Our First Egg

 How proud ( and excited) is this little farmer?

Our chooks ( well one of them at least) has started to lay eggs.  They are so quiet that the kids are able to go and pick them up and carry them around the yard.  I have made the rule that if they are in thier pen then we need to respect thier sanctuary and leave them alone.  (a pity mummies don't have that sort of space!)

Not sure if its getting though to the chooks tiny minds - but they know to run if I come outside and see them on my verandah.  The dog has also taken a vigilante approach and chases them off as well.

Ahh happy days of a suburban farmer.. ha ha ha

A dogs breakfast.. or is it a chookshed?

We have had a space beside our garage which is virtually unusable as it is overlooked by a 6 foot fence - making it useless for a garden ( no sun).  Adrian and I have long pondered its possible transformation - from fernhouse, to cubby house, to dog house, to tank stand.  It has grown a multitude of weeds and been the dumping ground for overly large bits of cardboard, and garden tools, the wheelbarrow and broken tiles.

This picture was taken after I had ripped out most of the weeds, discovered a half dozen rocks and rolled them out and pulled away all the other crap and either binned it or put it somewhere else.

The large rock still there needed a crow bar, digging out and alot of heaving to get it to the grassed area.  Its still there.

SO - one of my projects after new year was to transform it into a chook yard and shed.

Fact 1.  I have never built a thing.  Nothing. I have knocked a few nails into walls to put pictures up and been responsible for drilling holes into walls for shelving.. thats the extent of my massive experience with the building trade.  so - why let a little inexperience hold you back when you have lots of enthusiasm?

Fact 2 - it was a secret project - so I couldn't spend any money on it and had to hide all the bits, tools etc and ask no advice while I was doing it.  No matter I've never used power tools before and it took me half an hour to put a blade into a jigsaw.( because I was trying to do it upside down.)

Fact 3 - I had no plan on how to build a chook house... and no idea, and no budget, and little good or new materials to work with.

Fact 4 - I am enthusiastic and resourceful, strong with  good endurance and perseverance levels.  now thats got to count for something hasn't it?????

Fact 5 - I had a great little builders mate - Lilly - who carried things and gave me lots of advice on what I should be doing.  Morgan had more sense and kept away.

Fact 6.  I had a very old, woodwormed, rotten rabbit hutch, two rolls of chicken wire and an assortment of planks, poles, garden stakes, edging and bits of wood and a bag of quick set cement.. what possibly could go wrong?

The first thing I did was do a  fanciful sketch of a chook palace suing the rabbit hutch as its base. the hole into the box needed enlarging and a hole needed to be made so they could get into the side ( enter the jigsaw fiasco)  It might not have been so bad if the jigsaw hadn't been a cordless one and I had to keep plugging the battery in to get recharged.  However, a bad tradie will blame his tools.. so I won't....

I know chooks like secure high places to roost - so made them two - one in the corner up the back and one in the hutch - which I put on stilts so we didn't have to bend to see if there were eggs.. and out of the way of the brown snakes we sometimes get here.

I enclosed one side at the bottom for a cool spot for them to hide during the day and they have a perch with a view - netted sides.

I used a heavy duty motorcycle ramp ( thanks Frazer - you want it back - you'll need to speak with the girls)  so the chooks can get up into the hutch.

The rotting wood and rusted nails made it interesting to keep it all together. The floor fell out so I had to reinforce and build it in again, one of the side planks crumbled in my hand so I had to replace it..... and I think its standing on sheer will power and fear - it doesn't dare move.

so - what you see before you is the product of sweat and hard labour and is undergoing an organic stage of renovation - it. I find another bit of wood or netting and think.. hummm I can use this......

I haven't gotten to the gate yet  - well to swing it anyway - the star pickets are there as is the gate.... but the chooks are held into their pen with a piece of lattice... and fear..

They love their little house at least - so its all worth it..  They get let out for an hour or so in the mornings and an hour or so in the evenings - so they have have a scratch and a peck around the grass and yard.

yes - its a bleeding mess and I hope my Dad never sees it - and I'm sure my carpenter great grandfather is spinning in his grave... however - who taught me, took any time to help me hold a hammer or how to knock in a nail?  yep - no-one... girls were not meant to learn anything other than drudgery manual labour and certainly nothing as specialized as manufacturing anything.. so I and damned proud of it....as bad and terrible that it is.....

Evett Zoo is now complete

The Evett Zoo is now complete.....

Worm farm - check

Scruffy dog - check

chooks - check

two mad children - check

yep - I think our suburban block is at capacity now - our farm is complete. I also now realise that I will be boring people on my blog about the antics of my animals - all of them.  So just like babys first drool and poo, like a new mum so fascinated with every blink her baby does, I’ll be retelling little things about these animals.  and yes I understand the whole anthromorphification  thing… and will just run with it as it amuses me.

Scruff has settled in quite well and has a real cheeky sense of humour.  For some reason he is fascinated by my outside broom and will steal it and leave it round the yard ( How the heck he gets it through the gateway and leaves it round the back is beyond me.)  He is also very good at acting very innocent.  ..noise on verandah - I come to investigate and see a chewed and ripped thing - and him sitting with his legs crossing in front of him on the lawn a good distance from the offending item with the puzzled expression “what?  wasn’t me”  or pehaps a ruckas in the backyard, Scruff came to the door and whined at me and when I went to investigate he rushed over to show me that the chooks had escaped….I had to ignore the gate which had a big dog shaped pushed shape in it.  He had the expression - “Look Mum, those bad chooks - look what they are doing!”

Eventhough I intellectually know that chooks can’t be trained, I am vainly attempting to teach them not to come into the house or on my verandah and sitting on the washing line and shitting down my sheets is a really bad career choice.

Suffice to say, I am feeling calmer and happier with my little farming brood.  We have separate scrap buckets for chooks, worms and compost.  My next project will be our vege garden…..

I lov the photo of Scruff peering through the fence at the chooks.. He hasn't chased them since the first day they were introduced - but he has that hungry look which I just don't trust.

More I am sure next week.