Side garden update

It's been a bit since I've posted here, but that's kind out of necessity.  There really hasn't been much going on until this weekend.

• We've transplanted the tomatoes twice now.  Not because they're doing fantastically, but because they're having many of the same issues as last year despite not using much of our well water.  Wifey and I think that it may have something to do with the potting soil so as much as we hate to not use organic, we're trying a type of Miracle-Gro brand soil.  We'd rather sort out what's going on with the plants and have them not die before going into the ground than stick to our principles and have a lot of dead plants.
• A week or so ago we had our biggest snowfall of the winter.  As a result of a lot of heavy snow coming down, a small tree adjacent to the garden fell down into the garden.  That has since been removed, although, I need to repair the deer netting still.

More coop progress - roof studs gone and floor work

Today we finished pulling apart the roof of the coop.  In this case, we removed the studs supporting the roof top and worked on the floor.  Disassembling the roof took some doing because whoever built it initially used two kinds of nails and two kinds of wood screws to hold the roof studs together.

I also was presented with a surprise -- as I removed one of the long studs, I heard this fast vibrating sound.  I couldn't figure where it was coming from until I realized it was the board that was doing the vibrating.  I realized there must be bees inside the board and threw it as far as I could from where we were working and headed for the hornet killer spray.  Sure enough, I returned just in time to see two HUGE wood boring wasps (or hornets?) emerge from inside the 2x4.  Each one was about 1.5" long and I wanted no part of them.  Thankfully, they won't bother us any more.

In addition to the fun and games with the roof studs, we also removed the laminate sheeting the previous owner had applied to the floor.  In the process, we discovered that the pressboard floor is rotten in parts.  We will be applying an anti-fungal solution to the floor to kill off any mold that may be in there then overlaying that pressboard with pressure treated 1x4's to create a new floor.  That is for another day, however.

Making a brooder box

So, apparently, baby chickens (Chicks, man.) need to be indoors in a very temperature-controlled brooder.  They need a heat lamp, but shouldn't have a regular incandescent light bulb.  They need a red light bulb for reasons I'm still not clear on. 

The brooder.  Some people build one out of a large rectangular plastic container.  Some build them.  We elected to go with a large cardboard box.  In the chance we don't like this whole chicken thing, we didn't want to have invested even more into infrastructure.  We also figured that if we do like the whole chicken thing, we'd make our mistakes with cheap stuff (cardboard) so we can learn from mistakes and do it right next time we get chicks.  Man.

The light.  We bought a clamp light fixture from Tractor Supply, but it's garbage.  The clamp really doesn't do its job.  You think that with a name like "clamp light fixture" it would clamp, but it doesn't.  So it's going back.  We also got a 250W heat lamp bulb for it, but despite moving it farther and farther and farther away from where the chicks would be, it was still 120 degrees F from the central point of the light.  If we're going to cook chicken, we're not doing it when their weight is best listed in grams.

Wifey and I picked up a new light fixture and a 75 W heat lamp bulb intended for lizards from a pet store this evening.  If that doesn't get the box warm enough, for chicks (man), we'll try a higher wattage bulb.

Maybe I should come up with a new blog name, but Will Seed For Food For Our Chicks (Man) to Eat just seems cumbersome.


PS
This is what the "Chicks, Man" thing is all about.  I'm sure I could curtail my comments, but it's just who I am.  Besides, I liked the show a lot before the writers decided profanity = humor.

Robbins Ave Update - 15 Sprouts!

So I just checked the sprouts under our grow lights.  What I found led me to muse, "Alright, God.  Now I have to think you're just showing off.  And I'm really impressed."

As of this morning, we are up to 15 Robbins Ave tomato sprouts.  We got one more overnight.

Simply amazing.

Coop roof is off

We were so excited to have the coop arrive that we put in a fair amount of effort and removed the roof, some of the roof supports, and the cage material used to keep predators from getting in.

It's not finished, but it's a nice start.

Our coop has arrived!

After telling our neighbor that we are, in fact, interested in his old chicken coop he offered to deliver it with his small tractor.  Yes, please!

It's now on the driveway pad where we'll be rebuilding parts of it (the roof, for one), doing some waterproofing, and painting it.

All of this stuff is completely foreign to my mom.  She knows nothing about our interest in chickens let alone that we have a coop.  Her head is going to positively explode when she finds out.  It'll be fun to see her reaction.

Considering Chickens

Wifey and I have been flirting with the idea of getting chickens for a few years.  Over the last month our interest has grown as we've had some issues with finding high quality organic eggs nearby.  Something about our trip last weekend sparked us to start actively working toward that goal.

On our way back Wifey was doing some research as I drove.  For type-A planner types like us, there's a lot to consider.  Breed, coop vs chicken tractor, where to put a coop if we use one, and how to take care of them when we're out of town are just a few things to evaluate.  After researching costs to buy coops (and evaluating quality of construction and materials), he put up a post on our development's Facebook page inquiring whether anyone knew of someone looking to unload a coop.

One of our friendly neighbors said he had an old coop that his flock had outgrown and he was willing to give it to us if we're interested.  We checked it out today.

In some ways, it's in good shape, but some parts need some work.  Apparently, he used it for a few years with no predators having had success getting to the flock.  Also, unlike a lot of the ones we found for sale online, it's made with actual lumber.

On our way back to the car, we were admiring his flock and newer coop.  Our neighbor pointed out a few of the niceties of the new coop and finally offered up the eggs that had been laid that afternoon.  You certainly don't get much fresher than that.