Building the Chicken Coop,Part One: The Floor

Well, you have to hand it to us, we dream big. Which is a nice way of saying we have a perpetual habit of biting off way more than we can chew. We decided to build a chicken coop ourselves. My carpentry experience is limited to a couple of birdhouses and birds totally ignored them. Don has built decks and finished a basement and has a basic idea of what end of the hammer to hold, so he's way ahead of me. We decided to make it 16 ft by 16 ft, enough room to house the chickens over winter and to have the rabbits in a separate indoor colony setting, something I always wanted to do. Every time we talked about the coop, it always came up how small it was going to be. In fact, a few times I mentioned it being so small, shouldn't be that hard to do.

It fell to me to plot where the chicken coop would go and to get the four corners level and square. Everything I've read says it has to be level and square or you're hooped before you start. I went out bright and early Monday, figuring I'd do what everyone suggested to do and plot it using stakes and string. I figured it would take me a couple of hours. I was pretty impressed with myself because I thought of tying elastics to the string ends making the string nice and tight. Well, it took more than two hours but I did do it. Fat lot of good it did me. The foundation is deck blocks sitting on patio stones. To put the stone where it needs to go, I have to take out the stake thus loosing my perfect square. I'm hooped.

Tuesday, I start putting the stones down as close to center of the hole the stake made. The ground's not level; of course so some of the stones are going to have to be dug down into the ground a bit. I decide to start with the stones on the lowest part of the ground so I'll know how deep to dig the holes on the higher parts. It took me all day to get those four patio stones and deck blocks square. All day, four stones. By Tuesday I thought the floor frame would be done. I couldn't believe it took me all day. But I'm square and level. I'm no longer hooped, just tired, sore and feeling like a walking smorgasbord for the mosquitoes

Wednesday, I start digging the holes for the four side and the center blocks. First two blocks, I repeatedly haul the stone in and out as I make the hole deeper then shallower then deeper, struggling to find that elusive bubble in the middle of the level. Then my brain finally gets out of first gear and I realize I could find how deep the hole should be by putting a board in the two end blocks and measuring from that into the hole. If I ever start a business, I won't be calling it "Brains'R'Us". The rest goes a lot faster. Don came out with all the lumber he cut to length and shaved - we bought rough lumber. He watched me struggle lifting a stone into a hole I just dug. Ever helpful, he suggested that perhaps instead of digging down I should have just built up the low end. Memo to the general public: When your spouse is sweaty, fed up, achy and frustrated, don't suggest they re-do three days work, especially when they're holding a four foot level in one hand and a mallet in the other. There is such a thing as justifiable homicide. I got to hand it to him though; with that kind of courage he should have been a fire fighter. I reminded myself that he was the love of my life, the father of my children and a really good guy. By the end of the day, the stones are level. They're not all in, but I'm getting there. So I'm not hooped, just homicidal.

Thursday morning, I go out and look at my square, level blocks. No floor, no framing, I thought the walls would be up by now. 16 ft by 16 ft never looked more like 100 by 100 to me. I swear it grew overnight. Where did I ever get the idea this was a small building? The Parliament buildings aren't this big. I start digging the holes for the last couple of blocks. Then I get the four boards that make the frame and put them in. I go in when the light fades, trying to figure out how I can have three perfect square, level sides and one way off. I'm hooped.

Friday morning I go out, Don is just hammering the last nail in the outside frame. He smiles at me and says, "This angle was off a bit so I fixed it, it was the middle block that was throwing everything out of whack." I smile back, immensely happy that he was the love of my life, the father of my children and a really good guy. By the end of the day, all the boards are in and nailed. The floor will be on tomorrow. Everyone says leveling and making everything square is the hardest part, after that it's much easier and faster. I hope so because the way I'm going now, by the time the coop is finished, the chicks will be laying eggs.

Writer's Note: While I use the first person in this rambling tale, I had a lot of help. Don helped dig some of the holes and the kids helped carry the 16 ft boards. P, teenage son moved a lot of sod that had to be dug out and T, teenage daughter nailed in all the boards on one side and some on the other for me.

Happy Worms

I probably know more about worms now than I really want to. I found out they have 5 hearts and they can live up to ten years. A group of worms is called a squirm. A squirm of worms, or may-be a worm squirm. Almost everything I read stressed the importance of the worms being "happy". It just seems like an odd terminology to use with worms, I mean it's not like you can pick up a worm, look at one end or the other and see if it's smiling.

As it turns out, I did almost everything wrong. A worm bin should be wide, not narrow and it should have holes drilled in it for drainage and aeration. I'm glad worms can't read or else they would realize that they are in the most unsuitable situation and should all up and die on me. While I'm a big believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", I figured I was getting by on beginners luck and it wasn't going to last forever. So yesterday I got a plastic bin and punched tiny, tiny holes in it. I'm using the lid as a tray to catch any liquid, apparently the liquid is great fertilizer as well. I cover the top with a burlap bag and the worms stay put. I haven't caught any stray or escaping worms yet.

I got the worms when I turned our vegetable compost over, I picked well over two hundred worms and I'm sure that wasn't even half of what I saw. I stopped counting somewhere shortly after two hundred. It just seemed a little dweeby to be counting worms. Worms are a social lot, you find one, you'll find twenty, then you won't find any for a couple of pitchfork fulls and then you'll find another batch, or should I say squirm. The worms I have are red, with a yellow tail, they're bin-able, I think. For all I know, they could be red wigglers that were introduced into the area at one time or another. So I'll see how it goes. If they move and the bin doesn't smell, I'll assume they're happy.

Planting

Finally I started planting in the vegetable garden today! After weeks of weeding, spreading compost, weeding, planning, weeding, raking, weeding, making rows, the time has come for me to plant. Have I mentioned I had to weed a lot? Local folklore around here has it that one shouldn't plant before the June full moon. Folklore like this has its roots, so to speak, in the untold generations of gardening experience, something not only I respect but deeply appreciate. The only problem with this is that I'd rather plant while the moon is waxing, not waning. So I do start planting with June's new moon but slowly, starting with the most hardy crops.

Today I planted two types of onions, yellow and red. I haven't tried red before so I'm curious to see how they do. With the onions I put in different leaf lettuces and beets. Once my dill is big enough, I'll put some in there, too. This is only my second year of companion planting, I'm still learning as I go. It seems to be a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition, sometimes it seems to make a difference, other times the bugs just trample right over the plants that are supposed to repel them to get to the plants they want to eat. I'm companion planting more for pest control than anything else but I'm not going to whine if I get a bigger yield from it, either. If nothing else, the garden certainly looks more interesting since I started mixing and matching plants.

It was just nice to be back in the garden planting today.

Foxes or Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

I was outside just finishing off another round of garden work, sweaty, bug-bit and satisfied. As I put away my gardening tools, a bunch of crows started a ruckus. Glancing to the field, I saw what was bothering them. A red fox was loping through the long grass. This is the third time in as many weeks that I’ve seen a fox and it’s not always the same one. I’ve seen two different colored foxes, one red and one cream colored. The cream colored one was spotted by my son when we were driving home.

“Hey Mom, there’s a fox in our yard,” says he.
“What’s it carrying in its mouth? It’s not the cat, is it?” asks just a slightly panicky me.
“Nope, too small. I think it’s a rat. Yeah, it’s a rat, it’s got that long ropey tail thing going.” says he.
“Good, it can have all the rats it wants,” says a much relieved me.

So we have foxes in the neighbourhood. We’ve lived here for four years and while I have seen foxes on occasion, I haven’t seen them in our area much less on our property. Figures, I decide to get chickens and then foxes from all around start trotting unconcerned across my front yard. They can’t possibly know I have chickens, they’re still in the brooder in our basement. May-be the rats attracted them. Come to think of it, now that the rats are gone, I’ve only seen one fox since. Well, if the rats attracted them, the noisy chickens are going to draw them, I’m sure.

While I want to protect my chickens, I certainly don’t want to be banishing foxes. They’re extraordinary creatures. They’re part of the canine family yet there's something of the cat in the way they move; spry and light with their bendable backs and incredible balance. When I see one make her way across a field, supple and flowing, I am reminded of wheat in the wind. They are beautiful to watch. I’d much rather learn to live with them than without them. We are planning to make the coop and runs predator proof as much as possible, we’re burying 1 /1/2 inch fence two feet into the ground, that should stop them from digging in. I have no intention of loosing all my chickens to foxes but if I loose one or two, I’ll find out how the foxes got to them and fix the problem chalk it up to experience and get on with my life. And hopefully, the foxes will get on with theirs.

Sturdy Chicks

It's amazing how much those little fluff balls have changed in less than two weeks. They've gone from looking like cottonballs on forks to sturdy little chicks. They feel quite substantial when I pick them up now, it's not like holding dandelion fluff anymore. They are all getting feathers and 'tude. Individual personalities are emerging. When they stretch their wings and necks, I can see the chickens they will become. The 'peeps' are turning into chirps and squawks and a pecking order seems to be emerging. One will budge another, the other might just move away or it might budge back. Then they stand tall, beak to beak, wings spread each daring the other to blink. Finally one wanders off pretending he'd rather find something to eat and the other one smirks. I find the Chanteclers are more timid than the Buff Orpingtons. There's one little Buff, I think a roo, that is always the first one investigating anything new and I'm pretty sure he's been practicing his strut because he's got it down pat. He walks around like he owns the brooder.

I lost one Chantecler two days after getting them to the famed pasty butt. I don't know why they call it 'pasty butt', 'granite butt' would be more appropriate. By the time I realized there was something wrong with him, his rear was stuck solid with poo. It looked like cement. I isolated him and cleaned his little bum by gently soaking his rear in warm water until the mess was soften enough to remove gently. I guess I was too late because he passed a little while later. I know there's an expected mortality rate with chicks but I do feel bad about it.

I put in a couple of sticks for them to practice roosting. I never knew how funny it is to watch a little chick fall on its butt. They get up and fluff themselves pretending it never happened. Yesterday, I put in a couple of bits of sod for them to investigate. They're going to be free-ranged so they might as well get used to it. At first, they all stayed away from it, then my little brave roo went over to check it out. He pecked at it a couple of times. When the other chicks saw that the sod wasn't going to eat him, some of them came over as well. They would look at it then quickly give it a swift peck and jump back. Soon they decided the sod was no threat at all and a game of peck and jump began. Then one genius in the bunch decided to grab it and run. All the other chicks wanted to try that too and started chasing the one with the sod. As I watched them, an old familiar saying came to mind, "Yeah, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye." I must admit, I spend more time than necessary watching their antics.

Worm Project

I started a new project today. I'm going to see if I can raise worms. At first, I never saw the point of raising worms. They naturally gravitate towards the rabbit manure pile and then I throw the manure in the garden complete with worms so why make extra work for myself? I've changed my mind because 1) rabbits make a lot of poo and rats like to nest in the hay so anything that can make the pile go down faster is good. 2) The finished product is apparently marvelous for the garden. 3) Chickens eat worms, since I'm trying to raise chickens as naturally as possible, worms seem like a good food supplement.

It does sound like a good idea, doesn't it? Unfortunately, I'm running into problems before I even start. Almost everything I've read says to get red wigglers. I'm not buying worms when the ground is crawling with them. Red wigglers are not native to where I live and I'm wary about introducing any new life form to an area. So right off the bat, I don't have the recommended 1 - 2 lbs of worms to start my project. The other thing that needs to be solved is actually finding info on raising worms in cold climates. There's oodles of information on raising worms in areas where the frost line is two feet or less. So may-be worms can't be raised in colder climates but doesn't really make sense. Worms live here so there must be a way to raise them here. Another thing is that apparently only red wigglers can be raised in bins - I don't understand that, either.

So armed with very little knowledge, I going to try vermiculture and hopefully not murder a bunch of innocent worms in the process. I am using a five gallon pail. I do have buckets that would work but the pail is narrow and tall, I don't know if worms would crawl out of a low bucket and I don't particularly want to find out. Finding a mass exodus of worms the in basement is not something I would enjoy though I'm sure M. Night Shyamalan could find movie inspiration in such a scenario. After washing the pail out, I put about 4 - 6 inches of brown leaves in the bottom and then a bunch of bunny manure. It's moist, like a damp sponge which is the recommended environment for worms. I covered the top with cardboard just in case the worms can slither out. I think I might punch a couple of holes in the top for ventilation. I will keep it in the basement firewood room where it's dark and stays cool even on the hottest days.

I'm going to get worms from the compost, manure and leaf piles I have. Whenever I'm out, turning the piles or putting it on the gardens, I'll snag whatever worms I find and put them in my bucket. If the worms don't do well, I'll let them go. If they do well, and multiply, I figure by next spring I'll have enough to start a worm pit. I have all winter to figure out how to make a cold climate pit with local worms. You'd think that would be enough time.

First Strawberry Flowers

At the top edge of the main vegetable garden, I have raspberry and strawberry plants. I was in them today weeding. Generally weeding is a fairly easy procedure; grab weed, loosen root with gardening gagget/tool/whatever, yank, grumble when root stays stubbornly in the ground. Unlike 'real' plants which will die if you yank their tops off, weeds just come back with a vengeance and they bring their all little weedy relatives. Weeding amoung the strawberries brings its own challenges. You have to be careful of the runners, making sure you don't cut through them. Dandelions especially seem to entwine themselves right through the plants and you have to carefully separate them so you don't make the plant a casualty of the weed war.

Today, I was rewarded for my diligence to weed, I found the first pale flowers on the strawberries. I like strawberry flowers, they are very unique. I like how the bright yellow centers and white petals deepen the shade of the green leaves. The flower forms a delicate bowl, petals curving up just enough to hold one drop of dew. A perfect spa for the fairy who wants to indulge herself. I don't think anything says "Spring is here" more clearly than strawberry flowers.