The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: chicken coop

  • What’s up Wednesday – June 3rd

    I’m sorry I missed last week’s What’s up Wednesday. The busy season for the soap business, photography business, farm, and garden are all in full gear… at the same time. We are so incredibly grateful to be this busy. I hope it stays like this!

    So much has happened on the farm in the last two weeks. Four of the eight goat kids have gone to their new homes. They all went to good homes and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We still have 3 bucks that we are trying to sell. Selling bucks is no easy task. Farms only need one or two to breed to their entire goat herd and from what I am hearing from other farms there have been an unusually large number of bucks born this year. We were lucky to only have had fifty percent bucks… not many in this area have been so lucky. I am hoping these sweet boys at least go as pets to someone. They are all so gentle and have amazing personalities.

    We moved the the bantam chicks outside into their new coop! They were getting tight in their brooder and we were getting tired of having the clean it twice a day… chicks create a lot of dust and dirt. We purchased a coop last year to use for our free range chickens to sleep and lay their eggs. It ended up being a really poor quality, even though we paid a pretty penny for it, so we decided to move the free rangers back into the sturdy coop where they were safe. The “free ranger” coop sat empty for a long time. We weren’t sure what to do with it. It would be a waste to just throw it out, but we were pretty sure it would just fall apart should a dog or other predictor decide to jump up against it. When our friend Rachel brought us the bantam chicks we knew we needed to find them a home once they were done with their brooder, so we decide to reinforce the coop and make it into a tractor, allowing the chickens to help us with pest control around the farm. We removed the entire bottom of the coop… meaning we pulled it away because it had basically wasted away and had already fallen through twice from the weight of the chickens (see… piece of junk). We sat the coop directly on the ground and used the run area the coop once sat on as a run for the front of the coop. It was just the right size considering they are only bantams and will be moved daily. We totally removed one set of nesting boxes because they too had fallen apart (we had half the number of chickens in this coop than it called for by the way). Kevin reenforced or replaced all the areas that were falling apart or felt weak. It has made a cute little chicken tractor! I am so glad we were able to use it and it won’t go to waste… I hate waste.

    Chicken Tractor - The Freckled Farm - The Freckled Farm Soap Company

    In soap news, our Summer Goat Milk Soap is on the curing racks! I am so ready for this soap to be done! It is so wonderful for summer skin. I used it all last summer and I’ve missed it so much. It’s made with green tea and aloe, so it’s soothing for skin that has had a lot of sun exposure. It will debut on the first day of summer later this month!

  • 365 Project Round-up – May

    I have had so much fun looking back at these pictures each month. It’s amazing to go back and see what we have accomplished in such a short amount of time. It gives you a new perspective. I can’t believe how quickly things have come together in the last month, especially with the garden… Thinking back it sure doesn’t feel that way, but looking at the photographs there is visual evidence that we sure have accomplished a lot!

    To follow our 365 project “A Photo a day from The Freckled Farm” follow us on Instagram: Thefreckledfarm

    365 Project - A picture a day from The Freckled Farm - The Freckled Farm Soap Company

     

  • 365 Project – February

    I can’t believe another month has already gone by! Here is a round up of the 365 pictures, A Picture a Day From The Freckled Farm, for the month of February. Enjoy!

    Follow us on Instagram (@TheFreckledFarm) to see the pictures each day. Baby goats are days away and things will be blooming on the farm before too long!

    365 Project - A picture a Day From Freckled Farm - February Round Up

    To see January’s round up go here

  • January’s “Other” Pictures

    By now I am sure you know that we are doing a 365 Project on Instagram – A Photo a Day from The Freckled Farm, but aside from the “photo of the day” that we are posting each day there are others that get posted… and because they aren’t the photograph chosen to represent that day they get left out of the month’s round up. There are some great images that get left out, so instead of just letting them fall through the cracks I decided to do a round-up of the “other” pictures each month. This way if you don’t have Instagram you aren’t missing out!

    If you do have Instagram consider following us (@Thefreckledfarm)

    Photos from The Freckled Farm

  • What’s Up Wednesday – Jan 21st

    The last two weeks since Kevin left his “day job” have been an adjustment. For the last two years we have lived in survival mode. Kevin was pulling in at least 60 hours a week at work and every other second of the day was stacked with things that needed to be done for the businesses and farm. Late nights and extremely early mornings were how we lived. Now that the 60 hours of work outside of our businesses are gone we are trying to figure out what our new schedule looks like. We no longer have to live with the mindset that if we have a second it needs to be filled with something because who knows how much time we are going to have later. We are working on balancing everything and actually giving ourselves time to just relax… what a concept. I have actually had to set myself a set of tasks that need to be completed that day, and once I am done I am allowed to relax. Otherwise I will just move on to one of other five hundred tasks on my to do list…

    One of our big projects this week is working on our new goat milk soap laundry detergent. We are officially in the research and development phase! So far so good! We plan to sell them in three sizes; a nice large reusable glass container with a wooden scoop, refill bags, and finally a sample size for 2-4 washes. We are currently planning on 4 scents; Sunrise Citrus, Lavender, Tea Tree (for strong odors caused by bacteria – body odor and stinky socks), and Unscented. Look for these detergents to join our market booths and website in the late winter or early spring.

    We do have a little bit of sad news from this week. We lost one of our free ranging chickens to a hawk. Her name was Sophia and she was one of our original chickens. In fact she gave us our very first egg! We retired to her to the pasture last spring where she, and several of her sisters, had the run of both pastures and the barn. We knew this was a possibility. Chickens are very vulnerable to predators, especially when they are free ranging, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. I am extremely tender-hearted and we love our animals. In the meantime we have moved the few other free rangers into the big closed coop until we can figure out a safer option for them. Our fear is now that the hawk knows where the food is he will just keep coming back.

    Check back next week for even more updates!! There is so much in the works!

     

  • What’s up Wednesday – 3/5

    The girls are so close to having their babies! We are still two weeks from their due dates, but Hillary’s ligaments are disappearing, which is a sign that labor is on it’s way. Although, it doesn’t necessarily mean she won’t reach or exceed her due date. It just lets you know that their bodies are in preparation mode. Tina’s ligaments are still very tight. Monday night the temperatures were in the low single digits and I was convinced with our luck that Hillary would go into labor at the coldest possible time, and we would have baby goats living in our house! Luckily that didn’t happen, but I’m keeping a close eye on her. Hopefully this week’s snow storm is the last, so we don’t have to worry about having babies in the snow anymore. I am really hoping they wait until after this weekend, since we will be at the Augusta show Saturday and Sunday.

    The chicks will be on their way Monday! We are hoping they will get here by Tuesday, but it will more than likely be Wednesday. Since I write these posts on Tuesday night you probably won’t hear anything about the chicks until later in the week or the week after. I promise to include pictures! Breckin is so excited. He is old enough to handle and help with the chicks this time around. Last time he was two and was really only old enough to hold them for a second, and I was so worried that he would put his hands in his mouth before washing them that I made myself a nervous wreck. I’ve lightened up a bit.

    This past weekend wasn’t as productive as the weekend before, but we still got a fair amount done. The chicken coop went up in the pasture, and just as expected the goats spent a good amount of time chewing on the corners. We started working on the solar, but had some questions about the installation, so that project was stalled. Kevin built the new raised beds in the garden, and he finished the walls of the birthing pin. I cleaned up an area in the shed for the chicks and cleaned up the kennel that will be their brooder. At some point this week, when I can get out of the driveway, I need to go pick up the chick food and electrolytes.

    You may have noticed that I missed the Makeover Monday this past Monday. It’s been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to test out the recipe that I did this month. I am working on it now so the post will be going up next Monday! Sorry for the delay.

    So, another productive week down! Here’s hoping for another… and maybe some nice weather with it.

  • What’s up Wednesday 2/25

    Holly molly have we had a busy week. The amazing weather this weekend gave us the perfect opportunity to start getting projects done around the farm.

    We started by constructing the chicken coop we ordered a few weeks back. It didn’t take very long to put together and we are both quite pleased with the design. I will do a post highlighting it soon. We sealed the wood once it was together in hopes that it will last longer. We put it together outside of the pasture because I didn’t want the goats getting ahold of the packaging or messing with us (incessantly) while we were working. I wanted to put it in the pasture on Sunday, but with the second coating of sealant going on that morning I decided that we should wait until next weekend and give the seal a chance to really dry as the goats will likely chew on it for a while when it first goes in.

    Last year we built a kid pen out of pallets and spare wood. Ruth and Sonia lived in it last spring until they were big enough to move in with the big girls and llamas. It worked well for them, but the calk we used to seal the roof didn’t hold up and I was beginning to worry about the cracks between the slats and wind getting through, which would be a problem if we got another snow storm. So, we reinforced the sides with plywood and plan to use the roofing we are buying for the buck’s pen to seal the roof off once and for all. Finally we painted it kid barn red. The same red we plan to paint the buck pen.

    This weekend we also put up the temporary birth pin in the barn. The walls and door are made out of pallets. It ain’t pretty… but it does the job. Good thing it’s not staying up. We may decide to do something more permanent next year, but for now this will do.

    Finally, we got the intercom for the barn. We got this so we could hear what is going on inside the barn at night. We are hoping it will allow us to hear if the girls go into labor at night… so we don’t have to check on them every 10 minutes… although I am sure I still will. Unfortunately, we put it in Monday night and realized that it was messing with Bryce’s baby monitor. We need to do a little research, but at the moment it looks like we are going to have to return it for something that is on a different frequency.

    It’s about 3 weeks until the girls’ due dates. They were so uncomfortable in the warm weather this weekend. While the other animals were laying the sun, enjoying the beautiful weather, they laid in the barn and moaned all weekend. I could have sworn that they were somehow going into labor early, but they were fine once it cooled off again. I am so glad they won’t be going through pregnancy in any sort of real heat.

    The next few days should be as busy as the last week. We plan to put solar up in the barn (only one panel… enough to power a light and maybe a fan), put the chicken coop up in the pasture, and set up the brooder for the chickens coming in two weeks!

  • What’s up Wednesday – 2/19

    The countdown is on! Spring is a little over a month away, the girls only have 4 more weeks until their due dates, and we only have 3 more weeks until the baby chicks arrive in the mail. It wont be long before we have precious baby goats and chicks hopping around. I can’t wait!!

    We got around 10 inches of snow, sleet, and ice last week. There is still quite a bit of it on the ground, even after several days of mild temperatures. The bad weather has halted our construction projects, but I’m hoping to get the chicken coop started (and maybe finished… who knows) this weekend. The chicken coop is going in the pasture and I was hoping to have it done by this point in the girls’ pregnancies because I don’t want to cause them any sort of stress this close to their due dates… but there is only so much that you can do. We also apparently underestimated the amount of hay we needed when ordering last August and only have about a 2-3 week supply left. So, this weekend will also be spent searching out hay.

    Overall it’s been a pretty uneventful week. That’s what happens when you are trapped in your house for most of it!

    We will be at the My Courthouse Market today from 3-7pm! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.

  • What’s up Wednesday – 2/12

    Another snow storm is headed our way. In fact, it is supposed to hit us early evening, go until afternoon Thursday, and bring between 8-12 inches of snow. I’m hoping for a lot less though. I’m over doing farm chores in the snow and I have a wedding to photograph on Saturday. The snow is just a nusance at this point. I’m so ready for spring!

    Last friday I scheduled to have UPS deliver our new chicken coop. I got a call from the freight service asking if a tractor trailer would be able to make it up our driveway. Anyone who has been to our farm knows that the answer is no way! I had no idea what to say, and was trying to imagine how big these boxes had to be that they needed to be delivered on a tractor trailer. After I practically worked myself into a panic, worrying that it wasn’t going to be delivered at all, the man asked if we had a pick up truck that could just meet the delivery man at the bottom of our driveway. We do, so I scheduled the delivery for Monday and had Kevin drive my SUV to work so I could use the truck. When the time came to meet the delivery man I put the kids in the truck, Breckin brought his measuring tape just in case we needed it, and waited at the bottom of the driveway. Breckin bounced up and down in the seat every time a truck drove by. I tried to explain to him that it was going to be a BIG truck and his jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw the huge UPS 18 wheeler pull up. I desperately wanted take a picture as our boxes were loaded off this huge truck into the back of our little F150, but I thought the delivery man would think I was crazy. I did  snap a few pictures once we got  back to the house though… I still don’t understand why it had to be delivered by such a huge truck. I can’t wait to start assembling it!

    Coop Delivery

    Coop Delivered

    The girls have 5 more weeks to go in their pregnancies. Now is the time that we start preparing them. They will have their CDT shots and dewormer in the next week and we will start to set up their birthing area soon. They should also really start to show before too long. Both have a little bit of a tummy and waddle, but 75% of the growth happens in the last 4 weeks of the pregnancy, so they should really start to “fill out” over the coming weeks. I promise to post pictures as they really start to get big.

    On a final note, the My Courthouse Market has been canceled for tonight due to the weather…. did I mention that I’m over winter yet?

     

  • Getting to Know The Freckled Farm – Our Chicken Coop

    Want to know more about the farmers, animals, and buildings on The Freckled Farm? Every Friday I will introduce you to another part of The Freckled Farm. This week you have a chance to get to know our chicken coop!

    Building of The Freckled FarmThis is our chicken coop. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?! Kevin built it from a picture I gave him. He is quite talented. The floor of the run is sand in order to prevent standing water and mud, which is an issue on our sloped property. There has a ramp up to the hen house, which features two perches widthwise and two nesting boxes. The door to the hen house slides shut giving the chickens extra protection at night. We also have a night guard on the front and back of the coop. It is solar powered and blinks red at night. It’s designed to deter predators by making them think that a predator is already there.

    This will be the last “Getting to Know The Freckled Farm” post for a little while. We’ve now been through all of the animals, and the important farm buildings, but come the spring we will have baby goats, more chickens, an additional chicken coop, and a bigger and better garden, so check back!