Our four chicks have been in a cat carrier cage for the first 10 days of their lives. They grow like crazy and it was soon time to move them to a bigger home.
I made up a 1500 x 900 x 600mm (5′ x 3′ x 2′) frame out of some 50 x 50mm (2″ x 2″) timber and covered the sides and top in chicken mesh. We placed it in our basement on a cardboard and plastic floor (cardboard for insulation).
Have you ever tried to get four baby chicks to pose?
We ended up getting four chicks from the eggs we purchased.
We purchased 12 eggs, here are the stats: (more…)
We’ve been incubating some eggs since the 28th August. The first egg hatched right on schedule (day 21) yesterday.
The egg "Pipped" about 1pm on day 21
We picked up some eggs on Sunday the 28th August and put them in our home made incubator. I took a one wire temperature sensor and connected it to an AVR micro controller and a solid state relay. It simply turns a 40 watt light bulb on and off as required to maintain a consistent 37.5 degrees Centigrade.
As for turning the eggs, we’ve got the eggs supported in a cardboad egg tray and we’re just tilting the entire incubator with a wedge of firewood.
We’re trying to turn them five times a day at 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm. An odd number of turns means they’re not on the same side two nights in a row.
The eggs are due to hatch on the 18th September.
I’ve been interested in KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) for quite some time, but only ever tried it once (unsuccessfully) in the UK.
I picked up a Giant Delta Conyne kite at the Bristol Kite Festival (in the UK) a few years back and never really had the chance to fly it with a payload.
The Kite is huge - it's got a 2.7m (9 foot) wing span
I finally bit the bullet and brought some Pekabe pulleys for a picavet. Pekabe pulleys are the holy grail for KAP. They’re made for model yachts, are very small, light and smooth. They’re also expensive – I ended up paying US$93 for the pulleys (4 x Pekabe 515 single pulleys and 2 x Pekabe 525 double pulleys). (more…)
We picked up some hens on the weekend, the first of our farm animals (we only had a cat up until now) – does that mean we’re farmers now?
We’ve got some Black Australorp Eggs in the incubator, but it’ll be around February 2012 when they are ready to Lay (provided they’re not all Roosters), so we picked up three Hens which are already laying – It was a random mix, two Anconas and a black Bantam.
Over the weekend I managed to line the Hens end of the Hen house. This was done for a number of reasons, mainly that the building is clad with treated plywood and it’s best for the Hens to not be in direct contact with it. I also did it because I didn’t want the Hens pecking at the steel framing and to make it a bit easier to clean.
I’ve installed a sacrificial plywood floor. This is on top of the treated 19mm plywood floor – Hopefully if this floor fails, I can replace it easily.
We’ve created four nesting boxes and installed two perches – all out of untreated pine.
Check out the funky door locks
I managed to finish the eaves on the hen house over the weekend and fitted the doors and their hinges.
The latches for the doors are pretty simple, they’re just a cam made out of ply which you turn to lock the door. They seem reliable, but I can imagine the screws holding them getting tight, or the bits of ply expanding in the wet, so it’s not an ideal long term solution.
Doors fitted
After a bit of bad weather, I managed to get the roof and external cladding onto the Hen House.
The roof frame was too heavy for me to lift by myself, so I had a friend come over and help. We quickly got the roof frame on and the corrugated iron attached.
Roof attached and now starting on the walls
I managed to get some work completed on the Hen House over the weekend.
I got the floor frame onto the posts and screwed in position. The floor was very heavy as it’s made out of 1.6mm thick high tensile steel – Absolute overkill for the project, but at least it should last!
Floor frame in place
Matching 3D render
