From the Hen House: What came first? The chicken or the egg?

Well, here on the Funny Farm, it was most definately the chicken.  And we recently added a new member to the Funny Farm Flock.  She's the first of three little bantams that I've acquired from one of my co workers.  We're still waiting on the other two (They're having trouble catching them), but for now, we have Eleanor, and she is a new favorite on the farm.  She is a leghorn bantam variety, and because she's smaller, she lays these darling little pale peach colored eggs. But don't let her size fool you.  This little lady is an egg laying dynamo.  She has gifted us with an egg a day so far.  Of course it takes two of her eggs to equal a normal sized egg, but we don't mind.

My eldest son, Xander, was really excited.  That's him, in the picture, holding our first egg.  You would have thought she layed THE golden egg.  He was however, a bit disappointed to not be able to hear the "peeping" inside the egg when he held it to his ear.  But after he received a brief explanation of the "birds and the bees" of chickens, he soon replaced his disappointment with an eagerness to have his new egg for breakfast.  And me? I find it hilarious that I get so giddy with each new egg I find in the nest.  It's like I'm a kid again.  I can't wait to check the nest every morning, and I feel like I'm lining up little treasures on the refrigerator door. 

So now, we're anxious for the rest of our ladies to start laying.  I encourage them to hurry up every morning when I let them out of the coop, and I bribe them with treats, but they just ignore me and go about their day picking and scratching in the garden.  Now, if these little ladies lay like they're supposed to, we should be collecting at least 2 to 3 dozen eggs a week.  Whoo hoo!  I can't wait.  How fun will that be to gather all those eggs in the morning?  But then again, I guess I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch....get it? ha ha ha!!!!!

So until next time... Happy Farming !

Funny Farm Update: Spring....Funny Farm Style.

What a beautiful day here on the farm.  The sun is shinging, the birds are singing, and the chickens are rooting among the bluebells. This is absolutely one of my favorite times of year.  But this year, it has also felt a bit stressful.  Lately things have been so busy, and with the weather being so unncooperative, I have found myself falling further and further behind.  But I refuse to let it get me down.

I finally got the nesting boxes put in the hen house, and made a few more improvements to the coop.  I planted a beautiful white clematis to climb along the chain linking so as to make the run look a little more charming, and not so ghetto.  I'm looking for a style more in line of "Country Charm", not "Grapes of Wrath"....lol

The first of the raised beds has been built, thanks to Xander, my junior farmer in training.  I told him since he helped to build it, he could pick what he wanted to plant in it, and he said apples.  I encouraged him to think about some carrots, or zucchini instead, but he didn't seem too impressed.  I promised him an apple tree at a later date, and even told him he could help pick it out. That seemed to satisfy him for the time being.  In the meantime, I did manage to get more cilantro, chives, and peppermint planted.

But the best news of all is that the mess from the fallen barn is almost cleaned up.  It's been really time consuming and alot of hard work.  Most of the rotten lumber has been hauled off, and now it's down to more detailed cleaning.

We've also done something I thought we would never do. We finally made the move and hired a local lawn and garden service to help get the funny farm back into shape.  Over the past few years, certain parts of our suburbian acreage has fallen into neglect and disrepair.  The once beautiful beds and landscaping that we had worked so hard on, have become shabby and overgrown with weeds.  Things started falling apart during the summer of 2009 when Brad was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  At that same time, we had also adopted our first little guy, who was 2 years old at the time, and things were a bit chaotic and disorganized.  Well, Brad recovered, but the gardens did not, and little by little with the arrival of the other two little guys, and both of us working full time, the yard and gardens took a back seat and got out of hand.  So rather than break our backs, and let it stress us out, we decided to hire someone to help us get it back under control, so we can get back to caring for it ourselves eventually.

And I've never been happier.  What a relief and feeling of ease to be able to catch up on my baking and house cleaning,  all the while looking out the windows to see my beautiful gardens coming back to life.  I refuse to feel guilty about it.  How wonderful to be able to play with my boys outside in the sunshine without looking around and feeling that I should be edging or mowing, weeding or pruning.  Instead I can spend my free time playing with the boys, chasing chickens with them, and teaching them how to plant a garden.  I can sit in the shade and watch them play, and of course, get up and pull the occasional weed.  Yes things are looking up.... and life is good on the funny farm.

Until next time, Happy Farming.

The Latest Cackle from the Hen House: The Benefits of Free Range

Hooray!
Today was a big day for our little ladies.  Today was their first day going "free range".  I've been trying to coax them out of the coop for about a week now, but they always seemed to "chicken out" (no pun intended...lol)  However today, they took a leap of faith and "flew the coop" (Ok, Ok,  I know, enough with the chicken jokes.)  Wow, what a bunch of happy ladies.  They were absolutely loving it out there today.  Strutting around their new territory, peck, peck, peck.  It was so fun to watch.

There are so many benefits to letting your ladies "free range", but here's just a few:

Nutritious eggs:

Instead of those boring, grocery store eggs with the pale yellow yolks, you get instead: fresh, nutrient rich little gems that contain:

• 1/3 less cholesterol• 1/4 less saturated fat• 2/3 more vitamin A• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids• 3 times more vitamin E• 7 times more beta carotene

How great is that?  Not to mention, it's so much more fun to gather your own eggs rather than make a trip to the store.  It's like your very own daily Easter egg hunt.

Chickens: Your very own free extermination service:
Chickens love to eat protein-packed insects, which works out well because they can serve as an organic pest-cleanup crew in your garden and devour all kinds of bugs on your property. They also love to eat weeds, and serve as post-harvest garden bed cleaners, potentially making your work as a funny farmer, much much easier.

Chickens are great little gardeners:The health of our food is tied directly to the health of our soil. Chickens perform multiple functions that can turn parts of our boring old yards into fertile garden patches. All that scratching and digging that comes to them so naturally, can help to create productive garden beds. They are experts in the mixing of manure with mulch to create fertile soil. They act as gas free, noise-free mini roto-tillers, that mix the top layers of soil with compost or other mulch to create a fertile soil which allows you to grow more produce in a smaller space and use less water, which is particularly useful to us suburbian funny farmers .

Chickens can work as a natural antidepressant.Yup, you heard right.  Ever hear of oxytocin, the love hormone? It's a stress-lowering chemical in your body that's unleashed when you hug someone you love, or even pet your dog or cat. And anyone who has raised backyard chickens would probably agree, the same effect holds true for our hens.  I love to just sit and watch them strut around and peck the ground.  And yes, they are my pets. Particularly one of my little ladies, A black Australorp named Verdelle, who likes to follow me around and peck at my jewelry and sparkly toenail polish.  There's just something therapeutic and charming about chickens roaming around my back yard.  So, hug a chicken.  I highly recommend it.
 
Now....If I could just get them to clean the inside of my house....lol 

Until Next time.......

Happy Farming!

Funny Farm Update: They're Here!!!

I've always dreamed of living on a farm.  My dreams were filled with acres of rolling hills, abundant fruit trees, flourishing gardens, and a barn full of livestock.  Now this here little farm isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it works.  Although living in the city has some disadvantages, there is actually quite a bit of farming to be done in a very small space.  There is always room for fruit trees and a garden.   But what is a farm without chickens?  Exactly!  That’s why we at the Funny Farm are proud to announce the arrival of chickens to our little bit of suburbian acreage.  The first of our little ladies arrived on Wednesday.  I surprised my son, Xander by taking him to the feed store to pick them up.   What a fun and special moment to share with my son.  The look on his face was priceless.  It was so fun to see him jumping up and down with excitement, and he was so gentle when he actually got to handle the little bundles of fuzz.  I’ll never forget it.  I took a trip down memory lane that day and remembered all the furry friends of my childhood.  I learned a lot about life from growing up around animals.  We had dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, and chickens.  I learned about responsibility, life, love, and loss.   These lessons, helped to shape the person I am today, and I want my boys to have the same experience.

And So far, these little ladies have been a huge hit.  Right now they are residing in our basement under a heat lamp, but I’m looking forward to finishing their coop and getting them outside in the fresh air as soon as they’re old enough.  Now Xander has been a little disappointed that they aren’t laying eggs yet (lol) but I’ve encouraged him to be patient.   Even my husband, the skeptic, had to admit they were pretty cute and even went so far as to hold them and anxiously ask when the others were coming.  Yep, you heard right.  We have three more coming next week.  Is he converted?  I’m not so sure.  But we’ll see how he feels when they get bigger and start giving us fresh eggs every week.  Now how to I break the news to him that we’re getting a cow next month?  Just kidding….lol

Happy Farming!

The Old Red Barn She Aint What She Used To Be.

After many, many years of housing chickens, goats, cows, bunnies, lawnmowers, and garden supplies, (and no doubt rats…yuck!!!) our old barn/shed finally succumbed to the winter storms.  We had been planning on demolishing it, but Mother Nature finished her off during this last snow storm.  Long before the Funny farm came into existence, when the old girl was still in her prime, the former owners used it to house a cow, a goat, some chickens and rabbits. 

By the time she came into our hands she was in disrepair, but served well to house our garden supplies and work as a shelter for our dog kennel.  It also served to add some charm to the place and give it that “farmy” feel.  Will we rebuild?  Most definitely!  But it won’t be for a while yet.  In the meantime, we’ll use the extra space for the chicken coop and a garden.   Our plans for the future include a double car garage/shop, but, that won’t be happening for a              while.  Perhaps, I will also get a new smaller barn in the future.  And while I don’t plan on having a cow anytime soon, I won’t count it out entirely…You never know what the future may bring.   My husband isn’t too excited about the chickens, so a cow would really send him over the edge…LOL

               So in the meantime, we’re busy with clean-up.  We certainly have our work cut out for us, but we have had lots of help.  Several people have wanted the old barn wood, and one of them, in exchange for giving him the wood, is going to build me a hen house out of the old barn siding.  We’ll have a snuggly little home to house our new chickens in, we'll be "recycling", as well as adding a little piece of history to the farm.   A fitting tribute I think. 

So, it’s time to put on the over-alls and the heavy duty work gloves.  It’s clean up time on the Funny Farm!

Until next time,

Happy Farming!

Funny Farm Spotlight: Composting

I’ve decided that with the addition of chickens at the Funny Farm  and plans for a garden this summer, I need to get busy with my plans for composting .  I have tried my hand at recycling and composting in my efforts to “go green” in the past, but I’ve only been able to achieve a level that is more of a chartreuse color. (Think margaritas!)  Also because of my past efforts of composting, I have been banned from composting from my hubby who evidently got tired of dumping the ultimately forgotton compost”soup” from my compost bin.   So to stay in the hubby’s good graces, I’ve decided to be more proactive in my efforts and treat this endeavor with a little more dedication and enthusiasm. 

So where to start….I did compile a list of some really great websites.  I have listed them below if you are interested.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html

http://easycomposting.com/

http://www.compostguy.com/bokashi-resource-page/

There are also some really cool products on the market including the "All Seasons Happy Farmer Kitchen Composter Kit", which uses the Bokashi method. But until I have proven myself serious in the composting department I don’t think my husband is going to be too keen on me spending money on something that will harbor rotting food on our kitchen counters.  But Hey!  It’s a goal! 

I do have one of those nifty large plastic outdoor receptacles that I had been dumping my slop into, but after I took the lid off one afternoon and came face to face with garter snake, my trips to the compost bin were over.  However, I do plan on using it again.  I just either have to overcome my fear of snakes, or sweet talk my hubby or my son (who loves snakes, by the way) into dumping the compost for me.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear any tips or ideas you might have.  Especially in the fear of snakes department…lol

Happy Farming!

Calling all chicken farmers!

Hey there fellow farmers!

Plans are underway to add chickens to the Funny Farm this spring, and I need help from all you current chicken farmers out there.  I'd like to know what kind you have.  What do you like about them, what don't you like about them?  What kind of coop do you have?  Plus any other helpful tips or advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.  I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Happy farming ~