{"id":826,"date":"2015-12-18T14:54:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T14:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/?p=826"},"modified":"2016-01-09T22:25:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T04:25:39","slug":"the-hen-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/2015\/12\/18\/the-hen-house\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hen House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Foghorn<\/a>
Foghorn Leghorn in the in the hen house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I ate a cinnamon roll yesterday. It was 450 calories\u00a0and I counted it. In the end, I actually wound up having a perfect calorie counting day! Enough of that subject! \u00a0I would rather talk about this great holiday season.<\/p>\n

Though I began this month feeling kind of like Scrooge, December has turned out to be a great month for getting things done. Some of my kids will be here for Christmas, so I want the place to sparkle! After all, why decorate the house if the house is a mess? It got a good cleaning. Yesterday and today we have been cleaning up outside. This evening we were ready to decorate the porch. It looks and sounds very festive \ud83d\ude42 , with pretty lights and country Christmas tunes piped through the outdoor speakers. I’m sporting a spiffy new hair-do, which I love, thanks to my very talented niece. But my favorite project so far this season, has been the quail room, which our plumber dubbed, “the hen house”.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
More of Foghorn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was quite the mess, and took about a week to get into shape, but it has really turned out nice. About a year ago, Glenn hung 5 big Boston ferns from the 11 foot ceiling, along the 20 foot expanse of south exposure windows. They let in a lot of light. \u00a0So the ferns have done well, as have all the other plants. The roses, hibiscus, and lantana are blooming. \u00a0Our\u00a0new little hens have been moved from brooder to cages and are just starting to lay their first eggs. All but a couple of roosters are in a separate pen.<\/p>\n

The tornado from this past spring left some damage, and now, all the broken windows have been replaced. \u00a0New plumbing pipes were run to the room so it is super easy to water the plants as well as fill the buckets for the brand new watering system. Now the new little hens and roosters drink from a small, no mess cup, rather than the filthy jars they once used. A rat got in earlier this year, tore open some bags of mushroom compost and left some droppings. That’s all cleaned up now. \u00a0As for the potting station, the soil amendments (including our first load of compost made with our new compost tumbler) are in nice, galvanized cans. And I’ve implemented a new system for cleaning cages that cuts way down on the mess and keeps life simple.<\/p>\n

The retirees have a special deal. After my quail are one year old, I start a new hatch, and the old ones become members of the elite group who are allowed to live out the rest of their days\u00a0cage-free, out in the room.\u00a0I spread Aspen shred everywhere, and brought in piles of fresh cut winter grass for nesting. There is a plastic swimming pool full of sand and logs, for them to clean themselves. They have the water run-off in the plant saucers to drink. They eat very little feed in an arrangement like this, so they are not a drain, economically. The life expectancy of a quail is about 2 years and their egg production drops off drastically after about a year. The meat of an older bird is a bit tough, so I can’t see the point of butchering them. And since I have the luxury of this room, it just makes sense to do it this way.<\/p>\n

\"Foghorn<\/a>
Foghorn Leghorn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s really a \u00a0pleasure to spend time here now.\u00a0There are still more improvements to come but we got a lot of really good stuff done for the quail, this year. Now that we are at a stopping place, we can move onto the next project.\u00a0 And we will be busy right up until everyone gets here. The honey room needs cleaning. There are tons of boxes to break down and shred in the hallway. Once that’s done we can start a new load in the compost tumbler. I’m making the dressing, gravy, and carrots for the big family gathering. \u00a0And if there is any time left, I want to stock up my cottage kitchen.<\/p>\n

Now that the kids are grown and gone, with full lives of their own, Christmas is quite different than it used to be; different, but still really, really good! It’s been a joy getting things looking good and functioning around here, in preparation for our anxiously awaited guests. One last chance to make the most of a good year; the best holiday season I can recall in a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I ate a cinnamon roll yesterday. It was 450 calories\u00a0and I counted it. In the end, I actually wound up having a perfect calorie counting day! Enough of that subject! \u00a0I would rather talk about this great holiday season. Though I began this month feeling kind of like Scrooge, December has turned out to be … Continue reading The Hen House<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,12,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-calorie-crusaders","category-my-journal","category-occasions","category-quail-farm","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cluckeyo.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}