Going Chicken-Crazy, Part II (In With The New)

With the old flock rehomed, it was time to begin assembling the new flock. In late fall, it wasn't easy to find peeps available in the breeds we wanted, so we had to order from two different hatcheries. These commercial hatcheries typically have a 25-peep minimum in order to ensure that they have enough warmth during shipping. So, we ended up placing two orders, one with Xtreme Gamebirds and the other with Welp Hatchery, in order to get (most of) the breeds we wanted. We figured we'd sell the surpluses on craigslist. In this first group, we ordered Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Partridge Rocks, Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Silver Lace Cochins and Buff Cochins.

In preparation for raising fifty peeps inside our cottage, we set up six large Sterilite plastic storage containers as brooders, each with a 100 watt red light suspended above it for warmth.

Here is one batch of peeps in their shipping box (hazy cell phone picture)...



peeps in the brooder...



By the time they were two weeks old, we used some cardboard boxes and pieced together a large brooder, approximately 3'x7', to give them all plenty of room to run and play. A couple weeks later, we redid this and enlarged it to 7'x7'.



The Rhode Island Reds were very outgoing and inquisitive from the start.





Here they are at six weeks...

Going Chicken-Crazy, part I: Out With The Old

When we arrived here, the current flock of laying hens was about four years old and past its egg-laying prime. It was time to find a new home for them and get ready to raise some peeps!

I found a nice family via craigslist who wanted them for lawn ornaments and bug patrol, so we happily took them off the roost at night and sent them on their way.

Interestingly, and unfortunately, the flock had started with 25 birds, but that figure had dwindled to 11 over the course of their four year tenure on the property. Securing the coop at night is very important.

Here are a few photos of the original flock...

This is a Golden Laced Wyandotte with a blurry Polish in the background...


a Polish and an Easter Egger...


Dolly's not interested in the hens, just their food...


Up next...new peeps!

The Changing of the Garden

The property features a very sizable vegetable garden as well as numerous fruit trees throughout.

Here are some shots of the Summer vegetable garden and some miscellaneous fruit trees...






The Summer garden of '08 featured green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, yellow squash and cucumbers. Fruit trees on the property include figs, apples, oranges, lemons, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, persimmons and perhaps others that I can't think of at the moment.

The Summer garden was of course planted by the previous caretaker. Having taken over at the beginning of Fall, I had the opportunity to tear this out and replant the new Winter garden.

(I'll add a photo here later.)

The Winter garden features fava beans, red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, arugula, turnips, beets, carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, onions, garlic, leeks and bok choi.

I also have some raised planter boxes outside my cottage, where I've planted the things that are susceptible to frost damage (lettuces). I bought some frost barrier and experimented with different installation techniques, as shown below...





I installed the frost barrier in three different configurations; the traditional tent, the flat canopy and the quonset hut. By doing so, I learned that the quonset hut configuration was the simplest, cheapest, most durable and user-friendly method. The flat tarp technique did not work well at all and I switched it over to the quonset hut today...



The traditional tent configuration is working well enough, but was more difficult to install...

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Welcome to the Napa Valley

Christine and I began this caretaking gig in the Napa Valley in early October. The idea of blogging our adventures only recently occurred to me, so I will be going through the photos we've taken in order to retroactively highlight the adventures of our tenure thusfar. There have been many.

I'll begin this blog with a brief description of the property. Situated between St. Helena and Calistoga on nearly two acres, the property features a charming circa-1890 barn, a renovated main house built atop an original stone wine cellar, a guest cottage and caretaker's cottage which were built by renovating the original A-frame chicken coop, a half-acre vineyard, lavender, fruit trees, vegetable and herb gardens and beautiful screens of hedges all around. The photos I will be posting will show some or all of these features, but for the sake of privacy, I will not be posting a complete, frame by frame tour of the property.

Resident critters of the property include one sweet princess of a cat, chickens, doves, rabbits and now our two dogs. Everybody gets along nicely.

I'll be covering all sorts of topics in upcoming entries, complete with plenty of pictures.

Enjoy, and don't hesitate to leave feedback, questions, or comments.