April 2013 Spring Update!

Finally, today it was almost 70 degrees in Central Ohio!  Today was filled with outside chores. I took some photos of everything that is currently going on here.

First, my dad, has been starting tomato seeds.  Started so far are Beefmaster, a Greenhouse hybrid, and Roma tomatoes.

Here are tilled up sections of the garden.  We have planted onions, turnips, and peas in these locations.

Here is the chicken update!

Today I cleaned out the chicken coop completely and put in new bedding.  Below is a photo of the new bedding, which is dry leaves, wood chips, straw, and pine needles.

I got two full wheelbarrows full of compost!  I layered the bedding over the entire winter and it has composted into usable fertilizer for the garden!

Then I added a large trash can full of dry leaves to their outdoor run.

Here is an update on the drawer nesting box.  It was being used just fine, however, we had trouble with the chickens scratching out the straw.  We took a second drawer that was the same and took out the bottom and stacked it on top of the other one.  This way they won't be laying the eggs on the bare wood.

The chickens were interested in what I was doing most of the time.  They also enjoyed the dry leaves outside and took dust baths.  They take dust baths to keep cool and to keep any bugs away.  I've never even seen a bug on any of my chickens.

Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to blogging more updates as we plant, get more baby chicks and update the chicken coop!

Not Quite Spring Update

Hello everyone!  It's technically spring here in Central Ohio, however it doesn't look so much like it.  My chickens do not like to walk around in the snow, but they do like to eat it!  I took them in a "chicken sno-cone" this morning!  Check it out!

I have a couple of chickens that do not want to lay eggs in the bucket nest boxes.  I'm not sure why, but they always lay their eggs in the corner.  So I found this old drawer out by the burn pile, and recycled it for a nest box.  So far, only one of them has used it.  I need to add a top to it so they don't scratch all of the straw out.

Here's what it looks like this morning and what I was doing after the farm chores were done.

Hope everyone has a great day today!  I'm glad it's been too wet to plant the peas, the seeds would've rotted in all of this snow!

Signs of Spring and Chickens!

Good afternoon everyone!  It's around 40 degrees and sunny here in Central Ohio today!  I decided to take a walk around outside and look for signs of spring.  There are lots of springtime birds out there, picking out houses and some flower bulbs are beginning to peek out of the ground.  I mainly wanted to check to see if there was any lettuce, asparagus or strawberries coming up yet.  None yet!  But I'll bet in the next 2-3 weeks I will see lettuce sprouts and by then it'll be time to plant peas.  I'm looking forward to it!

After my little walk, I decided to pick more of the collard greens and kale plants for the chickens. They've got no grass left in their outside area.  I will be moving their pen when it gets warmer so they have a fresh patch of grass, but until then I will be giving them daily greens for treats.  I had planned to take some video of them today but didn't realize until I got outside that my battery was dead!  I took some photos instead.  Here they are!  Enjoy!  You'll notice the same beige chicken following me around!

 Treats!

 Curious as to what I am doing.

 Everyone loves collard greens and kale!

 I am being followed by this one.

These 2 have quite the personalities.  They will follow you around everywhere.  The red chicken has a folded over comb for some reason.  She's the only one like that.