Welcoming the light

Although I love Christmas, when I give free rein to my inner magpie, at this time of year my energy is always at a low point. The short days, too often cloudy, sap my energy and keep me inside for far too much of the time. It seems like my only moments outside are brief forays to other buildings on campus or to and from the car, and weekends never have enough room in them to spend all the time I want outside.

But last Saturday we celebrated the return of the light here at Henbogle, inviting a few friends over for good company, good food and a Solstice fire. Each guest had a spring of evergreen to throw on the fire if so desired, and after the blaze died down we warmed ourselves with some delicious homemade eggnog, courtesy of the Henbogle girls. We certainly enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I hope our friends did, too.

The promise of lengthening days and a fresh new year are energizing, as is having some time off together here at home. Dan and I have spent quite a bit of time clearing the clutter, weeding the bookshelves, reorganizing our files (aka giant piles of paper) and puttering about. We've both had colds, so the desperately-needed cleaning of the barn hasn't happened, but it will, as a February vacation project looms.

We visit the girls daily for bonus midday treats, (frozen pumpkin, breadcrumbs, leftover green beans, yum!) and took advantage of a warm day to clean out Henbogle Coop and put in fresh bedding (that's Pippi checking things out). A recent winter rainstorm had exposed a few blades of grass which the girls greeted with enthusiasm. The snow dome is working out remarkably well, now that the girls have overcome their fear of the snow.

A big pile of gardening catalogs awaits my attention, and with the promise of snow for the next few days, I am sure to have time to start planning for spring as the light increases. And of course, there are a few birthdays ahead to look forward too as well. Happy new year, everyone!


Henbogle Eggnog

12 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
2 c gold rum
1 c apricot brandy
3 pints milk
1 pint heavy cream
Nutmeg

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until thick. Slowly stir in the rum, apricot brandy, milk and cream. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and pour into a punch bowl. Beat the egg whites until stiff and and fold gently into the eggnog. Grate fresh nutmeg on top to taste

A moveable coop

In addition to all the chores listed below, today we moved Henbogle coop closer to the house. When we built the chicken coop, we imagined our backyard biddies would be relocated every winter, much closer to the house, to make it easier to care for them, heat the water, etc. We added small wheels and had fantasies of blithely trundling the coop hither and yon throughout the seasons, giving the girls fresh grass and a change of scenery.

Well, were we in for a change of tune. Our cadillac of coops weighs a ton. In future, we will be be sure to remember that coop housing doesn't require the same standards as home construction. Those puny little wheels did allow us to get it to the designated location, but it was a challenge. Still, we thought in the fall we'd move it closer, but didn't take into account a soggy fall, with the ground too wet to haul a chicken coop across it. So it stayed at the end of the vegetable garden, until today.

From our old dead lawnmower, Dan salvaged some larger wheels, and this morning attached them, and a 2x4 for a handle, and we moved the coop about 20 feelt closer to the house. Not that much closer, but every little bit counts (in the photos, the coop used to be just behind the back fence post of the vegetable garden). Once we had it in position, we put it up on blocks, and removed the 2x4 handle. She's good to go for the winter.

In addition to the coop we also put away all the deck furniture, brought out our old wooden sleds and skis as Christmas decor, put the riding lawn mower away for the winter, and weighted down our cardboard with branches. More on that later.

A wee little egg

There's another hen in the coop! (I think it is Pippi but can't say for sure.)

Dan came home from work Friday and found this cute little egg, seen here next to an egg from Sophie and an egg from one of the experienced hens. This egg is much tinier than even Sophie's first egg, which was smaller than Hyacinth's first egg. I think now that Ayla is the only one who has yet to lay an egg, she's a late bloomer that one! Maybe she's waiting for a cute rooster name Jondalar....

The girls are getting along better these days. All 8 are roosting together, there seems to be less harassment from Iris and Hyacinth over treats, and the new girls are becoming more savvy. This morning from the breakfast window I saw a hawk after a delicious meal of tender free-range chicken. I ran out and startled the hawk, which at first settled on a nearby tree, then flew begrudgingly off as I approached. Six of the hens were hiding in the shrubbery, and Iris and Poppy were in the coop. They are learning how and where to hide. I'm glad I chased the hawk off, though, he can find some other food-source than my girls, and maybe he'll give up if he continues to be unsuccessful.

Not much other news here at Henbogle. It was a super busy week at work with a lecture by Madeleine Albright on Thursday, and another big panel discussion looming on Monday on a hot development topic here in Maine. I've also been getting ready for a trip to Massachusetts for my best friend Holly's wedding next Saturday. I am working on a longer post about the new garden bed and a review of the flower gardens, when I get to it.

Wild chickens

After crowing about our success in finally integrating the new chicks with the old, we have a few strange behaviors cropping up.

Roaming in the vegetable garden, the old hens have begun laying their eggs amidst the remaining plants, mostly herbs at this point since we had a killing frost on Tuesday night. Whichever new chick(s) is laying (2 eggs now) is using the nest boxes.

And to top off this weird behavior, now the old chickens have taken to sleeping in the rough in the vegetable garden. Last night three of them were in there, with Iris (Iris!) happily roosting with the new chicks.

How weird is that?!

One of these eggs is not like the others...

It's smaller!

One of the new chicks laid an egg! Was it Dorothy, Pippi, Sophie, or Ayla? Based on her behavior of late, I think it was Sophie.

Over the past 2 weeks, we successfully integrated old and new chicks. We began by removing the fence that divided the chicken run in half. Iris and Hyacinth occasionally harassed the new chicks, but the little chicks had plenty of escape routes and spots to hide, so only a few squawks ensued.

At night the little chicks were secured in their baby pen. After two weeks of this, it was time to complete the integration process, so one night after dark, when all the chickens were sleepy and roosting, we removed the little chicks from their pen, and placed them in Henbogle coop. A few squawks were heard, but not many, and the next morning, there appeared to be little in the way of physical damage to the little chicks.

After 2 nights of the midnight transfers, we closed off the little coop, and at dusk, we went out to make sure they were in Henbogle Coop, and they were. The first few nights the little chicks huddled together in the nest boxes, but now seem to be making themselves comfortable on the roost. We managed the transition just in time, I'm sure more eggs will soon be following.

Building the chicken coop part 2

Saturday we finished the majority of the framing, installed the nest boxes, covered the window opening with hardware cloth, and put on the main fixed roof. We covered the roof with roofing asphalt, and will eventually roof it with the stainless steel sheet metal discussed in an earlier post (A real old-time Mainer).

Here's Hyacinth enjoying her new nest boxes.

The next step is to install the roof section over the nest boxes, which will lift open for egg retrieval and food and water maintenance. After that, we will be ready to put on the siding and build the clean-out and chicken entrance doors, and add the wheels. We'll keep it near the house until the girls are living in it and are old enough to move away from home, then we'll move it to the summer location by the garden.

The forecast today is calling for rain later on, so I'm planning on planting more spinach, lettuce, and radishes in the garden. I don't think we'll get much construction done today. Tomorrow it is back to work for both of us, so today we have to take care of the more mundane chores, such as providing sustenance for the week ahead.

Building the chicken coop (aka Henbogle House)

Today construction on the chicken coop began in earnest. This thing is WAY over-engineered, we've spent a few hours surfing the web for ideas, more than a few dinners planning it, and the result is the brick house of chicken coops, solid as a rock and twice as heavy. It's going to be on wheels, but we'll need a team of ponies to haul it.

We made it fairly small, 4'x5' and low-roofed, as we want our few chickens to be able to stay warm in it during the winter. Part of the roof will lift up for egg collection and food and water maintenance, and there will be a side door for clean-out purposes.

We used our new deck as a construction area, and we brought the compound miter saw out and set it on the truck tailgate, which makes construction a lot easier. Today we completed the floor and the framing of the front and back walls.

We don't want to have to heat the coop so we decided to insulate the floor using foam insulation left over from some project (or maybe it came with the house, I don't recall). We covered the bottom in asphalt roofing paper, and then covered the entire base with hardware cloth to keep rodents and other unwanted critters out.

Framing the antique daylight window and the front door was a bit tricky, but it is going to look so cute when it is done.

A real old-time Mainer

Recently pricing out lumber for the chicken palace, we experienced sticker shock, so decided we would be looking for ways to reduce start-up costs for the operation. We placed an ad looking for metal roofing in Uncle Henry's classified ad magazine (a reading must here in Maine).

Well, we got a call that someone in Newcastle had some stainless steel roofing.... hmmm, I thought, stainless steel? Still, it was the only call we got, so off we went. Our salesman was quite the entrepeneur. It seems he's been working on an expansion of the local grocery store, and had been expertly salvaging materials. I love this -- why let perfectly good materials head off to the biomass energy recovery plant (i.e. incinerator) when you can use them at home? This is old-time Maine at its best, thriftily re-using readily available materials in clever ways. Why buy new when free is available?

It seems the stainless steel sheet metal was from the produce coolers, which had been dismantled. Thick pieces of styrofoam insulation were also available for sale. Our salesman was busily constructing himself a splendid new boat shed with lumber remnants. For $10, we came home with 2 large pieces of stainless steel. Our chickens will be living in style, they may not need stainless steel kitchen appliances, but they'll have the stainless look anyway with their roof gleaming in the sun.