Backyard Project Notes

To help me plan for Operation Lawn Vs. Garden, I climbed up onto the roof yesterday and snapped a few photos. Here's one I've annotated.



A - Dirt Pile
B - Chicken Coop
C - Lemon Tree
D - Artichoke
E - Compost Area
F - Pomegranate Tree
G - Garden (boxes surrounded by chicken wire)
H - Patio

Our current thinking is to find a way to have a lawn AND more gardening space, while not totally squeezing out the chickens. I'd love to hear your thoughts!


SUPPLEMENTAL

The Dirt Pile (A) is gone! Yes, 30 wheelbarrow loads of dirt is gone. And we finished before the rain. Woohoo!

The Lawn Dilemma

We're facing a lawn dilemma at our house. Our back lawn never really had a chance. It was put down on top of terrible "soil" and even with liberal application of water, the stuff never really fulfilled its lawn destiny. Mostly, it served as a brownish-green carpet, useful for keeping mud off of our shoes. But it was never a fun place for the kids to play or for to camp out at night in the tent.

No, our patch of prickly, mostly dead grass was a sorry sight indeed.

And so when we removed a large planting bed in order to put in the chicken coop, we just shoveled the dirt onto the lawn. Heck, we stopped watering it over a year ago.

Now, we've got a giant patch of brown, dead, lifeless grass, and a huge pile of dirt on top of it.

The dirt has to go, it's spent too much time in contact with pressure treated wood and things had a hard time growing in it anyway. Since we're getting rid of the dirt, we may as well get rid of the lawn and finally decide to do something in the back yard.

And that's the dilemma.

Should we replace the entire lawn? That's a lot of water to use up, and it's hardly considered an environmentally friendly decision. There are lots of "food not lawn" movements and voices everywhere you look these days.

But we would like a place to be comfortable in our own back yard, and we already do have some garden space set aside.

Will we replace only part of the lawn? A compromise where we still have some room for "picnics and tent sleep outs" but also an increase in garden space?

Perhaps we should tear it all out?

The chickens love the lawn just the way it is, giant dirt pile and all. Of course, having a giant lawn would mean that we'd have to look out for chicken poo every time we wanted to use the lawn. The chickens "free range" during the day, sometimes as much as 8 - 10 hours. That's a lot of poop.

We could make a smaller lawn and somehow fence it off from the birds...

So many options. I'm having a hard time giving up the entire lawn, and the kids are torn too.

What do you think? Have any interesting stories about the compromise between green lawn and just plain green?

One thing is for certain, though. I'll be shoveling that pile of dirt today and tomorrow.

A Change in the Pecking Order?

Our youngest chicken, CheepersV (7 weeks), has integrated nicely with the two older birds (12 weeks) and even the light pecking to determine the pecking order has all but ceased.

But an interesting development caught my eye. The little bird still follows the older birds around and generally stays near them but out of their way. And the older birds do boss her around when they feel the need. However, when it comes to treats (bits of kitchen scraps, bugs, etc.) CheepersV assumes the role of the middle bird in the pecking order.

When we bring out treats, one of the older birds (Mohawk) runs up eagerly and snaps up whatever we have. The other older bird paces nervously but cannot seem to muster the courage to touch the food while we're present. CheepersV not only runs up to grab the food, but she will also take food from the more shy older bird, sometimes snatching morsels right from her beak with no repercussions.

I'm wondering if this is a kind of shift in the pecking order, or if the one older bird is just not that dominant when it comes to food. Also, it makes me a bit paranoid that maybe CheepersV is really a he.

Twelve Years

Twelve years.

That's how long we've been married, you and I. That's how long we've worn these tiny but significant rings, how long we've shared our names.

In that time we've changed, our lives have changed. We have two beautiful children, two cats, three chickens. We have a house now and we have a minivan for shuttling kids to school, soccer, and softball. We probably could have seen it coming, probably should have guessed we'd pass from there to here, albeit so gradually. Foreseen that we'd endure a very few hard times, fewer than our share, really.

I wouldn't change it for the world. I couldn't change it -- it's you, me, us. It's perfection.

Flock Achieved!

We officially have our flock together. Our two older barred rocks have been enjoying the coop full time for several weeks now, but the younger bird, CheepersV, has been spending her (oh please, let it be a 'her') nights inside the cage in the garage. Sure, we've been putting the little one with the big birds during the day but we pull her back in at night time because she's five weeks younger than the other birds. We were being cautious because we didn't know how they'd act once we locked them up in the coop together overnight.

But last night we decided to let CheepersV have her first "sleep over" and it went incredibly well.

We went out to check on the birds just after dusk and at first we couldn't find the little one. Turns out she was on the roost, snuggled between the two other birds. Perfect! So, even though the bigger ones will occasionally chase the little one when they're "free ranging" in the back yard (and really, it's minor stuff), at bed time, they're all buddies.

Looks like we'll get the garage back this weekend!

Miscellaneous Coop Notes

I put together some notes on my experience of building the coop, but forgot to post them. So here they are. These notes aren't necessarily limited to the "playhouse" coop (http://twitpic.com/1o6o1), but that's where I "learned" them:

- If you can, paint or stain or seal the wood before you build the coop. I did the sealer stuff after I built it and it was much harder/messier. So when I put on the trim, I remembered to paint it all first and it was so much easier.

- I wish I would have used more recycled items when building our coop. I spent about $350 - $400 on the coop because I just wanted to build it all "right now" and so I didn't take enough time to find the best deals on materials or search around for recycled items on "freecycle" or "craigslist" or the local scene. You can get paint really cheap at Home Depot/etc. in the "Oops" section where they put the paint mistakes, but you won't get to pick the color you want. I spent $130-ish on the roof, but you could do "corrugated" for less than half that price.

- The "playhouse" coop looks nice but it doesn't move easily. Making an "ark" type coop is better if you plan to move it more than about once a year or so. To move my coop, I'll probably need 4 people!

- The playhouse coop plans use some cedar boards "ripped down" -- But cedar is expensive and I don't have a table saw, so I used 2x3s from Home Depot that cost about a dollar or two each. It was much cheaper.

- Since I didn't use cedar, I needed to seal the wood. I use some ecofriendly stuff, but I hadn't used it before and it was messy.

- For power tools, I used a jigsaw, a circular saw, a miter saw, and a drill. I also used a hammer, some wire cutters (for the mesh), some tin snips (for the roofing), a level, some wood glue, and some other miscellaneous stuff.

- Use the appropriate size poultry staples. Do NOT get the big 1 inch staples because they'll split the wood if you're not careful, and they each take like 5 - 10 good whacks with the hammer to pound them in.

- Start earlier than necessary so that you don't have to rush to finish the coop in time for the birds to go live in it.

- The playhouse coop plans don't go into excruciating detail when it comes to the actual coop part itself, but the two videos on the net help. I ended up sort of "winging" it (see what I did there?).

Urban Chickens: Home to Roost

It took our chickens a little over a week, but they now put themselves away in the coop when it gets dark! I had my doubts -- serious doubts -- when, late last week, I went out back to put them away.

We had left the run open so they could run around the backyard, and then I got distracted for an hour or so. I looked out and saw that it was dusk, and we hadn't put the chickens away. So I went out to find them in the mostly-dark and they were no where to be found. Finally, I heard a bird cheeping and I found the two chickens huddled together in a little ball of feathers crammed into a very tiny space under a piece of left over styrofoam in the back yard. I scooped them up (they seemed to be happy to see me) and plunked them down in the coop.

That was last week.

But two night ago... Magic!

We went out to put them away and they had already climbed up into the coop and hopped onto the roost! A small victory, I know, but fun nonetheless.

SUPPLEMENTAL

The little chicken, CheepersV (who may or may not turn out to be a rooster) is growing nicely. We let her out with the big chickens for hours at a time with nothing worse than an occasional peck from the bigger birds. CheepersV is almost 6 weeks old, so she'll be moving outside permanently soon. Then... Then we get the garage back! No more cage and heat lamp and chicken poo. Ahhhh. It's the little things...