Chicken Update: Week Two

Today marks exactly two weeks since we picked up our baby chicks and brought them out to the farm. It's been quite the learning experience and so much fun being able to watch them grow! Their feathers are starting to develop into beautiful color variations and they are becoming more curious about their surroundings. Since these first few weeks are crucial for them to socialize with us humans, we've been talking to them more (yes, I talk to my chickies) and have been letting them roam around the front yard for a couple minutes. They still don't seem interested at all in eating worms for treats - I figured they would go crazy over them, so today I'm going to try and give them some mashed up hard boiled eggs (I find it totally weird and a little cannibal-ish, but I read in a chicken forum that they apparently LOVE hard boiled eggs). We'll see how it goes :)


What are some treats you'd recommend for growing chicks?

Cold Weather Calls For A Temporary Greenhouse!

We transplanted our lettuce into a raised bed a couple days ago and with the unexpected cold weather coming to our area tonight, we needed to build a temporary greenhouse. We used five pieces of PVC pipe for the arches over the garden bed, while our chocolate lab 'Coach' supervised our work.

After applying a wood stick to the top of the PVC pipes using zip ties, it was time to drape the plastic over the pipes. The plastic dome will create a greenhouse effect and will keep our lettuce warm and the unwanted deer out!

We ended up using two plastic sheets to cover each side of the PVC pipe dome. Then, we used a staple gun to staple the ends of the plastic sheets to the cedar box.

A peak inside the greenhouse....

The finished product! Again, this is a totally temporary greenhouse, so while it may not look fancy, it will serve its purpose cheaply and efficiently for the next week or two.


Stay tuned - we have a DIY Farmhouse Table coming to the blog!

Our New Baby Chicks!

So remember the other day when I mentioned that we had a few surprise additions coming to the farm? Well, they're here! Nine baby chicks. Healthy, alert, and too much cuteness to handle. We got them from our local hardware/farm store and since we knew chick season had officially started, it was a must for us to be at the store on the day they arrived! It was a good thing too that we got there in time to pick out the different breeds we wanted, because by the end of the day most of the chicks were sold out. We got two Black Australorps, one Buff Orphington, three Plymouth Rock, and three Ameraucanas.

 They spent their first night in the brooder eating, sleeping, pooping and pecking at everything that stood in their way.

Since it was so beautiful and sunny outside, we took two of them out for a couple minutes to experience their first adventure in the yard :)

Here is the brooder we made using materials that were laying around the farm. We used a livestock water tank for the tub and some wire mesh for the lid. The wire mesh will provide adequate ventilation and serve as protection from our cats.

We also hooked up a red heat lamp since our baby chicks will need lots of warmth in their first few weeks of life. We are SO excited for our new chicken adventure and can't wait for some farm fresh eggs! :)


What are some of the unique brooder ideas that you've come up with? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Our Seedlings Are Growin' Up!

It's been a couple weeks since I've updated y'all on our growing seeds! I can't even begin to tell you how much of an AMAZING experience it has been watching these little green babies grow! In just 5 1/2 weeks, this is what our seedlings look like as of today. We've had tons of luck with these heirloom organic seeds (the quality of the seeds are extremely important to the success of your plants' growth) and have learned that using liquid fish fertilizer in the process has really helped these babies grow. Sometime this week we will have to transplant these little guys to the outside garden... Our dining room is starting to get a little crowded! ;)

Look at that lettuce!!! I mean seriously, it looks like it could be its own little salad :p

Here we have spinach to the left and okra to the right. *Mmmmm fried okra....* A country classic!

.... Broccoli & cauliflower....

And last but not least, cabbage! We planted tomato seeds in the pods to the left but didn't have much luck with those. We plan to give the tomato seeds another round next week indoors. Stay tuned in the next couple of days.... We have a couple surprise additions coming to the farm! ;)

Planting Seed Potatoes

This past weekend we planted seed potatoes in the ground! Since the seed potatoes come as a whole potato spud, we cut them into pieces and let them dry for a couple hours on the tailgate. While the little spuds were sunbathing, we managed to get our raised garden beds built too! From red potatoes to blue potatoes (yes, they are actually blue colored), we are hoping for a successful potato harvest sometime this May. We had never heard of blue potatoes until recently so we are BEYOND excited to see how they turn out! Even though they are technically called "blue potatoes", they are actually bright purple once you cut them in half (you can check out a picture of one on my Instagram)! Sometime this spring I will have to come up with a purple mashed potato recipe ;)

We plan to build more raised garden beds in the future, but for now we are sticking with three. Our original plan was to use the old reclaimed barn wood that we collected a couple weeks back, but we decided to use cedar wood instead -- rot resistant and most importantly, bug resistant! 

We had just enough seed potatoes to plant two rows worth! This leaves enough room for when we plant corn and okra. We are expecting a lot of rain this coming week, so hopefully we'll start to see our little spud sprouts here shortly. :)