Winter Homestead Update

Time for a winter update about the homestead!  Summer fizzled into fall and fall into winter.  The last tomatoes were picked and piled up in huge mounds on the kitchen counters, herbs were cut down and hung to dry everywhere, and a cover crop of clover was planted (too late and didn't grow!).

Between actually doing the end-of-season work, finishing up my seminary semester, and trying to diligently homeschool D through Five in a Row, I didn't end up with much time for blogging.  (However, I did take notes and pictures of our homeschool work, so they will be posted eventually!) 

Now all those things have settled down I have a bit of time to sit on my comfy sofa where the heater blows on my feet and bring you an update!

I decided to move the quail into the garage for the winter.  While they tolerate cold very well, we also have very, very wet winters, as well as strong northeaster winds.  I was worried they might get too wet to keep warm, and then be blown into smithereens by the strong winds (which frequently blow in the direction of the open side of the pen).  Our future plan for the quail is to build a tall aviary, which we now know needs to include full doors that can close to keep wind and rain out on the worst days.

 

We created an extra large brooder type box for the quail to live in for a few months.  They are still on shavings, and we added a lot of branches for them to hop over and hide under.  We're using wire shelving as the top, which is clearly not predator proof, but work perfectly while they're safe in the garage.  I can lift off each piece as I reach in for eggs around the pen. 

D had a great time helping me decide what should go in, finding it in the yard, and laying it out in the pen.  He enjoys the quail more than the ducks, for whatever reason, and takes special pride in doing any part of their care.  Since our only timer is being used for the ducks light, the quail have a brooder light aimed at their waterer (to keep it from freezing) which stays on all the time.  It keeps about half the pen fairly bright, while leaving the other half much more dim.  My hope was that they could settle down and sleep when they wanted to in the darker side, while eating and drinking in the brighter area when they wanted to be awake.  I feel a little bad about the constant exposure to light, but so far they are happy and healthy.  When we first moved them inside, they had stopped laying due to the decreased daylight.  After four weeks inside they started laying about an egg a day again! 

Inside the duck coop.  The box in the back holds the extra clean straw. 

    The ducks have supplemental light in their house to keep them laying, as well as tons of fluffy bedding and straw to keep them warm.  I leaned plywood against the inner sides of the shed and in between the plywood and the wall stuffed straw, to help insulated the space (I have since removed them, since they proved unnecessary).  I have to close the ducks inside the attached run around 4pm, or else they miss exposure to the light, because they’ll happily stay out in the yard all night long.

It appears that I have over-prepared my ducks for winter, because they seem COMPLETELY unbothered by the cold!     I am so thankful to have such hardy birds!  If I don’t close them in the run, they will spend the entire night outside in the yard, sleeping in the cold grass, instead of in their warm cozy house.  Even in their run, with access to the bedded house, they will usually nestle down out in the run!  I have it layered with straw to help keep it a bit warmer and drier.  Its easy to sprinkle a bit of new straw over the surface every few days to keep them standing on clean ground.  In the spring we'll dig it all out and compost it.  

(I have some big branches leaning over the corner of the run so they have a place to duck under if a hawk swoops over head.  They also like to sleep under them)

   

I began leaving the door to their house cracked open (like you see in the picture above) so they could go in and out freely, while keeping the warmth mostly trapped in the building.  Instead of locking them in the house every night, I was just leaving them in their run with access to the house.  This was a risk, because it left them more exposed to predators. Since we were traveling over Christmas and I needed a way to leave them so that a friend could come check on them once a day, instead of having to come out every morning to let them out, and every night to shut them back in.  Thankfully, I have never seen signs of raccoons around their area.  I think it helps that all around them is quite open and exposed; there are no close trees or bushes for a predator to hide in as it approaches.  The neighbors also have a loud, aggressive Jack Russell and we have a hound dog, so I think they might deter unwanted company as well.

Winter is not the most fun time to take care of outdoor animals.  It’s cold, dark, and in the Pacific Northwest, usually very wet.  But my daily care routine only takes about five minutes, and I bring in a bucketful of eggs every day, so its really not that bad.  We’ve had a couple of really beautiful days recently, which have given me the opportunity to do things like clean out both pens, spread new straw, and scrub the water containers while the kids bike and play on the tire swing.

I’m dreaming of spring when we can be outside most of the day, every day!  I can’t wait to get the soil tilled, more gardens dug, seeds planted, and experience the second year with our fruit trees, raspberry and blackberry canes, grape vines, and blueberry bushes!  Until we can get planting, Pinterest has been my best friend as I envision what my gardens will look like!  I’m hoping to spend a little time on the front yard, too, and start down the path toward creating a cottage style front flower and herb garden.  It will take years to accomplish a lush, full look, but taking one step at a time I’ll make it there eventually. 

Another update - I just ordered an egg incubator!  So pretty soon we'll be hatching quail chicks (from fertilized eggs from a farmer just north of us in town), and once my ducks start mating again we'll hatch out ducklings.  D is really excited about this, and I think L will love it too.  There are quite a few people in our area interested in raising quail and buying quail eggs, so I'll be hatching out as many chicks as I can sell and planning to keep some females to expand our laying flock.  I have a list of people who have purchased quail eggs from me, and hope to get it organized into a weekly "buyers club" once I have enough birds consistently laying for that to make sense. Right now we have ten females who lay about 9 eggs a day.  Once we build our new aviary I should be able to keep 20-30. 

Chicks will be our fun project to bridge the gap between winter and spring!

Happy hot chocolate and seed catalog dreaming!