Small livestock provide many benefits for the garden. They’re calming to watch and care for, they provide nutritious eggs, and their manure is great for the compost. They also eat love to eat food scraps and bugs. This year we built a new chicken run incorporated into the compost system, and we welcomed quail and rabbits to the garden as well. We also built a small animal enclosure in the hoop house for our critter projects.
The chickens arrived in the mail in early February as babies
Buffy the baby chicken snoozing on a warm lap
As a baby, Buffy loved to hangout
Buffy can bring you to your knees!
Mark helped build the small livestock enclosure
CCG coordinator Alexis watches the young chickens in the high tunnel during early spring.
We designed a space inside the high tunnel for small livestock, including chickens, quail, and rabbits
A baby chicken caught a worm
This day old chick met Nayroo
The chicken run design
A digital humidity monitor helps keep the atmosphere consistent inside the incubator
Adolescent chickens learn to roost
Chicks need a heat-lamp to help regulate their body temperature until they’re older
Mark
Mark and Jim putting in a post for the new chicken run
One of our chickens turned out to be a rooster
The chickens stayed in the high tunnel while their run was being completed
A digital thermometer helped us keep the heat consistent when hatching eggs.
The chickens love their new space
The new chicken run is incorporated with the compost system and makes it easier to bird watch
Building the new chicken run
Eggs in an incubator need consistent heat and humidity in just the right amounts
A newborn chicken expends a lot of energy to get out its shell
Fresh quail eggs
In 2020 we raised champagne d’argent at CCG. Their manure makes excellent compost.
Adolescent quail
The new coop allows a better view of the chickens
The most popular nesting box
CCG coordinator Alexis’s pet rabbit hopped in a basket of kohlrabi from CCG
We hatched all our quail in an incubator
We built a flower house for our quail using plant trimmings
CCG chickens love food scraps
The chickens love tomatoes.
The chickens have a pecking order, and the top chickens get first pick.
