When we brought home our first 6 chicks, DH made a little hen house out of scraps of boards, plywood,etc he had bee carefully saving. It was approximate 4'x8'. Of course we couldn't stop with 6, so the next year we brought home 12! So he built another 4x6 addition. Well, this is year 4 and we now have 25 Big and Little Girl, and even 2 new Little Boys: Roo 1 and Roo 2. So it was time for a better Hen House.
Now my husband does not throw anything away, and can proudly tell you where each piece of wood came from 20 years before!  He did buy some roofing and screws, brackets etc for our new improved version  this time.

March 1st -snow under the Oaks

Meanwhile it is slowly becoming Spring! Last week we had snow, and this week the daffodils are blooming. I have visions of plant pots and new perennials dancing in my head, and will attempt to get my DH to let me design the vegetable garden, but doubt that will fly. He is always suspicious that I will plant more flowers than vegetables!
We are also trying out putting an egg sign down by the road, when we have too many. I have also been baking Quiches, scrambled eggs, angel food cake ( didn't turn out the best) just to try to use up the plentiful Spring eggs! 

Well, our new little girls turned out to be 2 roosters and 2 hens. They are 8 weeks old and the little Roo's are practicing their crows. We needed to segregate them from all the Big Girls, as they are still eating the baby food. So using what we had, we converted an old dog house and some fencing into a little yard just for them. Now they can become adjusted to seeing and hearing the other big chickens, until they grow a little more. This is our first experience with roosters! We pulled up lawn chairs to watch for awhile, as the new babies got their first look at grass, dirt, and the big sky, along with watching other chickens run by. A whole new world has opened up!

My day has been spent with canning 22 quarts of peaches,and 6 quarts of tomatoes. I intended to do up some green beans, but ran out of time. I know this doesn't sound like much, but I am glad to add these jars to the shelves in the garage. They look so pretty! I think I will try to can some winter squash, too. Of course, the past week, we have been picking blackberries and freezing them as we go, after a blackberry cobbler or so. I can't resist throwing some berries to the chickens as I pick, they are also excited to get the peach trimings and tomato skins! In Chicken news, I gave in and named the Baby Girls- the orange ones are Rosie, Roseanne and Bantina who is our only Banty Chick. The Barred Rock are The Three Barbara Sisters: Barb, Barbie and Barbara. They are identical, so you can't tell them apart.  The Barbara's are named after Barbara the Chicken , who's infamous tales are recounted on the Chicken Forum. http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=253158&p=1
Hope you are all enjoying the Harvest Days and counting your Blessings or Barbaras whichever the case may be!

yellow daylillies

pink peony

blue and white theme, white coneflowers will be blooming soon

the last rhodie to bloom

the Big Girls looking longingly thru the gate

 

As I was weeding out the iris bed, I wondered how the grass and dandilions can grow so fast and huge. It seems that I turn my back and here they are. The Iris have multiplied so that they need to be distributed around the five acres in a random manner. Maybe I will plant them down by the stream, along with the dogwood and daylillies. I can always use an new planting area. It rained most of the day today, altho not so chilly. Since it is almost July, I think our Oregon summer will be coming soon. I am almost sure of it!

Pink Bleeding heart

 Spring is in full swing here in the Mohawk Valley. Altho down in the forty's at night,and plenty of rain today, I have hopes of someday sunshine and pleasant days in the garden.

Hostas and white bleeding heart along the porch

Blue bird house with honeysuckle

The Big girls help eat all the slugs

 l

The new Baby Girls still in their enclosure

Finally some sunshine !

some day it will be warm enough to sit on the porch!

Our new chicks are old enough to go out to the hen house, altho we have them segregated from the Big Girls. They have their own door and chicken yard., and have figured how to go in at night. A big accomplishment! We have 3 Golden Sex Link, and 3 Barred Rock for our new girls. All 17 of the old girls are Americanas. One of the Big Girls did weasel her way into their yard and try to eat up all their baby food, but was quickly chased out by David.  We are getting 12 to 17 eggs a day now, and I have to remember to keep some for us, and not sell all of them at work. I have more buyers then eggs sometimes.

David has doubled the size of our vegetable garden, and had fenced it in for deer protection. He has a good amount of strawberries and raspberries thriving, but we hope to get the potatoes, beans, corn, tomatoes, ans squashes planted the first of June. It has been so wet and cold here. The garden shares a fence with the new chicken yard, the plan is to keep the compost pile on the chicken side and then open up the adjustable gate and aply it to tthe garden when ready. The girls do love to scratch thru the compost!
Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

It's early spring here, only in the 40's in between showers, still a little snow visible in the hills surrounding our valley. Of course, when I go outside, the Chickie Girls think I need to feed them, so they come running. They have been busy in the perennial bed, scratching midst the cat mint and white cone flower coming up, around the daffodils which are like solid sunshine. The peonies are sending up their red shoots, with promise of heavy fragrant blossoms to come. I also have the grape hyacinth blooming, bleeding heart peeking up, the iris are sending up new shoots, along with the day lilies. The girls are busy laying as we have more light now. We are getting between 10  to 15 eggs a day. Luckily I do have buyers for them!
I added some Double Delight roses, orange and pink dahlias to the long perennial bed. Can't wait to see the colors as they come up! I also have new plans for another flower bed beyond the arbor over the fire pit, and despite my promises to my husband, am sure I need more plants to add the the established beds;)

Chickens off the grid!

My camera isn't the best, but you may be barely able to make out the string of Christmas lights over our hen house. My husband is especially proud, as he has them hooked up to the solar panel on top (which runs the light bulb inside for winter light).
So our girls not only have Christmas Spirit, but are off the grid as well!

Finally the end of June has brought days in the 70's and even 80 degrees! We had to wait until the official start of summer, June 21 to get any sun and warm weather.
So my flower baskets are a tad behind, since I didn't plant them until April and then we didn't get any sun until this week!
The good news is our little chickens aren't so little and have graduated to free range instead of just the chicken yard. There are ongoing dramas of whether the big girls are eating the little girls food or vice versa. And even tho there are 2 roosts in the little girls hen house, we find 11 chickens on one and 1 lonely chicken on the other! Too funny.
We finally have the garden planted, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, squash. The established strawberries and raspberries are doing well. We may get a few cherries from the new cherry tree, and ou new little peach and apple trees are doing well, if the deer don't notice them!
David has now 3 bee hives, after losing both last winter. Two he bought from Glory Bee, our local bee supply store, and one is a swarm he captured. We learned from last winter and are determined to watch them more closely this year to protect them. We love the honey!
Happy Fourth of July!

Things are silly here in the country! We have had the chickens almost a year now. They have been an entertainment and a delight. We started out with 6 Aracauna hens, lost one to a cruising neighbor dog, and have maintained 5 free ranging chickens over the fall and winter.
Of course, our daughter had to name them: Sophie, Audrey, Gwendlyn, Danielle de Barbaraqe... I'm forgetting one, hmmm.

So the other day I came home from work and was standing on the driveway talking to David. I noticed the dog was laying on the grass , licking something round and light colored..... an egg! with a crack! I snatched it up, looking around to see where he could have found this egg. The girls were supposed to be laying in the hen house, in their nice nesting boxes. No more running off to the woods to lay. No more climbing over the fence to the woods to collect the egg, no sir.
"well, I saw the Dumb Chicken up in the tree" says the husband. ( sometimes we call the chickens by their characteristics as we can't remember their names) So I look up, and there in a crook of our dark old fir tree shines another egg. She was laying in the tree, and apparently one fell out, bounced down where the dog was sitting, and he thought " I am a good dog , aren't I!"
Sigh.
So David being the awesome chicken owner that he is, put the extra nesting box up in the tree, so she wouldn't just lay on a branch. And put a ladder there so he could climb up and get the eggs. So now we have at least 4 chickens going up into the tree, using the ladder as well, to lay their eggs up where the view is fantastic.