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Deterring Flying Predators from Our Chickens

May 16, 2015 By Laura 7 Comments

Today we wanted to tell you about a flying-predator deterrent method we are trying out with our chickens, so that they can happily free range, with less risk.  It’s not guaranteed prevention to protect our flock, by any means. But designed to merely be a deterrent; to discourage hawks and other flying predators from attempting to fly down and get our chickens.

We had always originally planned to allow our flock to free-range wherever they pleased, when we got chickens.  But that intention all changed one day, when our oldest was sitting at the sun room table, eating her lunch, and watching the little birds happily eating at the bird feeder, just a few yards outside of our slider glass door. As she watched, a hawk came down in one fell-swoop, and grabbed a little feeding birdie, right off the feeder! It happened so fast, and left her in such shock and so upset, she could hardly speak at first. Soon, all of the kids were all upset, over the tale she told. We needed a new plan.

We got our chickens as one day old chicks, in July 2014.  They grew up, in size and maturity, in their ample-sized, predator proof (for sure!) chicken run, attached to their predator-proof (for sure!) coop. Most every day while they were young through the Fall, they got to come out of their run with the kids or us adults, and free range under our supervision. The chickens also get lots of ‘one-on-one’ time and attention from our kids; being carried around, brought out front to meander, carried inside the house for a visit, etc.

The winter season that followed, the chickens’ first cold season, was a brutal one. Free-ranging was not even an option, since they’d have immediately gotten lost in the snow several feet over their little heads.  The temperatures were detrimental, as well. But their run was protected with a canvas over the top, and that seemed to keep most of the snow out enough for them to venture out within that area.  The inside of the coop was on a temp regulator, so it never fell below 38 degrees or so.  They can actually handle much colder temperatures but, we’d feel bad anyway, and we also were trying to keep their water from freezing. So they went in for a spell throughout the days, whenever they felt the need to warm up, or lay an egg.

Spring finally arrived, and we definitely wanted them to be able to free-range on their own, throughout the day! As we had always planned.  So it was time to devise a plan to try and keep our chickens somewhat protected, so they could come out of their run and have the freedom to roam, all throughout the daytime. As chickens love to do!  We want our chickens alive and happy, if we can possibly help it.

So first, my husband, Michael, and I agreed that [Read more…]

Filed Under: Our Chickens, The Homestead Tagged With: chicken-keeping, chickens, hawks-and-chickens, predator-proofing-free-ranging-chickens, protecting-chickens-from-flying-predators, protecting-your-chickens-from-predators

Hearty Homemade Corn Chowder – Recipe

April 24, 2015 By Laura Leave a Comment

Every once in awhile, an urge comes along, and I have no idea where it came from. And really, it doesn’t usually matter from where!  I just know I want to roll with it. As of late, that urge was to make a big pot of hearty homemade Corn Chowder for my family! When I spoke these thoughts aloud, I got lots of encouragement to go ahead and do it, from everyone in the house. So, I got looking for a good recipe.

However, I never managed to find a recipe quite to my liking. I didn’t want to use heavy cream (for our heart health), I did want to use certain kind of potatoes, more or less of this or that, and a little of somethin’ else, etc.  So….in the end, I just comprised my own recipe. And since it was quite a satisfying success, I thought to share it with all of you!  (You can thank me after you have some for yourself. 😉 )

Corn Chowder Recipe Does it look delicious to you, or what?

I’m going to give you the general step-by-step first, with some photos, and then [Read more…]

Filed Under: Recipes, Soups Tagged With: chowder-recipes, chowders, cold-weather-meals, corn-chowder, corn-chowder-recipes, healthy-chowders, homemade-chowders, homemade-soups, recipes, soup-recipes, soups

Our First Chicken Troubles – Chickens Feather Picking

March 23, 2015 By Laura 7 Comments

I can assure you that it really is our preference to indulge you with beautiful and funny photos of our chickens and rooster. It’s all part of the great fun of chicken-keeping, if you ask me! And in fact that’s about all we’ve done since we’ve gotten our chickens, such as this post, that you really want to take a peak at first; Flock Photography Fun! However, that’s not what our post is about today. Because with keeping chickens, we knew, eventually comes a few chicken troubles! Such as….chickens feather-picking.   < Deep sigh. >

Considering the incredibly brutal winter we have had here this year, we’d say our rooster and chickens have faired pretty well!  There was bit of a battle with frostbite on crowns and jowls. We did our best to protect them from that, with great coop ventilation, and applying some virgin coconut oil as we could. But Weymouth had the hardest time keeping his jowls from falling into the water when he drank. But anyway, little bits of frostbite were our biggest problem we had run into all winter long. Until……the chickens feather-picking began to happen.

I told you that this post isn’t about pretty photos. I’ll just fore-warn you that this first one is the least pleasant; and then most are pretty enjoyable, if not informative. But we just want to give you the visual of the scope of the problem we had on our hands. It’s not awful, or terribly hard to see, we don’t think. But, just not pretty.


Ok, you may wince a little.
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[Read more…]

Filed Under: Our Chickens, The Homestead Tagged With: chicken-breeds, chicken-feather-picking-solution, chickens, chickens-winter-boredom, feather-picking, pin-less-peepers-for-chickens, what-causes-chicken-feather-picking, why-chickens-pick-feathers-out

March | St.Patrick’s Day | Spring Mantels Decor-2015

March 16, 2015 By Laura Leave a Comment

     As promised, today I am sharing with you our spring mantels decor for March, the month of St. Patrick’s Day, and the beginning of the spring season. (Calendar-wise anyway. God-willing the weather will reflect the same.)  
The decor for these mantels is super minimal and simple. It also features artwork I recently did, 4-Leaf Clover Art, which I blogged about most recently. Visit the link to see more about the inspiration for the piece.  But right now in this post, here are some photos to [Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, Mantel Decorating (Ideas), Seasonal Home decor, SPRING Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: decorating-mantel-decorating, home-decor-ideas, home-decorating-mantels, mantel-decorating-ideas, mantels, mantels-decor, march-mantel-decorating, spring-decor, spring-mantel-decorating-ideas, st-patrick-day-mantel-decorating

4-Leaf Clover Art

March 13, 2015 By Laura 1 Comment

After having a nagging urge to paint for a couple of days last month, I finally found some time to sit down with my watercolor supplies, to create something. As usual, I wanted to make something that would have a purpose; as opposed to just painting for the fun of it, and then wondering what to do with it. (I don’t really like this quality in me, by the way. I’d rather be more creatively spontaneous. So I am working on that in another creative process.) As I figured out what to paint, I realized it was almost the month of March, and so almost time to change our home’s February/Love themed double-mantels.

March….the beginning of spring, and St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t think there is a lick of Irish in any of us, but I decided to go with the theme somewhat anyway, and make a piece of art for our March mantels: 4-Leaf Clover Art.

I had a vision in my head. I got my hues of green ready to go in my palette, and then free-handed a 4-leaf clover, on my ~11×14″ watercolor pad.

As part of the art, I wanted to include a phrase [Read more…]

Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Holiday Crafts Tagged With: 4-leaf-clover-watercolor-painting-art, 4-leaf-clovers, art, blessings, do-you-believe-in-luck?, four-leaf-clovers, luck, luck-of-the-irish, St-Patricks-Day-art, St-Patricks-Day-decor, St-Patricks-Day-decorating, watercolor painting

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