low egg season has begun??!!

So our egg production has taken a drastic shift downwards...which is making us rather sad and upset...could be related to weather of course as in fall and winter egg production always goes down but I also just read this article about adding new chickens into your group and am wondering if this is what's going with us.

Stress

Just as we are less productive when we’re under stress, so are laying hens. If there are dogs and kids chasing them around the barnyard, or predator attacks, things of this nature, your chickens will be living in a state of fear and won’t feel the conditions are right for laying eggs and raising a clutch of chicks. It’s also important to note that if you purchase laying hens or point of lay pullets, they will lay a few eggs after bringing them home (the ones ‘in the works’ before they left their previous coop) and then they will stop laying for a couple of weeks. So expect a dry spell with new hens. In general, keep them happy and stress free for the best egg production.

How to clean and store your eggs

For those who get eggs from us, here's a good article on proper cleaning and storage of farm fresh eggs from backyardchickens.com

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/cleaning-and-storing-fresh-eggs

:)

Winterizing Continued

We're reaching the end of another productive weekend, yet somehow still have so much to do. The chickens wind break has been finished. I think it looks good and natural, the straw will definitely get used and not end up in a landfill like plastic sheeting would. Here's the finished product (sans winter roof). What do you think? As an added bonus, this wall has encouraged some of the chickens to use the higher perches we made previously so that they can see out over it.

We finished pulling out the remnants of this years veggie garden and boy was there a lot in there. More varieties of vegetables than I could have guessed were in there. Huge portions run wild with various herbs. We uncovered grape vines, goose berries, and a fig tree all being choked out by trumpet vines, morning glories, and clematis. There are also half a dozen rose bushes if anyone is interested they're free to a good home.

Cleaned Up Garden

Newly found Goose Berries and Fig Tree

The pumpkin patch is also done. It just needs to be tilled when we do the veggie garden, but the berry patch needs to be covered in straw still and the the raspberries appropriately pruned.

That's all for now. Thanks for looking :D

Winterizing chicken coop

Winter is around the corner; some people get excited about that and some people dread it. I've discovered that the only thing we get is a lot of work to do in the fall. We've spent hours upon hours cleaning up the gardens and still have hours and hours of work ahead of us. We can spend a whole day and it looks like we've barely made a dent. Going to have to call the the grandparents to watch Lily next weekend so that we can make a concerted effort on them.

Today we got started on winterizing the chicken coop. Here's our before picture.

We got the old ford loaded up with 10 bales of straw (all my little ranger will hold). That should be enough to make a nice little wind break wall along one side of the coop. We're going to get another truck load tomorrow so that we have enough for the two sides in the above photo. There is already a fence along the far side so right now I'm not too worried about wind coming in from over there. The ladies are very cold tolerant, but wind is another story altogether.

Here is a pic of the truckload of straw. Just as we were getting ready to leave the farm where we picked up the straw a big gust of wind blew a bunch of straw through my open passenger window. I think there ended up being as much straw inside as there was in the back.

Here's a picture of the ladies hanging out. I'll get some more shouts of the coop up tomorrow after I get the rest of the straw home and the wind break set up. Also going to make a peaked roof out a tarp to keep the snow out of the coop as much as possible. The work never ends lol.

Just got back from a week long moose hunting trip up past Hearst Ontario. While I learned a lot, met some pretty good guys, and had a good time we unfortunately came back empty handed.

I'm glad to see that, although she is exhausted, Karen was able to keep up on all the farm chores and with Lily on her own the whole time. I know she's superwoman but it gives me some hope that I'll be able to keep up by myself should I ever have to...and I'm super pumped about how well the ISA Browns have inserted themselves into the flock and helped bring up our dropping egg production.

We still have a lot to do before winter hits. I'll be making a post on how we update and winterize the coup. How we turn over the gardens and prepare for the first raised beds next year. We've got to figure out how to prune our fruit and nut trees (and look into relocating a couple of them). I think Karen will be taking care of the berry patches and getting them ready for winter. I'm also planning on starting an asparagus bed, so if anyone knows of a good source for some started asparagus please let me know.

Thanks again for checking in and please feel free to stop by Lil Acre Farm to visit us and the Ladies.

Isa browns and their big brown eggs!

While not exactly our chicken, here is an isa brown and a photo of the BIG brown eggs they lay...I'd say like an EXTRA LARGE egg!

winter protection for raspberry plants

Looking for some insight into care of our raspberry canes for the winter.  Read a few articles which talked about bending over the canes and covering the tips in dirt...for some reason this sounds difficult to me and I worry about breaking the canes.  Any thoughts?  I read other articles that say prune them before winter and others that say prune in April....
Although they grow wild all the time and they still produce tasty fruit, so maybe I'm just over thinking it all.

eggs galore!

The new chickens are definitely doing there job, getting 12 - 20 eggs per day!  They're definitely also encouraging the original ladies to step up their game!
Found some lettuce sprouting with the warm weather we had this weekend and passed it onto the ladies yesterday, they were pretty pumped about it!
Currently in process of doing some research regarding setting up the coop for winter...any suggestions are appreciated!

6 new chickens!

We picked up 6 new hens last night from a local farmer near Harrow, ON.  We think that they're Isa Browns, but don't know for sure as the farmer described them as "brown chickens that lay brown eggs"....hahaha.  I am amazed at how people friendly they are, letting us pet them and carry them.  Also great layers, so far have gotten 4 LARGE brown eggs from them this morning.  Noticing they're tending to stick to the inside coup, but perhaps that will change, as they are coming from an inside environment.  Pictures to follow!
Also to note, I am amused by what the chickens are enjoying eating...so far loving bananas!!

Lots of work!

Spent most of the weekend out and about in the yard.  Spent Saturday working on the coup, added a bunch more straw after all of the wet weather we had.  Also moved a bunch of the branches around in the coup to allow the ladies to perch a little bit higher and enjoy the view!  Realized the old home owner was a bit of a pack rat and spent a lot of time cleaning in the coup storage and workshop area....so many egg cartons...so many buckets...
Also spent most of Sunday in the yard.  Lots to clean up as we move towards the warmer weather.  Finding the clearing out of the gardens to be a looonnnngggg task, especially clearing all the tomato plants.  Definitely have a lot to do...
Also after doing some reading online I've discovered that marigolds assist with a nice yellow yolk in the eggs, so since we have hundreds of marigolds planted around the gardens have started feeding the ladies some flowers with their veggies.  Also read online about dehydrating the flowers and adding them to the food in the winter...so, something else I have to find the time to do.  Anyone free on a weekend and want to help???  haha
Finally, have been looking into some winter care of our fruit bushes/plants, strawberries and raspberries.  So far have decided to cover the strawberries plants in about 6 inches of straw.  Struggling with finding suggestions to winter the raspberry bushes...any suggestions?

Giant Sunflowers!

Thanks to Our Farm Organics in Cottam and our farm share with them we picked up 25 GIANT sunflower heads for the ladies.  We are currently drying them and hope the ladies will enjoy them on the cold winter days.  It is amazing the organization of the sunflower...not sure if you can see it in the pics but the seeds are shockingly jammed in there....:)

Finally Here!!

We're coming up on the end of our first week here. Sorry I didn't post sooner but we just got the internet installed, and let me tell you, country internet options are limited, expensive, and really quite mediocre - but it's just the first sacrifice we're willing to make to be out here. And being out here is far from mediocre!

We moved in to find one less chicken that we expected, and another that was very very sick. She didn't last the night. But since then the rest of the ladies have stepped up and rewarded us with 8-9 beautiful and delicious eggs a day. I am seeing a few drawbacks to the current coop set up that I plan on rectifying over the winter or possibly in the spring.

The property itself is everything we wanted. It's large, private, picturesque and already has several large gardens ready to be turned over for the fall. I've found a source of pallets right across from where I work where I can nab 4 good pallets every day for use in our gardens and other projects.

The house also suits all our needs. We're really liking the layout and there is an awesome room in the basement I've converted into a pantry that I can't wait to start stocking with next seasons produce!

Anyway, this is just a short and sweet little blog to say we've made it, we're settling in, and we're very happy and very excited to be here.

So without further ado here's Lil Acre...

And her ladies...

And the yummy fruits of our labours...