Awaking from a Long Winter...

The time changed last weekend marking the end of what felt like an extraordinary long winter.  Now it is lighter in the evening and this opens up the possibility of doing more than simple chores during the week.  It is still dark in the morning during feeding time but at least one is treated to experiencing the sun come up during the feeding round.

The place is becoming greener and the animals have a spring in their step - particularly the largest gander who will run completely across the orchard to hiss you off.  A defensive sweep with a trash can lid catching him on the side of the head has not seemed to deter him.  I am actually spending time in the garden!  With the garden being smaller than last year and mostly using raised beds, the workload has reduced significantly.

Here is a shot of the typical menagerie - An escaped (and thus free ranging) NZW rabbit joins some Guinea Fowl and Buff Orpington Roosters for breakfast.  All these creatures live on their own and seem to be doing OK.


This time of year chicks and ducklings abound.  The geese have a nest of eggs they are semi-sitting on and the rabbits have had litters.  Can't tell if the goats or Henny, the registered AGH gilt in with Beau, are pregnant yet.  The remaining hogs born last fall are getting fatter but not ready for the butcher yet.

Lost a few of the White Leghorn chicks over the last few weeks to an unknown culprit.  This afternoon just before dusk I saw a possum in a branch right over the Poop Coop.  Thinking this may be the varmint, I ran off to get a shot gun.  The noise of the shot and the crash of the plummeting possum to earth caused a commotion with the hens.  On inspecting the possum I found six babies still attached to her and one on the ground.

 

Snow in Alabama

On January 17th it snowed about three inches.  Not exactly noteworthy for much of the northern hemisphere in January but a rare event in central Alabama.  Remarkably, so far in 2013 the Birmingham metro area has had more snow than Chicago!  I am sure this will change soon.  As expected, even though there was little accumulation due to above-freezing temperatures, the city shut down with some long delays on the interstates in the north of the state.

The morning after.  A New Englander would probably claim to have had a worse case of dandruff.

Winter Project

Some projects that are supposed to be simple have a nasty habit of taking far longer than expected and trying every ounce of patience.  Adding a simple pen to an existing chicken coop fit the aforementioned description perfectly.

One of the projects on my Christmas vacation list was adding a pen to the Speckled Sussex coop.  In the dead of winter it becomes dark early and with the darkness comes a whole new set of predators that are not deterred by the four foot high 4x2 welded wire fencing.  With a pen, the chickens could be kept in the pen all day if I knew I would be out late.  While Wynn, the Great Pyrenees, has been doing a fine job in keeping intruders away from the farm (including the mail carrier and most other delivery services), I preferred the peace of mind of having the extra security.

The plan was simple:  Build out a simple frame and screen it in with 0.5 inch hardware cloth.  Since the coop was off the ground, the plan was to also screen in the underside of the coop which would practically double the area of the pen.  The hardware cloth was buried about 6 inches deep and ran out for about 2 feet to prevent predators burying under the pen.  The roof was also screened first and then covered with corrugated tin.

While the finished version seems to sound and maybe a little over-engineered, the problems began early with the coop being located on a slope.  When the framing was complete there was not a single right angle in the structure.  I had to add more wood to create a flush surface for the screen (poor planning and design) and then the door had to be custom made to fit the space that looked nothing like any shape I learned about in geometry.  

With the slope I decided to dig a shallow trench around the coop and pen to allow the water to drain away from the structure.  

 The finished pen.  A simple project that took about five days to complete spread over several weeks.