Chicks part deux

Now that they're about a month old, I figured we should finally post something about our new chickens.  We lost our first batch of chickens to what we believe was a fox, and we're ready to look to the future of new, healthy chickens!

We ordered 8 new chickens from My Pet Chicken, and we decided to get all new varieties so as to start fresh.  The chickens arrived on a Tuesday at about noon (less than 24 hrs after they left the hatchery), and two of them were dead when we picked them up.  One of them didn't look too hot, and it died over night.  Then, a fourth one died on Thursday.  This hatchery refunds you for losses, but this was ridiculous...especially considering how quickly they arrived!  The woman on the phone was very nice, and they refunded our losses and paid for shipping us new chickens.  Because of order minimums, we ordered 8 more chickens -- these also arrived less than 24 hrs after leaving the hatchery.....and two of them were dead on arrival.  W.T.F.  According to the website and the customer service people, they only see deaths about 1% of the time -- hmmmm.

Despite our rough start, we have 10 happy healthy chickens....

Here's a group of 5 on the day they arrived. :)

They're a bit older now, though...

This is Freckles, a Barred Rock -- named by our nephew. :)

This is Nina, another Barred Rock.

Sheila -- she's a White Cochin.  She is the runt of the bunch, but she makes up for it with attitude. She has feathers on her feet and has stolen our hearts.

This is Chewy, aka Fluffy Butt, aka Miss Featherbottom, aka Dr. Featherbottom, Esq. She's a Light Brahma and obviously also has feathers on her feet.

This is Sal, a Speckled Sussex.  So beautiful as adults.

This is Amy, another Speckled Sussex.  She runs in circles....yeah.

This babe needs a name.  She's a Speckled Sussex as well.

This is Louis, another Speckled Sussex.  She was exploring from day 1.

This is Maren, a Silver Cuckoo Maran.  Her eggs could be dark chocolate brown!

Last, but certainly not least, this is DiDi.  She's a Speckled Sussex as well.

We're really happy with our new ladies, and they're starting to get really sassy.  They've been spending all day outside in the temporary (and newly reenforced) chicken pen, and they're loving it.  We spend every early evening having cocktails and chicken time -- we sit in the grass rehashing the day's work and catching bugs to feed to the chickens.  We are happy to report that they love green heads, ticks, slugs, and Japanese beetles.

We're anxious for them to grow into fully feathered adults so we can introduce them to the ducks and have all our birds living full time outside.  The introduction is sure to produce at least one blog post -- it could get interesting...

Slugs and swarms

Things have been quite busy as of late, but while Anna's making dinner, I figured I'd get something out there.

We started our seedlings for our garden inside in March/April -- perhaps a tad too early, but we were getting anxious.  Once they were big enough and the weather was warm enough (we thought), we put them in the garden.  About a week later, we had a hard frost over night and lost most of what we had planted.  We were super bummed, but we still had a bunch of seeds so we just direct sowed the plants that we lost.  Since losing our seedlings, our new plants have been under attack of a different sort...

We collected this lot an hour after a rain storm. It is definitely the most we've gotten at once, but we rarely get none.

I shake my fist at you, platter of slugs!

Lucky for us (and them) the ducks LOVE slugs.  So, every morning, we go to the garden, walk around and pick up slugs.  It's a pretty gross job, but our plants are still too small to let the ducks roam the garden freely.  We're hoping the toads and snakes will catch up to the slug population soon.  We are, however, continually amazed at the number of slugs we have.

YUM!  SLUGS!  The ducks come running at the sight of us with a jar 'o slugs.

Shifting gears a tad -- as we mentioned previously, we have two bee hives.  Anna has been doing most of the work for the bees, but I've been learning a lot too.  About a week ago, we were taking the dogs for a morning walk, and we noticed that there was a pretty constant stream of bees coming out of one of the hives.  We both instantly got nervous that they were going to swarm.

Bees swarm naturally when the hive gets too full or if there isn't enough food.  We know there is plenty of food around right now, but we weren't sure about the space issue.  Anna had checked the hives a few days prior, and there still seemed to be plenty of room. She wasn't concerned enough about space to put on more brood boxes or honey supers, but obviously the bees had other plans. When a hive decides to swarm, they start making a new queen.

How do they make a queen?

Well, all the while the bees are collecting pollen, they are increasing the number of bees in the hive.  They start feeding all babies what's called "royal jelly." Royal jelly is a super nutritious substance that the bees themselves produce. After a while, they stop feeding the babies royal jelly....unless they want her to be a queen.  The queen is always fed royal jelly until she's ready to hatch.  This super nutrient rich food allows her ovaries to develop while the other babies get other food and end up with undeveloped ovaries.

Just before the new queen is about to hatch, the old queen leaves with half the hive.  How do they decide who stays and who goes? The world may never know.

Back to our bees streaming out of the hive...after our walk, we saw it...they had swarmed.  Our bees had swarmed onto a branch high up in a pine tree.  If you're ever lucky enough to find a swarm, find a beekeeper!  This is great!  If you can collect the swarm, bam! Instant new hive.

Our ladies -- high up in a tree. :(

We didn't know what to do, and we didn't have a swarm trap to try to collect them ourselves.  First, we tried this...

Despite our best efforts, the bees stayed in the tree.

After that didn't work, we called a local beekeeper (there's a swarm hotline), and he came over to check it out.  He climbed the tree and put up a trap.  In theory, the bees will see the trap (just a box with old comb in it -- smells like honey) and think, "this is a GREAT spot to live." They will then enter the trap, and you've got 'em!  Our bees didn't get that memo.

Here, we're putting in the swarm trap.  They weren't fooled...

They were still in the tree the next morning, and after lunch, we were going to try to climb the tree.  The plan was to cut the branch out, lower it carefully, and put the bees in a new hive.  After we finished our leisurely lunch....they were gone.  Crap.

We now have a swarm trap and a few more skills.  Hopefully we can catch the next one should this happen again.  We still have two hives, one of them is just half as big as it used to be.  This is fine, but it pretty much guarantees we won't get any honey from that hive this year. :(

Poultry fence and generally epic updates...

This is going to be a pretty long post -- you've been warned.  I'll try to keep it easy to get through with lots of pictures and not too much text.  Basically, there are a ton of things that I've wanted to post about for a while but haven't managed to do it.  So -- I'm putting them all in one post....whoa.

First things first -- the poultry yard fencing.  After the chicktagon went up, putting up a permanent fence was the next thing on the agenda.  After we lost our chickens, we knew we really needed to do this ASAP to avoid a repeat fox performance.  We managed to find some cedar fence posts on Craigslist (literally the tops of cedar trees from a shingle company), and we were hoping to borrow a neighbor's post-hole digger attachment for the tractor.  It turns out our 3-point hitches aren't compatible, so we were on the hunt for a post-hole digger and a trench digger.  There is not a single place in the midcoast region that rents a post-hole digger tractor implement, so we're stuck renting something else.  After exploring many options, we ended up with a post hole digger and trench digger that attach to a small Bobcat.  We need the posts to go down at least 2 (preferably 3) feet, and we wanted to bury the fence at least a foot to prevent animals from digging under the fence to get at our ladies and gents.  So...here goes....

The before -- chicktagon on the right, fenced in pond on the left in the back.

Anna drives the trench digger over to the  fence site.  She's badass.

Trench digging like a pro -- this thing made our lives MUCH easier.  We would still be digging trenches if we were doing it by hand.  It couldn't handle all the rocks, but it did manage to move a sizable number of sizable rocks. :)

On to post-hole digging.  We decided with the first hole that it was best to dig the hole, then put in the pole.  We're working in a really wet area, and we didn't want the holes to fill up with water before we had a chance to put in the posts.  We are filling in around the posts with a mixture of lime and gravel.  We read that this mixture is better than concrete in wet areas because concrete actually absorbs the moisture and holds it next to the post, which speeds the rotting process.  We don't want that -- mostly because we don't want to do this again....ever.....or at least for a long time.

You knew it was coming.  He just makes it so easy. Clearly, he's not afraid of the Bobcat.

Making sure the posts are at least close to level.

End of day 1 -- trench dug, 24 posts in, 1200 lbs of gravel put down -- total exhaustion. We most definitely deserved that gluten free beer in the outdoor shower. :)

Day 2 -- 200 ft of 6-ft welded wire, another 1200 lbs of gravel, 400 ft of rough hewn cedar boards, and a race against the tropical storm. Rain in the forecast for the afternoon -- we couldn't pick up the fencing until 10:30 -- bring it.

End of day 2 -- all the fencing is up, we even made a separate section for Inga (Russian tortoise).  This section will also be the adolescent/sick chicken/duck area. This day was even more epic than the first -- it rained on us a bit, but not too much.  At the end of the day when we were filling in the trenches, I almost kicked Anna's butt when she told me she was having fun filling in the trenches because we were "rolling around in the mud." I was so tired, I was at the point of crying, and I hate hate hate shoveling (maybe why I like no-dig permaculture?).  There was nothing fun about it.

So the gate location was on uneven ground -- answer -- purposely make a crooked gate.  I'd say my woodworking skills are improving.  This gate required both mitering and beveling.  I kind of love it.  We buried a chunk of cedar post under the gate so it won't wear down over time creating a gap under the gate.  

YAY!  Olive is also happy that the heavy machinery fence building is done....except that the chicken yard was one of her favorite playing spots.  I'm sure she'll find a new one. :)

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Moving right along -- one thing we've learned is that farming/planting can be a serious lesson in patience.  Good thing we both already have a yoga practice, or we may be even more impatient than we already are.  We have been doing a ton of planting in the past few months, and I'd like to call this section, "Things we've planted that might, just might, give us something in the next 3-15 years"....yes, 15 years. There are also some things we've planted that won't take that long, but still...

This is American Persimmon - it's native to the US, but few people grow it.  When the fruit is ripe, it is delicious, but if you pick it too soon, it is tarty tart tart!  We have 4 of these, and maybe we'll get to taste some in 5+ years.

This is a Pawpaw - also native to the US, as far north as us!  It is more common in the midwest and mid-Atlantic regions.  If you live there, be on the lookout!  This gem is also known as the Custard Apple -- it tastes like a combination of banana, mango, tropical goodness.  It doesn't like to be transplanted, hence the leaves look like crap, but notice the new leaves at the top! YEAH!  This baby (and it's 3 siblings) will hopefully give us fruit in 10+ years.

This is the Pawpaw flower. It is staaaaanky and pollinated by flies. Photo credit: www.carolinanature.com

This is the fruit -- it is the largest North American fruit.  It probably hasn't been very popular because it has a very short shelf life.  It makes a great smoothie base! :) Photo credit: www.examiner.com

Here's what it looks like inside.  The seeds are not edible, actually poisonous, but look at the custardy goodness! Photo credit: www.tcpermaculture.blogspot.com

This is our row of cylons...there are many copies.  We grafted a bunch of apple scion wood (hence cylons) onto some root stock. The scion wood is the new growth that gets pruned off in the spring.  We took a grafting workshop and came home with 10 grafts -- it looks like they're all making it, but only time will tell.  These may give us fruit in the next 4-5 years. They are mostly rare varieties found in Maine.

Olive in the cylon patch.  She's very brave.

This is a pear tree.  We got it from Fedco at the tree sale.  I'm optimistic it will give us fruit in 3 years (a short wait!).

The strawberry patch -- which needs to be weeded, but that's another story.  We got the roots from the Fedco tree sale.  These would give us fruit this year, but since they're perennial, we're pinching off the flowers in order to encourage the plants to get better established root systems.  It is tragic to pinch off the flowers, but it led me to smell the strawberry flower.  If you've never done it before, you simply must.  It smells like yummy sweet strawberry goodness. Our plan is for the strawberry patch to expand a bit each year until it takes over this entire hill. We can eat strawberries next year.

Asparagus!  We planted about 75 plants, and we were looking forward to our lush asparagus forest.  It isn't so lush right now.  Tragically, we recently learned that most varieties aren't self seeding.  So, it won't expand into the thick forest we were hoping for.  Either we'll keep planting, or we'll look for a variety that spreads.  We can't eat these puppies for another 2 years.  It is torturous.

This is Hablitzia -- it's a perennial spinach vine.  We've planted under the deck, and it's going to crawl up the outdoor shower. The dogs kept trampling it, but now it's better...sort of.  You can see the squished cage.

This is a perennial arugula.  We just transplanted it a couple days ago, and the roots weren't the best.  Hopefully it will pull through. We've started a perennial vegetable bed in our terraced garden figuring that it gets warm first so we'll get lots of delicious greens early in the spring.

These are Egyptian walking onions -- a perennial onion.  The bulbs at the top get so heavy that they flop over onto the ground.  That roots, and the plants 'walk' around the garden.  

This is Water Celery -- ducks love it, and we can eat it too.  It can be quite aggressive in wet areas, so we're keeping it contained in a pot -- which will have to get much larger.  It is right next to the outdoor shower, so it gets watered every time we shower. :)

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Moving on....I told you this would be epic.  Now, just some things we've noticed around the farm.

This is the view of our field right now -- the lupines and other wildflowers are busting!  We love it...but not as much as some other ladies living here....

When we stepped outside this morning, we couldn't help but notice a humming in the field.  We were wondering if it was just the sound of the bees on all the flowers.  It appears it was.  They're working so hard, and it is pretty awe inspiring to watch them coming and going from the hive.

Here they are in action -- you can see some of their very loaded down legs.  I'm not sure how they can manage to fly with all that pollen!

Don't know who this guy is, but it was really pretty.

This is a spittle bug removed from the spittle (seen top left).  I have never seen one before, so I checked it out while we were watching the bees.

Lots of low-bush blueberries around our hives and in the field.  Can't wait for these babies to turn blue!

Given we have to pinch off all the flowers on our planted strawberries, it is really nice to find a bunch of these wild strawberries in the field. YUM!

Our flowers are loaded with Giant Swallowtails.  They're so beautiful.

And, just to prove it isn't all sunshine, butterflies, and rainbows over here....

We cut and stacked some wood....and it fell over. :(

Our omnipresent trash pile.  We still have to insulate the coop ceiling, but we need the insulation to dry out before we can do that.  I know, we could move it inside, but that's too easy.  So, we have a trash pile....classy.

I took a break from writing this (and other things -- I'm multitasking) to refill my....water, yes, it's water.  This is what I found outside.

Farm manager -- relaxing under a bench.

Olive -- hot, happy, tired, and dirty.

Last but certainly not least -- my wife...planting veggies topless.  Like I said, we keep it classy. :)

 OK -- I think that's it for now. Thanks for sticking with it.  Look forward to an upcoming post about...slugs. :)