The Chickens Have left the Brooder

The Chicken Coop/Bunny Barn, or as my son calls it, CCU (Chicken Coop University) still needs it's finishing touches, a few inside wall coverings in the rabbit colonies, soffits and paint but the chicken area is functional and so we moved the chickens in yesterday.

There was some debate on how to move the chickens; I have 33 of the little suckers. We considered putting a bunch in a box at a time thus reducing the travel time. But I was worried they might get hurt and I have been warned over and over about what happens if a chicken bleeds - the others will kill it. So in the end, I picked up each one and transported it to its new digs. 33 trips up and down the stairs and across the yard in less than an hour. Why people willingly go on stairmasters, I'll never understand, my legs are sending about 100 watts of pain up to my brain with every heartbeat. Yet I'm glad I did it that way. First of all, I believe it was much safer for the chickens and secondly, it added a real personal touch. It was nice to hold each one and see it's individual reaction to the outside.

Catching the first few was pretty easy, small brooder, lots of chickens. Then the chickens started crowding into corners, out of reach. I tried putting some feed down to get them within arms reach. That worked a couple of times then the chickens figured it out and decided to go hungry instead of getting picked up. In the end, my son entered the brooder to hand them to me. The chickens made an awful fuss all the way up the stairs and through the kitchen. Some squawked, some squeaked, and I'm pretty sure a lot swore in chicken lingo. But as soon as we hit the outside, each one got quiet and started looking around interestedly. I couldn't resist the temptation to tell them, 'I told you so'. I always thought the buffs and chanteclers were pretty birds - well, as far as chickens go. But the chantecler's feathers just shone in the sunlight and they were stunning.

The CCU is 16 ft square; the two rabbit colonies in it are 5 x 8 ft each. They are in the northeast and southwest corners; the space between them is my storage area. So the chicken area is about 11 x 11, plenty of room for 33 chooks. We made a roosting area for them, simply a wide ladder-like contraption with three rungs on it to roost. A couple of the not so bright ones went to the end of the roost and used it as a slide. I hope they smarten up soon, dealing with splinters in chicken butts is something I'd like to pass on.

Anyhow, they're in and seem to be content. Tomorrow we're going to fence in a little area as a run for them and introduce them to the great outdoors; something I think every chicken should have a chance to explore.

Yummy Strawberries

The first year I put strawberries in, I bought a package containing strawberry roots from my local nursery. I followed the directions impeccably, not much to it really; soak the roots, stick 'em in the ground. Not so much as one plant appeared. I did something wrong but I have no idea what. Not wanting a repeat of the first year, the second year I bought little strawberry plants. The kind you find in the herb section of any gardening place. They grew and bore tiny little strawberries that were actually more effort than they were worth. You could actually hold twenty in your hand and still have room for more. Well no matter, they were hybrids and I was told they would not survive the winter anyhow. So live and learn and go without strawberries for another year.

Last year, those miserable little strawberry plants survived. They don't have runners like real strawberry plants so they kind of look like clumpy thwarted bushes and as such tend to be sullen. They grudgingly flower here and there and throw a berry out now and then just because they have to. In addition to those grumps, I bought twenty strawberry roots and made sure there was at least one or two green leaves attached to each root. The package said twenty but I separated close to thirty roots. Now these are strawberry plants! They flowered abundantly and we got large berries. Runners appeared, zooming in straight lines as far as they go, dropping the occasional new plantlet into the ground.

This year, those silly little herb strawberry plants survived yet another winter. Funny though, the berries seem to be getting bigger. May-be the plants are just maturing or may-be they figure they better adjust their attitude since their replacements are sitting in the next patch over. But I'm wondering if perhaps there is some cross pollination going on. The other real strawberry plants are just doing beautifully, setting large, tasty berries and surviving the winters without blinking a leaf.

The berries are just about done now, I'll probably go through the patch a couple more times just to catch any stragglers. I'd say the strawberry plant population has at least tripled and they are growing down into the garden. That's fine,it's always easy to make the garden a bit bigger to accommodate willing plants. And you know what they say - the more strawberries, the more shortcake!

Worms, the Project Continues

So far, unlike the chicken coop, the worm project has been an unqualified success. I can’t hammer a nail straight if my life depended on it, but man, can I grow worms. A conservative estimate would be about 800 worms now. Plus any that have been born (hatched?) in the bin itself. The worms sure eat a lot; I can see the bunny manure reduce in two or three days. Last week, I put in more dead leaf bedding. I noticed it was really wet on the bottom, so Don drilled some more holes in the bin bottom and lower sides for me.

I’m pretty sure I have Dendrodrilus Ribidus. I have no idea how to pronounce that, I just know how to spell it while looking at the word itself on the internet. D.R.s are small worms, 3 – 4 inches or so, ranging in colour from dark red to pink on the upper surface, being paler below and they have yellow tails. They are common in the decomposing leaves and in compost and manure heaps, which is where I am finding them.

I have discovered that I was right about being apprehensive about getting non-native red wrigglers. They should not be released into the wild because of their voracious appetites and reproductive rates. They have actually been known to upset the balance of the hardwood forests because they eat the leaf litter too quickly. When that happens, the hard shelled nuts can’t incubate as they should. Red wrigglers can also lead to erosion and affect the pH of the soil. I always like those instances where my gut feeling is justified.

I need to find out about are worm eggs or cocoons. When I am turning the leaf compost and harvesting worms, I will come across little yellow or orange color eggs. They don’t look to be more than 1/8th of an inch. I usually find a lot of worms around them. I’m wondering if they are worm cocoons. If they are, I could add them directly to my bin. A cocoon will hold anywhere from 2 – 20 worms. Hopefully, I can find either a picture or a very good description of a cocoon soon. In the meantime, I might just take one of those eggs and keep it separate in some leaves and see what happens.

My Mom's Peonies

One of the few people who didn't think I was stark raving mad when I moved to PEI was my mom (Eileen). She thought it was wonderful and totally supported us. One of the ways she showed her support was to send me things that went with the life style, like the peonies.

Three years ago I received a package for my birthday containing peonie roots. I planted them behind the herb garden in between two lilac bushes. Last year I feared they had inadvertently been cut down in a zealous weeding spree. But they survived and this year, they have bloomed for the very first time. You really can't see in this picture but they add a colour and joy to the herb garden. The flowers are humongous, they catch every little breeze and bob merrily every chance they get. It's nice to have a little bit of Mom in the herb garden.

Building the Chicken Coop: Part Three: Rafters and Plywood or "Oh My! Is That Actually Part of a ROOF up There !?!?!?!?

The rafters, once built properly, had to be put up. We decided to leave one wall piece out so we could lift up the rafters from inside the coop. We were hoping it would go smoothly. Well.......not so much. We had to start with the end piece which weighs a ton. The four of us mucked around with that all Saturday morning and couldn't get it up for love, money or chicken feed. I finally had to leave to go get necessities in town, one of them being chicken feed. When I got back, the end piece was up! Turned out that a fellow we knew showed up and basically put it on himself. This guy is as strong as a horse. He used to be a contractor and knew all sorts of little tricks. He suggested Don do a few things before putting up the rest of the rafters. That took up the rest of the week because we got a spat of very rainy weather and that blew a few days. After that, the kids and I put up another wall part which was all good and fine except it was the wrong wall and wasn't put in exactly right. So Don had to waste time fixing our well intentioned mistake. We did manage to hoist the other rafters up onto the coop, they weren't nailed in or anything, but once they were all up, we got the last bit of wall in and our fellow came and hoisted up the other end piece while I took minor heart attacks watching him.

Our 81 year old neighbour came on over to chat with Don Friday night, he offered to help Don put the rafters in place. I wasn't all that thrilled, I didn't want him to get hurt. Well, today he came over and I had a big discussion with him about it. I suggested he just tell us how to do it, 'supervise', as it were, and Don, son and I would do the work. My dear neighbour proceeded to tell me that it wasn't " work for the womens". No, of course not. How could delicate little me be helpful? Hey, I can put up walls, may-be not in the right place, but still, I can get 'em up there. Anyhow, nothing would dissuade him and within 2 hours all the rafters were in place and nailed. Don and I couldn't believe how fast it went. Our neighbour sure showed us that 81 is the new 50 around here. It helps when there is someone around who actually knows what they are doing, there's a lot less discussion on how to do it. Don and I tend to get circular in our discussions on how proceed: "I don't know, what do you think?" "Beats me, what do you think?" And around and around it goes.

Don and son are putting up the plywood on the roof now. Son, aka the spider-monkey, is very adept at scrambling around on a high pitch roof, he has no fear of heights and being a teen-ager, is pretty sure he is never going to die anyway.

With the help of good neighbours and a fearless, agile son it's getting there very s-l-o-w-l-y. Realizing that this might be case of famous last words, I venture to say the chickens should be in by the week-end.

Feathers and All

The little baby chicks are no longer, they are chickens. They're not full grown yet but they are maturing and have left the gawky-oh-my-god-how-can-I-stand-on-these-feet stage. They are at the I-WILL-fly-and-heaven-help-any-human-who-stands-in-my-way stage. They are about seven weeks old now. I turned off the brooder light a while back and I'd say they are ready for the coop. Hopefully the coop will be ready for them soon. The two in the pictures are not the biggest of the bunch, but they were the easiest to catch.

They have three feeders. One standard long one, and a couple of plastic dishes I improvised. I noticed that the chickens higher up on the social ladder would eat first and chase away any lowly wannabe socialite. The ones not eating just kind of stood off a bit, trying to look like they didn't care if they don't get to eat. I found that adding feeders gave everyone a chance to get some food. Mind you, there are a couple of real pieces of work in the crew that are eating at the big feeder and go flying over to the little feeders for no more purpose than to chase away the birds eating there. They don't even seem to realize that while they're chasing the others, they themselves are not eating; definitely not the tightest knit sweaters in the drawer. They kind of remind me of a couple of kids I knew in high school.

The roosters are trying to crow and failing miserably. When I first heard the early attempts, I thought a chicken was choking to death. Now they sound like they have sore throats. I'm sure the hens are laughing at them behind their wings. Everybody roosts from time to time and try to fly. They are have some success with the flying. My son came upstairs and told me there was a chicken siting on top of the brooder. Hhmm, guess it's time to close that in. I have fed them a couple of worms. Now that's funny. I'll drop the worm in and someone will grab it and head out to a secluded corner as fast as his little chicken legs can go. He kind of ducks his head down in the hopes no one will notice he has food. Of course, they always do and chase him. The little chicken scoots along, eating and running at the same time. Then he turns around and shows the chickens his empty beak. The worm doesn't even know what hit it.

As interesting as they are, I'm looking forward to when they are outside, running around and having much more room. They will be happier and so will I.

Emu Egg

I was given this empty emu egg from a couple down the road. They raise all sorts of fancy birds. I've never seen an emu egg. In fact, before this summer, I've never seen an emu up close and personal, let alone pet one.

I think the egg is pretty amazing. That's its natural color. You can't see in the picture, but on one end of the egg has an intricate swirling design on it. Apparently all the eggs have it and every pattern is unique, like a fingerprint. The emu egg is incredibly strong. The couple says an emu does not lie down to lay the egg, it just falls to the ground, from a height of about 2 feet at least. The eggs don't generally crack or break. They are edible, and one goes a long way, basically a one egg omelet. The egg beside it is your average large chicken egg found in any egg carton. I put it in for size comparison.