Nails

Here's the nails I've been usiing- someone found them in a box of Roseburg Dave's tools. They suck! Anytime I try to pound one of the long ones into particulary hard wood, it bends. Just too old and pathetic, I guess.






For your viewing pleasure. Good and bad nails. Aren't I learning important stuff??? I am :-). The right tools for the job. Soon my "book smart" brain will be able to handle real-life stuff :-D.









Brand new nails that really work well. Yay!
I learned something!

Chicken pen music

This has nothing to do with music, but...I have to cut holes in the hardware cloth so the plum tree will grow up straight and tall. We want to have plums this year; we got almost nothing last year.

What would you listen to if you were building a chicken coop????

Front View

Okay, it doesn't look so bad after all.













Another design flaw. We couldn't staple into the shed, cuz the shed is made of wierd un-staple-ab le material (not wood), so we put up this red board. Now we have to wrap the hardware cloth around it. Good thinking, Jen!












Live and Learn. When we put the posts up, I knew in the back of my head that the hardware cloth was only 4 feet across. However, we hammered up the posts without measuring. So I was stuck with posts too far apart. No worries! I just put up a crossbeam (is that the right name for it???)

The front was easier to put up, but due to a design flaw that I just now noticed, I had to cut off a post that was sticking out. I used Chunshik's circular saw and then sawed off the rest with an old, rust saw-thingy we have.

More building

I can fit, but not move once I'm in there.

This part was hard- no elbow room.

Decided to get new staple gun. I've had it!

Bailey is always inside the run.

I worked on the chicken run last weekend. It was a little less fun this time, due to a tight space and a crappy nail gun. Well....the nail gun is fine, but my hand is too small and weak to pull the tricker AND hold the gun steady, so when I do try to staple, the staples go in 1/2 way or crooked. Then I pound them in with a hammer....anyhow, as you can see from the pix, the side next to the fence is real hard to nail up. I have to squish myself between the chicken run and the fence, then try to sqeeze the nail gun at an odd angle. Basically, I finally just quit, since none of my staples would go in straight. Then I went to FM's to get a new staple gun. But my staples wouldn't fit into the gun.....

sick of chicks

Well, I have to tell the truth. I'm tired of the chicks inside. Mostly because they are unhappily stuck in their too-small brooder for too many hours a day. They make a lot of noise wanting to get out. Poor things. Also, they regularly knock over their food and water and fill up their water with poop and pine shavings. Very smart animals. Plus, they are basically another thing to feel responsible for (like the dogs, my sister, nephew, mom, students, job, bills, world peace, etcetera). If they were happy to see me, at least I'd get some ego-strokes! But noooooo! Anyhow, I try to get them out every day, usually by putting them on the living room floor. However, since there have been some sunny days, we've been putting in the side yard (blocked off from rest of yard). A fine idea! We can see them from the kitchen area and since it's blocked I don't have to worry about them jumping the fence or getting snatched out of the sky by a carnivorous bird. They can't really jump the fence yet, but in another month, they will be able to, I think, then what will I do?). Anyhow, I feel quilty when they are trapped in their cell, I mean box, all day....

New foods

Well, the chicks are old enuf to try new foods. Since I had a big flat of strawberries, I gave them the tops. Sounds yummy, right? No takers. Then I tried some sunflower seeds. They ate just a few of them. I know this is naive, but I want my chickens to like me. I thought food might make them more interested in me, but noooooooo. They still don't give a sh*t about me. On the backyard pdx chicken listserve, some people's chickens come running to them for treats. Guess I'll have to try different treats!

Chix outside

April is stretching her wings, a regular occurance now-a-days














They stay under the chair a lot- must be safer




























Out in the open

A few friends

Hillsboro Dave














My nephew and cobuilder, Andrew














Bracing for the side (made of hardware cloth)














The building inspector

Co-Exist

It's possible to co-exist!

Rat-proofing the back fence

These pix are out of order, unfortunately.

Logs and dirt piled up, so I can plant peas or something

*A strip of hardware cloth

We dug a little trench (?) first, so if the rats tried to dig down, they would still encounter the hardware cloth. Good thinking, eh? Maybe the rats will just dig deeper????















Getting ready to use the nail gun....















After nailing up the hardware cloth, I put some old logs up against the hardware cloth and buried them with dirt. Later, I'm gonna plant peas or some vine that will grow up to the roof and help make shade. But the chicks might eat all the peas!!!

These shots were taken before we put in the hardware cloth....obviously....:-)

Hanging out in the living room

This is May, a Barred Plymouth Rock

The chicks aren't afraid at all!

Eeeeeewwwww

Don't mess with April. She's tough!

Mutual Curiosity

April, May and poop.

April faces off

I pushed furniture together, then put the chix on a sheet in the living room. For a while, Ernie snuggled up with me, but since April (the orange one) kept menacing him, my nephew took him up on the couch. Then Bailey wanted to join the pack and took Ernie's space. But April didn't menace Bailey for some reason. She just did soft pecks, which I take to come from curiousity.

Growing so fast

Monday, April 27th: I can't impress upon you (unless you already know :-) how fast the chicks are growing. Every day, I see new growth: longer legs, bigger feet, more feathers and/or down dropping off. In fact, they make the kitchen table dusty with their skin and down floating all over. Their new house (only 3 weeks old) is already too small for them and I can tell they want to get out.

They've been outside again, which is great because they are now old enuf to eat new things (e.g. lettuce or grit). I gave them some strawberry tops tonight, but they're not eating them. Instead, two chix are pecking on the side of their box.

For the first time, the chix are letting me pick them up without running away. This is great news. Once they realize I'm a treat-giver, they'll like me even more. But...honestly, they don't love me like the dogs do. I'm just a perch or something to peck (due to curiosity).

I'm glad they aren't scared of the dogs at all! In fact, they fly onto the dog's back to perch (they like to be up high- it feels safer). The dogs don't like it though. Like I said, I'm anxious for the chix to go outside; it's time, but I need to finish the pen. Hopefully, by this weekend.

Monday in the garden

Okay, okay. I don't really have a garden, but this past weekend, I stayed home and got lots of projects done; one being to mow the lawn and work on the chicken coop. So the back yard looks a lot better, but there's plywood and 1x2's all over the place. I've got big plans to start another compost pile (heat provided by dog poop :-) and plant this fancy grass seed I got last year. It's supposed to wild grasses and flowers and you don't have to mow it (more sustainable, eh?).

A friend helped me with the coop on Sunday. We rat-proofed the back fence with hardware cloth nailed to the fence and buried about 4-6 inches into the ground. But really, if a rat wanted to get into the coop, he could....

my friend is 48, in good physical shape (martial arts) and takes care of himself. Never-the-less, he had a full-blown (type 1) diabetes reaction (paramedics came, or he could have died). I was calm, cool and collected the whole time, but now I feel a bit un-nerved. I watched his personality change (from obsessing over a concrete strut near the fence) to walking unsteadily to arguing, falling down, knocking things over and generally acting drunk and strange. For instance, he didn't want to give the paramedics his finger for a blood poke. They said sometimes people get combative and they have to hold them down. Eventually, he did give up a finger....later, he was docile and cooperative. It's rough being out-of-control. You try to keep control any way you can. Anyways, his blood sugar was 27!, but he drank sugar water til it came back up to 107. Then the paramedics left.

Anyways, it's been my dream to sit in the back yard and relax since last winter!!! Now I'm really doing it. Yay!!! And the little chickies are happily eating small rocks. Did you know that because chickens don't have teeth, they swallow rocks into their "crop" where muscles rub the food and rocks together. Something like that.

This afternoon, a bunch of crows or something flew over my backyard several times. But they weren't crows because they had reddish-orangish wings. Hummmmm. The first chicken class I took said wild animals learn where to find their favorite meals, just like we do (i.e. the closest Big Mac). Hummmmm.

Bailey has been very calm with the birds, but....one flew a few feet today and she chased chomping her teeth. I heard her teeth bite together. She can't be fully trusted yet (or ever). In the meantime, the Golden (April) continues to chase Ernie. He's a wimp! But the RIR (May) is defending herself againt April. Humm? Who will be the top chicken? Must go in now. It's after 8:00pm and the chickens will want to sleep. Can't wait for this weekend. Gonna put the sides on the coop. Then, I need to build a door.

May and June 2