Update: The Life of a Chicken Keeper

October 12, 2020 by James Gibbon

Over a year ago, we purchased six chickens off craigslist. They have been blessings to our lives ever since. Unfortunately we are down to four chickens due to illness and death. This is a sad reality of owning chickens or any animals. The loss of both of these chickens was really tough for our family. Especially the death of our dear and beloved Little Blackie. Little Blackie got her name from being a smaller, black chicken who had a ton of attitude, sass, and personality. She was very vocal and brought a smile to my face every time I went to feed the chickens, or give them a treat. When she got sick, I never would have imagined her dying. She was so full of life and was a true gift to our world. Sadly, the illness took over her and crippled her body. After a visit to the veterinarian, she was dead by the time we drove her back home. It was very sad.

However, Little Blackie was just one of our chickens. We still have four more chickens and they are thriving. Although their egg production has slowed down substantially due to their age, their personalities are as big as ever. These four are the highlights to my day and I can’t wait to let them out of their coop in the morning and let them in at night. Perhaps my favorite of these three chickens is Roberta. Although Roberta can be a bully from time to time, she is the last remaining Barred Rock Chicken we have. She stands alone within the flock and I admire her perseverance and dedication to the flock.

In my free time I like to give the chickens treats. Sometimes we have leftover lettuce and tomatoes from our garden, and sometimes I just give them store bought Mealworms. I think the mealworms are their favorite…

If you are considering purchasing chickens I highly recommend it. They demand a lot of attention, and can be time consuming, but if you have the time to truly love and care for them, they are worth it 100%.

Stay tuned for more chicken updates.

-JG

The joy of the garden - James Gibbon

August 03, 2020 by James Gibbon

Having a garden is one of the most fulfilling things you can do. The hard work and time put into the garden during the spring, combined with the constant watering and weeding is finally paying its dividends. As I discussed in my last post, we started to get our first cuttings of lettuce and other vegetables. Now we are starting to be overwhelmed with vegetables from our garden. The radishes, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes are in full swing and we are getting vegetables everyday from the garden. We even have a cucumber and should have more on the way! How exciting!

Summer will be over before we know it and I am doing my best to take advantage of every day out here on the farm. Whether it’s spending time in the garden, managing the chickens, or taking care of the horses - there is always something to do to keep me busy. I’m excited to see what more the garden produces and am already coming up with ideas for next year. Stay tuned for more updates!

Bluebird Mornings

April 04, 2020 by James Gibbon

One thing I love about living in Montana is the abundance of natural wildlife we have. From wild turkeys to elk and everything in between, Montana has a lot to offer. Living in Montana gives you a unique perspective on nature and allows me to become closer to the wildlife and ecosystems that support it. About a month ago, we went to our local Wild Birds Unlimited store and purchased 4 wooden blue bird boxes. We were told to hang these up in March and have them facing the East. We went around our property and hung up the boxes in various locations around our property. A few weeks went by and we saw minimal activity. But then all of sudden, the Mountain Bluebirds started to appear! The gorgeous blue birds were all around our nesting boxes and we couldn’t be more excited. All of the work was finally starting to pay off. In fact, just the other morning as I was on my way to take care of our chickens, I spotted this bluebird at our garden nesting box. Below are some pictures for you to enjoy!

blue bird (garden nesting box) - James Gibbon

Winter Microgreens w/ James Gibbon

January 22, 2020 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon grows micro greens!

Growing micro greens is a lot of fun. If you haven’t grown your own micro greens, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Here is a quick summary of how we started growing micro greens in our house.

We first bought a rack. We got ours from Costco - https://www.costco.com , but I’m sure there are plenty of viable options out there. Once we had the rack built and complete, we started loading up some seedlings and micro greens. Methodically we have each row on the rack dedicated to different steps in the growing phase. Much like us all, it all starts at the bottom. This is the row dedicated to heating and germinating the seedlings. Once the seedling 🌱 germinates, we then move it up one row to the grow lights - https://www.homedepot.com/b/Grow-Lights/N-5yc1vZ1z0sawz . This is where the majority of the seedlings 🌱 growth takes place. Above these rows are additional grow lights, space for domes, and space for miscellaneous.

As you can see, we got our seeds from https://www.johnnyseeds.com/ . Once you have your system in place, all there is left to do is add soil, seeds. and water!

Raised Garden Beds w/ James Gibbon

January 01, 2020 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon believes that it is never too early to start planning the garden for next year. As you know, our garden last year was rushed together and unfortunately we didn’t have enough time in the summer to make it exactly what we wanted. I plan on changing this. One of the things we really wanted to incorporate into the garden is a group of raised beds. Instead of buying expensive raised beds from a garden center, we chose to build them ourselves. Mind you, I am no carpenter, so this was a bit of a stretch for my skills. Nonetheless, we persevered. It all started with a trip to Home Depot - https://www.homedepot.com/ .

Here is what we bought:

Using these materials, along with a little common sense we were able to piece together the raised bed boxes. Below are some images of our finished products!

After completing our 3 boxes, it was time to place them in our garden area. We wanted to place cardboard in the raised beds over the winter to help kill off the grass, and prep our soil for the summer. We took some old cardboard boxes and flattened them out to fill the raised beds. This is what we ended up with!

James Gibbon | Update on Bea Hein

December 28, 2019 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon here! It’s been a while since I last updated everyone on Bea Hein, our chicken. Since the last time I wrote about her, she has gotten much healthier and is doing much better. Mostly thanks to Scratch and Peck’s supplements. For those of you that don’t remember, Bea Hein is one of our chickens who was constantly being pecked on by the other chickens. She lost all of her tail feathers and was badly bleeding. We had to separate her from the rest of the flock, ail her wounds, and provide her proper nutrition to recover.

Here are some pictures of her now and how she is doing. I’m very proud of her recovery and excited to share these photos with all of you. Although she is not back to 100%, she is much farther along than she was and I’m very optimistic about her full recovery. On top of all this, she finally started laying eggs and it’s great to see her body in full swing!

How to Build a Compost Bin with Uncle Jim's Worms

November 22, 2019 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon has got worms! Never have I been more excited to say that phrase! 😂 - but really…I’ve got worms 🐛and I’m loving them. Vermiposting has always been something I have been interested in and I started to do a lot of research online about creating our own vermicomposting ecosystem. I’m going to walk you through my process of building the worm 🐛compost bin and hopefully this helps guide others who are looking to do the same.

First, you got to order some worms 🐛. I ordered mine from https://unclejimswormfarm.com/ who specializes in Red Wigglers for composting in a worm bin. We purchased 1000 Red Wigglers and received them in 3 days and it was a really great customer experience. These 3 days allowed us time to build our worm bin.

In order to build a worm bin you need:

(1) Plastic Bin - https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-45-Gal-170-L-Wheeled-Latch-Tote-Stadium-Blue-Case-of-4/44785816

Electric drill - https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-20-Volt-Max-1-2-in-Brushless-Cordless-Drill-Charger-Included/1000135807?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-tol-_-google-_-lia-_-129-_-cordlessdrillsandcombokits-_-1000135807-_-0&store_code=2608&placeholder=null&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3vHG4Lap5gIVENtkCh02wwk1EAQYBiABEgLiS_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Cardboard - https://www.dickblick.com/products/utrecht-corrugated-cardboard/?clickTracking=true&wmcp=pla&wmcid=items&wmckw=13900-3040&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6d-OtLep5gIVfCCtBh3ewgBbEAkYASABEgLef_D_BwE,

Newspaper - https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-14640/Newsprint-Paper/Newsprint-Sheets-20-x-30?pricode=WB0760&gadtype=pla&id=S-14640&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs--fo7ip5gIV8SCtBh2VHA14EAkYASABEgIgv_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Brown paper bags - https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Brown-Paper-Bags-Merchandise/dp/B07SRLBMMC/ref=asc_df_B07SRLBMMC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=385191959882&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2543179368326282102&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1020859&hvtargid=pla-835439303258&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=78792189975&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=385191959882&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2543179368326282102&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1020859&hvtargid=pla-835439303258

Organic soil - https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/hydroponic-gardening/hydroponic-gardening-supplies/7299795?x429=true&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&&cid=CAPLA:G:Shopping_-_Hydroponics_&_Accessories&k_clickid=351b927c-f458-40d6-9c94-b1d459ca124c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzo7p0bip5gIVMRh9Ch1eBQt-EAkYAiABEgKj4vD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

The first thing you are going to want to do is cut holes into the plastic bin to give the worms’ oxygen.

Once these holes have been drilled into the tub, you can begin filling the bin with food and a home for the worms. Start by placing brown cardboard on the bottom of the worm bin. Next, tear up brown paper bags into strips and spray with water. After the bags, begin to tear newspaper into strips and place on top of the brown paper bags. Use water to spray these down as well. Finally, add the organic soil and your worm home is complete!

Just add worms! 🐛 - We added our 1000 red wigglers and our vermicompost bin is complete!

Once the worms are settled into their new home 🏠, which takes a few days - you can begin to feed the worms additional food. So far I have given our worms banana peels, apples, corn meal, and more. I’m curious to learn what you have given your worms to compost? Comment below and tell us what your worms enjoy the most!

James Gibbon | Injured Hen | Managing the Flock

November 12, 2019 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon | When we bought chickens 🐓 this summer, we had no idea what we were getting into. We had no prior knowledge on chickens 🐔 and we have relied heavily on websites such as https://www.mypetchicken.com/, https://thefrugalchicken.com/, https://www.fresheggsdaily.com/, https://www.communitychickens.com/, and https://the-chicken-chick.com/ to get us through this process and keep the majority of our birds alive. We lost one of our birds due to disease, and the only other issue we were having was one of our hens was bullying one of our other hens.

This bullying started the first day we got the birds and it has continued ever since. The birds peck her tail feathers until she has none left. This had been going on for months and we started to notice Bea Hein (the bird without tail feathers) starting to lose weight. Immediately we realized that Bea Hein was lowest in the literal “pecking order” and we needed to do something about it. So we started giving her separate food and she was beginning to do better and gain some weight.

Then the unexpected happened. I opened the coop to find Bea Hein with blood on her foot. I was bummed to see her with blood on her foot, but didn’t think it was a big deal and figured her small cut would heal on its own. Man, was I wrong!!! It turns out chickens are attracted to blood and start attacking where the blood is - which I had no idea was even a thing! The next day I opened the coop to find Bea Hein covered in blood on her feet and tail.

After a couple google searches on https://www.backyardchickens.com , it became obvious that we needed to separate Bea Hein from the rest of the flock. So this is exactly what we did. We found an old dog 🐶cage and cleared out the greenhouse. The greenhouse would now become our second chicken coop. We got some straw and lined the dog cage with it.

We also cleared out the area around the greenhouse so she could roam throughout the day. Here she is nestled into some high grass outside the greenhouse.

Only after a few days of her being separated from the flock she is already looking 10x better. Unfortunately there are no guarantees her tail feathers will ever grow back, but she is looking much healthier. Her blood is gone since we cleaned her off with antiseptic (https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=d2f0533e-d65a-4532-ba27-0591a67c25d8&sfb=1&itemguid=30e08b64-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&utm_content=12265&ccd=IFM003&CAWELAID=120295250000089876&CATARGETID=120295250000473147&cadevice=c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7sHLqr6p5gIVKRitBh32wQ_aEAkYBiABEgIQ9PD_BwE). She is gaining weight and we are really excited about her return to the rest of the flock in the coming weeks!

James Gibbon - A Radish Experience

October 09, 2019 by James Gibbon in james gibbon

A little under 2 months ago, with winter right around the corner, we decided to start a small garden and grow 🌱 as many vegetables as we could in the limited amount of time we had. James Gibbon went to the store and purchased onions, lettuce, carrots 🥕 , cabbage, bok choy, and some various different types of radishes. During our garden experiment, there was one vegetable that ruled them all - the radish. Why do you ask? The radish is one of the fastest growing edible vegetables 🌱. In as little as 30 days, an edible radish can be grown from seed. I think this is pretty incredible and certainly makes growing this vegetable a lot of fun. Our radishes took longer than 30 days to grow due to our late season planting, but they still grew incredible quickly.

Our radish journey began by planting the seeds. A vital step where we made a few major errors that drastically impacted our production. I can’t stress enough how important it is to plant the seeds ATLEAST 1 inch apart from each other. We were in a hurry to get the seeds planted and crowded the seeds which hindered the growth of the radishes and caused some radishes to only grow leaves. Once we had the seeds planted it was time to water the garden a couple times a day. As the weather became increasingly cooler, we covered the radishes with plastic to help provide warmth.

The radishes continued to grow and I took pictures of their progress as seen above and below.

After 30 days, things started to get really interesting. Our French Breakfast radishes started to become visible above ground and this is when I knew we were close to being ready to harvest. However, some of the bulbs were still really small and I wanted to wait as long as we could to get the best radishes possible. Mother nature had plans of her own on when we would pull the radishes and when the weather reported 20 degree weather in October, I knew we needed to pull our radishes before the freeze. This is what we got!

We had a really successful harvest and we were overwhelmed with gratitude. To be able to build a garden, grow vegetables, and harvest them in under 50 days was a really RAD experience. I hope you enjoyed hearing our radish story and please comment below!