Baby monarch in progress!

A few days ago we noticed a monarch caterpillar on a rose bush. We thought that was odd since all the others we've seen are on the milkweed we planted just for them. Hypothesis: maybe the caterpillars go to a different plant just before the chrysalis stage? But then why choose a plant 20 feet away from the milkweed? Any bloggers out there have the answer? 

Here is one little guy (maybe the same one?) on the milkweed:

And here is the chrysalis we found:

Can anyone solve our little mystery??

Chicken Run

Howdy all!

Our chickens are getting pretty big, and it is time to get them the heck out of the house, so we finished the chicken run! To start, we moved around the dirt near the chicken coop, to create a (roughly) flat area to set up the run:

We also wanted to give the chickens a nice base in which to play (and poop), so we took an old (and unsuccessful) compost heap, and moved it into the chicken run. The compost was mostly unbroken down leaves, hay, and grasses.

The run has a base of redwood beams. We were afraid of using the chemically treated, rot resistant wood given the proximity of the wood to the chickens. We want nice health eggs.

Here is a good photo showing the outline of the chicken run, in a nice little 'T'. The chickens need about 10 square feet per chicken, so this gives them enough room to run around.

After the base was done, we installed the vertical posts of 2x 4s, that will support the hardware cloth (do not use chicken wire! The holes are too big, and critters can still get their hands through the holes. We chose 1/4" hardware cloth, so nothing hopefully can get in.)

Here is Nicky relaxing:

After the vertical posts went up, we attached the horizontal ones that will hold the roof of wire up. We attached these to the chicken coop, which is a nice sturdy base.

After the wood was done, we put on a nice thick layer of paint to protect the wood:

Here is our door, which will be big enough to allow us to move compost in and out of the chicken run once our little egg makers start their magic.

A confused Ford investigates the chicken run.

Here I work to install the Hardware cloth (again don't use Chicken wire), which covers all the sides of the run to protect our chickens from possums, raccoons and alley cats.

Ford investigates the inside of the chicken coop.

The excess wire at the bottom of the run was folded 90 degrees, to prevent digging by creatures under the edges of the run. We will eventually cover these with concrete paver stones that will be heavy enough to prevent digging. As well, our dog Flint **loves** to stare at the chickens, eagerly licking his lips. The pavers will prevent him from digging into the coop as well.

Ford supervises our work from on top of the chicken coop:

Success! Our chicken wire can support the weight of a slightly overweight kitty cat : )

Still to do: Move the chickens out to the chicken coop.
                Finish the egg laying boxes
                Finish putting the pavers around the chicken run.
                Clean out my destroyed office!

Happy New Year Caterpillars

Howdy All,

Happy New Year! Nicky and I have been frantically working to finish up the chicken coop, so I can get the chickens out of my damn office! While we were working today, Nicky found four monarch butterfly caterpillars in one of our bushes, so we took a bunch of photos!

I also took some other photos as well, even though it is winter, we still have some pretty flowers!