A missing post from early summer 2011... but still the answers are unresolved :
We need to design a more secure chicken pen. And build it. Something that is raccoon and fox proof.
We're planning to use part of the existing equipment shed ( the "red shed"). It came with the property and it's about 100 ft from the front of the house, near the bottom of the driveway's last hill. There's a nice Pawlonia tree that is growing out of the middle of the back of the shed and we want to incorporate that for shade. The tree is on the north side of the shed, which is open to the south.
The idea is to build a chicken coop inside the shed about in the middle (it is about 28 ft deep and 70 ft long) so we can still get through with the lawn tractor and other equipment. There is a partition wall that was designed to be a horse stall, but then I decided I wanted the horses' housing in a more central area of the pasture. The stall areas are now used to store hay up on pallets.
The current plan would include an inside chicken yard between the side of the coop and the existing north side of the red shed. One side will have the partition wall that is already there. It is about 5 ft high. We will need to either build another partition wall on the other side of the chicken coop or frame it and screen it. This will give the birds a protected area to get out and move around even if the weather's bad.
The major design questions here are twofold -
1 - High question - How high up do we need to frame and screen to keep out marauders?
-- The shed roof is about 27 feet high in the middle. It is made of galvanized metal. If we don't go up to the roof with the side screening, then what do we cover the top with to keep birds in and marauders out? It will have an area of approx 14ft x 16ft, so we would need something that can be large enough to span that. The roof on the chicken coop will probably be 10 ft towards the north side (closest to the indoor pen) and slope to 8 ft on the south side (exposed to weather and where we would enter).
-- It would be cheaper to only screen up 10ft or so on the sides then span the area, but would raccoons get up on the posts and fall through the top if we used some deer netting like the plastic kind you can get that is 10 ft high?
2 - Low question - How to keep things from digging in from below and provide good footing for the birds that is easy to clean. Two related issues, actually.
--Digging: I was thinking of getting some hog panels and laying them flat on the ground - will those openings keep out most critters other than mice (haven't seen evidence of rats)? Or can a raccoon or skunk get through the openings? If that will work, then I would run hardware cloth up the side of the partition wall and under the hog panels, wired together. Already plan to use hardware cloth along the bottom of the chicken coop and will just extend the hog wire under that as well.
-- Footing: I am thinking perhaps put some CR 6 on top of the hog panels, cover with geo fabric and then put about 3 inches of sand on top of the cloth. CR 6 = drainage in case of heavy rainfall. I noticed that during Irene and Lee, we had a lot of water move through the shed since it's at the foot of a hill (one of the reasons the horses are NOT stalled here) Then the fabric will keep the sand from mixing with the CR 6. Sand will be easy to clean with a rake and give the birds something to scratch and dust bathe in. Or would stone dust be better? I have to get some more bluestone dust and CR 6 for the horse's heavy use area and shed, so I could get enough for both uses if stone dust would work. Although sand would look nicer (lighter color) and is what I was planning to use in the outside pen.
Is this overkill?
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Pinata Apples
Just purchased a Pinata apple at a Harris Teeter store in the relatively new Maple Lawn development in Howard County MD (a topic for a seperate post ) on April 27th. In looks and shape, you can see the influence of the Delicious apples. Skin color is very pretty, streaked by light red and yellow.
Googled to find out more since I'd never heard of this variety.
The price sticker said "Sp...lt PINATA!" with price code 3435 (which rang up at $2.99/lb), apple weighed in at 0.52lb, and I picked one of the smaller apples. Also label was marker for sale in USA and E-U, with a Facebook scan code. (I don't have that app on my phone)
Update -- Resolved sticker name... the "p" was actually a " t" with an underlying line from the stemilt logo : http://www.stemilt.com/Our_Fruit/Fruit-Apples-PINATA.cfm
Firmer and crisper than a Golden Delicious. Not as sweet as a Gala, rather in the medium range of the sweetness scale. Skin was a bit tough to chew. Texture probably lends itself to cooking, but the price is a bit high for use in pies or applesauce, might make a nice baked apple or dumpling.
However, as I finish my apple, I am not sure I'd purchase more at this price (2.99/lb). The Pink Lady is the same price and, to me, a much better eating apple.
Googled to find out more since I'd never heard of this variety.
The price sticker said "Sp...lt PINATA!" with price code 3435 (which rang up at $2.99/lb), apple weighed in at 0.52lb, and I picked one of the smaller apples. Also label was marker for sale in USA and E-U, with a Facebook scan code. (I don't have that app on my phone)
Update -- Resolved sticker name... the "p" was actually a " t" with an underlying line from the stemilt logo : http://www.stemilt.com/Our_Fruit/Fruit-Apples-PINATA.cfm
Firmer and crisper than a Golden Delicious. Not as sweet as a Gala, rather in the medium range of the sweetness scale. Skin was a bit tough to chew. Texture probably lends itself to cooking, but the price is a bit high for use in pies or applesauce, might make a nice baked apple or dumpling.
However, as I finish my apple, I am not sure I'd purchase more at this price (2.99/lb). The Pink Lady is the same price and, to me, a much better eating apple.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Heavenly Marans from Heavent Sent Ranch
In early June, I received a dozen chicks from Heaven Sent Ranch in California (the state, not the Maryland city). I ordered an even dozen, expecting to loose a couple, either in transit or while growing out.
But I certainly had better results with these chicks - they all are healthy and kickin' .. or rather cluckin... 3 months later.
Alas, I got more cockerels then pullets, 7 vs 5 if I count right. They are all getting beautiful feathers... did I say they were Black Copper Marans (or BCMs). They are turning out rather gorgeous - lots of red-copper feathers on the necks and backs. Pretty mellow guys overall. I will have to take some recent photos, the last batch was before all the lovely color started coming fore.
However, we need to make a bigger pen for them so they have more room. At the moment they are in a chicken tractor but I think at 6x8 it's a tad small. And over-built so it's heavy as the dickens so it's a two person move, which means its not getting moved every day. The good news is it is VERY sturdy - no problems with the winds and rains from Irene and Lee.
But I certainly had better results with these chicks - they all are healthy and kickin' .. or rather cluckin... 3 months later.
Alas, I got more cockerels then pullets, 7 vs 5 if I count right. They are all getting beautiful feathers... did I say they were Black Copper Marans (or BCMs). They are turning out rather gorgeous - lots of red-copper feathers on the necks and backs. Pretty mellow guys overall. I will have to take some recent photos, the last batch was before all the lovely color started coming fore.
However, we need to make a bigger pen for them so they have more room. At the moment they are in a chicken tractor but I think at 6x8 it's a tad small. And over-built so it's heavy as the dickens so it's a two person move, which means its not getting moved every day. The good news is it is VERY sturdy - no problems with the winds and rains from Irene and Lee.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Horse waterers - finally!
Oh Happy Day !!!!
The Horse Waterers are getting installed, just in time before we have to put the hoses away each day. After two winters, I am glad to be moving past that trouble. Last winter was especially "interesting" - dragging 200 feet of hoses from the garage through 2 feet of snow a couple times a week wasn't too bad. However draining the hoses after use and putting them away was a mess.
We are installing two Nelson Waterers. One is in the shed so it will be positioned between two stalls should we decide we need a stall in the future. The other is outside on the heavy use pad, located so that if we enlarge the shed length-wise it too will be between two stalls.
The heavy use pad we started before the first snow storm last winter has been enlarged and improved by one of our neighbors, who is a general contractor and also put in our septic system when we built the house. I love it, it is much better than what we had last winter, most importantly it has finer, stone dust on top so it makes it easier to clean.
Not sure what happened with this - it was suppose to have posted last winter! Ahh well, lack of attention on my part, I guess.
The Horse Waterers are getting installed, just in time before we have to put the hoses away each day. After two winters, I am glad to be moving past that trouble. Last winter was especially "interesting" - dragging 200 feet of hoses from the garage through 2 feet of snow a couple times a week wasn't too bad. However draining the hoses after use and putting them away was a mess.
We are installing two Nelson Waterers. One is in the shed so it will be positioned between two stalls should we decide we need a stall in the future. The other is outside on the heavy use pad, located so that if we enlarge the shed length-wise it too will be between two stalls.
The heavy use pad we started before the first snow storm last winter has been enlarged and improved by one of our neighbors, who is a general contractor and also put in our septic system when we built the house. I love it, it is much better than what we had last winter, most importantly it has finer, stone dust on top so it makes it easier to clean.
Not sure what happened with this - it was suppose to have posted last winter! Ahh well, lack of attention on my part, I guess.
hiatus over - internet frustrations abound
It's been some time since I last posted. Life got a bit busy...or I got a bit lazy. Or both.
Or my internet connection just frustrated me.
Minor rant -- It is crazy to live within 30 minutes of the White House and not have a high speed internet connection. Verizon's vaunted Fios service ends at the road before ours, less than a quarter mile between intersections. I could walk through the woods and fields about 20 minutes on foot (or less than 5 minutes around by car) and reach the Fios cable and touch high speed connectivity. But when questioned, Verizon does not know when they will run Fios the last quarter mile from that road to ours.
Without putting in a satellite dish and committing $$ and signing a new contract, we make due with a cell company air card -- e.g. we get our internet the same way most people get cell phone calls. Which means we also experience a LOT of drop outs when people are at home making calls.....which is, of course, about the same time we are home and want to use the internet.
We've had the air card a couple years now and might have better connectivity with a newer card. But the new card contracts will greatly limit the amount of bandwidth we can get for our money. And as our sole source of connection to the world, bandwidth/dollar IS important.
Also it is again crazy that, within 30 minutes of the White House, we also experience as many power outages as we do. But we are truly stuck with Pepco - one of the lowest rated power companies in the USA. We can get our electricity from another source, but we still have the failure-prone Pepco delivering that electricity to us. Can't say that deregulation of the electric companies has been beneficial for this area. Pepco has many well-publicized "improvements" planned or in progress, which of course the Public Service Commission is allowing Pepco to charge to the customers to recover their costs while maintaining their excellent earnings.
Wish off-grid was a viable option, but with a mostly electric house, the cost for solar and/or wind is prohibitive.
Or my internet connection just frustrated me.
Minor rant -- It is crazy to live within 30 minutes of the White House and not have a high speed internet connection. Verizon's vaunted Fios service ends at the road before ours, less than a quarter mile between intersections. I could walk through the woods and fields about 20 minutes on foot (or less than 5 minutes around by car) and reach the Fios cable and touch high speed connectivity. But when questioned, Verizon does not know when they will run Fios the last quarter mile from that road to ours.
Without putting in a satellite dish and committing $$ and signing a new contract, we make due with a cell company air card -- e.g. we get our internet the same way most people get cell phone calls. Which means we also experience a LOT of drop outs when people are at home making calls.....which is, of course, about the same time we are home and want to use the internet.
We've had the air card a couple years now and might have better connectivity with a newer card. But the new card contracts will greatly limit the amount of bandwidth we can get for our money. And as our sole source of connection to the world, bandwidth/dollar IS important.
Also it is again crazy that, within 30 minutes of the White House, we also experience as many power outages as we do. But we are truly stuck with Pepco - one of the lowest rated power companies in the USA. We can get our electricity from another source, but we still have the failure-prone Pepco delivering that electricity to us. Can't say that deregulation of the electric companies has been beneficial for this area. Pepco has many well-publicized "improvements" planned or in progress, which of course the Public Service Commission is allowing Pepco to charge to the customers to recover their costs while maintaining their excellent earnings.
Wish off-grid was a viable option, but with a mostly electric house, the cost for solar and/or wind is prohibitive.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ossie well on the mend
I have been pretty busy at work and at home and I haven't had a lot of time to post and update on Ossie's health.
We found a very nice vet, Dr Adam Terry, at All Kinds Veterinary in Callaway. It was quite a drive but he is worth the trip.
I drove Ossie down one evening last month - the drive was longer than it looked in mapquest!
Dr Adam did an exam and gave me some good advice. Dr Adam has a lot of experience with exotic birds but the pet chicken wasn't the norm. He took it well in stride. Based on the treatment we had already started, we came up with a treatment plan that was a bit short of the ideal but doable with our commute and work schedule.
We continued the Tylan 50 for another week or so, then waited a couple weeks for the drug to clear Ossie's system. I then booked another after-work appointment and made the long drive in a noticeable darker evening (I do hate the darkness of a pending winter!). Dr Adam checked Ossie, commented that he looked much improved, drew some blood and we were on our way home.
I received a call from the office asking to bring Ossie back for a tracheal swab (!) After a return trip in a totally dark sky, the swab was done, fresh blood drawn, and Dr Adam shipped the material to the Eastern Shore lab.
Meanwhile, Ossie appears almost well. He does have a bit of dried nose snot on one nostril most mornings, which we clean out. Each day the amount is smaller. He is allowed out of his kennel to roam the yard while I feed the horses in morning, then crated while I am at work and the rest of the flock is in the yard.
The opposite sequence is followed in the evening. The other birds are fed and locked up for the night and he is allowed out to roam as we feed the horses. That part is getting tricky - luckily he likes to eat (!) and is waiting to go into his kennel when we finish with the horses, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the dark bird in a dark yard! One day last weekend, he followed me halfway to the horse shed and ambushed me on my return trip. He is funny to watch as he runs to keep up.
Still waiting for final test results and whether we need to do additional treatment.
Since it's getting cold, I hope to resolve this soon so we can put Ossie in with the other birds before winter.
We found a very nice vet, Dr Adam Terry, at All Kinds Veterinary in Callaway. It was quite a drive but he is worth the trip.
I drove Ossie down one evening last month - the drive was longer than it looked in mapquest!
Dr Adam did an exam and gave me some good advice. Dr Adam has a lot of experience with exotic birds but the pet chicken wasn't the norm. He took it well in stride. Based on the treatment we had already started, we came up with a treatment plan that was a bit short of the ideal but doable with our commute and work schedule.
We continued the Tylan 50 for another week or so, then waited a couple weeks for the drug to clear Ossie's system. I then booked another after-work appointment and made the long drive in a noticeable darker evening (I do hate the darkness of a pending winter!). Dr Adam checked Ossie, commented that he looked much improved, drew some blood and we were on our way home.
I received a call from the office asking to bring Ossie back for a tracheal swab (!) After a return trip in a totally dark sky, the swab was done, fresh blood drawn, and Dr Adam shipped the material to the Eastern Shore lab.
Meanwhile, Ossie appears almost well. He does have a bit of dried nose snot on one nostril most mornings, which we clean out. Each day the amount is smaller. He is allowed out of his kennel to roam the yard while I feed the horses in morning, then crated while I am at work and the rest of the flock is in the yard.
The opposite sequence is followed in the evening. The other birds are fed and locked up for the night and he is allowed out to roam as we feed the horses. That part is getting tricky - luckily he likes to eat (!) and is waiting to go into his kennel when we finish with the horses, otherwise we wouldn't be able to see the dark bird in a dark yard! One day last weekend, he followed me halfway to the horse shed and ambushed me on my return trip. He is funny to watch as he runs to keep up.
Still waiting for final test results and whether we need to do additional treatment.
Since it's getting cold, I hope to resolve this soon so we can put Ossie in with the other birds before winter.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Worsening Eyes, But No Vet in Town
Well Ossie's eyes weren't getting better.
He was not recovering as fast as his (as yet unnamed) Orpington sibling, who has been happily running the roost in the new tractor with the guineas and our Wyandotte.
It looked like Ossie's back feathers were also getting pecked by the other, healthier birds, so we segregated him and put him back in the garage.
Friday his eyes had swollen such that, from directly above, his head looked like a round ball. We needed to step up the treatment plan.
A search of some of the forums showed the possibility of a vet north of Baltimore ...probably a 90+ minute drive. I tried to find a local vet who would look at his eyes.
Our equine vet had provided some good general guidance, but also said he wasn't a bird expert.
So I tried the dog vet. No luck there.... but they did recommend another vet.
A call to that vet was unfruitful - no bird vet there (or no interest in looking at a chicken). However they recommended still another vet who they said did pet birds like cockatoos, etc.
I called the 2nd referral vet and came up with a winner.....however the bird vet was out till Monday. I took the first available appointment...even though they were located about an hour away in Callaway ( a town I had never heard of before).
Ossie's eyes looked bad, very painful. However, he was getting around fine, eating like a pig - contrary to what one thinks when one hears the phrase "eating like a bird".
Last weeks' online research suggested numerous causes and treatments. We went with administration of Tylan 50. This necessitated a drive to the nearest TSC, which is about 50-60 minutes away for the Tylan. Then a drive to a local Southern States (in the opposite direction we had to go to get to TSC) for some opthalmic ointment. Of course it would have been too, too convenient if one store had both items we needed!
So, after a stop at a regular drug store for more items, we got our medical supplies and went with a plan:
1 Clean the eyes with eye wash (Big Box drug store) 2x/day
2 Cover the eyes with the opthalmic ointment (Southern States) 2x/day
3 Adminster Tylan 50 (TSC) 0.5cc 1x/day
This helped considerably - the swelling was down significantly the next day and almost entirely gone by Sunday. I still anxiously awaited the visit to the vet scheduled for Monday.........................................
He was not recovering as fast as his (as yet unnamed) Orpington sibling, who has been happily running the roost in the new tractor with the guineas and our Wyandotte.
It looked like Ossie's back feathers were also getting pecked by the other, healthier birds, so we segregated him and put him back in the garage.
Friday his eyes had swollen such that, from directly above, his head looked like a round ball. We needed to step up the treatment plan.
A search of some of the forums showed the possibility of a vet north of Baltimore ...probably a 90+ minute drive. I tried to find a local vet who would look at his eyes.
Our equine vet had provided some good general guidance, but also said he wasn't a bird expert.
So I tried the dog vet. No luck there.... but they did recommend another vet.
A call to that vet was unfruitful - no bird vet there (or no interest in looking at a chicken). However they recommended still another vet who they said did pet birds like cockatoos, etc.
I called the 2nd referral vet and came up with a winner.....however the bird vet was out till Monday. I took the first available appointment...even though they were located about an hour away in Callaway ( a town I had never heard of before).
Ossie's eyes looked bad, very painful. However, he was getting around fine, eating like a pig - contrary to what one thinks when one hears the phrase "eating like a bird".
Last weeks' online research suggested numerous causes and treatments. We went with administration of Tylan 50. This necessitated a drive to the nearest TSC, which is about 50-60 minutes away for the Tylan. Then a drive to a local Southern States (in the opposite direction we had to go to get to TSC) for some opthalmic ointment. Of course it would have been too, too convenient if one store had both items we needed!
So, after a stop at a regular drug store for more items, we got our medical supplies and went with a plan:
1 Clean the eyes with eye wash (Big Box drug store) 2x/day
2 Cover the eyes with the opthalmic ointment (Southern States) 2x/day
3 Adminster Tylan 50 (TSC) 0.5cc 1x/day
This helped considerably - the swelling was down significantly the next day and almost entirely gone by Sunday. I still anxiously awaited the visit to the vet scheduled for Monday.........................................
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