Bigger, Better.

We worked our butts off this weekend and made good progress on the coop.  Thank goodness for sun breaks in all the rain we've been having.  Two more sections of wall to put up and all the windows but one (along with lots of other things).  I didn't get a picture of the window we put in tonight, it is to Aaron's right in the photo.  

The babies are already loving it!  And practicing laying eggs!

It's Happening.

It's happening and there's no going back now.  The big chickens will be sleeping in the garage until further notice.  We're planning as we go, so hopefully this will turn out well and go quickly!

Coming Soon...

Coop upgrade and expansion project!

Tweenagers

They're getting pretty big!  Unfortunately, they are still living part time in the house.  Which is becoming a problem.  They've outgrown their box (understatement).  Last week we picked up a little coop for them in Corvallis.  It's pretty flimsy and not secure at all.  Not my best purchase ever, but we were desperate for something to transition them to outside.  So while I'm waiting for Aaron to predator proof the coop, I'm getting them used to the cold, hard world without heat lamps.  They do okay down to 60, but it's getting into the 30s at night still, so they aren't quite ready.  

 

My baby!  Still hoping this is not a rooster.  I am not going to be able to handle that well.

This weather has been great for letting them run around.

Little bit of a photo bomb.

Rooster, you are fine and all, but I'm ready for you to move on.  Counting the days until this one is old enough to give to a friend.

Seriously.  Please be a girl!

My "roost" is barely big enough now.  I love spending so much time with them, but it will be nice to reclaim our living room.

Their new tiny coop!

I went to run some errands and came home to this.  How Buffer?  Why?  I'm not sure how long she was in there, less than an hour, but jeez.  I was all worried the babies were cooking in the sun or something and she was the one that needed to be rescued.

The older hens were spending lots of time around these little ones today.  Camilla was the first to act out in aggression - maybe because they are getting as tall as her?  She was trying to peck them through the fence.  The black one held her ground and pecked right back!  I'm not sure they'll be so brave when there isn't a barrier.

Next project: Expand chicken coop and add privacy fencing to block the view of our yard from the street.  Never mind the half gutted house...

Fence!

We haven't done much work on the yard, but I've been dying for a privacy fence.  We decided first priority was this back fence since it had huge gaps and the neighbor behind us has a (well behaved) dog.  The little ones could easily get themselves into trouble popping through there.  We had 7 different fence styles in our yard.  You can see how ugly it was.  

So we talked to our neighbors - who we really like, I'm sad we can't talk over the fence as easily now - and they said they would split costs with us.  So we ripped that old fence down.  It looked better immediately and it was nice to pretend all those raised beds were part of our yard :)

This was a 10 time to the store project.  I hate that.  It was really difficult to retrofit everything, especially to the pipes set in concrete on the retaining wall.  That area didn't turn out as plumb, but it was our only option.  We also filled in all the gaps at the bottom from the slope with pressure treated lumber.  We got most of our supplies at Parr Lumber and I am in love with that place.  Most of their prices were better than or competitive with the box stores, but the quality on the lumber was much, much better and their customer service is excellent.  We're going to pick up some cedar for raised beds in a few days, they only carry it this time of year and it's crazy how much less it is than everywhere else we looked!

Clearly the work of the person who lived here before us.  He's left us all sorts of surprises.  I thought Aaron was going to put out his back getting that one out.

So nice!  75 feet of beautiful cedar!

Aaron is off camping this weekend, so I decided to surprise him by staining it before he got home.  You can see the difference below.  We wanted something to protect the color, but not alter it.  I used Sherwin Williams Woodscapes, untinted in Semi Transparent.

I love it!  Now we need one facing the street (too many chickens!!) and along the lower end of our property and I'll finally stop feeling like I'm being watched all the time.

Peepers

Babies!

Oh I love these little fuzzballs!  Always in a hurry.  They're already losing their down and starting to get tail feathers :(  Trying to enjoy every second with them.

Babies

We drove all over Friday to pick up our babies.  I had carefully planned out where to get the breeds I wanted, when I wanted them.  I was going to get them from the Urban Farm Store, but when Aaron called them to make sure the chicks had come in, the two breeds we planned on getting "all came in dead".  They get their chicks from a local hatchery I had planned on going through directly, but changed my mind after reading some convincing bad reviews and didn't feel comfortable going with them.  Over 30 dead chicks that had been shipped from just a few hours away...I'm glad I didn't get my chicks from them in the end.
We scrambled that morning to piece together the breeds we wanted.  First stop was in Woodburn, where we picked up a Welsummer and a Black Australorp (my number one this year).  They were out of Ameracuanas (AKA Easter eggers), along with every small town feed store in the Willamette Valley except in Newberg!  We must have called 15 feed stores.  Finally when we called Newberg and they said they had 10 left, we got in the car and went.  The plan was to get ONE.  Then after we packed up our chick, Aaron says, well don't you want two?  I mean, what was I to say to that?  He picked out the final chick and is calling her "his chick".
So 4 babies, and talk of one more this Friday from Portland...if they get in the breed they are planning on.  That adds up to 5 + 4.   Way too many birds for our little coop in the city with a 5 bird limit!  The plan is to expand the coop, put up privacy fencing, maybe sell one of the pullets (or roosters if that problem presents itself), and probably get rid of two of our older girls.
Tonight I asked Aaron to hold them while I cleaned the brooder out.   Oh it was cute.

There was some serious bonding going on.  I was cracking up as he stroked that little yellow head (towards the top, below) and she would close her eyes blissfully.

We are calling that one Troublemaker for now.  She is constantly trying to peck someone's eyes/toes/face/wings, and she's pretty fearless when it comes to jumping off of things.

Here are all 4.  Aaron's dark Americauna on the left, the light one I picked out at the bottom, the Welsummer with the well defined line down her back and the Australorp in the back.

I have to admit there have been many hours in the last two days dedicated to just sitting and watching them.  They are so small and soft!  And vivacious, so funny to watch them run around and interact with each other.  The goal is to get these guys tame, tame tame.  I have been wanting to raise chicks for years and  I'm loving every minute of it!

Lovely Weekend

Friday I hit up Zumba, then made my way to Eugene to meet up with Ashlee for a few hours.  A visit to Sweet Life is always mandatory, we shared a lime tartlet it was perfection.  

This little sweetie has taken to jumping on my lap whenever I sit next to her.  It used to take a bribe of food to make that happen.  Now she just seems to enjoy my company.  The feeling is mutual.

Saturday we cleaned and organized the basement.  I suck at before pictures!  It felt good to get that space together.  Then we headed up to Bridgeport to REI, where I found a black puffy half off.  I've been waiting for the perfect one.  I'm not sure it's perfect, but it is warm, which my old one is not.

Today we got up early and headed to Corvallis.  We went to see the lambs being born, but must have missed it by a week.  So we went out to Oak Creek and hiked about 5 miles.  I really, really miss having all those trails in my backyard.  

We did some shopping - yay new shoes!  Then had a yummy lunch at Block 15.  Aaron picked up a few bottles of this Petit Verdot.  I'm not much for beer, but this was delicious.

We grabbed some dough and ranch from American Dream and headed home to make the most of the rest of the day.  We used our clean basement space to knock out 45 frames and 3 boxes for the bees.  Using a nail gun made the job go much quicker than it has in the past without one.

For dinner I made a parmesan encrusted pork chop - new favorite way to eat pork chops.  Easy and super delicious!  

Sunny Sunday

Plotting.

Enjoying a beautiful day!

I Did a Bad Thing

A more appropriate title may be: "I feel like a bad person".
We took two hives into the winter - we had 3 last year, but one lost their queen late summer, so we over wintered two. Both survived, but one was clearly much stronger than the other. When I did the first inspection a few weeks ago, the weaker hive had very few bees in it compared to the stronger hive. In fact I didn't see much brood at all.
I began feeding both hives, and the weak hive didn't take any of the syrup I gave them. Another bad sign. I opened them yesterday with Aaron - just a peak in and we were greeting with lots of angry stingers. This usually means there is something wrong, like the queen is dead. We decided the best thing to do would be to break the hive down and save the honey that was left. If we had just left them eventually they wouldn't have been able to defend the hive, and other bees would have come in and "robbed" them of their honey. This means a wild frenzy of bees all over (including the possibility of the strong hive being robbed), and we lose the 35 pounds of honey in the hive we could use to start a new colony.
So I went over today and pulled the hive apart - carefully. There weren't many bees, but my were the ones that were there pissed. They would see me coming and head straight for my face. It took a while, but I just let the cold weather slow them down and eventually kill them.


They hovered in clusters for warmth.


I was surprised to find a queen in there. I teased her out into a plastic bag. We put her in vodka to make queen juice. The idea is that her queen pheromones go into the alcohol and in the spring you can use it with lemongrass oil to bait swarms. I do realize I sound like a total jerk right now, but the thing is when you deal in life, you also must deal in death. We salvaged as much from this hive as we could to have a successful year with a new hive.


There was one frame with brood, the other side looked about the same. No eggs, but some larvae and mostly capped brood. This time of year there should be 8-10 full frames of brood. This queen was not laying well anymore, hence the population decline.


All I had with me today was a camera phone, so sorry for the picture quality.

For those of you wondering what will happen with the farm this year - we took the chickens and bees to my parent's house in the country. The chickens are having a great time (and so are my parents!) and laying lots of eggs. My garden size has decreased dramatically - from 2200 square feet to 42 square feet. But I'm looking forward to a little break and I have my mom's big garden and Salem Harvest. I'm willing to sacrifice this year in order to get into a house that we own.

Around the Farm

Joining in with Farmama Sara's weekly around the farm updates.
We had a few days of beautifully warm, sunny weather. Then we paid for it with a crazy thunder storm. We had a gorgeous day, and went out to get pizza at Double Mountain. It was obvious it was going to rain, but while we were eating the skies unleashed and a deluge of rain came pouring down. There were rivers going down the sidewalk, thunder, lightning, the whole thing. Hood River gets thunder storms every few weeks, but I haven't seen one like this since my summers in Maine. The power flickered at the restaurant, but came right back on. We made our way home and the power had surged at our house too - and taken our Time Capsule with it :( I had also left out my pepper and melon plants and they were drenched. The flats were full to the brim with water, soil had washed out and roots were exposed, it was a mess. So far I've only lost one honey dew, hopefully that will be it. Melons don't like wet soil, so I need to get them planted and out of those wet pots.


After a few days of cold, raininess, we are due for some warm days starting today. I think the garden is going to do really well over the next week. Broccoli:


Carrots - can you tell I hate thinning because I feel like a murderer?


New red fire lettuce - again with the thinning


Tomatoes are still small, but starting to flower


The potatoes are growing like crazy. We had some flea beetles hatch and completely cover all of my nightshade plants over night. I dusted them all with diatomaceous earth and it has helped immensely.


Popcorn, growing, growing, growing!


Green beans


Yellow beans


Asparagus beans - yard long


Onions


All the cool weather crops are doing great, just waiting for that sweet corn to pop up and all the squash too!