It has been a busy couple of days here at the little chicken farm!  My almost 14yr. old dog Clover had a lump on her snout that we thought was cancer, but ended up being an abcessed tooth that started to grow and swell and expand all into her face.  Quite overnight her eye was almost closed because of the swelling in her face, her nose was bleeding (lots) and she was miserable.  We took her to the vet, and $633.00 later she had 3 teeth pulled and is on antibiotics for 14 days.  The good news is that when they pulled the pre-op blood test, her results came out like a 2yr old dog!  Pretty impressive for such an old girl.  I am a big believer in vitamins, and just about every day she gets an EsterC, a fish oil pill, and a CoQ10, and if I have any, she gets a glucosamine chondroitin tablet too.  Just takes a bit of peanut butter on a spoon and down the hatch.  It has done wonders with the arthritis she has in her spine and shoulders, and apparently with her organs and blood values too.  I also feed good food, the best I can afford.  It is not the most expensive food, but it is very good food.  VF Complete Turkey and Rice.  VF stands for Veterinarian's Formula.  Check them out at http://www.arkat.com/VFcomplete.html

I had taken two vacation days off work because my MIL was having cataract surgery, and we didn't think my brother in law could manage his complicated life to take care of her for those couple of days.  Happily it all worked out perfectly and he was free to stay home with her so I was able to be around home to care for Clover instead.  Talk about the hand of God!  The timing couldn't have been better.  I had already taken the time off of work, and that very day a check for almost the exact amount came from the mortgage company to pay down the excess in my escrow account.  We would never have been able to pay for the surgery without it.  Clover would have had to be put to sleep if that check hadn't been here.  God knew our need even before we did.  Then again, He always does!

I know that anyone reading this is more interested in the chickens than in my dog, so now is the part about the hens.  The weather warmed back up and the hens started laying better.  I got 10 eggs two days in a row, which is pretty good for 12 hens.  I also went back to the feed I was buying, which is called Dumor, from TSC.  I think it is better than the Pen Pals feed that I had bought from the feed mill where I get my dog food.  The hens are pretty happy with their little outdoor area, and have already killed and eaten every blade of grass and every weed in sight.  I need to get some fencing panels from Tractor Supply so that I can move them around the yard some during the day, but keep them from being a problem for the neighbors.

Have been cleaning the old chick pen in preparation for the new chicks coming in early May.  I have made a ton of trips to the garden to dump old nasty chicken poop, and have been doing some of the heavier labor of turning it into the garden by hand.  I have raised beds, so using the rototiller at this point would be pretty useless.  If I can get my Dad to give me his little Mantis tiller I might be able to churn things up a bit better after I get it worked in some.  That is a pretty light duty tiller so it won't dig as deep as the big one, but my soil is pretty light so it should do the trick.  I have hand turned about 1/3 of the garden so far, and if I can turn that bit one more time I should be able to put in some early seeds like spinach or something.  I have never had much luck with spinach, but maybe I wait too long to sow it.  I hope the chicken manure isn't too rich to plant in.  Well, there is quite a bit of bedding mixed in with it, so it should be alright.

The dogs want my attention now, so I am signing off now.  Good night world, and good night chickens!

Funny chicken video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUcTvhyof8I

The first blog! This is an interesting experiment for me, having never created a blog before. About me: I am fairly new to raising poultry, started with 14 chicks last April, and after they were out of the house, I got three turkey chicks. What fun!

I must have done something right, because all of the chicks lived! They went outside to a 6X8 dog kennel that was completely encased in chicken wire, even on the bottom. This was a bit of overkill! It was very VERY difficult to keep clean, and heavy to move. We put a dogloo inside so they could stay warm, a couple of roost poles, a feeder and waterer, and covered the whole affair with a tarp.

They did pretty well for the summer, and unfortunately, well into the fall. I had hoped to install them in the chicken coop much earlier, but we didn't get it finished and enclosed until it was starting to get cold.

What will I do differently this year?
1. I will remove the chicken wire from the bottom of the kennel so that poop doesn't get stuck in it, and the chickens can scratch happily into the dirt.
2. I will move the kennel more often. built up chicken poo is pretty nasty to clean up, but frequent movement allows the poo to break down faster.
3. I will NOT use the expensive galvanized waterer. What a piece of JUNK! It leaks, it is hard to fill and move, and it is basically a pain in the neck. I really like my plastic waterer much better.

I am sure that there are other improvements I can make, but off the top of my head, those are the big ones. Will have to post some pictures soon.