Ducks Added

We have added ducks to our flock! Of course the ducklings are living in a separate space from the chickens for right now until everyone gets a little bigger.  I wanted to post a picture of our ducklings and also one of the enclosure setup that we have inside for our chickens.

We have the ducklings in a dog crate with a feeder (it's off to the side away from the water), and a large bowl for them to drink and swim in.  We placed a brick inside and outside the bowl to make it easier for them to get in and out of the water as they are still small and if they got tired could drown inside this small dish.  The ducklings need water and they need to be able to swim and submerge themselves in the water to help keep themselves clean.

IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT DUCKS - NEVER FEED THEM MEDICATED CHICKEN FEED!!!

I felt I need to address that in caps because I did not know this until we bought our ducklings and asked the lady about the husbandry, care, and feeding requirements that they would have.  I want to make sure that I stress this to everyone because we did not come across this in our reading up on ducks until I started to look really in depth.  I believe feeding medicated chicken feed would be an easy mistake for any beginner.

Also here is an overview photo of the set up we had for when our chickens first came home.  I will post more photos later to show you how we altered this set up as they grew up.

They are in a large rubbermaid container with about 2-3" of fine pine shavings a small plastic feeder and small plastic waterer.  There is a standard heat lamp above them out of reach to keep them warm.  I keep the heater on one side of the container so they can move away from it if they get to hot.  If it was in the center and they were overheating there is no place they can really get away to cool down.  We also put the rubbermaid container inside of a large dog crate to keep the chickens safe from the dogs and cats.  It's an added security feature that I love!  Just remember when the chickens are this young they could easily get out of the bars on the dog crate which is why they have to be in the rubbermaid container.
Once the chickens are too big to escape the dog crate (this occurs about the same time they begin "flying" out of the rubbermaid container).  Then we remove the rubbermaid container and the chickens have a much large dog crate space to hang out it.  I will post some photos soon of this bigger enclosure to show you how it works.  With the dog crates being something we just happen to have lying around it was free and easy for us to create these indoor spaces.  If you don't have a dog crate look for a used one on craigslist or a puppy exercise pen (a hexagon dog play pen), the only thing with the exercise pen is that is doesn't have a top but you can purchase tops online or be creative and rig one up out of a tarp or something.

Spring? Are You Coming?

Ok we have had some crazy cold weather here and spring seems like it's coming very late this year.  I have made some serious modifications to my indoor plants and now have them spread out in 3 different rooms to get natural sunlight while staying safe from the freezing temperatures outside.  This has also meant transplanting nearly all of my seedlings into bigger containers.  My solution for many of them were $2 5 gallon buckets that I got from Rural King.

All of my potatoes and a few others have been moved into these and not instead of digging up two small plots this year for my growing garden I will be container gardening about half of my crops.  This is because most of them are already in containers and let's face it I keep things as simple as possible so if they are in a container big enough for them to grow and produce they will be staying there all year!
I have some pictures of the farm I'm growing inside my house that I will post later.  It's always a challenge when mother nature surprises you with a delay in the planting season but even if you are completely prepared all it takes is a few hours and some creative thinking to save your seedlings and hold off a few extra weeks until it's safe to plant outside.

Composting

I have finally found a great inexpensive design for my compost bin!  I purchased this trash can at my local Rural King for $11!!!  Now we are talking.  I have looked at soooo many composting bins for sale and they range from $70-300.  Definitely not what I was thinking of spending to put trash in to make fertilizer for my garden.  I suppose some people want a compost bin made of gold that looks super pretty but I'm all about function.  So here's what I'm starting with.

Ok so how do I turn an $11 plastic garbage can into a compost bin.

Step 1: Buy the garbage can!  I chose this one because it was super inexpensive, light, and dark in color.  The dark color would help hide dirt and increase the heat inside the bin.  I wanted a light can because it would soon be full of material to weigh it down.

Step 2: I used our Porter Cable drill and drilled 3/4" holes all around the bottom 1/3 of the can and on the very bottom.  I probably drilled between 50-75 holes all together.  The ones on the bottom were for bottom drainage and the sides are more for aeration.

Step 3: Learn what to fill your compost bin with!  I put a layer of hay and some dirt in the bottom of mine to start off with.

I'll post pictures soon of the tools needed and the finished product.

All in all a simple, easy, and inexpensive compost bin that will work just as well at the fancy ones.

I also wanted to make sure I saved this link on the EPA website about composting do's and don'ts.

US EPA Composting at Home

Chickens

Yes we are crazy.  We have decided that because we are allowed to we are going to raise some chickens in the backyard.  Here are the reasons we decided to raise chickens

1. They are so cute!  - This is not a good reason to get chickens!
2. We eat a lot of eggs and also frequently feed our dogs eggs.  I have started baking much more frequently and we cook lots of pancakes, muffins, and hope to soon get our own bread maker!
3. Gardening - chicken poop and the used bedding material makes great compost and our yard has proven how much compost our soil needs to grow anything!  We could barely get grass to grow!
4. Self-Sufficiency - as horrid as the idea is both my husband and I want to get closer to the reality of the food we consume.  Neither of us grew up on farms and are both accustom to suburban/urban living.  Basically we plan to eat our chickens when their egg production slows.  We hope to take comfort in the fact that our chickens will live happy lives in a more free-range environment and much longer life than those found in grocery stores.

Starting out with 5 day old chicks!  We have them inside with a heat lamp, fine pine bedding, fresh water, and baby chick food.  They will need to stay mostly inside until they are 6 weeks old or have all their big bird feathers.  We plan to take them out for a few supervised hours outside on warmer dryer days.  We hope not to loose any before they move outside but after much reading it is not uncommon to loose 25% of your chicks even with great care.

Starting Inside

You guessed it, seeds!  If I am going to be gardening I want to save money and learn how to grow from seeds.  Of course you can by the nice seedlings sold at the store but you'll pay $3-6/plant while starting with seeds will cost you $1-3/bag of seeds (most come with way more seeds than I can use).

 We are growing beans, watermelons, pumpkins, cantalope, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, blackberry, concord grape, strawberry, and lettuce.

 Tops of the potato plants reaching for sunlight!  We allowed our seedlings to take up our dining room table for a few weeks before we could begin planting outside.  This provided them with warmth and natural sunlight.  It also allows me to open the windows during the day to start "hardening" or preparing the seedlings for life outside.  This prevents me from having to move them outside in the morning and then bringing them back in at night before it gets cold.

 The fruit of the garden! Blackberry, grape, blueberry, and strawberry.  We may not get any fruit this year from these plants but they will continue to grow and we plan to work on attracting some great pollinators to our yard this year.

Starting with seeds allowed me to pick more specifically what types of plants I wanted to grow.  I had multiple "paste and sauce" tomato species to choose from as apposed to getting seedlings where I would be lucky to find any tomatoes good for sauce and canning.

Our Yard Before The Farming!

Just to give everyone an idea of what we started with.  A typical suburban backyard small and nothing special.  We will also try to post the approximate cost of our projects and the pros and cons after they were completed.  This is our third year living in the house and we have decided to make it ours.  It will be years before the housing market recovers so we have no plans on moving in the next 5 years.

Just a small 8'x8' concrete slab for a patio where we kept a small grill and some very old patio furniture the previous homeowner's left for us.  This was in the summer during a drought, lots of dirt.  In the rainier season our backyard was a mud pit.

 My hubby shooting his new bow. We live in a low density residential neighborhood and are legally allowed to shoot archery in our backyard.  At least we have called and talked with the police department and county clerk to see if there are any restrictions or laws against it and there are none.  As long as you're just target shooting.  Firearms use is prohibited of course but I suppose they don't really have a lot of people who practice archery to know if laws are needed or not.

Our first growing season! This is the back fence where we attempted to plant some privacy trees.  Found out the soil quality is really poor and the dogs don't help them thrive.