BackyardVino

Photos: Previous Chicken Flock

2012-04-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

I found some old photos of my previous flock from about 3 years ago.

In this photo, you will see a lot of different breeds, of both chicken and duck, all living in harmony.

5 Buff Orpington Pullets
4 Muscovy Ducks
1 Barred Rock
2 Silkies

The Flock

Silkie

Muscovy Hens

Muscovy Hen

Cool Random Link

2012-04-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

- Here is a video on how to inoculate and grow mushrooms on an oak log.

My Chicken Coop Run Downsize

2012-04-15T12:02:00.002-07:00

The Chicken Run was the first of my projects that I got accomplished this spring. Overall, I pleased with the way it came out. Nothing special, just a smaller 10 foot wide by 18 foot long run. The bare dirt gives you the visual of how large it used to be. I made it smaller because I wanted to reclaim the front of my shed yard, and since I let my birds free range on the grass every night and all weekends, I really didn't a run of such a large size for my flock size of 10 birds. I firmly believe that the more access the chickens have to select what they want to eat in the yard, the better my eggs will be. If you haven't seen this blog post, it shows you a store bought egg next to one of my hen's eggs. Have a nice weekend!

New smaller run size

Gate and Water bucket Nipple Waterer

New Garden Trends that Suck

2012-04-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a fairly open minded person, and I give every new garden trend a chance, if something can be proven more efficient and a better use of my time or space, I will convert. My bottom line is efficiency, and I'm not very stubborn about it, results are typically the single biggest factor that matters to me. However, If something is not ascetically pleasing enough for my wife, her voice would eventually wear me down to a stub, and then I'll change it anyway. This is my exception to the previously mentioned statute, and I suggest following my lead.

Things that suck:

1. Raised Beds Suck - As I converted from a tilled earth old school model to raised beds, I noticed how I didn't like being able to exclusively use my hoe and had to keep bending over to weed. I found that I actually liked hoeing my garden, and even missed it. Add to it the fact that I had to trim mow around the beds, and it just wasn't worth it to me. Removing the beds added more space via in the between the walking lanes, which I can reuse as growing surface.

2. Upside Down Growing Sucks - To me, this is completely stupid. I gave it a try, and what you end up with is a weaker plant that needs watered twice as much. It's more high maintenance and simply not worth the effort. My Tomato plants with deep roots in the earth produced 2x as much produce. I credit the success of the upside down growing model exclusively to some marketing geniuses desperate for a concept.Well played assholes, well played.

3. Naming Your Chicken Sucks- The chickens I end up having to keep are the ones that have some type of a damn name attached to them, and then the leverage is properly applied from the wife/son about getting rid of <insert name>. If you want to keep chickens during their prime years, and get rid of them afterwards, do yourself a favor and don't give them a name. My view is that it is a chicken, it has a purpose and a limited usage window, and then I move on to the next bird. It's the cycle of life, a lot of hipsters forget that we are talking about a fucking chicken. Chickens are not dogs, they are not intelligent (stupid actually) loving animals, they have been engineered by human breeding programs to be eaten and lay eggs only. I really enjoy keeping chickens, but let's not get crazy about how replaceable they are.

My Garden Hoe

2012-04-12T15:20:00.000-07:00

I never liked my garden hoe, but the cheap bastard within kept me from replacing it until it was broken. As luck would have it, it failed to complete a vicious weeding session and it has officially been deemed unfit to serve.

I was thinking about going and buying a new hoe at Home Depot, but then remembered a blog post I had read all about garden hoe's some time ago on the Contrary Farmer blog. If you are not already following that blog, I would highly recommend it. He is a great writer and witty as hell. The post gives you the pros/cons of a regular garden hoe including structural details that most of us wouldn't have ever even considered:

"Nor is the collar made so that it can be removed from the hoe handle— no bolt, screw, or nail holding it in place. Far as I can tell, some kind of machine pressed an indentation into the collar and on into the wood so that the handle would stay in place. For all practical purposes, this hoe is made to throw away in a few years. A real repair job, if possible, would cost more than a new cheap hoe."

Picking Chicken Breeds

2012-04-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d take a minute and respond to the wave of (imaginary) emails I've received about how I select chicken breeds for my backyard flock. Here is a great chart that lists all of the most common chicken breeds and egg colors for each. My advice is to simply vary your egg layer colors so that you can keep track of who is putting out, and who is not. You have to earn your keep around here!

For example, here is what I picked out for my current flock:

1. Cuckoo Marans - dark brown/chocolate
2. Silver Laced Wyandotte - brown
3. Amercauna - blue/blue green
4. Silver Grey Dorking - creamy white

My advice is based purely on egg color and is not considering other factors that may be important to you, such as friendliness and body style. You may need to adjust your formula for selection based on what is most important for your needs. One thing I can say with certainty is that even if you select the wrong breed, it will still taste delicious if you slap that bird on the grill and cover it with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce.

Photos: My son and the cat

2012-04-08T12:40:00.003-07:00

I found these photos of my son trying to catch the cat that lived in the shed. I think it's quite funny, but anything he does is funny to me. Jackson was 2ish at this time, and the cat has died.

Come here Kitty

Caught you!

Don't try and get away

Look Daddy, I caught him!

Dammit I lost it, oh well

Pictures from the Archive: My hen hatched chicks

2012-04-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

I just found these pics from when my hen "cardboard" hatched some eggs I stuck under her. She didn't even lay them, but set on them for 28 days. I was very proud of her.

Basement Aquaponics Experiment

2012-04-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

I am using a 30 gallon fish tank, a tub with some aquarium gravel, a submersible pump, and some florescent fish tank lights. So far, this has been working OK. I've just added some low light house plants to the mix to account for good filtering for the dozen growing goldfish. I am planning on scaling this up to some trout or tilapia as soon as I get the fundamentals worked out, that is pretty much the purpose of this experiment.

First Eggplant Seed to sprout

Goldfish shit producers

Over top grow bed

Seeds started and low light house plants

Timer for water cycles

View of whole aquaculture setup

We've got bud break

2012-04-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

Pretty damn green for the 1st of April, not complaining though!

Side shot of backyard vineyard

Nice little shoots

Baby Chicks in the yard

2012-04-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

This the first time these chicks have ventured outside of the coop.

Group shot

Hiding underneath the garden hose

See the little white silkie in the back left?

This hen always seems to be perched on something

A Better Chicken Waterer

2012-02-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

It is so surprising that the most commonly bought and sold chicken waterers are so poorly designed. The same can be argued for feeders considering the high percentage of food waste. The common waterers constantly become fouled up with chicken shit within minutes of being in the coop. I noticed this for years but never really thought of a better alternative until one day I saw a poultry nipple setup. After some research, it was pretty clear that this is the superior design for getting birds clean water. I was a bit concerned about them being able to learn to use it after so years of the other, but after phasing the nipple system in, they all picked it up. Chickens are stupid animals, but thirsty stupid animals tend to get smart or die.

My design was too simply put a couple of nipples in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, hang it, and problem solved. It was quite the success, they all picked it up right away. I use this setup today. You could also tie this into some kind of a rain collection system for automatic filling, if one where so inclined to do so.

Baby Chicks have arrived

2012-02-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

Today the chicks have arrived. It was really fun ordering the different breeds, as I've accumulated much more breed knowledge since my last order. I really liked being able to mix up the colors. If my vision is correct, this is going to be a pretty damn awesome group of colors and breeds.

This bird is super happy

All of the little hens

together

One little silkie

Jackson loves the babies

2 future dinners

Zero Waste Chicken Feeder

2012-02-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

After years of messing around with poorly designed chicken feeders that are prone to waste feed, I've moved to a different home made model, and the results thus far have been terrific, my feeder has zero waste.

I've always suspected that the chicken feeder and waterers companies have mutual agreements between each to keep manufacturing shoddy products that waste feed and promote the purchase of more and more of the other. It's an interesting thought at least to a guy that can't even seem to keep his side burns trimmed straight.

The combination of this feeder and using pellets (instead of crumbles) has resulted in my feed bags lasting 30% longer. This design prevents waste by forcing the chicken to stick it's head back into the feeder 2-3 inches, and any twitches or sudden head tilts that typically send feed flying into the wasteland with a standard feeder is blocked by the walls on the deep feeder, and the feed flies back into the consumption area. With feed prices shooting up, preventing feed waste has become more important to me. Also, it gives me a reason to build something new, and this design is working better than I expected.

The feeder consists of a 3 feet long, 4 inch PVC pipe, a single reducer and 2 45 degree elbows. Stick it all together, it was just around 20 bucks total. The feeder will save me that 20 bucks spent in about the first 3 months of use, so it's a sound investment.

Capacity and food access is probably suited for around 6 birds, and since I typically have about 10 birds, I may build another one. The opening could be a double access with a pair of 45 degree adapaters if someone wanted to open it up a bit.

Man invents way to speed up aging process for whiskey

2012-02-18T05:21:00.000-08:00

This is a pretty interesting read, now if they only get this working for wines:

Tyler’s process picks up where small barrels leave off. He pumps young liquor through an oxygenated chamber, where it is subjected to high-intensity ultrasonic energy. The agitation sets esterfication in motion. “In six hours,” he says, “you have every reaction you need for vodka, and in 12 hours you have every reaction you need for the darker spirits.”

To hell with raised beds

2012-02-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

While I do like the way a raised bed looks in the garden, that is the only thing I've found of value that they provide.

I'm making the switch from beds and going back to a simple dirt tilled garden for my vegetables. I gave it a good run, but ultimately it seems to just be an unnecessary process, the soil will still be fertile and controlled, yet the maintenance and trimming around each bed will be eliminated. My theory in life is that things should be as simple as possible whenever applicable, and if a more complicated process does not provide enough value added, it's time to kick it to the curb and move on.

If anyone has a compelling reason to keep these beds, speak now or forever hold your blog comments.

Have a great weekend!!!!!!

Update: Here is a good read from another Ohio farmer that doesn't like raised beds

Dormant Vines After Pruning

2012-02-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

Winter Tasks

2012-02-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

During the colder months, there is a bunch of tasks I have to accomplish in my backyard operation to prepare for the upcoming growing season. I've been chipping away at it here and there, but still have a few things to get done. Here is a list of general maintenance required each year:

* Yearly chicken coop clean out
* Prune all dormant grape vines
* Prune Blackberries
* Clear hops vines off of posts
* Turn compost pile
* Amend soil for upcoming season

This year I'm also planning a chicken coop remodel, it's something that I've never really done, and have never been 100% happy with it. I plan to put interior walls inside and move away from the make shift roosts and nesting boxes to something a little more solid and better designed.

That is all for now, hope everyone enjoys the Superbowl!!

Upcoming changes...

2012-01-28T15:56:00.000-08:00

This is the first year in the last four that I will not be purchasing any new vines to put into the ground, I suppose that is a good thing. I believe I've maximized what I can get out of the space that I am willing to put to the grape vines, now I'm ready to keep babying the vines that I have and enjoy a couple harvests. I have decided to uproot the climbing wire for the beans, remove the raised beds, and just use it as a tillable area. I can't find any advantage with the beds and therefore have chosen to remove them. The Black raspberry bush is also soon to be history, while it is a prolific grower, it doesn't put off nearly any berries, and the ones that it does produce, aren't really worth a shit anyway. The space that I've reclaimed from the massive blackberry bush will be used as additional blackberry growing area. The blackberries are doing quite nicely and have earned some expansion space in the garden. The blackberries produced are delicious.

Is anyone else buying any new vines out there?

2012 Cold Hardiness Map Available

2012-01-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

I just found this, and as predicted, everything has heated up a bit.

My growing zone has moved from a 4 to a 6 within the last decade.

Full map located here.

Chicken and Duck Update

2012-01-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've reported on the chickens and ducks, I had gotten rid of most of my chickens except my pet chickens a few months back. A guy I know really wanted my runner ducks, so I gave them too him and my hens are passed prime laying ages, so I decided to get all new breeds in the spring. I'm trying to decide right now which breeds to try out.

Interesting Link

2012-01-12T16:53:00.000-08:00

Ohio Wine Economic Impact

Northern Vineyard pics from the Archive

2012-01-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

Raised Bed Photos from the Archive

2012-01-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

2012-01-11T16:43:00.001-08:00