Christmas Eve

I have been working on the pallet coop for a few weeks now.  It is getting closer to being able to get some chickens in it...I got the roof on with the turkey's help.  They really like to spend time with me when I try and get anything done.  I was trying to wait on my husband to help with getting the roof on but because of rain and my impatience I did it by myself.  I did have some problems, the roof decking is pretty awkward and heavy for one person to lift up into place, but I managed...but, the turkeys jumped on one piece and it was a bit windy that day...two turkeys jumped on the 4'x8' piece as I was trying to position it...and the combination of the wind and almost 50 lbs of turkeys twisted it and it fell back and hit me on the side of my head and shoulder before I could get control of it again.  Yep, I got a big bruise on the right side of my forehead...but no bruise on my shoulder.

I got the decking up and my husband went and got tar paper for me after work...and I was able to get it stapled on before the rain hit the next day.  I moved the metal for the roof one day and was able to get the pieces of metal up after the rain dried up a bit...it took me a total of three days to get the roof on, but I still needed supports, and because it overhangs...I will have to add even more on the outer edges.  The turkeys are able to fly over the fence and on top of this coop too...I had three helpers when I was putting on the tar paper, but only two when I started putting the metal on it.  I guess they don't like the he slick surface as much.  I had on turkey hen that would sit on my leg while I was scooting around putting screws in the metal to attach it.  the turkeys punched holes in the roof on the chicken tractor too...so while I was getting metal for the new coop,I got enough to do that small coop part too.  I also used some that I had gotten for the outside of the chicken condo and replaced the poly carbonate with parts I had used for the old duck house.  The turkeys kept getting on it too and I kept having to punch the pieces back into place.  I figured it was a good time to change it...before they tore it up.  I will use the polycarbonate on the run to the big coop where there is a good sized gap.  Recycling in action...lol, they are small pieces from what we had cut off of a project for our house in Dallas.  They have come in handy.  We may have to put some caulk in some of the holes if it doesn't line up right when we fix the run roof...or when I fix it.  It is suppose to rain again this weekend, so, my husband may get out of that project too.  I am impatient and trying to get things done before it gets too cold.

Today is Christmas Eve, I worked on the pallet coop again today.  I stapled feed bags to the outside of it, they are about like the weight of a light tarp.  It will help block the wind and rain until I can get some kind of siding material for the coop.  My son gave me a gift card for Christmas and I purchased a small pancake compressor to replace my broken one...so I will be able to use the air stapler to get the rest of the hardware cloth up on it.  My fingers are still sore from putting up the hardware cloth with the hammer-in type staples.  I got another heavy duty regular hand stapler too...that is what I used to put up the feed bags with.  I am not sure what wood those pallets are made of, but I had a lot of problems getting those feed bags up.  I had enough feed bags to do all but about half of one side of the coop.  I split the feed bags so they would cover more area, so in another week...maybe I will have enough to finish lining the outside of the coop.  I still have the hardware cloth to put up and a door to build too, so it will still be a little while until I am ready to put chickens in it anyway.  I have to build roosts too.

Oh well, it is almost dinner time, I will close for now.  Enjoy your Christmas Eve!

Ouch That Hurt!

I have a new injury, around here I get them a lot.  Ever since we moved in, I have been busy doing things I have never done before.  When we were trying to get the house ready to move into we mostly just worked our butts off, cleaning and making repairs to the walls, caulking and painting...things like that.  We both got to the point we could barely walk and we would go back to the house in Dallas.  I cut my finger pretty badly one day while my husband went to go get some things from the store I had to ask him to get bandaging material and butterfly bandages.  I was using a carpet knife to remove old caulk around a window...I hit a nail and the knife twisted and caught the top of my index finger.  I probably could have used a few stitches, but was able to stop the bleeding and put the butterfly bandages on and it healed up pretty good, it took awhile for my fingernail to grow out, but it did.  Most of my injuries now are animal related. Just that cut and backing into sheet metal when wind caught some plywood and it fell on me cutting my elbow...on that one, I did go get 7 stitches or something...and a tetanus shot, my husband had to come home to take me to the doctor...I thought if I could get them to stitch me up I wouldn't have to go to the emergency room.

I have learned it is good to wear long sleeves, heavy jeans, boots and gloves...even that is not enough protection sometimes.  I have been beaten with goose wings...and turkey wings...turkeys are stronger it seems, either that or more determined.  I am pretty stubborn and if it takes me awhile to catch one...I don't want them to get loose again.  I am getting better at pinning wings and soothing the big birds...I am surprised they have not broken my nose or blackened an eye.  I have been raked by claws a few times though, they have very big feet and I am thankful that most of their claws are worn somewhat round and are not as sharp as they were in the beginning...so I mostly get bruises instead of cuts from them.  My turkeys have started pulling my hair, I have already cut it pretty short and wear a bandana a lot of the time.  I have been pecked on the head several times and they have snatched my glasses off several times too.  I had to get one of those sports bands that hold your glasses on.  One of the girl turkeys snatched an earring out of my ear too...not good when you have pierced ears.

Lately my injuries have been either bites from startled roosters that leave cuts and bruises on me...usually a hand or forearm.  My partially blind chickens, if I reach in and scare them they will grab ahold of me.  Buddy Chicken got me pretty good on the top of my arm a few weeks ago.  A few days ago, I reached down and grabbed a hold of a rooster that was making one of my smaller hens scream...there were others yanking on her comb and neck feathers, I grabbed the one on top of her and another one got ahold of my thumb at the joint to my hand...it would not let go.  I have a cut, a knot under the cut...and a bruise an inch and a half across...it was very tender the first few days, but the swelling has gone down...it looks a little like a target now, the scab in the middle, a ring of pink, almost normal skin, then a ring of green bruise.  I usually run around with several bruises these days. I have the one on my thumb, a bruise on the top of my foot from, I think our dog stepping on my bare foot, and I noticed I have a few small bruises on my forearm, probably from catching turkeys.  I guess I might have gotten them from construction...maybe?  Some of our chickens will jump up on my arm when I go out to feed them, so far they haven't made me drop the bucket but they really like jumping on the scoop with scratch grains, they start eating it as soon as they do.  I have had a turkey jump on my shoulder too...not so bad when they are smaller, but when one of our females was in my lap and a male came over, she jumped to my shoulder, the male jumped in my lap...and then she got on my head!  I guess I didn't expect to look like a fighter most the time, between the bruises and the ant and bug bites I just look a mess most of the time.

I just never know what surprises my day will bring.

Mitigating Turkey Damage

I really didn't think about additional poultry, so I didn't exactly build things to handle the weight of a mass of turkeys jumping on anything.  I am glad the big coop was built very sturdy, and with a metal roof and decking underneath it...it is holding up well so far, other structures are not.  Turkeys are curious creatures and they like to be up high...and not all of my coops are built that well.  I am having to rework my chicken tractor because it can't handle the weight.  I used a roofing product called Ondura on the top of the coop section, the turkeys have gotten on top of it and torn holes in the stuff.  The best I can describe it would be an asphalt infused, coragated heavy cloth like rubbery roofing material.  Kind of like asphalt shingle but with gauze infused into it and none of the gravely stuff...I do not recommend it, it tears and in hot months it gets really pliable...but, I don't have a decking material under it, that doesn't help.

It is what I am trying to replace now, it has holes and tears in it and now the coop leaks.  We put polycarbonate over the run on the chicken tractor too...I changed it out today.  The roof on it just has small joists two feet apart...the polycarbonate was the end pieces from another project.  Not solid, lots of two foot pieces.  The weight of the turkeys on that part was bending the pieces and distorting them so that I had to punch them frequently on the inside to pop them back into shape.  I have done it a lot over the past 8 months.  I was afraid that they too would start breaking or tearing...today I removed it, put a piece of roof decking with a raidient barrier coating on it that I took off of the duck house I tore down, and used the metal from that project on top of it.  It doesn't really work right, but the turkeys have already gotten on top of it and walked around, it is sturdy enough to hold at least two.  I will have to work on it a bit more because the overlapping doesn't work right for the distance and it makes it short about 10 inches.  It will work for now, but I will have to improvise to cover the rest of the decking.

I didn't finish writing yesterday, so this is a continuation...I worked on the chicken tractors roof to the coop part today.  I had to cut a piece of decking to fit the metal I purchased for it.  I removed the Ondura roof and may use it on a wall someplace to block the wind a bit, it is about a four foot by 6 foot solid piece of material.  It may not be totally waterproof any more but it is waterproof and I took metal that was blocking the wind from behind the ducks house and the turkey house.  I will have to hang a tarp or something now on those, I didn't get it done and it is raining tonight but it is fairly warm so they should be fine, they still have a roof over their head.  I also worked on the pallet coop too, I had to fill in a hole in the back wall...so I had to use a circular saw and cut a pallet to fit in the hole...I had some issues because nothing is straight, so I had to cut bits and pieces off and probably made seven trips back and forth trying not to cut off too much...but making it a tight fit.  Took awhile, so I didn't get much else done, I took a nest box off of the outside of the chicken tractor and moved it into the new coop...but, a little hen didn't like the height of it nor the placement.  She stood in front of it screaming and hollering at me and pacing in front of it.  I thought it may be too high so I leaned a pallet up against the wall next to it and she tested it out...only went up a few of the pallet boards and started yelling at me again, and jumped down.  I decided to move it to the front wall of the coop and not so high up.  I didn't hear anything more out of her...I wonder if she will lay in that nest box tomorrow?  Time will tell.

The rain is suppose to be worse tomorrow, so we probably will put up the Christmas tree...can't do roofing in the rain.  I am not sure if I could get the decking into place on my own, not sure if I will attempt it or not.  The decking is pretty heavy and I would have to be up on a ladder to get it up on top of the pallet coop.  It probably wouldn't be wise, but I need to get it roofed soon.  I still need to side it too, I have been saving plastic feed bags to side it well enough to block the wind and rain, only the front wall and 3/4 of the back wall is made with almost solid pallets...but that little hen that was hollering at me...she could walk through the spacing on a side wall.  I will probably have to add some boards, or cover the inside with wire to keep the chickens inside this coop.  I still need to put hardware cloth on the top section of the walls too.  I have been doing all of this with help from the turkeys too.  I am not sure how many screws they ran off with today...or how many times I had to make them get off of the roof.

Global Warming?

I don't know about the rest of the country, but here...it is cooler than normal, it has rained over 20 inches in two months and I imagine we will get some pretty good snowfall this year.  I am in Texas, we don't usually get a lot of snow in Texas...maybe the panhandle...but this is the South, and we generally only have about two weeks of real cold weather and that usually doesn't happen until January or February.  Weather patterns change, they always have...some years we may get temperatures in the Summer up to 108, and we may get temperatures in the teens in the worst of winters...in my 56 years of life in Texas, there are usually more mild days than super hot or cold.  But I have seen as low as 6 degrees and as high as 114 degrees.  I have seen ice almost two inches thick one winter with the lowest of temperatures...and that was in the early 80's.  But so was the most days of over 100 degree temperatures.

I am talking about this because I am not really ready for the colder temperatures.  I need better housing for my roosters and with all the rain we have had I just can't work outside in the mud.  I set up a GoFundMe campaign for a tractor, but no one donated.  It was a long shot anyway.  But, I will have to just try and do what I can with a tiller and a shovel and my garden cart.  It would be so much easier with a tractor, but we can't afford one.  I will till and move the dirt by hand when it dries out, I may have to cut down some trees or figure out how to move the pile of railroad ties we found by the lake.  I need a retaining wall built and a level area for my critters housing.  I did it for my big coop, but I need a bigger level area that will drain higher up or to create better drainage.  It is awfully muddy in my rooster pens.  I need to go scrape all the muck off the pallets in them and put down straw.  I need to figure out how to divert water away from the big coop with what materials I have on hand too

I acquired two really long pallets yesterday at Tractor Supply.  They are at least ten feet long, and I got a couple of 2"x4"x12' pieces of wood from the pile.  It will help with the roof on the pallet coop I am building.  I still need more pallets, but I did get a few more pallets last week...they are just not the almost solid kind so I can't use them for the flooring without something over them.  I only have so much to work with right now, I am getting things here and there, like screws and staples, but I had run out.  I am going to use plastic feed bags on the north wall to block the wind...I think.  At least until I can get some kind of siding...I am leaning towards skinning it in metal, but that is not something I can do until I sell a treadmill or my elliptical machine.  I can try and get some crafts made to sell, but that takes time too.  There just never seems to be enough time in the days to get everything I want to do, done.

None of the 12 goose eggs I set were fertile, but I was told the males will wait until the spring before they "tread" the females.  Geese don't normally lay in the Fall, but I have one that is.  Only five of the duck eggs hatched and one of the ducklings died, something happened with the egg sack on it yolk is all over in the bottom of the incubator.  The four ducks that did hatch are doing well...they look like Khaki Campbell's, and since we actually started eating duck eggs...that is a good thing.  They lay almost every day, so even if my chickens need 14 hours of daylight to produce an egg...the ducks don't seem to have that issue.  They were all molting and didn't lay for almost two months, but the chickens were laying like gangbusters then...but now a lot of them are molting still and some days I only get seven chicken eggs, some twenty...just depends on how sunny it is and for how long.  I sold five dozen eggs yesterday and four dozen this morning and I don't have any more to sell right now...except two dozen duck eggs.  Baby ducks are so cute...but very messy, I am hoping to have a broody duck one of these days...it would be nice if they hatched them instead of me doing it and raising them in the house brooder.  I need to dispose of the infertile eggs and clean the incubator, I have two more goose eggs to try...and maybe she will lay today too, I may put more duck eggs in the incubator and maybe some chicken eggs.  I need to make some money somehow, I just need something to sell.

More Rain

We moved to one of the wettest areas of Texas, we are having record amounts of rain this year...the month of November we had about 12 inches of rain.  The first year we moved in, it was a drought year, and so was last year...but, there were times we got 4 to 8 inches of rain in one day.  Most of the time, when we get that much rain, it comes down so hard and fast we have rivers running through the yard.  I took the dogs for a walk this morning and water was running on the path in several areas and there were pools of standing water about a foot deep.  I only went as far as the creek at the back of the property, it was too wide for me to jump and foamy, the dogs wouldn't cross it...so I didn't try.

I have been trying to think about some way to house my millions of roosters to get them out of the mud.  It is almost like liquefaction in their pens...it is very wet and it didn't rain today.  We got close to 4 inches of rain this last go round.  It was cloudy today, but it didn't rain...it also didn't dry out in the pens.  I do have a pallet in each pen, I put straw in half of them to give them something to stand on besides the pallet, the also have roosts...but a lot off them choose to stand in a puddle.  So, I need to do something...I am afraid they will start having foot issues.  I may have to rebuild pens in another location...and build small coops with floors for each pen, I am gonna need a lot more pallets.  I haven't been able to work on my bigger coop because of the rain.

Today I put all the heavy paper feed bags I have been saving down in my smallest garden, that and cardboard boxes I have been saving...why?  I will tell you...weed control, hopefully anyway.  One of my main problems has been weeds growing 3 feet tall very quickly in all of my gardens...when it rains a lot...they get big very fast.  When it dries out, I have to cut them...then till several times to get rid of them...can't do it if it rains, I sink in the mud...even if I manage to get it tilled and it rains before I plant anything, the weeds grow back before it dries out enough to plant anything.  I wasn't able to plant anything in my bigger garden because of weeds and rain this year.  The pigs that visited stayed in that garden and took care of most of them for me and the poultry has been keeping the weeds down since then.  But, the poultry will eat anything I plant in there too, so I will have to close it off and try to keep them out next Spring...I will need weed control so, I figured if I save the feed sacks and cardboard and use them as mulch it would help.  Right now there is water standing in my lower garden...but, I have water still running down the hill and have big puddles the ducks and geese are loving playing in.  It is bad when ducks can actually paddle around in rain puddles.

I will probably try and start a garden in a different area.  The largest chicken coop and run will have composted chicken manure that I can use for fertilizer, plus I started a good sized new compost pile this summer.  The chickens got into my last compost pile and spread it out over their yard.  Hey, I am learning...note to self, chickens do fly...so do turkeys...and a four foot fence will not stop them if they want something on the other side.  Yes...yes, they got into my little garden too.  Yep, ate almost everything...if I had not picked all the green tomatoes, between my poultry jumping the fence and the rabbits...I would have gotten nothing at all out of my Fall garden.  Lesson learned, I will have to extend my fence up and possibly cover it with bird netting...or move my garden elsewhere, maybe someplace they can't see.  I may have to make raised beds and put them in the side yard...or front yard.  I just need to be able to water wherever I put them...if we have another drought year.  If it is really wet again...raised beds should fix that.  I was hoping to be able to plant a large garden...but until I can afford to fence another area and get dirt amended so that vegetables will grow in it, I will have to stick with a smaller garden or take the risk of loosing crops to rabbits and other wildlife.

Ahhh well...I only have a small hand tiller anyway, I wanted to grow enough so that I could supplement my poultries feed.  I guess that won't happen until I can get a tractor...it just about killed me tilling my 2 big gardens so many times with the hand tiller, and hey we're only about 30 feet by 65 feet too.  My neighbor tilled a small area for me and hit concrete in the ground...so, I am sure there is probably more crap scattered around the land.  The previous owners buried a bunch of stuff, every time I dig...I find metal, glass, concrete and evidence of a burn pit.  I have been using a digging fork and turning dirt too, I found a lot of rocks that were a good size for edging a flowerbed.  Too bad the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys wrecked my flowerbed and all the flowers.  They even move the smaller rocks...I had no idea they would move rocks...or could move rocks.  They dig holes everywhere too, big holes...I use to fill them up and move the rocks back into place...I gave up.  I may have to get a taller fence for around the area that I would like to keep decent looking, and we have discussed building an enclosed screen porch with a solid roof eventually...we have a 20' by 20' slab and have a gazebo on it now, they tore up the top on it.  I have a shade sail over it now...they haven't wrecked it yet.  It is a temporary fix, I hope.  I just needed a place to rest when I am building or gardening, or whatever.  The poultry has taken it over...and it usually has a lot of poop all over the place.  We try and hose it off every night, but since the time change I have skipped several days between cleanings...it just gets dark before I can get it done.