Pat thought the chicken door needed some art; so she painted a chicken on the door!Redesigned nesting boxes with drop down cleaning door
We started on building the hen house addition on June 18th, 2020. Due to the very hot and sticky weather it took over a month to complete the final coup. We included new lighting, power outlets, an exhaust fan, sliding interior door, sliding exterior door, a door on the storage area and a new (old) interior camera. There are also new, removable for cleaning, perches with a new design using some old hardware. I redesigned the nesting boxes to make them more water resistant and a drop down door for easy cleaning and nesting material replacement.
Over the last several days we have seen eggs from the first batch of 3 hens. They will not be twenty weeks until August 28, so that’s good news. The next group turns 20 weeks on September 11th. and the final group of Americans on September 25th.
For some time now we have been contemplating some additional landscaping here at the creek.
We finally got around to making the decision as to what we wanted to add and they are as follows:
2 – River Birch clumps
1 – Bald Cyprus
1 – October Glory Maple (Installed in the chicken yard for future shade and protection from hawks and eagles
15 – plus fuchsia and white azaleas
In the spring we will be adding a wild flower and tall grass meadow. Be sure to check back for progress on this project as well.
fuchsia and white azaleasOctober Glory MapleBald CyprusRiver Birch – 18 foot tall
In late summer we added a fence around the chicken yard. You may recall when we gave up on free-ranging the chicken we install a temporary chicken wire fence using T-post and of course chicken wire. This fence was always needing repair and where the creek/marsh adjoined the fence it was beginning to deteriorate, no big deal because it was always meant to be temporary until we decided on a permanent solution for the hens. The final solution was a 6-foot board fence with a 10-foot gate for easy access.
The project started and was completed in about 6-weeks. an addition to the tool chest was and is a tractor mounted post hole
digger. The post hole digger purchase delayed the start several week because Everything Attachments was moving to a new factory and there we delays on there end. With post hole digger delivered we mapped out the locations and drilled all of the holes which only took a day and a half with no physical effort. The new step included in stalling the 20 plus 4x4s and the 2 6x6s for the gate. Using a laser level we found the highest spot and began adding the
Click to enlarge
2×4 cross members to the posts. After the installation of the 3 cross member per section we began the installation of the vertical boards. Several weeks after the fence was completed I add an electric outlet to the northeast corner of the chicken coop for the addition of the electric fence transformer. Again with the laser level I added a wire completely around the fence to protect from predators, more about this latter.
We were in Easton in July for our usual sojourn to visit Glenn and Kimberly. We left the chicken with plenty of food and instructions for the neighbor, Pat, to pick up the eggs every few day. Egg production was way down for reasons that we could not seem to address. We have ordered 6 new chickens, 3 Americanas and 3 Sex Links, that would be 12-week old upon arrival to supplement the flock which had arrived in mid-April after we returned from Europe. Two of the new chicken disappeared in a couple of week, we assumed by one of the local bald eagles or hawks, we will never know for sure.
While at G&K’s i would check the chicken camera nervy few days and noticed that one of the chickens was dead and lying in the chicken pen. I knew that Pat had planned on bring her neighbors young girl over to see the checkers so we alerted her to not make the visit and told her NOT to have Dave her husband deal with the dead chicken that we would take care of it when we returned. We thought that Pat would probably ignore our request and have Dave remove the chicken anyway.
We check the camera the next day and the chicken was gone and Pat denied have Dave remove it. First thought the chicken was not dead but it sure looked that way.
When we arrived home it was clear that a predator had gotten in to the chicken pen, but how? After careful investigation there was a space between the pen roof and the chicken house that I never thought would be a problem, turned out I was wrong!
However, we also found five more dead or missing hens, and two severed heads were left behind. We were now down to five hens and Jethro our rooster. We could tell that Jethro had gotten in to a tussle with the predator which we were now convinced was a fox. Jethro had lost some feathers but was otherwise unhurt and had driven the few out the window and had to know out the screen to escape.
The small one is an ananomoly that happen occasionally like a double joker.
Several weeks when by when I saw an add on facebook by a guy in Warsaw that was changing his flock and had Leghorns and White Sex-link for sale, so on a trip back from Richmond we stopped and picked up 10 which turned out to be 9 Leghorns and one white Sex-link. So we were back to having eggs. However following the event it took 3 months before one of the original chicks slayed and egg, the Road Island Red none of the other have resumed laying and the remaining new American for the new batch of 6 has never played and egg, our guess they were traumatized, understandable but there may be a soup pot in their future.
We will order additional chicken in the spring. Probably Black Sex-Link, Americanas and maybe some Barred Rocks.
While the screen porch was completed it is now decorated up to Pat’s high standard. Were still waiting for the carpet to completely lay down its installation has been delayed due to the walk way installation in the back. Lot of dirt moving around.
There has been a lot going on this week. The siding is complete on the front of the house, the well house has been built and it is ready for siding. The deck extension has been added to the screen porch, Morgan’s dog door (Plexidor) has been framed and is ready for installation when finish work starts. The Skylights in the kitchen have been framed and the new Velux Electric “Fresh Air” Skylights are on site.
We now have a second quote for the metal roof (using Englet product) is in and now we need to make a decision on the material (Aluminum vs. Steel) and color. The material decision is based on being a Coastal location the manufacturer does not warranty the metal’s finish.
The second deck outside has been framed and tied into the Bunkie stairs with temporary steps to the ground.
HVAC rough-in is just about complete. We have a quote coming on the insulation to verify price is at initial estimate.
Last item of the week was to cut the opening between the garage and the new addition to the Cottage.
I stated this project several months ago and while I was going to hand paint the lettering similar to I did when Melissa, my daughter, had here children shop, I opted instead to route the letters and then paint the routed letters. The router template kit was ordered on a special that Rockler had but took a long time to arrive. It arrived about a week ago and finally was able begin to route the lettering. I had cut out the blank, painted the background and painted the Blue Heron head about a month ago but it was a low priority to finish the sign, behind furniture and other odds and ends on the extensive to-do list. We hung the sign on Sunday before we returned to Richmond.
