Update about Chicken Tractor/Port-a-Coop

 So, I am long overdue for a post. I have done some things on the blog though! On the right side of the screen you will see a button under "Grab my button". (This was hard to make!)If you have a blog, I would be pleased as peaches, if you put my button on your blog.
Also, at the bottom of this post you will see a Facebook "like" button. (This was very easy.) If you have a Facebook account please like my post and or share my blog with others. I was feeling very much like a techie having accomplished this!

More important is the fact that John has finished the plans and they are ready to sell! Woo Hoo. I made two new pages today and they are on the top right. "Why have Chickens" and "Buy Your own Port-a-coop plans here!" Click on these for more info.

Anna, about 8 weeks old now.

How are your gardens growing? Our strawberries stopped as soon as the heat hit. Our lettuce is doing pretty good but some are starting to bolt already. I am spending a good amount (okay, almost all my time) in the garden weeding, and weeding some more. We ran out of funds this year before we could get mulch. We will make it though till I can find a free or almost free source of mulch. I guess the rest of the garden is okay. I hope to do a fall planting and make some cold frames. I will be keeping an eye out for old windows.
The kids 4-H gardens are doing well. & I will have to post a picture of the mystery squash plant that is growing in the mulch bin. It is a monster!

Alpha, is part Banty and so sweet and calm.

The chickens are happy and getting bigger by the day. They love Arugula, which is a good thing!    Because it has done wonderful in our garden... we all hate it. So I am happy that they like it. Waste not want not!

Amaranth, what is that?

Today, I want to talk about Amaranth. My husband read about how easy it is and how very good for you it is, and now he is known, among a small amount of people, as the Amaranth king. I want him to write about it some time but he is working too hard right now, so I shall do my best.
Here is a pretty good article about it, Amaranth, a healthy grain .

Some plants from last year.
We have a lot of volunteers from this crop coming up this year.

I am looking up at it. It was over 6 feet.

I think this one was called Elephant head or love lies bleeding?

You can buy the flour in health food stores or it is in some of the better Gluten free foods. I had bought a lb of the seeds from our local food co-op and cooked it like I would rice and it is okay. Some of what Frank grew last year had black seeds. Now, those were REALLY good! In my opinion much better than the blond ones we got from the co-op. Frank like the blond ones better, I think.
I love the young leaves cooked. The whole plant is edible, but like lettuce and other greens they taste much better when the plants are smaller.
Here is another good article about the benefits of eating amaranth. Why Amaranth  If you are like me a wheat and gluten makes you sick, this is a GREAT food to try. Add some to your landscaping then collect the seeds in the fall.
I will have to look into feeding it to the chickens too!
As a side, our cat that got caught in the storm last night came in this morning no worse for wear, and the garden did fine. Praise God!

The Port-a-Coop!!!!!!

Drum roll please........ It's done! It took quite a bit longer than we thought it would, and we ran into some back-to-the-drawing-board moments, but it's DONE. Can you tell I'm excited?
The chicks took right to it and seem happy and at home. Or as Joel Salatin would say, the chickens were expressing their chickeness. They go crazy over wild strawberries! They are so much fun watch.
We may have to do some chicken training tonight to get them to go up the ramp into the house for the night. Not sure how that is going to go.
Plans for it will be available soon. Now I must go put in some tomato plants tonight as time is passing way too fast. It is already to late for the spinach and I will have to plant that in Aug.

The Last Screw!

Victory!

Do I want to go down there?

Coming down the board walk. ;-)

Happy Chicks!

More braving the way down.

They like all the bugs and grass seeds.

Pretty Isn't it!

I will paint that last board soon.

Proud of a job well done!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Our Chicks!

In the light of rising gas and food prices we have been looking for ways to become a little more self reliant. I have had a garden for several years now and am getting so most everything I plant grows.

Last year my husband found out about Amaranth, a grain that is gluten free and very healthy. He planted a bunch of it and it did pretty well. He will be planting more of it this year.

(I will have my husband do some posts about this grain soon.)

We have a done rain barrels, mulch piles, gardening classes and getting books to learn how to be as self reliant as we can on our small piece of land in a sub-division.

For a long time now I have wanted to have just a few hens in the back yard for fresh eggs and manure. Not to mention the fun and pleasure. It is also a great project for my children. (This will be a 4-H project for my 10 yr old.)

Everything started to come together for us to be able to do so. My friend John had been looking at port-a-coops/chicken tractors and really didn't like what he found and started studying different types and the pros and cons and designed his own. We are building the prototype and making changes as we go. My 10 year old told us she wanted an incubator for her birthday and a friend gave her a dozen fertile eggs and after carefully turning them every day and watching the temp. The eggs started hatching Saturday morning and we have 8 chicks hatched and 3 eggs to go! We will keep only 4 or 5 hens and sell or give away the rest.

I will post more later but I need to rub some coconut oil on my shoulders. I got a little sun burnt adding compost and rock dust to my soil this afternoon.

I will do some gardening posts soon.

Our Backyard Homestead

Spring is here! Time to plant the garden, chicks are hatching in my daughter's incubator and we are building a chicken tractor! I love spring!

So you might be asking, what pray tell is a chicken tractor?

Are pictures of a chicken driving a John Deer going through your head?

Chicken tractors, other wise known as port-a-coops are small movable chicken coops that you can move around your yard so the chickens can eat all those healthy bugs and weeds while giving back to the ground wonderful fertilizer!

We live in a subdivision so we are limited in what we can have. No milk goats, cows, ducks are too loud and messy... so we are going to have four or 5 hens (no rooster!). We will have eggs enough for our family, fertilizer for the yard and garden, and they will keep the bugs and weeds down. What more could you ask for?

I will post pictures when it is built and we will have plans for it for purchase so you too can have some beautiful hens in your backyard!