Our Mini Farm

[walker1229]

Thought I would share some photos of our little "farm"
We have our second set of fertilized eggs hatching...well one hatched the rest nothing yet so fingers crossed!


We converted an old shed in our back yard into the coop, this is mid way, but now it has shutters and the wood is painted. There is a big run starting on the right and goes around behind the coop. We just bought our house like 4 months ago, finally after 9 years of living in tiny apartments!!



We have 5 Khaki Campbells that someone in town gave us for free, they are 2 months now and it sounds like we may have 1 duck and 4 drakes. They are taking a nap under our trees in our yard.


door to our run, still working on the run...


Indoor brood for the older chicks we have, they are now sleeping outdoors with a heat lamp just at night.


Here are our 5 big hens, and 1 rooster, we just got these girls/boy from someone else in town for free I have no clue on the breeds and neither did she, but they are so pretty and the rooster is so nice! And quiet which surprised me but I don't mind

Close up eating lettuce from the garden




This one below is very pretty, a smaller breed, her feathers on the tips have a green black.


Here are our 4 week old chicks from our earlier batch, we only had 3 so we incubated more eggs, before we knew we were going to get the big free ones

They have a temporary outside run separate from the big birds, and my son donated his train tunnel for them to hide in, when they were smaller all three could fit under it at once


Our garden plot, (before we planted) we didn't get a ton this year because the soil is really bad, we are slowly adding compost, we did get lots of greens, and squash, but many of the other plants didn't grow at all and what did was very sad hopefully next year will bring much more!

 

[GitaBooks]

Awesome farm!

We are terrible at gardening, are plants always end up pretty terribly. We did grow some green beans and squash one year, and chickens love squash.

Best of luck with your garden!

As for your chicken breeds, I think I recognize some of them. The rooster appears to be an Easter Egger. The laced hen looks like a Cornish hen, then there may be a Australorp, Rhode Island Red, and a Dark Brahma. They are lovely birds.

Best of luck with your new farm!

 

[rides2far]

Isn't it great to own your own home, to putter, build, make it your own? Congratulations on your new mini farm!

 

[MeepBeep]

You might want to consider container gardening where you can mix and control the soil the plants grow in better... More money upfront for setup and having the soil brought in to fill the containers, but after switching to containers this year we are not looking back... After an entire life of dealing with copious amounts of weeds and poor garden turn out with traditional methods this is the first garden I have ever planted that produced more than was expected of it with very low maintenance... And we expect even better turn out next year since we rushed and took some shortcuts and got it in late, all stuff that will be addressed next year prior to planting...

 

[N F C]

Congratulations on getting your own place, it's so nice to have the room and outdoor space to do with as you please.

We've struggled with our "dirt" here too...it's mostly sand that we've worked to improve for the past 3 gardening seasons. Now the dirt isn't too bad but the bugs are out of control! I think that's the nature of gardening, if it isn't one thing, it's another and there's always next year.

One thing we did differently this year was with the tomatoes. Instead of planting them directly into the ground, we took 40 lb. bags of soil, slit open the top and poked several holes in the bottom of the bags. They we dug holes in the garden, placed the bag of dirt in the holes (with the bag opening sticking up) and planted a tomato in each bag. Those bags really kept the ground pests out and the tomatoes produced very well. We'd like to do more raised beds next year but something's have done well in our poor soil (potatoes, watermelon, squash).

Good luck with your chickens, I hope your DS is having fun with them. Thanks for sharing your mini-farm with us!

 

[walker1229]

We actually have 3 boys the my youngest is in the last pic, they each got to name one of the chicks, oldest names his midnight, middle son named it Jr. (his name then Jr.), and youngest I got to name Sage. Our other problem with gardening, is we live in Wyoming so we are lucky if we get 3 months of garden time, in mid June the last two years we have gotten snow, we have a freeze coming tonight, I am hoping if I cover plants we can hold out a little longer...

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I love your mini farm! And your three boys are adorable.
Better luck next season on the gardening.