October 21, 2013 What Happened to Summer?

....where did summer go? I can't believe it went so fast and it wasn't like I was super-extra busy..

Knock on wood...knock knock...all The Girls are great: Gabby had a 60 broody period over the summer, but that was it.

July 4th was fun:  Our neighbors brought over their 5 kids, ages 10 months to 8 PLUS their 4 cousins, up to age 11 for a visit to the chicken coop.  Oh, too funny: 

Here is Steve helping the kids dig through the compost pile for worms to put in their little cups. 

Hey Kids, it's only compost!

Then, they would come see me inside the coop for a feeding. Well, chickens are not fans of excited little kids, and were quite reluctant to participate until Evie figured out this was her chance to scam a lot of free food and she was right there accepting worms from all hands.  

After a while, The Girls decided to hide inside the coop to get away from all the legs and hands. I popped open the lid over the nest boxes and the chickens figured out that they could safely reach out to get worms without getting close to the all the feet, so it was feeding frenzy time once more.

After the novelty of feeding chickens wore off [and I figured that 1,000 worms was enough -hahaha], we gave the kids rides on our Kawasaki mules up to the other neighbor's horses, even letting some of the kids steer on the straight part of the road. Remember those days when your dad or mom would let you hold the steering wheel on that Model T? What fun...laugh now...

Then, it was strawberry yogurt popsicles and plum picking.

Then, it was Steve and Karla collapse for the rest of the afternoon.  
It really was Fun to be Auntie for a Day!

Here are some wildlife photos from our TrailCam.

One night, Rocky Raccoon had deli-worms and garbage

Pretty kitty: at 6 pm this bobcat strolled between our 2 main gates!

A healthy Mountain Lion last year

And, a not so healthy looking Mountain Lion this year. I can't believe they would be the same cat!

Here's bold Mr. Fox taking a look at the chicken coop and INSIDE our perimeter deer fence.....at least, no one has broken into the coop itself!

June 26, 2013 Compostin'

One of the reasons we decided to have chickens was for the poop for the compost pile.

And, did you know that one chicken can ‘make’ as much as 45 lbs. of chicken do-do a year! Times 5 chooks and ya got a lot of manure for the compost pile! It doesnt’ happen in large quantities - I think I get maybe 2 lbs. total a week when I clean out the coop. I  do believe in keeping my coop clean to lessen flies and other breeding nasties, which is why Sunday is the poop-to-compost day.

This past weekend it was my self-appointed task to clean out the coop after being gone for 5 days and consolidate the compost piles.

We have a 'new' pile started behind the barn which needed to be 

integrated with the remainder of the ‘old’ pile, which we had just used most of for the tomato and pepper plantings.

Soiled straw and the poop deposits get mixed and watered into the compost pile. 

It took 3 trips with the "Mule" bed full to move it over...and, dang fine back and arm exercise. With a pitchfork in hand, bend, scoop, twist and toss. About a million times, then switch arms and do the other way another million times. The drive over to the new pile and layer it in with the fresh coop offerings and the old pile.

Our compost is also the worm factory. We started back in 2010 with an order of 2,000 red wiggler worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. And, now we cycle hundreds of thousand worms through, some of which get fed by me to the chickens for a special snack; the others eat and digest all the matter than ends up in the compost pile. If all those worms are doing their job we end up with a beautiful product - moist and earthly smelling and finely ground into ....well... compost!

This new pile is now about  4 ft. tall and a base diameter of about 6 ft. It will shrink over time and to speed up the process we turn the pile a couple of times a week. It takes me about an hour. There is a special way to turn compost...oh yes!...to integrate all parts and re-distribute the eating machines [aka worms]. Top goes on the bottom, sides to the interior, interior to the outside, bottom to the top. 

As I turn, I can see the worms: sometimes there are hundreds on the straw-poop mess from the chicken coop; other times, they have wormed [haha] their way into an orange or piece of fruit.  You can’t believe how efficient a worm is. When the compost is done, there is no way to tell what you started with, everything is turned into fine, moist crusts, indistinguishable from the original vegetable, fruit, straw or leaf. Truly one of Nature’s miracles.

The cycle will continue..... we use up the finished ‘old pile’ and take part of it as the starter for a new one. This current pile is earmarked for mulching some of the olive trees ... ...

and ... for a few handfuls of worm snackies to the girls!

Worms? Did Karla say worms?

If you’d like further information, we followed one of the methods described in “ Rodale’s Book of Composting”.

Available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0878579915

Also, Uncle Jims’ Worm Farm website is www.unclejimsworfmfarm.com

May 11, 2013 Birthday Wishes

Today is the 2nd birthday of Curious, Fearless and Gabby. They are getting 'worm salad' from the compost pile
as their 'cake' .... and I KNOW it will be gone in 2 seconds! Curious will pretty much growl everyone else away from the salad, so I have to make sure I spread it in several areas so everyone gets their fair share....she's such a pig - for a chicken!

I am also celebrating Amelia's first birthday because I know she was born/hatched in May last year - just don't know what day.

                                           .............. And, why not throw in a birthday wish for Evie anyway!

So, I haven't posted since February...wow...well, it's been busy here even without blogging about it.

Among other tasks, we've been doing the spring chores: 2 rounds of weed-eating and mowing down all the new grasses and weeds; pruning and mulching the fruit trees; mulching around all the olive trees to save on water and starting all the vegetable seeds.

Last weekend we planted all the plants that Steve started: poblano peppers, padrone peppers, 3 kinds of 'paste' tomatoes, melons [it's called The Best Melon You'll Eat...and it is!], anaheim peppers, serranos, jalepenos, tomatillos, cayenne, zucs, 2 kinds of cucumbers, a special pepper from Peru called Aji.

In the summer, juicing the peppers for a 'green drink' is a wonderful thirst quencher about 11 am after the first round of maintenance duties. Can't wait for the crop to get goin'.

Right now, Gabby and Evie are both in broody mode: puffed up and sitting in nesting boxes trying to hatch imaginary eggs...They both growl at me, but I take them off the nests twice a day to make sure they poop, eat and drink. Then, they both spend a long time either dust bathing or preening feathers...it's a mad dash back to the 'eggs' after about 20 minutes....I think they sit on them even overnight!

And, unfortunately no eggs from them while broody - and it usually lasts about a month!  Darn.

Last year it was Curious broody twice; this year she hasn't gone there yet....lucky for me because she's giving eggs along with Amelia right now...Amazingly, Fearless, who isn't normally a big producer of eggs, managed to lay one 5 days in a row! That's a record for her! So of course she had to take  a break and re-group.  Amelia still does 5 or 6 a week, cute little white ones...

Evie has filled out all her feathers and has become a beautiful girl: just still skittish around me....here's a recent profile of her gorgeous feathers;

February 7, 2013 The Worm Game

We have a fun game that started out one day while I was shoveling out rocks in the covered pasture.  Every time I would turn over dirt, the girls would be there pecking around for worms [mostly transplants from the compost pile].

Curious scratching for a worm

Well, it has turned into one of their favorite things to do: follow me and the shovel around, waiting for the dirt to turn over so that they can scratch for worms.  And, they have pulled some "size large" worms out of solid clumps of dirt, too! Dang if they don't spot them faster than I do: so I have to really watch that I don't accidentally chop off a toe.

We just KNOW there is a worm down there!

Curious will growl at the others to keep them out of the game, so I have to move around with the shovel so that Gabby and Fearless get their time to hunt. Amelia and Evie are definitely the last ones allowed in the game. Sometimes I lock the other inside the coop pen so the two new ones get a chance to play. you even think a chicken is a 'vegetarian', HA...adjust that in your brain.

They LOVE LOVE LOVE meat: whether it is ripping apart a lizard, scratching for earthworms, eating leftover steak [a fav], wet cat food, or even eating scrambled eggs, chickens are omnivores. And, it is healthy for them to have protein in their diet. So the whole hype about 'vegetarian fed chickens' on that carton of eggs may make you think it is healthier for them and you, but it really is against their "chicken-nature".

It's fun....and who knew!

Cluck on, 

Karla

January 16, 2013 A New Girl in Town

We have a new member of the flock, adopted from mentor Barb who felt bad and ask if I wanted a replacement for Blondie after her untimely meeting with the hawk.

Our new girl is a Buff Lace Wyandotte, so she is in the same breed family as Fearless: with a rose shaped comb and feather pattern but her coloration is peach-caramel and pearl gray,  just beautiful in the morning light.

In keeping with using the first part of the alphabet, I decided to think of an "E" name .... and came up with "Evie" which is really short for EVOO which is short for Extra Virgin Olive Oil, as that is our other hobby, Chianello Olive Oil.


So, group dynamics have changed once again.
Fearless is maintaining her higher status in the flock by chasing both Amelia the baby and Evie, the newbie.  AND, Evie pecks Amelia away from food, so I think she is saying, "I'm bigger than you so I'm not going to be on the bottom."  Amelia just skippty-do-dahs around everyone and could care less. [Secretly she know I give her special treats and she can sit in my lap when I sit down].

Evie is less shy and skittish now, as it had been almost 2 weeks of flock integration. She knows I'm the meal ticket and is waiting in the back of the others at the gate every morning and afternoon for her share of a snack. I have to feed the other 4 first and then sneak to the other side of the coop to give Evie her meal.

She isn't allowed on the roost at night yet and seems to spend the night in a nest box.  I think that will change as she is more accepted by the others because even Amelia wasn't allowed on the upper roost for a while and now she hangs out at one end with Curious during the night.

Evie is still coming out of the winter molt [loss and re-grwoth of feathers] so she hasn't laid an egg yet. I noticed on the others that the pale comb they had at molt started to regain it color when they came of out the molt and started laying again. I'm pretty confident that this will happen in her case too, and she is not quite ready yet....oh, and a little relocation trauma probably didn't help either.

Thanks for reading!  Cluck on, Karla

January 4, 2013 New Construction

After the death of Blondie, my Mr.Wonderful decided to build his 9th. chicken complex project: another covered pasture area.  We made it smaller than the uncovered playground and it is tucked in behind our concrete water tank; still large enough for all the Girls to scratch around and be protected from overhead.  All the old plastic green poultry fencing Steve was able to use as the top cover.

Steve pounding in giant staples to hold up the chain link

View into new pasture from east gate

It is now a very secure place: but if a predator wanted to dig under the wire, I suppose with effort it could get in. I don't leave the gates open overnight which helps deter any mean guys.

Amelia having a salad

I bought a 'suet holder' normally used for wild birds  and decided to use it as a 'greens holder' for the girls. Here is Amelia pecking away at the assorted gains from my dumpster diving. All the Girls enjoy having to peck at something that is up off the ground.

Amelia is still picked on by [mostly] Fearless who is trying to maintain her #3 status in the flock. But, Amelia is still Miss SassyPants and loves to jump up on my back or lap whenever she can and is learning how to avoid any nasty pecks whenever I'm around. Fearless is very vocal to me if I give a lot of special attention to Amelia: it's pretty comical to hear her scolding me, so I have to give equal attention to Fearless by holding out a tasty leaf for her to peck.

We are getting a new chicken from Mentor Barb: blog to follow as soon as I get her portrait! She is coming out of a molt and looking a little scruffy, but I will have her whole story in the next post.

.....stay tuned!