Lilac Hill Homestead

Located at 1527 Frisbee Hill Road in Castleton. Please use http://mapquest.com for directions.

Animals & Poultry

Scroll all the way down to see our latest entries. Newest entries are at the END of the page.

Take a look at the animals we have on our homestead. We do plan on adding more as we learn and become more confident in what we're doing.

Building the poultry coop:

09/10/06: We are expecting our chickens in about a month so we're trying to get the chicken coop done. We're novices at building but we're getting there. The front will have a window & door.  There will be a flat roof & there will be a run enclosed on all four sides to help keep out predators.  I need to build the roost inside and a nesting box.  We'll also put hay around the perimeter of the coop inside to help insulate it from the cold weather.

10/01/06: Today I mostly worked on the chicken coop with Jane! Yeah Jane!  We got the roof on it now.  I need to caulk it and we need to get the last side up & make the run & then the chickens can come live with us! We are going to divide the chicken coop down the middle with chicken wire so that in the spring I can add in four khaki campbell ducks.

Well we found someone with Khaki Campbell Ducks ready to go right now so we decided to get them now instead of waiting until spring time.

10/16/06: Well our chickens and ducks are in and appear to be happy in their new homes. We have six khaki campbell ducks (2 drakes and 4 hens); 3 Rhode Island Red chickens (1 rooster and 2 hens); and 2 Leghorns (2 hens).  We are probably going to be adding 2 more Rhode Island Red hens in the next few days as well.  We need to do a bit more work on the pen walls and put a cover over part of the top. 

10/18/06: The ducks and chickens seem to be settling in nicely. We still have a bit more work to do on the pen so they are only spending about an hour or so outside each day while I can "supervise" them. We're getting about 3 to 4 eggs a day total which is not bad considering the time of year it is. Also the two Leghorns are only pullets (6 mo) so their laying schedule is sporadic still. The ducks are probably about done laying until spring. If I get one duck egg (4 hens) a day I am lucky.

     

10/18/06 addendum:  We have added two new animals to our homestead.  We added two guinea pigs! We have one male and one female. Both are grey & white. One long hair and one short hair (female). We hope to breed them & sell the puppies. We've named them Licorice (female) and Horehound (male). I believe that the female (left picture) is an American Broken.

10/20/06: Well I have seen the Leghorn hen on the chicken coop twice so far so her wings need to be clipped. She got out this morning and Marty had to chase her around the front yard to get her back in the run. Of course it was pouring at the time and cold. So Marty held the Leghorn hens and I clipped both their wings. Turned out pretty well I think and they have not been on the coop all day since then thankfully.

10/23/06:  This is Jelly Bean. He's a Netherland Dwarf Silver Martin rabbit.  We're considering getting a few does to breed next year.  First we have to build more hutches.

10/25/06: Today I worked on putting up some more of the wire fencing for the ducks & chickens. I need to find some heavy work gloves if I am going to keep working with wire.

10/28/06: We had quite the rain & wind storm last night. I woke up several times certain that the wind was going to knock the coop down but thank heaven it is still standing this morning. The wind did toss the tarp around quite a bit and I'm sure the hay inside is wet.  I'll toss down a new layer of dry hay on top of it and then clean it out on Monday and replace it all with dry hay. It's supposed to be rainy, snowy and very windy all weekend.

10/28/06 Update: I went out to inspect the damage and everything seems fine.  I tossed the ducks some dry hay. They like to dump over their water dish.  The chickens seemed happy and dry so I tossed them a bit of dry hay too and fed everyone and adjusted the tarp. Got 3 eggs this morning so they are slowing up a bit.  I think everyone is going to stay inside the coop today. It's still really windy and pouring.  I have visions of a tree coming down in the middle of the run and all the birds flying away.

11/10/06: I finally got the 2nd level of wire up on the coop. All that needs to be done now is to put the chicken wire over the top. I need an extra person for that to help me.

11/10/06: Year end update - We did pretty well this year with the animals.  We built the chicken coop & got 5 chickens and 6 ducks.  Right now we get between 3 and 5 eggs each day.  I imagine that will pick up a bit in the spring/summer of 2007.  I have 1 official customer and my parents buy their eggs from us as well although I'd gladly just give them to my parents, they insist on buying them.

The guinea pigs turned out to not be the greatest of homesteading ideas LOL.  Turns out the female is too old to safely breed so they have turned into pets which is OK by me. They are the cutest things anyway and maybe some day we will get a younger female and try breeding.

For 2007, we are tossing around a number of ideas.  We'll continue with the ducks & chickens obviously.  We're also thinking about building some more rabbit hutches and getting a few Netherland Dwarf Silver Marten does to breed off Jelly Bean.  We've also considered getting some turkey pullets in the spring of 2008 and raising them to sell for Thanksgiving.   A lot will depend on what materials we can find for free  on Freecycle because we will need to build pens/coops and/or hutches so I imagine that 2007 will be a building year for us.

11/24/2006: I just happened to take a look out the window & noticed our chickens were wandering around in the woods at the edge of the yard. They are supposed to be in the coop. So I grabbed my coat & shoes & a loaf of bread and ran outside screaming Marty the chickens are loose! (he's asleep - works 3rd shift).  I managed to get Jason back into the coop by bribing him with bits of bread but Ginger & Little Red wanted nothing to do with it. They were happy foraging in the woods. I tried to corner them against the wire of the coop so I could grab them but I just kept chasing them around the coop. Thankfully Marty got outside then & between the two of us, my jacket, bread and much chasing, we managed to get the two last hens back in the coop. We just about fell over laughing at that point. The neighbors must have thought we had lost our minds.  It appears that the door to the duck coop which we usually latch against the door into the coop had swung loose.  That wouldn't have been that bad since the door to the coop was also latched but it looks like the latch broke so the door swung free & they just wandered outside.  The ducks showed no interest in going outside. They were happy playing in the water and the two other hens got stuck in the coop when the first door swung closed or we probably would have had more loose.  I just praise God Marty was home or I would have been chasing chickens around the yard all day.

12/30/06: Our first real snow of the year.  It doesn't seem to bother the ducks at all. The chickens haven't been outside much today though.

02/27/07:  The ducks & chickens seem to be doing well through the winter.  I can see we have some repairs to do come spring.  The duck coop door is broken & needs to be fixed.  We need to find some easier system for latching the outside door too. Right now it is awkward and hard to do.  One of the white Leghorns (I think Ginger)  was acting odd today and Little Red & Cinnamon (our Rhode Island Red hens) were pecking at her head.  Her comb? is gone and she is moulting.  I don't know if this is some kind of dominance chicken pecking order thing or what.  I checked on her earlier and they seem to have stopped bothering her so we'll see how she is in the morning.  I know the time will come when we loose one but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

03/05/07: Well this morning we found one of our white Leghorns pecked to death in the coop.  I have no idea why the RIRs decided to do that. They have adequate food, water, room, etc.  She was moulting so maybe they decided that was reason enough. This is our first loss. I knew it would come eventually but it doesn't make it any easier.  We are down to only two laying birds now since I believe Little Red is no longer laying.  I'll have to get one or two chickens this spring once the snow is gone.

03/11/07: Our egg production is way down. The ducks still aren't laying. I'm assuming they will as it warms up.  We are in the 30s during the day now but still below freezing at night.  The one remaining leghorn chicken is laying and one of our Rhode Island red chickens is laying. I think the other RIR is past egg laying time.  We'll need to get two new layers this spring to get our production back up again.

03/12/07: We clipped the chickens wings again today.  The ducks show no inclination to fly but the chickens do occasionally so it's best to be safe. It's getting easier for me to clip them. Marty catches them and holds them & I do the clipping. I still cannot manage to catch the chickens and hold them.  The RIRs don't mind being held really but the Leghorn squawks like the world is ending.

04/08/07: The ducks are laying again! Spring must be coming!

04/20/07:  We've been having some warm weather here so I decided today was the day I needed to shovel out the duck coop. It's been sitting all winter (deep litter method) because it's been frozen. Now it's defrosted.

So.... armed with a shovel and a wheel barrow I headed out to the duck coop.  After a few attempts at shoveling out the hay/glop, I decided that would not work.  So I grabbed a hoe since we don't own a garden rake for some reason.  After trying to use the hoe, I gave up. 

I headed into the house for my disposable gloves.  Then I got into the duck coop & just started dragging out dirty hay and flinging it out into the coop. Then I flung it from the coop into the wheel barrow.  After about 6 wheel barrow trips, I was 95% done.  I dumped 3 or 4 loads into what will be our garden as soon as it is rototilled.  The other loads went into the compost/stick/junk pile back in the woods.

I can honestly say that sitting in that duck coop hauling out handfuls of nasy hay was by far the most disgusting job I have ever done in my life. It smelled AWFUL.  There were bugs too. Have I mentioned I really dislike bugs?

I threw down some nice fresh hay for them to sleep on tonight.  All the windows & doors are open so hopefully it will dry out nicely.  I still need to do the chicken coop. I need to wait a few days though. I am sore in places I didn't know I had.

The only thing that kept me working when I wanted to stop was Tenzi and everything that she does.  Thank you Tenzi for the inspiration!

04/24/07:  Another nice day today so I decided to shovel out the bunny poop under the bunny cage.  I shoveled it all out & then spread it on the soon to be garden.  I put a pretty weathered garden bench in front of the bunny cage.  Thank you Jane & Annie for the bench!  In another month or so I will plant some pretty flowers in buckets & set them on the bench.

06/11/07:  Today we added two black sex link hens to our hen coop.  They appear to be adjusting well and the new pecking order is being established.  It always bothers me when they peck at each other. I know it's just a normal part of life but it's still hard to watch. I'll try to add pictures of them soon. They are gorgeous black chickens that are a year old.

06/22/07:  Here are the new chicken pictures. While I was out taking pictures of the tree that fell (check out our miscellaneous page), I took one of the chickens.

07/12/07:  One of our female ducks got sick and passed away.  It looks like she was egg bound and stopped eating. We were all heart broken over it.

07/22/07:  Here's a little update.  It looks like Thyme had a bacterial infection.  Shortly after she passed away, Rosemary came down with it & was quarantined & given antibiotic and calcium. She made a remarkable recovery.  A few days later McKenzie came down with it & we thought we lost him but he's doing great now.  The whole flock is on antibiotics now and has been for 4 or 5 days.  Today Lynette came over and we cleaned out, scrubbed and disinfected/bleached the whole coop and all their bowls, etc.  Everybody has fresh clean hay & a nice sparkly *almost* coop.  We added some *hopefully* duckproof plants so that they'll aid with water drainage.  We'll keep up the antibiotics for 2 more weeks to make sure that everyone stays healthy.

The good news is that we are being given two geese!  We are going to start on a coop for them tomorrow.  Once it is built and they are full sized, we will move the ducks into the goose coop & let them share a coop and pen area.  We'll divide the pen so the chickens are on one half and have their own coop and eventually add a few more chickens.

07/28/07:  Welcome to Victoria & Aaron/Erin!  Victoria is 5 weeks old (white) and is female.  Aaron/Erin is 3 weeks old and we are not sure of its gender.  No idea what type of geese they are. I know they aren't chinese because there is no knob on their head.  I'm thinking Embden maybe? The coop has a floor & two walls now. Hopefully we'll have it completely built soon.

01/14/08:  Tory & Aaron have settled in fairly well I think.  I have no idea if Tory and Aaron are boys or girls. As of yet they show no interest in any type of mating/egg laying.  Tory is certainly the most aggressive of the two and will bite you if you let her.  She is much happier wandering in the back yard but I don't like to do that with all the snow.  We managed to contain the bacterial infection the ducks had so we only lost one.  Poor Thyme is gone but we have the rest thank heaven. I know now to bleach the whole thing regularly during the warmer weather to kill bacteria. The chickens are still hanging in there and we are still getting lots of eggs. We've added one more guinea pig (Rusty) as a pet but other than that and our new hermit crabs & tree frog, I don't think we'll be adding more animals soon. I have huge dreams of pigs & goats but to be honest I don't have the time to care for them.

02/14/08:  The coops will need some repairs this spring. The build up of ice and snow under the doors has warped them.   The goose coop will also need to have another window put in for cross circulation.

04/06/08:  Well the weather is warming up slowly.  I cleaned out the chicken and duck coops & threw down fresh hay.  Muscles get lazy over the long winter!  I still need to do the goose coop but will need Marty to keep Tory & Erin out of the way.

04/28/08:  We did some repairs on the duck coop by fixing the doors.  The racoon(s) is back and got into our feed last night.  We need to do a bit more work to make things tight but it will have to wait until the rain is gone.

06/09/08:  Well still no eggs from Tory or Aaron (our geese). Not sure if we ended up with two males or two slow females or what? I keep hoping.  In the mean time they are terrors :) Only Marty can get close enough to them to pet them.  We're still getting tons of eggs from the ducks and chickens.

06/29/08:  We're looking for three more chickens to add to our flock but all I can manage to find are chicks.  I don't really want the hassle of chicks especially with three cats in the house so I am still looking.