We've been busy.........Our little farm is growing!

Wow!  A lot of work going on around the farm :0)

We were chosen once again to be a release site for 6 more mallard ducks from Izzie's Pond!  It looks like there are 3 drakes and 3 hens :0)  They are wonderful for our first little pod of ducks!  Our first pod was a little apprehensive about swimming more than about 5 feet from the bank....not these new ones!  Right out into the middle of the pond!  It wasn't long before pod #1 was joining them. Yahoo!  Our ducks have figured out they CAN swim! lol

Here's some pictures of the newest "pod" of ducks enjoying our pond :0)

Happy, Happy, Happy!

One of the new hens in the lillies

The drake is in the middle and a hen either side...he's a handsome young lad!

We are very happy with our new residents!

The chicks will be 6 weeks old tomorrow...hard to believe.  They are growing so quickly and we have figured out which two are our roosters "Fred" and "Jerry".  "Fred" is buddies with another sweet hen I have named "Woobie". If I go out into the pen or coop and stoop down, Woobie will be on my arm or back instantly and Fred is right at my feet! LOL  They are too cute!

Here's a few recent pictures of them:

They have grown so much.

Testing out the new perches Farmer Man made them <3

Breakfast Treats! Soft banana, fresh peas, strawberries and a little Swiss chard!

LOL I thought I'd put a board out in the run so I had something clean to sit on....it's not clean anymore!

We also have added 5 new turkey poults!  I asked for 3 and my sweet Farmer Man brought home 5. His reasoning behind bringing home 5 was so we would have a better chance of at least on Tom in the bunch.  Well, from the pictures I took today will they were out of the brooder and running around the screened porch, I do believe we have one, possibly two, Toms! 

Meet "Tommy"!  Isn't he just adorable!!!  Just a little over 2 weeks old and already strutin' his stuff <3

"Tommy" the ladies man ;0)  Just look at the little, cute tail feather fan!!!

 My dear sweetie also installed two 4 foot by 8 foot raised bed gardens for me!  We built them together and I stained the outside of them after we got them in place.  He went by "Bricko's" in Augusta and picked up some nursery mix soil to fill the beds.  I am SO excited to have the chance to have a garden once again!

First raised bed going together!

Viola! Frame completed and installed

Stained, on the outside only...the stain will darken with time...it matches the house ....the corners are pressure treated and will fade to a nice grey color

Tada! Filled and ready to plant.  I managed to grow 3 zucchini and 3 spaghetti squash in the greenhouse...not much success with anything else :0/...I'm still trying to figure out how to grow things in the greenhouse...whole different ballgame!

As you can see, we have been busily adding to our farm and working to be more self sufficient.  It will be September before the chicks lay eggs, the bees are working away, building comb and bringing up brood to build the colony, the turkeys will be pets, although if we have two Toms we'll probably find another home for one Tom and a Hen leaving us with a nice trio....hoping to breed and sell poults. 

We have enough soil left to build a 4 foot by 4 foot raised bed.... Just need a little more lumber. Our dear friends have offered their asparagus sprouts that have grown outside their raised beds so I think that's what we'll designate for the next bed.. Between now and then I'll be working away on the square foot gardens :0) I can't wait to have homegrown tomatoes and green beans!!! 

Thanks for stopping in and seeing what we have been up to!  I hope you enjoyed a little taste of The Old Five Notch Farm :0)

New additions, The Chick Inn II update, and the chicks venture outside!

We have 9 new additions to The Old Five Notch Farm!  We were chosen as a release site for 9 wild mallard ducks that had been cared for at Izzie's Pond in Simpsonville, SC. I had the privilege of meeting Angel who owns Izzie's Pond this past week.  What a wonderful, beautiful place!  If you are looking for ducks, geese or swans and would like to rescue an animal and help out a wonderful organization, please consider Izzie's Pond.

Our little mallards are adjusting quite well to their new home.  They are so cute and I love just sitting down at the pond and watching them.  They are not totally tame so they won't come right up to you, but they won't fly away either.  We are hoping with continued contact from feeding that they will stay around our pond.

We are hoping that we will be chosen to take some wild Canadian Geese when they are old enough to be released! 

My sweet nephews, Gideon and Patrick, came over last weekend to help out with some construction.  Patrick was a huge help while working with Scott on the top of the coop pen.  Scott "designed" a cool fence stretcher and Patrick was the force behind it! LOL

The chicks are doing quite well in The Chick Inn II :0)  We have finished the nursery pen area and they have now ventured out into the big, wonderful world.  They are so funny!  They rush the people door of the coop when they hear us coming in the morning.  Just as soon as the nursery chicken door is open they all rush out.  It's a chicken stampede!

 
More pics soon of the completed nursery and pen area :0)

Update on The Chicken Inn II and Our Babies!!

Today is a rainy, dreary day on the farm...a good day to post and update!

It's been too long since I updated the progress on The Chicken Inn II.  We've been busily working away on the coop and many other projects here on the farm, but here are the last pictures I have taken of the coop.  We have done SO much more since these were taken!  I need a good sunny day to get some current photos :0)

The Chicken Inn II coop is all painted :0)  Notice the 2 x 4 railing....this will stabilize the fence and provide a good place to staple the fence.  We will add a decking board to the top for a nice finish.

You will notice there are two chicken doors....the one in the front will be the Nursery Door and they will have their own little run.

All Posts are In....now to tackle that 200 ft of fence lying here!

Since these pictures were taken we have put up all the 2 x 4 top railing, all the 2 x4 welded wire fence, and the decking board as a top railing to finish it off.  We turned the fence out at the bottom to keep predators from digging under and have added cypress mulch all around the perimeter.  It looks really nice :0)

We still have to underpin the coop, build gates, and install a top on the coop!  More pics to come :0)

Now to the babies :0)

They are now two weeks old and just way too cute!  Here's a few pictures I took this afternoon while they were out of the brooder, running around on the screened in porch.

Golden Laced Wyandottes

Eating strawberries :0)

This may be one of the the roos :0)

Such beautiful markings

I have something stuck on my foot!

So very pretty!

What's up.....fluffy butt :0)

I think this is one of the roos :0) He's so sweet!

Just beautiful babies

 Looking forward to completing the coop so these little ones can spend some time outside in the sunshine :0)

New addition to The Old Five Notch Farm!

Saturday we took a trip to Pickens, South Carolina to pick up our latest addition to the farm!

It was a beautiful day and the ride to the upstate of South Carolina was very nice.  Pickens sits in the foothills and the sight of the beginning of the rolling mountains was just wonderful.

We arrived at Bell Well Honey Farm around 11 am and spent a few moments looking around the Bell Well Natural Food Store before picking up our three pound package of bees and their queen!  We tucked our buzzing package in the back seat and proceeded to check out the town of Pickens.  We found several nice antique stores and did a some looking and a little buying too.  A quick lunch of Little Caesar's pizza in Easley, Farmer Man knows what I like!, and we headed for home.

When we returned home we place our English Garden Hive in the front yard and Scott installed the bees.  It was overcast and drizzling too....not the ideal weather to install bees in their new home.  Since the weather was so unfriendly Scott pulled the queen, safe in her little cage, and placed her between two frames in the waiting hive box.  He removed four frames from both hive boxes to make room to place the container inside the boxes.  Normally, you would just dump the bees into the hive and they would then clump around the queen.  Since the weather wasn't ideal, placing the whole container in the hive allowed the bees to stay warmer and crawl their way out and to their queen. They behaved themselves very well and settled in quite easily. 

Farmer man was concerned about getting the container out and replacing the frames so they could start drawing out comb on the foundation.  Sunday afternoon he donned the beekeepers suit, veil and gloves.  It was very possible they would be calm and easy to work since they had not established brood or honey stores yet, but rather be safe than stung! A little smoke to make the bees calm and a few minutes for them to relax before he opened the hive. The weather was once again cold and drizzling so he worked purposely to remove the container and replace the frames.

Farmer Man removed the top hive box with the copper roof intact. The queen is in the top box along with most of bees.

Removing the container the bees were packaged in

Shaking out any stragglers

Replacing the frames in the bottom box

You can see the cluster of bees on the top right of the box...just past his gloved hands

Carefully adding the frames back to the top box....bees on the top of the frames closest to Scott

 

The bees are are safely tucked in. He will pull the screen off the container and prop it up against the stand to allow any stragglers easy access to the entrance of the hive.

The queen in inside a wire cage with a few workers to tend to her. There is a "plug" of candy over the opening keeping her inside the cage.  The plug is there to keep her contained and allow the other bees time to accept her as their queen.  They will eat away at the candy both from the inside of the cage and from the outside releasing her.  We will have to check the hive again on Wednesday or Thursday to be sure she has been released and pull her empty cage.  We added a hive top feeder, the shallow box directly on top of the second hive box, to provide an instant food source for the bees.  They will need a lot of food to draw out all the honeycomb so we will make sure they have sugar water available for several weeks.

We are so excited to have this addition to the farm! We'll update as the hive begins to be productive.

Coop Construction Completed and The Prodigal Cat Returns...

A beautiful weekend here on the farm!  The weather was warm and sunny which was perfect for completing the construction on The Chicken Inn II.  My sweet Farmer man finished the shutters, built and hung the door, and completed the construction by filling in small gaps at the roof line with strips of wood.  We have tried to snake/small animal "proof" this coop as much as possible.  Here's the coop.........construction completed!

Beautiful door

Front of the coop - there is hardware cloth enclosing the eaves

Details of the shutters  and hardware cloth over the windows

View of the left side - LOVE the door and hinges!

View of right side with main chicken door

Back of coop and nesting boxes :0) Hardware cloth covering the eaves once again.

 The other item that Scott got installed is the automatic chicken door from The Poultry Butler.  We will eventually install another in the chicken door in the front of the coop.  This second door will allow for the nursery in the coop to have a separate area, door and run .

We are now in the process of staining the siding, sealing the floor, and we will add an underpinning around the coop to keep chickens in and predators out. Electricity,water and fencing will be added in a few weeks. No huge hurry since the chicks won't arrive until the week of April 23rd and they will spend at least a few weeks in the brooder on the screened porch.

To The Prodigal Cat.....

I had posted earlier about Phathead and his disappearing antics.  Well he stayed home for three days only to disappear again.  He left out two Sundays ago albeit this time with a collar and ID tag. This is the longest he has ever been gone.  We  feared the worst since we found large coyote tracks in the mud down by the barn.  Farmer man had given up on him returning.

Last night we received a call from a friend and neighbor that a big black cat with our phone number on the tag was at her mother's house!  Farmer man hightailed it over to their home to pick up our prodigal cat.  Bless him, he had to chase the little bugger around the property because Phathead didn't want to come to him!  He returned home with a little thinner and a much mouthier Phathead.  I have to admit we missed the big guy, but when he meowed all night long last night....I mean all night long....I was having second thoughts.  Somewhere on his journey he found his voice and he apparently likes to use it!  Phathead is now lounging on "his" throne after a short trip outside this morning to check his kingdom.

 

Much needed rain is predicted for this afternoon so I can't say I blame him.

Although Farmer man is working at his day job, all others are here and accounted for.

All is well at The Old Five Notch Farm.