The Bantam Tractor

My wife and I finally came to an agreement as to what to do with the chicken tractor. Our 15 birds are pretty big and the feeling was that the tractor wasn't big enough for them all. I really didn't want to split them up so we decided they will all stay in the dog pen coop. For the tractor we decided to get three bantam pullets from a local breeder.




I'm not sure of the exact kind of bantams they are. Heck, I didn't even know they had different breeds.

These full grown pullets are tiny! I don't really know why they are so popular, certainly not for the meat and egg production. We are getting eggs from them, which is good even if it takes two to make a normal sized egg. We even had our first egg present while driving home.




My wife likes them and the tractor is now in use, so now we are both happy.

The sill "clamp"

As Jason and I were tearing apart a room yesterday in preparation to repair the rear sills, we came across this bizarre piece of 1800's ingenuity.




This chuck of wood acts like a clamp to hold the two sills together. The second sill was added probably about 30 years after the first. Normally, some sort of dovetail key is used but since they had to connect to an existing section of house, they had to come up with another method to secure the new sill.




The "clamp" was thin enough to slip under the existing floor boards and then rotated so that the notch straddles the sills. A massive wedge was then inserted to cinch the two sills together.




You can also see the chamfer that allowed the piece to be rotated down.

I really enjoy taking stuff apart and seeing how it was put together 200 years ago.

March...kinda harsh

I think it's safe to say that March was a harsh mistress. The weather was terrible and the plague ran rampant throughout the house causing major delays in blogs and projects both. I have a few comments to reply to in the posts but today will be a short "catch up" posting. Short, because that is all the attention I have.

The dog pen-chicken coop got a cover put on it. I wasn't worried about anything getting in from the top, but I was worried about the birds getting big enough to flutter their way out. I don't mind free-ranging but I will save it for when we live outside of town limits. I did have a moment of free-ranging when I left the gate open while installing the hood. Daisy dog was kind enough to help me herd them back in. Josie, the 14 year old healer l, not so much. I guess she is officially retired.

The chicken tractor is done. I still have a few fasteners to add to the roof, but it's ready to go. I don't have any say as to who or what goes in, but I have my orders to finish the big coop. Which means the tractor will stay empty, or used for something else.




Currently working another sill replacement with Jason. More on that later.