Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[Ribh]

~6am ferry hits the big island 8am, night boat leaves at 7pm and gets back to our island at 10pm. That’s for medication refills, dr appointments, bloodwork, all our groceries, feed, pet food, lumber, sausage making ingredients, and assorted sundries.
Wow. That'll take you a day or 2 to recover from. When I was still running YD around & she had a big gig on we'd be doing the 1st boat off the island [4.30am], last boat back [midnight] for 4 or 5 days in a row. It was never any fun. The only consolation is IF you get everything done, you'll save quite a bit of money.

Poor old Chickie Hawk. I still have hopes for that boy being an awesome rooster.

 

[Kris5902]

When I was still running YD around & she had a big gig on we'd be doing the 1st boat off the island [4.30am], last boat back [midnight] for 4 or 5 days in a row. It was never any fun. The only consolation is IF you get everything done, you'll save quite a bit of money.

Poor old Chickie Hawk. I still have hopes for that boy being an awesome rooster.

That is nuts... I don’t know that I could deal with that! I whine and am pretty much useless after each town day as it is! As for the pretty boy... He tidbits, he’s not rough on the girls, but he’s still figuring out the whole “mating” thing. He’s not too aggressive when I’m in the pen, though he still occasionally tries to flog me. I have an abundance of these IKEA shoe horns I bought at $1.99, and I have one hanging on his tractor. I use it to scoop eggs that roll too far from the door closer and keep it, and preferably several hens as well, between him and me when I’m in there. Sometimes when he takes a run at me one of the little hens will fend him off and defend me, which is super cute... “NO! Bad teenager! You don’t attack the bringer of treats and food... back off you insolent brat!” I can just hear the little chicken language scolding. He is learning his place slowly but surely

 

[Ribh]

That is nuts... I don’t know that I could deal with that! I whine and am pretty much useless after each town day as it is! As for the pretty boy... He tidbits, he’s not rough on the girls, but he’s still figuring out the whole “mating” thing. He’s not too aggressive when I’m in the pen, though he still occasionally tries to flog me. I have an abundance of these IKEA shoe horns I bought at $1.99, and I have one hanging on his tractor. I use it to scoop eggs that roll too far from the door closer and keep it, and preferably several hens as well, between him and me when I’m in there. Sometimes when he takes a run at me one of the little hens will fend him off and defend me, which is super cute... “NO! Bad teenager! You don’t attack the bringer of treats and food... back off you insolent brat!” I can just hear the little chicken language scolding. He is learning his place slowly but surely

The scariest part is: I was driving! lol And mostly I drove on the island so it was...interesting. As soon as YD was eligible she got her Learner's but that was interesting too. We were sitting @ the lights in the middle of town one night & this drunk stuck his head through the window & yelled @ YD: Turn yer lights on, love! lol Combination of late night, no sleep, lack of proper food & island driving.

You have nice minded hens with a good sense of self preservation. Do not kill, flog or otherwise damage the bringer of food!

 

[Kris5902]

Well, as of tonight the rescued outside chickens are “real” chickens. They all went up and are roosting with their boyo tonight with no help from me... this makes me happy as now I can install the proper nesting boxes to keep their eggs clean and from rolling to the far side of the roosting box.

Tomorrow the little girl will be coming up to “help” me with the chickens and meal worms. We also have two more calves on the way to check on... I might try getting her to help with the building of the meat bird tractors, but that is often more challenging than working on it by myself. Husband and his cousin will be weeding the forms for our house, again.

Everything is ok here, for the time being at least.

 

[Ribh]

Well, as of tonight the rescued outside chickens are “real” chickens. They all went up and are roosting with their boyo tonight with no help from me... this makes me happy as now I can install the proper nesting boxes to keep their eggs clean and from rolling to the far side of the roosting box.

Tomorrow the little girl will be coming up to “help” me with the chickens and meal worms. We also have two more calves on the way to check on... I might try getting her to help with the building of the meat bird tractors, but that is often more challenging than working on it by myself. Husband and his cousin will be weeding the forms for our house, again.

Everything is ok here, for the time being at least.

I am super pleased to hear something is being done on the house. Please keep us updated on that too. I understand no house = no chickens.

 

[Kris5902]

Funny thing about plants and nature... when you disturb the soil and dig holes for your foundation, you expose hundreds of dormant weed seeds, of course you can’t have organics in your concrete pour, so with the coming of spring, comes the weekly/2 or 3 times a week task of trying to keep the little progress we have weed free. There’s a good reason construction companies move quickly through this stage. Over the last two years I’ve spent more time weeding our house hole than FIL has spent putting up the forms. Frustrating bureaucracy, and a complete failure to follow the engineers instructions have been the big hold ups. And snow... that didn’t help with construction, but did at least slow down the weeds!

 

[Kris5902]

this morning my Barnvelder boy decided to be a bit of a jerk, and Tiny laid another super thin shelled egg these two things combined leads to a really upset sticky chicken, and needing to wash my quilted jacket thing. Moral of the story is I need to get an egg basket of some sort and stop sticking them in my front pocket!

I got the egg, it had a tiny peck and I could tell it was thin, but hey... it has a shell and she even got it close to the nest box I stuck it in my pocket as per usual and went to let the boys out. Then my Barnvelder started to act up. Not full on a****** behavior like Chickie Hawk, but definitely not respecting my space and getting rough with the other boys. Well, when Mr Marans started with that, I did the “pick up and carry” thing for a few days and now we have a very good relationship, so I figure I’ll do that again.

Except catching the Barnvelders is a whole other ball game. I finally managed to tail him and scoop him up to my chest, completely forgetting the egg and hole in my front pocket. He flapped his wings, I got him controlled and tucked under my arm... and why is my hand wet??? We crushed the fragile little egg and now it is completely coating his back and my front, having mostly leaked out the hole in my pocket! Such fun.

I’m hoping to clean up a little bit before our “company” arrives. This will probably just result in me tossing all sorts of stuff onto the bed and closing the bedroom door. Always a great cleaning method, until of course bedtime when it all needs unpiled into the living room. Oh, for a proper closet to shove our junk into... After coffee though, always after coffee So, what should I do with my now egg glazed cockerel? Further traumatize him with an attempted bath, or just let him sort out cleaning his own feathers? I’ve never de-egged a chicken before, but I know those whites can dry up to a nice crunchy gluelike sheen.

 

[Ribh]

this morning my Barnvelder boy decided to be a bit of a jerk, and Tiny laid another super thin shelled egg these two things combined leads to a really upset sticky chicken, and needing to wash my quilted jacket thing. Moral of the story is I need to get an egg basket of some sort and stop sticking them in my front pocket!

I got the egg, it had a tiny peck and I could tell it was thin, but hey... it has a shell and she even got it close to the nest box I stuck it in my pocket as per usual and went to let the boys out. Then my Barnvelder started to act up. Not full on a****** behavior like Chickie Hawk, but definitely not respecting my space and getting rough with the other boys. Well, when Mr Marans started with that, I did the “pick up and carry” thing for a few days and now we have a very good relationship, so I figure I’ll do that again.

Except catching the Barnvelders is a whole other ball game. I finally managed to tail him and scoop him up to my chest, completely forgetting the egg and hole in my front pocket. He flapped his wings, I got him controlled and tucked under my arm... and why is my hand wet??? We crushed the fragile little egg and now it is completely coating his back and my front, having mostly leaked out the hole in my pocket! Such fun.

I’m hoping to clean up a little bit before our “company” arrives. This will probably just result in me tossing all sorts of stuff onto the bed and closing the bedroom door. Always a great cleaning method, until of course bedtime when it all needs unpiled into the living room. Oh, for a proper closet to shove our junk into... After coffee though, always after coffee So, what should I do with my now egg glazed cockerel? Further traumatize him with an attempted bath, or just let him sort out cleaning his own feathers? I’ve never de-egged a chicken before, but I know those whites can dry up to a nice crunchy gluelike sheen.

 

[Kris5902]

As expected my “real” chicken chores (the main moving, feeding, and watering) started three hours behind schedule, and took twice as long with the energetic assistance of the 7 year old helper. But it was handy having door service while dealing with Chickie Hawk. I have ascertained that Mr Marans is NOT a fan of small loud people, he was edgy and defensive, but not aggressive. And no, you probably shouldn’t come into the cockerel pen, considering how my Barnvelder was acting this morning. It was also a chore round frequently punctuated by the phase “yes, but we have to finish feeding, moving and watering all the chickens first!”

I also managed to get the hummingbird feeder cleaned, raised, and refilled... so we can see it from the window, and my beetles are moved in my mealworm farm... again a task that is fun, but she quickly loses interest and wants to move onto something else. “Not until we finish moving and put away all the beetles!” was the afternoon Mantra.

No calves yet, which was very disappointing... they are so close! But at least the cows all came up to complain that the grass isn’t as tasty as grain, and they would like some hay too please, if I don’t mind... so I didn’t have to hike out and find them with my little helper in tow. I had one Meat chick weigh in at 1lb 10oz, 730g, at Three weeks old, so I’m fairly happy with their performance so far.

Hopefully off for a relaxing dinner and fire at a friend’s place. Our closest neighbor in a walkable location... as the lady with the adjoining property on top of the cliff doesn’t count, because we have to drive halfway around the island to visit her, or take up rock climbing!

 

[Kris5902]

Yesterday was pretty big for me on the chicken front. I drained Puffy’s waterbelly and Hoppy has decided she likes the other chickens and wants to join Sammy’s girls. She still isn’t up to it, as Bossy and Puffy are much larger than her, not particularly nice to other girls, and Sammy is a boy after all... but she now spends most of the day outside the hospital tractor trying to be social with them.

One of my Red Ranger chicks weighed in at 1lb 10oz, and I left their heat off last night to no ill effects. It’s time for them to move out of the barn! So today I’m going to be concentrating on building the meat tractors (I’ve been saying that a lot for the last week!) slapping together some decent nest boxes, and that’s about it.

I’m happy to say that some of the vertical rebar is finally going into the forms on our house... I would do the work if there were clear instructions given, so hopefully at some point FIL explains to Andrew what exactly is supposed to be done, then I can work on that in the mornings as well (before FIL comes up to work on things in the afternoon).

I thought you were supposed to get up earlier when you got older, but for some reason he won’t work on anything until about 1 in the afternoon when it starts to get hot out. It’s not too bad now, but last summer it was a major point of contention... no hat is going to be enough sun/heat protection for our pasty complexions/city constitutions in 38-40 degree afternoon sun. Remember, we picked our build site to maximize our solar collection capabilities... yay, full sun, no shade!

Speaking of solar, I’ve worked out the kinks, replaced my charge controller, and now that the babes are off heat I’m off the generator! Saving $$$ big time there! And it’s a whole lot quieter at night for watching our TV shows. We’re watching Magnum P.I. , Star Trek Enterprise, and Andromeda right now, in Season 2 of each.