How to Scare a Chicken

So you're curious about how to scare a chicken? First, you take the chicks one by one to a dog crate on the back of a pickup. Then you shut the tailgate. This alone causes them to jump. After already scaring them, you then start the truck and drive 100 feet through a bumpy field. So now you're asking "why didn't you just carry them to their house?" Several reasons, the main one being Max, the german shepherd. He looks at the chicks like they're his next meal. The chicks don't realize the danger of getting free yet so I'm sure over 100 feet they would have wiggle their way out of my hands. Some of them came close just going from inside the garage to the back of the truck! Once you have driven the 100 or so feet, take the dog crate (chicks still in it) and place it inside of their house. I've never seen a chicken's heart beating in it's throat before...until now. Another way to scare a chicken...look at them, talk to them, move in any way. There's a reason they're called chickens.

Each time I checked on them Wednesday, this is what they were doing, hiding in the cage:

In their comfort zone

By the end of Thursday they finally got brave! Here they are on the outside of the cage:


Enjoying scratching around

We took an old shed located on our property and turned it into their home. It's been sitting for a while unused so there was quite a bit of patching and fixing up to do. You can see where all the boards don't match. I really doubt the chickens will mind.

Outside of their new home

These are the same nests our chickens used when I was a kid. Glad mom hung onto these!

Their nesting box which still needs a ramp

Here is the backside of their pen. Chicken wire is not as easy to work with as I thought it'd be! Hopefully no critters will find their way in. 

The back side of their pen



Tomato Planters

In the past, I have had terrible luck with tomatoes. Last year, we planted 5 plants and picked about 5 tomatoes. I know exactly what I did wrong too. I planted them in really awful soil which had been graded the summer before and lacked all topsoil, watered the plants when I remembered, and pretty much ignored them until I realized that we should be getting some tomatoes from them. By that point it was too late. The only thing I did that would have helped (if I had of paid them more attention) was plant them near the house. Our reasoning was to be able to check on them more often. Oops.

This year we're planting them near the house again but are using shipping crates filled with a wonderful mix of topsoil and barn composte, a.k.a. manure. You can see the mix in the picture below.

First planter with topsoil and compost

 Next, I planted my Moutain Pride tomatoes. Thanks to Google (again) I learned an interesting technique to help them get a sturdy root system: dig a ditch shaped hole, lay the tomato plant on it's side after picking off the bottom few leaves and cover an inch or two up the plant holding the top part out of the dirt. Now I don't know if this works but my tomato plants have alread straightened up since planting yesterday.

Tomato plant on it's side ready for planting

 Here are the first four Mountain Pride tomatoes I planted. These guys really needed a home outside. They've been in my kitchen for the past few weeks and obviously needed more room.

Mountain Pride Tomatoes

 This is the second crate I filled. I got the soil mixed up a lot better on this one. You can see how dark and rich this looks.

Good mix of topsoil and compost

 In the front are the other two Mountain Pride tomato plants and in the back are two Yellow Roma plants.

Mountain Pride and Yellow Roma Plants

 Finished tomato crates! I really like the shipping crate planters...it's easy and I think they look great!

Finished Planters

Check back later for an update on our chicks! They moved to their new home yesterday!

Planting Day!

Saturday was planting day. In the large garden we planted over 6 rows of potatoes, Kennebecs and Yukon Gold, 2 rows of Silver Queen corn, and half a row of spinach. In our small garden we planted Zuchinni, Squash, Cucumbers, Corn, and Cantaloupes. In the next few days we are going to set out our tomato plants. The plan for these is to take several large shipping crates, fill them with the rich soil from the barn and garden, and place them near the house so we can keep a closer eye on them. I've never had much luck growing tomatoes so I'm hoping keeping them close will help.

Google has been a life saver throughout this process. We wouldn't have known that the cut side of a potato needs to be facing down. Nor would we have known that potatoes have specific companion plants such as corn and does not grow well near certain other plants. There is a great list of companion planting that can be found at Golden Harvest Organics which has earned a spot in my bookmarks.

Roy taking a break from covering potatoes



Big garden: potatoes, corn, and spinach

Small Garden: Cucumbers, Zuchinni, Yellow Squash, Cantaloupes, and Corn

Anyone know what this contraption is? Scroll down to see the answer!


Mole trap



Horse...er, Polaris Drawn Hillside Plow and Chicken House Renovations

Today has been very productive with some interesting moments! I spent the morning helping my brother and running erands which of course takes much longer than you anticipate. When I got home, I assumed the productive part of my day was gone. Thankfully, I was wrong. The fence to our chicken house is completely done! All that's left is to build the gate, install their nests, and patch up any holes in the old shed. I have everything except the tears into this house. Blood, check (Learned a valuable lesson about using a drill. DON'T look away when starting a screw! If it slips, it hurts). Sweat, check. There will be more of that tomorrow. This thing has to be finished tomorrow! Those chicks can't stay in the garage much longer since they're half grown now.

This afternoon we worked on rowing the garden. While my wonderful man (WM) mowed around the garden I managed to hoe ONE row. One. I worked for an hour hoeing a 100 foot stretch, hoe a foot, remove big rocks, hoe another foot, remove rocks. It was a viscious cycle. When WM was finished mowing, he remembered a horse drawn hillside plow he has. Since we don't have a horse anymore, we turned it into a Polaris 500 drawn hillside plow! Worked great! Almost. I had the easy part, driving. WM got to steer and keep the plow on track. It was tricky finding the right speed and for him to find the right angle but we finally got it! And our last two rows are perfect! The first four aren't bad, a little crooked perhaps. We managed to plow six rows in the time it took me to hoe one so I'll deal with the rows being a little crooked. Save me a blister tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we've got to finish the chicken house and plant some taters! Loving this life!

Time to Plant...Finally

We started planning on having a garden last fall. We plowed it then so the grass clumps would have plenty of time to rot plus the freezing and thawing is apparently good for the soil. Since plowing last fall, we have disced and tilled our gardens a few more times this spring. This past Saturday, I spent 3 hours in our little garden hoeing and getting the last of the grass clumps out. Three weeks before that my guys spent an entire day clearing the rocks out. I'm grateful they took that chore upon themselves seeing that we can really grow some boulders around here. We had enough rock in our gardens to complete half of our walkway behind our house! Once we start planting the seed, I'm sure we'll find even more walkway ready rocks. With the past month's weekends full of preparing our garden I think it's finally time to plant our seeds! Whew...wasn't sure this day was actually coming with all the preparation time. For the next 4 days, we rest (thanks to the weather mostly) then the planting begins!

Do you ever plant by the Farmer's Almanac? If so, comment on how that has worked out for you. Did you notice a difference in your harvest compared to years when you didn't follow the Almanac?

Spring has Sprung

Welcome to the first ever Bumgardner Farm blog! I'm so excited about everything that is going on this year! We have 7 baby chicks that we are raising. I believe they are called Dominiques or around here they are Dominickers. The chicks are absolutely adorable! This week they are getting a little more brave as they will eat out of our hands! Every now and then we get bitten a little but it's not too bad...yet. We spent the morning working on their home. They have about another 1-2 weeks in the garage before moving outside.

Here are 6 of the widdys

In addition to our chicks, we have 2 gardens. In our small garden, it's 16'x70', we are going to plant corn. I purchased the Silver Queen variety. In our large garden which is 35'x100' we are going to have spinach, squash, cucumbers, green beans, and lots of potatos. This is the first year I've tended a garden since I helped my mother as a child. Looking forward to all the adventures small farming has to offer!