It has been an unbelievable blessing the past few weeks to have the guys in and out as work has ground to a halt (because of the rain). The Lord has blessed the work of their hands and so much has been accomplished. Fences were mended by my son and son-in-law, the pig pen readied for a couple of pigs, a large pile of junk cleaned up and is now ready to become a work area, shelves were repaired, an upgrade to the water system by my hubby and numerous other chores that need tools, skill and strength that working guys have.
My amazing husband designed and built (with a lot of help :) another chicken run. We now have two complete chicken areas with their own runs, pens, coops and doors. They also worked in some storage for our kayaks up on the top. He is planning a third "open air" chicken area for the far end of our orchard. The chickens just don't like to go very far from their coop. We have a lot of nice grass down at the end that never gets eaten.
Our youngest son, nephew and grandson hunted for worms, dug, measured, drilled, hammered and generally had a wonderful time "helping" the older guys. They had a wonderful day.
The orchard that was tilled and planted a couple of weeks ago is coming up so nicely. The newest book I am reading is called "Gold in the Grass" and we continue to try to figure out how to turn grass into high quality protein. Our goal is to get almost completely away from laying pellets as we raise chickens for eggs and meat. Worms, seeds and grasses are a big part of our plan.
The girls have been busy as well. The seedlings are coming up quickly and will need to be transplanted soon. They are making plans to manage a booth at our local Farmer's Market. We are planting enough have an abundance.
The guys have to back to their regular work tomorrow. I just wanted them to know how much I appreciate the time, skill and energy that it takes to turn a couple of funky acres into a productive, healthy, thriving small farm.
Be blessed today
Cindy
It all looks great! At our next place I am certainly planning a better chicken coop. When we built ours we were totally new to chicken raising and now, having the experience, will know what and what not to do next time! We'll certainly include a chick area next time so that the babies don't have to live in our carport!
ReplyDeleteYou might consider a brooder box. My sister is immersed in reading chicken books from the 1920's. The say that "of course every young boy knows how to build a brooder box". These books are a wealth of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteWe are changing how we do chickens because of her research. If I can ever peel her away from school administration she will write a couple of articles for the blog.
This week, though, she is dealing with teenagers without brains syndrom (TWBS) :) and cannot do anything but that.
Soon (or get one of the books - she found a lot of links too - Fresh Air Poultry House is her favorite book so far.)
Cindy-That looks so great! Good job on turning no work into work. How many chickens do you guys have total now?
ReplyDeleteHow many chickens???
ReplyDeleteHmmmm
20 hens and one rooster in the big coop.
8 hens and one rooster in the new coop.
22 meat birds in the new coop (some will be for meat, some for layers) that are about 4 weeks old.
6 hens at Arleen's house
1 Mama hen with 20 chicks under her and another 10 to hatch.
How many is that? It is a lot!
The boys have worked really hard to step it up around here. It has been so good.
It should be a productive summer.
What great guys you have! Looks amazing Cindy and I can't wait to visit someday soon. I happy to hear that you will be at Farmers Market too. Awesome!!! :)
ReplyDelete