Shredded Straw for Nesting and Coops

Ever since we started raising ducks, we have been using straw for their bedding as it is inexpensive, more absorbent and the ducks are less likely to try to eat it BUT straw can be brittle, and sometimes sharp on their feet and underbellies. Last fall, I saw a guy using a wood chipper to shred the straw for his ducks, which I thought was a good idea, but didn't want to invest that much money on something dedicated to breaking down straw.  After more reading this past year, I decided that I would try a leaf mulcher, but I wanted something that was inexpensive, battery or electric, and easy to use.  Most of the inexpensive leaf mulchers were combo leaf and small branch chippers, and well, I didn't like their designs. I opted for a glorified weed whacker in a barrel type of leaf mulcher.  It's noisy, dusty, and kinda messy, but it got the job done quickly without a lot of extra effort. Dumped a five-gallon bucket of straw into the device, and whizzzzzzz, it was done in less than a minute. 

While I won't "promote" any particular product, but I'm guessing you would be able to figure it out if you went searching for leaf mulchers. 😁

And the final product to the right of the original bale. 

Seven Weeks Black Spanish Turkeys Are Outside! New Coop Design

It is hot hot today, but thankfully, the new coop allows for great air flow! The Coop is finally done.  It is not tooo heavy, but I think it will be solid enough for Aries and Luna. I will still need to paint it.  It's only a primer right now. But you can see that the Poults are over a foot tall now and growing rapidly.  They are just starting to get feathers developing on the backs of their necks. A canvas tarp will protect them in the evenings and on rainy days.  I will need to start on their run now. It will be similar in style, but setting on the ground to allow them to forage safely. Heritage turkeys are supposed to be great foragers.  As they get older/bigger, we will let them out of the pen and forage in the field.

The Start - a base on sleds	The front with sliding plexi-glass door
Luna Checking the new Coop Digs	Aries standing under Roosting Bar
Still using small feeder/water until they get larger	Back wall with Clean out door
The door panel is secured to Wood on front wall	Canvas Tarp will be secured with bungie cords
Roost is a 2" x 3" bar attached to Front and Back Panels

A little sneachta with that New Year

Our "official" winter, thus far, has been cold but not a lot of precipitation in our area, so that's been nice! The east winds have been whipping through with 30 mph gusts that drop the temps from barely freezing to brrrrrr. So we put up wind break panels on the chicken runs. You may notice that we have clear plastic strapped on the top parts of the pens to allow sunshine in but keep the elements off the center of the runs. This only helps on snowy days, like today, or when there's a light rain.  Heavy duty rains, of course, can turn the run into a real muck fest, so we throw out some hay to keep that manageable. 

Also, you may be able to see a block on top of a garbage can lid near the corner of coop two. That's to help protect the power cord connections from the elements to bring light and water heaters to life on these dark, cold winter days.  Coop one, in the background of coop two is empty. If you look in the "space" next to the wind break of coop three, you can see one of the Welsummers peeking out to see what's flashing?  :) 

Coop 2

Coop 3

Checked on the garlic and onions.  Garlic stems look fine.  Can't find any onion stems. Hoping that's normal and they will be back in the spring. We will see.  I have enough seeds left to plant more onions in the spring, if necessary.  That's it for the New Year 2016 update. 

Update on our efforts to combine the Welsummers with the remaining Russian Orloff in coop three.  I think it was about November 10 that we shoved the Welsummers into the coop in the dark of night and kept our fingers crossed.  While two of the Welsummers did fairly well with the transition, the smallest of the Wellsummers was bullied by the primary Russian Orloff.  We kept that Orloff because she was the best layer of the group. And, she still is the best layer, laying almost every day after finishing the molt. The smallest Welsummer even pushed her way out of the pen one day to get away from the Orloff! She was a mess! She ended up with a bloodied comb, losing all her tail feathers and neck feathers. We were not certain she was even going to make it through the week! Although she still avoids the Orloff, she is now being allowed to roost with the other three hens at night together. She has regained her feathers, her weight and is no longer getting beat up. She even laid her first egg since the transition on December 31. So, all in all, it took some time, but the hens are all back in action as a new flock.

10-week Molt in Coopdee Three has Come to an End

The remaining Orloff in Coop three laid her first egg post-molt today. We received four eggs today from both coopers. We actually got three from coop two, which, essentially indicates that all the hens in that coop are back to laying. The Welsummers are still not laying eggs. I'm hoping that now with the lone Orloff in coop three back in laying form, they will pick back up with theirs too. 

We're a soggy mess in our region. Normally, for the month of December, we get about 6 to 7 inches  of precipitation, usually in the form of rain, the entire month. But, in the past week alone, we had approximately 6 inches, with a lot of flooding in some areas. Hillsides are collapsing, roads are getting washed away, new pot-holes are forming, roadways are under feet of water. It's not good. Our ground is saturated beyond the point of draining and our poor chickidees are slogging around in the muck. We threw out some grass hay (not straw) to help minimize the amount of muck, but that's not perfect. It's just the best we can do for now. 

Onions and Garlic might end up rotting in the garden due to the warmth of the air and the amount of rain. Oy Vey! 

Re-Group and Re-Coop

Well, it's that time of the year!  We have less pasture places to place the coops and with the lack of sunlight/new plant growth, we have to move coops more frequently throughout the area. Four coops was two coops too many! We have consolidated. We kept the "only 2nd year layer" of coop three, and she is now co-mingling with the 1st year layers. We also kept all of the 2nd year layers of coop two. Coop one's 3rd year layers will all be winter soup material by the end of this week. 

D has decided that he definitely "over built" that first coop. Without any wheels to move it along, the process of moving that big old heavy coop was getting to be too difficult to move in the winter, even with heavy slog boots on. That coop will be put away, for now. 

I have strategized a different "hoop" coop that we can build for next spring. We can work on it over the winter in the garage. It will be a combo of the coops we built last year along with PVC hoop (tunnel) pen. So I think we can get at least five to six hens in that one while it will still be easy to move.   

So, our thirteen hens are dwindling down to eight hens this winter. That will be plenty of eggs for the family with a few extra that we can sell.

Last night, at dusk, we pulled the three 1st year Wellsummer hens out of their coop. Just before that, we closed the door from the coop to the pen on coop three. Then we pushed all three hens into coop three with the remaining Russian Orloff (in the dead of night). Interestingly, no major fights.  I knew they would not fight in the dark, but wondered what the daylight would bring. They definitely kept their distance, with three in one part of the pen with the one in the other part of the pen. So, perhaps, they will work it out without any damage until they figure out a new pecking order. 

The moult has been a long one this year.  Don't know if the extra hot summer is the reason, or if all the house construction has just been too much stress on the hens. The 1st year layers, of course, basically grew up with all this noise, so they appear oblivious to the racket. Nonetheless, the coops are set up for winter with lights in place.  I attached some oversized plastic electrical boxes in the coops to protect the timers from constantly being knocked down.  Now the issue is the light socket being knocked out of the box... Oy Vey! Will need to work on getting that secured. 

Hopefully, we'll start getting some more fresh eggs in the near future! For now, we are only getting one or two eggs per day! Come'on Girls - let's get back to Egg'n!

Garden-wize, I wanted to make note so that I don't forget next spring, that I planted the Garlic and Onions about the 3rd week of October (10/18/15).  I had never tried onion seeds before, so I was not sure that would even work.  Due to the temps being in the low 40s almost every night, not much was happening even after two weeks. I put my plastic hoop house over the garden, and a week later, I had a nice sprout of onions and garlic.  It's dipping into the high 30s at night now, so I'll leave the hoop house up for another week or two. In the meantime, I plan on adding straw to the garden to help protect the bulbs from frost. Winter is on its way!