Chasing Chickens and Beginning Gardening

Chasing Chickens

So the other day a storm was coming in and the chickens were out free ranging so we wanted to get them all back in the coop before we got dumped on.  So far it's been relatively easy to get the chickens back in the coop when we are ready to do so, half the time they are already waiting inside when we go down there and then just shut the door otherwise it's been pretty easy to just pick them all up and put them in.  Well, this time the big ones were already ready to go in, I think they sensed the weather was changing and getting more skiddish.  We got all of the in fairly easily except for Buffy, she was an elusive pain in the leg! Seriously, look what happened to my leg during one of my attempts to catch her....I didn't see a small tree stump and smashed my leg on it.  

(ok it's not that bad but my skin is so light and scars easily and it's hot here and now I have this ugly thing to show off!)

Oh and yes, our grass in the back yard is actually a mix of grasses and weeds and clovers...but right after we (as in he) mows the lawn, it looks like it might be grass if you don't get too close! lol

She kept hiding under the coop, then running all over the place, darting between trees...I was impressed really, I heard Buff Orpingtons were the most docile and likely to get eaten by an animal or picked on by the other chickens but she's insanely quick and elusive, I think she'll be OK.  I finally had enough of us running after her like idiots...I'm sure we made a hilarious sight, but after bashing my leg I realized "This is stupid!  The chicken is too scared to stay out here by itself, the other chickens aren't trying to come out...I'm done!  I bet if we leave and come back in 2 minutes she'll go in by herself"...and that's what happened.  

Yesterday we had them out again , when Tyler asked me if I would go start rounding them up and getting them in the coop.  I went and checked on them...they weren't done foraging.  It was getting closer to dusk and I was just like, "nope, I'm not doing THAT again...They'll probably go in in the next 20 minutes. I'm not dodging through trees trying to catch them."  And they did.  So....lesson learned...don't kill yourself trying to catch a chicken to put it in the coop.....now I'll probably have a scar on my leg. They will go in on their own if we just be patient.  And if you MUST get them put away for some reason and they aren't ready to go back in, go for the easy ones first and once they are in, if you leave the more elusive ones alone, the will go hop in by themselves to be with the others.  Don't break a leg over it!

Here is the recent progress on the coop....Tyler's working on the run out the back...he got the frame up and a trench dug out, now he just needs to get the wire in place and make a door...I helped a little ;) But really, he's the main man on the job!  GO BABE!

 We are excited to see we have lots of blueberries coming in!  We had one pretty unfruitful blueberry plant that produced 3 berries last year, but I guess blueberries do better if you have at least 3 plants for cross pollination.  A couple weeks back we stopped at some small nursery on the side of the road on our way back from a hike.  We picked up a couple more blueberry plants and some tomato plants.  It was WAY cheaper than getting them at a place like Home Depot, these plants were already a good size and only a couple dollars each!

 Here's hubby checking out the little tomato on one of the plants.  We alternated blueberry plants and tomato plants...We aren't that experienced in gardening, so there was not any reason for this...just did it that way.  My mom is a gardening superwoman and my mother in law is also a big gardener so hopefully we can follow in their footsteps. :)  We want to get more tomato plants, we want tons of tomatos, plenty to eat fresh but also we want to roast and can a WHOLE bunch for making homemade pasta sauce.  So, our beginning garden consists of blueberries and tomatoes so far...But I hope to add more over time and make a real vegetable and herb garden and I also REALLY want to plant lots of hydrangeas, peonies and lavender!  I even got curious today about having a bee colony on the property, I looked it up and 1 beehive can produce 50 pounds of honey a year!  WOW!  BUT for now I'm good with 6 chickens and a beta fish!

Looking at these little blueberries is getting me thinking about making my 

gluten free blueberry lemon muffins with coconut streusel!

Teenage Chickens and the Chicken Poop..I Mean Coop

Teenage Poopin' Ninja Chickens

So let me see here, we got our first 2 chicks on March 24, so that means when we went camping 2 weekends ago they were right at a month old, but for chickens that means they are pretty decent sized teenager chickens.  Our 2nd flock is 2 weeks younger than the first flock.  Anyways, so 2 weekends ago we went on a family camping trip with our American Heritage Girls troop.  My husband was going to get the coop ready for them the weekend prior but wasn't able to because he got sick and then we had this campout, so we had them in a box in the house (we don't have a garage otherwise they would have been out in there).  We had a great time at the campout but left early Sunday morning as quickly as possible so we could get home and get to work on the coop.  Well, when we got home we found POOP all over the place.  My husband had put their box in the playroom with screens on top and then closed the doors to that room just in case they somehow got out...which they never had even come close....but they did and before we left one of the kids must have run in there for something and maybe bumped the box or something and then left the doors open because those chickens got out and free ranged around the house.  They were huddled around the box when we got back and most of the poop was in that room, but we found droppings throughout the house, up and down as they pretty much explored everywhere.  So that was super fun to clean up!  I will give my hubby credit for that one, he cleaned up most of it, I did the spot cleaning on the carpets but he cleaned up the main room that was full of it.  I just don't like the chicken poop, I know I deal with kid and baby poop all the time but still, the chicken droppings make me want to puke.  So I was thankful he took care of it.  Anyways, you gotta watch those teenager chickens, they are naughty and will have a house party when you are away and leave their crap everywhere!

Here is one of the naughty girls!

So anyways, after researching Chicken Coops and getting all inspired and wanting to build something cool, Tyler realized the little shed we already had was practically the same size we were planning on building and we didn't have that much stuff in it so he decided to repurpose it...but it was right next to our driveway and not a good spot for a chicken coop so he took it apart to the frame and was going to continue to disassemble it when our neighbor came over to see what Tyler was up to after hearing him banging away and suggested they just move it as is and not take it all the way apart....so Tyler and our neighbor rolled the shed across the property, back into the woods on logs (trees that Tyler had previously cut down) and wow, it looked like a LOT of work!  But in the end, it worked out and Tyler got it put back together....mostly....enough to be functional and get the chickens out of the house.  It still needs the trim and ramp put back on and we still need to build a chicken run out the back and give it a fresh coat of paint.  We moved all 6 chickens out there finally and they are all enjoying it and they love when we let them out in the yard, they stick together in their little packs of 3.  It was so cute tonight was the 2nd time we let the younger ones out and they had a ball but when we were ready to put them back in the coop, they had already gone in by themselves.  

And I like them more seeing them OUTSIDE and not in my house :)

The little yellow one is a Buff Orpington so I named her Buffy the Scorpion Slayer.....it's her destiny to help put a dent in the scorpion population around here :)

check out that awesome car jack...yep I bought that for Tyler as an anniversary or birthday gift like when we were 19...he was always working on his mustang back then...now his mustang (we still have it) needs a new top so bad last year it had like a foot of water sitting in it and was like a jungle inside...not quite as cool as it was back then!  But at least the car jack still comes in handy for other things, like leveling the chicken coop!