Posts Tagged ‘chickens’

More Chickens

Posted by Cynthia Lapp
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This week we added to our Icelandic flock with assistance from David Grote at Whippoorwill Farm in Iron River, Wisconsin.

We took a road trip to Whippoorwill Farm and purchased two hens and a rooster, with the intentions of adding the hens to our pair, and giving the rooster to Theresa, one of our chicken benefactors.

Whippoorwill farm is beautiful. Even the overcast chill didn't take the spark out of the rolling hills and happy animals--three farm dogs, Priscilla the fjord horse, a pile of Icelandic sheep and an energetic coop of Icelandic chickens.

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We had a great time, and finished our trip with a purchase of some of the beautiful hand-spun yarn David makes from his sheep's wool. We'll keep you posted on what creations come of the yarn from Monika and Opha. Vickie, our knitting friend, will whip up some warm goodies--note her matching sweater and half-gloves.

 

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UPDATE
Theresa reports that the rooster is really mellow and is working well with her flock. Our chickens have been a different story--we now have Matilde on her own for awhile, to reflect on and hopefully reform her actions and stop pecking at the new hens, Bianca and Björk, who are patiently sitting in the background of this photo.

 

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The Chickens’ New Home

Posted by Cynthia Lapp
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Our first snowfall was the perfect portend to our chickens' move into their new fully-functional coop.

While our Icelandic chickens were faring well in the open "tractor" coop that was generously leant to us in conjunction with the chickens' arrival into our lives, they need an enclosed coop to take them through the winter.

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Team Meteek was up to the challenge, and put together an ingenious design of passive light (fiberglass panels) and passive solar heat gained on the south side of our shop.

We constructed the coop with lumber on-hand and reused various materials left over from other projects. The coop includes a run, where the chickens can hunt and peck outside on warm days.

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Two chickens do not quite make a flock--we hope to add a few hens to increse their number. And next summer we'll build a new "chicken tractor," a mobile coop we can move around on our front meadow, where they can forage for insects, mice, and other tasty morsels...

The Chickens Have Landed

Posted by Cynthia Lapp

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People say that in Duluth everyone knows everyone. Sometimes even everyone knows that you need chickens.

Andrea and Jim, local chicken enablers, stopped by Meteek today to drop off a couple of chickens for us. They hatched an extra rooster and knew they wouldn't keep him, and since he was such good friends with Matilde, they came as a pair.

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We didn't know Andrea and Jim were bringing them over. We didn't know they had an extra rooster. We didn't even know that Andrea and Jim kept chickens. But they heard we had been thinking about getting chickens. Someday. And someday is today.

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We also found out that not only do chickens eat tomatoes, they also eat mice. We put Kazoo and Matilde out in the meadow in the chicken tractor that Andrea and Jim conveniently brought over for us. Kazoo found a mouse, Matilde took it from him and body-bocked him for about five minutes, then Kazoo got it back. Two pecks and a gulp, and it was down the gullet. Perhaps this is why the CSI shows are so popular--not enough people have their own chickens to watch.

[wpvideo RmiGZkqs]

https://vimeo.com/49477331