Although this was the second automatic chicken door that I purchased, it was my first venture into the solar powered doors. For reasons that I do not recall, I chose one from chickendoors.com – a standard pullet, solar with battery. They have other sizes, but they all appear to operate on the same design.

To begin with, I must applaud them for good customer service. It may be a small shop, but I feel like I receive pretty quick, personal response from the people that are running the show over there. They are friendly and quick to try to help with issues.

The first negative about this setup is that the solar panel comes without anything to easily attach it anywhere. Mine didn’t even have screw holes – picture just a flat panel. If I had spent the extra effort to fabricate a holder for this panel, I probably could have avoided some issues. As it was, the thing would occasionally blow off the chicken tractor, which was a hassel.

The second negative is the hookup’s. Wires run from the solar panel to the battery and then from the battery to the door (obviously, this is necessary…) The problem is that it’s not a simple male/female plug at each interface. Things are quite complicated and I ended up having to patch or fix various pieces of it a couple of times.

The third negative is that there was no app to manage this thing (at least when I purchased it.) I only mention this as the other two doors that I have experimented with both have apps, which make it easy to manage the opening and closing of the door.

The forth negative is the price. It came at quite a premium to the others that I have been using and testing out.

For the final negative, I know about their good customer service because I did have issues with this door. I installed it towards the end of February, 2022 and it stopped working towards the end of November, 2023. The company has given me a number to call to fix it (which I do plan to do), but my other door was working so seamlessly that I decided to just purchase a new door and deal with it later.

For me, after trying three doors (one of which was this one), I do not recommend this door to my friends that ask for recommendations. Other models have proven to be better for my needs.

Figuring out the pecking order for the 5 roosters is much easier. Flash (Cream Legbar) would be the main man closely followed by our other Cream Legbar rooster. I say closely followed because the two are constantly butting heads. However, Flash remains the winner. Anyway, in third would be Mr. Maran, and no that’s not his name. I just call him that because he’s a Maran rooster and why not? Then our big boy Easter Egger followed by, last but not least, good old Welsummer. A bit off topic, but someone is coming this week to pickup the last Welsummer rooster that we have for sale, which is good. We have multiple people coming to pick up the roosters, so I hope to have no more roosters for sale by the end of the week! Yay!

Snow also heralds in a few tasks on the homestead. Oddly, the main task involves our song birds. Snow makes foraging for seeds a bit more difficult in the wilds, so we make sure the bird feeders are full and scatter some extra feed on the ground for our friends. Snow also can mean frozen water for the animals, so we check all of the rabbit and poultry waterers, in addition to a quick check for the cow troughs. All in all, everything was fine this morning (the temps barely hit 32, which didn’t cause any issues for our animals), but it was a good reminder for what is to come.

Interestingly, we are starting to get a rise in egg laying. I’m pretty sure it really starts to turn on after the Winter Solstice (around Dec 21), when the days start to get longer. But, we’re already seeing a slight uptick now.

Lots of fun on the horizon! Spring is just around the corner!

On a brighter note, it seems like some of our hens are actually deciding to lay, as we got five big eggs today. This is still not enough, as we have 20+ hens out there that should be laying almost every day if not every day, but it’s progress. I’m also currently trying to figure out what I am going to do with my 3 Salmon Faverolle roosters. I put the one I wanted out to free range, but Flash kept bullying him pretty bad. I probably should have left them figure it out, but I felt bad for the poor guy and I have also read that Faverolles tend to get bullied in mixed flocks. Hopefully it all works out!

A quick but fun thing we did on Sunday – we took the horses trail riding! There is a trail park that leads down to a river right near our farm that is great to trailer over to and ride on. So, I went with my mom and one of my friends. It was a bit wet, so we just walk – trotted, but it was pretty fun, especially when Ree went chest deep into the water with my mom. It’s crazy to think of her as a neglected pony for the first two years of her life. She’s 8 now, and doing incredible. The other horses weren’t nice enough to easily go into the water, although my friend did get Zelda to go into the water with A LOT of nudging and pushing. Dixie also went in for a brief time, but I’m still scarred from when my lease mare Lilia laid down in the water without my consent whatsoever. As for the nerve racking events (there always are some, unfortunately), we ran into an off leash dog on the way back, which is very annoying as is especially says to keep your dog on leash. Thankfully, the dog was friendly and just wanted to play, but Zelda didn’t find it very funny when the dog raced up to her. Thankfully, she didn’t bolt or anything, but did make a very weird face and looked ready to attack if needed. Over all it was a great experience. We will definitely have to make time to do that more often!

Each adventure deserves a novel of it’s own…from attempting to raise and keep pureblooded chicken breeds (and keeping them from the jaws of the coyotes and foxes!), to milking our cow and harvesting the products of all, it has been quite the ride! Unfortunately, all of these fence patching, coop tweaking and cage building tasks left little time to update our blog. In 2024, we aim to change this.

As December draws to a close, we hope to further tune our site to make information easier to find and to relay more of our adventures (and misadventures) for the fellow enthusiasts. We even plan to begin to sell some of our animals for others to enjoy.

Merry Christmas to everyone and we look forward to seeing you in 2024!

Before we get started, a good thing to know is that a chicken’s preferred temperature is 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but the 50s to 80s if fine too. If you live in an area where the temperature only ranges in those degrees, then don’t even mind reading this! Your chickens will be fine-they will be great!

When is it too hot for my chickens?

If the temperature is over 97 degrees Fahrenheit, the risk of heat stroke and major dehydration goes way up. If not kept cool, your chicken could even die due to getting too hot. If your chicken’s free range, there are a lot more natural ways for them to cool down, but if your chickens live in a coop, they might strugle to cool down. There are many ways to keep your chickens cool. Some examples are:

~ Provide shade = If you let your chickens free range, then this shouldn’t be too big of a problem. As mentioned above, there will be a lot more natural resources such as bushes and trees for them to shelter under. However, if you keep your chicken in a coop, try building a covered area for them to find shade. This will also be a good place to shelter during rain.

~ Cold treats = consider freezing some fresh fruit such as strawberries, watermelon, banana and pineapples to give to your chickens. Each chicken will prefer a different fruit, so if your chickens don’t like any of the options we gave, try giving them other fruits and find the one your flock loves! The cold treat will help bring down their body temperature. Plus, it’s super fun for a chicken to peck on fruits like this and it also is good for their brains to try and get some.

~ Provide dust bath areas = have you ever seen your chicken rolling around in a pile of dust? Nothing to worry about! In fact, this is a completely normal thing chickens do to clean themselves and/or cool off. The dust is very nice and cool, so your chicken will definitely enjoy a nice roll around in it if they are too hot. If your chickens free roam, they will naturally find areas that have some soft dirt, but if your chickens are in a coop, the ground will most likely be pretty hard/solid, so consider digging up an area for them and adding some soft dirt for them to have a great time in!

Naturally, some chicken breeds do better than others in the heat. If you live in very hot climates, these chickens will work great for you:

• Bielefelder

• Whiting True Blue

• Wyandotte

• Americana

When is it too cold for my chickens?

Chickens are very hardy animals and therefor can tolerate pretty cold temperatures. However, if it gets down into the low 30s and below, your chickens will start to get a little cold. This may be surprising, but the best way to keep your chicken warm is to have more chickens. Chickens stay warm by huddling together, so if there are 8 or so chickens, they will be able to make enough body heat to stay warm enough during really cold nights.
However, if temperatures reach into the single digits or even the negatives, we recommend checking on your chickens a lot. If you notice a chicken hiding in a corner or walking very stiffly, then consider bringing your chicken indoors. If you have a garage, basement or mud room, grab a box and bring that chicken inside to warm up.

You might be worried about your young chicks during these cold winter nights, right? Actually, mama hens are very capable of keeping her babies warm. The only way that the chicks will suffer is if they get somehow separated from their mom. For example, we have a young batch of Bantam chicks and their mom in with the rest of our Bantams. The hen has to climb up a little ramp to get up into her nesting area. If the babies were unable to get up the ramp and into the nesting area, they would most likely pass away due to being too cold. So, just make sure you check that all the chicks are nice and warm in with their mama.

Surprisingly, most chickens due pretty well with the cold, so we won’t make a list. However, feel free to research about the chicken breed you are interested in and find out if that chicken does well in the cold or not. If the first source you use says that that chicken breed does horrible in the cold, check out at leats three other sources to see what other people have to say. Even if the idea that the chicken breed you want doesn’t do well in the cold, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get them if you live in a cold climate area. You will just have to take more precautions.

On a farm with grazing animals, pasture management is a real thing. Unless one is lucky (and we are not!), the pasture needs to be “managed” to get at least a moderate yield (meal for your animals.) I suppose you could simply house far fewer animals than the land can handle, and ignore your pasture, but we have big aspirations for lots more animals (and we don’t believe in buying hay most of the year to handle em!)

The first thing that I did when I moved in was to get some soil samples. I did this for all of my pastures, my blueberry bed and my vegetable garden. It’s fairly simple (and mostly free) here in Virginia. I literally did this during the 1 month that I owned the property but the previous owners were still renting from me while they waited for their new home to get ready. The sheet had a ton metrics and measurements on it and I didn’t have to figure it out myself. I scheduled (and rescheduled) a meeting with my local Ag agent and we finally met today (a little over a year after the samples were taken! ha.)

There was a lot to digest, but it boiled down to needing Potassium and Phosphorous. I could spread it in my spreader and would need to repeat that every year for 3 years before doing another soil test. Bottom line – a lot of work, some $$$ and not extremely sustainable (i.e. not very practical.)

A local fellow had told me last year that he relies on his hay to fertilize his land. He purchases it from a known fellow and he cows effectively put it down on his land, after they eat it:) I like this methodology, but it’s also not practical or sustainable for me – my goal is to only need hay in January and February (maybe some into Mar), so I don’t plan on brining a lot hay in.

So, the current plan is a hybrid. I do plan to spread the P and K this Fall, at the recommended levels. But, that will be it for the next 3 years. I also plan to rotate my hay feeding during the Winter, mainly to the pastures that appear to be lacking. Finally, I’m going to spread some clover in February, per the Ag agent. Interestingly enough, I have a plenty of clover in my worst pasture, but not as much in the pastures thick with grasses. So, hope to resolve that too. The agent recommended looking for the time when the nights get below freezing, but the day warm up some. This helps the clover to work into the soil, as it expands and contracts during the day (otherwise, I may have to drill it in, instead of the easier spreading method.)

More soon on the Chicken worming…

For whatever reason, I almost always prefer to incubate my fowl, as opposed to buying chicks or ducklings or what-have-you. I like the idea of being responsible for as much of the process as I can, plus I think it’s a good learning opportunity for my daughter. So, we collected eggs from my pop’s farm, from my wife’s brother’s farm and from a couple on a small homestead nearby. We went about incubating them and ended up with 11 chickens – 3 roosters and 8 hens.

The roosters began pestering the gals and this did not set well with my 8 year old. So, we harvested two of the roosters. I am not sure that our execution of this process was successful. For one, my daughter refused to eat the delicious dish with one of the roosters that we harvested. For another, we probably harvested a bit too early. The rooster that was allowed to remain with the flock began attacking both my wife and daughter whenever they came around. “Attacking” is a strong word for it, but he was definitely human aggressive.

I should have done a better job of introducing my daughter to the idea of eating our own birds. I also should have let the roosters get a bit older before deciding who to cull. These were more like what folks call cockerals. A bit more maturity may have given them more time to show us who had the best temperament.

Either way, it was a lesson-learned. These were our pioneer chickens – Puffy Cheeks, Puffy Cheeks Jr, Sue Sue, Tre Tre, Goldilocks, Hot Cocoa, Butterscotch, and xxxxxx. They made it through the move and onto the farm.

Brie is only about two and a half months old. I started her off on 2 quarts of milk replacer, twice a day (about 12 hours apart.) She always wanted more, which I had been advised was normally the case. But, as I read more and more from different authors on the subject (dairy cows, bottle calves and just about anything else about farming), I came across references to folks feeding the larger breeds a bit more than 2 quarts (per feeding.) Plus, one lady noted that her Cow-Calf pairs never seemed to have a calf asking for more and not getting it.

So, at about 6 weeks of age, I transitioned Brie to a 5 pint feeding (2 and a half quarts.) This worked great – she appeared satiated and remained healthy. She has been taking the full feeding (at both morning and evening) for around 5 weeks. Now, a couple of days ago, she just started taking less (about a pint less). She would just turn and walk off.

I am not entirely sure what is going on, but yesterday I went back to the normal 2 quart bottle and she appears to be taking it all and is not acting like she is still famished at the end. I will watch and see how things go!