Amateur homesteading

We just blame stuff like that on the ducks - they're always laughing at us, day or night!  

We have been thinking about a better, more secure chicken coop for awhile now.  With the cold weather coming keeping the birds safe from the cold  and from hungry predators are both real concerns.  

I’d been looking at pre-made coops, but they’re expensive and small.   Some of the chicken forums keep saying that any homemade coop, no matter how amateur, would still be better quality than the pre-made ones.  Well, I hope they’re right since we are most certainly amateurs when it comes to building stuff  

We chose this coop because it seems simpler than some of the others we’ve seen plans for.  I didn’t want to try our hand at a peaked roof for our first attempt at building anything.  If our doesn’t look exactly like the plans, we’ll, they’re more like guide lines   

So far we have the floor done and one wall up. My husband thinks we’ll have it finished in a week.  I’m guessing mid to late November is more likely.  Either way, so far we’re happy with how it is coming along. 

Looks like you're off to a great start with it!  Keep up the good work!

Neat! 

So, this one will be mobile/relocatable? Or in fixed position? (Plans don’t seem to make it clear)

Thank you so much for all of your kind words.  I'm glad that my prattling on about chickens and such can be entertaining for others.  And I wholeheartedly agree on finding needed distractions in this current political environment.

I've been missing for awhile.  We were TRYING to get the coop done before the first snow.  FAIL     In my defense, we also had a birthday party to plan for one of the boys, so we did get a bit sidetracked.

Since the girls are still in their smaller coop, we attached greenhouse panels to the north and east side for this snow so they can still go in their enclosed run and not deal with the snow/sleet.  The snow I'm not too worried about, but if it turns to sleet later as predicted, it gets messy.  We had the door open for awhile, but none of them were interested in heading out into the snow.  For boredom, and extra calories, I put a fresh layer of straw in their run and sprinkled scratch on it so they have to dig to find the goodies. 

. 

Why are your pictures black and white...

Regular camera???

I see them in color.

They’re color 

Here is one of the girl’s huddled in their run out of the wind and snow. Rain might not bother them, but they seem to despise the snow 

I'm seeing green, and stark contrast of grey/black tree trunks with white snow...

(And chooks with straw!) 

I've started a new job so I've been super busy.  For the past ~6 weeks the girls have not been laying eggs, which I expected.  I didn't give them any artificial light.  They're putting all their energy into keeping warm, we have the wind barriers up and are keeping their food dish filled and are giving them scratch mixed in.  Their feathers are absolutely gorgeous now, they molted and all have nice shiny new feathers to keep them warm.  

However, a few days ago everyone suddenly started laying again.  @mulemom other than going out there 6x a day to check for eggs, is there anyway to keep the eggs from freezing, or am I out of luck on this?  Right now I'm lowest seniority at my new job, so I'm working 5-6 days a week.  With my schedule right now checking for eggs before they freeze isn't a possibility, especially since most of the egg laying seems to occur mid day when I'm at work.  Luckily water has not been an issue, fresh water in the morning seems to be okay, it only freezes overnight.

Alas, I don't know of any foolproof method to prevent frozen eggs.  We used to pack the nest boxes extra full of hay in the winter and push it from the middle around the sides so there was a nice deep hollow surrounded by thick walls of hay for insulation, but some eggs still froze.  I have heard of people putting old fashioned hot water bottles in the bottom of the nest boxes, but never tried it.  If you do that, I'd put some hay over the bottle so the eggs are cushioned a bit.  Another thing that might help is see if you can get the hens to all use the same one or two nests (remove or block off the other nest boxes), that way they will be warming it more often by taking turns sitting in it.  Good luck, cold weather is always a challenge!

I've heard of people using low wattage light under nesting boxes (like you would for incubators), but I'm not sure if exactly how this method would work, especially with a bird sitting on the nest. Sadly, I'm no longer in a cold enough region to have connections with anyone who'd know. 

I'm wary of running electricity to the coop because of the risk of fire.  Especially considering the straw and wood chips used.  Many people do run electricity.  This keeps the eggs from freezing, keeps the hens warmer, and also keeps them laying consistently through the winter.  But the drawbacks are the risk of fire, and also if power is lost the hens can die from the sudden shock of cold since they didn't have a chance to acclimate.  However, with the frigid cold we're having right now I'm worried about their well being even with them having hardened off naturally and eating 2x as much as they did in the winter. 

I keep their bags of feed in the barn inside of metal trash cans.  I just went out to the barn to top off their feeder.  They have food, but I've been keeping it full so I don't run the risk of them going hungry, even for a few hours.  This cold is brutal and they need to have plenty of calories.  But when I got to the barn tonight the padlock was frozen.  I tried the other door, same, except this one actually had ice covering it.  Ugh.  I was thinking of taking a hair dryer out there to thaw it enough to open it, when I realized that the extension cords are in the barn.  D'oh!  We do have bolt cutters, but they're in the barn and I also don't think they'd be big enough to get through the locks since we bought heavy duty locks.  

Their feeder is half full right now, so I'm not too concerned just yet.  But I know by tomorrow sunset it will be empty.  The feed supply store I normally go to will likely be closed for the holiday.  I'm working tomorrow, but after work I'll probably head over to Tractor Supply (if they're open) and buy a small bag of feed to hold us over until the locks thaw out.

For the frozen locks, you can often unstick them just by breathing on them for a minute or so at the point where the hasp comes out of the lock body and in the keyhole if there is one, or half fill a ziploc bag with water as hot as you can stand to carry out there and wrap it around the lock (works on frozen hinges too).  Though you'd probably have to knock the ice off the one first to improve effectiveness.  

I'm pretty sure Tractor Supply will be open, they seem to only close on really major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

now I obviously don't know cold like that, however I do remember learning in junior school (elementary) something about pouring a little metholated spirit/rubbing alcohol onto a frozen lock to unfreeze it? (It was part of a class on why you shouldn't drink alcohol in freezing weather)

We do have a lot of rubbing alcohol in the house.  My husband keeps 91% on hand for when he works on his model trains.  I’ll try that when I get home from work later

Right now it is exceptionally cold here. The current temp is 4° F, and we’re going to have a high today of 13.  And we had rain right before the freeze hit.  It was literally hours between when it rained and when the temperatures just dropped.  Later this week we should be getting back to normal winter temps of 30’s during the day, which will be much easier to deal with all around 

Chooks here can’t lay because it’s too hot and dry; the eggs almost come out hard-boiled

As I read this news, I kept contrasting our heatwave with your cold. How are your girls coping?

I’ve noticed over the past couple of decades that our summer tend to indicate patterns for your wider trends in summer and the following winter, so I hope you don’t ‘inherit’ this extended dry and ultra-hot record-breaker.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-27/adelaide-heatwave-kills-thousands-of-bats-and-chickens/10753248

The girls are fine so far.  But they're predicting -2 degrees for Wednesday night.  That's -18 in Aussie speak      This is New Jersey, not the arctic.  What gives?  I don't mind normal winter temps of teens to 20's, but hitting negative numbers is beyond ridiculous.

About your dry summer, I think we might have accidentally taken your rain.  New Jersey has had an abnormal amount of rain this year.  I'm supposed to be having a new septic put in, but they just can't start excavating because just about every day that is above freezing everything is mud.

Maybe we need to kickstart gravity through the middle of the earth-sphere?? That way, some of the run-off you no longer want/need can harmlessly dribble down to us. 

Seriously, I wonder if all the space junk is somehow interfering with the moon’s pull on gravity and affecting some of the tides & weather that way? Or is that complete bull? (Fleeting thought, usually I’d say no way but I’m not sure how much is up there now)

We’re expecting cooler weather and hopefully some rain on our Wednesday, around 12 hours before yours.

joanne said:

We’re expecting cooler weather and hopefully some rain on our Wednesday, around 12 hours before yours.

 As long as you don't get the weather system that's flooded the Daintree (rain forest).

Hubbard squash.  I didn’t grow it, I bought it from a farm down the road a few months back.  We finally got around to cooking it last night.  I’m going to try to plant the seeds in the spring, but apparently with cross pollination and such they may or may not grow, and may or may not end up as Hubbard squashes

But if they don’t grow, or if they come up some weird hideous tasting hybrid, the only thing I’m really out is some seeds I saved from last night’s dinner so no real loss.

if it doesn’t quite work out can you use the squash as Halloween decorations?

Ah, cross pollination.  We once inadvertently produced squashkins and cukeloupes by planting our garden a) in the wrong order; b) with rows too close together; and c) where the chickens could get into it, madly pollinating everything they touched.  The squashkins were OK to eat, they tasted like mild pumpkins.  The cukeloupes were just weird.

We've been super busy...  

The weather and my crazy schedule had put us well behind on finishing the new chicken coop.  Then on the morning of the wind storm we woke up to the small pre-fab chicken coop on its side.  Luckily the chickens were unharmed, and they were also so spooked that they didn't run off even though the roof, which was now a side, was off leaving a wide opening.  We spent a good 45 minutes putting it back upright and piecing it together, and then drove the pick up truck onto the lawn to act as a brace for it.  Two more times during the day the wind caught it and shifted it enough for chickens to escape, though it didn't not blow over again thanks to the truck holding it up.

Though the new coop wasn't finished yet, it was completely untouched by the winds.  Later that day using work lights after dark we did some quick work on the new coop to make it secure since we knew the old coop was no longer safe, and the girls are now safely in their new home.  We need to work on an outdoor pen area for them, but if that takes a week or so I'm okay with that as their new coop is roomy, draft free, and brightly lit from the five windows we installed.  Since it is 8x10 they have plenty of room, so while it sucks that they can't go outside just yet, they're not boxed in and are safe for now.  Also, even though the top is open for ventilation at the eaves, the water in their new coops isn't freezing overnight.  Though that may also be in part because the temperatures haven't dipped as low as they did a few weeks ago.

Someone else in town reported a similar situation, one of their chicken coop also blew over during the storm, and their chickens also stayed put.  Their also had a duck blow over, but they weren't so lucky with their ducks, they haven't been seen since the windstorm.  They probably ended up as someone's lunch, but the optimist in me is imagining them living free in a pond somewhere making friends with the local wild ducks. 

Inside the new coop.  

They don’t have a proper roost yet, but their old feed holder is working for now.  Their feed and water are suspended from the ceiling to keep them from knocking them over.  I now have their feed and treats stored inside the coop in metal trash cans to keep rodents out, but I may have to rethink that since they keep sitting on the trash cans and pooping on the lid   

Looks great! 
 

Spontaneous, just want to thank you again for your handy citrus peel cleaner: I've just quickly cleaned up a very mucky casserole pot after an afternoon's slow cooking of hearty chicken and veg for a pretty miserable winter evening. Took about three minutes instead of 15. 

Might be worth reprinting the recipe/formula in a page or two so readers don't have to wade back to find it  

oh, you don't have an easy carpet cleaner for stubborn spots, by any chance? It's a weird slate grey carpet, mid-height pile (not fluffy). 

We have a rental inspection coming up.