose the Marans both for the dark brown eggs that they lay, and also, because, like the Wyandottes, they have small combs. I'm hoping this will help avert frost bite.
Closer view of a Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. Note her red earlobes. She will lay traditional brown eggs (not nearly as dark as the Marans).
Left to Right: Ameraucana rooster, Maran hen, Brown/Orange Ameraucana - all puffed out and mad because I woke her up - two Silver Laced Wyandottes.
Brown/Orange Ameraucana and a Silver Laced Wyandotte - I stuck my finger under the Wyandotte - nice and toasty under the feathers and in her down. Feet all warm, too. They are perched on 2" x 4" boards with the wide side parallel to the floor so they can cover all of their feet when roosting. Supposed to help prevent frostbite on the toesies.
And, of course, no photo shoot could be complete without a photo of The Princess Chicken. Since the roosters have started crowing and growing spurs, she (we still think she is a she) has stopped crowing. She is acting more feminine, too - not nearly as agressive as she used to be. Still, we don't have eggs from her, yet, so she still might be a he. White Ameraucana. Ameraucanas lay blue or green eggs, with the color being specific to the hen (i.e. she will lay all blue or all green eggs, and not a mixture).
Maran hen on top of an 8 ft ladder. She's the top hen and she always wants to roost as high up as possible. I left the ladder in the coop after adjusting the heat lamp (the ladder is far from the lamp) - and now she has taken over. I guess I will have to presure wash and bleach before returning it to my husband!

By the way, the heat lamp doesn't really heat the coop, but it does keep the waterer mostly deiced - meaning that I won't usually have to go chip ice for them in the wee hours before work.

General Status

Work progresses on the chicken coop. Here DSR is screwing down the plywood that will be the underlayment for the roof. It's so nice to have the chickens out of the laundry room on a permanent bases, now.
Of course, major work on the coop means that the chickens spent all day hanging out in the tattered remains of the garden. The corn patch, of course, is still a favorite. But the chickies have also discovered that sunflower leaves also make delectable eating greens. One of the brown Easter Eggers caught a small lizard and made off like the winner of The Grand Prize. She ate it down in one bite. Of course, I didn't have my camera handy, but it sure was funny to watch.
This Yellow Pear did not fare as well as the last one, so it was tossed to a lucky chicken this afternoon. At least I got to eat the other one myself. I suspect that the green tomatoes on the vine now will not make it to ripening as the nights will soon become too cold. First hard frost should be coming 'round soon.
Harvested another Eight Ball zuke this afternoon. Procrastination meant that it is quite a bit bigger than the last one. Still, should be good for stuffing. There are 4 more that are now growing bigger - indicating that they were successfully pollinated. This is a photo of a female flower - you can see the baby fruit at her base. If pollinated, it will darken and start to increase in size. If not, it will yellow and wither. Since I hand pollinated this one, it will hopefully grow and get eaten in a few days.

Some lessons learned this year

• What chickens don't eat, they will trample to death
  
• Watering and covering the compost pile really speeds up decomposition
  
• Eight Ball zukes are cute, but Black Beauty (a "regular zuke") is much more productive for the space and water
  
• Tomatoes continue to be a challenge to get to fruit - lots of lovely bush, lots of cute little yellow flowers, but not much pollination
  
• The wild birds and other critters have learned about sunflowers - need to "bag" the heads well before seed formation now
  
• Need to plant a lot more sunflowers if we are going to supplement the chickens' diet with seeds and leaves
  
• Young zucchini leaves are relished by young chickens, even if they are prickly
  
• I will need to make a chicken wire "cage" for the garlic prior to planting it in the ground
  
• Only going to plant two types of garlic this year - Georgia Crystal and Siberian. Besides the distinct color differerence of the bulb wrappers, I'm going to plant only one type to a bed. This will help with identification when it comes time to harvest. The smaller cloves I will plant together so I can let the scapes mature - the chickens loved the tiny bulbils and garlic is supposed to be good to help clean out their systems.
  
• I still cannot keep up with pinching back basil flowers when the heat of summer gets here.
  
• Lemon balm and oregano should be harvested early in the spring before the summer heat makes them bloom.
  
• Rosemary needs full sun - even in the desert. When the basils start shading it, then it slows down in growth. When I pinch back the basils, the rosemary starts growing vigorously again.
  
• Strawberries will take over, given lots of food, water and desert sun.
  
• Do not procrastinate in taking photos of flowers in the spring - today might be a perfect day, but tomorrow a hard frost could destroy all the blooms and buds.
  
• Baby chickens are all consuming
  
• The trees need lots of watering in the summer - once a week for the young ones is not enough
  

Today's Chicky Pics

The chicken coop as it looks today - steps, door, roof trusses. (View of the south side.) Eventually there will be a window next to the door, oh, and a roof, too. Everything is screwed together as opposed to nailed - the theory being that screws are stronger. With the 75 MPH wind gusts that we get during some of the year, we need all the strength we can get. The daubs of white are putty over the screws. Eventually, I think, everything will be painted white with some contrasting color trim. We were going to paint it red like a barn, but figured we'd better go with the most heat reflecting color we could. 103*F yesterday.

There's a tarp on the south side of the coop for shade. Under it is the waterer and feeder. And except for the heat of the day, there are usually at least a few chickens on top of it. Luckily, it hoses off well. Eventually it will be replaced with an awning. Being that they like to sit up high, however, we're going to put removable (and washable) roosts on its support posts.

The corn patch is everybody's favorite place to hang out. It seems to be an all around chicky paradise: cool, damp dirt to dust bathe in or hunt bugs in (or, perhaps both at the same time); tender corn leaves to eat; young corn cobs to devour before they even start looking like baby corn on the cob; large, rustling leaves to pick at and shred (I don't think they actually eat the tougher ones, just play with them); tall stalks to provide shade and a great place for hide and seek. Makes me want corn that is 10 feet tall for me to run around in (although I'll pass on searching for and eating bugs).

If the people are to get any corn next year, I will certainly have to barricade it so the marauders can't get to it!

Coop Building Part One

We are well into August 2008 and the coop is still not completed. We've come a long way, though, and at least the chickens have been out of the laundry room on a permanent bases for a month now. (Remember to click on the photo to see full sized versions of them.)
We naivly thought the chickies would live in the bottom half of a dog crate for 4 or 5 weeks and then move into their newly completed coop and chicken run. As of today, they are just about 8 weeks old - and we are still several weeks off from completion.

The coop certainly is suffering from "scope creap," and as such, is both over budget and well past the original projected deployment date. At least we are currently in a successful beta-test.
Six bags of fence post concrete were used for each of the 4" x 4" foundation posts. There are a total of 9 posts. Posts were set a few days before the beginning of the floor joists and braces.


Floor details. The boys used a lot of brackets, screws and nails. Not to mention, lots of wood. Lowes loves us. A lot.





At this point, the chickies' whole world is still the bottom half of a dog crate in the laundry room.

Mid-June and the walls are going up. DSr. and DJr. built them on the floor and then hoisted them into position by hand and bolted them to the foundation posts and floor support beams.
The West wall is the first one up. This one faces the fenced garden area.
The North wall is next. Also, most of the fence posts and frames for the run are up by now. The tractor and auger have certainly proved their worth.
All four walls are up and the opening for the door is in place. You can barely see it in this photo, but the door is wrapped in a camo tarp on the floor as it hailed in June - three times!
Detail of teh walls being bolted to the foundation posts.