Finishing Off the Coop Portion of the Chicken Tractor

After several days of rain last week I finally was able to get two coats of flat classic barn red paint on the coop section and reinstall the hardware. We had over seven inches of rain during last week's nor'easter and there were no leaks so I believe the caulking and basic engineering are sound.

The last big piece of engineering for this phase of the project will be putting together the pop door. This will require installing some aluminum C-rail on the inside wall to hold a sliding door of regular plywood and rigging a pull cord to the outside. Once that step is out of the way it is just a matter of closing in the run section with framing and wire and attaching the wheels. This may have to wait until spring. I'll also need to rig some kind of brackets to hold the water and feed bins. I am thinking about attaching the feed bin to the front of the coop and the water bin further down somewhere along the framing for the run. Both will need an access hatch on top so that they can be removed easily for refilling and for when the tractor needs to be moved. We'll also need some kind of simple door in the end of the run so we can let the hens out on occasion to free range in the yard.

This is a shot through the main access door showing the interior view of the nesting boxes and the roost pole. I covered the floor with cheap vinyl floor covering so it will be easier to scrape out the mess. The particle board I used while being cheap is really rough and I didn't want to have to worry about removing the droppings that are sure to accumulate under the roost.

The Super-Paleo Scramlet

One of the joys of having a day off and a kitchen garden in full fall production is the ability to wake up, start the coffee, and head outside to forage. On these days where I tend to skip lunch (intermittent fasting in paleo-speak), a nice solid breakfast is in order and that calls for my so-called "super paleo scramlet"; not quite an omlet, not quite scrambled eggs; too many calories to count but remember it is not about total daily caloric intake but the balance of macronutrients and reasonable amounts of carbs.

 Start with about a half cup of diced sweet pepper and red onion.Saute until tender (I like them a little on the burnt side).

 Wilt in about two cups of coarsely chopped kale (chard or spinach works perfectly well too). This might take a few minutes but it reduces down to almost nothing. It is best not to burn anything at this point.
   

 Follow on with a little shredded meat in this case some turkey pepperoni. Sausage, chicken, beef; anything left over in the frig works just as well.
  
 

 Pour in three whipped eggs. In this case, our local farmer's pastured eggs with a little creme, salt/pepper, and a touch of garlic powder to taste. A little water may also be necessary to thin the whites since with super-fresh eggs they can be hard to whip at first. Hold on medium heat until nearly solid then split into two halves and flip. Turn off the heat and let the cast iron finish the backside.
 

Turn out and top off with a little shredded taco cheese mix, a few skirts of Tabasco. Some quartered Romas and a cup of straight up coffee (in this case Old Rag Mtn Camp Blend from Central Coffee Roasters.) finish off the combo.

Tractor Update; Nesting Boxes

Most of this last weekend was spent building out the nesting boxes for the chicken tractor. So far the design-on-the-fly strategy (with occasional bouts of quick-fix engineering) has worked out pretty well but these boxes are probably the most detailed aspect of the construction and to tell you the truth I was wondering how best to pull it off. Should I build them as a stand alone assembly and then somehow attach them to a hole cut in the back wall? This whole thing was beginning to stretch my limits as a novice carpenter.

Luckily I was checking out some new backyard chicken sites recently and I came across the Coop Thoughts blog. Scrolling down through past posts I hit pay dirt with their entry on how to retrofit a coop with external nesting boxes; exactly what I needed. Of course their dimensions were a bit different then ours and I now have three boxes instead of the two I had originally planned (didn't seem to make sense not to space out three proportionally), but their design looks to be superior to most I've seen so far especially not having the slanted roof as an access door but using the small end panel thus getting around having to completely waterproof the opening.

I'll top off the roof with some of the left over PVC that went on the main roof. This will provide additional overhang against driving rain.

Busted !!

Junior, our resident ground hog, has had a pretty cushy life the last year or so. With two condos (one under our front stoop and the other under our back patio), he has had access to a steady supply of fresh vegetables and fruit not to mention whatever it is that gofers normally eat in the wild. Aside from mowing down some lettuce seedlings we had hardening off on the front porch this past spring and occasionally tripping the motion sensor lights in our security perimeter, he really hasn't been too much trouble. Even when he managed to slip under the rabbit fence around The Food Patch a few times he didn't do that much damage. But since he looked to still be pretty young and knowing just how big and destructive these critters can become we felt it was time for a change. It would have been easy just to slip some rodenticide down one of his burrows and let modern chemistry take its course but the little booger was cute and that would be mean so we set a trap with onion and cantaloupe rind. It took a few attempts getting the trigger adjusted for his small size but success came this morning and Junior is now a resident of a corn field down near Antietam Battlefield. Good luck Junior and I hope you don't have any siblings waiting to take your place.

Salad Greens and The Poultry Business

We had a nice gentle rain last night (0.5 inch in the gauge) and there is nothing that compares to day-break on the morning after a rain when everything is fresh and clear especially when there is harvesting to be done. The salad patch was calling and I had to go.

Everyone should be growing salad greens. Compared to the bagged crap in the supermarkets, especially that white bread of the plant world; iceberg lettuce, there is just no comparison to what the average person can grow at home. Even if you don't have a formal garden plot, salad greens can be started in seed packs and transplanted to almost any kind of container that receives sufficient sunlight. Even seed sprouts have gone high tech with the development of microgreens. These are sprouts that are allowed to grow to the two leaf stage and then harvested as an addition to traditional salad or as a stand alone gourmet mix.

Our everyday large leaf salad mix at the Food Patch consists of cuttings of Johnny's Allstar Gourmet Lettuce Mix (containing six different lettuce varieties) and Johnny's Premium Greens Mix (consisting of spicy to mild to slightly sweet mustard greens and Chinese cabbage). I also like to add in a few young beet leaves if they are available and chard leaves up to about three or four inches in length. This gives an incredible mix with lots of color, flavor and nutritional value.

Typically during the growing season I start one nine cell pack of each mix every other week. These are sprouted inside and grown under lights until the leaves are two to three inches high. Then the packs are set out in the shade and gradually hardened to direct sun light over the course of about a week. They are transplanted to the garden and used to fill in any empty spot that is available. In the heat of high summer (July/August) indoor sprouting and development under lights is critical because many lettuce seed varieties do not sprout well when the ground is hot. At those times of the season, transplants are often placed so that they will be shaded by taller plants during the hot afternoon hours. I also have a small movable tunnel covered with shade cloth (50% transmission) for those weeks in August when it is just too hot for salad. This is not optimal but it assures us that we at least have some salad available even if it is not optimal (still better than the bagged stuff).

The other key to the perfect salad is correct harvesting. Greens should be cut early in the morning preferably before they are touched by direct sun. Clippings immediately go to cold tap water for fast chilling. I use two standard dish washing pans so that I can alternate and do two washes outside and then drain and bring inside for one last wash in the spinner. They are laid out on dish towels until almost dry but not wilted and then placed in gallon zip-loc storage bags with lots of extra air to keep the leaves from getting matted down in the frig. This mix will last for over a week but rarely does it make it that long before being devoured. One standard dish pan yields about three one gallon zip loc-bags.

Yesterday morning was spent down at the Maryland Poultry Swap. It was just down the road in Shrapsburg. It was very well attended and I was hoping to see some chicken tractors but most of the show was taken up by poultry fanciers. There were some nice examples of large stationary coops and I even ran into our local egg farmer, Rufus Martin. He was selling fresh chicken meat that his farm had slaughtered earlier that morning. Can't get much fresher than that. I did manage to run into a guy from Aquabarrel who had adapted some of their rain barrel fixtures to chicken waterers and feeders. With all of the engineering going into the chicken tractor I just couldn't pass these up especially since they are made with square buckets that should be easily adaptable to our design. Aside from figuring how to hang them they should save me a lot of additional time and trouble.

Chicken Tractor Update and First Frosts

The coop section of the chicken tractor is beginning to take shape. Last weekend I was finally able to get the roof on and the floor panel cut out. My goal is to get the coop section finished and painted before too long so this thing can overwinter out on the patio. I need to get the garage opened back up soon. We will be doing the classic spring chick thing instead of getting late summer pullets.

I also was able to do the final till of the bed that will go under the winter tunnel. Timing will be critical because it all comes down to first frost dates and photo period. The days are getting shorter and that will have a profound effect on germination and growth rate. Frost tolerance also comes into play. Since they are calling for a good soaking rain today I went ahead and seeded in a couple of varieties of kale, some spinach and beets. I plan to transplant in some bok choy and who knows what else in the coming weeks depending on the forecast.

A couple of useful links for us Western Maryland plow boys:

Maryland First (Fall) Frost Dates

Maryland Last (Spring) Frost Dates

Got to go; its off to the Maryland Poultry Swap in Sharpsburg.

Life is Good

Cooler temps and slowly shortening days means one thing; back to full production of the salad greens. This week marked the first big cut of the fall lettuce and mustard greens. Together, these make one hell of a salad mix that never fails to satisfy. We should be able to add in some young Swiss chard in the next week or so.

And this is our first trial of bok choy. This is so easy to grow, and apparently not a target for any of the usual insects, that we will have to make it a regular addition. I also hope to put some of this under the winter tunnel.

And what's a Sunday evening dinner without some stir fry from the second planting of squash together with red onions and peppers.