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T O P I C R E V I E W
CloversMum	Posted - Jul 08 2015 : 12:38:21 PM My 9 yo son has spent the last two days outside for hours, using a power drill, slap stapler, and a crowbar. He bought his own screws after figuring out himself what screw length he needed. Owen told me that he needed to buy a box of them because it was cheaper in bulk (he has done the math!). He built a chicken coop using pallets. His plan? He wants to breed certain hens with a certain rooster ... a geneticist in the making?! And a carpenter? I am so thankful for the opportunities that living on our farm give our kids.
25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
GingerBKelly	Posted - Sep 18 2015 : 05:17:22 AM I love it that you let Owen do it all on his own. The trusses are perfect! Show us some more photos, please. This is great work. Kids are so smart, they never cease to amaze me.
NellieBelle	Posted - Sep 17 2015 : 3:06:55 PM Best way to learning is by doing. If mistakes are made you learn how to correct them or improve on the original plan. Love seeing Owen's ingenuity at work. Keep the updates and photo's coming Charlene.
farmlife	Posted - Sep 16 2015 : 8:58:19 PM Go Owen!
CloversMum	Posted - Sep 15 2015 : 9:18:25 PM Owen's plan includes tar paper to be installed tomorrow with final roofing materials to be decided ... depends on what he can find in the scrap pile! He is thinking extra tar paper or some metal siding. This nine year old has no problem keeping himself entertained around here! Love the opportunities of country living.
CloversMum	Posted - Sep 15 2015 : 9:13:10 PM And the coop adventure continues as my son decided that his coop needed a sloped roof to help shed the snow. My husband explained about roof trusses and off Owen went. This is what he designed completely on his own! He told me that he is creating an opening so that the hens can climb up to the attic space! His imagination and developing engineering skills are fun to watch. He is getting ready for winter, Ron!!
CloversMum	Posted - Aug 14 2015 : 10:39:54 AM Definitely yes to smaller combs! Less chance of freezing ... hard to think about frostbite with the heat wave we've been having! But Ron keeps reminding and promising us that winter is coming!
farmlife	Posted - Aug 14 2015 : 10:17:41 AM I think that chick is even more adorable because he came from Owen's flock! Plus it has two out of three chances of having a small comb. We're trying to head more that direction around here. :)
CloversMum	Posted - Aug 14 2015 : 10:16:01 AM Owen moved his flock of Light Brahmas out to the garage into the bigger pen he built all by himself (!) using old wooden pallets. I told him that they needed moved since they were jumping out of their brooder in the mud room. We had free ranging chicks in my mud room ... had to draw the line somewhere! Here he is with one of the rooster chicks. Cindy, I already ask him questions about the flock and he is such a great little observer, he usually knows! I love the lessons learned through farm animals and being able to live out in the country. Truly a wonderful blessing!
txbikergirl	Posted - Aug 14 2015 : 08:58:44 AM i think within a year we will all be directing any chicken related questions to owen. he's going to be the expert around here quick.
CloversMum	Posted - Aug 13 2015 : 10:20:06 PM Oh, Ashley, I am slightly afraid to let Owen know this ... but he already has plans on breeding his purebred flock! And now this will just increase his enthusiasm... such a little entrepreneurial, he is. And, let me tell you, this flock is already quite tame! He took one of the roosters out this morning while he watered the big planters on our front porch. I thought he was going to hold the little chick ... "No, mom, I just set him down on the concrete and he watched me." The big excitement today was that an egg hatched that he had collected from his original flock. Owen says that this chick is part Black Australorp, Light Brahma, and Americana.
Ashley	Posted - Aug 07 2015 : 06:28:22 AM This is so cool! I've really enjoyed watching Owen's operation evolve, and totally dig his entrepreneurial spirit. I look forward to reading more updates. If he does end up with some Light Brahmas he wants to sell, Brian and I might be interested in a couple chicks. :)
farmlife	Posted - Aug 07 2015 : 06:15:03 AM I think Light Brahmas are some of the most beautiful birds there are, Charlene. We ended up with a couple of Columbian Wyandottes this year because they were more the size of the rest of our mixed flock, but have the coloring more like the Brahmas. I can't wait to hear how Owen's flock does and how you like your Speckled Sussex chicks. My daughter loves our Speckled Sussex because they are very quirky pet-like chickens. They are very tame and personable with her.
Sydney2015	Posted - Aug 06 2015 : 5:17:22 PM Right now I have one three year old golden polish hen, a two year old silver polish rooster, and two two year old silver polish hens. They are very hard to raise, they are non-setters, they lay eggs very spotty(if you know what I mean), and the chicks need help getting out of their shell when they first hatch. They can't get out if you don't help them. I hope Owen has good turn-out, and luck too!🐓
txbikergirl	Posted - Aug 05 2015 : 6:01:42 PM this so warms my heart, wonderful. be careful or we might have to bring that little man out to texas as our farmhand and adopted son. can't wait to follow this thread for updates. thanks for sharing.
CloversMum	Posted - Aug 05 2015 : 11:41:05 AM Sydney, My son wants to sell fresh eggs for eating, fertilized eggs, and chicks when these chickens are old enough. We've hatched several batches in our incubator successfully so we'll try it again and I think he would love to have a hen go broody and hatch out a batch herself. We will see where this all leads ... Aren't Polish Chickens a bit harder to raise? I think they are so funny to watch with their poufy head feathers. Do you have any right now? Owen ordered Light Brahmas which are supposed to be fairly hardy and super friendly, even the roosters! We shall see!
CloversMum	Posted - Aug 05 2015 : 11:38:54 AM We got a phone at 5:45 am from the post office letting us know that Owen's chicks had arrived. This has got to be one of the best ways to get a boy out of bed! Man, he was speedy this morning. We picked the chicks up by 6:30. Owen has announced that these chicks will be very spoiled chickens and he's already figuring out which ones must be the roosters (we are supposed to have 2 cockerels and 4 pullets).
Sydney2015	Posted - Aug 05 2015 : 09:10:58 AM What a great coop! That sort of sounds like me. I bred my polish chickens, I was going to sell them, I didn't, they were in the pen of ours that got eaten, poor little chickens. Does Owen plan on selling them? It took a lot of work for me to hatch some, I had to help most of them get out of the shell, and my first batch wasn't fertilized.
CloversMum	Posted - Aug 04 2015 : 10:17:59 AM My son has definitely got some entrepreneurial genetics in him! He is refining his flock and ordered four pullets and one cockerel. He wants to raise Light Brahma Chickens for their eggs, fertilized eggs, and chicks. The chicks are to be delivered tomorrow and he already has the brooder ready for them. When they are big enough, they'll get to use his chicken coop. He's decided it would be more valuable to have a pure breed and not mixed chicks. He already has eggs in the incubator from his first mixed flock abiding in his coop. And, here I have been trying to downsize my flock ... he'll end up with a flock bigger than mine! But I do enjoy watching him figure things out and set up his own little business.
farmlife	Posted - Jul 13 2015 : 9:33:45 PM That makes perfect sense, Charlene. They say that a hen can lay fertilized eggs for about two weeks after mating, so to make sure the chicks are Kings progeny it is probably best to wait. Then Owen's flock will be "pure". We had a lesson on all of this tonight, but with cows. Our Red Angus heifer is in heat again, so we hauled her over to a friends to get serviced by their bull. When we put her in the pen with the other cows and the bull he was on her tail in a matter of about a minute and it was a pretty big pasture. Ruby meet Tank, Tank meet Ruby. She wasn't willing to stand for him yet since today is her first day of heat, but that didn't stop him from trying. The kids had all sorts of questions, that once again just make it all seem like regular stuff. It will be interesting to see what questions arise from Elli's AI session when it comes.
Ron	Posted - Jul 13 2015 : 05:20:54 AM Always nice to be able to figure out how children can make a living off the farm.... One youngin east of here grows a massive garden and sells produce out of the back of a truck in several towns different days a week...makes about 30k a year..
CloversMum	Posted - Jul 12 2015 : 5:23:35 PM Oh Keeley, I laughed at your comment! My guy has most definitely been watching to see if his rooster is capable of mating ... the rooster is. But I had read that in order to be sure the hens were not laying eggs still fertilized by other roosters, you had to wait a few weeks. Living on a farm makes life facts just regular stuff which I so appreciate. My son lets me know if the cows or goats are in heat, too. He was watching closely to see when his rooster "King" started mating so he could start this coop. He is such an observer. Ron, so far I'm trying to keep my son around here ... there's too much work here! :-) My older son is also a hard worker and is hardly home any more as everyone else wants to hire him! A good problem to have, I'm thinking.
Ron	Posted - Jul 12 2015 : 10:24:14 AM Is the young man for hire?
farmlife	Posted - Jul 12 2015 : 06:05:09 AM My favorite picture is the one of Owen inside the coop peeking out. What a clever guy! I'm surprised he hasn't been watching for fertilization to happen. When we were picking eggs to put under our broody hen my ten year old son, Garrett (AKA Chicken Man), was telling me which ones to pick based on who the rooster seemed to "like." That means he regularly spies not only to know which hen is laying which egg also. Did I mention all of our chickens have names? :) The pictures of Colton are just awesome! I would expect that with his mom's photography skills. He was quite the builder as well. Janet's still using rabbit hutches he made.
txbikergirl	Posted - Jul 12 2015 : 01:39:01 AM Charlene this is great! he's really got initiative. i'll enjoy following the adventure as it progresses.
CloversMum	Posted - Jul 11 2015 : 10:25:45 PM And now Owen has created the yard to his little chicken coop. That boy has worked hours this past week! I enjoy watching his problem-solving skills, architectural designing, perseverance, and ability to work with tools. He has been so proud of the eggs being laid in "his" coop. He keeps asking if I think they are fertilized yet with "King" his rooster ... but I think to be sure we have to wait a couple of weeks. He is enjoying figuring out the genetics of it all as well.