Moving To The Chicken Coop

Nacho and Rigo built the chicken coop and put some finishing touches on it last week. I am so glad our chicks finally made the move.

This week, our 26 chicks will be moving to the chicken coop that we had built for them. It is a permanent structure, not a chicken tractor. The rabbit coop will go close to the chicks but they are David's project. The chickens are mine.

So far, we are composting the wood shavings filled with chicken manure and using it in our garden. We are thinking about bagging some of the composted chicken manure and selling it in our farm store. Once we get the rabbits, we will sell rabbit manure to our customers as well as it does not burn garden plants and is very good for the home garden.

Chicken Coop - May 25-May 31, 2020

Monday, May 25, 2020

Happy Memorial Day! It was a bit chilly today. I got some cleaning and laundry done while David and Matthew went truck shopping. They went to several nearby dealerships. David found a 2018 red Dodge Ram with 33,000 miles on it in wonderful condition. It was a rental truck and he said this was his dream truck. He did not test drive it.

For lunch, our son grilled some Porterhouse steaks on the grill by the pool. As he was taking them off the grill, he dropped the plate into the pool. He tried to get it out with the strainer for the pool. Then I tried. I thought I would just get it out later when I went for a swim.

The steaks were delicious. All afternoon, it was a bit too cool to swim and then we had company so I never got the plate out.

Our son, Matthew, grilling steaks on the back deck for us, just moments before the fire came up and the plate went in my pool!

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

This morning, after talking to some of our farm workers for today, David and I left for the office in San Antonio. It is payday so we have to be there. After the holiday weekend, there were tons of orders to fill. Our workers seem to be getting here more early each morning so I cannot get anything done outside without them being here which means I need to be properly dressed before I can go outside. I guess it will get worse because soon the whole company will be out here everyday working.

Our chickens are getting huge and tomorrow, they turn four weeks old. We were going to move them to the chicken coop this past weekend, but the weather has cooled down a lot at night and it has been pouring rain each night, getting down into the 60s. So far, the chicken coop does not have electricity, but David said he will be getting it hooked up to electricity and I will have water by way of a hose that he will bring over there. Our whole property seems to be a series of hoses and water pipes all over.

I am very glad I did not put the chicks out early or they would have been so cold. Tonight, it will get down to 65°. They are still safe in the stock tank inside of our green shed/shack. They will go out to the chicken coop sometime this week unless it stays cold and rainy.

We left work around 2:30pm today because David wanted to go get the truck that he and Matthew found yesterday. We drove an hour out from San Antonio and the salesman had the truck going when we got there. It is a red 2018 Dodge Ram 1500 with a crew cab and the thing is gigantic, like a Mac truck. David backed it out for a test drive. I was amazed with how much room is inside after driving a Toyota Corolla. The truck has great pick up. I did not get a chance to drive it. We got back to the showroom. They gave us a great deal and I wrote a check for it, the first time we wrote a check for a car that wasn't a clunker. It is a beautiful truck and we are very excited. David's last vehicle was 18 years when it totally gave up the ghost so he has been driving my Toyota Corolla which is 12 years old for about five months now.

Here it is, our new 2018 Dodge Ram 1500. We got a great deal and David loves it.

The front side of the new Ram right after we test drove it. It is a very nice vehicle.

After we got home this evening, David did another job interview on our back porch and hired someone to help us with the gardens out back for the summer. This guy has worked here with another one of our construction/yard workers but will be unemployed for the summer. David hired him so now he will be busy all summer. He will start next Monday.

Our workers were here tonight until after 7pm so I did not get to use the pool since they were working right by the pool. If I had, I would have remembered earlier that the plate from yesterday is still in the pool. I remembered that around 9:30pm tonight. Hopefully, I can get it out tomorrow.

Just before 8pm, I took the kitchen trash out to the dumpster and discovered we have a new bigger dumpster!

I was hoping to drive the new truck tonight, but did not get the chance since everyone stayed so late. Maybe tomorrow I will drive the new truck and get the plate out of the pool!

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Happy Wednesday! Today, the electric company comes to the farm again to upgrade our business line to support all of the new buildings coming and to add a few more electric poles and lines to the greenhouse and other parts of the farm.

I put some shirts and a t-shirt on and went out to take care of the chicks. Then I put a bathing suit on and convinced myself to go in the pool to pull out my dinner plate from Monday's accident. I got it out, pulled out hundreds of nasty, dead bugs, and then I did ten laps. I went in and got dressed and then David came in the house.

David and I jumped in my old car and headed into San Antonio to deposit the paychecks from yesterday. The lines were too long yesterday for David as he was in a hurry to get to test drive the new truck.

I still have not gotten to drive or ride in the new truck except for yesterday's short test drive. I thought we would take it into San Antonio, but David had it filled with canning jars. I was so disappointed. We sat in line for a very long time at the credit union and finally made it back to the farm before the electric company got here.

Five trucks from the electric company showed up all at once today to change our business electric hookups. Now we will have enough power for our buildings when they arrive.

All of a sudden, five electric company trucks, including one with a small tractor, drove up into our parking lot. They were here for about two hours. We still do not have electricity for the business as our personal electrician did not finish his job this past Saturday. He will not come out here again until Saturday.

The mailman brought me a huge box filled with chicken supplies for our chicken coop. Today would have been the perfect day to move our chicks as it is their four week birthday. However, it has been raining a lot and getting down into the 60s at night, much too cool for our chicks to be cold in the chicken coop. Tonight at midnight, there is supposed to be a terrific rainstorm. I don't want the chicks to start out cold, wet, and muddy. Perhaps tomorrow.

I went into my craft room this afternoon and cut out eight garden aprons to sell in our store. Now I just need to sew them together.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Our baby chicks eating in their brooder, a six foot stock tank. They are ready to move to their new chicken coop!

Today was chicken moving day! This morning, I got up and prepped the chicken coop. I put fresh wood shavings in all of the nesting boxes and a little on the ground. I put some thick bricks in there for the food and water dishes. The chickens are supposed to spend a whole week in the inner part of the coop so they will be used to it. That way, when the sun sets, they will know to go inside the inner part and put themselves to bed. I have read that and I have seen chickens do it on YouTube. Hopefully, it works in real life.

When everything was ready, I took the food and water out of the brooder tank, along with the bricks and Phil and Matt V. carried the brooder with fencing on top, to the back of the truck. They drove the chicks over and we put all 26 of them in the inner part of the chicken coop. Matt V. did most of the catching and placing. They immediately loved all of the space, but they did not fly like they did in the brooder.

Some of our chicks checking out the new chicken coop. They now have a lot of space to explore.

Two girls who just graduated from high school came to the farm to do some weeding. They weeded all morning. We fed everyone a lunch from Sonic. During lunch, David offered both of them a job with us for the summer and one of the girls told us that she needs a "job-job" like McDonald's or Dollar Tree. (Well, okay, if you want to make about half of what we pay per hour, that is fine.) David said "A job-job? We are a real company." I guess she doesn't realize that we are David's Garden Seeds®, we pay well, and are a good company to work for. Of course, the buildings are not out here yet, except for the store, so it looks like you are just weeding somebody's yard. The other girl said yes, so she starts with us on Monday.

When I was 18, I would have loved for someone to hire me for forty hours a week. They didn't even have to go through an interview.

Friday, May 29, 2020

This morning, I rushed out early to the chicken coop to see how the chicks fared during the night. It got down to 72° last night but they did fine. We don't have any electricity in the coop yet. Supposedly, we will have hookups installed tomorrow. The chicks pooped all over everything and got mud in their water. I cleansed everything from most of the unrighteousness and got them fresh water and food. They seem to love having all of the space and so far, no predators made it in.

The two girls came back to the farm to work today. Phil and Matt went to Home Depot to get materials to build the store counter! Matthew took Ethel to the vet for shots. Lucy and Annabelle are upset that they didn't get to go, too! My broken toe is throbbing and swollen.

Matt V. and Phil are now working on putting a counter together for the store. I ordered some decor and rugs for the store.

Then I went back out to the chicken coop. The chicks have such sturdy legs and feet now. They are getting so big. I put one in a nesting box and she just stood there making noises. I put her back on the floor. Two of the Barred Rock chicks were on their ladders when I got there. Everyone else was walking around on the floor.

This afternoon, I checked on the chicks. They are exploring and this Bard Rock claimed the ladder rung for her roost.

Another Bard Rock took a different ladder to roost on.

Saturday, May 30, 2020

We added lights in the summer of 2021 to the chicken coop. We don't always leave them on but this is a view from our back deck showing the light on in the coop. The sun is about to rise.

Today, I did a lot of cleaning and laundry. In the afternoon, we went to town and bought groceries.

Our electrician came and put in $2500.00 worth of hookups. The chicken coop did not make the cut this round. Doing all of these upgrades is expensive!

It rained all night again.

Sunday, May 31, 2020

This photo was taken 1/17/2023. It shows the run and today we added permanent plastic that can roll down during the cold to keep our hens warm and dry. Hens hate to be wet.

This morning, everything was wet. We seem to be getting a ton of rain. The chickens are doing well adapting to their new chicken coop. They love and cannot wait to explore the run, which they will do next Thursday! The bard rock chicks keep trying to get into the run whenever I go in to feed and water them. The rest run under the nesting boxes. The bard rocks are allowing me to pick them up now instead of running and every time I go near the water jug, they peck at me. They are so cute.

We went to church and then had a fairly lazy afternoon. We worked on emails and cleaned up a bit around the house. It was overcast with more rain in the evening.

Return from Moving To The Chicken Coop to Our Small Farm

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