They're back...

The mites that is. Thought we had licked them, but apparently we gave up too early. We're again scratching every time we go near the chicken pen, and tomorrow we'll be waging war on the tiny itchies yet again. This is a photo from last time, when we bathed the chickens in tea tree oil. Don't they look miserable? We probably won't bother with that again this time, as it was a lot of effort for not much reward. Dusting with sulphur, both the chickens themselves, and their nesting boxes and sleeping areas, is far more effective. Even more effective when you dust, then hose down the whole pen, letting wet sulphur get into all the nooks and crannies. And apparently you need to keep it up for a few weeks after you think they're all gone, to get the next lot of eggs that hatch out.

Look out mites, you're days are numbered!

Itchy, Itchy, Itchy

I had planned to write this nice long post about our No-Spending-in-November month, but after a day cleaning out chicken pens and bathing chickens, I just don't feel up to it. Yes, our chickens have mites. In fact, we seem to have a whole infestation of them. The chook pen was teaming with them, and they were jumping onto us and coming into the house with us. Took us a little while to figure out why we were so itchy, then DH walked in to collect the eggs from the chooks, and there were little bugs crawling all over his feet.

We've done many searches on-line, and of course, the most prevalent treatment is to bring out the insecticides. I'm not terribly keen on this, so we're going to try the organic route first. Therefore, we've spent the day pulling all the bedding out of the chook's shed, hosed the entire thing down with a high pressure hose, and then sprayed it all with a diluted solution of tea tree oil. Each poor chook was dunked in a tea tree oil bath, which they were not happy about. Though surprisingly not as bad as I thought they would be, visions of trying to bath cats floating in the back of my mind. Chooks are MUCH easier.

Unfortunately, though we have eliminated probably thousands of mites, there are still plenty left. Tomorrow we're going to lime the entire area, and the chooks, and probably keep them locked in for a few days. They must have caught them from the local birds, since they don't have contact with any other chooks or anything.

All our clothes are being washed in a hot wash, and we're all having several showers a day while trying to get them under control, because every time we go near the chooks/chook pen, they're all over us again. Lucky our tanks are full, and our hot water is free from the sun.

Hopefully, with persistence, we can beat this, and not have to resort to the nasty chemicals!

Rooster Free

Well, Jumpy the rooster finally went to a new home today. We took him over to the father of the breeder we bought the eggs off. He said he has 4 or 5 roosters that people have given him (and we think one of them is Roley), and he does his best to find new homes for them. Often, if people are buying some chooks, he will give them a rooster for free. He seemed to genuinely love chooks, and we are sure he will take good care of Jumpy, and find him a new home if he can.

Here though, it is a big relief that he is gone. He has been getting increasingly more aggressive, especially towards DD. Every time the chooks hear the front door open, they come running, hoping we have food. Jumpy though, will try to run at DD whenever he sees her, making taking her outside (except into the front yard, which is fenced separately) is difficult. Initially I could manage by taking a large stick to keep Jumpy away with, but lately he has taken to attacking the stick when I was trying to push him back, so even that was difficult.

Now that he has been re-homed, we can get back to enjoying our backyard and our chooks without worrying about being chased whenever we walk outside. Perhaps one day we'll try getting another rooster, but for now, were happy with just our chickens. Although I do have ideas about some ducks as soon as I can work out a way to have a pond for them...

Chooky News

We added some more shadecloth shade on the side of the chook run yesterday afternoon. I know the shadecloth doesn't look too tidy, but it's really just a temporary measure until the plants get growing I hope. Down this side I planted some more nasturtians (since they grow really well, and the chooks love them), the last few seeds of last year's packet of corn, some wormwood (herb that's good for preventing worms in chooks) and some carrot and lettuce seeds. I planted these quite close to the fence, so that hopefully the chooks will be able to peck at them through the wire.

In the corner, where that cheeky magpie is, I planted what I think is a liquid amber tree. My mum has one, and I love the autumn colours. For those overseas, nearly all the trees here in Australia are evergreen, so we have very few visible changes in autumn. Hopefully this will bring a bit of a seasonal feeling to our place next year. It will also have the advantage of providing the chooks with shade during summer, but letting the sun in in winter. Once it grows anyway.

The pen has been quite a bit cooler with all the work we've done on it, which is gratifying. Still hot, but then everywhere is right now. Hopefully not so hot that they'll cook though. The few times we've been out in the hotter part of the day they have seemed fine when we get back.

Our one chook who has been laying lays an egg most days (missed once since that first egg I think), and it seems we have another one, maybe two, laying as well. The last two days we've had an extra egg. It's surprising how different the eggs look. With supermarket eggs, you get a whole box looking just the same. But seems that isn't the case with backyard chooks, even if they are all the same breed. Our first layer lays small, pinkish/brown eggs, very round. The egg we had the other day was more orange, and with a more elongated shape.

I find it very funny that I can't tell the chooks apart, but I can tell their eggs apart!

Summer Shade

We've been working on some extra shade for the chickens over summer. Unknowingly we seem to have put their pen in the hottest place on our property. We went out to visit friends yesterday, and arrived home to find the chickens hot and bothered, with their beaks hanging open, looking most miserable, so something had to be done.

Firstly, we used five sugar cane bales to make a shade shelter within their outside pen. These will hopefully block out the worst of the north and western sun in this section. I also put this 75 litre bin in there filled with water. I'm not sure how effective it will be, but I am hoping that it will keep the area cooler for longer.

Then down the side of the pen we've put a large trellis of reo bar steel. I've planted some loofah seeds, some cowpea seeds (with inoculant), some nasturtium seeds, and some linseed. Hopefully once they grow, they will shade the side of the shed and keep the temperature down in there too. Until they get growing, we've put up some shadecloth, with a gap between it and the shed, in the hopes of cooling things down.

We'll see tomorrow how it goes. I'm happy with all we've done, although there are a few more things we've planned to do as well. So far though, everything we've done has been with materials we've already had, so there hasn't been a big outlay.

Our First Egg!

DD and I were very excited today to discover our first egg! I'd almost given up looking, and was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with our chooks, but lo and behold, there it was. We almost missed it, I just happened to look through the window of the shed, and there it was. I would have liked to take a picture of it still in the nest, but DD was so excited she had to pick it up and bring it down to the house straight away. I figured this was the next best photo. I was really afraid she was going to drop it in her excitement, but she didn't. It's now sitting in our fridge, and DD wants to make pancakes with it tomorrow morning. I'm so looking forward to having more fresh eggs than we can eat, and hopefully some to share with our family and friends as well. One more step towards self-sufficiency.

I made DD the requested 'skirt like mummy's, so here it is. I actually did this up in about 15 minutes last night once DD was in bed, only to find this morning that it didn't fit her! Far too small. That will teach me to sew when my model is in bed. I cut it up the seam, and added in another panel, and it fits fine now.

I made this little dress today too, finally cutting up one of the fabrics I bought for clothes for DD. It's a really pretty dress, although it was a bit more fiddly than the others. It's also a little short. Wearable, but it won't last until next year. If I make another one like this, (and I probably will), I'll adjust the pattern to be a bit longer in both the skirt and the top. It was listed as a 6yo pattern though, so I didn't expect it to be this short! Guess the Japanese are shorter than my already very tall girl.

Time's Up

This is Roley the Rooster. Beautiful isn't he?

Well let me tell you, he's not so beautiful when he's pecking your hand through the wire of his pen. Or sidling up to you, wings down, indicating that he's deciding whether to attack or not.

Out of our 7 surviving chooks, we have 2 roosters (You can see Jumpy in the background of this picture), and both aren't exactly being friendly. Jumpy (why is it that our roosters have names, but not our chooks???) has only run at me once or twice though, whereas Roley does it every time I open his pen, or walk outside.

So this means that, beautiful though he is, Roley is going to have to go. Jumpy will get a short reprieve, just to see how he goes once Roley is gone, but if he follows in his predecessor's footsteps, he'll be gone too. Sadly, we're not quite game enough to put him on the dinner table, so I'd say he'll go back to the breeders who we bought the eggs off.

Hen Hilton

Last weekend (well, so it was Monday/Tuesday, but that's the weekend for us), saw us finishing off what is hopefully our last big project for a little while. Although the chicken shed had been cleared out, and they could get into it, they had still been sleeping (by choice) in their little shelter outside. Since it took them so long to actually sleep in it in the first place, with us having to go out every night for a week after dark and move them into the shelter, I figured that they only way to get them to sleep in the new shed would be to lock them in. However, the lack of windows meant that it was very dark in there, and I didn't really want to lock them in in the dark.

So DH cut out two panels in the colourbond, and we replaced them with some clear corrugated polycarbonate sheeting. The second 'window' is on the left hand wall.

We also added some roosts. We used natural branches rather than bought wood, as it's supposed to be better for their feet. The support boards are hanging off the shed support there on L shaped brackets, so that they can be removed if we need to give the pen a through cleaning.

And finally, some recycled nesting boxes. We're really hoping for some eggs soon!

The chickens were a little disconcerted to find their usual shelter gone, and wandered around clucking in distress for a while, and yes, after dark I had to go out and lock them in. We had one attempt to fly through the polycarbonate, then they settled, and tonight, wonder of wonders, they put themselves to bed. Now to teach them to roost...

A New Home!

For the chickens that is! We finally finished cleaning out the 3m x 3m garden shed that was planned to be for the chooks today. It's not totally set up yet, but we threw some sugarcane mulch in the corner, and a few old sticks for them to perch on in the middle, and cut a hole in the metal at the back so that they could get in and out. We curved some split hose around the edges so that they couldn't cut themselves, and secured it with race tape. Not pretty, but it works.

The chooks weren't so sure about it though. I think they were put off by the noise of cutting the metal, because when it was full of stuff, they raced in every chance they had and sat in there.

I went out to check on them at dusk, and there they all were, sitting in their tiny old house! I put them into the new one, and they sat there making pittyful clucks, then came straight back out and into the old one as soon as my back was turned! I think we're going to have to pull the old one out, and lock them in the new one for a few nights so that they get used to it.

Access Denied!

Our chooks are about 10 weeks old now, and look almost like full sized chooks. They still have a little growing to do, but not too much. This is a pic of one of the ones I'm pretty sure is a rooster. His comb and wattle are larger than the others (except the other suspected rooster), and he's starting to get some greenish feathers in his tail. He's beautiful though, isn't he?

Unfortunately, they aren't as well behaved as they are beautiful! Since we put up the fence to keep the neighbours dogs out, they've become a lot more adventurous. They soon discovered my compost heap, and had a lovely time digging around in it. Then they discovered the grass I keep nearby. This used to be a nice, neat pile! Look at it now!

Then they discovered these tomato plants that self seeded behind the compost bins. I thought tomatoes (being a member of the deadly nightshade family, like potatoes) weren't a good thing for animals to eat, but apparently the chooks thought differently!

This is what they used to look like!

The grass and compost scratching I could handle, even the tomato eating, since they self seeded and it looks like I'm going to have tomatoes everywhere, but it was the last straw when they actually got into the garden bed! They love the nasturtium leaves, and now they've started on the pea and bean leaves.

It was time to take action, before there was nothing left!

After considering all the many options (OK, so there really was only one), we settled on using some of the wire we'd bought to go around the boundary fence to make a garden fence. We had a few star pickets that DH's dad bought over, so there was no actual outlay (although now we'll have to buy more wire for the boundary fence at some point).

Once we started, we were almost regretting it, and trying to work out other options, as the span down one side was quite long, and getting the wire taught was not as easy as it seemed, but we persevered, and once the first side was done, the rest were much easier. It doesn't have to be particularly strong, as it's only to keep chickens out, so I think it will do.

The gate is just a typical paddock gate, with a stick down the side (left over poly pipe from the original chicken tractor), a loop of wire to put the bottom in, and a loop of wire to hold the top in. DD has spent the afternoon trying to work it out, and she can open it, but not close it, LOL.

The chooks spent the afternoon wandering around the outside of the fence, pecking at the grass, and wondering why they had suddenly been locked out of their favourite scratching place!

A Weekend in the Country

OK, so technically it's not the weekend, but since DH works every second weekend, and has Monday and Tuesday off instead, it was a weekend for us. For many city folks, a weekend is a time to relax, to pick some entertainment out of the many on offer, or maybe just stay home with a video. For us, it means a chance to catch up on all those jobs that have been building up during the week.

Black Sapote

First order of business was planting. This poor Black Sapote (chocolate fruit!) that has been sitting out the front of the shed for nearly a month now, finally rests in it's new home in the orchard.

Bowen Mango

I finally managed to find a Bowen Mango at the markets this week. I've checked the mangoes each week, but they're always names I can't pronounce, so I leave them. This week I got lucky though. This one is a seedling, not a grafted one, so we'll see how it goes. It's right up in the back left hand corner of our place, where we discovered what looks like sandstone! OK, not really, but it's sandy, and as hard as a rock! We dug a whole MUCH larger than the pot, and filled it with compost and broken up soil, so hopefully by the time it hits that solid sand stuff, it will be strong enough to break through! I'm going to have to keep the water up to it though, which means carrying watering cans about 50 metres back and forth!

Paw paw

I also bought three paw paw trees for $6. These are the old style variety, where you need male and female trees to get fruit. With three, I stand a good chance of getting one of each.

Blueberry

And finally, my blueberry bush. I'm not sure that I've every tasted a blueberry, they're usually about $6 a punnet in the stores, so I'm looking forward to this one getting big enough to try our own.

Combine these 6 new fruit trees/bushes with the ones we already had: Washington Navel Orange, Valencia Orange, Mandarin, Lemon, Persimmon, Black Fig, Black Mulberry, Tropical Peach and Tropical Nectarine, and we now have 15 fruit trees! Of course, I think I still have a list that long, if not longer, of ones I still want to get!

Bambusa Textills (var Gracilis)

On top of the fruit trees, I also planted out one of the two bamboo plants I bought at Bamboo Land while visiting my mum. I've been considering bamboo for a while, and a visit to this beautiful nursery convinced me that I really needed some. They have a beautiful garden of mature bamboo that you can walk through, and pick out your varieties from. Then you go back to the nursery to take your pots home. This particular species grows up to 8 metres tall! You can find pics of the mature plant here. And before anyone asks, yes, it is clumping. It's planted up the back, where it will give us shade from the western afternoon sun, and not be in the way. I also have a smaller bamboo plant that we have yet to plant, that I can't remember the name of right now.

All the new plantings were watered in well, and fertilised with some 'Rooster Booster' (aka chook manure pellets). I didn't have a scoop, so I made this handy one with a cut down milk bottle. We have a similar one in our bag of chook pellets for feeding the chooks. Waste not want not!

DD thought it was great that we were fertilising the garden with rooster poo, and went around talking about it all afternoon! "When I make my garden, I'm going to plant my flowers, and put rooster poo all around them!" Aren't kids cute?

You would think that all that planting was enough for one weekend, wouldn't you? But no, I also ended up putting up 50 metres of chicken wire on our fence to stop our chickens from wandering into the neighbour's yard where their dogs are. (And to keep their dogs and chooks out of our yard!) So far, it seems to be working, although there is still a lot left unfenced.

Finished! Finally!

And this is the last post about the building of the chicken coop, I promise! A few hours this morning finished off the last of the chicken pen, and I now feel reasonably sure that they are secure in there. They seem to like it, aside from the fact that it does get quite hot in the middle of the day. I was worried that it would be too shady, as it's under a very large tree, but after working in that area for the last 3 days, it is barely shaded at all! As you can see, we've rigged up a lot of temporary shade, and in the next few weeks, when I recover from all we've done so far, I'll plant some citrus trees inside the coop that will hopefully give some better shade in a year or two. I'm also hoping that when the sun is a little higher in summer, it should be nice and shady under there.

And here is my spectacular door. Not bad for the first door I've ever designed is it? I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. It has a bolt half way up, as well as one down the bottom for added security. The hinges are supposed to be self closing, but they aren't really that successful unfortunately.

And here are our babies in their new home. We still had to put them to bed tonight, as they were all huddled up near the door. Hopefully they'll get the idea soon! From early guesses, I think we might have 2 roosters and 5 hens, but it's still a little early to really be sure. I will probably keep one rooster, and the other one, well, we'll have to see.

Empty Nest!

Well, we spent a lot of the day (interspersed with play with DD, a trip to the markets, and a trip to bunnings) finishing up the chicken coop, and they are out there. We worked until dark, and even a little by torchlight to finish up, and though it isn't quite finished, I think it is secure enough. There is a gap up near the roof at the back that needs an extra bit of wire added, and the door isn't attached properly, just wired on. Hopefully they'll be relatively quick jobs to finish off tomorrow. Sorry, no pictures, I was too busy trying to get it finished to take any.

They spent the day outside in the coop while we finished it off, using an old wooden crate across the doorway to keep them in. But they were still a little surprised not to be taken inside when it started to get dark, and cheeped quite pitifully when we left. We put a solar light inside their bed area, but they were still too stupid to go in, and when I went out to check on them before, they were all huddled against the fence. I moved them into the sheltered area, and will go out once more tonight to see if they stayed there. I'm sure they'll be happy in the morning though when they wake up and can just walk outside without having to wait for us to take them out, and we are certainly happy to not have the cheeping and the smell inside any more!

I asked DD, who had been complaining of not having enough time to play because we spent all day building the chicken coop what her favourite thing about the day was, and was most surprised that she said the chicken coop! She said she liked being able to see them, and go inside to play with them. Of course, when I asked her what was her least favourite thing about the day, she said building the chicken coop, and not having time to play! I guess that is a pretty normal expectation, we want to have the thing, but not do the work to get it.

Overall though, I've really enjoyed doing the building. It is very satisfying to see something take shape under your hands, and know that you designed and built it! This is one of our first large projects (other than our bathroom in the shed, I'll have to post pics of building that one day) that we have made with such success, and it really helps to feel that we are finally getting there.

More Progress on Chicken Coop

We started out this morning with a hunt for 2 inch black poly pipe. Finally tracked it down at a irrigation store, and bought 25 metres. The guy who helped DH carry it out to the car said in disbelief "You're putting it on that?" We just gleefully nodded, and proceeded to tie it to the removable roof racks. On our trip home, someone in the car behind us was taking pictures of it with his mobile phone. Does it really look that surprising?

We cut it into four 6.25m long pieces, and somehow we have heaps left over? I'm thinking that they gave us too much, because 4 x 6.25 is 25 isn't it? Anyway, then we put those over the ends of the pickets, and they fitted exactly. It took us a bit longer to work out how to make sure that the spans were equal, but DH finally suggested measuring the bits of picket that were left, and that worked well.

Then we dug a trench all the way around, lifting off just the top layer of grass.

Ending up with a wheelbarrow load of grass from just one 5m side.

Then we cut three 8.15m lengths of 1.8m wide wire, and joined them together, overlapping by about 10cm. We used these nifty wire squeezer things and pre-cut C shaped bits of wire. Saved a LOT of hassle of threading wire through to join them, and it should be nice and strong.

This made a HUGE 8m x 5.something metre bit of wire.

Then we pulled and dragged that over the poly pipe tunnel. Thankfully DH's dad was there to help us. It would have been a much harder job with only two of us.

We fastened the edges of the wire to the side of the shed with some corner metal bits from building this shed.

And the same with the roof. Hopefully that should keep any predators out.

DH has started fastening the wire to the poly pipe structure, but dinner and a grumpy child interrupted, and the rest is left for another day.

To Do List Progress

Much as the chickens are cute, it is time for them to be OUT of my living room! They actually don't try to jump out of the box, they just like to perch on the edge, but sometimes they do loose their balance.

So, soon this will be their new home. The green garden shed (3m x 3m) will eventually be theirs too, but right now it is full of all the stuff we can't fit into the living space here. Once the house is done, most of this will either be thrown out, or move into the garage.

So in the meantime, I built this little shelter for them from leftover materials from the building. The base is a pallet, just in case we have a lot of rain, as we get quite a bit of runoff on the block. That should be high enough to keep them out of any water. The bricks are just stacked, but I've put sticks and pipes down the holes in the middle to stabilise them. The roof is an old sheet of colourbond leftover from the shed, tied firmly to the pallet. The area is sheltered from most of the wind by the garden shed, but hopefully it's all tied down firmly enough to stop anything blowing away if we do get a big wind. The gaps at the back near the roof line I've stuffed with newspaper, so hopefully their won't be too many drafts.

And this will be their run. It's 4m x 5m, which I think should be big enough. Tomorrow we'll go out to get the rest of the materials, and hopefully do some more work on it. The sooner the chickens are out, the better!

In other To Do List news, I finished my string bag. This is crocheted, and was actually quite easy, if time consuming. I put the handles on wrong, so it isn't perfect, but it's now sitting in my handbag for the next time I'm out and need something to carry shopping in. Hopefully it will stop me dropping things on the ground on the way to the car like I did with the lovely glass orange juicer I found!

Adolescent Chickens

Well, they aren't cute little furry babies anymore! Only a month old, and already they have more feathers than down, and are cheerfully getting around out in the wild. They love being out in their chicken tractor during the day, although we still bring them in at night. Don't quite trust the neighbours dogs, who this morning caught one of THEIR chickens and was mauling it outside our shed. Luckily it was OK. Not pleasant to wake up to a chicken squawking though.

I spent a little while today outside taking pictures of them in the tractor, and it was amazing to watch how they really are turning into little chickens. They have so much personality, with the way they sit and look at you with their head on one side, and make their little cheeping noises.

They were quite fascinated by the noises the camera was making, and kept coming over to try to work out what it was. I'm a bad chicken mummy though, I just can't tell them apart reliably enough to give them names. I think I'm going to have to get different coloured leg bands or something!