Chook Feeder

When we went out to the Mudgee Small Farms Show the other week we came home with a new chook feeder.

Mr GoingGreen walking through the top orchid going down to the chook yard. New feeder in one hand and a bowl of hot breakfast for the girls in the other. That hot breakfast was rolled oats, grated carrots, garlic, cabbage and milk mmmm.

This is the old plastic feeder with the open top that held about 2 kg. If it got spun around too much the green base would come off. We have it hung on an old cooking tripod.

The new feeder holds 9kg of feed and has a lid and the base is attached. It was $30, i don't know if that's a good price or not and i'm not all that happy with it.
 I think that it lets out too much feed all at once and lots more gets wasted either on the floor of the shed or to all the blasted birds who think its a free for all.
When i move the girls up to the vege garden for the day i just close the shed door so the birds cant get in. A couple of times i have put the feeder into 44 gallon drum at holds all the bulk feed and get it back out again in the afternoon. I cant just close up the shed when they are in the yard or they will lay their eggs outside.

I did find a set of plans for a Treadle Chicken Feeder and i think that i'm going to get Mr GoinGreen to make me two of them. The reason for two is that Miss Black is mean and does not always like to share. We did see the grandpas metal chook feeders at the show as well as another company's but at $195 each its just way out of most peoples budget and if you order on line you can also add Aus Post charges on top of that.

I would love to hear about what sort of feeder you have for your girls?

Anne here is the link for the Firewood Permit you asked about, we are headed out there tomorrow and we will be picking up a couple of boxes of apples, at $10 a box you cant go wrong.



Linked here Say G-Day Saturday Linky Party #97
and here From The Farm Blog Hop
and here Old Fashioned Friday #78
and here Simple Lives Thursday #203
and here Simple Saturdays July 26

Mobile Chook House

Every few weeks the girls get to go up to the veggie yard for a couple of days running to scratch around the old beds or unused areas. the first time i herded them up there it was like a comedy show & i ended up chasing them all over the place for about half an hour until i finally got them all in the yard. after 3 trips they knew exactly where they were headed, now i only have to leave the gate open & off they run. Miss Black is always the first & the most bossy. Miss Grey is always last for everything, the last to get off the perch & out of the shed in the morning & the last when i call.

after the first couple of times hunting for eggs i decided to build them a mobile nest house to lay their eggs

everything to build this came from the shed or under the house

i put in a moveable perch so if need be it could double as temporary housing

after two build days this is how it turned out. i was going to put mower wheels on it but i probably wont bother until winter when i have a bit more time.

Miss Black liked it so much she laid me an egg within 20 mins. i told ya, the first to do everything.

How Nice

how nice is it to just take a day off work, well thats what i did on monday. never taken a sickie before, it felt great & a little bit naughty.

spent most of the day down in the chook yard.

i had dug a new bed on sunday & A' added compost from one of the bays & dug it through.

the chooks went nuts for all those worms & bugs. ended up shooing them out before they spread it all over.

planted out sweet corn & made another row for butternut pumpkin, topped them off with some straw.

in the hen house there has been quite a bit of pecking going on, so late in the afternoon i did a little more fencing & moved Miss White & Miss Brown over to the Green & Red hen house. they have settled in & still sitting. when i went down to feed the chooks that morning there was a little grey chick in the nest but unfortunately it was dead.

sunday also saw two more posts in the ground for the new veggie garden.

rows three & four in the potato garden have now come up, Nicolas & Dutch Creams.

this morning i made a new garden journal, think ill sit outside tomorrow afternoon & fill it in. nothing like a new book for a new season, bring on the lists :o)

Our New Adventure

this is looking out the sunroom/dinning/family room window on the Friday we got the keys to our new home, this is only a small part of our yard it goes a fair way past that big pine tree in the middle of the photo

mmm where to begin, its been more than a month since i last posted
crazy busy with packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking & not to forget work, boy am i tired
we moved into our new Blue Mountains Home last Saturday. with a lot of help from friends & family it all went pretty smooth.
i spent the whole day at our Linden House packing cars\trucks/trailers & cleaning
our brother in law came up with a car trailer & all the boys lifted the chicken house up onto it & off the girls went up the highway to our new home. i think it would have been a pretty funny sight driving past a chook house. {if anyone saw my Green & Red Chook House traveling along the highway id love to hear about it}
by about 3.30 i was up at our new home, { not to far from Jacqui at Life In The Dome} it was very overwhelming. stuff everywhere
A's sister & mum came up & they directed the furniture & boxes to the right rooms, helped J & S put up the beds & did some unpacking. everyone asking {where do you want this, is this in the right spot} grrr i was drop dead tired, i just didn't care where anything went, as long as i could fall into bed it was all good.
Sunday i layed a brick floor in the existing chook shed { the girls new home} & by later that afternoon they were happily scratching around in their new shed.


with all the lifting & the brick laying i have hurt my left elbow & fore arm, thank goodness i took Monday off. i have been on light duties at work no lifting at all, it was starting to feel a lot better by Thursday but today i have been using it too much & its aching pretty bad tonight, tomorrow i am only on foreman duties no using my arm at all.

today we put in a 4 bay compost, did some mulching & the boys mowed some of the lawn. tomorrow we will finish off the chook yard fence & maybe mark out the fence line for the veggie garden.
there are just so many things to do its unreal.

Miss Sally is very happy with her new yard, she wears her self out running around all day then spends the night asleep on her bed in front of the fire or on the lounge in the sunroom. she thinks she's good because she can come in & out when ever she wants.
since coming back from training she now sleeps in our room, well until the sunroom is cleaned up that is. she came home with kennel cough & was pretty sick for a week or so, on antibiotics & BBQ chickens for a week. thank goodness she's all better.

until next time at ............
looking for a name for our new place, any ideas?

Rooster in the house

well its official Big Bertha is a rooster
& doesn't he act like one, strutting around the yard, fluffing up his neck feathers
he is twice the size of the others & hes not fully grown
& at 5am this morning he started crowing
i am hoping to swap him over in a week or so
which is a pity as he is very handsome. if he didn't crow then he would stay but i don't want the neighbours to complain to the council.

Day 8- Building & Baking Sunday

The Weather Forecast
we had some beautiful rain of Saturday night
today it was back to the usual, warm & sunny

day 7 was lost in a day of busy bees.
digging up a side garden, weeding, newspaper, fresh dirt & mulch.
ironing- not a compulsive iron-er {is that even a word}, i usually wait until all of my clothes need doing before i get out the iron & board, & if i need something then ill iron it just before i put it on, but 9 times out of 10 ill just shake it out & put it on anyway.

today A, & i built the gate for the chicken run, a ramp up to the hen house & a nesting box. painted the gate & ramp with the last of the Green paint, will new to buy more to give them a second coat.

Baking Sunday
ANZACS
Choc Chip
White Choc Chunk Cookies
Lemon Curd
Lemon Bars {new recipe}

pulled out the first lot of Radishes to go in a salad to go with
T-Bone steaks on the BBQ


Lettuce, Silverbeet & Snow Peas

Day 6- Chicken supplies

The Weather Forecast
mmm could it be, yes it is Warm & Sunny
edit: big storm about 6pm hail, lightening & pouring rain


Friday is my shopping day, so after the groceries we went to the produce store for chicken supplies wheat, cracked corn, shell grit & a food hanger. tomorrow the feed will go into metal barrels but for now they are on my craft room floor {that may sound strange but the back door walks into my craft room}.



last week i purchased a Raspberry, it said on the pack full sun Grrrr i don't think so, it was on the veranda for one day & the leaves got burnt. i found a big pot for it today, planted it with a wire trellis & put it in morning sun & partial shade in the afternoon. i hope it doesn't die.





also put a wire trellis up for myPassionfruit.

Hen House

may i present my new hen House




now all i need are the chickens

Hen House

A & I spent the day putting the Hen House together. wow was it hot, thank goodness we have a nice breeze blowing now. pics to follow
now its time to put my feet up & have a nice cold drink.

Finishing Line/ Spring Time

Ah Spring Time again. i lov lov lov winter, the cold crisp mornings, putting on my scarf & gum boots to work in the garden, i will miss these things & many more when we head into the warmer weather of late spring & summer.
as i am new to this simpler life {gardening & such } i am now looking forward to the spring planting & the arrival of chickens, it is going to be a fun summer. there are how ever 2 things i hate about the summer & that is the HOT weather, i dont do well in the heat & the other is snakes, we back onto National Park so lots of bush.

on Saturday we went to the Gardening Australia Expo at Homebush
i was disappointed with most of it. i wanted to come home with a couple of Apple Trees, a Raspberry, Blackberry, Loganberry, some knee pads & a couple of other things, but alas it was not to be, not one of the items on my list were there. if i wanted water tanks or astro turf i would have been set. we did come home with some Lemon Myrtle products, the hand cream & soap smell just Devinne & my hands haven't been this soft in years. also picked up 3 of those rubbery buckets with the 2 handles, 1 is now in the kitchen for the recycling & the other 2 i will use in the garden.
we didn't get a chance to watch any of the talks as there were just too many people but i understand that Peters talk was great. he is a very nice man & he has forgotten more than i will ever know about gardening { i met him when we lived in Tassie, we had a great chat one afternoon in his veggie patch after they had filmed one of his segments}.
this was the first time we had gone to the show & i don't think i will be going next year,not as many things as i was hoping for & the $17 each was a bit steep. my SIL said they didn't have as many things as they had had in previous years.


the finish line is in sight, if the weather is fine this weekend the Hen House will be finished ready for some cluckers.

Red Door & Floor


my queen sized 70s blanket is now finished Woo Hoo
the colours are much brighter in real life, that light colour is green.

so i started a new project on Friday, knitted dish cloths i have already finished 2 i would have finished at least 3 more but i keep dropping stitches or i get interrupted & do the wrong stitches & as im no good at fixing my mistakes i have to unravel the lot & start again.
ill put up some pics next time & a link to the pattern

Working on List
Knitted Dish Cloths {2 down}
Patchwork Quilt {1/2 way through the top stitching}
Floor Rug {10 colours in & many more to go}
Advance Australia Cross-Stitch {just the wording to stitch}
Hen House {on the home stretch}
70s Blanket {Finished}

i was asked about the Hens that i want to get so here is the list:
Rhode Island Red
New Hampshire
Barnevelders
Light Sussex
Silver Laced Wyandotte
the reason i have chosen these breeds is for their egg production & their meat.
i am how ever having a hard time finding them.

Hen House & Seeds

at long last the marine ply found its way to our house on Thursday night, all pre cut & ready to go. it has taken so long because the boys had a lot of work on & could not get it cut.
on Saturday A, S & i pre drilled & screwed all the pieces on to the frame, A cut out the heart shapes on the 2 side walls & on the door. i sanded it all & then unscrewed all the pieces ready for a coat of paint. S & i put up the chicken wire on 2 sides & the star pickets on the other side.


today saw me painting in the beautiful sunshine, hopefully tomorrow i will finish off all the Green work & make a start on the Red work {floor, door & iron for the roof}.


this week also saw the delivery of my organic seeds from Green Patch & Eden Organic.
Saturday i planted out a few seed potato's in black pots / recycle bin.
Sunday i dug up the grass for a new garden bed, i am in need a some bricks as i don't have enough left to make the border, so have been on the look out for a few weeks, just no luck yet.
also made a mini green house/cold frame with the left over 1/2 & 1/4 bricks laying around & topped it off with a piece of the alsanite that came off the veranda roof. don't know how it will go but we will just have to wait & see.

today i also spied the first flower heads on the peas Wooo Hooo
after painting i sowed the first of the new seeds, Onions, Radish & Cabbage into the spaces in the garden bed & in starter pots into the new green house of Capsicum- Californian Wonder & Golden Wonder, these will be grown in big pots as my garden space is limited.

no time for cooking on Sunday so i spent some time in the kitchen this afternoon
new recipe is Chocolate short bread {turned out more like cake} got the thumbs up
an old recipe from the Woman's Weekly cook book Lunch Box Cookies
second new recipe is Amish Sugar Cookies { uses a lot of butter & sugar} may not make these again.
Pictures tomorrow

Working on List
70s Blanket {only 4 more rows to sew on}
Patchwork Quilt {1/4 of the way through the top stitching}
Floor Rug {8 colours in & many more to go}
Advance Australia Cross-Stitch {just the wording to stitch}

Sunny Saturday

lovely rain all week, woke up Saturday to beautiful blue skies. time for a coat of paint on the hen house frame. Dulux colour "Pea Green" using Wattyl Solaguard so no need to prime, as it was still cool only got the one coat on.



8 loads of washing {dried to just damp}, weeded the garden, cleaned out the Ringnecks cage {9 Rosella's came to clean up the seed that i dumped on the grass}, turned the compost, cleaned out the boys bedrooms {a few things to put up on Freecycle}, Bed of Roses at 7.30 on ABC {my new fav show}.

as its Sunday & raining i baked early this morning, Kiwi & Banana muffin made in a baking tray, Ginger Nuts { i make them soft } & the usual ANZAC & Choc Chip & thats it as i ran out of flour Grrrrrrrr.




Wendy, Gary & Dad are coming for tea & a Games Night {one of our Fave games TV Trivia}. Dinner will be Potato Bake, Baked Sausages with onion & gravy, Honey Carrots, Peas & Crusty Rolls. Kiwi & Banana Muffin with pouring Cream for desert.