Freshening Up the Chicken Pen...

It's a dirty, dusty job, but it's got to be done...and it's got numerous benefits!

It's been a while since I've cleaned out the chickens' shed, but I'm down to seven six chickens now (Phoebe was a very bad dog last week!) so right now they don't make a very big mess.  After I rototilled the garden, it took me only about fifteen minutes to clean out the chicken litter and toss it around.  (benefit #1)

My helper and I loaded up the wagon with straw and the rest of a bag of chicken feed...

(I told her that we were going to the chickens, and she took off like she was shot out of a cannon!  Can you see her?)

...and in about five minutes, the chickens had fresh bedding. (benefit #2)  They don't use the nesting boxes right now, but prefer to lay their eggs in a nest on the floor, so I spread out most of the straw in the back of the shed...

They scratched around, looking for treasures food...

...while Phoebe wished desperately to get into the pen...

Sorry Phebes...no chicken for your dinner tonight!

Spring Cleaning...

Well hello spring! We're so glad you're finally here... to stay!

Every day there's something more to do that seems so important, as I'm sure you can identify with! 

Today I cleaned out the chicken pen...

I had kind of forgotten how dusty chicken litter is. Ugh. Since I only have twelve chickens, it didn't take long. I think I counted seven wheelbarrow loads, and they weren't very heavy, which was nice...

Over the last couple of days, I've also been working on cleaning up my compost bins and reinforcing them, so the timing was perfect. I finally emptied the one side, pulled the pallets out, straightened them, and made them more solid by screwing some wood across the top to hold them together. (Ignore the very crooked center pallet. It's rotten on the bottom third, and I'll replace it when we empty another one)

The chicken litter went in the empty half, to start a new batch of compost. The pile on the right will soon be "finished", and if I keep turning it, it won't be long until I'll be able to use it in either my garden or perennial bed...

Here's what I did with the batch that came out of the left side...

This flower bed doesn't have the greatest soil. It's kind of dry and powdery, which is totally different than the big bed that I got rid of last summer. That one had tremendous soil and grew giant perennials! I'm trying to build up this one by using mushroom soil and now compost. It might never be great, but every little bit helps!

We're definitely in full swing here...how about you?

Housecleaning For the Chickens...

Oh happy day!

It's been a long time coming, and today, finally (!!) I was able to get the chicken shed cleaned out.  I last did it in the fall, and then the snow came.  I have to fork or shovel it out by hand into wheel barrows, and just couldn't get to it until the snow melted.  I lost track, but there were at least ten wheel barrow loads full.

It looks so much better...and smells much better too!  They had to scratch around in the fresh straw a little, just in case there were any seeds in the straw, or any goodies hiding underneath it, and then they headed outside again...

The last thing I cleaned out was the nesting boxes.  One chicken was frantically running around, looking for somewhere to lay her egg, I guess! She crawled into a box before I was finished, and was rather restless.  I carefully put some straw underneath her, and this is what she left me in return...

They spent most of the day outside in the warm sunshine.  (It's been a while since we've had weather like this!)  As you can see, the pen is rather barren looking.  I'm really hoping the grass will grow back in time...

To help save the grass in their pen...and to keep them happy...I left the chickens out this afternoon for a while.  They made a beeline for the compost pile to hunt for treasure...

They will scratch to their hearts' content until I feed the calves tonight.  Then, I'll have to find something to lure them back into their pen.  Maybe some spilled calf feed will do the trick.  For now, they're pretty cooperative, but once they get used to being outside, it gets a little tougher to lure them back inside.  That's when I need the kids to help me round them up.

So...this is how I spent my Monday.  How about you?

Making A Compost Bin...

I've been reading a lot about, and experimenting with making my own compost for a long time.

To this point, I've always just made a pile...straw/manure/sawdust mixture from the calf hutches...chicken and goat manure...some dried grass clippings...and the usual kitchen and garden scraps all piled together.  However, it all pretty much just sat there and did nothing...very slowly.

Today I finally got around to putting together a compost bin, using three old recycled pallets to make a three-sided bin.  I forked the pile to the side onto a tarp, and leveled the ground to put the pallets in place.  I used some fencing staples and some bale ropes to secure them together...

The pallets will allow air into the pile, which is necessary for composting.  I also read about putting a "chimney" in the center of the pile to speed up the composting process.  So, I rolled up some chicken wire and secured it in the center of the bin.  I even had an audience...

Next, I forked the contents of my pile back into the bin.  I chose to let the front of the bin open, for ease of turning the compost.  If I need to, I can put another pallet across the front to hold it all in place better.

I'm hoping to use two more pallets, to make a double bin, putting them to the left of the existing bin...then I can begin a second pile while the first one cooks...
 

...but I can't get to my other two pallets for a few weeks yet.  (They're underneath about a ton of barn-dri right now)  We'll see how it all works out!