First Eggs

I went out this evening to check water levels in the waterers before putting the flock to bed. I had about 45 minutes of light left before the sun fully set so, I went out to the coop. I opened the coop door and thank goodness I was paying attention because I found an egg on the coop floor. I immediately checked the nesting boxes, which are kitty litter buckets with the lid cut off at the hinged part. The remainder of the lid keeps the nesting material inside of the bucket when it’s laid on its side. Inside one of the nesting boxes was the second egg. I didn’t have my phone with me so, I grabbed both eggs and actually ran inside. (well, sort of ran) I showed hubby the eggs and he was just as shocked as I was to see eggs.

They are apparently large according to the members of the Homesteading groups I am in on Facebook. They weren’t dirty and they were just perfect and smooth with no weird flaws. The brown smears are mud from my hands because I grabbed the waterer before I saw the eggs and the waterer is always muddy because of the spot where I fill them being somewhat muddy.

I had purchased an adorable egg rack for the kitchen counter on Prime Day on Amazon and it arrived today as well. Absolutely perfect timing for it’s arrival.

My first two eggs fit perfectly in the rack. I plan on numbering or dating them with a sharpie as they do not need refrigeration unless I wash them. I want to make sure I know how old they are. The brown paper is unbleached parchment paper and covers the built in grill area of my ancient stove to keep crumbs and dust from gathering in that area, which means I don’t have to clean it daily. The other section is a ventilation fan and hot air from outside blows in through the vent so, I keep it covered to avoid the heat coming inside.

Hubby also brought me home two 55 gallon black plastic barrels today from work. I will have to clean and sanitize them of course, but they will become rain catchment barrels, which will become a gigantic chicken watering station once I get everything set up.

Friday is Hubby’s birthday and Saturday is race day, (he races Racesaver 305 Sprints) so, I will have to work quickly to get the coop cleaned up, new roosts installed as well as additional nesting boxes. I also have a roll of shade cloth that my lovely mother in law randomly brought me so I am going to create some shady spots for them to hang out under because it is just way too hot.

Hubby’s truck measures the heat index and he took this after his truck had been running for a few minutes and the air conditioning had cooled to ice cold. (It was reading much higher before the truck was running) this is just too hot to be out in the sun. The run has the entire top covered, which does create shade, but they hang out in the coop or under the coop door during the hottest part of the day. The coop does have a rather large window, which is covered in EXTREMELY thick fencing with square holes. It’s too big for rabbit fencing so, I think it’s called hog fencing. No clue honestly but it is nice and secure. I will shutter the window when colder temperatures start, but right now it creates a nice airflow and the temperature of the coop isn’t sweltering hot.

This is an old picture. We completely secured this piece of fencing with weird screws that have washers secured to the screw head. I have no idea what they are called, but they work great. We also attached a shutter so the coop doesn’t get soaked when it rains. I can easily run out and shut it within a minute or two and when we get strong winds, I shut it and make sure they are not being battered by the wind.

Originally I repurposed an old wooden ladder as roosts because the flock was still small. Now they are much bigger and they fight a lot over who gets to roost on top or on the paint can shelf of the ladder. Our solution is to take “L” shaped shelf brackets and use planks of wood we already have and have everyone roosting at the same height. No more fights about who is up higher.

These fights resulted in poor Chicken little ending up with a blood caked comb.

It scared me until I took a closer look and realized it was blood and dirt. Much to his dismay, I took him inside and gently cleaned him up with some warm water and a bunch of q-tips. I then applied Vetericyn (no purple dye), which is a first aid spray. (I sprayed it on a cotton round, not directly on him.) He’s all healed up now, but one injury is too many.

I have learned a lot about chicken first aid and like the Vetericyn spray much better because it doesn’t contain dye and it’s safer than Blu-kote from what I understand. I am not an expert by any means, but I do prefer to NOT have purple chickens.

He still crows a lot and still sounds rather ridiculous. I know when the UPS truck pulls in, I know when the garbage men come, I know when FedEx comes, I even know when the neighbor’s dog comes to pee all over our yard. He greets me and hubby every time we are outside. I know if I hear him crowing, something is going on outside and I peek outside to check on them. He is still snuggly and still adorable. I love them all.

Until next time….

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The Random Things Hubby Brings Me…

Our Anniversary happened earlier this month and it’s not really a big deal to us because we buy each other random things year round for absolutely no reason. We were going to go get my chicks on our Anniversary, but the local supplier for Oklahoma went out of business so, no one had chicks in Oklahoma on our Anniversary. We also had to go to a racecar parts store in Oklahoma City, Bishop’s. Hubby had to have the car put on the dyno machine and such and I was of course completely bored for a few hours. On the way home he somehow managed to park the truck and enclosed trailer in the middle of small town Chickasha (Chickasha is a big city, but they have what I assume is old Main street and it looks like a small town.) I always thought it was a small town until he took me through the city part of Chickasha. Well there’s a seed store in Small Town Chickasha and I absolutely love it. They have everything from bulk seeds to cast iron skillets. I didn’t really need seeds since I already got those, but I grabbed a handful of packets for herbs and such. Nope, I was on a mission. I wanted bird feeders. I didn’t want just any old bird feeders, I had specifics in mind.

Last year I saw my very first live hummingbird and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I thought it was a very large bee or wasp and I’m allergic to both, deathly allergic. So, I was in a panic while drinking my coffee and looking for this giant bug. Then I saw a flash of green. I had randomly bought a tiny hummingbird feeder that only held a few ounces. The hummingbird was at the feeder. It was beautiful and looked metallic. I am determined to have even more this year. They are in love with my lilies and cannas. So, I was searching for an unbreakable hummingbird feeder.

Spring in Oklahoma is tornado season so, the wind is brutal. It is brutal year round, but especially so, in springtime. I have lost so many wind chimes to the wind. Hubby kindly rest rings them with lacing wire when I buy them now. I currently only have one because the others blew away and I couldn’t find them.

So this was what I settled on for a feeder. It’s pretty tough plastic. It cane with a piece of wire and an S hook to hang it. I laughed at that. Hubby will hang them so they don’t blow away. I bought two of these.

Then I needed a regular bird feeder since all I have is a suet holder. My other feeder slammed into the tree too many times and broke.

I settled on this one for two reasons. First, it has a metal hanger, and second, I can secure it to the tree with the perch area. (It’s already hung and survived a storm.)

Bonus feature, easy to fill.

Of course I needed bird seed… Fifty pounds of it. 😂

Grabbed some more suet blocks too.

This post was supposed to be about the random stuff he brings me though. So, let me get to that. He called and said, I have a surprise for you, tell the boy to get dressed and meet me in the driveway to help me get these out of the truck. Um… okay. So, I got the teenager out of bed and dressed. I swear my husband has radar for random things his wife will want.

I got three of these wooden sectioned boxes. He said, “I have no idea what you will use them for, but I figured you were going to be upset if I didn’t bring them home.” He had no clue what I was seeing when I squealed with excitement. I saw three raised beds already built and sectioned off. Oh but, there’s more….

Three small ones and one deep one. Seriously, he has a radar for these things. I was absolutely giddy. Now, I just need to remove the shipping stickers and paint them. If you are wondering what on Earth these are from, they are shipping containers for parts. Hubby is a diesel mechanic and the top 3 held windows so they have thick foam and lids. The bottom one held some big part for some vehicle he was working on that week. I didn’t ask specifics. I just know I need to paint them and destroy the stickers. (The stickers are gone. He brought the third small one home two days after he brought the others home.) I told him if there are ever more of these boxes, I want them. They break them down and throw them in the garbage. I will give them new life. Same goes for the burlap bags that shop rags come in, I have 4 of those, I line wire hanging baskets with it. Also, I made absolutely certain that these were heat treated only. He always says that I would be in heaven at a dump because I would dig through everything. 😂

I have a strange habit of reusing everything possible and that only started when we moved to Oklahoma. Our small town has ZERO recycling. Lawton didn’t have it either. I don’t want to fill a landfill with a bunch of recyclable things. That just irritates me and makes me sad. So, plastic containers get a new life holding parts and bits and pieces in the garage. Others have been used to hold small amounts of paint for projects. At his last job, he brought me home 30 heat treated wooden pallets, 5 blue plastic 55 gallon barrels, one white 55 gallon plastic barrel, about 10, 5 gallon buckets, which he promptly confiscated for other things, and one metal 55 gallon barrel so I had a burn barrel. It’s safer to burn yard waste like branches in a metal barrel because it has less risk of catching the whole property on fire. He worked for a garbage company working on their vehicles. He hated it with a passion because warm weather means maggots. I was happy when he fina

This, job, he doesn’t bring me much home. Random bent washers, nuts for broken bolts (wind chimes), burlap bags, and now, wooden crates. Thankfully, this job isn’t super wasteful and they actually recycle. They return plastic and metal barrels to be refilled, which makes me happy. I have no idea why they throw these shipping containers into the dumpster, but I am kind of glad they do because I will use them. They even reuse pallets. So, this is weird and I hope they fix it, but until they do, I am happy to recycle them all. As I was writing this, he called to tell me he had two more of the sectioned wooden boxes, Yay!!! I can’t wait to go get paint and soil.

Until next time…