Chickens

Yep more about chickens. The hubby and daughter are sick of hearing about them already so I gotta tell somebody.

Here’s the crew together. You can see their vitamin/electrolytes water in the background. It’s soooo hot here now I decided to give it to them a couple days in a row just to help them.

Dust bathing below.

They made them a little hole and they all piled up in it dust bathing.

I got tired of them wasting SO MUCH food until I made them this gutter feeder. I put the gutter guard over it and just cut out little holes for their heads. I got it just a bit too high for them so I put the little things for them to stand on to reach their feed.

After this shot was when I decided they needed a lift so they could reach their food better. THEN I decided I’d have to put wire over their feeder to keep them OFF the feeder since they wanted to climb up on it. They don’t need poop in their feed. SO I came up with this idea to keep them off it. They have just enough room to get their little heads in there to eat.

See in the next photo how they wanted to climb on the feeder to eat? I was like no now this can’t work. Ya can’t be getting ON the feeder but they wasn’t listening.

This is part of their run they are in on the next pic. This part is cover by tin and then the other part on up on the pic where you can see sunshine, it’s covered in wire on the top. The pen to the left in this pic will be where their nesting boxes will go. It’s not opened up to them yet since they’re not laying yet.

They are growing like weeds! A couple evenings ago we we went to a friends house to pick some string beans. Was going to be back by dark so I let them stay in their run figuring they would all come in the roosting area by night time. They’ve been really good about doing so.

So I figure I’d just let them stay in the run and then when we got back go inside their pen and shut the back gate that opens out into their run. Their run is completely covered in wire so nothing can get inside to them.

So I get back home from picking the string beans to find most ALL of them on their roost! They haven’t been sleeping on their roost! It was so cute I fell out laughing because you couldn’t put one more up there on that top rung of their roost that night. I told them what GOOD little chicks they were to! I was totally surprised to see them on it. Anyway then last night with camera in hand I went out to take pix before it got too dark. I’m telling you I have these things spoiled already!

Every last one of them wants the same board to roost on! There are still about 10 of them that are wanting to sleep on the ground.

This evening I let them outside their pen to free range. They LOVE free ranging.

Then this next picture is about how most of the pix I take of them are. lol They almost are never still so they are blurry.

Then tonight there were more on the roost and everyone still wanted the top roost. The things on the wall back there are dryer sheets stuck in the chicken wire to help keep away mosquitoes I hope!

This is the pile left on the floor that’s not using their roost yet.

The ones on the other board are wanting up on the top board with the others. They will even jump up there on top of the others when there’s no where for them to get. They are a  hoot.

By the time I left out there this evening that top board was totally jammed packed full. lol

So far the food they love are yellow crook neck squash, cucumbers, and they dearly love chops (corn crushed), and they really like zucchini squash even better than they do yellow squash. I fed them some cornbread I’d mixed in some flaxseed meal into and they loved that to. I sit and cut up grass in their pan of water in the run and they will fish the grass out of the water and eat it. They see me coming and they run to meet me thinking I have them food every time.

OK I think that will give you an idea of how spoiled these babies are. I’m sure I will be back posting more pictures soon. So stay tuned.

Rose

Chickens and Brooder Boxes

Well we’ve had the Rhode Island Reds (16 of them) for 2 weeks as of this past Sat. Then we got the Black Australorps and Sex Links (23 of these) this past Thursday. We wound up having to build another brooder box just like this one so we can butt them together and make one brooder box. We put a piece of stainless steel expanded metal in one side of the box for a window so they could see each other and it would be like they were raised together. Can’t put them all together yet since there is such a age difference.

Figured I would show you all a few pix of them and the brooder boxes.

 

This is the first one we did. Our nephew brought us these crates. They ship things in them where he works. We just added the legs and a couple 2x4’s to screw the legs to and added the top for the lid. It has hardware cloth on top of the lid. I keep plastic over the top to keep the Rhode Island Reds warm.

This is the Rhode Island Reds (RIR) when I first brought them home.

Another one.

Buddy our dog just loves them and is soooo fascinated with them.

One eating from the lid. lol Aren’t they so stinkin’ cute?

Getting bigger.

This one was pecking on my camera lins. lol

Out for a little outing.

They enjoyed their outing.

Working on their bigger pen trying to get it ready for them.

They should really enjoy this space.

Now for the newest babies. These are the Black Austrlorps and the black sex links. Got these on Thursday of last week so they are only 4 days old. There are 23 of these.

Buddy is just as fascinated with these.

They still have some of the stuff from the egg shell on them.

Started the SECOND brooder box. Made it about the same size as the other one so we can butt them together so they can see one another and grow up together. Then when they get larger I can unscrew the expanded metal and remove it so they can visit each others pens.

Sorry this pic isn’t too grand. My camera just doesn’t take nice night pix. I was painting it this evening and it got dark on me before I got done with it. This is the side with the expanded metal in it. We will cut the same size hole out in the other brooder box and just screw the two boxes together. I’ve got to put the hardware cloth on the top of it yet. The black australorps are really fast out growing their pen.

OK that should be enough for now. Maybe I can get some better pix of the second brooder box we made when it’s day time.

Updated to add a better pic of the newest brooder box…..

I’ve got to put the hardware cloth on it yet and take the tape off the expanded metal.

He (hubby) added the little tabs on the sides to attach the two brooders together with.

 

Rose

Chickens

 

Yep I will be soon getting me some baby chicks to raise. Am really excited. Going to get some black Australorp and some Rhode Island Reds and may even get some black sex links. Our nephew brought us a wooden box and we’re adding a door on the top of it and legs on the bottom.

This is the top of it in the picture below. You can see the hinges on the back of it there. I am going to put some hardware cloth on the top where the little 1x2 strips are.

 

 

I am going to paint it a pretty green color since I have that paint on hand already. The next pic is the bottom of it. I wanted legs on it so it wouldn’t be so low to the ground. We’re going to frame the legs out with the little 1x2’s and also attach them to the 2x4 there that’s already on the box.

 

 

Our nephew brought us this box from where he worked to have for the chicks. We’re going to get our chicks from him since he has a hatching business.

I’ve been trying to get my duck pen ready for when they get older they will go into that then. Hubby and I are going to put some tin up on the north wall and on part of the west wall so it will be warmer for them in the winter time. Also I wanted to use that area for the roost to so that way nothing can get at them through the fence while they’re on the roost. Had to do a little patch work on the old duck pen since it’s been quite some time since it’s been used. Cleaning it out as well because I was storing some flower pots in it.

 

Thought I’d share a bit of what I have been doing these days with you all.

You surely will get to see some baby chick pix when I get them. So stay tuned!

 

Rose

Up-Cycling or Re-Cycling Clothes

 

Up-Cycling and Restyling

 

I have been seeing blogs all over the internet where folks are refashioning clothes and I just love some of the ideas! There are some really cute ideas out there! So they gave me some ideas as you will see.

Now I WISH I’d took a before pic of this dress on me but I don’t do sleeveless clothes so it would have just been hanging on a hanger. I MAY have taken a pic of it when I bought it from my favorite thrift store and I hope I did so I can post it when I find it. I only paid .50-1.00 can’t remember which. I don’t wear dresses much so I haven’t even worn it in all this time I have had it. Took it out of the closet to donate to the Goodwill.

It was a long dress with a tank top style on the top of it. I knew when I bought it I would have to wear a  blouse under it since it had no sleeves. I knew that would be HOT in this humid summer weather we have here in the deep south! So I decided to just donate it and really did have this dress IN my car for a week now I know to donate to the Goodwill. Never made it there yet and yesterday we were tending to some business in town when it hit me, this would make a cute blouse and I could cut it off and make me some sleeves with the tail end of this long thing! So that’s JUST what I did and I dearly love it now!

So while thinking about how I wanted it to be I decided I wanted a rounded tail on it, what we used to call a taper tail. Don’t know WHAT they call it now a days. I have always LOVED tapered tails so that’s what I decided to do with it. Tapered tail/rounded tail and then put in some sleeves. After I cut it off I walked into the bathroom to see in the mirror if I needed to trim off more before I hemmed it. Hubby was sitting in the living room and says, that looks nice. It wasn’t even hemmed yet. lol I did it all in about an hours time so not bad for my little investment huh? I have a lot of clothes with black in them so I can do a lot of stuff with it, wear it with a skirt, or a pair of slacks or blue jeans. Dress it up or dress it down.

My daughter and I have always said we need to start a designing business for large ladies because the larger the lady the larger the prints seem to get sometimes. I liked the print on this one because I love flowers and black to AND the print is smaller. So I’m so glad I thought to do this because I needed some clothes that fit me because I’ve lost weight and most of my clothes are too large now.

So I might just get in the designing business after all.

When I wear it maybe I can think to get a pic of me in it so I can post it on here for you to see.  So if you have a long dress you don’t wear, you can do something with it as well so you can wear it to. Now I have a nice summer blouse that will be cool to wear.

Edited to add a pic of me in it.  

 

Rose