Meat chicks update

Our first endeavor into raising a meat animal is well underway!

The meat chicks arrived March 27th. We ordered 10, day old Red Rangers. Half are ours, half are a friends. We plan on keeping them at my friends in her heated garage til they are feathered out, then when they are ready for outside life, they are going into my old chicken tractor.  I've been bothered by having it sit unused, so am glad to put it to use.

Here are a pics of the chicks when they were little.

They are currently growing quickly at my place. Here is a pic from within the last week or two.

So far, I am happy to report we only lost one chick!  They are so happy to be outside. The boys are pretty obvious, and there are a few that are HUGE compared to the others. I'll post another update after harvesting!

New compost structure

This morning we built a new compost structure. I use the term "building" loosley here, because it was more like "throw together some scraps".  We had some old metal poles the previous owner left us under the shed.  Last week we got several rolls of chicken wire for free.  We drove 3 poles into the ground, and wrapped chicken wire around it, leaving it open in the front so I could add material and turn the pile as needed.

A few weeks ago I cleaned out the winter muck from the chicken coop (I use the deep litter method where it gets cleaned out 1-2x per year).  However, I need to compost the chicken manure and it wouldn't all fit in my current compost bins.

My current composters are large galvanized trash cans, with holes drilled in them, submerged into the ground about 2/3 of the way. This allows worms in, but deters scavengers (racoons, mice, rats) who may be attracted to food items.  So the "new" compost pile is for chicken manure and lawn clippings only - since it isn't scavenger proof.

You can see the new structure on the left, and the old "scavenger proof" one on the right. And of course the girls love digging around in the open pile, there was a good amount of red worms in it already - the manure had been sitting in a pile covered in a tarp for about a month.

Mountain of mulch...

Monday I got a free dump truck load of arborist mulch. About time! My chicken run was down to mud and dirt! I had been emailing local arborists for months.  This is the second time I've gotten a load for free. Unfortunately, it came 2 days after I got garden soil delivered, and still hadn't cleared all of that out of the driveway. I think it was about 11 cubic yards of mulch.  I used most of it in the chicken run and bee yard, a few neighbors took some as well.

 The mountain of mulch

The chicken run before the mulch

I had to jack up the coop onto blocks, so I could have the coop sit on the new layer of mulch

All done! 

Plans for spring

This spring and summer I will be trying something new. A friend and I ordered a batch of meat birds to raise/butcher together.  It will be both of our first time raising meat birds. We ordered 10 chicks, and as usual expect to loose one or two. She has a good brooder set up, and I have our old chicken tractor sitting unused to put the birds in when they get older.  We ordered "Red Rangers", aka "Freedom Rangers", and will be ready for butcher at about 9-11 weeks.  The arrive late March/early April, so mid summer our freezers will be full. It's so nice to have a friend help you get through new adventures together!

It got me to thinking though, I hate my old chicken tractor sitting unused the majority of them time. It seems like there got to be an animal I can use it to house. So Im going to be researching how feasible it is to use it for some other type of bird.

Also for spring, I'd like to build a few more raised beds. I built one last week, and will be keeping my eye out at the hardware store for discounted lumber.

Brrrr...

We've had a unusually long cold snap here - it's been below freezing every night for a week. I leaned plywood against the open air coop for some insulation, and finally got a heat lamp. After working a 9hr day, I went to the hardware store on the way home, and began setting it up in the dark. When I finially turned it on, I discovered a gruesome bloody  mess in the coop.

The girls (mostly Henrietta I think), picked on little whitie while they were going up to roost- she was covered in blood - her entire head and neck. I brought her inside, wrapped her in a towel, and put her int he shower stall. I went back outside to finish setting up the heat lamp. When I came back in, I washed her off. It looked like she'd been pecked pretty badly around the comb. I dressed her wounds with neosporin, made up homemade electrolytes, and syringed them to her (she was in shock). She perked up after the electrolytes.  I left her inside for the night. The next morning made her eat/drink some. She was acting much better overall, even making normal chicken noises. Later that afternoon, I gave her another bath, as she was still covered in blood, and I couldn't put her in w/the others so bloody.  Here are her injuries after the 2nd bath. 

After she dried, I put her out w/the others and monitored them carefully - I even stayed outside for roosting time. No one picked on her going up to roost.  There are usually some scuffles for "prime" roost spots, but never resulting it injuries like this. 

Winterized the bees

Today (sadly) was my last hive check of the season. It was nice and warm with some sun, so I took the chance to get in the hive and winterize them. Today I.... 1) again took inventory of their resources (3 boxes of honey), 2) got a feel for how many bees (way more than I expected, bottom 2.5 boxes full), 3) treated for mites and 4) tilted the hive forward, so any condensation they produce will run forward (away from the winter cluster).  I feel like they are looking really good heading into winter - they have everything they need to make it through. Though with bees, it's never a sure thing. 

Updates...

A few changes around here.  I added 3 new birds to the flock (2 White Leghorns, and a Cuckoo Maran).  Sadly, the Cuckoo Maran turned out to be a Roo, so he was destined for the soup pot. I had really wanted some of their dark "chocolate" colored eggs, but fate had other plans. The good news is, I found someone who wanted to breed Cuckoo Maran's, so he went to live on a farm in Olympia.  So I'm down to 7 chickens (8 being the limit of what I am allowed). *Sigh* I guess I wasn't mean to have 8. Also someone posted an add recently for a breed I like/want, so am considering....

We also installed an automatic door on the chicken coop. It is the best $200 I've ever spent. It runs on batteries, and has a light sensor, so it opens/closes on its own at dawn and dusk. 

I also tried my hand at making pickles.  The fridge dill pickles turned out wonderfully.  I also tried lactofermenting some, which didn't turn out so well - there wasn't enough liquid to cover the pickles, and they grew mold. I also tried hot canning some - I did 4 pint jars, one of which cracked while processing. The other three sealed right away (but I haven't tried them yet).