Feeding Time At The Farm

     I know, I know, it's supposed to be "feeding time at the zoo," and some mornings it certainly does feel like a zoo around here as you trip on farm cats running at your feet to help with the morning chores.  This morning I wanted to give everyone a sneak peek at our new additions that I've been dropping hints about on Facebook, and if you take a walk with me through some morning chores, I'm sure you'll quickly discover just who they are!

     So, let's start out down at the garden with our Chicken Tractor, which we just finished construction on last month (not even a whole month ago!), that's complete with laying box and roosts and the eight Delaware cockerels who are acting as our self-powered manure welding lawnmowers.  They sure do get feisty when they see their morning feed coming, clamoring at the door to get to it.  Currently the Chicken Tractor has a temporary blue tarp for the roof until we get a white or tan one to replace it, and has two pieces of plywood that are acting as windbreaks in the chillier temperatures we are reaching at night.  Before too much longer these cockerels will be heading to the freezer as our temperatures really begin to dip.  

If you look to the left of the Chicken Tractor you'll notice Purrball is being a big helper this morning and cleaning up the chicken's feed bucket!

     Next, I head up the hill to the main coop, or the Pastured Poultry Palace as I like to call it.  Go ahead, roll your eyes at the name.  Plenty do.  This coop was completed in the summer of 2015, and presently holds our laying flock of five (Plymouth Barred Rocks) and breeding flock of eight (Delawares) for meat birds.  At the moment we are collecting eggs from both flocks until the spring when hopefully someone will go broody and we can get some chicks around here!  The Barred Rocks are now over a year old, and are presently going through their first molt, although their egg production is doing okay at the moment, and believe it or not, up from this time last year.  We'll see how long that lasts though.  The Delawares just started laying last month, and have finally made it over a dozen eggs between the seven ladies.  Their extra small eggs make cooking rather interesting.  

Mr. Roo always knows when feed is on the way, and keeps track of the camera for the ladies.

This morning's breakfast for everyone is chicken porridge!

     Next, we're heading back down the driveway and towards the house, whistling away.  It's time for the farm cats' breakfast with a brief stop to check on the new additions that got fed late last night, and still have plenty left.  

     Construction areas are certainly a mess, and today it's my mess to clean up (at least a little).  With construction started midday Sunday, there are only a few more boards that need tacked on to call it done for now.  Later we plan to add some more amendments to the structure, and in a few days move it out of our driveway.  Nestled inside are our new additions...

     ... two Bourbon Red turkeys who are about four months old.  They came from my in-laws who didn't have a place to house them over the winter, and therefore asked if perhaps we might want some turkeys?  After some debate between the Mr. and I as turkeys were not in our plans at the moment, and less than a week of construction on the new Turkey Trailer (I'll talk about that in another post), we're quite excited to see how these two settle in around here!  The guess is that these two are actually a pair, and it's our hopes that next spring they will become a breeding pair.  For now, they are pecking at the glass windows in front of them (they've never had windows before as they've lived outside in a mobile run) and taking in their new surroundings, including the farm cats that needed to peek through the windows.  

     Speaking of farm cats, it's on to breakfast for them!  

     Followed by what quite a few of us wish to be doing right now... snoozing in the sun.

Wishing you a beautiful, albeit brisk, autumn day from Pennsylvania Dutch Country!