We've finished up the clapboarding and built the internal wall and door to keep the chickens out of the grain area, so today is move in day for the chicks!
Internal wall and door finished
View of the internal door from the outside
Putting in the shavings
All ready!
Getting ready to release the chicks
Releasing them!
Chicks getting used to the new digs
Got to stick close together!
Labels: chicken coop, chickens
A collection of what's in bloom around the farm.
Pink wildflower, not sure what it is...
Rock geranium
Grape (OK, it's not in bloom yet)
Yellow Iris
Purple Iris
Jacob's Ladder
Purple Lupine
Labels: flowers, wildflowers
Laurie did another stint clapboarding the coop, Max even helped a bit!
Front of the coop
Max and Laurie working on the coop
End of the coop
Labels: chicken coop
Laurie planted 5 rows of black beans and a row of sweet potatoes in the garden today.
Labels: gardening
Laurie's been hard at work getting the coop clapboarded, making good progress.
Clapboards on the back of the coop
Clapboards on the front of the coop
Labels: chicken coop
The chicks are doing great, they're starting to get their wing feathers and they have plenty of spunk and attitude.
Are you taking pictures of me??
See our lovely wing feathers?
Labels: chickens
Some more pictures of life on the farm. We learned today that it takes a lot of seed to cover our garden in green manure and we don't have nearly enough, that may be the end of that plan for this year.
Headed out to spread the seed with our new "mother's day" spreader
Spreader in action
Pak Choi still growing
Old clump of strawberries are looking good
Mulched row in the garden
New growth on one of our balsams
New basswood looking good
Beeches are holding on, but not thriving - lost one this winter
High-bush cranberry getting ready to bloom
Lovely locust
New willow and Roxie
Guarding the robin family
Mama robin was back today laying eggs (most likely), looks like they are going to try to make a go of it. Laurie also caught (in picture form) a oriole feeding at our quince, so beautiful and such a lucky catch.
Labels: birds
After some touch and go with the post office and thinking we weren't going to get the chicks today, they showed up! We're really excited, they all see to be doing well!
Chicks in their shipping carton
Dan giving a chick it's first drink
Cute little Dominique chicks
More cuteness
Even more cuteness
Labels: chickens
We set up a brooder for our chicks since they should be here tomorrow! We used a cage that we borrowed from Debbie, plus some bubblewrap insulation to make a nice little space for them. Plenty warm and should be safe and free of drafts. We're wicked excited!
Doesn't it look cozy??
Labels: chickens
We built some doors to cover the chicken door holes, installed them and trimmed them and finished the trim around the main door today.
Trimming the new chicken door, plus you can
see the new trim around the bottom of the main door
Other chicken door in progress
Labels: chicken coop
Massive picture dump to update what we're up to.
Seedlings going strong - Kale is crazy leggy
Tomato seedlings - looking good
Pepper seedlings - small, but not bad
Flower seedlings for our wedding
Mulched berry patch
Mulched strawberry patch
New low-bush and mid-bush blueberries
Mulched raspberry patch
The big vegetable garden
Laurie's Scotch Elm
Pear tree in bloom
New basswood budding out
Pretty bluets
Lupine
Honeybee working dandelion
Labels: gardening, seed starting, wildflowers
We decided to try to poly the floor in the coop to try to protect it and make it last longer. Laurie is the queen of poly application, so she's been hard at work.
Poly - waterproof = good?
Labels: chicken coop
Our blueberry order from Miller Nurseries arrived and our new plants are planted in the raised bed! Four each of Northcountry, Northblue, and Northsky low-bush blueberry plants plus one each of Polaris and Chippewa mid-bush blueberry plants.
Plus in other news, it looks like we have a pair of robins nesting over our front door. Now I might expect that from a phoebe, but not a robin! Pretty cool! Hopefully they are as successful as the pair of killdeer that nested in our driveway last year!
New blueberry bed
Nest building robin
Beet seedlings
Pak choi seedlings
Strawberries - we're so pleased with how they're doing!
Gooseberry in bloom
Bleeding heart in bloom
I cut down a piece of plexiglass to cover the window in the coop's door and Laurie installed it with some silicone and a couple of metal brackets. Plus Laurie installed the latches on the coop's door.
Window covered and latches on
Labels: chicken coop
Laurie has posted more pics of the coop construction in the gallery.
Labels: chicken coop, galleries
Amy, Sam, and Esten were visiting Max and Sharon from the west coast, so they all came over to help out with the coop and visit. We got the door framed and installed, moved a big granite rock over to serve as the front step, and cut out the chicken doors. Lots of progress!
Max checking the fit on the door
Max framing the door
Laurie hanging the door
Laurie and Sam picking out the step
Laurie cutting a chicken door
Step and door in place and a chicken door cut out
View of the other chicken door
Or is it a Max door?
Nana and Max peeking out of the window in the door
Now Amy and Esten peeking out of the window in the door
Labels: chicken coop
The goats were thrilled that we let them out into the summer yard today. We've been trying to let it recover a bit and get greened up before we let them at it. They had a total feast!
Sam, Amy, and Esten meet the goats
Max and Dan watching the goats
Ginger chowing down
Enjoying the new grass
Yummy tall grass
Labels: goats
Laurie and I got the trim for the coop's soffit in place while Max played in his ExerSaucer, then Laurie got the rest of the trim up on the coop while Max and I explored the yard. After Laurie was done with the trim, I installed the new eave vents that we picked up at Home Depot. The coop is really coming along. It looks cute as all heck!
Trimming the coop
Another angle of the trim
End vent in place
Ain't I something...
All done for the day!
Labels: chicken coop
We're planning on seeding most of the expanded garden with cover crops/green manure this year to help prepare it for our rotation plans. To that end we bought alfalfa, red clover, and dutch white clover seeds. Very exciting, well, to us it is. :)
I also took a few minutes to get some Redbor and Winterbor Kale started.
Green manure seeds waiting to be planted
Newly started kale
Blueberries waiting to be mulched
Labels: gardening, seed starting
Laurie weeded and planted the herb garden today after work and we mulched the raspberries with sawdust (something new we're trying this year).
Newly mulched raspberries
Wild ginger in bloom
Solomon's seal
Pak choi seedlings
Garlic
Labels: gardening
