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Muddy Valley Farm

~ Life on a tiny west coast hobby farm

Muddy Valley Farm

Monthly Archives: May 2017

Finished!

30 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Farm Improvements, Weather

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Just in time for this morning’s thunder, lightening and torrential rain, the barn is roofed!

Big thanks to Ryan at Acadian Custom Renovations for another amazing job.

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Almost Finished!

26 Friday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Farm Improvements

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It was hot up on that barn roof today, Ryan nearly melted, but just look! We have a skookum new roof vent.

Since the second year we bought our winter’s hay in June, the loft door has been tied open year round. With only two 1-foot square vents high in the south wall, a closed loft door meant moldy hay by February.

Yes, we could have installed more wall vents but since having the door open solved the problem we spent our time elsewhere. There is no end of things to do when you live on a farm, even a tiny one. That’s one of the things I like about this lifestyle,  there is never ‘nothing to do’. And it is going to be SO NICE to be able to close that door.

 

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The Pond

24 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Weather, Wildlfe

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B dug me this tiny pond about ten years ago with his then-new tractor. Well established now, it’s lovely in all seasons. I think it has a bullfrog infestation this year. Maybe K and K will harvest frog legs again.

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Not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed

23 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Chickens, Farm Produce

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Silly the Silver Sussex broody isn’t very good at hatching eggs. Why? She fouls her nest, and poopy eggs don’t hatch well. Broody hens ‘go’ once a day, usually when they’re up stretching their legs and eating. But not Silly.

To be fair, she is only on her second brood. And her lack of smarts does come in handy.

Last weekend, she hatched four chicks. Two went to another home to keep a lonely hatchling company. I had ten one-week olds in the indoor brooder, and knew they’d be a lot less work for me with a hen mothering them. So after lights out, I took my box of fuzzybutts outside and tucked them under her ample skirts. She clucked softly to each one as she shifted to accommodate them and they were quiet, in silent bliss.

This morning, when I went out extra early to check on them, she was chirring to her twelve bouncy children, showing them where to get breakfast. Good girl Silly! That’s right, they are all yours…

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A New Project!

19 Friday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Chickens, Farm Improvements

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Our neighbour down the road is doing a big spring clean, and look what I got! Two chicken tractors. One is in great shape, just needs a good disinfecting clean and a bit of maintenance. The other has a rotten pen, I will cut it off and voila, a duck house.

Oh boy! I do love a new project!

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Silkies Make the Best Moms!

15 Monday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Chickens

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More chicks hatching means the older hatches get shuffled along to larger quarters. Each hatch starts out inside in a playpen with a large heat plate. After a week or two, they go outside to an insulated heated brooder for two weeks. Then it is on to a closed coop with a heating pad, with daytime access to an outside pen. At six weeks, they can keep themselves warm, and they move to an unheated pen in the hen hotel. From there they get sorted, the boys go over the creek to the bachelor pen, the girls go into the Polish and Silkie coop, and most are sold. The Polish and Silkies are my kindest birds, and I know the little ones are safe there.
Two Silkie hens are raising broods, and their chicks are about the same age as a batch of six week olds I moved in on Sunday. Tonight I noticed those two moms are letting all the new chicks sleep in their shared nest. Interesting, usually mother hens chase other chicks away. Silkies are such great moms!

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A note from a happy hatcher

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Chickens, Farm Produce

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This customer hatched a dozen eggs for her daycare kids:

“We have ten baby chicks running around!!! So much fun!! The children love them! Thanks again I will definitely be contacting you next year!!

Tracy

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New Barn Roof!

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Farm Improvements

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In 2016, Ryan from Acadian Custom Renovations restored our tired old post and beam barn with a beefed up structure and a facelift. He carefully peeled off its thick cedar skin and reinforced the log frame; sistering the beams, replacing one of the main posts with a new tree trunk that he harvested himself, and cladding the first floor with OSB. Then he reapplied the cedar, screwing it down tightly, added trim boards and primed and painted.

In 2017, Ryan’s back, and lucky barn is getting a new hat!

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Chicken Tillers

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Chickens, Gardening

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At dusk yesterday we moved the chicken tractor from one end of our muddy valley to the other, so the bachelor boys could clean up the veggie garden. Usually it’s tidy and mostly planted by now, but it was a hard winter. Spring is six weeks late and even in our zone 8 valley, we are only now able to work the soggy soil. A situation that is all too common across Canada this year.

Since the garden isn’t netted, K rigged up a roofed retreat with some extra plastic fencing so our chicken tillers can stay safe from aerial predators. Today the big chickens spent much of their day hiding inside the tractor. Not because the hawks were out, but because they aren’t used to their new neighbourhood.

The “secret field”, named by K as a small child, is long and thin and fenced by a profusion of hawthorns and willows, alders and wild roses, blackberries, and even an old apple tree. It is cozy and green with just a narrow slice of sky. Across the creek from the main coops, it’s a handy place to keep the tractor full of boys separate and close. The veggie garden is in the middle of the NW field, which is at least three times as wide.

This afternoon, I scattered some flatted corn, and they finally stayed out and started doing some tilling. I’m not convinced they will be as efficient and thorough at discing and harrowing as my hens are, time will tell.

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Sunshine!

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Jodi in Chickens, Weather

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What bliss it is, after the winter we’ve had, to soak up the warm spring sunshine.

The barn opens to the East, and in the fall, winter and spring collects the sun. In the summer, the sun’s angle in the sky ensures no hot afternoon rays reach inside, giving the residents a cool, shady refuge. The builders sure got that right.

When I let the chickens out at lunchtime, some beeline over to George and the donkeys’ sunny stalls, then sprawl on their sides, top wing outspread and eyes closed. Others graze the tender new grass, warm sun on their backs.

I don’t think I have ever seen a rounder, prettier chicken than my blue laced red Wyandotte, she looks like Matisse painted her, and she’s a great layer too. It’s all her fault that I’ve hatched three batches of Wyandottes from breeders across Canada this year.

The two roosters taunt each other, as usual. They take turns guarding the flock and the one who is free for the day loses no time in running over to show off to the one who is not.

Chance and BattleChicken lackadaisically tweak each other’ behinds and I doze in my lawn chair, my happy place on a sunny spring day.

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