Oh my goodness, so much has happened since the last time we met. Avie returned to her flock and is happily hopping along with her visible limp. Her obvious displeasure at having her photo taken was soon forgotten after she had room to fly and bugs to scratch at.  Walking in the dry leaves she looks like part of the landscape.

The garden space is almost finished for the fourth time in as many years, but this year by gosh I am going to have a garden!!! Year one; drought. To hot for anything to grow well, although we did get a few beans and some tomatoes.  Year two; goats and chickens.  Every day was a battle to keep the goats from jumping the garden fence or just pushing through it) and eating everything in sight. What they didn't eat they trampled, and what they ignored the chickens and ducks happily took care of. My only crop that year was okra. Year three; floods. The garden plot was the new swimming pool in town. Weeks of tilling, soil additions, row spacing, seed planting and twine tying was swept away in moments by torrential rains. Somewhere down current in the lake there are dozens of row markers floating around.

So with high hopes we are planting again! The garden plot has been raised 1' along with the site for the greenhouse I will have some day, a trench of sorts has been dug along the flood plane to divert excess water, gravel filled tires have been placed as a berm (and as the new strawberry bed), and drainage to and from the pond has been improved to alleviate back flow. Whew! The chickens were happily helping find worms in the newly turned soil and spreading the barn compost for me. They do make driving the tractor a little tricky though.

Finally, we come to the highlight story of the month. Babies!! Sophie, as the white goat is now known, gave us two precious kids, one male and one female just after Valentine's day. Mama and kids are doing well, but there has been a learning curve with this one as I will document in the next blog post. Until then, enjoy the pics.

Thanks for stopping by Heeby Jeeby Chickens! Have a blessed day and happy farming.

Avie the House Chicken

More about Avie

Avie is our house chicken. She is very photogenic!

And she loves snuggles and hugs.

Avie was found one morning lying in the coop with the rest of the chickens, unable to stand or walk. She had never shown problems up until that day, so we assumed she had hurt one of her legs and brought her in for further inspection. Indeed, she could not put weight on her left leg, and she was frightfully ill. After an Epson salt soak, some warm scrambled egg and broccoli, and a fresh drink Avie acted as though she felt better. So, it was time for a thorough inspection, and what we found was shocking to say the least. Avie had an exposed breast bone that had been chipped.

You can see by the size comparison next to my thumbnail that it is a sizable wound. This photo above was actually taken almost a month after the initial injury, and you can see feathers growing back in and a healthy scab formed over the site. The next photo shows the full breast bone now and the healing that is taking place.

Avie may never again be reintroduced to her flock, simply because chickens will peck at each other if they find an injury and will actually kill another injured bird. She can walk with effort and prefers to stand on her right leg and use the left one like a kick stand, so until she is strong and able to move around freely with minimal effort, Avie will just have to be our house chicken. Chickens have amazing healing abilities, so we have confidence in her future as a healthy, happy chicken.

Get well soon Avie!

Happy farming.

Avie

Happy February!
We are starting this month with a crazy chicken issue that would have been certain death, but has turned out to be something amazing instead. The picture below is of our newest house pet and our 2 dogs. Why a house chicken? She has a fully exposed breast bone that has finally started healing, but she will probably never be able to return to the flock.  The injury happened a couple of weeks ago, and while we did not notice the weird bone, she could not walk or even put weight on her legs so that became our focus. It is very possible that it is a birth defect that has only recently announced itself as a problem, because there is no apparent injury to the chest.

So now we have Avie, the house chicken. Each day, she gets stronger and is putting more weight on her legs and even stands for a few minutes but she has a long recovery road ahead. The mystery of her breast bone will probably never be solved, but with TLC and a veggie omelet each morning, she is well on her way to being a healthy chicken again!

Happy farming.

The Garage Barn

Good morning! I would like to share a few more videos with you today. 

These are a series of videos taken of our garage barn. The original structure was a metal sided 2 car garage, but the doors are not standard garage doors, they are actually double doors that swing out. There was nothing inside to begin with except a concrete floor and the overhead structural beams to work with.

We needed shelter for our horses from any weather extremes when we moved here and building something was not in the budget yet, so the garage became a barn. With a little ingenuity, some log poles we cut from the property, and a few cattle panels we brought along.  This created 4 large horse stalls and a mini stall for small creatures.

Geez I babble a lot when I video. Sorry.

This structure was added to the South side of the barn this year as a goat shelter. The goats refuse to stay in it and the donkey adopted it as his own, so now it's the donkey shelter. Next step, adding another smaller stall in the garage barn for the goats.

Nice thing about concrete floors, they clean up quick.

Thanks for watching! If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to share.

Happy farming.

Good morning!  I bet you all thought I forgot my resolution. Nope, just have too much going on at the farm and the restaurant to spend too much time online right now.  So first off, we have made the decision to close the restaurant. When you subsidize your own business for two years, closing it is like giving yourself an automatic raise.  That will allow me to utilize my time wisely at the farm and create a sustainable living here. Well, that's the plan anyway!
I promised someone from a group I follow that I would post some pictures of the fodder I grew this last month for the chickens.  This is my first attempt and I am really happy with the results. Not as many sprouted as I would have liked, but it has been really cold outside and the window it sits in is not as warm as it needs. So next time I will try a warmer spot. Enjoy the pics and feel free to ask any questions!

Began by soaking the wheat berries overnight.

This butter tub will be the growing pot. Its a gallon size tub so an ice cream tub would work well too.

Many holes were punched through the bottom using a paring knife. The more holes the better for drainage, keep them small enough the wheat cannot fall through.

Rinse the wheat well then layer them in the bottom of the tub and allow all the water to drain out. This is very important so they do not mold.  Place it in a second tub to allow any residual water to drip.

This is 2 1/2 weeks later.  It should not have taken that long but I now know why and can fix the problems.  You can see there is no mold though and the growth is really nice, just not all seeds sprouted.  I think the sides are too tall so the sunlight cannot reach the edges. That's an easy fix, I will just cut it down. Also the window they were kept in got really cold during this last cold snap so I will move them where there is always warmth. Ideally they should be kept around 70 degrees or so.

Not bad for the first time! 

Come back often, and Happy Farming!

Sand for chicken bedding

It's fluffy butt Friday!

Multi-species fluffy butts! I appreciate the fact that the ducks were being cooperative this morning.

Fresh straw to help the mud situation. Tonight and tomorrow we have snow in the forecast then freezing temps for a few days. Good thing these birds like to snuggle!

With that in mind I wanted to share a quick photo run down of how we keep our hen house clean using sand.  It is a trick I learned from The Chicken Chick and it has been invaluable.  This is what the house looks like every morning. Gross. 

5 minutes later, this is the result. The sand acts like cat litter, and with a simple steel tined rake everything is raked to the center, then right out the access door. I "comb" back through the sand a couple of times to spread it back out and voila!, a clean hen house.  A bag of sand costs $4.00 and lasts us a month.  It's cheap, easy to maintain, and very economical.  I know the birds appreciate a clean house each day!

You're welcome miss chicken.

Enjoy the weekend and thanks for checking in!

temporary coop roof

    Good morning chicken lovers and hobby farmers! (And everyone else who is tuned in today :) ) It is January here which means the weather is indecisive, so we have to spend today (45 degrees and sunny) preparing for tomorrow (40 and raining) so we can fend off next week (30 and snow/ice). Today I am "fixing" the torn tarp over the chicken run. I am actually adding a second tarp over it in the hopes that it will last the rest of the winter until we can come up with a better, more permanent solution. I will try to either include pics as I go along, or a short video. I really need to invest in a portable video device. Either that or duct tape the cell phone to my forehead...
    Anyhoo, keeping the chickens dry is an important aspect of raising them disease and parasite free.  It will also help prevent frostbite on their feet. The old saying applies to chickens as well as all other animals, "they can be wet, they can be cold, but never let them be wet and cold!" Lastly, covering this area will prevent their food from growing mildew and bacteria, which can cause food poisoning and death in your flock. There are several issues I will have to deal with as I go along, so any helpful suggestions would be welcome! 
    
    Happy farming!!

  

It was a little cold this morning. Noon sounded like a much better time to tackle the tarp today. brrr!

   

   

You can see how the chicken run is covered by an extremely large tarp of questionable quality. While the idea was great, it did not take long for the tarp to start leaking from both cats and guineas walking across it, and for the winds to tear it apart at all the grommet points. Also where it lays over the edge of the fencing has caused major damage to the edge.  So today I attached a second smaller tarp over this one and pulled all four corners taut with baling twine. Again, only temporary, but we have to use what we have until we can afford otherwise. The birds seemed unconcerned that I was climbing up and down a ladder in their run, and were only interested in the grains tossed in their dirt box and their feeder. They will appreciate the dry area tomorrow, I'm sure!