Chickens Archives - Full & Simple

Gift Guide for the Fancy Farm Girl

December 4, 2016 by Erika

Merry Christmas! I'm thrilled to be joining a few other ladies to bring you gift guides for every woman on your list.

As many of you know, I am a farm girl, but ironically, I don't particularly care for dirt and I love all things that make my farm chores cuter. That is what inspired my gift guide this year. I want to bring you items to help make the farmhouse and farm life a little cuter.

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1. Freckled Hen Farmhouse Market Basket

This market basket has been on my wishlist for a little while now because while we try to grow a lot of our own food in our garden, we simply don't have the room (or time) to grow everything. This means that we still make it a priority to visit our local farmers market in the summer. This basket is perfect for all of the goodies we pick up on our trips. And its beautiful enough to make a decor statement hanging up on our coat hook when it isn't being used.

Freckled Hen Farmhouse is giving Full & Simple readers a 15% discount to their shop. Just use the code FANCYFARMGIRL at checkout.

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2. Bainbridge Mercantile Signs

I have two signs from Bainbridge Mercantile already and want a few more. They have to cutest signs for any farm or garden. We have a sign on our chicken coop and a sign for our bees on the gate right outside of where we keep our hive. My plan this spring is to make a few raised beds and add a few of the garden signs to them.

Bainbridge Mercantile is giving 20% off and free shipping on orders over $25 (U.S. orders only) with the code FULLANDSIMPLE20!

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3. Hunter Boots

All farm girls need rubber boots, BUT all fancy farm girls need some Hunter boots! I love the fit and style of my Hunter boots. I have a tan pair and a black pair. We even buy a new red pair for my oldest each spring and then pass them down our younger child. They are perfect for all of the garden and farm chores.

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4. White Barn Mercantile Utility Apron

I have this canvas utility apron and I absolutely love it! It makes planting the garden so much easier because the pockets hold all of my seed packets, markers, string, trowel, etc. You will never go back to gardening without this apron once you get one!

5. Freckled Hen Farmhouse brushes

I'm back to Freckled Hen Farmhouse because really, everything in their store is so cute! But I wanted to highlight two of their brushes that I love. I have one of their wooden dish brushes that I only use for cleaning my eggs. I like to have something designated for cleaning the eggs so that I don't end up with any cross contamination so to speak. I also have and love their wooden vegetable brush. It is perfect for scrubbing potatoes or other root veggies like carrots.

And don't forget that you can get 15% off with code FANCYFARMGIRL!

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6. Lindsay Letters Farm to Table Canvas

I am IN LOVE with this canvas!!! I have been pining over it for almost a year now. I just can't seem to pull the trigger on buying it until we have a farmhouse table built. You can also purchase this design as a print if you prefer that over a large canvas.

7. Painted Fox Home Tilly Triplet baskets

Every crazy chicken lady needs a cute basket for gathering eggs. But these baskets would even be good for gathering veggies in the garden. Cute accessories like this make going out for eggs in a little more fun.

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8. Boxwood Avenue Egg Stamp

Another cute addition to any egg gather's day would be an egg stamp from Boxwood Avenue. I am still getting the hang of using mine, but I love giving eggs to friends and family with all of the eggs stamped. The stamp just adds a bit of whimsy. I can't wait to see the reaction at the farmers market next summer!

Boxwood Avenue is giving all Full & Simple readers 10% off their order with the code FULLANDSIMPLE.

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9. Substation Paperie Canning Label Stamp

I always make cute labels for my canned items from the garden. Again, it just makes doing the chore a bit more fun when you see all of your jars prettily labeled. I found Substation Paperie after canning season this year, but you can be sure that I will be getting a stamp before next year's harvest! I love their honey stamps too!

10. A Touch of Farmhouse Charm by Liz Fourez Book

If you don't know Liz Fourez's blog, Love Grows Wild, you are missing out! She has the most beautiful farmhouse and now she is sharing her decor advice in her new book! And do I have a treat for you! I am giving a way a signed copy of her book to one of you! Just follow the directions below to enter.

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Don't have a farm girl in your life? Don't worry! You can check out these great gift guides too. There's bound to be the perfect gift for all the ladies in your life!

Anna Scott from Anna Scott Blog is sharing ideas on giving gifts to the girl you really want to bless. She has items that will inspire intimacy with Jesus as well as some fun finds from stores any gal is bound to love!

Have a foodie in your life? Claire Trost from The Blog Bloom has everything you need to buy for the real food home cook.

Need something for the fashionista you love (or maybe just a cute party look for yourself)? Stephie Meyer over at The Color Floral has you covered with her holiday style guide!

I hope that we've helped take some of the stress out of your holiday shopping this season! Do you have other ideas for the fancy farm girl in your life? I'd love to know in the comments!

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Disclaimer: Erika Bault is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Erika Bault is also a member of Painted Fox Home Affiliates.

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Chicken Coop Reveal

October 17, 2016 by Erika

Full & Simple Chicken Coop 21

I know. I know. I've only been promising this post since like July. Well, here it is. I finally sat down to edit these picture, so I'm proud to present our chicken coop reveal!

When I decided that I wanted chickens, I knew that I wanted a cute coop. My husband promptly told me that he WAS NOT building me a "Pinterest-worthy" coop. I'm not sure if he realizes this or not, but I think that this is TOTALLY a "Pinterest-worthy" coop! I'm so in love with it. Sometimes I just stare at it after I feed the chickens.

Now, we don't have plans to share or a total dollar amount for our coop yet. I really don't want to know how much we spent on it. I CAN tell you that buying a pre-fab building and converting it would probably be simpler and just as cheap.

Ok, on to the tour!

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The brick pad in front of the door there is actually made of bricks that were just in a pile on the farm. Most of our other supplies we tried to buy at the local lumber and hardware stores, but even then, trips to Menards were plentiful.

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I wanted the chickens to be near the bees when we let them out to forage because chickens help eat other bugs that may invade the hive. However, I didn't anticipate the chickens wanting to spend more time in the woods because of the shade and protection from predatory birds. We've added blueberry bushes near the hive so hopefully that will when they grow a bit they provide the chickens with more cover to spend more time by the hive.

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I love having the nesting boxes open to the outside so we don't have to go into the coop to gather eggs. I put pine shavings in the boxes and so far our eggs have been super clean. Also, I put golf balls in all of the boxes before the hens started laying to encourage them to lay in all of the boxes. This seems to have worked because we've had eggs in all of the boxes.

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Both of my signs are from Bainbridge Mercantile. They have the cutest farm signs!

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My husband made the door to the run out of 2x4's. We plan to let grass grow over the gravel, but having the gravel will hopefully prevent standing water from gathering around the coop.

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One day while my husband was on travel, I came out to see raccoon paw prints all the way at the top of the side of our coop! So, even though the space up there (which we have for ventilation) is only about two inches, we added the wire mesh to prevent predators from entering.

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Inside we have the roosting steps. We have 12 hens and two roosters and they all fit on the top two bars. We also use the hanging feeder and waterer to keep shavings and rocks out of them both. When you build your coop, you do want to make sure that you keep your nesting boxes higher than the bottom rung of your roosting ladder.

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Well, that's it! Thanks for stopping by!

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Hand-Picked Peach: Magnolia Market Square Wire Basket

July 15, 2016 by Erika

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A few weeks ago I shared an adorable pail from Anthropologie to help you pick those fresh veggies out of your garden, and I mentioned needing a basket for my eggs. Well, I found it! I just purchased this Square Wire Basket from Magnolia Market and I can't wait for it to arrive...and for us to have eggs for me to gather in it!

This past week the hubs was on travel for work, so I was in charge of taking care of everything here by myself. Can I just tell you that I don't handle stress very well? Cue Fixer Upper on Netflix! Sometimes I don't even have the show on to see the reveals. Chip and Joanna just make my heart happy. Having that happiness playing in the background of cleaning and taking care of the kiddos was very welcomed this week!

But even though I needed Jojo this week for sanity more than design, can we all just agree that she has impeccable taste?! I mean, really. One of the things that I love about her home and the spaces she designs is the simplicity and calm. I need calm in my life!

While watching an episode of Fixer Upper, I decided to head over to Magnolia Market online and I found this cute little basket...ON SALE!!! It was originally $18, but now it is on sale for $12, so I snatched it up.

I plan on this basket becoming my egg basket primarily, but I think it will be good for smaller trips to the garden for dinner supplies as well.

Are you a Fixer Upper fan? I'd love to here what you love about Jojo's style, or tell me what you use to gather your eggs. Connecting with readers is one of my favorite things about blogging. Comment below or send me an email using the contact page.

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What Do All of Those Egg Labels Mean?

June 28, 2016 by Erika

Full & Simple Egg Label Meanings

As we've started to finish up our chicken coop (Yes, we're STILL working on it....) I've started to think about what we're going to do with all of our eggs. Plenty of omelettes, frittatas and baking are in our future, but I would also like to sell them at our local farmers market. That got me wondering what kind of regulations Indiana has for sellers and how I would label my eggs. There are so many different terms out there on egg labels that it can get confusing as to what they actually mean, so I did a little research and thought I'd share.

Full & Simple- Egg Label Meanings

Cage-Free

Cage-Free simply means that the chickens are not kept in cages. This does not mean that chickens are allowed to range outside. Usually, cage-free means that they are kept indoors in a crowded building with no outdoor access and their diet is strictly feed. You may also see the term "free-roaming" to describe this living environment.

Free-Range

This was a little confusing for me. Didn't I just talk about free-range? Nope. Free-range and free-roaming are not the same. Free-range means that chickens have outdoor access. This could mean access to grass for foraging or access to a concrete pad. Free-range does not imply anything as to what the chickens are fed. They could be fed all grain or could also eat grass and bugs if they have access to them.

Organic

Certified organic chickens are required outdoor access just like free-range chickens. Again, this could mean access to grass or just a concrete pad outside. They are typically fed a diet of predominately organic feed with some grass and bugs.

Pastured-Raised

Pastured-raised chickens spend most of their days foraging out in the open grass. They are provided indoor nesting boxes for laying and are supplemented with feed, but their diet consists predominately of grass, seeds and bugs that they find outside. The label of pasture-raised is most like the idyllic farm scene of chickens running around a farm yard, free to just be chickens, that most of us envision when we hear all of these terms.

Natural

The phrases "natural" and "farm-fresh" mean absolutely nothing. The USDA defines all shell eggs as natural. Many small, local farmers use the term "farm-fresh" for their eggs, and that may mean something to you if you are from the area and know the farm. On the commercial scale, like at Target and Walmart, all eggs are farm-fresh and natural, and these terms are used to improve sales or justify higher costs.

This was eye-opening for me! Our chickens are going to be a mix of pasture-raised and free-range. We will have a run, but plan on letting them out in the pasture for at least a few hours every day. I hope this helps you, as a consumer, to make the best decision when shopping. Don't pay extra for that word "natural!"

Sources:

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Hand-Picked Peach: Week 41

May 18, 2016 by Erika

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Work on the chicken coop has commenced! We are building an 8'x8' building and adding a run on it as well. Most of the time we will let the chickens free-range in the pasture, but we wanted the run in case we ever needed them penned up.

And he's all mine ladies!

Anyway, I have had my eyes on these signs from Bainbridge Farm Goods on Etsy for a while now, and can't wait to get one for the new chicken coop. I might even get one of the honey bee signs too. But don't worry if you don't have chickens or bees, they have signs for goats, dogs, butterflies, veggies and more!

"Bainbridge Farm Goods makes modern, colorful and hip farm and garden signs that are sure to liven up your space! There are colors and designs to fit any décor, chicken coop, mud room, or kitchen alike. Each aluminum sign is fully waterproof and UV resistant—think street sign sturdy! Both vertical and horizontal designs and in several sizes and shapes are available to suite your space."

I think that these signs will make cute contibutions to our chicken coop and bee yard. I can't wait for the chicken coop to be completed so I can share it all with you...and because the chickens are starting to fly out of their brooder and they are fast suckers! LOL!

PLUS, if you visit Bainbridge Farm Goods and use the code fullandsimple you can get 25% off of your order! Hurry, this code is only good until June 12, 2016!

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How Much Does It Cost to Buy Chicks?

May 2, 2016 by Erika

Full & Simple- How Much Does It Cost to Buy Chicks

I FINALLY got chickens added to the Farm! I have been wanting chickens for a while now, even though I'm actually terrified of them. We had some not-so-friendly chickens when I was growing up.... But the idea of farm fresh eggs is too good to pass up. Plus, I've seen all of these adorable coops floating around Pinterest with pretty Barred Rocks, so I got chicken fever. Better than baby fever, at this point anyway.

The problem with farming, even on the tiny scale that we are doing it, is that farming is expensive. Animals and even gardening requires a lot of equipment. I had looked online and saw several posts about WHAT chicks need, but very few that talked about HOW MUCH that costs. The Dave Ramsey fans need to know! Everything needs to be budgeted and saved up for when you are trying to live debt free, so I thought that I would share with you how much it cost for us to buy our first set of chicks, so you could plan accordingly when you buy your own chicks.

Full & Simple- How Much Does It Cost to Buy Chicks

Things to note:

The starter crumbles were organic and non-medicated. I hadn't cared about the organic part so much as the non-medicated, but that was the one feed option at our local farm supply store at the time of buying the chicks that was non-medicated. I just don't see the point in medicating "in case." I don't take antibiotics in case I were to get sick. But I understand this is a personal preference and semi-controversial. Also, realize that 5lb only lasted us about a week. We have since been to a larger farm supply store and bought a 50lb bag of non-medicated feed.
We only ended up needing one of the brooder lamps, but it's nice to know that if something were to happen, we have an extra.
Two bags of pine shavings was MORE THAN ENOUGH. I would only buy one if I had it to do over again.
You may need to buy something to keep your chicks in. We had an old plastic water trough that we (meaning my husband) cleaned out and we put them in that. I found one that looks similar to what we have on Rural King's website for about $75.

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We are still working on getting the coop built. The plan is to house the chickens near the beehive. Since we will let them out to free range most of the day, the chickens are supposed to help eat up some of the pests that would normally try to get into the hive, at least that's what my research has told me. I will do a coop tour when we get it complete as well.

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Next year we (meaning I) hope to add meat chickens to the farm as well, but my husband is wise and thought it would be best to take on one new thing at a time. I'm lucky to have someone to reel me in at times, even if I don't like it at the moment. In the meantime, if you're local, let me know if you need to buy eggs. With fourteen chicks, we are going to have more than we can go through! LOL!

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