The snow is melting, helped by the rain. It was fun while it lasted, but I’m ready for it to go.
Our chickens would prefer no snow too; they don’t like walking in it.
Here are a bunch of photos of the chickens in the snow, from yesterday and today:
Veggie Garden
Berry cage: finished!
This post has been waiting for a few days to be published, since the blog has been busy with snow photos this week. Hence the lack of snow in these pictures. With the snow on the ground this week, it’s almost hard to remember what the place was like without snow!
I have now completed the berry cage project.
The last step was to replace the old fencing wire with the new, narrower gauge stuff.
So I started by removing the old wire:
I left the nails that were holding the old wire, so I could reuse them to attach the new wire:
Here’s the berry cage portion of the fence without any wire:
I could then add the bottom course of new welded wire. I also kept the second layer chicken wire at the bottom, which is to keep smaller animals like rabbits out of the garden:
Attaching the wire:
The bottom course completed. The wire curves out onto the ground, anchored by rocks, to avoid any gap at the bottom:
A close-up of the wire and nails after adding the second course:
The door area, with the completed fence:
The completed berry cage fence:
It is always very satisfying to complete a project. On to the next one!
First snow of 2019
Although much of the country has had lots of snow this winter, we haven’t had any… until now. Yesterday morning we had a brief dusting of snow, then overnight we got about three inches, with a forecast of more throughout the day.
Naturally, I took a bunch of photos while on my morning rounds.
Here’s the brown gazebo and trees covered in snow:
The pond wasn’t frozen, yet anyway:
The flowerbeds, with the pond deck on the left, the brown gazebo in the distance, and the veggie garden on the right:
The chicken coop:
As usual, the bird netting on the roof of the chicken run collapsed under the weight of the snow. I plan to replace that with welded wire, like the berry cage, but was hoping to defer it; now I guess I need to either repair the netting, or do the wire after all:
The welded wire on the berry cage held up just fine:
The beehives:
The cat house, somewhat sheltered by the trees:
Berry cage: roof wire
Over the weekend I did a bit more work on the berry cage project: installing the welded wire on the roof. That will keep birds from flying into that area of the veggie garden.
Some of the chickens couldn’t resist perching on a ladder:
Measuring out the wire on the ground:
I rolled up the wire again to take it up to the roof:
Having it rolled up also enabled me to nail the right edge at the same time as the left edge of the previous row:
A partially-installed row from below:
Completed, from above:
Completed, from below:
And from the other side:
Next up, removing the old wire from the fence walls, and replacing with the narrower gauge stuff.
Gate between chicken run & veggie garden
This past weekend I built a doorway and gate to make it easier to go between the veggie garden and the chicken run. Something I do a lot, especially in summer, when giving the chickens treats of kale, tomatoes, etc grown in our garden.
Here’s the new doorway, built by adding the new left pole and top plate, cutting away the fencing, and cutting out the horizontal rails:
I also moved the grazing box in the chicken run, to clear a path by the door. The chickens love having direct access to the grass, which will probably be all scratched away in a matter of days. I’ll seed new grass in the new box position in spring:
Building the gate frame; the fourth and last one:
Door hardware installation:
The completed gate, closed:
And open:
I added a hook & eye to hold the gate open during winter:
I also permanently closed the small holes through the fence that the chickens were using to access the veggie garden, so now they go through this doorway.
That concludes building the gates for the veggie garden and berry cage. Next up: replacing the old fencing wire around the berry cage.
Chickens in the veggie garden: a week later
The last couple of posts have been about the chickens, but here’s one more! (Back to cats tomorrow, of course.)
Our chickens are really enjoying being in the veggie garden. It’s funny how they come running when I walk past each day, during my morning rounds:
Compare the veggie garden now with how it was just five days ago, to see what a flock of chickens can do to vegetation. That’s why we don’t free-range them around the property!
Merida coming to say hi:
Camilla:
Kiwi:
Domino:
Three chickens on the potato planters:
A bunch by the new berry cage fence:
Merida:
Flo:
Mo:
Video of chickens in the veggie garden
As a followup to my previous post, here’s a video of the chickens exploring the veggie garden.
Chickens in the veggie garden
As mentioned in my recent berry cage post, I let our chickens into the veggie garden after replacing the front gate.
Here are an assortment of photos of them roaming the garden, digging for insects, etc.
I also moved the mobile cam from watching the beehives into the veggie garden. Here you can see me while I was taking these photos:
Another cam shot with me:
Berry cage: more gates
Over the last couple of days, I took advantage of some fine weather to build another couple of gates for the berry cage project.
Firstly, the middle gate, in the new fence that divides the veggie garden:
Close-up of the bottom hinge:
The gate latch and handle:
After adding the wire:
The finished middle gate:
Then the same again for the front gate, to replace the old disintegrating one:
I also moved the dirt from the potato planters, so the chickens wouldn’t spread it all over the garden:
Surprise! I found a soil scoop buried in the dirt; I’d wondered where that had gotten to:
I dumped the dirt into the new bed; we’ll add more on top later:
I stacked some boards to make a roosting bar, so the chickens can safely get to the top of the potato planters if they want to roost there:
This morning, I opened up the small holes in the fence to let the chickens into the veggie garden. These holes had been closed with zip ties since last spring. Here’s the hole into the new run:
And the old run:
The chickens will enjoy eating the remaining vegetation, and rooting around for bugs and such. Fun for the them, and helpful for us to clean out the beds for spring planting:
I took a bunch of photos of them in the veggie garden, which I’ll post another day (probably Sunday, since tomorrow is Caturday). Stay tuned!
Next up: one last gate between the chicken run and veggie garden, that will replace those small holes, and let me get between the two more easily.
Berry cage: starting fencing wire
Just a few hours on the berry cage construction this weekend: installing the welded wire on the new fence portion, that divides the berry cage from the rest of the veggie garden.
The rightmost portion has an angle to accommodate the slope:
Right side done; working on the left side:
All done:
A view through the doorways:
The left side also has interesting angles for the slope:
Next up: replacing the wire on the old portion of the fence, with this smaller gauge wire.