The Chicken Garden Project – Phase One – Getting Started

Like many gardener’s we have a new garden project going almost every year. This is how I manage to accomplish new garden projects with my current homestead work load. My working formula is that I work on this project an hour or two each morning and then I accomplish a little bit everyday!

Soil, straw and bark chips make up the base of my boarder garden. 

This year’s project is what I am calling the chicken garden. I plan to add some color and form on the North-end entry gate to our chicken coop and runs.  I also want to add some pizzazz and visual interest. I plan to only plant easy-care perennials so I don’t have more than the basic seasonal work to maintain them. These perennials have proven themselves to be low water and easy-care plant here already.

Just a simple stone and chip pathway lead to the chicken run.

In this case, I am going to transplant some of my standard “nothing will kill them” hardy plants from other parts of our property. I’ll be using the tried and true plants that I know can stand up to whatever weather Mother Nature Give’s us;  from drought to flooding. These are the perennials that have proven their merit over and over during the past 15 years we have lived and gardened here on our SW Michigan homestead.

The eventual recipient of the chicken garden.

Small House Homesteads Top Ten Hardy and Easy-Care Perennials:

1. Day lilies
2. Iris
3. Catmint
4. Black eyed Susan’s
5. Brown eyed Susan’s
6. Shasta Daisy’s
7. Butterfly Bush
8. Comfrey
9. Sedum (spreading and low growing)
10. Autumn Sedum Joy

The herb comfrey in full bloom.

My overall goal is to brighten the place up a bit when we walk out to the coop a half-dozen times a day. I also want to play down the ugly, gray cement blocks that hold down the greenhouse hoops. The blocks are super practical and make the low-cost side of this design work just fine, but I would like to pretty them up a bit.

I hope to soften down the hard lines of these gray cement blocks with green plants.

I started by amending the soil with good composted dirt from our compost bins and then added spent straw and topped with bark chips from the recent roadside clean up crew. Then I added six flat stepping-stones to a simple bark chip pathway that I put down to deal with the spring mud. The step-tones were once used in another garden location at once point. These stones resided for a few years in the bed behind our three-season porch but the shrubs there grew big enough to fill that open space and I was not longer using those step stones to get into and out of that bed.

Bark chips help to keep the weeds down as well as the moisture in the soil.

Before I could plant any flowers on our homestead I have learned I must seriously amend the soil and kill the grass that was growing there. Because our soil is super lean, sandy oak savanna soil that is also devoid of most necessary nutrients, so my garden prep process typically takes me a year or two to amend the soil before planting.  This small garden border is no different.

This great mound of bark chips will soon disappear.

My formula is quite simple; I add soil from the compost bins mixed with old soil from within the fire pit. Then I added some bark chips and mulch left for us by the local tree trimmers.  This tree trimming mulch includes pine needles and other greenery that will also help to amend our soil and add nitrogen to make a nutrition base for the flowers I plan to add in a year or two.

Another view of the “back forty.”The chicken run, the pool shack and of course, our girls!

While the amendments were doing their thing, I consulted a great book called Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard. By Jessi Bloom. This book is full of practical and beautiful solution for any gardener who wants to invite a flock into their backyard. It’s a great resource and give good tips and used many lovely color photographs for ideas and interest.

If you are considering landscaping in or around your coop or run here are a few relevant posts you might also enjoy.

• http://www.hobbyfarms.com/why-landscaping-your-chicken-coop-is-both-pretty-and-practical/
• Top Ten Plants for our Chicken Coop: by Tillys Nest at http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/05/top-ten-plants-to-grow-for-your-html/
• http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/09/landscape-gardening-with-chickens.html
• http://modernfarmer.com/2013/06/how-to-chicken-proof-your-garden/
• http://www.amazon.com/Free-Range-Chicken-Gardens-Beautiful-Chicken-Friendly/dp/1604692375

Enjoy!

Small House Homesteader, Donna

 

Small House Homesteads Week in Photo’s-Photo Diary

Balmy warm weather, sunshine and spending time outdoors was the best thing about our week on the homestead.                     Look at the shiny hackles on this Heritage Rhode Island Red.

The temperature got up to the 60’s for a few days and we spotted the first Phoebe, Rufus Sided Towee and Robin of the season.

The weather warmed up enough I could remove the protective burlap from the yews.    Sisters, sisters / There were never such devoted sisters /

A Rhodie is drawf-ed by the oak logs target for hatcket practice.

The chickens are interested in our water totes containment center.

Hey baby…what’s happening?
Drying the burlap on the vegetable garden fencing.

Our chickens enjoying the sunshine in the open run near the enclosed Rhodies run.

We put up two more bluebird boxes this week.

Small House homesteader, Donna

The Story of Sweet Little Snowball Laying Again at Last

Snowball the white Cochin Bantam today.

Snowball the snow-white Cochin Bantam came to us in the fall of 2014 as a two- week-old rescued chick. She came from a farm where she and her fours siblings and their mother were only being fed cracked corn.

Snowball flying out of the coop, not able to navigate the chicken ladder.

As a result Snowball had some obvious neurological problems. Snowball had a wry neck and when under stress or upset she turned in circles around and around. All of her toes were crooked so she waddles as she walks. I was pretty sure she was suffering from nutritional deficiencies, poor thing.

Snowball first fall out in the chicken run. Clover stands close by guarding.

I immediately put the flock on a high quality growers feed and supplemented that with herbs, greens and chicken vitamin drops to try to improve upon their obvious nutritional deficiency. Snowballs body grew but she was never all ‘quite there.’ In fact, I thought she was bit handicapped.

Snowball and two of her Cochin/Phoenix mix sisters posing on a stump.

Snowball was extremely connected to her mother, Clover, often removing specks of dirt from her Clover’s feathers, grooming her and even when she was almost full sized she wanted to sleep under her Clover’s wings at night. She was very reluctant to grow up.

Growing, growing, growing….

In fact, Snowball was the last chicken to leave her mother’s side and only because after 5 ½ month her mother turned on her and pecked her in the neck (until blood appeared) to say, “I’m done raising babies and I really mean it this time!”

  Quirky Snowball on the stump. The mealworms are how I got her up there!

Snowball has continuously been a quirky little thing, a bit odd and unusually funny. But above all those character traits she has always been sweet like most Cochin Bantams are. It took several months but she began to circle less and less and her wry neck eventually went away. She developed her own personality which is a bit “top chicken” where she pecks away the much larger Rhodies from the food and perches even though she is the lowest chicken in the Cochin flock, she just doesn’t know it! She alerts everyone when crows come around and is kind of the block queen. All the other chickens just kind of melt away and let her have her way. It’s almost like they know she is not all there and have compassion for her and do not raise a fuss. She began to lay, a bit later than her sisters and never laid every day. When she did lay her egg she laid the most petite, creamy white egg                                                       Not quite full grown.

Last fall when the Cochin’s went through their molt it was almost winter time. Snowball molted with the others but never came back in quite the same way. It took her longer to grow her feathers and she never started laying eggs again. I soon accepted that she was going to be a free loader instead of a layer and because she is such a sweetheart, I never really minded.

Playtime on the stump in the chicken run.

Unlike her serial brooding sisters, Snowball has never gone broody either.

Snowball is the bird who photograph was chosen for the USDA 2016 Biosecurity Calendar.

One day out of the blue we found a fairy egg. I was pretty sure this meant that someone was beginning to lay again after a long absence, but who could it be? I was puzzled.

That funny girl at play..Look at that neck in proportion to her body!

Last week we began to see a new and slightly different egg in the nest box. With two Cochin broodies we couldn’t figure out who was laying this new oblong egg. It was definitely a Cochin egg but whose could it be? After the fourth egg it dawned on me that Snowball was finally laying again She was actually laying after almost a year’s off! Oh happy day!

A light-colored petite Cochin Bantam egg.

It is funny to me how very one of these chickens develop their own personalities and how we get so attached to them. I’ve had readers write and comment on how sweet she is. I know we are not supposed to have favorites, but Snowball seems to be every reader’s favorite too.

Snowball’s two misfires and her normal egg.

Small House homesteader, Donna

62 Degrees Sunny and Windy – Photo Diary

  Wow, what a great day on the homestead.

Blue sky and white fluffy clouds overlooking the chicken complex.

Gene by the blacksmith forge while the Rhodies scratch in the bark chips.

We enjoyed a lovely sunny and warm day for our mid-winter February thaw. The morning was full of chores; washing clothes, cleaning the stove, making bone broth and more.

Elsa taking a dust bath.

In spite of the recorded 50+ mile an hour winds our afternoon was spent outside enjoying the chickens.

Dirt flies when a chicken takes a dust bath.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring so gotta make hay today!

Doors open and the sun shines in the covered run.

Chickens follow the snow blown path around the homestead.

Small House Homesteader, Donna

 

The Small House Homestead Winter – Photo Diary

Crystal the Rhode Island Red likes to follow us around the homestead.

Our winter thus far has been spent, cooking new gluten-free recipes, doing some deep cleaning inside our home, letting the chickens out to free range with supervision and shoveling snow. Welcome to winter in Michigan!!

This is our week of January 15, 2016. I hope you enjoy the view!

Rhodies and Cochin’s alike want to get out of the run no matter the weather.

We shoveled snow away from the door to the covered run so the chicks could scratch and peck. Our girls love their dirt!

Elsa found a tiny bit of open ground in front of the pole barn door.

We are challenged to find open areas of dirt or leaves to keep the chickens occupied during the long, cold days and out of trouble. Too much time in the coop means chicken squabbles and the lowest chickens in the pecking order seem to be the one who suffer, especially poor Freckles.

The wondering buddies, Crystal and Elsa.

This was a tiny melted area about the size of a plate near the front of the pole and the girls found it and scratched around satisfying the Rhodies intense drive to dig, scratch and peck.

Crystal and Elsa are wondering buddies. Even when no one else will venture outside in the snow and cold these two avian friends find a way to occupy themselves.

Posing at the pole barn!

Gene and his girls!

Unless there is a terrible snowstorm, we try to get the chickens outside every day, if even for just an hour. Sunlight, fresh air and exercise are good for the girls and helps to keep them busy and occupied too.

When the chicken run gate is open for our morning chores they invariably find their way to the overhand of the forge where there is open dirt and leaves. THIs winter we have stored buckets of bark chips under the forge overhang that we use from time in the chicken coop.

Chickens tracks lead the way to where the girls have been traveling.

I hope you have been having some enjoyable travels too!

Small House homesteader, Donna

Cochins vs. Rhodies: A Breed Comparison

I’ve been observing the differences between my two flocks of chickens now for almost a year. This is what I have observed about their dispositions, their personalities and their applicable place in the homestead or backyard chicken coop.

It’s really quite important to pick the right breed for your weather conditions and land characteristics. I also recommend picking a breed that is suitable for your energy and time constraints too. You will be happier and so will your birds.

COCHINS BANTUMS: Suitable for an urban backyard coop.

• Smaller in stature
• Calm and contented personalities
• Suitable for younger children to raise
• Content to be in their coop and run, modestly demanding
• Very attached to and protective of their flock members
• Serial brooders
• For egg laying not meat birds
• Reliable egg layers laying light brown, almost pink shelled eggs
• Put themselves in the coop on their own in the early evening
• Small combs and wattles so suitable for cold weather geography
• 

RHODE ISLAND REDS: A heritage breed, suitable for farm or homestead where they can free range.

• Larger in stature, sturdy birds weighing up to 7 to 8 lbs.
• Wired personalities, very serious scratch and peck birds, a rather demanding breed
• Most suitable for older children to raise
• Every bird for themselves personalities
• Need to free range and not content to be in their coop and run all day long
• A duel breed, egg laying and meat producers
• Reliable layers, laying large brown eggs
• Want to be out in the woods up well past dusk so need to be put to bed at night.
• Mediums sized combs and wattles so suitable for cold weather geography

Whatever your situation and whichever breed you choose, enjoy your chickens and the adventures they bring to your homestead or family. They each have their own personalities, most are quirky, fun and interesting to raise and own. I do recommend keeping chickens!!

Small House homesteader, Donna

 

 

Home From Florida and Back to Reality

It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that just a few days ago I was sitting in sunny and warm Florida, lodged right on the bright blue Atlantic Ocean. It was a wonderful and relaxing few days in a place and a lifestyle that is frankly, foreign to me.

The townhouse my brother rented and graciously allowed me to stay in.

However the reality of winter and real life came crashing back to me when I came home to a storm front of 55 mph winds roaring in off of Lake Michigan.

  My stunning niece Carrie, on her wedding day.

It was a whirlwind trip to Florida for my niece’s wedding – just four days total and two of them were travel days. I would have loved to have spent a week or more there on the beach in the sun but I had to keep my expenses as low as possible.

Shells I found on the beach and fashioned into a heart.

This destination wedding was held at the Victorian Florida House Inn on Amelia Island. This quaint and colorful 1857 vintage inn is located in the heart of the historic district of Fernandina Beach, Florida.

The front door of the Florida House Inn is a taste of what is to come inside.

My niece is an events planner for the Hilton group so creating memorable experiences is what she does for a living and it showed. The charming wedding and wonderful reception were held out-of-doors under the Florida sky in the inns courtyard and garden. Having everything, from wedding to reception, lodging all happening in one location made it easy on everyone who attended. http://www.floridahouseinn.com/

Today it was spitting sleet so Gene and I spent the morning reworking the chicken runs to protect the chickens from the high winds. Their corner lazing area needed serious reinforcement as its tarp cover was loose and blowing around and the 2″ X 4″ frame had blown down to the ground.

Tarping the gate and the run fencing.

I added more dirt and leaves to the slippery base of outdoor dog kennel hang out spot that serves as a wind break and protection from the rain. I also added two long logs and a wooden pallet to give the chickens a place to stand-off of the ground. Gene added another tarp to the metal fencing to provide even more wind protection, especially from the brisk west blowing winds.

This outdoor vegging corner gives chickens shelter, food and a place to dust.

I chopped open a pumpkin for the chickens to peck at and divided it between the indoor and outdoor runs. I added additional wood ashes to the dusting areas and the under coop areas and generally tried to make the covered and open runs a bit more comfortable and secure for the girls.

Hay bales make a good wind break and a sheltered feeding area in high winds.

I moved the chicken feeding areas into a sheltered corner behind the hay bales to give them more protection from wind and snow when eating. Their eating areas have been out in the open, sunny run but with the changing seasons that has all changed during the last week.

The girls love jumping up and off an old log I found in the woods.

I also rolled an old log into the Rhodies covered run to use as a jungle gym and perching place. I also moved chunks of barley grass into the covered run that I grown in the open run areas. My goal is to keep live greens available and help to keep boredom at bay as boredom leads to infighting.

A chunk of barley grass helps to keep the busy on a boring inside the run day.

I am trying in particular to give our Cochin/Phoenix mix, Freckles, more options to eat and rest out of the wind. Freckles as you may recall has been under the weather in her post-brooding and molting months.

Freckles, the Phoenix/Cochin mix in better health. 

We have been giving Freckles a small amount of cat food each morning in a special efforts to get more protein into her. We have been separating her for feeding from the others who quickly gobble up her food. This lowers her stress that arises from pecking and marauding from the other birds and has been a strategy this is working. This week her very pale comb has slowly pinking up on tis way to a normal red color. Her eyes have brightened a bit as well. She is still nervous around the Rhodies and avoids eating with the others in fear of being pecked but she is doing a bit better each week. My goal is to have her well as soon as possible because winter is coming very soon.

It is 32 degree today and spitting snow…..goodbye fall. Hello winter.

Small House homesteader, Donna

Whole Lot of Chicken Coop Prep Going on

This week we are in full swing of getting the chicken coop, run and our eight birds ready for the coming winter.

Jumping up on the straw bales is a fun activity for the chickens.

We raked out the old oak leaf litter in the enclosed run and added a 3” layer of freshly fallen, dry leaves. We added them in the open run area as well as in the enclosed run area. These leaves plus adding bark chips as needed will help to prevent a lot of mud from accumulating in the run when the fall rains begin and the eventual winter snow melt.

We are in the process of tarping our two chicken coops and covered run.

We put down areas of “sand piles” where the girls can scratch, peck and eat the sand as needed.

Bales of hay provide a wind and snow barrier around our coops.

As I clean out the old vines and vegetable from the garden, I tossed any interesting food items into the chicken run; sunflower heads, small tomatoes, green bean vines and basil stems. Our chickens pick, scratch and eat most everything I throw in there and they are happy to have these snacks as well as the constant stimulation.

It’s so much fun to jump up on the hay and scratch and peck!

Large plastic tarps have been placed over the coop and run roof to prevent even the smallest of water leaks from coming inside. The plastic storms on the outside of the coop are going up ever so slowly, beginning with the west-facing side where the strongest winds blow inland off of Lake Michigan. Soon the pink Styrofoam insulation panels will be positioned in the top of both coop roofs to help hold in a bit more heat this winter.

The wooden frame protects the newly planted barley seeds until they begin to grow.

We have picked up the two loads of hay bales from a local farm. These are stacked on the outside of the run as another layer of wind protection. They also help to create buffer zone to provide an area where the snow is blocked and a narrow area for me and the chickens to walk around. This narrow pathway allows me to be able to get into both side of the coop for cleaning, filling of waters and more chicken chores. Our truck holds eight bales at once so we typically make several trips to a local hay farm for the hay we need. And we run Sassy in the Todd Farm State Game area on those same trips.

Bales of hay being thrown over the fence and into the run. Watch out girls!

We set up the heated dog bowl getting them plugged in as well as the drop lights we use in the coop for the long winter days when chickens are stuck inside the coop for hours at a time. This year the coop lights and heated water bowls got new and safer electrical cord that are lit at the end. This way I can tell at a glance if they are on and working properly. The summer-use rubber watering pans have been washed out, dried and stored for the winter.

Freshly sprouted barley seeds provide live greens and stimulation for the girls.

Today I also refreshed the bedding in the laying boxes, using more of our dry oak leaves. Although it’s a lot of work to remove the many leaves from our 47 White Oak trees we have growing on our five acres, I am happy this week that we have so many leaves available for the chickens needs.

Freckles is recovering from weeks of brooding and is now molting…this is her in her better days.

We will also bag up as many leaves as we can for use later on during the winter months ahead. Not only are these leaves free, when mixed in with the girl’s organic poop they will eventually compost down into our fertile homemade composted soil for our garden. Nothing is wasted in the Small House permaculture garden!

Normally I replace the sand litter in the coops in the fall but since that has already been done twice since April, I will not do that this fall. Each morning we carefully clean out the night poop and leave the doors open on both side of the coop to air it out. That plus the fact the girls have been free ranging and pooping outside all spring summer and fall, so I think we are good to go. I have begun to add small amounts of leaves to the sand litter to acclimate the girls to our winter litter method of what we chicken keepers call, “deep litter.”

I’ve also added firewood ash to the various sand piles for chicken dusting and we replaced a cracked playpen roost with a new roost bar and rolled in a log for a step up to the bar.

Belly up to the bar, girls!

I know we do spoil our girls but I also believe that contented Small House chickens lay tasty and healthy eggs!

Small House homesteader and chicken keeper, Donna

The Small House in its Autumn Glory-Photo Diary

I apologize for being so out of touch lately. Fall is such a busy time of year for us at The Small House that the outdoor work just takes over our lives. Hopefully I can make up for fewer blog posts of late with some interesting and lively photographs sharing the beauty of our homestead in the autumn.

We’ve had a hard frost already here in SW Michigan. Hard enough that it froze my remaining potted annuals and tender hydrangeas but once again the weather has turned warm. In these parts we call these warm days, our Indian Summer. I am enjoying the warm sunshine as are our animals who love to lay in the warm dirt and dust or nap.

Our small house under the big SW Michigan sky. 

The surrounding woods are taking on new shades of reds, yellow and amber thanks to the cooler nights. There is a vivid beauty about the countryside now that stirs my soul.

This bed, with its ornamental grasses and mum’s really shines in the Autumn.

As those of you who homestead know; this time of is year we call “The Crunch Time” or “The Fall Rush.” I imagine that you are working as hard as we are to gather the last of the vegetable harvest, to close down the gardens and get the animals and their pens ready for winter. These seasonal chores plus my plantar fasciitis, physical therapy and various doctor’s appointments have kept me on the run.

While I honestly prefer a more home-center, slower-paced way of life, I know I must take care of my health right now and that means many appointments in town and twice-weekly working out.

The billowing and blowing grasses are among my favorite native perennials.

The fruits of our labor can be enjoyed in our perennial gardens right now. Native perennial plant, stones hauled home from farmers fields and roadside ditches, mingle with my carefully chosen plantings and projects all lovingly built and maintained, that shine during the Michigan fall. I enjoy every season here but if I had to choose my favorite, I think it would be autumn.

The fenced-in black raspberry patch is one of our chicken’s favorite runs.

Here is a peek at the Small House Homestead this week in all of our lovely fall glory.

Shrubs and feeders provide food and shelter for our beloved songbirds.

Our non-working in-the-ground pool resides nestles up against the forest edge.

Bales of hay will block the winter winds to the chicken run and coop areas. Then next spring these bales will be broken down for mulch in the garden.

The chicken condo complex is nestled under our majestic White Oak trees.

The pool shack, meadow grasses and the wood lot in late October.  

Our 1950’s era ranch-style home. Yes, that is an old-fashioned TV antenna not a UFO!

The pool shack storage shed with our home in the distance.

The pool complex, storage shack and garden.

I hope you enjoyed you enjoyed a taste of fall on our homestead.

Small House homesteader, Donna

Chicken Condo Complex Update

Most summers in addition to our weekly gardening, mowing and general upkeep, we work on one large project on the homestead.

The early morning mist rising over the Small House’s Chicken Condo Complex

This summer we have been working on chicken coop number two and its enclosed run as well as created a netted run area to prevent the Cochins from flying out of the run a half-dozen times (or more!) a day.

A second view of the complex; 2 coops, 2 runs and a netted run area.

This has ultimately developed into a rather advanced two-coop/two run project, so I have taken to calling it the Chicken Condo Complex when I describe it!

We sited the covered run area under the shade of a large White Oak tree.

We are not contractors or even carpenters so projects like this are done slowly. We do a lot of Internet searching, we work step at a time and almost every day and often we are figuring things out as we go along. Gene and I work together as a team and usually I design, research options, source materials and paint while Gene does the actual building.

Off the ground coop in covered run frame not yet covered with chicken wire.

Booth coops are built high off the ground in deference to our 2009-2012 high ground water flooding years. Our home was surrounded by a moat of 20″ deep water for months at a time and the lowest part of our property is where our vegetable garden and coops are located so we planned accordingly.

High ground water sitting just outside the fenced in run area.

Hopefully with the expensive new ditch project and county drain extension we will never have to go through that kind of flooding again, but we decided to be safe rather than sorry.

The Rhodies coop and newly chicken wired door to their run.

The second coop design was nearly the same design as our first chicken coop, just bigger, so it was bit easier to build this time around. It had double doors that open on both sides for ease of cleaning and daily airing out and it has two chicken ladders; one the opened into the original covered run as well as into the soon-to-be-covered run number area.

The Rhodies coop nest box, door, ladder and screens for ventilation

Our first flock, four Cochin/Phoenix mix are just one year old. The second flock consists of four Rhode Island Reds that are about 4 months old now. Originally we had hoped that the two flocks would integrate well and share the same covered run area during our 6-month-long Michigan winters. But the flocks have not really gelled as one, so Gene decided to build a second covered run for the Rhodies.

The Rhodies use their coop, roost bar and chicken ladder as a jungle gym!

Both flocks move in and out of both coops and the laying hens used their own laying boxes as well as the Rhodies boxes. So, I suspect that both flocks will eventually be able to live together and will move freely between both runs at some point; sleeping apart in their own coop. As with most fickle chickens….time will tell.

The Cochin and Phoenix layers coming out of their covered run after dusting.

In hindsight it probably would have been cheaper to build one large coop instead of two coops but at the time, we simply did not know we would be keeping 8 chickens. We were somewhat new to chicken keeping and had not yet developed a well-thought out plan for growth ahead of time. Live and learn, as they say.

The view inside the shared chicken run. Both coops funnel into this area.

We have been working hard on these two projects all summer. The overall goal is to get them completed before the snow arrives.

Small House homesteader and chicken keeper, Donna