A Hen's Life at Berryridge Farm

It's been about a year and 1/4 since we got our original six hens. They have survived one winter and lost one sister to a local hawk. Our hens get to roam around in a pretty good-sized area during each day.  Sue and I secure them in their safety zone, the coop plus a ten foot square caged-run, each evening.

I sited our coop to the west of our fire-wood processing and storage sheds. We knew the coop was going to be a little raw-smelling, at times, so not having it too close to the house was part of the reason for siting where I did. The structure I built was divided into a coop and a tool storage shed. The roof is metal.

I saw a very convenient nest-box set-up on some pre-fab coops in a homesteading magazine Ad and so I designed my own variation, see photos at left and right. Just recently I put a  rain gutter along the overhanging roof so we wouldn't get as wet collecting eggs on rainy days.

As the Fall of 2010 approached I wondered how the "girls," as we learned to call our hens, would be able to handle the cold and snow. It came to me that maybe they should have some outside shelter, with a roost perhaps. So I built a smallish covered roost within their "safety Zone."

The shelter at left is what I came up with and little did I know how welcome it would become during the "girls" first winter on Berryridge Farm, as you can see at the right.

If Sue and I didn't quite feel like home-steaders the first few years, we certainly feel it now that we have "live stock." As live stock goes, hens are pretty easy and if you don't have a rooster, then the hens love you all the more. They want to be around where

you are working, even when you're cleaning their coop. What's more they make their feelings known as soon as they hear the back door of the house opening. They are very greatful for any treats that you bring them, like bugs, berries, kitchen scraps etc. The "girls" will peck at you from time to time and they steal food from each other, no one's food is safe. However, they do seem to tollerate the small wild birds who raid their feeder.

We did name the "girls" but I can only recognize three of them on sight, Dottie, Marilyn and Chole O'Brien, yes, from 24. There you have my Hen Report - oh, how could I forget - the EGGS - they're soooo goood!!

Have a wonderful Fall ~ John

Fall, the Season of Color

I was talking to a Masonic friend of mine yesterday and he told me he was not just sure whether he liked Spring or Fall the best, both are colorful and full of promise. I said to him that for me it was Fall, because the harvest was in and there were so many good fresh things to eat.

As I look out my little home office window, my feelings are very mixed. The day lily plant I can see is mostly yellow with a few remaining streaks of green. The black-eyed Susan's have dropped most of their yellow petals and the plant leaves are turning a burnt orange around the edges. The crowning gleam in my sight is the Maple Tree, its called October Glory and has already gone from green leaves to dark red and eventually they will turn a brighter red before the November winds will strip them from the branches.

Out here in the foothills the Vine Maples turn from green to orange-red or green to yellow with orange-red edges, in either case it is a beautiful sight. One other show-stopper in our yard are the blueberry shrubs, so red-orange they look as if on fire. I mentioned my feelings and they are tugged-at by the wilting leaves on the bean plants and grapevines. I have to remind myself that life lives in a cycle and that during Winter's apparent rest, plants are rebuilding for Springs emergence.

Another reason I love the Fall, are the low-lying clouds which settle in the valley's. The scenes they produce remind me of Taoist Paintings from China's past. Images of mountain tops peaking through clouds as if floating on those very clouds surrounding them. I sometimes watch in wonder as clouds drag by through the stands of Fir, Hemlock and Cedar trees on nearby hills. There is such a quality of Zen philosophy, available for those who seek it, here in our foothills. Living in the moment, the now of time, it becomes easy to feel connected to the rhythm of life and with the creatures we share existence with on this planet.

Sue and I are ready for Winter, we have a good supply of dry wood, a fair amount of food in the freezer and most important the knowledge we've gained from our previous winter experiences. We hope each of you have planned and made ready.

So Much to Do!

I'm sure some of you are like me, it feels like you always behind because there is just so much to do. Spring and summer tend to fly by with all the attention you give to planting, weeding, watering.....and weeding again. Spring and Summer is also the time I move and stack the coming Fall/Winter firewood into shed One. Once in awhile Sue gets into the firewood action as you see in the photo.

Fast Forward: Sorry I let the above entry slide so long - its now 10/22/2011

Sue and I have certain tasks we share and ones which each of us handle pretty much on our own. The weeding we share because it without it the garden areas can simply be over run. Sue pretty much handles the watering chores and I pretty much take care of tieing-up the plants needing support structures. Sue and I share brush removal, though I handle the cutting down of small trees, she helps me move them to the firewood cutting area. Spring and Summer zoomed by this year but May, June and the first half of July were cooler than usual, and we had much more rain. This did not hurt the root crops but the bean, summer squash, table grapes and to some extent the tomatoes were held back. The tomatoes got a needed boost at the end of Summer and we did somewhat better than we feared.

The biggest change in the garden this Summer has been the installation of several raised beds. After trying to trap voles and failing miserably, it came to me that with digging front feet they would not be good climbers, so a raised bed might be good. But then how to keep the voles from tunneling under? Well, to the rescue came hardware cloth, in 1/2 and 1/4 inch mesh. I constructed the beds to be 36 inches wide, to the outside edges, the width that the cloth normally comes in. I built nine beds, using 2X10 Douglas Fir planks.

The harvest at Summer's End was decent for tomatoes, beets, most of the carrots, parsnips, strawberries and cane berries. The apple trees produced some fruit but the trees are still young, as are the blueberry shrubs, so the crops are still small. We did have some summer visitors, daughter Meghann and her two boys stayed one night, granddaughter Meghan stayed several nights and got to meet her two Moriarty cousins, Devan & Bria and he aunt Sasha. This Summer was fun and we learned lots and added to our homestead.

Spring Cleanup!

The month of May is nearly over and much of the garden is planted, except for the summer crops like beans, corn, squash and tomatoes. I have a few of these started in peat-pots or in small plastic pots and a some have even sprouted. Sue and I will purchase tomatoes in commercial pots so we'll have a jump-start going into the few hot days we have here in the foothills. Sue and I have been fairly busy this Spring, on the days it was not pouring rain and it did rain lots.

I took down a number of coppice trees, birch and maple, on the south side of our main garden. Most of these have been cut into what I call "loglets" and stacked to dry in wood shed #4. I also constructed 5 raised planting boxes, three of which have 1/2" mesh hardware fabric and the bottom side to deter voles from getting into the root crops we have planted. Sue and I purchased 6 more blueberry shrubs and planted them in part of the West Orchard.   I built a new fence line within the W. Orchard to  secure the new blueberry patch from the Hens. This new fence also allows me to secure the Asian Pears from the Hens. The area with the Asian Pears is where on of the raised boxes was installed. I plan to put one or two more boxes in this area. The new blueberr patch actually has 8 shrubs, 2 of which were ones transplanted from the western portion of the Main Garden.

Sue prepaired and planted a new strawberry bed at the south fence-line of the western part of the Main Garden. This variety of strawberry is called Reliance and are supposed to be very hardy and produce fruit for up to 10 years before needing to replace the plants. Sue has also planted several small beds of potatoes and a nice quantity of spinach. Onions, garlic, leeks, parsnip, beets, chard, carrots and peas have all sprouted.

By the way, the hens have recovered nicely from the April Hawk attack. We get 3 to 5 eggs per day now and lots sqawking when the "girls" think we'd not been attentive enough to their needs. I did double the size of their "bird-cage" area - this is an area off the main entrance of the coop where the birds can be outside but completely protected from predators. When Sue and I are outside we let then out into a larger area to roam around in, secure in most respects except from the brids of prey.

Sue and I have plans to expand south of the Main Garden, where intend to construct a sort of patio using lots of larger broken rocks, filled in with fist-sized stones and then topped with gravel. We also plan to expand planting areas,south of the Main Garden, to grow winter-squash and some grains, which we'll have to protect from deer and rabbits. Sue and I will stay busy, not only with the garden but doing some up-keep on the house but also with the well's pump-house. We also have to get educated on putting up food for we hope that the garden will produce enough that we'll need to put it up for winter use.

When Will Spring Arrive?

Fall and Winter 2010-2011 was relatively good for us at Berryridge Farm. We had some snow, beginning in mid-November. For Christmas dinner we tried our fist heritage turkey (above right) and we found it to be very tasty. It was raised locally on a farm a little NW of Lynden WA. With the turkey we enjoyed some homemade cranberry sauce and a bottle of Cranberry Wine, made by the Pasak (sp?) Cellars Winery in Mt. Vernon, WA.  To make our Holiday Season more festive each year we place out a Seasonal Church scene, on the dining room table, to remind us to be thankful for the bounty we enjoy from the earth which sustains us and to the provendance that brought it all into being.

There was the usual period of cold temps and Northeaster Winds but I have to say that the Winter was not as bad as it was projected to be here, I can't say the same for other parts of the U.S., the East Coast for instance, seemed to have been slammed hard repeatedly. The first snow came in about mid-November and revisited numerous time, even into March.

During the Winter Sue and I did collect some windfall wood for next season's fuel supply and we attended to our Hens, who came though the coldest part of winter very well. Sadly, about mid-March, one of our Hens was killed by a Hawk. I was able to scare the Hawk away and I gave our "girl" a decent burial to enrich the ground from whence she came.

A Pleasant Surprise

How could I forget. This June we learned that our memoir 'Little Farm in the Foothills' was selected as one of nine books to be featured on the Washington State Library's Summer Reading list.  That was a very pleasant surprise!

Here chickie chickie!

I'm a bit blue because it's late into September and the rain has dominated the month's weather pattern. In fact it is raining right now and that is why I'm inside writing on this blog. Back at the beginning of June I had my 62nd birthday and Sue engineered a surprise for me. She took me for a ride to the South part of Whatcom County, down Hwy 9. We turned off the highway and headed East into the countryside. Finally we stopped at a little farm where I observed some dogs, goats, pigs and oh yes - chickens! We met a young woman who raises chickens, both for meat and layers. Sue told me she had located this woman, Shona, via the WSU Extension office in Bellingham.

Shona, who goes by the handle  'Dirty Mama', in the 'Grow Northwest' magazine, showed us around and told us that the hens for sale were 'teens' at present. Shona called them the 'Girls', and said they would begin laying eggs around the 1st of July. The variety of bird she said was called 'Bronze Sexlink' and were supposed to be good layers. Sue and I decided to purchase six hens at $15 each. We asked if Shona could hold onto them until the first week in July because, ah, we still had to finish building our coop and chicken-run. Sue and I really liked the look of the birds and they seemed calm and friendly.

The month of June went by quickly but we made steady progress and finally the coop and run were ready for the hens. We figured to make adjustments as needed. A day or two after the 4th of July Sue and I returned to 'Dirty Mama's' farm and picked up our chickens. It took a little while as one of the birds ran off into the tall grass and hid for awhile. Shona eventually caught the hiding hen and Sue and I said our farewells. But not before getting lots of good advice and tips on the whole chicken & and egg opperation. The trip back home took about 45 minutes - the hens were in two good-sized cardboard boxes with air holes. Once home we released the 'girls' into their new home.

During rest of July, August and first half of September we have indeed made a number of changes to the Coop & Run. But the good news is that for most of the Summer the hens were regular egg layers. Also, the 'girls' are so very glad to see you when you come into their area. Sue and I did have lots of other chores to do like weeding, tying up tomato vines and spliting firewood for the Winter ahead (as of today we have a good supply of wood on hand). The hens egg production has declined as the days have gotten shorter. For a time they were laying one egg per day, per hen. 

In the garden the volves are our new Enemy #1 - any good ideas on how to wipe them out without chemicals - we do want a more or less organic based opperation. The root crops have done well - carrots, onions and so forth but the leafy greens did not do well this Summer. The tomatos are very slow in ripening - so little Sun to do the job!

Well, its 2:35 PM and time to give some feed to the Hens. We have joined a local chicken feed Co-Op to buy organic feed for the 'girls'. Sue and I were pleasantly surprize how many folks, not living on actual farms, raise chickens - many live in the city limits of Bellingham. I get my lumber in Everson and the guys at the building center tell me that this summer many of the purchases for wood have been for the constuction of chicken coops. After the recent egg scare in Iowa - the number of persons getting their own laying hens may climb higher.

Farewell - hope to write again soon. ~ John