Quick Egg Update

Just a quick update on the egg production here at the Gerrior Poultry Division. Today was the first day we got two eggs. They seem to be producing them some time between noon and 5 pm. We have been getting one egg a day. My guess it was Fairy. Today Geneva was mighty excited to show me two eggs when I got home. She was not only excited that we got two eggs, but she was also very excited that one of them was pink. And of course, she, as I do, believe it is from Princess. We have a few reasons for this theory. One, Fairy is bigger. Two, Fairy seems a bit more aggressive especially when it comes to feeding. Eat more, grow more faster, mature more faster. Two, Fairy is darker brown or tan, and Princess is very light tan. So, when we got a light colored egg today, that is the conclusion both of us came from. Unscientific, but
makes sense.

Jenn ate two of the eggs today and said they tasted delicious. I still have not eaten one. One, I am not a big egg eater, and two, I'm kinda just basking in the success of the whole thing. We went from two $3.50 each chicks to two egg producing hens and all that is in between and goes along with. I am a little proud. I would call this chicken enterprise a success. Now all I have to do is get the numbers in the black through time/production-numbers/cost. Maybe some time next spring they will start saving us
money, maybe.

(Left to Right) Hatchery Bought, Fairy? Princess?

Nesting Box Complete

Well, as you know by reading the previous blog entry, I did not make the deadline to make a nesting box before the chickens laid an egg. I was in the process a few days before, so one day after, I finished up. I think I mentioned this before, but I have a very hard time designing anything that I don’t have the items to build with already on hand. What I mean by that is I have to look at my wood pile, in my garage, to figure out what I am going to build. With a blank piece of paper, and an unlimited budget for wood, I have no idea what I would think, draw and build. I need to work on that someday. But for now, I design and build with what I have. Most of my materials are the used decking and the scraps from the palates and such I got from MCBH.

Roof

Box

Assembled

Everything went together fairly easily. My only problem was just as I was getting ready to bolt it on to the coop, I started to lose sunlight. A few flashlights later, and it was connected. I am pretty happy with it. One funny side note. While I was building it, Jenn said “wow that looks kind of big.” Well, come to find out she thought what I was building was going inside the coop. Once she figured out it was going to be an addition to the coop, she was happy with the product. I am going to have to do some slight water proofing to the roof of the nesting box. The re-purposed wood had some drill holes in it. What a great excuse for another blog in the future.

Complete and installed

View inside with some cedar shavings

Geneva was hungry the other night before bed, so I offered her one of her eggs. This was the first times we cooked one of our own eggs, and yes, that is a small cast iron pan. They are about 60% to 75% the size of the eggs we have been buying from the hatchery, but I think in a month or two they will be up to full size. Geneva said they tasted really good.

First consumed egg

So this competes the buildup phase, now on to the maintenance phase. As long as we can feed our chickens we will have a steady source of protein. Geneva has also taken over as the morning caretakers of the chickens. I am still going out with her in the morning, but she is filling both the water and the food each morning. She is 6 now, they are hers, and until she leaves our house, the chicken responsibilities are hers.

The whole enterprise

Ladies inspecting the new addition

I hope you have enjoyed the updates, and please let me know if anyone has any questions this blog is not answering.

Update: We have gotten 4 eggs so far. The first 2 were in the main coop, before the nesting box was installed. The next 2 were in the nesting box. I hope they have figured out, that's where they go.

 

 

Future Chicken Coop Model

We have an EGG!

I have been both very busy and very lazy. I have not updated the chicken blog in a very long time. Honestly, there has not been much to report. I started making a nesting box yesterday, and plan on finishing it this week or weekend. I was planning on photos and a blog update for that. The eggs were to start coming sometime in September. We calculated, mid to late September.

But then...

This happened...

Just sitting there, in the

 watermelon debris

An EGG!!!

Yes, we got our first egg. We don't know which one of the ladies gave it to us. Don't even know when. It was not there this morning when I fed them. But when I came home and Jenn had let them out to walk around. It was just sitting there in the coop.

The chicken farmer with her first egg

That is the big news. The big announcement. I will be sure to post when the nesting box is done.

We have coop. Phase two.

One must be centered before one works

This past Saturday morning was a lovely morning. So lovely in fact I had a little to eat and then went right to work on the next phase of the coop. I am calling this phase two, the addition of a base and a door. There will be a phase three in a few months, which will be the addition of a nesting box.

 

She asked to help all day long, so when I could, I did

I am going to keep this post simple. I hope. I hoped the same thing for phase two, but things got a little complicated. I spent a good amount of time squatting or sitting and just looking at what I had assembled so far and trying to figure out the next step. I had dimensions I had to work with in on paper, but everything else was either in my head or being made up as I went along.

Fitting the floor

I built the base. It was fairly simple, but then fitting to the existing coop, well, that was one step above simple. It eventually fit, with some skill saw and router action. I then thought up this contraption about a removable floor. Why removable. Well, the thought is for ease of cleaning. I don’t know if that is how it will work out in practice, but in theory and build that was what I was going for. I ended up making three sections. They fit, but I have not yet done the remove and clean thing yet. The last build for phase two was a door. This was the most straight forward and simple part of the build. I even added a little flair. I had two hinges that had a bit of rust on them. I don’t know what I bought them for years ago, or if I even bought them, I might have found them. However they came into my life, they were here and they had a bit of rust on them. I brushed them a bit with a wire brush and then had the thought I should hit them with a little paint. I walked over to the paint basket in the garage and the first can and color on top was a nice purple Jenn had use to paint Geneva’s bed. Perfect I thought. A minute later, I had purple hinges. I found a latch, again, I have no idea if or why I had bought it, but it was bought and paid for at some time by someone. I was and am very proud of the door. But it is just a door.

  

Base done, floor done, door in progress

The door also made me realize something about my design and building skills, or lack there of. I really enjoy designing and building useful things. Mostly to do with general home function or gardening and now farming. I think this is because of a few things. One, things don’t always have to look like a finished piece of furniture or cabinetry. Things can look a little rough. Two, function is ahead of form but does not need to be completely ignored. Three, because of one and two, you can use what you have, or use less than perfect materials. And fourth and last, you can fudge a little, well, a lot. If something doesn’t fit, make it fit. Shave something down, cut something more. If it is too small, add more wood or screws or glue. You just have a lot more leeway.

The door

So, base, floor and door. All complete and functioning as intended, except the floor. It is still unproven as a removable cleanable floor. The chicks like it. I have been throwing all sorts of beat up and old vegetables in there and they love it. Geneva puts all sorts of stuff in there too. One problem that has presented itself is they peck at the chicken feeder a lot, and a good amount of feed falls out and through the floor onto the ground. I am going to have to make some sort of fitted tray to put under it to catch and recycle some of the feed. The door does make the day to day feed and water refills a non-issue.

A peek on the inside

In closing, and to talk about the chickens at least once in this blog about chickens. They are doing well. They eat all the time and seem to like their new house. I held both of them in my lap for a while the other day and they seemed to be very happy and content to just sit there. And man are they warm. On a funny, and not so funny note. I guess either flies or mosquitoes have been landing on my feet and ankle area. Well, when the chicks are around me, they see those bugs as a meal, but in pecking said meal they peck me as well. The first time was funny and startling. The second time lost some of its humor. The third time, flat out not funny. I have to keep my eyes on where they are in reference to where I am standing, or I might feel an unexpected peck. Sounds funny, but it definitely sounds funnier than it is. It's tough being a chicken farmer. Even slightly hazardous, but just slightly.

Free ranging

We have coop. Phase one.

The stars aligned. The materials, materialized. And last Saturday, the coop came to be. It all started like many Saturday mornings do. I made some tea and went out to the back yard to enjoy the tea and watch the chickens. They were still living in the Rubbermaid coop in the garage and like to get the outside time and eat grass and seeds and bugs. I then wanted to keep them over in the grass area for a while so I moved their cardboard transporting box, but that still left about a three foot gap. I then went into the garage to look for a piece of wood or a piece of something to fill that gap. Then I saw them, purchased over ten years ago, the left over stainless steel shelves from the shelves we bought at Costco. I grabbed one and brought it out back. It worked like a champ. I then thought. I have two of these, and these would make perfect sides for the coop. It all came together in my mind. It literally is almost the exact length of the grass area we have. And if I make the middle part two feet wide, it will be almost the exact size of the width of the grass area. Two feet is also the width of the wire material I bought with the floor of the coop in mind. It was all coming together. Now time for action.

I brought the shelves back out to the garage and took a quick mental inventory of the wood. My first thought and first hurdle was how was I going to affix the wooden frames to the metal shelves. I started down this road of what nuts and bolts do I have or what would I need to go to Home Depot or Lowes to get. Then it hit me. Like a ton of redneck bricks. Zip ties. Simple, strong, adaptable, on hand and paid for. A few cuts later I had the top and side frame pieces cut to length. A few zips and trims and I was hyper impressed. On to the surface.

For the surface I was going to use leftover pieces of the replaced deck. I just needed to cut them to length and standardize the width. Many of them were cupped from repeated harsh sun and wet cycles over the past year. I wanted them to lay nice and flat and tight, but how. It then hit me like a ton of yankee bricks. Wet wood. Wet wood is much more flexible. Just as you would soak your reed for those basket weavers out there. Raise your hands. Mom, I see your hand. Any others? Well, anyway. I just happened to have acquired a little kiddie pool. I filled it up with water, and started to throw my cut pieces in the water. This is when Geneva really started to “help.” She, still in her long sleeve and long pant pajamas, started to stand on top of the wood in the pool like a very unstable raft. A few wobbles later, pants wet, and then she sits on her raft. Wet butt. In the end, wet everything. But her fun meter, it was pegged. As was her smile meter. Sorry, no photos available of the raft.

Once my cutting was done, I got a nice drink of ice water. Now on to the build. I just started to screw and glue. This puppy was going to be as solid as possible. Big screws into the ripped 2 x 4 and little screws into the 1.5 x .5, and glue all around. It came together nicely and fairly quickly. Only hiccup was to cut three custom widths to finish it up. Easy.

Then it was done. Just like that. I carried it to the back yard. It does have a little weight to it, but not that bad. I put it in it's place. Put the waterer and feeder under. Threw the rotting spaghetti squash under. And last but not least, scooped up Princess and Fairy and inserted them into their new home. Oh, I also zip tied another piece of wood across on the inside. Makeshift perch.

 

Fairy chilling

It's now Tuesday night. Everything is still working like a champ. The birds are working out their 8 square feet of grass fairly well. Pecking and scratching away. Eating the grass and whatever other food scraps we throw in there.

I am calling this coop phase one. That is intentional and with good reason. The plan for phase two is building a base for the coop about a foot or so high. I plan on putting the wire on the bottom for the poop to fall through as much as possible. I am then going to place some sort of catch tray below that to catch the poop so it can be removed from the area to lower the smell factor. Then phase three, I plan to make an access door on one end and a nesting box on the other end. Timeline, soon.

That was a lot about the construction of the coop. The update on the birds. They are getting bigger. They fight over bugs. They are not as much fun and don’t like to be held as much. That is the update for now. Thanks for reading.

We have wood.

It has been a while since the last installment of GPD. There are two main reasons for that. One, I have been busy and tired. I have been telling myself I need to do a chicken blog tonight, and end up in bed. Two, there is not much going on day to day to deserve a blog entry. I will tell you a little bit about the chickens and then a little bit about the coop.

First the chickens. Princess and Fairy are both doing well. They seem bigger every day. They are getting some brown feathers on their chest and wings. From what I understand they will be all brown when they mature. They poop often. They eat more than I expected and drink less than I expected. We give them some outside time each day. It’s fun. They have found this little pile of dirt, that used to be mud but is now dried and they give themselves dust baths. Something I guess chickens do. It is for sure an instinct, because no other chicken ever showed them where or how to do it. They definitely like to perch. Any time they can get on something with an edge or something similar to a branch, they get on it. That is all for the chicken report.

dirt/dust bathing

On to the coop, both current and future. I know all my readers out there. And there are many of you. Want to see the coop plans, well, so do I. I am sorry to say, there are still no materialized coop plans. However there have been great advancements in the acquiring of coop building materials.

First off was the awesome find of the scrap pallet wood I found on base. Asked the owner, he said it was mine for the taking. A good shipmate and fellow Whipped Dog let me borrow his truck and the wood was brought home that night. I am going to go off subject here bit, so I can get back on subject later. It will make sense. So, half of the deck that I made last year is looking a little beat. Not only does it look a little beat, but the boards are loose and they creak like crazy. I wanted to replace about half the deck. The side that get very harsh sun. I wanted to do this, had the truck, so, I made the trip to Lowes and got the wood for the new decking. What does this have to do with GPD you are asking? Here is the part where I get back on subject from being off subject. I am going to use the beat up and weathered wood from the deck along with the free wood from the base to make the coop. This coop will be made with 100% re-purposed wood. How green of me. More like, how cheap of me. I had to buy a few things. The wire for the sides and the floor, some screws etc. As for the plans, they are coming soon. Trust me, soon. Like many things that I build I tend to design and acquire materials in the wrong order. I see what I have or what I can get, material wise and then I design what I am building around the materials. This chicken coop seems to be no different and is proving that rule to be a rule. Now that I know what size and amounts of wood I have, I can start the design. More on that in another blog.

Free, New and Old Wood

  

The two ladies now reside in this sweet set up. It is, if you can’t tell, a Rubbermaid bin that I have cut a few holes in for air flow and an anti-slip carpet mat on top of to keep them in. The price was right, and the clean-up is very easy. I find myself doing most of the cleaning. Time and quality of job would be severely sacrificed if I had Geneva do it. I still make her help in some small way, but I clean it each day.

Rubbermaid coop, secured and a peek inside

 

I think that about sums it up and catches you up. They are growing fast that is for sure. And are going to need a bigger place soon. Have a good Memorial Day weekend, and remember what it’s all about. Our veterans who didn't make it home.

Your humble veteran
(Geneva posed me this way and took the photo)