The Hens Arrive

Today I picked up 30 ISA brown chickens from Sleepy G Farm. I spent a couple days last week cleaning out the hen house as it hadn't been touched since the fall when our previous birds (Black Sex Links) went to the freezer. It was pretty nasty in there but after moving all the chicken waste and a good go with the pressure washer it looks much better.

Before:

And after:

These new girls are, as mentioned, ISA browns, an ambiguous title which I've never actually read about, till now. ISA stand for Institut de Sélection Animale, the company which developed the breed in 1978 for egg production as a battery hen. The bird is a hybrid type of Sex Link chicken, which is the result of crossing Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns. Thanks wikipedia.

Although these girls were developed to be a battery hen (caged) they are much happier roaming around scratching in the grass seeking out bugs and seeds. We'll keep them in the coop for a couple days to let them familiarize themselves to their new laying boxes before letting them wander. We're definitely looking forward to having a supply of fresh eggs once again.

Winter is back!

With 20 degree days in March and an overall warm and mild winter, today is a bit of a shock. We burned a brush pile last night and toward the end of that some hail started falling. We woke up to this.

Burn for Blueberries?

Today we burned a brush pile adjacent to our garden. We plan to plant some blueberries there and hope that, like in the forest, the bushes grow really well following the burn. A plentiful blueberry patch right by the house would be terrific!

Chicken Tractor

I've had trouble keeping up with the previous blog "All from one tree" because life took me in a different direction and woodworking has fallen off for now. We bought our farm on Townline in August 2010. The place came with a llama, some sheep and chickens. The chickens and some of the sheep are in the freezer or moved to other farms. We now have just three ewes and Esther. Soon though we'll be getting 30 layer hens from Sleepy G Farm and 30 broilers from the hatchery, and hopefully some lambs later in the spring. With the meat birds on the way I prepared for them by building a "chicken tractor".

Perhaps not the most descriptive term, but essentially it's a moveable shelter for the birds. We'll move the tractor each day to provide the chickens with fresh pasture to munch on an scavenge about. It has handles on all four sides to pull it into place. I may need to throw some wheels on if it proves difficult to move.

Since the birds aren't going to be here until June I figured I might try turning the shelter into a greenhouse til then by covering it with some plastic I had sitting around. The result is a pretty solid greenhouse meant to give the veggies a kickstart.