Peeps Doing Well and A Little Boo Boo Slows Me Down

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Bob

Monday June 18, 2018 Guerneville CA.

Caring for peeps

The first thing I did today was chick on the peeps to see how they were doing. Things looked pretty good. They didn’t turn over the food dishes now that I’ve put the rubber bands around them to keep them from standing in the bowls. Now they stand on the rubber bands instead which is ok.

I cleaned out their water device as it gets full of wood shaving from all the scratching they do. They are starting to drink more so I’ll need to get some bigger water holders soon.

Small little guys

In the middle of the day I removed the cardboard I have around the sides to see if the chicks were big enough or they could still get through the one inch slots in the wire. I did find one of the black ones got through when I checked later.  It scooted back through to get back with the rest of them when I came in.

Here they are as I saw them this morning.peeps

 

Working on panels and doing one wrong

It took me awhile to get into working on the panels, but eventually I attached the wire to the mulch area panels. They aren’t nice and square so they were more complicated to make.

Unfortunately this largest one I made wrong and had to redo.panel

 

No way around it

I moved that largest panel over to the spot where it goes and tried to install it, but part was too large and part of it was too small, so I took it back to the welding area after studying the problem for awhile and realizing there is no other way.

Here’s the panel ready to install, but it was the wrong size.panel2

 

Once back at the welder I figured out what I did wrong and cut and welded things and measured and cut and welded some more.

 

What I did wrong

I had transposed one of the long bars with one of the short bars and also measured one of them wrong too. Not sure why, but that’s sometimes the way it goes when making stuff. Nothing to do but redo things the way they should be.

After I installed more chicken wire on the panel I dragged it back to the enclosure. It was still a little off, but by tweaking it this way and that I was able to get it all installed.

Finally the panel is up

Here’s the  mulch area with the ceiling panels installed. I still have a small one in the back to do and that will be complete.mulcharea

 

Munching around the yard

I was in the blueberry patch several times today snacking as the blueberries are starting to ripen up faster now.

I also have a lot of plums trees that the fruit is getting ripe so I eat quite a lot of those plums and I did a visit to my brother’s raspberry patch too. The berries there are just starting to ripen.

Because of my mistake I didn’t get what I had planned to get done today, but that’s the way it goes.

Nice day.

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Cutting Wire, More Rats, Caring For Peeps and Some Gardening

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Bob

Sunday June 17, 2018 Guerneville CA.

Wire cutting day

Today I just wanted to get all the wire cut for the panels I have welded up so it should be an easy day.

I got the stuff out and started cutting the chicken wire to size to fit the panels.wire

 

Messy Peeps

When I first checked the peeps this morning I found they had dumped over their feed bowls and the food was all on the floor.

When I checked them later after the sun warmed things up I found the room to be 100 degrees F. and all the chicks were huddled not doing anything until I shut the light off and opened the screens in the door.

A  little later things had cooled down and the chicks were moving around some.chicks2

 

Changed things around a bit

I put this board in to set the food dishes on. I also changed the feed into this bowl with rubber bands around it to keep them out of the bowl to see how it would work out. They like to eat off the floor more than they like eating out of the bowl that’s why I added the board so I can take it out and clean it and they can find the food on the floor instead of digging through the wood chips looking for it.feed3

 

I continued to cut wire and had a couple breaks too.wired4

 

Rats at work

When I walked by this covered enclosure where I’ve been putting my food scraps from the house I noticed I must have spilled some stuff when I filled it yesterday,………………..but.ratstuff

 

Looking closer I can see a rat or rats have been in there and  made this hole to get to the food stuff.rats5

 

I’ll have to do something about that eventually.

Checking on some chick equipment

In the afternoon once I had finished cutting the chicken wire I walked over to my brother’s coop across the road to check out his water system and feeder for his chicks.

Here’s his chicks, over a hundred of them.chicks7

 

Chick tools

Here’s the stuff he uses. After using the little bowls I’m using I see why this stuff is designed the way it is.feeders8

 

I’ll need to get some of this stuff when I can.

Tom’s Garden

I checked out his garden. He does the farmer’s market under the name of Armstrong Valley Farm.garden9

 

His squash is way ahead of mine, I put some in  my last pot of vegetable soup.squash10

 

Heater only for heat

I decided not to use the light for heat any more as the heater seems to work a bit better at least I think it doe so far.

So late in the day as the sun was going down I turned the heater back on and left the light off so they little guys should have a better time sleeping.

Here they are huddled up resting with the light off and the heater going across from them.peeps12

 

Some gardening

I needed to plant some more radishes and replant my carrots as they never came up so I did some planting in the evening.seeded13

 

Just before dark I did a little more work on the panels putting wire on a couple of them, but not finishing anything up.

That was my day for a nice one.

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