We have not had water in the barn for the whole time we’ve lived here. (By water, I’m meaning running water flowing from a tap. Not a leak. We have some of those.)
It has not been a big deal because for 13 of those years, we had no need for water in the barn.
When the chickens and turkeys arrived, they needed water, but I could easily keep them supplied with a small bucket. I filled it from the hose on the patio and carried it out to the barn. Even their big waterers weren’t a big deal to carry back and forth a few times a week. In the winter, I had a clean bucket that I filled at the kitchen sink and dumped into a barn bucket.
But ducklings are another matter. Ducks need water.
We started the ducklings with a small barrel in their run. It took a 5 gallon pail to fill even this small tub. Hauling a full 5 gallon pail out to the barn every morning was more of a workout than I wanted.
I made it a week and then I called the plumber.
We had water in the barn, kind of. The issue was to figure out if it worked.
When we first moved to the farm, all the water was in the barn. The well flowed to the barn, where the pump then sent it to the house. Everything was in an insulated box, heated by a lightbulb. The equipment was old and some was not working properly.
The set up was questionable, so we drilled a new well and installed a new pump and treatment system in the house. Then we ignored all of the equipment in the barn, figuring it was a problem for another day.
Well, the ducklings moved to the coop and another day arrived.
When we installed the new well, our contractors connected to the old pipe that ran from the barn. The idea was we could reverse the flow and push water from the new well back to the barn. So my question to my plumber was, “Can we do that?”
The first step was to figure out which pipe was the right pipe. The pump, tank and pipes in the barn were a mess. Four pipes disappeared into the ground. Which one was connected to the house? The plumber took a guess, cut a pipe, and I ran back to the house to open the valve labelled “barn.” (At least I knew which pipe was which at one end.) The plumber was able to see where the water came out, so that told us what pipe to use.
Then we had to get from the end of the pipe to the coop. Completely on the other side of the barn. I bought 100 feet of waterline and strung it across the barn, screwing it into the beams as I went.
Gratuitous picture of my cute work crew. Note, the ducklings, the instigators of this work, are not present.
The plumber came back and tied into my new waterline. He gave me a tap at the coop side, where I could install a hose that would fill tubs outside in the run or buckets in the pens. Back at the old pump box, he gave me a new shut off valve and two clean out taps, so I can drain the line for the winter.
It has been so nice to have water at the barn.
It also enables me to upgrade the ducklings’ tub. I’m on the hunt for a bathtub. If you hear of anyone getting rid of an old tub, please let me know.
The ducklings have made the move to the coop. This week, they will turn 5 weeks old. They still don’t have their full feathers, but they have grown so much.
We brooded in the house for just over 3 weeks. The challenge with ducklings–which I knew–is water. Even the littlest ducklings want to be in water, need to be in water, love to be in water. I set things up as best as I could in the brooder to limit the splashing, but everything was still very wet.
When I felt like the temperatures were warm enough and the birds were big enough, they moved out.
The ducklings have their own section of the coop separate from the chickens. They have an indoor pen with an attached outdoor run.
When I first put them in the run, they were pretty unsure. I sat with them, and they stayed close. Very close.
Ellie and I had found a section of an old plastic barrel, so we put that in the run so that they had a small tub for swimming. They quickly discovered the tub and happily hopped in, so that made them more comfortable. They loved nibbling on all the weeds and grasses in the run, so that helped too.
The drama came at night when it was time to go in the coop. They had no idea what to do. I lifted them one by one and passed them through the small door to Ellie who was inside. Then I locked them in. When I came out in the morning and opened the door, I was able to talk them into coming out on their own, though they had no idea how navigate the ramp and tumbled off the side (it’s a very short fall, and ducklings bounce pretty well).
The second day, we repeated the ritual. The third evening they were able to walk up the ramp into the coop by themselves with us herding them from behind, and they were confident enough to come out by themselves in the morning. They have now figured out that the coop is a good place and they go in and out on their own. I still lock them in at night, though the run is very secure and I don’t really think they’re at risk.
We’ve also started letting them free range a bit during the day. If we’re outside, we tend to let the chickens out. So we’ve included the ducklings. Again, it took them awhile to build their confidence. Walking through the gate was hard. But they feel safest with us, so they will come to where we are (usually at top speed). They also know their baby pool is across the yard, so that’s additional motivation.
The other day the chickens were between the ducks and us, and the ducklings blasted right through the flock. They did not care that anyone was in their path. Our big barred rock, Boss-Boss, didn’t know what to do when all four ducklings were coming straight at her.
And that’s why I got ducklings. They are hilarious and fun and we love having them.
Our family is expanding again. Last week, we brought home four ducklings.
Ducklings have been in our plans since I built the coop. You may remember Ellie made a sign for one of the pens saying “where the waddles live.”
Well, the waddles now live with us!
Like with our chickens, we chose day old birds. When we went to the Feathered Acres hatchery to pick them up, they were probably less than a day old. They were so small.
We chose two Cayuga and two White Crested. Ellie picked the White Crested for their hair dos and the Cayugas for their colour. I picked the Cayugas for (hopefully) their eggs–grey or black shells!
Regardless of their looks, we love them all. They are currently brooding under a heat lamp in the living room. They spend their days making a mess with their water–typical duckling behaviour–and peeping. They get lots of cuddles too.
They are pets, so we’re working to make sure they’re comfortable with us and used to being handled. They are energetic and silly little babies.
We’re already starting to see their personalities. Ellie chose the name Wonder for our most curious duck. Poufy is the other White Crested, so named for her hair do. Our working names for the Cayugas are Midnight (all black) and Starlight (a little splash of yellow on her breast). We don’t know yet whether they’re males or females. We’re hoping for mostly females.
Ducks are such fun birds. I’m so happy to add their little flock to our family.
One year ago we brought 10 fluffy little chicks home. Adding chickens to the farm was my dream long before we moved here, and I’m so happy it came true.
To celebrate one year with the chickens, I’m looking back at some of the highlights.
The benefits of day-old birds
We chose to get day-old birds, rather than ready-to-lay, hatching our own, or adopting someone else’s flock. Because we’ve been with them since they hatched, holding them, feeding them, caring for them, our chickens are extremely used to us and super easy to manage. They are calm (as chickens go), comfortable being handled and want to be with us.
Hair-Do (a favourite hen) will ride on Ellie’s lap on her saucer sing. Clucker (extremely opinionated and food motivated) comes running anytime we’re out. All of the birds come to the fence when they see us drive in the driveway or heading for the coop.
Chickens are fun on their own, but the real reason we got them was eggs. Our first egg arrived mid-August when the hens were about 16 1/2 weeks old. We’ve not had a day without eggs since. Laying decreased a bit in the winter and when the birds molted (more on this below), but now we have many days where everyone lays.
An extra bit of fun with our chickens is their different coloured eggs. We have 3 barred rocks (brown eggs), 3 azure blues (blue eggs) and 4 olives (green eggs). I’ve not noticed a difference in production between the breeds.
On the topic of eggs, all of our ladies lay on the floor. All in the same corner. Meaning there are frequently line-ups and pile-ups. For a human to access the corner and collect the eggs requires ducking and contortions. The eggs get stepped on and sat on and are usually quite dirty. It’s awkward for everyone. I installed 3 nesting boxes when I built the coop, but the hens don’t care.
We’ve tried plastic eggs in the boxes to demonstrate what they’re for. We occasionally stuff a hen in the box. They usually hop out.
But we have recently had some success. One day I showed up during a contentious competition for the favoured corner. I scooped up Hair-Do, one of the combatants, and popped her into a nesting box. She stayed in and laid an egg. Since then, she’s been laying in the box every day. Another hen has recently followed Hair-Do’s example.
I’m thinking I might try adding some herb cuttings to the straw in the nesting boxes to see if this encourages any other hens to check them out.
The magic of the poop board
A part of the coop that’s been working exactly as intended is the poop board. This is a wide shelf or floor that I installed under the roosts. The idea is to catch the poop that the chickens make when they’re roosting–and they make a lot. Once a week I scrape the poop into a large bucket and dump it on the manure pile. The poop board keeps a ton of manure out of the straw and helps me keep the coop much cleaner.
The unending thirst for water
I’ve been surprised by how much the chickens drink. In the warmer weather, they have a large waterer in the run along with a bucket in the coop. In the winter, they had just their indoor bucket, and I had to refill it at least once a day. I bring a large bucket of water out every morning and top up their drinking water as needed. We don’t have a tap at the coop (yet), but it hasn’t been onerous to carry buckets from the house.
The worst timing to molt
Molting is the process where chickens renew their feathers. Usually it happens about once a year around the end of summer. Our chickens started molting after Christmas. Terrible timing as temperatures were very cold. Along with losing a lot of feathers, one hen’s comb and wattle shrunk dramatically and turned a very pale pink. We started calling her the pale hen. We added a daily ration of meal worms to increase their protein and waited. Pretty much everyone bounced back really well, and our pale hen is back to normal.
The problem with picking
One side effect of the molt seems to be some picking, where hens pick on certain birds and pull out feathers. Anything that’s different will cause chickens to peck. We watch out for wounds or spots that might inspire curiosity. Picking happens for several reasons, including lack of space, protein and boredom. We have a couple of hens who have lost some feathers around their rear ends. The worst case is a hen (Cinnamon) who is missing a lot of feathers on her back. I think she may have been mounted by another hen and bullied.
We’ve been letting the chickens free range when we’re outside to keep an eye on them. This helps to relieve boredom and give them something else to pay attention to. Unfortunately, our bare naked ladies are not likely to grow new feathers until they go through another molt.
I’m planning to make a cape (official chicken term is saddle or apron) to cover Cinnamon’s back to protect her until then.
Space constraints
Overall, the coop and run are working well and I’m really proud of what I built. During the winter, the hens spent a lot of time in the coop. While technically the coop has enough space for 10 birds, it feels small when they’re all inside for multiple days. This could be another reason for the picking. We’ve given the chickens a double run, but even it feels tight sometimes. In addition to free ranging occasionally, we’ve talked about using poultry netting to expand the run.
I also want to add some features to their existing run to make it more interesting. Right now the run is flat, bare dirt (or mud thanks to all the rain we’ve had). We built a swing when we moved the chickens outside, but no one has been interested in it. I’m going to try some other perches or structures to give them some other things to do.
I also have some changes in mind before next winter, so they can be outside more easily.
We have hung vegetables and even a small container of scratch mix from the roof of the run as a kind of chicken pinata. These have provided some entertainment for all of us.
(There are holes cut in the bottle, so the scratch falls out when they peck it.)
The past year with our chickens has been fun. I love seeing Ellie’s confidence, care and responsibility with the birds. It’s not been too much work to add them to our family, and the joy we get from them is worth it.
Caring for anything is an ongoing process of learning and adjusting. We are continuing to do that with our chickens.
I tackled the biggest projects we’ve done in a while here at the farm–maybe ever when I think of the birds who are now a fixture of the farm.
When I laid out my home goals a year ago, I was very excited by what was ahead. As I look back, I’m very excited and proud of what I accomplished.
Here’s my look back at Home Goals 2025.
Coop
The coop was a big construction project and it turned out so well. The barn, pens, storage, and runs all work very well and have kept our birds comfortable and safe. Adding birds to our family has been a very special, fun experience–even the turkeys.
While it’s not directly for the coop, there was another big barn task I completed last year: eavestrough. I’ll be sharing more details about this project in an upcoming post.
My office
My office was the first project of the year. It is a comfortable, personal room. Having this space for working, writing, crafting, sewing, whatevering has been so nice.
It’s also helped me to be more focused with my worktime. I still bring my computer to the couch occasionally, but having the desk, a place for my laptop and a dedicated spot for work has helped me leave work on my desk a bit more.
Ellie’s playroom
Ellie’s playroom makeover did not happen. As fall arrived, I really wanted to tackle it, but the reality of everything I was already doing and the number of hours in a day meant that another project would have been too much. I’m glad I decided to postpone the makeover, and I’m eager to start this room this year.
Main bathroom
The novelty of our renovated bathroom has not worn off. Every day I am grateful for how beautiful it is, how well it works, that I did so much of the work myself and that after living here for 13 years it is finally done.
Checking off three out of four home goals feels pretty good, especially since these were big projects for us. And, I need to say it one more time, they all turned out so well. I love the changes we’ve made to the house and the farm, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished.
Did you have any big home accomplishments in 2025?
Our little orange kitten has become a champion barn cat, a much-loved family member and so much fun.
Cedar has been with us for six months. You may recall we adopted him and his brother Maple at the same time as the chickens and turkeys arrived in the spring.
We kept the kittens confined in the coop for several weeks so we could get to know each other and get through their neuter surgeries. (The birds were still in their brooders in the house.) After we let Cedar and Maple out to have free range, Maple disappeared just a couple of days later. We’ve never found any sign of Maple, but Cedar has stayed safe and stayed home.
He is a very social little cat and loves to be with us.
He’s usually waiting outside the mudroom door for Cigo and me in the morning and then runs to the barn for his breakfast. If we’re inside and he feels left out, he will sit on the steps outside the living room door or on the kitchen windowsill and meow. He hasn’t figured out how to break through the screen on the kitchen window, but he keeps trying.
Occasionally he comes into the mudroom if the door is open and one rainy night he made it as far as the living room until he decided he was ready to go back outside.
He’s gone on the trampoline, the saucer swing and the treehouse, loves belly rubs and tolerates being carried around by Ellie. He’s accompanied us down the driveway to the school bus and gone with Cigo for a walk to the back field.
The biggest adjustment has been Cigo. Cigo has always been super excited by cats, so it took a while for him to get used to Cedar. He chased Cedar several times and got dragged back to the house for a timeout. Cedar learned climbing trees was a good escape–a good lesson for predators beyond Cigo.
But Cedar is an easy going, tolerant, confident cat. So he kept venturing out of the barn even though he knew Cigo was around. We kept doing supervised visits with Cigo and Cedar and lots of treats for everyone. Eventually, they got used to each other and now we all–including the chickens–can be together with no issues.
Cedar can sprint past Cigo or walk through Cigo’s legs, and Cigo doesn’t blink. In fact, sometimes he seems to say, “Little dude, can you give me a break?” They occasionally try to play together, but haven’t figured out how to manage the size difference yet.
Beyond the fun, Cedar is also doing his job. He is a prolific hunter, and we find dead bodies in the barn and on the lawn regularly.
For winter, we’ve added a cat house full of straw outside the mudroom door. He also has the barn with lots of straw filled spots.
Cedar has added to the love and joy in our little family, and I’m very glad he’s with us.
The teeny tiny caterpillars who depend completely on their leaves of milkweed. The big fat caterpillars who munch through their milkweed so loudly I can hear it. The chrysalis inside the caterpillar. The glimpse of black and orange wings through the clear walls of the chrysalis. The butterflies’ first flutter, first flight. Their migration.
That was 9 years ago, with Matt. Matt had raised monarchs before as a child. He was just as enthused to raise them as an adult here at the farm.
Since then, there have been more seasons, more butterflies. Ellie was born. Matt died. The cycle of life has continued.
This year, Ellie and I continued our monarch tradition.
We collected caterpillars and milkweed. We even collected two eggs and successfully hatched them. We found more caterpillars and added them to our nursery. We released butterflies. Found more caterpillars. We started in July and finally released our last butterflies at the end of September.
The number is phenomenal. We have never had so many monarchs. Part of me fears this flurry reflects a last gasp before the population truly collapses. A larger part of me hopes that this is a sign of resilience and strength. Or maybe it doesn’t have meaning, and it’s just life.
Life is a cycle. It is amazing and hard and magical and special. Seeing it up close through the monarchs is powerful. It reminds me to fully appreciate my life. Not take my time for granted. Do my part to support those around me. That I am part of something bigger.
Mid-August our first egg arrived (the hens were about 16 1/2 weeks old at this point). It was laid on the roost and had a soft shell, so it was broken when I found it. We had one more soft shell roost egg, and then a few days later, I discovered three small greeny blue eggs in a corner of the coop. We ate them for breakfast–and one was a double yolker.
Since then, we’ve consistently had two eggs a day. They’ve been either olive or blue (it’s hard to tell) and small. We’ve had enough for ourselves and shared a few with Grandma and Papa.
On Friday, we had our first full sized egg, which turned out to be another double yolker.
Ellie found some chicken patterned fabric and sewed a cloth to line her egg basket. She collects the eggs every day, as she has anticipated doing since before the chicks arrived.
We’re waiting for everyone to start laying. My research says that most hens start to lay between 18-20 weeks. Today is the start of week 19, so we’re right in that window. We’re also waiting for them to try out the nesting boxes rather than the corner on the floor. We’ve switched the chickens to a layer food and added oyster shell to their diet, so I’m sure that will help move the other ladies along.
You want me to do what?
Every day is exciting to bring in new eggs, count how many there are, assess their colour and size, and eat our super fresh home grown breakfast. Also exciting? For the first time this weekend I didn’t put eggs on my grocery order.
Any other egg fans out there? Have you ever eaten a blue or green egg? Anyone else have experience collecting eggs?
The turkeys went to the “processor” last week. Such a clean term for ending a life. It was hard for me, and definitely hard for Ellie.
Our plan from the beginning was to eat the turkeys. We spent three months with them, from little fluffballs who climbed onto Ellie’s lap to large birds with their own personalities. Ending that was a big responsibility–as it should be.
One of the things I have been thinking about is food should be hard.
Over the years, food has become easy. As we have become distanced from the labour of producing food, we have lost sight of the investment that goes into what we eat. We ignore or are ignorant of what it takes to grow food, whether it’s a turkey or a tomato. The work of raising, sheltering, feeding, watering, harvesting, killing, butchering, storing, cooking is hard.
There is also a cost. That cost comes in the toll we take on our soil by growing monocrops, using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, draining the water table. It comes in the quality of life for our animals, the diseases that spread, the pathogens and contaminations that arise. It comes in the nutrients and flavour in our food, or lack thereof. It comes in the physical, financial and mental health of farmers.
Food should reflect those investments and costs. It should be something we consider and value more than most of us do. Food is our connection to the land and to each other. It should be nourishment, health, community. It should reflect the quality of the soil, the care of the animals and the labour of the farmers. It should be grown, harvested, bought and eaten with respect and gratitude.
I am grateful to the turkeys. To Strawberry, Medea, Stewart and Tutu. The experience of caring for an animal and growing our own food is powerful.
I introduced this year’s home goals by saying, “I am really, really excited by the projects I have planned.” Mid-way through the year, I am still excited about these projects. I’m also really, really excited by how much progress I’ve made.
What a year it’s been so far!
Coop
The coop is finished. The birds are in residence. It is awesome. I love having birds again. Seeing them walking around makes me happy. I am so proud of the coop and how well everything has worked out. I will likely continue to make tweaks depending on what the birds need (like repairing the turkeys’ door after they take it apart–again), but I am comfortable saying that for now, this project is done.
My office
Another project that’s done? My office. Transforming, decorating and organizing this space was fun, and I love having my own working, writing, crafting, sewing, creating, whatevering space.
Ellie’s playroom
A dedicated play, crafting, creating space for Ellie is still on the list for this year. She’s been collecting paint chips in anticipation. Can you guess what her current favourite colours are? This room will likely be our fall project.
Main bathroom
The bathroom renovation is well underway, and what a transformation. I’ve been able to do a lot of the work myself, which feels really good. My vision for the design and function of this space is turning out beautifully. I am really happy. More updates to come.
2025 is a big year. I don’t think I’ve had this many projects on the go since early days (perhaps years) or moving to the farm. It’s been tiring, fulfilling, challenging. But mostly it’s been fun. I love working on the house and the property, making it ours and making it beautiful.
I hope I can keep up the momentum for the rest of the year.
Have you tackled any project around your house so far this year? What’s on your list for the rest of 2025?Anyone else having a big house year? What’s exciting you about your house right now?
Home on 129 Acres 