Our Chickens!
A peek at the food industry and what goes into creating the eggs and meat we buy in stores is enough to sicken most people. Being active and adventurous people, we decided to try and raise chickens ourselves. We’ve been growing our own vegetables for several years, giving us high quality, farm fresh meals. It was time for the next step.
After looking for the perfect chickens, we’ve finally found exactly what we’re looking for; four beautiful hens. We decided to give them a soy free diet due to some serious concerns we have regarding the effects of soy. Our goal was eggs that were healthier than store bought eggs, sustainably gathered from happy, pastured chickens. Low maintenance was something we wanted as well. We chose a coop to fit the number of chickens we wanted and amount of work we wanted to put into maintaining the coop/run. The next step was to search for local farms with high reputations selling healthy pullets.
We just started with a little flock of 4. Our girls consist of a Black Sexlink( light brow eggs ), a Welsummer( dark brown eggs ), an Ameraucana( green/blue eggs ) and a Brown Leghorn( white eggs ). The hens were chosen very specifically for their egg colors and egg laying abilities.
Bees!
The day has come and with it, our new bees!
We’ve had this planned since last year and ordered our package of bees around Thanksgiving. After much anticipation, the day finally arrived to pick up the package of bees. We’re very excited to add bees to our homestead and take one more step toward complete self-sufficiency.
Installing the bees was a little nerve-racking. I’d never done anything like that before. After watching Doug from BeeKind’s youtube video on how to install bees, I felt confident I could do it myself. I’ve heard that you tend to drop the queen in the box of bees if you wear gloves, so I did it without gloves. As nervous as I was, the bees let me do my thing and didn’t once sting me or act aggressive.
Setting Up The Hive
The Completed Hive
Bees flying around their new hive
Bees in their new hive
Check out our friends at BeeKind for more information about bees!
The New Chicken Coop
We’re doing a big upgrade for the chickens. Right now they’re housed in a small coop, for which I feel really bad. Their new coop will be a HUGE improvement. Above, you can see the framing for it. The coop is 6 feet by 12 feet and is large enough to hold around 20 chickens. It has a built in run for days when we need to keep them in, but will be opened to the rest of this part of the yard so they can free range and forage the way that chickens should.
Look for major chicken updates in the near future, including more girls and the finished coop!
New Bill Would Tighten Egg Labeling
From: http://www.bohemian.com/northbay/eggs-actly/Content?oid=2283106
A new bill before Congress would ensure accurate labeling practices for commercial and free-range eggs
Call a bubbly wine made in California “champagne,” and you’re asking for legal trouble from the captains of the global wine industry. And if you call a conventionally grown potato “organic,” the enforcement branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be at your door as soon as it unearths the fraud.
But raise a chicken in a cage, and you’re free to make almost any claims you want to sell the bird’s eggs. That’s because federal laws that regulate animal-welfare terminology on egg cartons leave some gaping loopholes while basically allowing producers to make their own interpretations of just what “free-range,” “cage-free” and “pasture-raised” really mean.
Free Ranging Your Chickens
I’m a huge fan of the forums and friends at BackyardChickens.com. A great article was just written about free-ranging your chickens. I highly recommend the read!
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/deciding-to-free-range-your-flock
The Girls in 2012
It’s a new year and a new home, for us and the ladies. They’re using an old rabbit hutch right now until we can build a larger coop to host more ladies. The chickens have been on break from laying during the last few months due to molting and short winter days. The Leghorn did surprise us, though, with a fresh egg on New Years Day. Thanks!
In other news, I am in the middle of planning a new full garden. The garden will be multiple raised beds arranged to allow crop rotation and hopefully be capable of providing us with all the veggies we want, year round. More on this later!
