Meet Feral Fawcett

She's a Sicilian Buttercup, and she is wild!  We got her from my father, who decided he wanted chickens a year or so ago.  He loaded up on chickens and slowly, one by one, they were picked off by predators.  A fox was the main culprit.  They were truly yard birds in that they were never touched.  Feral was the last one and she had been by herself for months.  He asked us to take her in, so we did.  When Nate caught her for the first time she started screaming bloody murder.  She was not happy, and this went on for several minutes.  We joke that some of our chickens are wild, but they are lap chickens compared to this girl.

We kept her separated for a few days until the flock got used to seeing her and stopped lining up along the run to gawk.  Then we locked her up for a day with our bantam rooster, Sir Elton, and of course, they got along swimmingly.  She is just his size.  The next day we let her out in the yard with everyone else, and she hung around Sir Elton all day.  He gave her a tour, clucked her over for juicy tidbits, and when another hen tried to pick on her, he intervened and broke it up.  All that day I saw them together.  That night I thought I might have to isolate her again for her protection, but when I went to lock up everyone, she was roosting on the back of one of the other hens.  I guess she decided she wasn't going to take a lower rung and went right to the top.  She has transitioned amazingly well into the flock.  I am shocked.

So for now, all is peaceful in the yard.

Happy homesteading,

Candace

Band of Idiots

This is a band of idiots!  (If you click on the photo, you can see a larger version of it.)

This is a band of idiots because they are on the WRONG SIDE OF THE FENCE!  They are looking at me like, "We can see the yard.  We just can't get to it."  Well, idiots, you can't get to it because there is a fence in the way.

Why is there a fence in the way, you might ask?  Well, the chickens have free reign along the back side of our lot and the woods behind my neighbor's house.  He has a fence that keeps them out of his backyard as does the neighbor on the other side of him.  So, generally they stay in the woods.  But, they recently discovered the neighbor diagonally behind me does not have a fence around his backyard, so they have been going to forage in his yard.  It's really not a big deal to him.  He doesn't care.  But I care.  I care because chickens do not know boundaries, and they eventually work their way up his yard and around the fence line of the neighbor directly behind me.  Once they are around the side fence line, they work their way down into his yard.  They forage and have a grand time over there.  It's full of untapped bugs and good eatin'.  However, when they are ready to head home, they congregate at the fence, ON THE WRONG SIDE.  They can't figure out that they have to work themselves backwards to get home.

So, I have to work my way through Vietnam to get through the first backyard, come around the fence, and then work my way down the hill through this yard to get to them.  Let me tell you pricker branches and blackberry brambles still stick in the winter.  And, this yard is full of hidden holes under piles of leaves and fallen branches.  I almost killed myself trying to catch them all.  Rocky has nothing on me!  Once caught, they were hurled gently placed over the fence and back in their own yard.

This happened a few days in a row, so I've kept them locked in the animal yard since.  They are pissed at me right now and stand at the fence and scream bloody murder.  Oh well, Idiots, when the scratches and puncture wounds on my legs heal, I just might open the gate again.

Catch your chickens like Rocky,

Candace

Conversations At Our House

This is Vanilli.  She is our oldest and favorite bird, and we think her head looks like an eagle, so we call her our American Bald Chicken.  We bought her at the flea market years ago, and we say that is why she is such a tough bird.  She is street smart and has survived multiple predator attacks over the years.  She is also our stand-in rooster, crowing in the early years before we had roosters.

She is a fabulous mother, hatching out a clutch for us each year.  She teaches her chicks how to forage and is very protective.

So my husband came in this morning and asked, "How many birds do we have?"

"We have 15 chickens and 4 ducks." 

"Well, I counted 15 chickens, but it looks like a bird was attacked.  There are chicken feathers all over the ground.  They look like Vanilli's, but I just saw her."

I race out to the animal yard and start counting birds.  1,2, 3....15.  1,2,3.....15.  1,2,3......15.

"We have all of the birds, and she was in the coop last night when I put everyone up, so show me what you're talking about."

It's hard to capture it in a photo, but it definitely looks like a crime scene.

A quick scan of Vanilli shows she is missing some feathers.  So, like any good blogger, I said, "While I go get the camera, catch Vanilli and let's make sure she isn't hurt."

A few minutes later, I came back out and asked, "Did you catch her?"

"I can't.  She's running around the yard with a mouse in her beak, and everyone is chasing her."

"Okay, let's keep the other chickens away from her so she will calm down and we can catch her.  Plus, she can enjoy her mouse if no one is chasing her.  I have a feeling she's earned it."

So, we get her isolated in a protected corner and stand guard while she enjoys her breakfast.  Nate picks her up at one point so we can examine her, but she was not letting that mouse go.  So it came along for the ride.   

And, here she is swallowing it down, like a noodle.  If you click on the photo, you can see the end of it hanging out of her beak.

Thankfully, she's okay, and her feathers will grow back.  I assume something attacked her at dusk last night but only managed to grab feathers.  Dusk seems to be the prime time for attacks at our place.  The night predators are heading out for the evening, and the birds are putting themselves up.  Once they are locked in the coop, they are safe.  

Oh, the things we do for our animals and the conversations we have!  All's well that ends well though.

Happy homesteading, 

Candace  

The Babies of Bottle Tree Farm

This has definitely been the year of babies on the farm! Rabbits and chicks and ducklings, oh my! 

In December/January, Bunny and Sophia gave us seven and eight kits respectively.  I sold a few and kept one, but the rest are gracing our table. 

I fell in love with Mimi and decided to keep her.  She's only five months old, but isn't she a big girl already!

In March, Belinda gave me two kits.  Not the best litter in the world in terms of numbers, but they sure were cuties. 

Belinda's litter consisted of a buck and a doe.  I sold the buck and traded the doe for this cutie patootie.  She is part Silver Fox, New Zealand, and Californian, so she should be a big girl as well.  I've only had her a few days, so I haven't chosen a name yet.  I have some good options rolling around in my head though.



A few weeks ago, Vanilli, our super mama hen, hatched out ten chicks.  This is her third year hatching eggs, and she is the best!  And, I have two more broody hens sitting on six eggs each.  This year should be my best one yet for putting chicken in the freezer. 

We got Muscovy ducks late last year, so this is my first year of duck eggs.  I was advised to let the duck eggs collect and that the ducks would know when the time is right to go broody.  Well, the chickens kept trying to go broody on the duck eggs, so I thought for sure they had gotten the clock going on incubation and nothing was going to happen because they were on and off the nest.  Finally Coco, my chocolate hen, decided to get in on the action and she took over.  Out of 26 eggs, 13 hatched.  We've lost two, so we are down to 11.  I think she either stepped on them, because I saw her step on one a time or two, or our drake had something to do with their deaths.  I saw him pick up one in his bill one day and shake it.  I saved that one, and since then I have kept them separated.  All of the ducklings are slated for processing in the fall, but things could change between now and then.

Between rabbits, chickens and ducklings, my freezer should be overflowing.  I couldn't be more proud!  We don't eat meat everyday, but when we do, it's with reverence, gratitude and appreciation.

As a side note, I invite you to like Bottle Tree Farm on Facebook to witness the day-to-day activities on the farm. 

Happy homesteading,

Candace

Ever Evolving

It seems like it has been forever and a day since I last posted.  We've had some major projects happening here so I've been busier than a one-armed paper hanger lately.  If I've said it once, I've said it one thousand times.  I am always looking for ways to make my space more efficient.  Therefore, I am always assessing whether a project done in the past works for me today, especially as I expand, and how a project on my to-do list will make things run a little more smoothly.  Late winter to early spring seems to be our time for big projects.  I don't have too much going in the garden and it's not 100 degrees outside.

So, here is a run-down of this year's projects.

The GA Henitentiary came down.  The run portion was in prime growing territory, and since I made the decision a few years ago to move all of the animals to the back half of the yard, having animal housing here just didn't make sense anymore.  Plus the termites were having a field day with it, and it was only a matter of time before it came down on its own. 

In its place went a new 10x12 greenhouse.  Doing this opened up the bed where the run used to be and also freed up my smaller greenhouse, which is actually in the animal yard, for feed storage.  This greenhouse was almost grounds for divorce at our house!  Ha, ha!  It will have to last forever because Nate will NEVER construct one for me again. 

And, as if the greenhouse wasn't a big enough chore, it was followed by another whopper.  What was originally my rabbitry and then storage was converted to a four stall barn.  This was my major expansion project for this year giving me greater versatility in animal housing.  The raccoons had figured out that the lattice was easily ripped off and they were helping themselves to the feed, removing the lids from the containers, and making a huge mess in the process. I was limited by the henitentiary because I could only grow-out one rabbit litter at a time.  Now I can breed more than one rabbit at once and not worry about grow-out space.  Plus, it gives me the option for separating animals when needed.  The really fun part of this was digging out all of the stalls to a foot depth, in the Georgia clay mud I might add, laying down chicken wire and stapling it around the perimeter and then back filling with mulch.  The mulch has been wonderful for providing drainage.  Because of the density of the clay and the high water table of this area, it was always muddy.  I've noticed a huge difference now after a big rain storm.  The chicken wire serves two purposes, to keep predators from digging in and baby bunnies from digging out.  By the way, a stackable organizer from the Dollar Tree flipped sideways and screwed to the wall makes an excellent hay feeder.

Since I lost my feed storage area, my old 6x8 greenhouse became my feed storage shed.  Nate finished the shelving for it, and it is perfect.  It sits in deep shade during the summer so with the ventilation windows and the door open during the day, I'm not too concerned about the feed getting too hot.

And, here are a few photos of the animal yard as it is today.  The rabbits are to the right.  My feed storage is above that.  The chicken coop is just behind the barn.  I'm digging it!

Happy homesteading,


Candace 

The Difference Between Ducks and Chickens

What is the difference between ducks and chickens in an ice storm?

The ducks are in the stream having a blast.  "Sleet, ice, schmice!  This water feels great!"

 

 

The chickens are in the coop demanding to see their labor representative.  "We told you during the last storm that this weather would not be tolerated!"

 

 

So, before I lose electricity, which is bound to happen when we get ice, I'll sign off.

 

Happy homesteading,

 

 

Candace

 



Street Value

In Georgia today, pigs are flying and Hell has frozen over because, yes folks, we have snow.  Monday was a high of 68 and two days later, this.

The chickens and ducks were like, "WTF?  We live in Georgia, not Rhode Island.  This was not part of our labor contract.  Please remove whatever this is immediately, or we're contacting our union reps!"

But, have you any idea what the street value is?  It's pure snow! 



Oh, and did I mention the best part?  Two paid days off from work!

Hey, Mama Pea, this snow thing, you might be on to something!

Happy homesteading,

Candace

 
 
 



Operation Chicken Feed

I would love to say everything I eat is whole and unprocessed, but working full-time causes me to live in the real world.  So, I'm a label reader.  These days you have to be.  There are many hidden gmo-derived "natural" ingredients out there, citric acid, xantham gum and even Vitamin C, to name a few.  So, if I'm reading the labels of my food so thoroughly, why shouldn't I read the labels of my animal feed?  As my concern over GMOs has grown, so has my concern over the corn I was feeding my chickens and the alfalfa I was feeding my rabbits.  After all, we eat the eggs from the chickens and sometimes the chickens themselves, and we definitely eat the rabbits.  If I will put a package back on the shelf because it has soy lecithin in it, how can I justify feeding my animals feed laced with GMO products?

In my research I found this website, which is a fabulous resource for formulating your own chicken feed.  However, the problem for me is finding all of the different ingredients used in a particular recipe and at a reasonable price.  When you can't find all of the ingredients, you start to mess with the protein content and you then need to know how to formulate your protein based on the ingredients to which you have access.  Using the list of grains I could get locally and this website as a general source of protein content, I turned to one of the best homesteading blogs around, Five Acres and a Dream, for Leigh's explanation of the Pearson's Square Protein Calculator.  Right now I have access to whole oats, barley, wheat, flax seeds, black oil sunflower seeds and millet.  With all of these ingredients, how did I use the Pearson's Square, which only calculates the protein for two ingredients?  Well, I actually did not use the square itself.  I basically used Leigh's Step 2 to formulate my feed.  My formulation is totally an experiment and would not be appropriate for every flock.  They've been eating it for almost two months now, and so far so good.   

I was shooting for 16% protein in whole parts to make it easy to measure and mix.

Step 2 from Leigh's post:

     % of ingredient x its % protein
  + % of ingredient x its % protein
     % crude protein in grain mix  

My formulation:

Wheat       .30 x 13% = 3.9
Oats          .30 x 14% = 4.2
Barley       .15 x 12% = 1.8
Millet        .10 x 11% = 1.1
BOSS        .10 x 16% = 1.6
Flax Seed  .10 x 36% = 3.6
Total % of crude protein:  16.2

I do add mineralized salt and DE to the mix but I really just eyeball these two ingredients.  They also have free access to oyster shells and I know they pick up plenty of grit while they are out foraging.  I have plans to add brewer's yeast and kelp to my mix soon,  and once I add the brewer's yeast and kelp, I will reformulate based on this method. 

I really like to think of the feed as a supplement to the other ways in which the flock gets fed.  I depend on them being able to forage for some of their food, both for economy and for their overall health.  Even living in a neighborhood, my chickens have a pretty good free-range area.  In addition to a large area in my back yard, they have access to the back side of my neighbor's yard, which is approximately 1/4 acre of jungle.  He doesn't care that they are back there, and they love it because there is plenty of overhead coverage to protect them from hawks and it's a treasure trove of bugs and other goodies.  I recently started raising meal worms, but because I'm building up my population, they only get meal worms as a treat.  They also spend time scratching through the compost beneath my rabbit cages.  They get plenty of garden cast-offs, and they pick through the throw-away organic produce I get from my nearby natural grocery store.  In the garden this year, I experimented with growing field peas, which the chickens love and are an excellent protein source.  They did well so I'm hoping to expand and grow more next year. 

I know the combination of all of these feed sources contribute to happy healthy chickens.

Foraging Jungle Birds

Happy homesteading,


Candace                            

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

The "bottom" half of our yard looked like this when we bought our house.  I call it the bottom half because it sits down off the retaining wall that runs along the right side of this photo.  Behind the privacy fence is a glorified ditch that usually has a small stream of water running through it, and our yard extends beyond this ditch.

This space has come a long way with the real transformation being once we decided to turn it into the animal yard.

We now house rabbits and chickens in this yard. It has worked out wonderfully for this purpose because it keeps the chickens out of the top half were the majority of my garden is located. But I'm always looking for ways to utilize our outdoor space to its full potential.

For several years we've talked out taking down the privacy fence to be able to fully see our yard. I would garden there, but the ground slopes down to the creek, it receives shade most of the day, and the oak tree roots are practically throughout the whole area. So, recently we decided the best way to use this area of the yard was to expand the animal yard and give the chickens even more space to free-range since we've denied them access to the top half. We ran fencing and took down the privacy fence that separated these sections. It basically doubled their space, and I think it turned out great!

Our dilemma was how to bridge the "creek" as we call it. We ended up spanning a 2x4 and then buiding the fence across the 2x4. After that, we used some of the old privacy fence boards to run the span of the creek to keep the chickens from running all over the neighborhood. The last thing we did was attach a piece of hardware cloth to let the water flow. Since the flow is never heavy, it won't be hard to keep that flow-through area clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the flock likes it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy homesteading,

 

Candace



 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Scratching and Clawing My Way Out

Looking at the date of my last post, I see to my amazement that I've taken a nice LONG winter break.  But spring is in the air, and I am going to claw my way out of my winter blogging den and try to get back on task.  So, I thought the easiest way to do that would be to bring you up-to-date on some of my animals.

Big Boy; A beautiful rooster, and he was great with the girls, but he and I just could not get along.  It got to where I had to carry a small rake with me to fend him off whenever I stepped out the back door.  Big Boy was my first meat chicken.  I got teary-eyed when I did the deed.  It's hard taking a life, and it certainly causes one to take a moment and give reverence to the food on your plate.

I got this motley crew of birds about a month or so ago, and they will be my first intentional venture into meat birds.  Wow, eight whole birds.  Don't go overboard!  Really, I like to start things slow and get used to something before I jump in whole hog.  The girls will be kept for eggs, and the boys will go to freezer camp. 



 

This is Belinda, our new American Chinchilla doe.  She will be one of my breeder rabbits for meat.  I had her bred before the breeder brought her so I would have a separate gene line from her babies.  Well, she had one baby!  She took excellent care of it, and let me tell you, it was fat, fat, fat!  I will be breeding Belinda again soon.  Hopefully she'll give me more than one baby next time.

This is Belinda's Baby.  Can you believe she is only a few months old?  I told you she was a healthy girl.  We're keeping her, which will give me three American Chinchilla does for breeding when she comes of age.  

 

This is Buck Nasty, my new American Chinchilla buck.  Okay, Nate named him after a charactor on Dave Chapelle's Show.  When I first got him and Belinda, I was showing the pedigrees to Nate and I told him that the boy rabbit at the time was only called Buck and that he needed a name.  Well, Buck Nasty has stuck so far, but I told Nate I didn't know if I wanted to put that on a pedigree.  So, we'll see.

 

This is a litter belonging to Bunny and Jack, my other two American Chinchilla rabbits.  They are starting to venture out of the nest box, so it's fun to watch them frolic together.  They are my first meat litter for this year.      

Well, that's it, folks.  Thanks for being patient and sticking around and checking up on me!

Happy homesteading,

Candace

Chickie! Chickie!

About three weeks ago, Laura, our black Australorp, went broody.  In the past, since we didn't have a rooster, we would do what we could to break the broody hen and would take the eggs from under her daily.  But since we now have a rooster, we decided to let her give it a go.  Having absolutely no experience with hatching eggs, we didn't know how often she could be off the nest and for how long.  Often we would see her running around the yard with the flock, but she was always back on the eggs at bedtime.  After about 10 days, Vanilli assumed the role of broody hen, and I'm thinking she did so during one of Laura's romps around the yard.  For a few days, they seemed to be taking turns.  Eventually, Vanilli took over for good and was pretty steadfast, an improvement over Laura's flightiness. 

Today, Nate threw some scratch out and Vanilli came flying out of the nest box and the coop.  Behind her, just as cute as could be, came a chick!  He said he just looked at that chick, and said, "Where did you come from?"  It was following Vanilli all over the yard, and then he gathered them both up and put them back in the nest box.  He did find a dead chick, and later in the evening, once I got home from work, we found an egg that looked like the chick was trying to get out, but didn't make it.  Vanilli is still sitting on about 9 eggs, and the little chick was nestled under her when I closed up the coop this evening.  I sure hope we get more!  This will be our first time raising a chick naturally with a mother hen and not under a brooding lamp.  

Here is our new cutie! 

And a trip around the yard with Mama Vanilli!

Happy homesteading,

Candace
        

Protecting Your Animals and Human Error

Try as we might, we can't always protect our animals.  Weather and predators play a huge role, but at some point, human error comes into play as well.  Human error is the hardest to accept.

We are in the middle of a heat wave.  Yesterday at 5:00 p.m. my car thermometer registered 110.  At 9:00 p.m. the temperature was still 100, and the low last night I think was around 80.  Right now, at 1:35 p.m. it's 101, and the high is expected to be 105.  Tomorrow is expected to hit 103. 

At times like this, I am so thankful for the technology we have to predict the weather.  In anticipation of this week, I plucked Olivia and Blue Moon, my angora rabbits, and trimmed them down to the skin.  All of the rabbits got frozen 2 liter water bottles in their cages yesterday while I was at work.  The rabbit shed is in deep shade, so I know that helps.  They all made it through yesterday.  Today I am repeating the frozen water bottles, and I've brought Olivia and Blue Moon inside. 

The chickens seem to be holding their own against the weather; however, we lost our Pearl this week.  We are so sad because she was one of our original two chicks when we first started keeping chickens over 3 years ago.  She was the end of our beginning, and I love to say she was one tough bird.  She was our special needs chicken who hobbled around the animal yard on her deformed talon.  She got special preference from us.  She survived two night attacks when we were new to chicken keeping and a hawk attack.  We saved her about two weeks ago from drowning when the coop flooded.  She seemed to have as many lives as a cat.  So, to lose her because of our mistake is especially brutal to take.  We forgot to close the coop door last Sunday night and a night predator got her.  Only once before have we forgotten to lock them up at night, and that was at the beginning of our chicken keeping experience.  We could chalk that up to a beginner's mistake, but after three years, we have no excuse.  We just plain forgot.  And, because of her disability she would not have been able to run from it.  

RIP Pearl. We're sorry, and we love you.

Candace



Truck Rally Anyone?

We've been getting some good rain lately, and for that I've been very thankful.  It has taken the pressure off of me to keep everything watered and the garden is looking lush and green.  Until Sunday, the rain has been just enough but not too much.  The animal yard sits in the low part of our yard and a few days of rain makes it wet and somewhat muddy, but nothing too bad.  Well, Sunday was a nightmare.  It had already been raining throughout the week, but the bottom fell out on Sunday.  I'm talking serious flash flood rain.  I was putting everyone up for the evening when it really let go, and I mentioned to Nate that I saw some standing water in the coop, which I had never seen before.  At the point where our front ditch started flooding, I asked Nate to go out and check on everyone.  He was gone for longer than I expected, so I went outside to make sure he was okay.  He had been digging a drainage hole in the coop because it had filled with water.  The worst part is he found Pearl, our handicapped chicken, up to her neck in the water.  She can't get up high on the roost like the rest of the birds, so she stays on the bottom rung.  I guess the water overwhelmed her and she couldn't even get on the bottom rung.  She was close to drowning.  We brought her inside and put her in the bathtub  with a heat lamp over her.  She was soaking wet and shivering.  I thought if she makes it through the night, she's going to have some respiratory issues, so I went ahead and put some VetRx in some water for her.  The next morning I awoke to her clucking in the bathroom.  She is one tough bird!  So far she seems to be fine; however, the animal yard isn't.  It rained again most of Monday, and yesterday was clear, but it rained again last night.  Enough already!  The animal yard is a serious mud bog right now.  We could hold a major league truck rally.  Bigfoot?  You out there?  You want to have some fun, boy?  Since the yard is pretty shady, it's going to take several days to dry out.  Until then, I'll have to sink in the mud. 

Oh, and today is the day the meat rabbits will be harvested.  Stay tuned!

Happy homesteading,

Candace     

Rooster Count

One:  Napoleon, aka Nappy, bantam, Old English

Two:  Big Boy, silver laced Wyandotte, huge next to Nappy

Three:  Sir Elton, a bantam, mostly Cochin

Four:  no name, mostly Old English

Of the five chicks we bought this year, three are roosters!  We gave number four away last week, and now we are down to three.  Nappy, whom we've had the longest, is by far the loudest and crows the most often.  Of the three, he is the one that is most annoying to me.  Sir Elton has a very soft crow, and he only crows a few times a day.  Big Boy just started crowing and while his crow is definitly loud, he also only crows a few times a day max and normally in the morning.  Fortunately, none of them crow early in the morning, at least so far.  Nappy doesn't get revved up until about 7:30, and on a few occasions, around 6:30. 

We've decided to keep Sir Elton (named after Elton John).  We love his flamboyant feathers and his feathered feet.  Since we separated him from the other Old English bantam rooster, he has kept to himself.  He is not aggressive to the other roosters, nor they to him for the most part.  The fact that he rarely crows is a plus for him too.

I actually don't like Nappy.  His crow is shrill, and he has started attacking me when I enter the animal yard.  It doesn't hurt because he is so small, it just startles me when he does it because he comes from behind while I'm walking.  It's terribly annoying.  Nate loves him.  He is very protective of the older hens around Big Boy.  My goal was to get two bantam girlfriends for Nappy, but since both turned out to be roosters, I didn't really meet that goal.

Big Boy is coming into maturity.  He has started crowing and also mounting the ladies, or trying to mount.  A few of them do submit, but Nappy usually runs over and puts a stop to it before anything happens.  Even though he is 5 times the size of Nappy, he runs.  I am curious to see how this plays out.  The other older hens give Big Boy what for when he tries anything, and they end up chasing him away.  His two sidekicks (the light Brahma and black Australorp) are still a bit young, but I suspect if he stays around, they will be his primary hens.  I would like to keep him, so we will wait to see how his crowing develops.  So far, he only crows about once or twice a day for about 5 minutes.  No early crowing either.  Of course, now that I've written that, he will start crowing at 5:30 a.m. 

This is my rooster saga.  If the neighbors have not complained about Nappy, they should have no reason to cmplain about the other tow, at least for the moment.  We shall see how it develops.

Happy homesteading,

Candace