With the site cleared and mowed, Melissa and I were able to assemble the roof of the pen on the ground. We repositioned the roof on the site until it appeared we had discovered the optimum placement. The new pen is 2’ wider and 6’ longer than the old pen and there were trees, berry […]
New Pen – Frame Complete Read More »
The droppings left by the chickens have greatly improved the fertility of the ground in the pen and raised the ground level by several inches. One consequence is that the fallow season, unintentionally created by our choice to leave the pen unused last summer, allowed for the proliferation of many rose bushes and weedy plants
New Pen – Site Prep Read More »
The chicken pen that we have referred to as the “berry patch” pen was originally constructed as an enclosure to protect strawberries and other delicate plants from birds. When our efforts to grow strawberries proved futile, we repurposed the enclosure as a chicken pen. It served that purpose quite well for many years, but almost
New Pen – Parts Prep Read More »
This spring, our lilac trees needed a great deal of attention. The winter snowfall was so heavy that it damaged many of the longer limbs. Rather than simply cut off those limbs, I decided to try propagating the lilacs by air layering. I had never tried this technique, but it seemed worth the risk since
Layering Lilacs and Willows Read More »
This winter, Fairbanks went through a record cold spell and received a record snowfall, the last of which finally disappeared from my yard only a week ago. Correspondingly, the usual spring sequence of greening and blooming has been both delayed and accelerated as Nature hurriedly completes her to-do list to begin summer on schedule. The
The outdoor air temperature in the month of May was in the upper 40sF for the first week of the month, then jumped to the 50s and low 60sF. The biomeiler has fully switched to air conditioner mode and has steadily chilled the incoming air to 37F for the entire month. In consequence, the coop
May Experimental Results Read More »
The first batch of spring chicks have reached the age when they are visibly bigger each time I come to feed them. More so than any past group of chicks that comes to memory, this group has rapidly outgrown the need for heat in the brooder room. My earlier concern about the difficulty of distinguishing
Moving Day Completed Read More »