Vegetable cage Chicken run

I am delighted! This morning I spent an hour or so making the first of the chicken runs that I've been planning (read about our planning thoughts here). It was easy to make and relatively cheap too. This one will have a dual purpose. At the start of the year I will put chickens into it so that they can till the soil in a raised bed and fertilise the area, while they are scratching around in the soil and eating the weeds and last of the crops in the bed.

Then, when the chickens have done their thing I can plant the bed with brassicas and put butterfly netting over the chicken run to create a vegetable cage. This should keep our cabbages and other brassicas safe from the voracious appetites of hundred of little green caterpillars.

To make the frame I used 8 x roofing battens 3.9m long and lots of 5cm (2 inch) screws. The total cost of frame was £25.

The uprights are 90cms long and the cross pieces are 105cms long, this was the most economical way of cutting the wood. So, there are 4 full length (390cm) pieces, 8 uprights, 6 cross pieces, 1 long diagonal and two small diagonal pieces. I will probably add two or four more small diagonal braces to add to the strength and stability of the frame, but it started raining and using electrical tools in the rain is a silly idea.

Here's how I put it together (if the video below doesn't work, you can find it on YouTube here)

The next step is to staple chicken wire around three sides (leaving the end without the cross brace uncovered) and to fix windbreak fabric or debris netting to the top. I will then create an end panel that can be held on with either a couple of bungee cords or small hook and eye catches. The end needs to be able to open so that the chickens can be let in to the run in the morning and out again at night. Once I am using it as a vegetable cage I can use cable ties to keep the end panel on it for the season.

I am really rather pleased with my handiwork and even though it has meant that I have been able to do little else today and I hurt all over, it was worth it. I had fun making something that is useful, that allows us to put the chickens to work without them having a free-for-all at their favourite 'all you can eat buffet bar' (our annual vegetable garden).

Projects like this are good for the confidence and spirit. There is something highly satisfying in being creative and when I can make something that is multi-functional, it is even more pleasing. This evening the plan is to have a hot soaky bath to soothe aching limbs, but first of all, it's time for a cuppa!

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Planning poultry pens

 Mr J and I are so pleased with how well the chicken walkway has worked for us (and the chickens) that we have decided to build further runs in the chickens' fields and to that end I have ordered some more of the roofing battens like those that we used for the walkway.

 Rather than runs that use a building as one wall, the new runs will be freestanding, well not exactly freestanding as they will be anchored into the ground, but they will have four sides made from posts and netting.

Our thinking is that we could create a series of large runs that, during lockdown, will provide covered areas that the chickens can use and for the rest of the year we can leave the doors open for them to access the runs or remainder of the field.

The runs would allow us to keep family groups together which would be especially useful when we want to ensure that a set of females are breeding with a particular cockerel. The downside to this plan is that I will be back to cleaning out several small houses instead of using a deep litter bedding system in the chicken shed. But that seems a small price to pay for being able to ensure that the correct male is with the girls that we want to collect eggs from.

When we made the walkway it was very much a hit and miss affair, we didn't have a firm plan of how we'd do it and just felt our way through it. For the next pen or two, we will have a clearer idea of how to put the wood uprights and cross piece together to make the structure that we want.

The only part that we really struggled with, when making the walkway, was making a door or gate that fitted the allotted space. Making it the correct size was simple enough, but to stop it from twisting out of shape was more tricky, not helped I think, by the uprights each side of the door not being a) completely perpendicular and b) not being completely in line with each other. It's something we will work on for the next pens.

Once the new pens are completed I will section off an area inside each one that the chickens will not have access to and I will grow some vegetables in it. Then when lockdown happens next year, there will be some cabbages or other green leafy vegetables that I can feed to the birds by opening the restricted area a little at a time. And of course, even if there is no prevention zone order next year, the chickens still will be fed the leafy green vegetables during the winter months.

We haven't decided as yet whether the new pens will have a gently sloping roof like the chicken's walkway or a pitched roof like the duck run (above). I think the gently sloping roof option will be easier to build and as neither Mr J or I have advanced construction skills, the simplest option may well be the best.

The other design of run that I will build from this wood is a mobile run about four metres (13 feet) long and one metre (just over 3 feet) wide with handles at each end to help carry it. It will be a low run about 90cms (3 feet) high. This will fit on top of the raised beds in the annual vegetable garden and once lockdown is over, will allow me to put the chickens to work on the raised beds. They can eat the weeds and any crops left in the bed, till the soil and add manure to it. A few chickens should be able to make light work of the bed preparation in a couple of days and each evening they will be allowed to return to their usual house for the night. 

This was fairly successful last year when I made a makeshift run and now we have the opportunity to make sturdier and mobile raised bed chicken runs I am keen to have them ready for the chickens to go into once the lockdown ends.

The raised bed chicken runs will then be used to cover brassica crops to protect them from cabbage white butterflies and cabbage moths, both of which did substantial damage to the January King cabbages and red curly kale. Having dual purpose mobile runs means that we won't need to find a place to store the runs when the chickens are not in them.

The local builder's merchant have just delivered the wood and I'm heading out into the chicken field to do some measuring up. Although, I'll have to walk past the kettle on my way, so perhaps first of all, I should have a cuppa!

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A Day Off

On Sunday I woke up to find not only had it rained all night, but that the weather report said it was going to rain all day too. It's winter, what did I expect? Well, so far the winter has been very mild, a couple of storms, quite a lot of fog and a few frosty mornings followed by days that haven't defrosted the crisp whiteness, but nothing really wintery. On days when it's simply too soggy to spend much time outside, I find it is better to resign myself to a day indoors or to find things to do under cover. 

Since Thursday evening we have had the joy of new chicks in the house and I moved five of them into the nursery pen in the chicken condo on Saturday afternoon. You can see how I prepared the nursery pen on my vlog The Chicken Nursery

Early on Sunday morning I assessed the three youngest chicks that were still in the incubator and came to the sad conclusion that one was struggling beyond hope. It was unable to put any weight on one leg and each time it tried to stand upright, it fell forward, banging it's beak. So I did the kindest thing that I could do and put it out of its misery. 

Then I took the two chicks that remained in the incubator to the nursery pen to join the other chicks. So we have seven chicks and last night as Mr J and I watched them exploring their small secure cage, we saw that the little Appenzeller Sptixhauben chick possibly has splayed legs, we decided to wait another 24 hours and observe whether it really does have the problem of splayed legs or whether it was just trying to 'find its feet'.

Being the last Sunday of the month, a local fish and chip shop had its gluten free food session and as it's a while since we had some, Mr J and I chose to have a lunch that wasn't prepared in our own kitchen. So we sat in the van, balanced the packages of hot food on our knees and ate chips and onion rings while looking out at the not-so-scenic view of the back of a supermarket, all the while the rain poured down from the sky. There was a time when I would have wanted a beautiful view to look at while I ate, but nowadays I am happy just to be with Mr J and to enjoy the simple pleasure of someone else having prepared the food.

Following that we drove the few miles to my sister's home and spent a couple of hours catching up on all of each household's news, drinking tea, sharing laughter. I love my sister, not only because she is family, but because she's such a nice person. If she wasn't family, I'd choose to have her as a close friend. Her husband is equally great to spend time with. Both of them are grounded, humble, smart and caring, they are generous, adventurous and witty, all in all, they are good eggs!

When Mr J mentioned that we ought to head home to put the animals to bed, I realised that for the first time in over 12 months I had switched off from homesteading so completely that I had forgotten that we had a time constraint and needed to be back before dusk.

So despite having done some chores in the morning and evening, I felt as though I'd had a day off. This morning (Monday) I have woken feeling relaxed, happy and raring to go again, but before I start the morning chores, I think it's time for a cuppa!

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Hatchwatch 2017, first chicks of the season

As the temperature is dropping outside I am less keen to spend a lot of time in the garden and I now have the perfect reason to stay inside and keep warm. The chicks are about to hatch!

At the tail end of last year I chose which breeds I would hatch for the first batch to add to our ever-changing flock (read about my choices here) and the next forty-eight hours should see the arrival of our first chicks for 2017.

I will update my blog as the hatch progresses, but I'll post more regular updates on Twitter, so if you want to see the news as it happens, please follow me on Twitter @Liz_Zorab or search for my hashtag #hatchwatch2017. The link on the right hand column of this blog should work (but with all things technical, I can't guarantee that I've set it up correctly!).

I wasn't expecting to see any progress today, they aren't due to begin hatching until tomorrow, but as so often happens one little chick seems extra-keen to enter the world and has already pipped. As I understand it, chicks need to break a hole in the membrane that is inside the egg, they then have a little air to breathe while they break a small hole in the shell. Often this appears as just a crack, but it seems to be enough to allow air into the egg for it to breathe (this is what is called pipping). Then over the next day or so it makes more and more holes in the shell in a line that eventually splits the eggshell into two and with some shoving and heaving it manages to push the two sections of shell apart and ta-da, it has hatched.

Sitting in the kitchen over a cuppa and slice of cake with Alison (from Alison's Animals) I could hear faint cheeping noises, so I knew that at least one chick was making a bid for freedom. If I'd thought more carefully about it, I could have invited Alison to come for a cuppa tomorrow so that she could watch them hatching too. For anyone who isn't familiar with the name, Alison is a well-known animal cartoon artist, you will probably have seen her work on placemats, calendars, cards and mugs. I am very impressed by folks who can draw as my hand/eye coordination is dreadful and so I appreciate what a great talent it is to have (and Alison is certainly very talented).

I'm sure that the temperature has dropped again this afternoon. As I was giving the birds some corn (I was wrapped up like a Michelin Man yet again) and the tree surgeon arrived with another trailer load of well composted wood chippings. Hopefully the weather will be warmer in after the weekend and I will be able to move some of the compost to the raised beds. In the meantime, I plan to spend as little time as possible outside and as much as possible sitting in the kitchen watching new life emerge from little eggshells. And to that end, I think it's time to put the kettle on and make a cuppa!

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Choosing chickens and ducks for 2017

 

Hatching season is upon us, well sort of. We certainly know that our first clutch of eggs will hatch by the end of the week, but it's a little early to expect to see the girls going broody and sitting on eggs in the nesting boxes. But I have no doubt that it won't be too long before I have to find ways to entice a couple of the girls off the nest or decide to put eggs underneath them to hatch.

Last week I popped a few eggs into the incubator, they are the little eggs laid by the young Australorp, Jersey Giant and Cream Legbar girls to test for fertility. This means starting them to incubate and then candling them after a few days. Candling is the process of shining a light through the egg shell so that you can see what's going on inside the egg. Nowadays people don't usually use a candle, they use a bright torch light in a darkened room. Neither the Jersey Giant nor Australorp eggs were fertile and only one of the two Cream Legbar were fertile. I will test again in a couple of weeks and then, once we know that the eggs are fertile I start incubating them to hatch.

I have loose orders for some Cream Legbar chicks, but before I hatch any chicks I will confirm the order and take a small deposit because the last thing we need is to raise more Legbar chicks and then be stuck with them if they aren't bought. Over the course of the year we will be reducing our Cream Legbar flock to just two girls so we may well offer two of the girls to the person who's placed the order and then she has the choice of chicks or girls who are laying.

Several people have also expressed in interest in having Australorps and again, I will confirm the orders before hatching too many Australorp eggs. Having said that, our preferred meat birds are Australorps and Jersey Giants and to supply us with a regular source of meat, we will need to raise quite a few birds. This year we were effectively experimenting, finding out how long it took to raise a bird to a size that gave us more than one meal, whether I could dispatch and prepare birds for the table and whether we thought it was worth the time, cost and effort to produce our own meat.

We have decided that it is indeed worth the effort, that we are prepared to wait for the months that it takes for an organically raised bird to get to a good size and in comparison to a shop bought bird, the cost is similar (see my blog post about the price of raising meat birds).

Our hope for this year is to raise enough meat birds to provide at least one bird per fortnight, this should give us ample meat for a varied diet.

In addition to the Jersey Giant and Australorp chickens, I am keen to raise some La Bresse Gauloise chickens, which are white birds that grow rapidly and produce meat that is considered to be of the best taste.

As we also have duck eggs to hatch and the ducks are ready for the table much sooner than chickens, I think we will probably hatch as many ducks as chickens to give us an even wider variety in our diet. 

 Yesterday I put a duck egg into the incubator so that we can also check the duck eggs for fertility. Frederickson, the young drake is certainly enthusiastic in his attention towards the three girls, but as yet I am unconvinced that he has perfected his technique, so we will test fertility on a regular basis until we are sure that the eggs are fertile and then I can set up the incubator to hatch a batch of duck eggs.

I am very happy with the breed of duck that we have, the commercial Aylesburys are pretty to look at, grow fairly quickly and although they flap their wings each morning and night, they are too large in the body to be able to lift themselves off the ground and fly away. The three girls are from completely different flocks with no known connection, which should allow us to build a healthy flock and the young drakes will provide us with a good source of meat.

In December I dispatched five of the drakes, three of which were given to friends and family for Christmas. Once again this year, we intend to give duck as gifts, but we can also take orders if people would like a duck. 

The couple who owned our smallholding before we did have asked for three female ducks to join them at their new smallholding and so, once we have hatched some ducklings and confirmed their gender, we can let them have the girls that they'd like.

In the incubator at the moment are a mixture of Light Sussex, Appenzeller Spitxhauben, Silver Laced Wyandotte and some of our own hybrid eggs (for pictures of these breeds see this blog post). I am hatching these because I'd like to have more variety of colour in our laying flock and our own hybrid birds should be olive egg layers which will add a new colour egg to the mix of egg colours that we have now.

If you'd like to pre-order hatching eggs from our smallholding, please get in touch.

I'm still having fun making vlogs about our day to day life and here is yesterday's offering - Chickens, carpentry and compost.

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I also post vlogs daily (almost). You can find my YouTube channel here.

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Completing the chicken walkway

Finishing the chicken walkway had become a priority during the week and I had ordered some more debris netting to cover the roof and it arrived on Friday. So having signed for the parcel, I hot-footed it straight to the walkway and wrestled with the 20m length of material to get it up and spread out over the roof. I trimmed away the excess length leaving enough at each end to be able to fold it down at each end and secure it to the stable wall at one end and the walkway framework at the other.

Mr J fitted the door at the end of the walkway that opens out onto the chicken field and I fixed the last section of chicken wire to the end and secure it onto the chicken shed. I treated the ground with a disinfectant as a precaution in case any infected wild bird poop was lurking on the ground.

Hooray! We have completed the chicken walkway and the birds are ecstatic. It is marvellous to be able to give them an outdoor space after six weeks of them being shut away in the stable. The stable had plenty of natural daylight in it, but it didn't have the fresh air flowing through it in the same way and it certainly didn't have direct sunlight to warm their backs.
As if to serve as a reminder that the rest of the chickens have a somewhat cobbled together space outdoors (although they do at least have some outside space) Diesellette, the daughter of Diesel, managed to squeeze out of the hitherto secure fencing and flew up onto the chicken shed roof. One quick shake of a corn-filled bucket brought her back down again and I returned her to her enclosure and used yet another cane to peg down the chicken wire that she had wriggled underneath. Perhaps she was envious of the nice new chicken walkway that the other flocks are enjoying.

It feels as though as fast as we resolve one issue another one arrives and so at some point in the next week or so, I will tackle the makeshift outdoor space that the Jersey Giants, Australorps and Diesellette have and create something more permanent for them.

As I anticipate that lockdown will become a regular event, I am keen to create more permanent spaces that the chickens can be in when their movement around the smallholding is restricted by law. But, if we never have another lockdown, we will have created some very useful spaces that we can separate the different flocks to live in when we want to isolate them into breeding groups. And should we ever decide not to keep chickens any more, we will have fabulous fruit cages in which to grow crops of soft fruit. Win - win!

If you haven't discovered my latest project yet, you can find my vlogs (videos) on my YouTube channel. Today I hope to make a video about sorting out the cobbled together chicken run, but to get myself ready to tackle the task, I think I'd better put the kettle on and make a cuppa!

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Pallet fence for the vegetable garden

Back at the start of December I finished creating the pallet fence along one side of the vegetable garden (read about it here).

And just four days later took it apart again to use the pallets to build the front of the chicken palace because the Avian Flu Prevention Zone measures were enforced.

Last Tuesday, we managed to collect some more pallets from the local business that we buy the pallets from and yesterday I decided to rebuild the fence around the vegetable garden.

The weather was glorious yesterday, it was frosty start but the sun threw a deep pink colour across the smallholding making the frost twinkle. After I had done the morning chores and Mr J had gone to work, I carried the pallets to the annual vegetable garden, put them into place ensuring that I had a pallet at right angles to the fence between each fence pallet and tied them together. 

To go around a corkscrew willow tree that is slap bang in the middle of the fence line, I used a double length pallet so that I didn't need to put a cross brace where the tree is planted.

I was so pleased to have some fresh air and sunshine that when I went back inside I opened the patio door and the ground floor windows to air the house. 

To celebrate the winter sunshine and that so many of the chickens have come into lay, either back into lay or laying for the first time, I decided to have an egg salad for lunch. Both the smaller chickens that we hatched at the end of July last year that are a cross between the bantam cockerel we had for a short while and either Jack or Diesel (I can't remember which of them) have started laying this week. Two of the Jersey Giant girls have started laying, one of the Australorp chickens (we call her Mrs O) has been laying for around two weeks. A couple of the Cream Legbar girls starting laying again last week, which is fabulous as I had got to the point of thinking that they would never lay again. So we are now collecting around 9 - 12 eggs a day and I expect this to rise as the light levels increase and the days get longer.

I get a huge amount of satisfaction from being able to go to the garden and gather food for our meals and yesterday while a couple of eggs were cooking, I collected some salad leaves from the greenhouse and some lamb's lettuce (corn salad) and spring onions from the vegetable garden.

The rest of the day I was busied myself with cleaning out the chicken house in the field (that is currently home to our meat bird). I was somewhat alarmed to discover that there is red mite in the house, so I cleaned it out as much as I could and sprinkled diatomaceous earth (DE) all around the corners, the perch supports and all the usual hiding spots for red mite. After I had put fresh sawdust in the henhouse, I sprinkled some more DE over the sawdust in the areas that I know the bird sits. Hopefully that will prevent him being bitten by the mites and it will kill them off. Once he has been dispatched, Mr J and I will take the house apart and treat all of the wood including in the joint sections that I can't reach by puffing and sprinkling the DE while the house it together.

Having dealt with the red mite situation as much as I can right now, I went inside, peeled off my outer clothing and put it straight into the washing machine so that I didn't transfer the mite from the house in the field to the other henhouses. I have seen no evidence of mite in the other houses, so wanted to take as many precautions as possible to prevent the spread.

Clean clothing on, I headed back outside just in time to greet our friend the tree surgeon who had arrived with a large trailer load of wood chippings. These comprise mostly of hedging plants and have a fairly high leylandii content, so I don't want that to go onto the garden soil, but these chippings are ideal for use on the pathways in the vegetable garden. The pathways have a weed suppressing membrane over the ground and chippings over the membrane. The chippings will break down over the next couple of years and then I will add it to the soil and then I can put down new chippings on the pathways.

This arrangement with the tree surgeon seems ideal. For his customers who want the waste wood cleared away from their property, he needs to either store the chippings, take them to a tip (which has a cost implication for him) or he can deliver them to someone who can make use of them (me!). I now have a long term source of wood chippings and once the pathways are all covered, I can leave the heaps of chippings in situ for a year or so to let it break down before adding it to the garden. When he delivers chippings that do not have a leylandii in them I can make wood chip heaps in the chicken fields and let them scratch through the chippings (which they love to do), turning them (which they are very good at doing), adding their manure (which they do naturally) and helping it to break down quickly.

It was a very satisfying day and exhausted, I fell asleep on the sofa by 9pm. If you'd like to see my day on today's vlog you can find it here or click on the video below.

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