It’s spring! In typical springtime fashion, temperatures are about freezing this morning, but we should have a high of 64 today. As the weather warms up, our outdoor chore list is exploding. We have so many exciting things to do, and finally the weather is nice enough to do them! Here are the adventures from the last week:
New Hen Roosts
We needed more roosting space for our laying hens, so on Saturday afternoon we threw these together with scrap wood we had on hand.
Each roost is 4′ long and about 20″ wide. The doorway to our hen hoophouses is 24″ wide, so we made sure the roosts were narrow enough to fit through. One roost is 18″ high, the other 24″. Those heights were dictated by the lengths of the scrap wood, and both work just fine.
The frame pieces are 1x4s or 2x4s for strength. The roosts are 1x2s to make the roosts as light as possible. We rotate our hens and their houses a few times/year based on where we need them, so portability is nice.
Storm the goat was very interested in the new roosts when we moved them in the hen house!
Pink Pigs the Destroyers
The pink pigs are making it really easy to take them to the processor. This week they knocked over their barrel waterer, moved all of the cinder blocks it was sitting on, and crawled inside it. I don’t know how they moved those cinder blocks, which were pretty stuck in the mud. You can see in the photo how the barrel’s tied to that t-post. There were more strands of twine attaching it, which the pigs easily broke.
To fix the waterer, I replaced the cinder blocks, reset the barrel on them, and pounded in four more t-posts around the barrel. Well, first I pounded in two more t-posts, so there were 3 total. Before I could fill the barrel, the pigs had knocked it on its side again, but at least it was on top of the cinder blocks and not completely moved. I uprighted the barrel again, and added another two t-posts. I’m hoping that’s enough to keep it upright! The barrel has been filled, and it’s still standing about 18 hours later. Let’s hope it stays that way!
While these pigs may be trouble, they’ll make delicious pork. Order your hog share now if you haven’t already.
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