Coyote Creek Family Farm

Not sure if one of our chickens just started laying, or our eggs are shrinking...go figure!

So at what tempature do chickens become flash frozen?  Well, based upon our experience last week, it's when the tempature is -10 degrees with a -25 degree wind chill.  Yep, that's right, I went out to collect eggs and lock up the hens a week ago and found a frozen chiken.  She was solid as a rock.  It looked like she had frozen to death while roosting and just fell over.  The other 25 ladies were just fine but I have since modified the coop slightly in order to reduce the about of airflow that wind can cause through the rafters.  I also added 7 bales of straw to the interior allowing for more insulation.  So far so good.

Oh so back to the frozen dinner... No we didn't eat her, I would have but like I said she was frozen solid.  She ended up in our thistle patch in order to continue the circle of life (probably for coyotes)

End an up note, the ladies keep producing for us, as the 25 remaining hens are providing us with an average of 19 eggs per day. 

Looking for the Wagar Family Farm website?  You're in the right place, but we have changed the name of our farm to Coyote Creek Family Farm in order to bring consistency between it and our  homeschool, and a future venture called Coyote Creek Guns, a "kitchen table" style firearm dealer, specializing in the custom ordering of all types of firearms.  No need to worry about the Farm's website address though, it will continue to be wagarfamilyfarm.weebly.com.

As part of the name change comes logos for each of our ventures.  This became a necessity as, Jennifer worked out a deal enabling us to sell our eggs at a local apple orchard, Apple Works.  Next on the docket is to go purchase some blank egg cartons so that we can print out our logo onto stickers and apply them to the egg cartons for advertisement purposes and with the hope of being blessed by return customers. 

Curious about the logos we've decided on?  Here they are.  By the way each is a link to it's own website, so feel free to check them out (all but the farm website is under construction)

Well the title says it all.  These days on the farm it just seems to be a whole lot of food, poop and eggs (the latter being the best of all).  As fall ends and winter sets in we have migrated the ladies to their wintering spot on the farm.  The coop and fence have been moved to a spot just in front of a couple of cedar trees that they loved to dig under.  This spot is just close enough to the house that we can still put an extension cord our in order to connect the in-coop timered lighting which is needed in order to ensure egg production throughout the winter months.  Did you realize that chickens need 16-18 hours of light in order to lay? 

The chickens have been in this area for about two weeks and so they have gone through pretty much everything on the ground which is why the feed consumption has increased.  (No more worms and bugs for them to dig up).  They did however enjoy the left over hot oatmeal for breakfast earlier this week as well as the left over tuna fish from lunch but most of all right now they are into their feed mixture.  So what's the downside of the feed mixture, besides the cost? 

POOP.. That's right they poop like crazy..  I need to get in the coop tomorrow and clean it out but my goodness who woulda thunk (yeah that’s farm spelling) that 26 chickens could poop that much?  I'll scrape out most of the poop tomorrow and provide them with some fresh pine shavings and it'll be back to normal, at least for a few more weeks.  So is it all worth it?  You know feeding and cleaning poop.....?  It is when you get eggs.

Speaking of eggs we're now averaging 18-20 eggs a day which means that our fridge is filling up fast but do you know what the best part is???

WE'RE OFF THE GRID (for eggs that is). We no longer rely upon grocery stores or local farmers for eggs, we've actually, through God of course, raised our own food source, that is an awesome feeling... Oh and it opened up $45.00/month in our budget that we were spending on eggs...  

God and His creation is so very good!

Such exciting news: we have our first little pullet egg!!!  And to think I almost crushed it with the chicken door (which we stow just inside the big door.  I hopped up, scanned the coop and didn't see anything, but a little brown  color caught my eye, just in the corner.  Yes, it was an egg!  What an exciting feeling: the ultimate Easter egg hunt!  Can't wait to check in a few hours for more!  Stay updated for an egg by egg play:)

First off, let me apologize for not having updated this site in quite a while.  As most of you are fully aware, the Wagar family has been quite busy these days..  BUT THAT's NO EXCUSE... so here we go.....

From a farming perspective, things have been going well.  It's now the time of year that it's starting to get darker earlier (around 7:30) and it stays darker longer (sunrise at about 7:30) so because of this I have had to add a light and timer on the chicken coop.  Why you may ask?  If we want any chance of having eggs this year, by the way they should start laying sometime within the next 2,5 weeks or so) they need to have around 16 hours of light per day.  So I installed a light in the coop which comes on at 5:30 AM and then goes off at 7:30ish AM.  At night then it comes back on at 7:30ish PM and goes off at around 10:30ish.  Give these ladies a few more weeks and we'll see if we're doing this right.,... we cannot wait to have our first fresh egg...... Oh and don't worry we'll post pictures of it as soon as it arrives..... (Proud Parents!!)

The tractor's not getting much of a work out this time of year either, as the grass has really slowed down in its growth, which might I add is good and bad.  You see the chickens really tear up the ground quite a bit, so I would prefer that it grew faster, however for the winter we're planning on arranging the coop in part of the yard that we don't mind if they tear up and then come spring we'll plant see there and let the circle of life thing happen all over again.

It's also that time of year when the garden is pretty much finished.  We had such a wonderful garden this year... It wasn't much to look at but the Cabbage, Bell and Hot Peppers, and Tomatoes were spectacular.  Soon I will be tilling up the ground for the winter and I think at the same time we'll be tilling up another plot of land for a garden next year.  Currently we have a 10x20 area and we'll probably double that for next year... With 4 kids and one on the way.. you can never have too much food.

That's all for now, we love all and again sorry for not updating this site more frequently.

I think this falls under farming...well, Bruce Maddox, our next door neighbor, is perhaps the best neighbor we could happened to have bought a house next to.  Besides the generosity he bestowed on us today, which I will soon expound on, he is regularly offering us help and assistance.  But today, he called over the fence to see if we like peaches.  Yes!! was the answer so he invited us over to pick as many peaches as we want and to come back for more.  Wow!  The peaches are so delicious, free stone, juicy, wonderful!  D. kept saying, "This is a great harvest!!"  I just can't believe how blessed we are.  So, I am going to try to learn to can.  More on that in another post....
Farm mama

Hey all, thanks to some wonderful friends that came down to the farm to help me put a roof on the coop.  It went much faster than I thought it would but I tell you that hand nailing a roof is a hot, sweaty and time consuming job.  Check out the pictures below (coming soon)

Many of you have been asking, but we've been too busy.. Well no more, here are some pictures of the 26 sister chicks.  Enjoy!

It's been quite a weekend so far, I had two great friends come over and help me with the building of the new "mobile" chicken coop.  There is no way I would have been able to do one bit of this without them for this reason I say:


THANK YOU



Now onto the pics.

This is a picture of the Hay wagon which I purchased for $180.00.  This is what will allow us to move the coop around from paddock to paddock.

Here are the new supports for the Coop.  These are 4x6x16.  They were $25.00 / each but well worth it for the support that they provide.

Here, the basic 2x6 fame has been put together.. Please note it has not yet been attached to the base (wheels) so yes it was off center at the time.

Here you can see the fame as it is attached to the base (wheels) note that the base is a bit torqued but we were able to work this out as well.

I forgot to take an intermediate photo, but the base was completed with 2x4x8 sitting at 16 on center and then those are bolted to the 4x6x16 by angle brackets and lag screws. 
As for this photo, here you can see the beginning of the taller of the two walls.  This one stands at 8 feet.  As for the cutouts, these are for Hardware cloth covered ventilation windows.

Here's a view from the back again, you can see the the first wall (8ft) is up and secured.  Now let's start that second wall shall we.

As you can tell from the photo, it's dark out.  It was about 11:30 PM when we finished the second wall (6Ft).  Why did it take us so long?  Note the two 24x24 windows plus the 36x36 Chicken door that we created.

Now we have both sides completely done (exterior) and tomorrow it's onto the end walls.

This  picture was taken just before we went in for the night, this is the 8 foot wall with the two hardware cloth covered ventilation windows.  The flaps are not yet installed as I need to purchase some outdoor hinges. (sort of looks like some kind of Brown County Militia hideout....)

This  picture was taken just before we went in for the night, this is the 6 foot wall with the two 24 x 24 windows and a chicken door.  The flap for the chicken door is not yet installed as I need to purchase some outdoor hinges.

Today is a new day!!  We got up at 8:00 AM and headed out to build more walls.  Here is the one end wall.  It only took us 3 hours to build it but check out the angles.. It turned out perfect.

Here's a better view of the work we've done so far.  This is the front, right hand corner of the coop, so here you can see the front and the end wall that we just completed.  It's coming together nicely.

Here's a picture of the side wall that we still need to work on.  This is where we will have the people door.  Let's get to work!

Okay, now that's what I'm talking about.. If only the work was as quick as uploading these photos....
Anyway, the last wall is in and complete. I just need to trim off the excess OSB board from the sides.

And there she is, it's about 2:00 and we're pooped, so that's it for this weekend. Next Friday, I will build the people door, Add the flaps for the Hardware Cloth windows as well as the Chicken Door and then focus on the Roof..  A little paint  and some interior goodies (Roosts, Nesting Boxes and we'll be all set for move in.

Something tells me that the kids think this is a playhouse for them??