Moving the Coop

Thank you to all who helped, without any one of you it would not have gotten done.

Intervention

Last week I was asked if I was willing take 9 four week old pullets.  I thought about the 11 laying hens & the 15 young pullets we already have while listening to the story behind the soon to be homeless chicks. 

Of course I said yes.

On Saturday we prepared our yard for the new arrivals.  A vintage single bed spring frame divided the 100+ square foot chicken yard. With a travel dog kennel and some straw in the smaller of the  divided areas it was ready for the older pullets.  

Rhiannon cleaned the brooder cottage so we were ready.

Sunday afternoon, as I walked my bike up the back porch after work Chris watched me intently.

"What's up?" I asked.

"We need to talk," he said seriously.  I looked at him in confusion as he took my hand in his after I parked the bike.  "You know I love you, and I only want what's best for you . . ."

I sat down even more confused.

"But you now have 40 chickens.  I think you may have OCD."  He paused. "Obsessive Chicken Disorder."  He grinned at me.

I shook my head.  "I can stop anytime I want.  .  .and we only have 35"

Growing

The 15 chicks continue to feather out, becoming gawky adolescents.  I build a makeshift roost with a beer box and small sticks, swapped straw in for newspaper and placed the food and water on landscape blocks to hopefully keep them cleaner.  By next week we may be able to have the light on only at night.

I Googled "brooder in coop" and discovered I was not the only person to think there has got to be an easier way to raise and introduce day old chicks to an existing flock.  They are dusty little creatures and the bathroom will need a complete sanitizing before we have company at the end of this month. 

(Yes mom, the chicks will be outside by then.)

Full bathtub

And then there were 15.

Chris decided to give me additional baby chicks for the day of love (he really does know me).  When I had gone last week, the 3 breeds I had really wanted: Sicilian Buttercup, Ancona & Austra Whites, had not yet been delivered. 

1 week

Luna and her litter went back outside on Saturday.  The cold snap ended with a sunny 50° and a 20° low.  Hard to believe the day before had been 10° high.

The nest box was lined with straw before the kindling box with the seven bunnies was placed inside.  A cowhide patterned fleece lap throw was laid over the roof to block the drafts.  The bunnies, with their round milk filled tummies just burrowed deeper into the straw and fur nest too sleep.

Inside the house, Chris read up on tanning.

New year, full circle

The annual trip to Elizabeth was more enjoyable than usual.  A friend from work came with me on the hour long drive.  The company and conversation made the drive almost celebratory.  We stopped for lunch before picking up 2 of each: Buff Orphington, Araucana, gold-laced Wyandotte and Light Brahma.

Then we headed home, with a stop at Murdoch's for chick feed and Vitamin Cottage for greens.  At both stops, the box of peeping chicks caused quite a commotion as customers and employees alike crowded around to coo over the baby birds.

They are now ensconced in the indoor "mini barn" with Luna and her litter.

Winter arrangements

I woke up this morning with a feeling of expectation.  A glance out the window showed more snow, a surprise since new snow rarely falls on old around here. 

Luna is due.  If she hasn't kindled already, she would by the end of this weekend.   While drinking my first coffee, I checked the water forecast.  Below zero first of the week, necessitating a move for Luna and her future litter.   The adults could handle things with extra straw and wind protection, but the hairless kits would be vulnerable. 

Out into the snow I went and discovered the kits had already arrived.  5 white & 2 black.  

So into the downstairs bathroom she would go.  A small cage to hold food and water and a small rug is all that was needed to turn the guest bath into a micro barn for the next week or so.  By then the kits would have grown a fur coat and the weather should be in the double digits again.

 

 

Christmas

With no immediate family in the area, Christmas has become an official jammie day.  But livestock still needs to be fed.

Continued cold

The snow is still here.  As are the single digit temperatures.  This may seem normal, but here it is not.  Snow usually lasts 1 day on the roads and sidewalks, and is all but gone within 2 - the temps having returned to the 40's our higher by then.

I brought Gary the rooster inside this morning.  The cold has really affected his ability to walk, and he does not seem to be able to fluff out his feathers to keep as warm as the hens.  So he is ensconced under the table that holds our Christmas tree until it warms up a bit.  He wool probably get a bath before then as his grooming has also suffered.

Yeah, he's almost a pet.  To scrawny to eat, and more than a little pathetic.  But a great introduction to people who have never seen a chicken up close as he is so calm and friendly.

 

Update: Before the new year, Gary died quietly one night.   

cold snap musings

Last night and today were the longest consistent snowfall I have seen since we moved to Colorado.  It is also the first time 60 degree weather is not forecast for a day or two after said snow.  Instead I am preparing for -9 tonight.  The hens have all the shutters on their coop shut and their doorway is blocked.  The heat lamp will be on until the temps go back above freezing.  Extra straw is in the nest boxes and on the floor.  All the rabbit hutches, also filled with extra straw, are wrapped to some extent or another.  Yeti's wooden sides are on and a burlap bag is hanging over the doors.  Peppers and Luna both have floor rugs draped over the open sides of their abodes.  The 6 young rabbits have an unused comforter over their converted chicken tractor.  Indica changed all the water bottles before dinner, although they are already slushy.

I would love to convert the shop into a barn.  I imagine it often, especially when my fingers are sticking to the cold locks of each hutch.  The shop's 11x11 floor could easily house all our livestock, plus food and bedding.  Rabbit hutches would hang on the east wall.  2/3 outside and 1/3 inside with a "doggy door" to keep some of the cold out.  The worm bin would be below on the outside, removable trays on the inside.  Both a heat lamp and a fan would be hanging from the ceiling.  There would be nest boxes and roosts for the hens.  And running water.  There would be 3 small stalls.  One for feed and straw.  And 2 for a couple mini mancha does. 

The fact that we need the shop to be a shop hinders this fantasy of mine.

Why can't I just get giddy about a Coach purse like every other woman I know?

Another step

When Chris and I first met I was a sous chef at a small French restaurant.  One of our specialties was lapin with dijon and tarragon.  Cooking something in mustard sauce became a running joke throughout our relationship.  In our minds we offered up dogs, cats and occasionally small children too this rich wine and butter concoction.

Today, under the watchful eye of our friend's grandfather, we processed the first litter of rabbits.  Turns out that while I have been at work, Chris has been watching YouTube and reading up on this part of raising small animals for meat.  Actually, he admitted, it was no difference than the squirrel and 'possom of his youth. 

Each rabbit took about 15 minutes and was much less mess than a chicken.  Our friends took one home, two went into the freezer and the final one was grilled and dressed with the now infamous sauce.

 

It was delicious.  

And Rhiannon happily ate four "drumsticks".

Pile o' bunnies

New litter

Looks to be 5 or 6.  They all seem well, but although today is in the 70's - Friday is forecast to be in the 20's.  We do not want bunnysicles.

We are open to suggestions.

It's a long story

The young rabbits are just over a month old, so I was very surprised when Indica found a new kit lying alone and cold on the wire floor of Luna's cage.

So I did what any neophyte urban farmer would do.

I Googled it.

Turns out that rabbits have horned ovaries and since eggs are released only after being with a buck, they can actually carry 2 pregnancies simultaneously.  Not only that, but kindling different kits from the same litter can be hours or even days apart.

So let's back up.

While the girls and I were in Minnesota last month, Chris called to say he found a litter of small skeletons in the hutch that Luna (our doe) had originally been ensconced.  I had swapped her with Yeti as her due date loomed, not wanting her to kindle in the loft.  The platform is unreachable by us and has no barrier to keep the kits from falling out.

Disappointed I told the girls that the first litter had died.  Our stoic children only asked if we would breed them again.

Chris had bred them after cleaning the hutch (he had to take off the roof), but forgot to take the nesting box in Luna's hutch.

Then a couple days later, in said nesting box, a litter was born.

Not knowing about the horned ovaries, we decided that Luna had been pregnant when we got her, and must have kindled before we bred her.

Back to today.  The kit was cold and did not seem to be breathing, but the rabbit site said not to assume a cold kit is dead.  Having no fur they are prone to hypothermia, and can be fine if warmed.  Following the directions I held the kit in a cup of warm water, careful not to dunk its head.  Then I wrapped it in a small warm towel and used a hairdryer to keep the towel warm until the kit was warm and dry.

The directions said to place the warm kit back with the litter.  

But there was no other litter mates.

So I put the nest box back in the hutch and filled it with nesting material, covering the still limp kit.

At this point the larger bunnies needed a new home.  I did not want them crushing the new kit, or picking on it.  They have been eating pellets and greens for over a week now, but all of our hutches are full.

Again, let's back up.  Luckily, although Chris's friend had picked up his hens a couple weeks ago, he left his portable coop until an unknown future date.  After sliding some 1x2 cage wire we had laying around underneath the small coop out was ready for occupants.

But after all this, I don't expect the kit to live.

I can take this off my bucket list

Washing (and blow drying) Snowball (and Chocolate) for show at the Denver county fair.

Chris in the backyard

Eating them is still a theory

lack of follow thru

It is not like there is nothing going on around here.

Indica's white pumpkin is trying to invade the rest of the garden

But sitting at the desk on the laptop is the last place I want to be these days.  The early morning is spent at the Ppatch, battling (in vain, it seems most days) the bind weed and other irritating plants
that seem to be growing faster than any of our vegetables.    I walk, as Chris is at work and Riley needs a walk anyway, and the six blocks or so takes some of the time.  And then I can only stay an hour or so, as the coffee I poured myself before venturing out has me wishing the city put in an outhouse.  In any case, I usually have to work and need to get home to shower before biking in.

They no longer look like naked mole rats

Once home the livestock must be fed and well watered before the heat of the day sets in.  The weeds I did pull are spread between the poultry and rabbits - with the best and tastiest going to Luna.  Her 4 kits (short for kittens - who knew?  Baby rabbits are not bunnies) are starting to open their eyes and are moving around instead of sleeping all day in a tiny white pile of ears and noses.  Their fur is white so far.  Mostly they are left alone by their mother which did send me to Google in a panic.  Only to find out that mother rabbits avoid their young except during the nightly feeding or 2.  Apparently this is so predators are less likely to find the nest of defenseless snacks.

If I have time then the sprinkler is put over various areas, but usually I don't and waterings are sporatic.  By the time Chris gets home the heat of the day has set in and he and the girls prefer inside in front of the fans.  

The quail are laying eggs in a clutch that I suspect will not hatch.  At the end of the month I will toss all of them into the bottom of a new garden bed to be covered with ALOT of compost.

The pullets have started laying, all except the silkie - who turned out to be a cockrel.  He awoke me before dawn yesterday.  The consequence of which that I stomped out to the chicken yard in my bathrobe, sans shoes or glasses and stuck him in a cat carrier.  He may be dinner tonight.  My only thought before going back to bed (after a foot wash) was that I hope the silkie I sold at the poultry swap in June was a pullet - I had completely forgotten that they were sold as a straight run.

There has been some egregious failings on my part.  I have killed most of my potatoes.  One just never quite got watered well enough at the Ppatch.  At home, desperate to hill them up, but having no soil, I used chicken bedding that I convinced myself had been composted well enough.  It hadn't and with in 24 hours all of them were cooked.  One of the apple trees never got planted, and many of the flowers my darling brought home are still sitting forlornly in their pots.  I forget to water the Jerusalem artichokes and raspberries regularly.  I never planted kohlrabi or sweet potato.  Argh.

But I have had a lovely Mr. Stripey tomato and fresh basil (the few that got planted are HUGE) pizza on homemade wheat crust.  We continue to harvest the swiss chard and kale, who have just enough shade to keep them from bolting.  Most of the celery is thriving.  I will have yellow bush beans with dinner tonight.  I even (miracle of miracles) have picked more zucchini than ever in my history of gardening (less than a dozen - but my previous record was 5).  The morning glories at the Ppatch are going up their trellis instead of attacking all plants around them - Chris and I have kept up with pulling the starts that are not where we want them.  The cabbage and cauliflower look good, and I continue to be hopeful about the brussels sprouts.

So all in all things are well.