Weather

Not much to say except that March was a very wet month.

The door on the Rhode Island Red coop got left open one day & the chickens, of course, got out. They didn’t care that it was pouring down rain. They were just happy to be free. They were soaked to the skin, but still spent the day scrathin’ & peckin’ in the great outdoors.

One particularly stormy day lightning was directly outside our house. That was a weird feeling. We don’t typically get much lightning & certainly not so close. Lucky for us, the only thing it seemed to ruin was one port on the router. This is/was the only port with cables going outside to the satellite dish.

We did have a few nice days, though, & the chickens enjoyed taking dust baths.

Flower Beds

Thanks to a local nursery sale & Costco, one day I came home with many new plants. The next weekend I went back to the nursery & grabbed more of the heather. I have the perfect place for it.

The thistles & blackberries are making an appearance. Damn it! We’ve lived here for 6 years & the Canadian Thistle is still my nemesis.

Gardening for Food

While I do most of the work in the flower beds, Farmer John does most of the food-type gardening. His favorite method for starting seeds is mixing his own soil & creating soil blocks. These little guys were started in a tiny soil block. Once germinated Farmer John moved them to a larger soil block.

The seeds I ordered arrived!
Farmer John ordered the seeds that will eventually turn into food in our pantry. Later, I ordered some fun stuff. I ordered a variety of flowers, including sunflowers, wildflower & rudbeckia. I also ordered 5 different types of pumpkins & gourds. They will mostly be used for autumn decorating, but also to feed the chickens. And, I ordered a bunch of herb seeds. The herbs will be used for cooking, and again, also for the chickens.

Chicken Keeping

Are you going to feed us or just stand there taking our picture?

Blue Copper Marans rooster & Black Copper Marans hen enjoying a nice day in their covered run.

The Littles from our February hatch were moved from the brooder to a raised sectioned-off area in one of the coops.

Another batch of eggs were set in the incubator on March 1st. Three weeks later, we had more chicks, including our first Marans of 2014.

March 27th, I placed yet more eggs in the incubator. This round, we have for the first time this year, Rhode Island Reds. I also added in our bluest Easter Egger eggs. I have hatched these eggs before, but at the same time as all the other EE’s, so I’m not sure which chicks have come from these eggs. I want to see specifically what these chicks look like.

Aquaponics

The aquaponics system is slowly, but surely getting set up. All the tanks are in place.

And, the plastic is covering the greenhouse.

Goats

The big, unexpected news of the month is that we got 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats. They are super cute, full of personality & have been keeping us busy.

Random Pics of Good Ol’ Country Living

Mr. Quail all fluffed up & ticked off that I’m disturbing him & his lady. He really is a grouchy little thing.

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Last Spring we brought home 3 Coturnix Quail. They’ve been living right outside our back door, which is nice because they’ve been getting plenty of attention. But, they’ve been living in 2 large dog crates. Not the ideal home. Finally, they’ve been moved to a better home.

Our oldest son came running upstairs frantically hollering that the doors on the quail’s cages were open & the quail were gone. Poor kid, he was so scared. He didn’t know Farmer John had just moved them.

New quail digs in a chicken hut.

Hopefully the ladies won’t bother their new roomies too much.

Our quail are a finicky trio. The 2 girls don’t get along well & the male is rather aggressive in his mating attempts. Hopefully, the new area is large enough to give everyone the space they need.

Mr. Quail was very curious about my camera & kept coming up to get a closer peek.

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Back in April we went to the PNPA Spring Poultry Show & came home with 3 coturnix quail. They are quick to mature & we’re already getting itty bitty eggs from the two girls.

COUPLE DAYS OLD

ABOUT 1 WEEK OLD

Quail are bouncy & quick little creatures, which made taking their picture in the Barbie house difficult. But, I managed to snap a few photos.

The little guys quickly figured out how to use the nipple waterers.

A LITTLE OVER TWO WEEKS OLD

They seem to have grown a lot between weeks 1 & 2.

ABOUT SEVEN WEEKS OLD

ABOUT 11 WEEKS OLD

We keep them cooped up, but occasionally they get to come out & walk around. They love taking dust baths.

QUAIL EGGS

Two of our quail ended up being girls & started laying eggs at about 7 weeks old.

Quail egg compared to a Marans chicken egg.

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The Pacific NW Poultry Association Spring Show was this last weekend. All 5 of us went & stayed nearly all day Saturday looking, learning & exploring. This was our first show. We were planning on going to the show just to check it out. But, last month when Farm Kid2 went to a clinic on how to show your bird he left there wanting to show his bird. So, I signed him up. Win or lose, I figured it would be a great learning experience for him.

Farm Kid2 showing his bird for the first time. He has a Light Brown Bantam Leghorn.

Show Birds & Raffle Items:

To see a couple more bird pics from the show check out our facebook page.

Both our boys made posters to enter in the poster contest. Neither won, but I think they did a great job.
Left: Farm Kid2 (age 7) wanted to make his poster about chicks hatching. He wanted to include both hatching from an incubator and hatching from a broody hen.
Right: Farm Kid1 (age 10) chose to make his poster about our Golden Polish chickens. Those do seem to be his favorites. If he’s going to go hold a chicken, it’s almost always a Golden Polish.

A few more fun things at the show:
Left: Any time Farm Girl could pet a bird, she did.
Middle: Farm Kid2 also wanted to enter our eggs in the egg judging contest. So, we did that too. Again, this was a first for us & I really didn’t know how they were going to be judged. We did get 2nd place, though, out of 4 entries in our class.
Right: Farm Kid1 asked if he could get a quail & that he’d pay for it with his own money & take care of it. Farmer John has said for years that he would like quail, so it wasn’t hard to sell dad on the idea. I will admit they did look pretty cute. They are like tiny, little jumping beans. Each of the kids picked out a quail.

It was kind of a long day & parts of it were a bit slow, but we all enjoyed the show. Next time we know to bring a few things to entertain the kids. I’m sure this was the first of many shows we will take part in.

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We have tried a variety of watering methods & the thing that has worked best for us are the use of waterer nipples. Farmer John attaches 2, 3 or 4 nipples in a bucket or similar container then hangs the bucket in the coop or brooder. Sometimes he adds 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the water, as well. This keeps the water clear & free from algae type growth. It also acts as a natural dewormer for the chickens.

THE NIPPLE

The nipple we use is a push in style, as opposed to screw in. Farmer John drills a small hole in a container and the nipples attach easily.

There are many places to get the nipples, and as they are becoming more popular the farm stores are starting to carry them, but Farmer John orders ours from QC Supply. We’ve had them a number of years, and they haven’t needed replacing.

HOW WE USE THEM

The nipples are attached to a 5 gallon bucket (or something similar). The bucket hangs right at chicken height & water doesn’t drip out of the nipple until a bird pushes against it.
A definite advantage to this type of system is the ease of refilling the waterer. I don’t have to fight with an annoying plastic container that doesn’t want to unscrew. I just put a hose in the bucket.

My other favorite thing about this set up is that it keeps the brooder clean! Chicks can’t step in, poop in or drop food in this waterer. They learn very quickly how to get a drink.

Waterers hanging in a chicken tractor, duck pen & brooder. We adjust the height of the bucket as needed.

Our friends at Sain Creek Poultry & Hobby Farm don’t use buckets, but have quite a system of pipe through much of their coop with the nipples attached.

We use this watering method for all our feathered friends.

Here’s to Happy Chickens/Turkeys/Quail/Ducks & Clean Waterers!

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