Straw Bale Chicken Coop

A small flock of laying hens has lived on the farm for the past 3 years.  They were just a typical Leghorn that comes in the mail or to the local store each spring.  It has been a fantastic addition to the farm.  I hardly remember what a store bought egg tastes like any more. 

It was decided last year that it was time to expand our little chicken operation and start selling free range eggs.  So instead of Leghorns, our flock consists of 7 different heritage breeds of laying hens.  Also instead of building a regular old barn style chicken coop. Straw bales became the means of construction. 

The outside dimensions of the new coop are 50 feet x 20 feet and there is about 900ft2 of space on the inside.  We built the coop on on old concrete pad that had access to the farm water supply.  The one thing I didn't like about our last coop was hauling water each and every day to the animals.  This was an exceptionally miserable job on the -30 C days we get in the winter.

Chickens checking out progress

In addition to a new chicken coop we also needed a new set up for our greenhouse.  So if you are wondering why the rafters are so high, later picture will show why we built the coop this way.

Probably the one part of the job that I underestimated the most, on how much time it would take, was the plaster.  We used over 5 yards of sand in mixing up the concrete mixture that was spread on the walls.  The job was started in September, and we only just finished the inside last week..  

Here are some of the birds we have in the coop and the fun colored eggs they lay. We have a couple birds that lay a chocolate brown egg.

Plans are to sell most of our eggs through our CSA Eagle Creek Farms Community Shared Agriculutre.  Share families can purchase a dozen eggs every second week.  Any extra eggs will be sold in our farm store during the summer or possibly farmers markets.

As I mentioned above, we also were in need of a new greenhouse.  Not new in the sense of bran new.  Instead a re-modified greenhouse in a better location.  We also had to haul water to our previous greenhouse.  The new greenhouse will be built off the high south wall of the chicken coop.  It will be about 13 high at the peak and extend out 25 feet.  We have only moved our small header house into the location at the moment, but I will post pictures of the greenhouse in construction when we are done.

Seed Potato Season

No, we are not in the fields just yet, although plenty of warm weather this winter sure has me thinking that we may have an early spring, but we will have to wait to see how the next few month unfold.

It is Seed Potato Season because we have finalized our 2012 Seed Potato Catalogue and are now taking orders.  This year we are proud to offer our largest selection in our history of growing potatoes.  You will find 38 varieties in our Catalogue this season.  2012 Seed Potato Catalogue

If the selection is a little overwhelming, here is our 2011 best sellers list.
On the left is German Butterball, Purple Viking & Lindzer Deleketess.
On the right is French Fingerling & Norland

Winter is Closing In...

For the first time EVER, we are going to sell vegetables throughout the winter, both at a farmers market and with CSA vegetable Share Deliveries. We have about 5 tones of veggies in the shed, which should be enough for about 100 Families in our CSA program and 8 weeks of markets, hopefully we still have product in February.  For more information on our CSA or markets check out our website. www.eaglecreekfarms.ca


As usual there are plenty of projects lined up for the winter months.  First is to take down our old greenhouse.  It was a great temporary solution to serve our greenhouse needs over the past 2 years, but we now need a to step up.  Plans are to build it off the North side of our chicken coop.  We will install a better ventilation system along with an enhanced heating system.  A set of solar thermal panels have been in a shed unused for the past couple years, but will soon be placed on the roof of the chicken coop.  Between utilizing Passive Solar heat retention in the greenhouse, we will be able to warm water with the stove & solar thermal panels that can be used to heat the building at night.  If all goes to plan we should be able to start germinating plants in February, then take our last harvest the end of November...

I took a stroll through the Christmas Trees this past week. Next summer it will be time to learn how to prune a christmas tree, some of the trees in our first planting are nearly 2 feet tall.   It has taken them 3 years to get to this point, so I don't expect any will be ready for cutting for another until 2016 at the earliest.  Each year we are planting more trees, so once we do open, I am hoping for a fairly consistent supply of christmas trees every year.

Octover Events

Summer has come to an end, although this past weekend of 30 degree weather made us think otherwise...  But it has, however, that doesn't mean it is the end of the season here at the farm.  October is a great time to visit the farm in Fall Harvest Fashion.  Our U-pick will be closing this week, however, we will have a great selection of vegetables in our farm store.

Pumpkin Festival - Weekends in October 


Until the 16th of October we will be hosting our fall harvest activities.  Of course the highlight is always our corn and sunflower maze.  Without a hard frost the corn is still green and the sunflowers have just finished their bloom.  Sunflowers are great this time of year because you can snack on the seeds as you navigate the maze.In addition to the mazes your families can enjoy wagon rides, our farm animals and face painting.  Don't forget we will have tones of pumpkins for you.

Harvesttime Country Drive www.countrydrive.ca

Also this coming weekend 7 Country Drive operations will be open for our fall Showcase weekend.  The  Country Drive is a collection of over 25 rural operations who open their doors to the public through out the year.  The harvest drive will showcase fall farm activities & harvest along with shopping at our unique rural stores.  The Drive runs from 11-5 October 1st & 2nd.

We look forward to seeing you all out this fall.

Preparing for winter

We have had our first couple frosts on the farm, which calls the end for many veggies, but not everything.  Now before the snow starts falling it is now time to get a few things in the freezer.  Last night we blanched and froze a bunch of swiss chard.  Really easy, we boiled the chard for
1-2 min, then cooled it freezing water for 5min.  We then froze it in round picks to be used over the next few months... Plans are to use it in soups, meat loafs and what ever else we may have traditionally used frozen spinach.

Straw Bale Chicken Coop, Day 1 & 2

 We have been planning to build a chicken coop all summer.  Well actually the initial plan was to have it started in June, but as long as we can get it up before the cold fall weather sets in we will be alright.

The coop is situated on an existing concrete pad, so we had to create a level foundation to set the bales on.  I think we started about 3 weeks ago with the foundation, creating the windows, rafters and top plate.  

Saturday morning we set in place the first bales.  Surprisingly for a straw bale building, there is very little straw bale work to do.  The bales go up just like legos, only a little heavier.

By 6:00 all the bales, windows and top plate were in place, one of the walls was braced and the tarps went up..


All was great until sunday afternoon when the winds picked up and blew over the north facing unsupported wall..   Fortunately no people or chickens were inside at the time.  Also the north wall was the most basic, no windows or doors, so it only took us 2 hours to but back up..

Wind Storm

Last night we had some pretty crazy weather on the farm.  After the storm had cleared I knew there would be some damage, but I had no idea what was in store until I went on a tour of the farm. The corner of our machinery shed was ripped off and tossed 500 m to the west.  This shed has withstood storms for the past 40 years, so last nights winds were far above normal.

These next pictures are of our plastic and fabric hoop houses that we use to cover broccoli, Cauliflower, Peppers, Basil, Tomatoes & lilies.  The wind bent the hoops right to the ground on one tunnel and tore the plastic clean off 4 more. 

It took the better part of a day to clean up all the plastic, cut up a number of trees which fell down.  Now we are left with re-building all the structures  before hail comes and ruins all the delicate plants. 

I would like to thank our neighbours Doug and Elna Edgar for coming over with a crew to help with the clean up.  Their farm which is only 2 miles away was spared from any damage.