Sidetracked Artist

Chickens need a little extra care to survive cold weather. Their coop needs to be waterproof but still provide some ventilation.  A heat lamp will help keep them warm, and can increase their egg production.  As always, they need good food and fresh water, and the water needs to be kept from freezing. We have a small chicken coop, about 4 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet tall. There’s a hole in the floor just big enough for a chicken to access the ramp that leads down into the enclosed area under the coop and the attached chicken run.  There is a wire covered vent near the roof on the side opposite the hole in the floor.  During the night, the hole is covered with a heavy piece of wood to keep out predators and also to help the hens stay warm.  Pine shavings cover the floor and line the nest (the plastic basket to the left of the door). During the colder months, we add a little warmth to the hen house with two heat lamps placed inside the coop just below the ...

I harvested the last of this year’s vegetables from the garden last weekend. This final harvest consisted of a couple of overgrown scallions and a patch of lettuce, all of which has been cleaned and stored in the refrigerator. The last of the tomatoes are ripening on the vines hanging in the garage . The previous summer’s vegetable garden was kind of pathetic. The area had been covered with grass when we bought the property in November 2009. It was spring before we were able to work in the yard and prepare a small garden plot by removing the sod and working a little compost into our poor quality soil. Ideally, raised beds filled with good garden soil would have been a better choice to produce a higher yield of vegetables, but I wasn’t willing to spend that much money. We had some nice spring salads, a few tomatoes, and a handful of zucchini. Since our chickens reside in a moveable coop, they were moved around the garden area all winter. We were also able to easily expand the...

Summer in Bellingham is lovely.   This year it was slow in coming, so we’re appreciating it that much more.   We’ve only had one day above 80 degrees so far, but daytime highs in the seventies is just about perfect as far as I’m concerned.   We've been eating outside garden every night, enjoying the flowers and the antics of our pets: dog, cats, and chickens. The vegetable garden is doing well.   We enjoyed several weeks of fresh salads during the spring and early summer, and I’ve just replanted those areas with lettuce seed again. The zucchini took off for awhile but are slowing down.   Too bad, we've all been enjoying my gluten free chocolate chip zucchini bread .  There are several little pie-sized pumpkins on the vines, but I haven’s seen any acorn squash yet.   There might be one or two hiding in the foliage, though, which is really thick. The beans really took off on their teepee-like structure.   Several tomatoes have set and are...

It's sunny today, but cold.  This is a screenshot of the weather at around noon: I took some cracked corn out to the chickens this morning to help them stay warm. They have heat lamps in the hen house to keep them from freezing.  And to keep their water and eggs from freezing.  Also, we've found that when it's cold enough to keep the heat lamps coming on at night, we get more eggs.  Hens lay according to how much light they're getting, so more light equals more eggs.  The hen house, which is raised off the ground above a part of the chicken run that they get to via a hole in the floor with a ramp to the ground, is just a big (4'x4'x4') wooden box with a door.  It's just big enough for our three hens and holds their water, food, a nest for laying eggs (the black plastic crate), and a perch for them to roost on at night. There's an egg in the nest! We've been putting out seed for the wild birds too. I'm amazed that these croc...