Solar Ventilation For the Little Chickens' Coop

 One last touch for the little chicken's coop was a small fan for ventilation. It's in a mostly shaded spot, except for a little sun in the morning. But Dan was concerned about helping keep the air fresh in the coop, so he added a ventilation fan. 

The fan he used came from an old 12-volt travel cooler. He used these coolers when he was on over-the-road truck driver. While they aren't true refrigerators, they keep the cooler contents cool by forcing air over a small fan with aluminum fins. It won't  actually cool the coop, but it will help keep a modest air flow going and that's the point. He just used what we had!

The fan is powered by a 20-watt solar panel, attached to one of the barn window covers.

It gets good sun in the afternoon, which is the hottest part of the day. Dan mentioned hooking the fan to a battery to run it at night, so that's a future possibility. 

No complaints from the chickens, at any rate. 

Solar Ventilation For the Little Chickens' Coop © June 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Expanding Our Little Chickens' Territory

 Once our little chickens got into the routine of sleeping in their chicken coop (rather than under it), we opened the lower door and let them out to explore their yard. 

Our possible rooster is looking more roosterish. His comb is the most pronounced of
all the chicks, he's bigger, his legs are thicker, and he has hints of curled tail feathers.

They all come back to the coop at night, where they are safe from nighttime predators (skunks, opossums, owls, and raccoons). 

Typically, chickens start laying eggs around 5 months old. So hopefully in September I'll have our first pullet eggs to who you. 

Expanding Our Little Chickens' Territory © June 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Moving Day for Little Chickens

At about five-weeks old, our little Buff Orpingtons are fully feathered and look like miniature chickens rather than chicks.

 Plus, they were starting to perch on the rim of their box.

I didn't want them hopping out of their pen, where they could inadvertently get stepped on by goats. So it was time to move them to the coop portion of the converted chicken tractor. 

It's roomier than their box. For the first couple of days, all the openings were screened off so they could look out and get used to their new surroundings. 

Then I removed the screen from the door to let them see what outside is like.

The ramp gives them access to the enclosed area under the coop. Soon we'll open the front and let them roam in their new chicken yard. I just want to make sure they know to go back to the coop at night.

Moving Day for Little Chickens © June 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

And We Appear to Have A Rooster

 A couple weeks ago I showed you our new chicks. 

We bought eight Buff Orpington pullets, with the hope that perhaps one of them would turn out to be a rooster for the others. It looks like we got our wish. 

They are just a little over a month old, with only one of them showing a good start on a comb and wattles. Roosters tend to develop these before the hens, so it looks like we indeed have one rooster.

The chicks' box resides in the goat barn in the kidding stall, where I can hang a light for them. We started with a heat bulb, but after we got over our frosty nights, I switched to an incandescent bulb (can you believe I still have one?). Incandescent bulbs produce heat, which makes them un-useful in summer, but very useful in winter for warming a small space such as the chicks' box or under a reading lamp. They use a lot less energy than a heat lamp.

The hole in the box lets them get out to explore the kidding stall. 

Yesterday they were all racing around the box in a circle, jumping and flapping their little wings. On warm days I turn off the lamp, but on cooler days they nestle down under it to warm up. At night I cover the opening with a piece of cardboard.

They are almost full feathered, so we should be able to move them out into the refurbished chicken tractor in their new yard soon. 

And We Appear to Have A Rooster © May 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

New Additions of the Feathered Kind

 First up, Eastern Phoebes. They built a nest in my milking room and raised a brood of four. 

Nest of Eastern Phoebes

The parents were very shy and wouldn't come in when I was in the milking room, so I tried to be very stealth when taking pictures. I never tried to peek inside the nest, but kept my distance as best I could. At night I left one of the barn windows open for them, while the rest of the barn is closed up because of the coyotes. 

They fledged one morning when I was doing the milking and feeding the goats. They all found windows and doors to fly out of and I'm guessing the happy family is around somewhere. Phoebes are common to my state, but I don't recall seeing them much.  

Also, we have new feathered additions of the domestic kind. 

Buff Orpington chicks, hatched in late April

We bought them through our feed store because we could get the number and breed of chicks we wanted.

about 2 weeks old

These came about because our current flock is getting pretty old and have not done a good job of providing us with replacements. They sometimes go broody, but quit before incubation is done. So we decided to go with the Buffs, which have been a good breed for for us for broodiness and mothering. The batch is supposedly all pullets (female), but we'll see. Eventually we'll need a rooster.

Rather than put the new chickens in the established poultry yard, we fenced off a new yard on the side of the goat barn.

Several years ago we tried to make this a yard for new ducks, but they deserted it in favor of the chicken yard. We've tried to keep the chickens and ducks separate, but the ducks insist on being in the poultry yard and chicken coop. Since they squabble so much, we decided to start the new chicks off in a new location, as soon as they're old enough.

For a chicken coop, Dan expanded our old chicken tractor. 

It's heavier, of course, but will be more of a permanent coop for the new additions.

Once they are feathered out and able to stay warm without the light, we'll move them in. To start they'll have the coop area and the protected area underneath, but eventually they'll have the entire yard to roam in. 

We think it's best when young are raised by their mother, even chicks, even though they are able to feed themselves from the get-go. It certainly makes the job easier to have a mama hen do it, plus they learn quite a bit from their mother too. In this case, however, it couldn't be helped. 

New Additions of the Feathered Kind © May 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Chaos in the Hen House

What is it with chickens? There can be any number of perfectly good empty nest boxes available, but they want the one that another bird is already in!  And they are quite persistent about it. They will push on in and sit on the current occupants head, even pecking her if necessary, to get her to move. If the invading hen happens to be one of Rooster Schooster's favorites, he joins in with all manner of squawking! 

Of course, when Schooster sets up a fuss, we have to go check. Even when we're pretty sure it's just over nest box squabbling, it could also be a snake or rat, both of which are egg and chick stealers. One time, we had a skunk brazenly walk into the coop in broad daylight and kill chicks! So, reasonable doubt requires making sure everything is okay. 

Egg laying is bird business, which means that none of them is interested in (or compliant with) the humans' opinions and solutions to the problem. Our efforts to sort things out are completely ignored, and the battle for the nest boxes continues with the sense of business as usual. For the most part it actually isn't a problem. It becomes a problem, however, when the occupying hen/duck/turkey is broody and wants to hatch some eggs. 

Broodies can be pretty persistent, but when they are successfully routed out of their nest by a rude chicken, they move and then stay there. This results in the eggs being abandoned which means none of them hatches. Our solution has become to keep an eye out and then move the eggs to the broodie's new next. 

This solution points to another problem however. That is, now there are more eggs so that they are at different stages of development and often become too numerous for the broody to properly cover and incubate. 

I'm guessing that at about this point, many of you are wondering why we don't use an incubator and skip the fiasco in the hen house. There are several reasons for this, which are logical to us, although they may not make sense to others.

• We like having a mixed age flock because it helps keep egg production at a consistent level. Old hens eventually lay less, while younger hens lay the most. With a mixed age flock we can keep six hens and have a surplus of eggs to share year after year.
• Consequently, we don't need a specific number of new chicks every year. We don't do the replacement flock thing, so just a trickle of new chicks each year works well for us.
• It's infinitely easier to let the birds hatch and rear their own young! This is nature's way, after all, and it relieves us of the accompanying chores of the job. Plus, we firmly believe that babies deserve to have their own mother. 

So, speaking of baby poultry and mothers, here is the first hatch of the year:

Yup, our turkey hen hatched out two duck eggs and they are all perfectly content with the arrangement. The added bonus for the ducklings is that the chickens—which tend to be ruthlessly mean toward newcomers—absolutely leave Jenny's babies alone. They are all quite intimidated by her, so nobody messes with her young 'uns!

Sadly, we lost one duckling when it drowned in the big water dish. But the other is doing just fine.

Currently we have two broody ducks and a broody hen in the nest boxes. We're waiting to see what's next. 

Chaos in the Hen House © May 2024 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

More Drama in the Chicken Coop

First, some background: Several weeks ago, I told you about our Muscovy and Jersey Buff turkey hen squabbling over the eggs. Since neither one was going to budge, they finally "settled" the dispute by sharing the nest. Not long after that, one of our Speckled Sussex hens pushed her way onto the nest and refused to move. So the three of them have been continually jockeying for position. What makes matters worse is that the other hens insist on trying to lay there too, so we have an over-crowded jumble of eggs on that communal nest with no way of knowing what's going on. 

Hatching begins: We finally spotted one chick 

Readily adopted by Mama Hen for mothering

and one duckling.

1st duckling to hatch; followed Mom Muscovy
out into the chicken yard, but they didn't stay long.

Mostly, everyone was sitting tight on the nest, so there's no way to know for sure what's happening. This isn't unusual, as new babies take several days recovering from hatching before regular ventures out into the world.

Now, for the drama: Dan was in his workshop the other day, when he heard a ferocious racket in the chicken coop. He assumed it was Mama Chicken and Mom Muscovy fighting over the nest again, but he went to check it out anyway. When he got there, he saw a snake tail sticking out from the nest! He grabbed it and threw it against the wall, which stunned it. That's when he noticed the back end of a duckling sticking out of it's mouth. Dan grabbed a hoe, pinned the snake's head down, and managed to pull out a live duckling! 

The snake was promptly dispatched and we brought the duckling inside to make sure it was alright. I put it on a heating pad and we observed it for several hours, until it was alert and chirping. Then it was put back under the mamas in the nest. Talk about a close call!

The next day it was fine, and I was able to get some pictures. 

This is why we've had a problem. Instead of setting in
the nest boxes, they all want to set under the nest boxes.

It's hard to know how many are actually under there.

Duckling on the left is our snake survivor (still with dried snake siliva
on it's head.) Behind it is the baby chick. Two ducklings on the right.

Final count is four ducklings and one chick. Three of the ducklings are doing well, but the little guy who almost got eaten by a snake is lagging. Honestly, he looked a bit premature after his rescue, and we surmise that the snake went after the egg. Even though it broke, he was close enough to hatching that he can breath air, but he isn't getting around as well as the others. It may be a leg injury, hard to tell.

Our two turkey poults are doing well. They are now two weeks old.

They blend in well to their background!

They're beginning to look less like baby chicks.

Jenny B has proven to be an excellent mother.

The only broody mama with no babies is Jenny J. In looking over the remaining eggs in the nest, they all appear to be duck eggs. No turkey eggs. I find it curious that she readily adopted eggs that were already there without laying her own. Mama Hen took over the chick and Mom Muscovy took over the ducklings, so it's sad that Jenny J has no one to mother. 

I'd like to say all's well that ends well, but there are still many perils about for baby poultry. We just have to do our best to protect them and hope for the best. No more adventures would be fine with me.

More Drama in the Chicken Coop © June 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Homestead Turkey on the Menu

The addition of heritage breed turkeys on the homestead has given us a new source of eggs and meat. So many people told me how they prefer turkey to chicken eggs, that I was quite curious about them.

We first tried them as scrambled eggs. The biggest difference was in how creamy scrambled turkey eggs are. Delicious. I thought they would be excellent for French toast.

I make cinnamon bread in my bread maker just for French toast. It's 
50/50 homegrown whole wheat to white flour, with 2 tsp. cinnamon.

We weren't disappointed!

Of our three female turkeys, we planned to keep two and so Dan dispatched one. I asked him if he wanted me to freeze it for later or roast it now. He wanted to try it now. 

Our heritage breed chickens don't produce much breast meat, so we were pleasantly surprised at how much we got from our 10-month-old turkey hen. Though it wasn't Thanksgiving, I couldn't resist making a traditional Thanksgiving style meal!

Lots to be thankful for here: homegrown turkey and sweet potatoes,
with cornbread stuffing made from homegrown corn and sage.

It was tender and flavorful. Dressed weight was ten pounds. That's a generous amount for a company meal, and lots of meals for just the two of us.

Our two remaining hens both appear to be broody. Jenny B disappeared in the bushes a couple of weeks ago and Dan discovered that she had three eggs in a nest. We didn't like that she was brooding outside the chicken yard, but birds have minds of their own and the humans' opinion doesn't count. Unfortunately, something got them, leaving only scattered egg shells. She recently disappeared again, and I found her in the pasture hedgerow. We'll count eggs when she's on her daily visit to the poultry yard. 

Jenny J also started setting, but she chose the chicken coop. We feel like she's safer there, but there are still problems. For one, the chickens won't leave her alone. They continually peck her on the head, trying to make her to get up so they can lay their eggs in her nest. Why they want to lay their eggs in somebody else's nest is beyond me, but that's chickens for you. 

The other problem is that one of our Muscovys has gone broody too. That in itself isn't a problem, but when Jenny J gets off the nest to get food and water, Mom Muscovy steals her eggs! Seriously! The two nesting spots are near one another, and Mom rolls some of Jenny J's eggs over to her nest. Dan puts them back, but she isn't too happy about that. 

UPDATE: This morning, Mom Muscovy was out getting feed and water, so Dan went to check the eggs in her nest. Turns out Jenny J's nest was empty of eggs, so she had moved over to Mom's nest! Mom came in and was in a dither over that! For us humans, it was a "what did you think was gonna happen?" moment, but birds don't think like humans. 😂 Dan reckons there are at least five duck eggs in that nest, plus Jenny's three.

Mixed nests could create another problem because of the variance of incubation days. Muscovy incubation is 32 days, turkeys is 28 days, and chickens is 21. The concern is that the mama will leave the nest with the early hatchlings and abandon the eggs that need more time. We did have a Buff Orpington chicken raise some ducklings once, but I think it's better if each species raises their own babies, if there's a mother willing to do it. Keeping it all sorted out, however, is an ongoing chore. 

Never a dull moment.

Homestead Turkey on the Menu © May 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Garden Notes: October 2022

I love October. In September, we hope for relief from the blazing summer heat, but in October, there is a noticeable drop in temperature. It's the month when we start watching for an early frost, and it's the month when the leaves begin to change color. (For my October fall color photos, click here.) It's the month when all our homestead critters are frisky and full of antics. Kitchen and garden projects have slowed down so there's time to enjoy the changes. Most of my cooking is done in the house now, rather than my back porch summer kitchen. October is when we light our first woodstove fire of the season and the first of the canned summer goodness is opened and consumed. The only downside to October, is that it's typically a dry month for us.

Rainfall 

• 12th: 0.05"
• 26th: 0.125"
• 31st: 1.375"
• Total: 1.55 inches

Temperature

• nighttime range: 31-63°F (-0.5-17°C)
• daytime range: 58-80°F (14-27°C)

First Frost

We had scattered frost on the morning of the 18th, and a blanketing frost on the 19th. So the summer garden is officially done. 

Marigolds sporting our first frost.

Planting & Growing

The fall garden is planted, but it's been dry, so it's not growing well. I've been watering some of my seedlings, but chickens got into the garden and scratched up quite a few beds. Anything that survived all that may have a chance! How long it lasts will depend on how cold or mild it is this winter.

Harvesting

Early October yields (before the frost) were meal size pickings.

Sauteed okra, onions, and cherry tomatoes

Orange Glo watermelon

No waste with watermelon. Chickens and goats love the rind.

Kale, collards, and daikon leaves

Greens steamed in butter with some grated carrot

Oregano, rosemary, and thyme (in my olive oil kept feta cheese).

Asian persimmons on the tree

The variety is Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jiro. I chose it because it said to be heat and drought tolerant (which it has been!) It's a fuyu type, which are ready to eat when they turn orange (unlike the kind that are astringent until after frost). This is the first real harvest we've gotten from it. It's about time too, since I planted it in 2015!

Scooping out the gel and removing the seeds.

Persimmon ready for ???

Persimmon pancakes

Freezing the extra in muffin pans.

When frost became imminent, we harvested everything that might suffer damage.

Last of the peppers. These are Giant Marconi.

Last of the green slicing tomatoes

Hugelkultur sweet potato squash

The last of the cushaws.

The mature squash have a home in the pantry. They are like pumpkins in terms of preparation and flavor. The green ones taste like summer squash, and can be prepared the same way.

A tender green cushaw seasoned and sauteed in butter.

But green winter squash don't keep well. The littlest ones still have tender seeds, so they were sliced, blanched, and frozen. The larger green squash, like this one,

Immature (green) cushaw

have large, but immature seeds that are tough.The skin is still tender, so the seeds were scooped out and the rest of the squash was cubed and canned.

Canned "green" winter squash. Eat like summer squash.

I planted three types of sweet potatoes. These are the Georgia Jets.

Taste testing the sweet potatoes required a sweet potato pie.

Overwintering

I'm trying something new this year. I found a YouTube video on how to overwinter pepper plants (https://youtu.be/x09X87UCZTI). I'm giving it a try.

Pepper plant pruned, potted, and ready to come in.

I only had two pepper plants this year, both purchased as 4-inch potted plants. This particular plant looked quite poorly most of the summer, and I kept thinking it was going to die. But the healthier looking plant died instead, and this one really perked up after a good rain and cooler temperatures. It was producing well until first frost threatened. So, it became my overwintering experiment. It would be great to get an early start on our peppers!

Challenges

The problems this time of year aren't so much bugs or disease, but lack of rain and critters. That includes birds (including naughty chickens), chipmunks, skunks, or groundhogs. In fact, we found a young groundhog had set up it's winter home in one of the garden beds! Dan found the hole, and I came face to face with the groundhog chowing down on a chicory plant. We didn't want it demolishing the garden and we hate to waste anything, so the groundhog became . . . 

Garden Groundhog Soup

Now you know why I was looking for a recipe for groundhog. My small harvest amounts were perfect for making this soup. I added peeled tomatoes, onion, green beans, yam berries, cowpeas, kale, tatume summer squash, and previously canned bone broth. Our favorite winter lunch is soup, so here are four lunches, ready to heat and eat.

Okay, I think that's it. At the beginning of the month, I didn't expect this to be a very long post. But first frost changed that! 

How about you? Is your garden just ending, or just starting?

Garden Notes: October 2022 © October 2022

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com