Giving the Chickens a hair cut

Our chickens have learned to fly. At first we thought it was cool. They would fly out of the pen and scratch around the woods. The dogs seemed ok with it and it was not unusual to see the dogs asleep with a rooster sitting next to them.

There must have been some type of falling out between the dogs and chickens because one of the dogs decided to start killing the chickens. We lost one a day for a few days. The only solution we could come up with was clipping the chickens wings so they would not fly out. Like any good techno family we searched you tube for videos that showed how to clip the wings. After a few reviews I went out with the kids and some scissors. It turned out that the hardest part was catching the chickens. All you do is clip one side up to the shorter feathers and you now have chickens that can jump but not fly.

You would be amazed at the looks you get when people ask you what you did this weekend and you reply we gave the chickens a hair cut.

Ordered Hens Nest

I ordered two 6 hole nest boxes from Hen Pals. These are handmade in east Georgia by a couple that started their own farm

I plan to put them about 18 inches off the ground to keep a passing chicken from pecking eggs.

Snow!!!!!

We have about 5 inches of snow. I think this is the first good snow we have had in 5 or 6 years. We have been playing and sledding this afternoon. Wendy pushed me down a hill on the sled. I went down the hill jumped the ditch, crossed the road, jumped the other ditch and proceeded through 30 feet of briars. The whole time she was laughing. I am glad I didn't hit a tree.

We are planning to sled all day tomorrow on the big hill in the pasture.

From Snow_2010

Snow on the way

We are expecting snow tomorrow. This is not a common occurrence for our area. If we do get some it should be fun! The kids have the sleds ready to go.

Johnnie is missing!

We finally starting getting eggs and today Johnnie has left us. We think she flew over the fence? The kids spent the day looking for her and found scratch signs but those could be the turkeys.

Rest In Peace Johnnie!

We got our first eggs!

Johnnie, Our Golden Polish hen laid her first two eggs. We ate them for supper and they were great. We compared them with the store bought eggs and the yolks were much brighter colored yolks.

From Our Farm

Frozen Pipes

It has been said "Your wife is always correct" ( I think my wife said that). We were laying in bed and Wendy said "It is going to be cold tonight should you leave the water dripping?" Neither one of us wanted to get out of bed so we went to sleep without the water dripping. That night it got down into the teens and our water pipes froze. Over the next 12 days the temperature did not get above freezing during the day or night.

We hauled water in five gallon buckets every day.... You don't know how much you appreciate water until you don't have it. We would have done anything to get water back.

I bought an inferno torch and burnt as much of the water lines as I could between the house and the water meter but it is impossible to find a frozen spot with 1600 feet of pipes. I would burn the grass and dirt as the kids stomped out the grass fires.

Luckily on day 12 we woke up to a yard full of water and we found the broken pipes. Now we leave our pipes dripping every night.

Building a Chicken Run

Clearing the Spot
We selected an area near our barn to build our chicken pen. We marked off a 100 ft by 100 ft area in the midst of some hardwood trees. The tough part was clearing all the undergrowth and honey suckles. The whole famiily pitched in and we got the area cleared in one weekend.

The Hen House
After much research I decided to build a 6 ft x 12ft hen house with a 6ft x 12ft porch. The ceiling is 10ft tall to allow for plenty of vertical roost area. On the inside I cut some 6 foot sections of oak trees for the chickens to roost. The roost start at ground level and go up every 1.5 feet. There is 1.5 foot horizontal spacing between each roost. For windows we used rabbit wire(hardware cloth) for the windows. As it gets colder I will put plastic over them to prevent drafts. There is plenty of ventilation for winter due to the 3inch gap around the top of the walls. The house is designed so half is for roosting and half is for nesting. I don't have nest boxes yet. I don't think the hens will be old enough to lay until spring.

Putting up the Fence
I have never put up a fence before. I cemented in my corner post and drove in metal post every 8 feet. This was easier than I expected due to all the ran we have had. I first tried to put up poultry wire as my fencing material. It was almost impossible to get this stuff to stand up rigid for 100ft. I pulled it so tight I pulled my anchor tree down using the come along. I decided to take all the poultry wire back except the one roll I used. I went with 48in 2x4 welded wire fence instead. I have a friend that used this and knew it would work. When in doubt just go with what you know works. I had the whole fence up in the amount of time I wasted on the one section.

From Our Farm

Starting our chicken farm

We decided to start raising chickens. We order 35 chickens from McMurray Hatchery. The first shipment went to a man in New York. He found our name on the inside label and called. He couldn't reship them so he now has 35 chicks. We got our second shipment in the mail today.

From Our Farm