Replenishing the Flock

Paid a visit to Foothills Alpacas and picked up 11 Plymouth Barred Rock pullets and one Rhode Island Red this weekend to replace some of the hens we've lost over the past year.

These new birds will be kept separated from the rest of the chickens until they mature a bit more. They are too young to compete with the larger chickens for food and we worry about free-ranging them at the rental cottage for such a short time---might as well get them on the new Collinsville Road property.

Using mostly existing materials from previous coop construction, we made another smaller hoop house and fenced off the back section of the run (which isn't used by our free-ranging older birds.


Apart from the one Barred Rock with a deformed foot and the singular Red, we can't tell any of them apart... but the kids can!

The kids have begun the usual process of naming them which means we won't be eating them.

Countdown Complete?

If you've been watching our blog, perhaps you've been eagerly watching the Construction Progress countdown in our lefthand menu. Now it reads "Countdown Complete" as we've passed September 15th. Unfortunately, due to the change in builders a while back, we've missed that deadline and are hoping to be in the garage apartment by mid-October. As of today, we still need to finish up the drywall, get a well pump, install garage doors, lay down flooring, pour the parking pad, construct the stoop and paint---not to mention acquiring appliances and fixtures! We're looking into Sears Outlet for some good deals on scratch and dent or overstock items.

Gas Crisis

During the construction of our new home, I've been commuting from Charlotte to the homesite each weekend. It's a respectable drive and one that I'm not particularly fond of. To make matters worse, the current gas crisis makes the weekly trek an expensive one. While I was born in the 1970s, I've never witnessed this absurdity in my adult life. Last night, for example, I drove around two states (I live near the NC/SC border) looking for gas and was able to find it in only three places, all of which had ridiculously long lines. Even the local Sam's Club ran dry. Prices are hovering around $4 per gallon in Charlotte, if you can find gas at all. Many stations are simply out of fuel, and sometimes lines form at gas stations that are expecting to have a fuel delivery. To combat the madness, I've been carpooling to work during the week with a coworker who happens to live the same apartment complex. On a related note, I've rented an economy car until our mortgage is approved and I can buy a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. Needless to say, we are not driving the 14/16 mpg Suburban much.

More Elevations

I told you Heather was fast...here's more elevations for your viewing pleasure. Click to enlarge.



We are supposed to get the actual hardcopies soon and they will include little cut-outs of mini-furniture to play with. This scored bonus points with Dionne, who is the quintessential homemaker.

North Elevation Sneak Peek

John of Pharoah put us in touch with a draftsperson named Heather Barnette. Heather's work is fast and affordable, and she has been able to recreate our main house plans to include all of the changes and updates we made which varied from the original Healthy Home Plans blueprints. Above is a preview of what the north elevation (back of the house) will look like when viewed from our backyard meadow. The garage will be off to the right, and, as you can see, we're building on the side of a slight hill. It's so satisfying to be able to visualize this stuff!

So, What About That House You Were Building?

It's been a long 3 weeks since we mentioned anything about the home construction, but there's certainly a lot to tell! Pharoah Construction is working out well and is well-connected to the local contractors. Here's the garage when we last saw it here on the blog:


And here it is as of Friday, August 15th:



Despite the ominous clouds, framing is complete and everything is moving along nicely! As you can see, the roof is now up with 30-year asphalt architectural shingles covering the tarpaper. Soffit (the part up under the edge of the roof) and facsia (the edge of the roofline that faces outward) are nearly done.

The entire garage is also wrapped with the vapor barrier material and is now ready for siding. Here's a shot of the wrap going up...

I love how these guys have no fear of heights! Inside, you can really get an idea of how the final space will look even though the drywall isn't up yet.

We've made nice use of some otherwise "dead space" by creating several storage nooks built into the walls of the second floor...


Although not the intended usage, the dogs will love to sleep in these cozy spots! Plumbing is going in and here you can see the downstairs laundry room hook-ups...

...upstairs kitchen...

...and upstairs bathroom...

Just in time for the tub/shower unit!


On a side note, we visited the site this past weekend when nobody was around and witnessed a herd of eight deer (including a buck) crossing through our backyard meadow. We look forward to views like this on a daily basis!

No Traction Means Need for Tractor

We've been getting more rain recently. It serves to replenish underground water sources, rejuvenate flora, reduce dust and generally cool things off (Dionne read 107 degrees Fahrenheit in the Suburban's thermometer the other day!). But it also creates a serious lack of traction for construction vehicles on our home site. The ground quickly turns to a slippery red mud and we've had several victims so far including the siding installers and their trailer, and then our project leader John. It sounded as if another party that got stuck (two vehicles besides John's yesterday), I think it may have been the roofer or possibly the siding material delivery truck. On a side note, the structural engineer with his 4 wheel drive Isuzu Trooper made it through just fine. We may want to consider 4 wheel drive for our next vehicle. Anyway, in some cases, we've been able to use spare wood to wedge under the tires. In the case of larger vehicles, we've twice had to call upon our neighbor, Tom Black, who owns a tractor. For his assistance in towing out stranded vehicles, Tom earned himself a case of Milwaukee's Best and a promise to donate some crush-and-run to his back driveway (which is scheduled to be installed tomorrow). Never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to get my own tractor! Concrete pour scheduled for today has been delayed until Friday or Monday depending on driveway completion.

Name That Chick

From Chicken and Eggs

The kids finally settled on some names for the three new chicks. The photo above shows them dirtbathing with mother hen "Beach Bunny." The golden chick with the black stripe is a Buff Araucana mix called "Cheeto" (born second). The Araucana Black Star mix next to Cheeto is known as "Sleepy" although it's sometimes called "Little Red". The largest one (shown sitting) is a pure-bred Araucana called "Checkers." Checkers is the first-born and the most aggressive when it comes to feeding. Here's Maya mugging with Cheeto and Sleepy.

Super Genius

(Sample photo)

Just a quick post that we had a coyote visit this past weekend. We heard the chickens squawking loudly outside and I peered out the window toward the coop and saw what looked like a medium-sized dog about 15-20 feet into the woods behind Rose Cottage. We've had stray/lost/feral dogs come around a few times before, but then I saw the bigger ears and thinner face of a coyote. Before I could get outside, it did a double-take at the chickens and rather calmly walked back into the trees. It was either confused by the loud chicken alarm calls or simply on a reconnaissance mission. While we worry about the flock, we also realize that free-ranging has its price and there will be predation.

Snakes Like Eggs (Part 2)

Back in mid-July, we had a surprise visit from a large black rat snake in the back yard of our rental cottage. He was somewhat docile, so we relocated him away from our chickens and eggs. About a week later, Dionne opened the garage door only to find an even longer, more aggressive snake slithering around trying to reach the peacock eggs that we were incubating for Danna. The adrenaline kicked in and Dionne took charge of the situation.

We'll spare you the more gruesome photos, but this time the snake was decapitated and buried to avoid any future problems with our chickens, nearby livestock, or the kids. I had snakes as pets growing up so I felt terrible about this, but I'm guessing this isn't the last time we'll be killing wild animals in defense.

HarvestEating.com

Harvest Eating is an online resource for healthy family eating and home of the Harvest Diet & Chef Keith Snow. Keith, a Columbus-area resident, provides articles, advice, recipes, and instructional cooking videos all from his own home (I'm jealous). His site also offers social networking features, a discussion forum, podcast and more---pretty cool stuff. So, what are we getting at? Blue Harvest Farm is proud to be a supplier of organic, free-range, non-soy-fed chicken eggs for Chef Keith! Watch for our wonderful marigold-colored yolks at HarvestEating.com.

New Builder Begins

Big news: We decided to switch builders to someone more local and they are eager to start working today with a larger crew to pick up where the last builder left off. The homesite had not been active for a few weeks so we went out there yesterday and did some weedeating around the piles of lumber. Maya also found some watermelon sprouts coming out of the garage gravel floor where the previous workers had spit them out during lunch breaks! She transplanted them to a large pot which also contains some onions and carrots (we think). Anyway, Pharoah Construction is the name of the new builder and the business is operated by John Riley of Campobello, SC. They still plan on meeting our previous move-in date so I don't even have to reset the countdown timer on the lefthand menu!

4 and 5 Didn't Thrive

Hatchlings 4 and 5 were born this morning, but sadly did not stay with us. One was found lifeless in the nest, possibly crushed or born with some sort of internal defects. The other was born with its yolk sac on the outside of its body, having failed to draw it back within itself before finally hatching (they do this so as to feed off of the nutrients for the first few days of life outside the shell). After some attempts to remedy the fatal oddity, the chick was euthanized. There are three eggs remaining and they've been moved to our incubator in the garage. If they don't hatch within the next few days, we'll probably end up burying them.

Number 3 Has Hatched

Our third chick hatched overnight! This one appears to be another Araucana. No telling the gender on these little fuzzballs until they get older. There was a fun episode of "Dirty Jobs" that featured this not-so-desirable profession of chick sexing and "venting"...

New Week, New Chick

Just hatched about an hour ago was chick number two! Family members received a phone call from an excited Maya to let them know that we have a new Buff Orpington. It also appears that a third egg is slightly cracked which may mean another hatchling on the way. Stay tuned...

The Lone Chick

Our little Araucana chick is doing fine (and remains nameless due mostly to ambiguous gender), Beach Bunny is a good mother hen, and we've been having fun feeding them crickets and grasshoppers since they are sequestered away from the rest of the flock and cannot fully free-range at this time. Still, only one of the 11-egg clutch has hatched, and we lost two eggs which we found broken. Beach Bunny continues to incubate the rest although she seems to come off her nest more often now to demonstrate scratching and bug-catching for her sole hatchling. We'll give the other eggs a few more days before removing them, but here's hoping that at least one or two more are fertile!

We have peeping!!!

This evening when we went out to give the chickens their evening scraps I went in to check on Beach Bunny, one of our Buff Orpington hens who went broody on 12 eggs approximately 18 days ago. I smelt something stinky and thought one of the eggs had broken or maybe was rotten in the nest, so I checked the eggs under her. All the eggs were intact, so I figured it was something else. As I sat quietly feeding her bits of apple I heard peeping!!! WOO HOO!!! We have peeping eggs!!!

The eggs are not due to hatch until this Friday and I've heard chicks can sometimes peep for a few days, but then again our dates could also be off by a few days, LOL! So I called for the kids, ran inside to grab the digital camera and I was able to catch the sound of the eggs peeping under the her. We're so excited! Maya is beside herself with excitement since she's been waiting for this event for weeks. She says she is going to get up at the crack of dawn and go out to see if any have hatched.

Luckily last week I constructed a separate enclosure in the run area and moved Beach Bunny while in her nesting box into it. Now all I have to do is secure some chicken wire around the area of the enclosure that has larger spaced wire that chick can easily get through and get a feeder and watering jug from my mom's so we'll be ready for the chicks. Luckily in hopes of having chicks this season, I ordered chick starter and broiler food the last time I purchased feed.

My only concern is we have a recouperating hen, Chew Hair, in with Beach Bunny and her soon to hatch chicks and this may pose a problem. Chew Hair may peck at the new chicks and kill them if they aren't well protected by Beach Bunny, so I will need to set up a secondary enclosure for her... just in case.

I will post more tomorrow if new chicks arrive. I'm curious how these hatchlings will look since the eggs are a mix from our three breeds of hens (Auracanas, Buff Orpingtons and Black Stars) and will most likely be fathered by our head Auracana rooster, Fluffy... what a mix!!!!!

Snakes Like Eggs

Today, Foster was looking out the back sliding glass doors of Rose Cottage when he spotted a 4.5-foot-long Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta). These are non-venomous and generally avoid humans, but they do eat eggs. With Danna's help and a large cooler, Dionne decided to transport it down the road and into the woods near a creek and far away from our hen fruit.



If it were a King Snake (Lampropeltis getula), we would have released it on our 13-acre property since King Snakes will eat other, more dangerous snakes.

You Gotta Keep 'Em Separated

To prepare for the hatching of the eggs, we ("we" meaning Dionne) set up a separate enclosure within the existing chicken run---a cage within a cage, if you will. Apparently, other hens might be rough with the newborn chicks and the roosters may flat out kill them. The top level of our bucket nest structure was only held in place by its own weight which made it easy to relocate to the new enclosure, broody hen and all. Below you see the two roosters curious and desperate to get into the restricted area.

For now, our sick (but nearly recovered) hen Chewhair will share this space. In fact, when broody Beach Bunny got up to stretch her legs, Chewhair took over the incubating for a few minutes.

We also got a quick peek at the eggs to see if any were cracked or rotten.


You can see here that we marked them initially to make sure that no new eggs were added to the clutch which would make it hard to track hatchling schedules. We found out that using a regular pencil is better than a Sharpie because the eggs are indeed porous...you live and you learn.

Screams in the Night

Occasionally we hear some odd sounds at night out here in the country. While sleeping with the windows open one night, Dionne and Maya were awoken by some eerie screaming that came from the field between our rental cottage and the landlord's house. It lasted for about a minute and sounded unlike any animals they had heard (but you must remember, we're still relatively new to the country!). When the screaming stopped, the chickens could be heard quietly clucking amongst themselves as if to say "Be very quiet or we may be next!" A few nights later, on the weekend, we heard the same (or a similar) noise and I was able to capture it on my cellphone.

http://www.tk899.com/blueharvestfarm/nightcreatures.mp3

We're still not 100% sure what it was, but my guess is coyotes fighting over a deer carcass. Either that or the chupacabra.