Chicken Coop’s, Hen House’s, Ducks, Geese, Turkeys And Outdoor Run’s

(c) Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

First you must make a few basic decisions about your poultry flock.

1. How much room do I have available for a coop and run?

2. How many chickens/ducks/turkeys will I be keeping in my flock?
** Rule of thumb, 1 chicken will produce 1 egg every 27 – 30 hours. That’s five or six eggs a week

3. Will I want to keep any Ducks, Geese or Turkeys as well?

** Chickens and ducks can be housed together.
*** Turkey’s can catch and die of diseases that don’t effect chickens. Turkeys can become aggressive and require a separate coop and run well away from your chickens.
**** Geese can be aggressive and should be housed in a separate house with their own outdoor run.

What do I need to house my chickens? Number one consideration is safety. Almost everything likes to eat chicks, chickens and their eggs. Dogs, cats, rats, skunks, raccoons, opossums, hawks, owls and even snakes. With this said, you will need a chicken coop that is predator proof to lock your chickens in after they go to roost at night.
**Hint: A wood or concrete floor is a must have to prevent predictors like skunks, from digging into your hen house.

Disclaimer, I do not endorse any website or business I may provide a link to. These links are Only provided as a conveyance to my readers.
How-Stuff-Works
Freds Fine Fowl
Back Yard Chickens

As a minimum, standard size Chickens and Ducks will need 2-3 square feet of coop/hen house floor space.
Geese and Turkeys will require much more floor space per bird.

A coop that is 4 foot wide and 8 feet long {size of 1 sheet of plywood} provides 32 square feet of floor space, this is enough floor space for 12 to 15 Chickens or Ducks. 32 square space will only house 6 Geese and even fewer Turkeys.

** Hint: Once you have a basic plan/design you can scale that plan up or down to build a larger or smaller coop. Wood products come in even lengths. Try to always design and scale your coop in even numbers. 4X4, 4X6, 4X8, 8X8 sizes. You will have much less waste and less cutting and fitting to construct you new coop.
Design and Plans on Building a Coop
Easy Build Coop Plans
Green Living-Raising chickens for eggs
BackYardChickens – How to build a coop
Build a Stealth chicken coop
64 Square foot – Easy to build coop
NDSU Extension Service – Agricultural and Biosystems
University of Tennessee Extension has a collection of over 300 building and equipment plans

** Helpful Hints Construct your coop so it is ‘easy’ for you to clean and disinfect. A coop with 4 foot walls is difficult to enter, clean and collect eggs. 6 to 8 foot tall walls is much better.
* Do not allow anything to set directly on the floor. This only invites mice and rats to live in your coop. Where there are mice you will likely find snakes as well!
* Place nest boxes at a height that makes it easy for you to access and collect eggs.
* Keep feeders and water troughs 2 to 4 inches off the floor. Your birds will waste much less food this way. Litter you remove from your coop is a great addition to your compost pile or use as mulch around garden plants.

How much do they cost? Chicks can be purchased for as little as $1.50 each, slightly more when buying sexed birds. Ten to fifteen week old pullets and laying hens range from $3.00 to $10.00 each depending on the breed, age and availability in your local area.

What breed is best for me? Chickens fall into 3 general classes.
1. Bantams: Generally speaking, Bantams are miniature copies of the standard breeds. They are small to very small in size, fair layers of ‘small’ eggs.
2. Layers: Layers are standard size, light weight birds at laying age but produce the most eggs for the amount of feed you provide.
3. Multi-purpose breeds: are the heaviest and are also good egg layers making them a duel purpose bird. They provide a good supply of eggs and are good meat birds as well.
McMurray Hatchery website contains a ton of useful information on different breeds that I am sure you will find useful.

What do I feed my chickens? If your chickens are confined to a small coop it will be necessary to provide them with a balanced commercial chicken feed. This is the most expensive method of feeding you backyard flock. If you have a fenced yard they can be allowed to free range over your yard eating weeds, grass, seeds and insects of all kinds as well as ridding your yard of most insects. You will need to provide very little supplemental feed for a healthy happy flock.

Your backyard flock will provide you with eggs, meat and a lot of enjoyment. Providing you do not get any roosters, chickens are very quite, easy to raise and handle and will provide you and your family with many hours of enjoyment.
** {A rooster is not need for hens to lay eggs.} A rooster is needed only if you plan to hatch a few of your eggs for replacement chicks.

Next installment I will talk about Brooders for your new chicks.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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Gone Fishing – Grasshopper Hatch Off In My Garden

©I have had a hatch off of grasshoppers! I’m seeing them every where, in the pasture, on my windshield and now on my tomato vines. Grasshoppers are almost imposable to control. Whether you are trying to control them with organic(natural) poisons or if your using hard core harsh man-made chemical sprays. It seems that for every hopper you kill 2 takes it’s place. They are still hatching, I see them as small as 1/2 inch long to adults that are 1 1/2 inches long.

So far the damage has been limited to the top tender leaf’s but if the hopper count continues to rise they will soon be eating my corn, squash and cucumber vines as well. I lost my garden to the drought, heat and a late June grasshopper hatch off last year. I was hoping for a more successful garden this year, but, it now looks like the hoppers will wipe me out again this summer.

I turned my 2 ducks and 6 tiny bantam chickens to my garden yesterday, but within 10 minutes they had eaten all the grasshoppers they wanted and went back to their coop. I couldn’t tell that there were any fewer grasshoppers than before the chickens and ducks fulled up on the little critters!

We had a very mild winter this year, that was good for my heating bill but it was not cold enough, long enough to achieve a good insect egg and larva kill.

Maybe I should just catch a bucket full of grasshoppers and go fishing.. It want solve my problem, but, I will be on the lake fishing and won’t have to watch them eating my garden!

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Chickens Win Contest At City Hall – Village Idiot Votes No Town Chicks Allowed

Tampa City Council members are in favor of making the city more chicken friendly. During a workshop, the council voted 6-1 in favor of amending an ordinance to make it easier for residents to keep chickens in their backyards. “The right thing for us to do is to modernize our code to fit in with the way people are living,” Councilman Harry Cohen said.

Winner of this weeks Village Idiot goes to Councilman Frank Reddick, who voted against the change, said the chickens could become a problem because they could escape their coops. {OMG run for your life’s, lock your self’s in doors, there’s a chicken and it’s out of it’s coop!} Frank Reddick said “Having a chicken is a public nuisance.” {I say Lawyers are a lot bigger public nuisance that a few chickens!}” {In my Opinion is this is the same sissy kind of guy that’s afraid of grasshoppers, woolly worms and crawdads (crayfish)} what a wimp waste!

Does this guy hate fried eggs and ham or fried chicken?

Now that we have had a bit of fun at the expense of this weeks village idiot award winner. A small backyard flock of laying hens are easy to care for, they are very quiet, If you don’t allow any roosters to sneak into your flock of hens.

Chickens eat a huge amount of insects, weeds and weed seeds. Their feeding habit of scratching the ground to find weed seed and insects helps keep weeds at bay, and, Smile, they are always adding chicken mature to your yard and garden.

Before you go off to buy your first flock of laying hens. You need a chicken coop, feeders and chick starter food, waters, and a heat source to keep your chicks warm and safe from predators.

The Coop. Must meet minimum standards. Each pullet / laying hen requires at least 2 square feet of coop / hen house flood space, one nest box for every 3 or 4 laying hens and 4 square feet of outside run space for each hen. Don’t panic, a coop only 3 by 3 foot square with a 3 foot by 5 foot out side run is large enough to house 4 hens. Hint: Make it easy on yourself, be sure the coop, nest box(s) and out side run is easy for ‘You’ to access to collect eggs, feed and water your chickens and to remove and replace litter as needed.

New chick must be provided with a heat source. Producing a temperature around 95 degrees measured 2 inches off the floor. You need chick feeders and waters that designed to prevent your chicks from pooping in their food source and water containers. Don’t go cheap here, clean food and water is all important to proper health and growth of your chicks.

Remember, people are not the only thing that like to eat chicks, chickens and eggs. Rats, snakes, skunks, racoons, cats, dogs are just a few of the things you must protect your chicks and laying hens from.

FYI – If you don’t know, roosters are not need for egg production. Be a good neighbor, No Roosters unless you are far away from your nearest neighbor… Roosters can and will start crowing as early as 3am…

Caution, Don’t let a chicks small size fool you.. In 24-26 weeks they will start laying and the experts tell me that 1 hen will produce 1 egg every 27 hours. That’s 6 eggs a week. Two healthy hens will lay a dozen eggs a week. How many eggs do you and your family eat every week? Of course you can always give away, trade eggs for fresh picked garden vegetables or sell excess eggs. This can help off set the cost of feeding your small backyard flock.

Whether you allow your hens to free range in your fenced yard or keep them in a coop with an outside run, always close and secure the coop / hen house doors at night and open the door(s) early in the morning to protect you flock from night time predator visitors.

If you really get into this egg production thing, maximum egg production is achieved when your hens have 14 to 16 hours a day light in their house. Using a $5.00 timer and a 50 watt light bulb will provide any additional light you may need after sundown to obtain a total of 14-16 hours light.

You will need to replace your hens every 2 1/2 to 3 years as they age and stop laying. That’s when you need to learn the art of scalding, plucking and cooking an old hen. They are great for chicken / chicken noodle soup, chicken and dressing and slow roasted beer can BBQ chicken.

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Chickens For Fun – Profit And Food

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Polish top hat

Having a small flock of laying hens is a great way to save money, provide you and your family with all the ‘Fresh’ eggs you and your family can eat and provide your family with a steady supply of fresh healthy meat. As an added benefit your excess eggs can be sold helping off set your feeding cost.

Silky Bantam Hen

How much do chickens [chicks] cost? Chicks can be purchased for as little as $1.50 each, slightly more when buying sexed birds. Ten to fifteen week old pullets and laying hens range from $3.00 to $10.00 each depending on the breed, age and availability in your local area.

How many hens do I need? On average you can except to get 1 egg per hen about every 27 hours. Each hen will lay 5 or 6 eggs a week. Two(2) hens will supply all the eggs an average size family can eat. In general each hen will lay from 250 to 300 eggs a year. A flock of 3 hens will produce 1 1/2 dozen eggs or more a week. So unless you plan on selling your excess fresh eggs think small flock of 2 or 3 hens. A rooster is not needed unless you plan to hatch some of your eggs. Be a good neighbor, don’t get a rooster that will wake the whole neighborhood when he starts crowing at 3 or 4 in the morning.

White Leghorn, egg laying machine

What breed is best for me? Chickens fall into 3 general classes. Bantams, layers and multi-purpose breeds. Generally speaking, Bantams are miniature copies of the standard breeds. They are small to very small in size, fair layers of ‘small’ eggs. Layers are light weight birds at laying age but produce the most eggs for the amount of feed you provide. Multi-purpose birds are the heaviest and also good egg layers making them a duel purpose bird. They provide a good supply of eggs and are good meat birds as well. McMurray Hatchery website contains a ton of useful information and pictures of many common and ornamental chicken, ducks, geese and turkey breeds that I am sure you will find useful.

Barred Rock multi-purpose breed

What do I need to house my chickens? Number one consideration is safety. Almost everything likes to eat chicks, chickens and their eggs. Dogs, cats, rats, skunks, raccoons, opossums, hawks, owls and even snakes. With this said, you will need a chicken coop that is predator proof to lock your chickens in after they go to roost at night. DIY – Build Your New Chicken Coop

What do I feed my chickens? If your chickens are confined to a small coop it will be necessary to provide them with a balanced commercial chicken feed. This is the most expensive method of feeding you backyard flock. If you have a fenced yard they can be allowed to free range over your yard eating weeds, grass, seeds and insects of all kinds as well as ridding your yard of most insects. You will need to provide very little supplemental feed for a healthy happy flock.

Here is a little tid bit of information I didn’t know about free ranging chickens.

* A recent study conducted by Mother Earth News has found that eggs from pasture raised hens have higher values for a number of nutrients than USDA data for eggs from hens in confinement houses. Pastured eggs contain: 50% more vitamin E; 4 times the beta carotene; 35 times the omega-3 fatty acids; and half the cholesterol. And, they contain 10.5 mcg of folic acid (that is 10.5 mcg more than USDA’s data for eggs).

* A recent study funded by the USDA shows meat from chickens raised on pasture contained: 21% less total fat, 30% less saturated fat, 28% fewer calories, 50% more vitamin A, and 100% more omega-3 fatty acids.

* A study conducted by James Madison University found bacterial contamination to be lower in pastured poultry: 133 colony-forming units per milliliter (cfu/ml) in pastured poultry compared to 3600 cfu/ml in conventional poultry.

* A Virginia Tech study found pastured poultry to be 70% lower in fat, and of the fats present, poly-unsaturated were much higher than mono-saturated.

* A study by Pennsylvania State University found 3 times the omega-3s, twice the vitamin E, and 40% more vitamin A in the eggs of chickens on pasture compared to conventional confinement laying hens.

Your backyard flock will provide you with eggs, meat and a lot of enjoyment. Providing you do not get any roosters, chickens are very quite, easy to raise and handle and will provide you and your family with many hours of enjoyment. {A rooster is not need for hens to lay eggs.}

Start planning NOW for you small backyard flock. Purchase your chicks now or wait a while and buy pullets or laying hens this fall when other growers start reducing their flock size for winter months.

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DIY – Build Your New Chicken Coop

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Need a chicken coop? Think small, cheap and easy to build. You will need a minimum of 2 square feet of floor space for each chicken. A 4 foot square chicken coop will house 6 to 8 chickens with ease. If your lucky you can find enough materials free of charge to build a 4 by 4 foot to maybe as large as 4 by 8 foot coop. Check with your friends and neighbors, ask around at construction sites for free lumber.

Old privacy fence that is being replaced is a good source of useable lumber. It comes in 8 foot sections 6 feet tall and will have a lot of picket lumber that after being trimmed will be 4 to 5 feet long as well as having two or sometimes three 8 foot long 2X4′s that can be salvaged.

Look on sites like Craigslist for free or cheap old wood frame windows and doors that are being replaced with modern steel, aluminum and vinyl type windows.

Home made chicken coop

Tools needed are few. A measuring tape, claw hammer, hand saw or power circle saw and a pound or 2 of nails. Enlist the help of friends and neighbors, make it a fun to do project.
**Hint: Drywall or deck screws are better than nails. They are a bit more expensive but hold better than nails and are easy to screw in using a number 2 Phillips screwdriver bit and your power drill.

Your new chicken coop and chicken run must:
(1) provide protection from cold and wet weather.
(2) Provide protection from predators, dogs, cats, skunks, snakes, fox, racoons and coyotes.

Portable chicken coop

If your yard (coop area) does not have a shaded area(s) this coop is an example of a coop that is enclosed on 3 sides at the bottom, 2 feet off the ground to provide a shaded area for your chickens during the heat of summer. Without shade chickens can over heat and die. Keep in mind that it must be constructed to provide you with easy access to gather eggs and to clean out old litter as needed. The picture is labeled as ‘portable coop’ but in all truth, it would not be easy to move this coop around without a lot of help. A solid built coop is very important in keeping your flock safe from bad weather and predators. People are not the only animal that likes chicks, chicken and eggs!

Consider recycling an old garage or storage shed into a coop. I often see these sheds being given away by people simply to get them out of their yard. They are light weight and would make excellent chicken coops with the addition of a few nest boxes and roosting perch.

Simple chicken coop design

This picture is of poor quality but item (A) is a roosting platform board 18 inches off the floor, wide enough to prevent roosting chickens from soiling your nest boxes with their droppings. (B) is a roosting perch 4 to 6 inches above the board platform. Allow at least 9 inches of roost perch space for each chicken in your flock and (C) is 1 or more nest boxes located underneath the roost platform board. Remember when constructing you nest boxes to build them so it will be easy for you to remove old nest box litter and refill with clean nesting litter materials such as saw shavings, straw or grass hay. Clean nest box litter will aid greatly in keeping your eggs from becoming soiled making egg cleaning much easier.

Chicken coop with attached wire covered outdoor run.

This is an example of a small simple chicken coop with an attached wire covered run to house your chickens as well as protect them from predators. Your yard, with or without fencing and your chicken flock size and available building materials will dictate what type of chicken coop best fits your needs. Happy stress free chickens will produce many eggs for many months for you and your family.

There are few ‘Free’ plans available on how to build a chicken coop. However you can find many Free Plans on building a storage shed. Any storage shed can easily be converted into a chicken coop with the addition of a few nest boxes and a perch for your hens. Your options are only limited by your imagination.

Don’t get carried away in your excitement and get to many hens for your egg needs. In general you can except to get 1 egg every 27 hours from each of your hens. That works out to 5 or 6 eggs per hen every week. Two hens will produce about 1 dozen eggs a week!

Up-Scale Coop

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Mother Nature’s Sick Sense Of Humor! Turkins…

A few weeks ago my son-n-law bought the last 16 chicks of 2011′s chicks (Feed store clearance sale) being sold at a bargain price. All the left overs were in one pen, no choice, no breed names, just labeled, clearance sale chicks!

No, Not this Kind Of Turk-in

10 of these chicks have to be some kind of sick trick mother nature played on me and the chicks! Ugliest chicks I have ever seen! Looking like some kind of breeding accident, looking like something out of an old Boris Karloff horror movie. Sorry but if you don’t know who Boris Karloff is you will have to google it!

Naked Neck Turkin Chicken

The answer is No, before you ask. They are not a cross between a turkey and a chicken…Grin… They are just another of the many different chicken breeds.

I took all of them out of the brooder pen and introduced them to my small flock of bantam hens yesterday. They seem to be doing well, running from one place to place exploring their new hen house and outdoor run. I have been feeding chick grow starter mixed with a little chopped corn and hen scratch. I will take them off chick starter and put them on a diet of egg crumbles (lay mash) and a grain mixture as soon as this bag of chick starter is used up.

I said I had 16 chicks, 10 being Turkins the other 6 are {I think} barred rocks. Being straight run I’m sure at least 8 of them are roosters. I should be able to sex them by mid December and process the roosters getting them in the freezer for a few of home grown fried chicken dinners. I have two ‘old’ bantam roosters that will go into the soup pot for chicken and noodle soup.

Barred Rock Hen

All of my new chicks should be fully feathered long before the really cold weather arrives and will have no need for a heat lamp.

This fall season has been full of accidents, first the chicks and now a dog accident!

Heeler - Border Collie Cross

The only good thing about this puppy thing is they will be weaning age just in time for Christmas puppy’s. Then BG(female) is off to be fixed, and she doesn’t even know shes broke! No more accidents here thank you!

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Sand Hill Cranes, Geese and Chicken Coop’s

Summer has given way to falls cooler temperatures and a burst of color, at least most places! Today has had a feel of fall in the air. Cooler weather, the air has a feel of dampness..

Long before first light I could hear the call of wild geese each carefully following the one ahead. In the far distance I could hear the Sand hill Cranes calling. Cranes flying much higher than the flocks of Canadian geese. This is always a sure sign that a cold blast is not far away.

Gardeners in their hast and busy schedule often fail to truly listen to all the fading sounds of summer and fall as winters cold winds approach. Don’t miss out on this once a year event. Stop look and listen, tune out all the sounds of our modern world and listen to what nature is telling you.

Chicken poop, nothing but the poop. Now is a good time to get all that old litter and manure out of your chicken coop/hen house, floors, nest boxes and roosting areas. Spread lightly on your garden plot and till it in or pile it on your compost pile. As the nights get longer your chickens will spend more time in there coop. It is a good idea to sanitize your coop and spray or dust for mite control.

Close the door and cover all windows, look for places you can see light entering your coop. Use wood trim to close all these holes that will allow the cold winds, rain and snow to enter your coop this winter. Don’t use calk or spray foam, your chickens will peck at and eat calk and spray foam. Cold weather will send every mouse and rat within 1000 feet to seek winter shelter in and under your chicken coop. Put out mouse/rat bait now. Insure the bait is in a place that your chickens flock can not gain access to the bait.

Build or buy enough feeders and freeze proof Waters dispensers to keep you flock supplied with fresh feed and water. Raise feeders and waters off the floor high enough that your chickens need to reach high to access feed. This will help to keep them from wasting feed or pooping in their water containers.

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Chicken Sex – Chicken Coop’s – Egg Production – Ornamental Poultry

chicken coop on the cheap
Which came first? The Chicken or the Coop? Free Coop Plans Hopefully for you and the chicken, you had / have a coop before bringing your chicks or pullets home. Your coop can be very large (housing several thousand pullets) or very small (housing as few as 1 or 2 pullets) depending on the number and size of the chicken breed you have chosen.

Rule of thumb is standard size breeds, layers and meat breeds require a minimum of 2 square feet of coop (hen house) floor space for each chicken. Bantam breeds can get by with as little as 1- 1/2 square feet of floor space per-bird. Using a half sheet of plywood as flooring, (4ft by 4 ft) you can safely house 6 or 8 standard size pullets/hens.

Unless you eat more eggs than most families eat ‘now days’ 8 hens will quickly fill your refrigerator with more eggs than your family can possibly eat. The experts tell me that 1 hen will lay 1 egg every 27 hours. If you have 8 hens, that works out to 5 or maybe even 6 eggs per-hen or 40 – 48 eggs every 7 days! Grinning, do the arithmetic Before you bring home 10 or 12 of those cute little chicks.

FYI – DIY hatching eggs No you do not need a rooster for your hens to produce eggs. A rooster is only needed if you plan on hatching a few eggs. Besides your neighbor will be much happier if you do not have an old rooster that starts crowing at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.

After you have your coop, your next big decision is what breed chicken do I get. One of the larger duel purpose chickens is a good choice. They are good egg layers, large enough to be good table (meat) birds and in general have a quiet disposition making them easy to handle and are easy to keep penned in a uncovered outdoor run. They are easy to dress for the table. Their heavy plumage make them good to excellent winter layers, most laying brown eggs. They also make excellent setters and mothers.

If you like something a bit different think about getting a few bantams. They have the same disposition and coloring of their full size counter parts but are only about 1/3 to 1/2 their size and weight. They are good to excellent small egg layers and are good setters and mothers.

leghorn

If you are want excellent high egg production layers, that are non-setters and a medium weight birds, consider one of the Leghorn strains. White, red and brown leghorns are the most common. All leghorns lay large white eggs.

Disclaimer: I am not endorsing this or any other hatchery, but, Murray McMurray Hatchery has a ton of full color poultry pictures along with all the information about many different breeds that you will need to make a decision on what breed you may want to have in your backyard flock. I strongly recommend that you read and carefully select the breed that best fits your space and weather conditions.

My Personal Comment: I buy my chicks locally. I pay a bit of a premium price per chick, but, if I only need 1 chick that is all I must buy. Mail order generally requires that you order a minimum of 24 or 25 chicks plus shipping charges. In many cases shipping cost is as much as the cost of your chicks.

Without a rooster in your flock, chickens are quite, requiring little space and little feed if allowed to free range over your backyard, providing meat and eggs for your families table.

Chicken Sex: Smile, now that I have your attention, Here’s how to sex your day old chicks by looking at their wing feathers.

Sexing day old chicks: It is fairly easy to determine if you know the secret to feather sexing day old chicks. This is a visual examination of the chicks wing feathers to determine it’s sex. I found this site with all the information you will need in sexing your new day old chicks. Feather Sexing Chickens is provided by University of Missouri – Animal Sciences – College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

You can save a lot of time, money and effort by sexing day old chicks and only keeping the only pullets. Unless you plan on raising the rooster for meat birds or you need a breeding rooster, it is best to sell or give away all the roosters that you hatch. It requires a great deal of time, effort and feed to get these birds to butcher weight.

One note of Caution: Feather sexing chickens can only be accomplished when the chicks are 1 or 2 days old. Birds grow so fast that by day 3 it is ‘Very’ difficult or impossible to use this method to determine the sex of your chicks.

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Tiny Mules On A Tiny Farm With A Tiny Garden

My iGarden website
Smile, well as promised, a Mule Update. My son-n-law and daughter Michelle L made the trip over to Fredrick today and after an hour or more managed to get the 2 miniature mules loaded in to his livestock trailer. Poor Ronny, my son-n-law picked them up as a favor to his old daddy-n-law. Today was another in a long line of hot day’s, it was about 105 degrees when he arrived to load 2 {not well mannered} mules.

I have no history on these mules, but, it is obvious that they have not been handled. Most likely running semi-wild in a large pasture with horses or cattle. {New names are Bonny and Clyde} one is a Molly the other is a John, Both are in good condition, well fed and both have very nice slick coats, just wild as a march hare. I haven’t had a chance to put a tape on them but when they are standing next to a 4 foot livestock panel, they look to be 39 to 40 inches tall at their shoulders.

We penned then in a 16 foot by 10 foot pen that attaches to a lean-to type shed. Ronny got them a bit of fresh hay and a trough of fresh cool water. Starting in the morning I will get in their pen, start spend time with them, talking to them. In a week or two, hopefully I will be able to get them calm enough to get a halter on them to start lead rope training.

Two mules is one too many mules. I will select the one I like best and sell the other or trade for a few bails of good quality hay. Besides, one mule does not act nearly as stupid when she has to depend on a human to be her best friend. If things go as planed {and they never do} Bonny will be saddle ready for my great grand son by next spring. He {My Great Grand Son} will turn 3 next spring. He should be able to ride Bonny for 5 – 7 years before he gets to heavy for Bonny to carry. In 5 or so years, Bonny will, Smile, become my yard ornament and self propelled lawn mower.

Duck, Goose and turkey news. I revamped a small fence and have turned them out into my abandoned garden plot. Sad to say, but, the whole bunch is so fat and lazy they won’t even catch and eat a grasshopper unless it accidentally fly into their mouth. I guess I need to re-do my chicken pen fence and turn the chickens out onto the garden plot. Maybe they can and will catch and eat a few of this grasshopper horde attacking anything that’s still she slightest bit green.

Michelle L and Ronny’s longhorn bull, even with this intense heat wave, {the black bull with the largest horns} and their red and black heifers are are putting on weight and have slicked up well and really looking good. #108 {the Holstein steer} looks to be about 900 pounds now, I can’t hardly wait to get another 1 or 2 hundred pounds on him. That will place him in the 1,000 to 1,100 pound class. I told Ronny that his steer was getting hot and we need to send him to Indiahoma’s butcher shop and let them remove his fur coat and he can ‘hang’ around in the cooler for 3 week’s. Grin…

My Tiny House is still ground zero. A high pressure cell is setting directly on top of my Tiny Garden and the long range (14 day) weather forecast is 101 to 107 degrees everyday. Not only does a high pressure dome keep the temperatures from falling it also prevents formation of anything that resembles a rain cloud.

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Tiny farm – Stubborn As A Tiny Mule

I saw two miniature mules on Craigslist for sale. I have emailed them to see if they still have their mules and where they are located. If they still have them I will soon be the proud owner of two mules. Of course they will be yard ornaments, a miniature mule is not good for anything except as a pet and something my great grand son can ride for a few years before he out grows them and gets to big to ride a miniature mule.

With luck my grand son will come by today and we can kill, pick and clean that white turkey. He’s starting to molt and needs to be butchered before he starts putting in new feathers. I am guessing he will weigh about 20 pounds. It’s time for him to go to the freezer or maybe we can have a smoked (BBQ) turkey this weekend.

The two bronze turkeys still need another month or maybe even two months before they will be butcher size. Smile, just in time to be invited to be the guest of honor at our Thanksgiving table. Next April I will get 3 or 4 Poults to raise for 4th of July BBQ and for thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

With all this heat #108 our Holstein steer has almost stopped eating. I’m sure he hasn’t lost any weight but he has not gained any weight either. We will still need to wait at least a month after it starts cooling off to put another 50 or so pounds on him before we send him out to be vacuumed wrapped and freezer ready.

Pasture grass and hay is getting expensive and in short supply. Even so, I would like to get at least one more longhorn heifer. I’m beginning to see a lot of nice looking longhorn heifers for sale as farmers are now culling their herds because they are getting short on pasture grass and can’t afford to buy hay for a year or more to bring them to market weights. One 1200 pound bail of hay will feed one(1) cow for 25 -30 days. That’s a lot of hay when your feeding 5 head of cows. It will take at least 1 bail every 5 – 7 days. Hay price is already going up from $45.00 – $50.00 a bail and is now selling for $65.00 – $85.00 a bail for mid grade grass hay.

If it’s not one thing it’s anotherWindShift69 tells me that Shady Rest Pub, Vancouver Island BC has a great view, is a good place to relax and enjoy your choice of Adult Beverage(s)…. I may have to give this Pub Relaxing thing a try. Couldn’t hurt!

Why is common sense so uncommon?
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