We have really been amazed how easy it is to keep chickens.  The maintenance is next to nothing; in fact it is really far less than caring for our dog.  With that said, I decided to add a few chicks to the flock.   I had hopped to add a little variety by getting some Rhode Island Reds or Red or Black Sex Links, but the large feed stores have not received anything yet.  I stopped by an old local Tack store which had some Barred Rock chicks.  I decided since ours have been so good, I would go ahead and get three more.  The main reason I wanted some variety was so I could tell them apart.  Two of our existing girls look so much alike we can’t tell them apart.  Maybe we will get some bands to help identify them.

The new chicks were about 2 weeks old when I picked them up Friday, April 18, 2014 so they were hatched about the first week of April.   I’ve got them outside in the coop in a section I screened off so the other chickens can see them but not harass them.   The first night, they really didn’t know what to make of the little chicks and were quite chatty for a few hours after roosting for the night.  After that first night, they haven’t really seemed to pay any attention to the new chicks.

Here are some pictures of the new ones:

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With the nice weather here, our chickens have started laying again this week which we are really excited about.  The fresh eggs are so much better than even the expensive organic ones from WholeFoods.

I took a minute today when the sun was partially out and snapped a few pictures of the garden.   This is about a week after planting.

I planted a bunch of purple and white onions this year.

Lettuce on the right, strawberry center and heirloom tomato left

Chinese cabbage

This Swiss Chard is from last year — still going strong

Yellow Corn

Broccoli & Kale

Sugar Snap Peas

Here are a couple of the girls in their favorite dust-bath spot.  The other is in the nesting box ready to lay an egg.

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I was lucky to have  a friend who helped with the landscape design and more so, the labor!

This is what it looks like now that it is all done

The fish have been in the tank for 2 days now.

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Have a look at how the aquaponics garden is doing 3 weeks after I had to remove all the plants and empty it.   All but 2 Armenian cucumber plants made it, and those two were always in trouble.   I picked up another cucumber plant this morning which I hope will do much better.

Fish are on order.  I expect they will arrive next Thursday.  I can’t wait to see how things change once the fish are in the system.
All that is left is to add the rock which will give a finished look to the ground.   I plan on putting in a redish/brown crushed granite.

Couldn’t pass a shot of the girls waiting by the door of the run.

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Friday evening, my son and I put grass back in the small patch by our planter.   A few years ago I had pulled out the grass and turned this area into a garden.  With the aquaponics garden coming, we decided to put grass back in.  The chickens sure seem to love it.   They spend a good deal of the day picking through it, eating the blades and looking for anything else they can find in the mix.

Last month, I switched the feed from the organic crumble sold at the feed store to a whole mix of bulk items from Winco.  To me, it just looks like real food in contrast to the bag food I was getting, even if it was organic.   The new mix seems to last significantly longer and cost much less – always a good thing!

Some of the things I put in the mix:

• Hard red wheat
• Split green peas
• Lentils
• Black sun flower seeds (BOS)
• Flaxseed
• Oat grouts
• Sesame seeds
• Barley peals
• Millet
• Cracked corn
• Nutritional yeast
• Oyster shells

I got this idea from a great blog post by Garden Betty  – Garden Betty’s Homemade Whole Grain Chicken Feed

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