Chicken Tractor and Garden

                                                         What a great time of year!

We are busy getting our gardens in and the chicken tractor, through many bumps and fixes is almost done. It's a good thing too because the chicks are getting big and need their home soon.

We painted the Port-a-coop this morning. It was supposed to rain after lunch so we hurried, but of course the skies are clear now. The kids and I did a pretty rough job but it turned out pretty good. We need a little more paint to finish and a small can of hunter green for the trim. Over all I am pretty pleased so far. It is looking good and is not going to be an eye sore. Being in a neighborhood you want something nice looking. I know I don't like looking at junk , and all my neighbors keep really nice yards.

The great news is, the chicks should be in their new home before weeks end! I should get a new picture of them to post. They are looking more chicken than chick like now. We are pretty sure that 2 are roosters because Frank saw them fighting rooster style the other day. We will have to find a home for 4 of them soon anyway. If Rachel was not so attached, I would just try my hand at butchering the roosters.... yeah, not going to happen.

On the left is part of Frank's Amaranth field. The green in the boxes are our strawberries. Yum!

The 3 boxes in the back are our compost piles. The thing being built will be a shed  at some point.
Fence is going up around the garden.

I have so much work to do in the garden and the weeds are already ahead of me, it is a little overwhelming, but at the same time I am looking forward to the garden this year. It is such hard work but at the same time refreshing and relaxing. If you love gardening, you probably understand what I am saying.

Cool looking isn't it! Waiting for paint and chicken wire.

Painting!

One can of paint gone! I will be painting the trim green. But first it is ready for the chicken wire !

This is what we used. We will have to get a small can to do some touch ups.

Yes, we all came in spotted. 

It will come off in the bath tub. It was worth it!

John is working on and making the changes we found we needed to make on the plans.  I have to get some pictures to him for that and they should be ready soon.

Since it is not raining I am going to go put some more seeds in the ground and enjoy this beautiful weather!

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.