It's A Weird Spring

    It's been quite awhile since I've done an update on our place here at EarthSong Retreat. This is a pretty strange Spring season we're having this year. Temperatures swinging from near 90 degrees (F) to mid 30's and back again. We have had a few nice but light rains and I've been expanding the garden. 
    I've finally gotten another scythe from Ebay. I enjoyed my old one, but it was lost several moves ago. It works really well on the giant ragweed and other grasses that I need to cut here and there. We try not to mow at all, especially while we have wildflowers for the bees. 
    Speaking of the bees. We're looking forward to our first honey harvest.
    We also added some more chickens to our small flock. Six pullets were purchased a few weeks back, three Rhode Island Red and three Ameracauna. My personal favorite breed is the Rhode Islands, but we have some diversity. That will bring our flock to 18.
    The free-ranging chickens are a valuable part of pest control, as well as composting.
    The compost system is simple. I have a pair of bins made from pallets.
    We add kitchen scraps, garden and yard trimmings, to either bin. We also add newspaper from the macaws' cages and other compostable material. As you can see, the bins are open and accessible to our free-ranging chickens. They do an excellent job of further shredding the paper and mixing it all together. I rarely turn the piles, but do add water to help decompose the paper if needed. Before long, I have usable compost!
    I select a pile, it really doesn't matter much which one. I move the top layers over to the adjacent pile until I reach the good compost. It goes through a mesh screen into the wheelbarrow. Whatever doesn't go through the screen goes back on the pile.
   The compost goes straight to wherever it's needed. 
   I like this system!


I'll leave with a picture of Cooper the Wonder Dog and his footbaths. He likes our rainwater collection efforts.

How Not to Raise Chickens! Guest post by Paul Wheaton.

To me, this comic artist (First Cultural Industries) is exceptionally brilliant at capturing and representing very common and complicated issues that can arise for people who have never raised chickens before.  I think the desire to steward chickens is normal and healthy. And what is good for the chicken is something people typically want to understand, but the information from that perspective is scarce, even with the myriad of books available on the topic.  This is a big reason why I created my raising chickens article and have created the Wheaton eco scale to help quantify the implications of the different ways one can raise chickens:  Level 1 is using a coop and run and Level 6 uses a paddock shift with food forests system. The key, for me, is to not hate on the people behind me, but instead, try to figure out ways to educate them on the next levels.
I have to admit that I have bought chickens on-line.  This cartoon makes a pretty good point about how that isn’t necessarily supporting “local” (should that be your reason for raising chickens). But … there are issues buying local too (potentially less selection, could be worse quality of care, fuel for travel to pick up, etc…).   While I feel shame about some of my past choices, I recognize that most all paths have downsides.  Since I did order on-line, I spent time checking reviews to see which hatcheries had the most live chicks arrive and made this my primary shopping criteria. I also had things worked out with the post office so they would call me the moment they had the chicks (one of the perks of a very small town). The folks at the post office seemed to really enjoy it because of all the peeping! I think in all of the deliveries, there was at least one dead chick. Damn.
“You know, we spent $200 on this vintage chicken coop and another $100 to fix it, then there’s that organic chicken feed at $3 a pound …. these are going to be rather pricey eggs … Don’t think about it that way! These are artisanal eggs. Each one is like an original work of art!”  Experiencing the reality of this statement is what led me to paddock shift systems. I was selling eggs and meat for about the same price as the feed I was buying.  I do believe the egg can be a work of art if the chicken is a forest animal and getting plenty of fresh veggies and bugs. But if all they get is dried up grain and nothing else, while penned in a small area where they stand on their own poop all day …. that is hardly “artisanal.”
Raising chickens is a lot of responsibility and, as is the common flaw with most systems, you cannot leave your responsibilities (unless you live in a community that shares responsibilities).  This comic does a good job of showing how clueless jerks will often stick others with their responsibilities.  It also illustrates the lack of preparation and knowledge with which first timers often jump into chicken raising, particularly around chicken life expectancy and what it means to raise a live animal (like death and harvesting).  “Chicken Recycling…we offer a full line of karma offsets…..”  These are new to me.  But I could see these folks getting super rich offering this stuff! Brilliant!  This video, on respectful chicken harvesting, is one every wanna be chicken owner should watch.

Paul Wheaton's Regular blog can be found at  http://paulwheaton12.wordpress.com/

Chicken Coop Update

We've got some blessed rains falling today, so the painting is delayed. I wanted, however, to post the pix of the (almost) finished coop. As soon as it's painted I'll update things. Here's the chicken door and gang plank. To the left you can see the flap door for the nest area. You can also see the recycled windows I put above it. These are crank-out windows I got somewhere. As I stated before, all the materials for this project were recycled, except for the treated 4x4's you can see as runners and main verticals. I also purchased fasteners, hinges, and hasps, although I did at the last minute find some used door hinges to use for part of it. One pair is on the nest flap. 

Here's the opposite end showing the back and "people" door for cleaning etc. The recycled nature of material is obvious here in the mismatched paneling. Paint will change that. Some wire net is still to be added to the vent flap opening shown, however, it will be closed at night for quite awhile, as well as the front windows, so that can be put off a bit.

Here's a shot of the interior through the large door. The roosts are visible. The floor is covered with wood mulch here. The light fixture was a recent find at Goodwill. A feed trough is in the center. I'll replace it soon with a self-feeder.

A shot of the nest box with the first egg! I moved the hens to the new coop after dark last night. Looks like they got the idea!

Housing for the Livestock

On the left is my first constructed bee hive. Cat Dancing painted it with some help from Michael, now the ladies have moved in and made themselves at home. We got the bees a short time ago, after they weathered a fiercely hot summer. We already have plans to build more hives to sell, as well as working on a hive cooperative plan for area growers. I'll post more as it develops.

Previously I posted about our new chickens. They are all doing well, and the "rescues" I added to the flock have come along nicely as well. We've got daily eggs for breakfast and baking. 

This is the temporary coop that came with the chickens. It's barely adequate for the number of hens we have, plus, it is a bit reminiscent of the legendary "two story outhouse". Particularly for the hens on the bottom roost! Therefore, my current project is to build a new hen house!
For awhile I've been admiring pictures of what is called an "Amish" style hen house. It's a very compact and sensible design. I worked up my own plans for one and got to work.

The main frame verticals are tied directly to the skids. I used treated 4x4 lumber, notched and bolted at the base. So far this is the only purchased lumber to go into this project. Two skids are required.

The artisan at work. Ahem! 











Once the skids are done, the framing begins. Here the floor platform and the back wall is started. The footprint is essentially 5'x6'. The rest of the building is made from scavenged material. 

We had a nice piece of 3/4 plywood from an old bed frame we rescued from someone's trash. It was almost large enough for the floor. I added a pair of scavenged 1x12s to finish the floor out. 

Here the wall framing is nearly done. It is ready for the roof  joists. It is taking shape. You can perhaps make out the large doorway in the near end, and the chicken door at the far end. Also, the nest box area is visible. The sloping part on the right side will be the hinged lid to the nest boxes.


More to come!

"Oh behive!" News from EarthSong Retreat.

In a wonderful barter arrangement, we are getting chickens, a small chicken house, and bees from our friend India in exchange for two weeks of house and animal sitting. We were planning to add chickens to our place soon anyway, and we got this chance to get ten grown hens. I've got plans to build them a nice coop of what is popularly called the "Amish" style, but they are coming with their own coop that will work till I get the new one built.


I've had chickens several times over the years. The picture above is from a small setup I had when I lived in Round Rock in the '80's. It worked quite well for the time and place. I love those Rhode Island Reds! The new ones will be a mixed bunch, and we're happy to be getting them. 


We're also getting a hive of bees. Now, personally, I like bees. However, I'm a bit spooked by them. I seem to be a bit allergic to their stings. Over the years I've been stung several times, and each time has been worse. I'm not sure how much risk it will be to be stung again. However, we want bees here at EarthSong Retreat, and so this is a good thing. Cat Dancing has wanted bees also for some time, and she feels that she connects with these already. In a couple of weeks we'll be getting the hive. We've both been studying up on the art of beekeeping. I'm looking at the structural aspects of housing, etc. Cat has enlisted Michael to actually help with the hands-on bee working.


Both of us feel that adding bees will contribute to fighting the decrease in bee populations all over, as well as greatly aid in pollination of the various plant life here at EarthSong.  We've also seen that bees are in serious difficulties in this area already from the drought and heat. 

We've already delved into our first controversy concerning bees. Some of my Permaculturist friends introduced me to "Top Bar" hives as being very simple to build, natural, and beginner friendly. The "Langstroth Hive", however, is more common and more used commercially. Both designs have assets and drawbacks. The clincher, however, is that the season is late, and a Langstroth is what the bees are already established in. We've been looking at various designs to build our own, and we will see about trying different types as we divide the hive or add more bees later. I'll keep you posted. 

On a related note, Cat has been looking at the "space suits" for working with bees. She is considering just going with the head veil and gloves, knowing that many keepers work their bees with no extra covering at all. Not to be outdone, I've been looking at bee suits as well. I'm considering this model:
















On the other hand, perhaps she would appreciate me getting her another assistant:

Nothing is too good for my darling beekeeper!


To be honest, I showed her this suit, and she pointed out that it might not fit me. Sigh.





In other news, we are having our first work day for volunteers here at EarthSong in association with our partners at Vajra Azaya. I've designed a series of wicking bed garden beds to be hooked into our proposed gray-water system. We'll be building those this Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011. My back has been a bit out of whack, so I may be the geezer in the chair pointing others where to dig!


I'll end this with a lovely logo my friend Larry Santoyo has on his t-shirts.

See you!