Chicks Getting Out..

Chicks Getting Out....
The babies are almost 4 weeks old; their feathers have them pretty well covered, they are healthy, they have attitude,  and their clover is out in the yard waiting for them.

Most of them caught on to the idea of moving to keep in the shade as the Sun moves through the sky.  I put up a shade tarp but the wind flaps it.  So they prefer the shade of the coop or the green wind fence.  I can put up more green fences so the grass is shaded too.  The last two days the Sun has been powerful.
Today  I must have gone over to the coop 8 times to check on how they were doing, or putter with something, or stay around when I saw the hawks circling.  That wouldn't be a big deal except that I am wearing a 'Star Wars Boot' to rest my left ankle.  I did something to my tendon and 'positive thinking' wasn't getting it healed.  Anyway I sort of have to hop like a cowboy... Or I ride around on my little mower tractor. It is sort of like a green mobile chair for off-road.

The ground is really dry out here. We were between the clouds on the last round of thunder storms.  I picked some zucchini and tomatoes.  The plants seem like they are just 'holding,' waiting for more rain. It has been like that a lot this summer. I do some watering but it is just not enough. I am bringing in the onions and some of the potatoes that have vines that have dried up. We got good sweet corn but the stalks were like little mutants. But they put out really nice cobs. Nature is funny sometimes-- how did they get the signal to make cobs when they weren't 3 feet tall?

Wonder Chick at 15 Days

Wonder chick at 15 days old.....

This little girl is just being a show-off, or getting ready for the Chix Olympics!!  They love to run and they will climb on anything they can. In this picture the heat lamp is making an orange spot in the background. I try to keep the temperature around 80 degrees.  Usually I have windows open too, so that the humidity doesn't get too high.  I check in with them at least 5 times a day.
You can see the feathers they are growing.  Also you can see  the seams of bare skin that show where they are outgrowing their feathers. Every day they are getting bigger.They have tripled their coop area. They are starting to use an adult feeder and a bigger watering jug.  It will warm up next  week and they will have more feathers to handle the range of temperatures.  Then I will get them moved into the main coop area.
I have been feeding them a mix of Organic grains. This is the first time I have used this feed.  It seems to be going well.  When I refill the feeder I make a mush of the uneaten feed, so they eat everything without them totally emptying the feeder. Each morning I have been bringing in a big bouquet of clover plants. They start pecking on the clover heads.  When they get outside their whole yard is planted in clover.
So far I am behind in my yard fencing..... it is about 50x100 and I have got a lot of fencing to do yet! I'll make it my big project tomorrow.
Sunday I had a big day in the woods. I put my chainsaw in the trailer and spent the afternoon clearing the wind-falls off the trails.  It was glorious! Then I made a mistake and hurt my ankle. When I came  back to the cottage, Stoney got ice on my ankle and took over chicken care for the next two days. I am so lucky that she 'has my back'.  So this has been a week of hobbling, limping, icing and walking slow. Today we went up on the hill and watch the storm clouds blowing over. I am so lucky.

Chicks getting their Lunch

Chicks getting their lunch.....

The chicks are 6 days old. Each day I am aware of changes and growth.   The term 'doubling' seems to apply. They need twice as much water, feed and space.  In the next few day I will be introducing a bigger water jar and bigger feeders. I have been giving them clover and corn cobs to try out different foods.
These little birds love to run. Now they can turn, stop and jump. At first they were just running until they hit something.
This morning when I came out the birds were in the corners away from the heat light. A few days ago they were all sleeping under the light. And when they first came, they were under 2 heat lamps day and night. It is in the 70's during the night. So today I shut off the light for the day and took out the divider. Now they have the whole little coop room to run and spread out. So tonight when I turn on the heat light [It is cold for a few hours...], they can sleep in their comfort zone.  I think they need some external heat until they get their feathers. But this way they can choose. I'll see where they are sleeping in the morning.
Yesterday I worked on the outside yard. I pounded in the t-posts for the outside yard. The ground is so dry the clay soil and stones didn't make much resistance at all.  It may have helped that I was standing in the wagon box, so I had really good leverage.  In the afternoon I sculpted the hillside around the coop door.  I had to bring the ground level up about 12 inches on the length of the building so the birds can walk in and out easily.  Also if we ever get rain, then the water has channels to go around the door area. Well, raking dust is not easy.
My arms and hands insisted on a vacation day today. So hooking the fence on the posts will happen tomorrow. I haven't done much fencing since before my surgeries, but I think I am strong enough.  Let's see, Fence, Door, hooks for the shade tarps, a skirt around the building and I will have the yard completed!!  This will be nice. It is a much bigger yard than I had before.

The Chicks have Arrived!

Baby chickens in the coop

THE CHICKS HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

Thursday morning the Mail lady delivered two boxes with 105 Cornish-Rock chicks.  They were riding in the back seat.
The coop was set-up--- papers were spread on the wood chips, the heat lights, dishes and trays were ready. Out of the box, all the chicks got a drink of water to practice swallowing and they went into the 'small chick room' to spend the next two weeks. [The coop has 2 rooms, one about 4' by 10'--the small chick room. The other is 12'by 10' and is the main room as the birds get to be adults.]
They have little eating and drinking trays that I fill about 4 or 5 times a day. I also change the newspapers once a day and adjust the heat lights so the temperature stays between 80 and 95.  The chicks can move around so they can get in warmer or cooler places if they want to.  Their gizzards don't have grit yet so I put tiny ground rocks in their mash and dry feed so they will be able to grind up the grains they are eating.
Every time I come into the coop, I just watch to see what they are doing. I've noticed they are eating more each day.  I added one and now a second 12 opening feeder.  I try to keep ahead of them.  Yesterday i noticed that their wings are starting to get feathers.  The growing up starts right away. So now I am off to the evening feeding......

Chicken Coop

Chicken coop in empty field---A new beginning!

This winter when the ground was frozen,  I helped the chicken coop migrate to a new piece of the pasture.  It is on a patch of clover and meadow brome grasses that have been planted over the last two years. In the background you can see the Ark and the trees out by the road.  I just leveled the coop and mounted it on concrete blocks to keep it out of the dirt. It got cleaned, disinfected and painted inside.  A new beginning for the coop.
From the coop the chicken yard can stretch out to the north, west and east.  The coop is starting new on organic ground with organic clover and grass plants.  This flock will have a fence that goes to the
west, toward the Ark.  I am ready to put that in next week.  The boxes with the chicks are coming late next week. Monday I go to the feed mill to get the feed mix that this flock will be getting. It is a mixture of grains with nutrients..... all organic.
 Part of the coop has a partition so I can make it into a big incubator.  For a couple of weeks they need the temperature at 90+ degrees.  So I have 2 heat lamps in there creating 'hot spots' and then the chicks can move around to be comfortable. For a week or so I go in every few hours to watch them, check their mush and water, and see if any chick needs coaching.
So I am excited waiting for the babies to come!!

Getting started!!

May 10, 2012
The importance of learning new things....  Why am I out here?
This is a place of lessons, life and beauty!


I did not write for a while.... I had some lessons to learn. Now the ground is not so cold and ready for seeds. The days are longer and I am ready to start. That is the first lesson. When it is time....Start.

This place has gardens, flower beds, fields and a wilderness that have all started their spring/summer growing season. And I am starting too.
Today I will be in Garden 1 and 2. I am weeding and cleaning the asparagus bed in Garden 1 and in Garden 2 I am putting down the cold frames and the walking mats.  It has been freezing at nights and the ground has been so cold and soupy, it just didn't seem ready.
It feels good for me to stop looking/thinking/planning and getting ready.   I'll write more soon.

Snow Day

Today is a snow day---- it is coming down, covering the buildings and fields. Covering everything, including the dreams and projects. I'll think more about them some other day. Now I am interested in this REAL stuff. This snow will probably stay on the ground. We have had freezing weather for a week and the ground has gotten harder with deep freezing every night. No more digging. No more 'fixing one more thing' in the garden. The frost has put that to rest and this season is ended. I think I did 'good.'

So this morning as I look around, everything seems new and fresh and clean. What a wonderful day to be out here. Winter is here and I want to walk the new trails out in the woods. Last month I got the DR Brush Cutter fixed and I got to use 'my Walker' again. Sometimes when I am behind it, I think I can go all day. Anyway I widened trails and blazed some new ones in the back of the woods where the brush has been too thick to even walk through. Anyway, back there is a different woods--- there are a series of clearings through the raspberry brush with deerbeds and dozens of interconnecting trails among small groves of dense maple and poplar trees. Hmm. Sort of liked I walked into their living rooms. I haven't found nearly all of them yet. But that is for another year.....