Free At Last

I have kept the chickens all locked up in the coop and run for a few weeks after we introduced them.  I went out to the garden by the coop and all the chickens were out in the run clanking their little tin cups on the bars of their run crying "Atticus!!"  I think it is time I  let them out.

I went to the door of the run and they all came running over dropping their cups in the mud.  I could see in their eyes they were staring at the green lush carpet of foliage that lay just out of their reach from inside their incarceration.

I opened the door and all the hens tumbled over themselves and threw themselves down on the green grass right outside the door.   I heard sighs of pleasure and freedom.  Goofy birds!  They just went right outside the door and immediately started pecking and going crazy over all the green stuff to eat.  I had to shoo them to get them to move beyond the doorway!

I really like these birds.  They do not wander off like the Comets did.  They all stay in our yard and don't wander into the neighbors.  They also come running when they see me round the corner of the house on my way out to see them.

These birds are very chatty also.  They like to talk and talk and talk.  Sally will talk your ear off if you stay out there long enough with them.  yack yack yack!  I love them all.  I am still dealing with some pecking issues but nothing like I had previously.  They are doing much better now.  The ones that were pecked really bad are healed and are starting to grow their feathers back.

Alls calm on in the chicken coop....now

Well it has been a rough few days.  I merged the flocks together and expected some pecking and ordering to be going on.  I did not however expect to see what all had happened as was posted in my last post.  This has never happened to me before.  I watched the flock and seen first hand what was going on.

The Comets were taking pecking order to a whole new level.  I was never too fond of the Comets and this behavior just sealed the deal for me.  As much as I do not like killing my chickens I could not stand by and let them kill the new hens.  They pecked apart 4 of them and 1 of those actually died as a result of the pecking.  They pecked her complete lower back/butt clear through to her bones.  At that point I had enough and started rounding up the 4 Comets.  One of them seemed ok so I let her live.  I took each one out of the coop and killed her using the broomstick method.

I do not have any pictures of this process, as it is a two hand process and I was alone doing it.  It is part of chicken ownership so I will describe it here.

Once the chicken perp is sentenced to death and caught, lay the perp down on the ground on their belly. Place the broomstick or other thin board (I use a furring strip of lumber) across their neck.  Stand on the stick on either side of the perp's head and pull up on their legs.  This stretches their neck under the pressure of the stick and kills them.  You will feel and sometimes hear 3 pops.  You can stop after the 3 pops.  If you do not stop you will rip their head clear off and that causes a bloody mess.  I quickly grab the perp's wings and hold them close to the body until the flapping and jerking stops.  Some folks will just lop their heads off and let them flap or run around.  To me that is a terrible thing to do....so inhumane.  I try my best to treat the bird with dignity by not decapitating them, and also holding their wings tight until it is all over.

I seriously do not like killing my birds.  I have finally gotten to the point that I no longer cry over it, but I do sulk and brood over it for a while while I dispose of the body and move on.  I killed 3 Comets and the rooster that day.  I really hoped that taking these bullies out would calm things down.

I went out the next morning and watched the last Comet, Phyllis, go around to several of the new and a few of the old ones and just peck them all hard in the butt.  My patients were shot!  I was so infuriated with Phyllis, I stormed into the coop grabbed her and broomsticked  her so fast the youngins did not even know what happened!

I sprayed the hurt one's areas with the purple spray again and checked on the ones I sprayed previously.  Again my hand is stained purple.  That is ok - at least I know I am taking care of my birds.  I am now down to 1 old easter egger, Fuzzy, 3 old Rhode Island Reds, Red, Lucky, and Curious,  and 23 new birds - a mix of ester eggers, astrolopes, and lace wyndots.  I am sure I did not spell those correctly.

To end this post on a good note - things do seem calmer in the coop now.  Everyone seems to be getting along and the stress is leaving the girls.  I am only getting 2 eggs a day now from the 4 old hens that are left.  Two of the new girls have started laying now.  I am getting a tiny green egg and now a tiny blue egg from the easter eggers. They all kinda look green in this picture but the are different colors.  They are  so small they knock around in the carton.

It is just a matter of time before they all start laying.  All we can do is take care of them and wait.

Hen Pecked

WARNING!!  Pictures that follow in this post may be disturbing to some.  View at your own discretion.  

With the hens getting moved over into the big coop, there is a certain amount of discourse to be expected in the flock.  They all battle for the pecking order and who will be top bird.  That is a fact of chicken ownership.  And just like dealing with pasty butt when they were peeps, one has to deal with the aftermath of the pecking.  I had noticed that one new hen was pretty beat up yesterday, but I did not have anything to put on her wounds.  I send my Hubby and Son to the store today to get some spray for them.  The boys brought home this stuff:

It sprays on purple and is an antiseptic so it should help with healing the birds while camouflaging the wounds.  Chickens are crazy about anything that resembles raw meat and will go nuts pecking and pecking and pecking at it.  I suspect the rooster for inflicting most of the damage.

This spray is handy to have on hand.  I should have had some way before this time but pecking was really not that big of a problem with my previous 2 flocks.  I set out to the coop in my snazzy insulated purple boots.

I took some before pictures of the beat up hens.  THESE ARE GRAPHIC.  Fair warning.

I took my time and caught each hen one by one and calmed her down.  I held her down with one hand and sprayed the raw area with the spray then released her...moving on to the next one.  One poor hen had a hole pecked clear through her skin into her back muscle.  I sprayed her extra good but it would not surprise me if she did not make it.  Hopefully she will.

I sprayed 3 or four hens total and they were pretty cooperative about it all.  Now I have a purple hand.  I did not realize this would stain my hand just as it did the hens.  I thought it would wash off with soap and water......nope.  Not even using hand cleaner with pumice.....

Some have a green thumb... I have a purple thumb.  Lesson learned....wear gloves when spraying this stuff!!

Moving Day

I went about my normal routine that I do every weekend.   I am always up by 630am if not earlier, the product of having to get up at 4am every day during the week.  I do my thing and head out to the chickens.  I give both the old hens and the babies scratch grains and we all chat about what is new and the latest gossip.

I got around to the babies nursery building and I peeked in and what do you know....way in the back of the  nursery I spied this:

Well this sparked  a whole laundry list of things to do!  I had to call the U-Haul company, call the phone, water, and TV companies to have service stopped.  So much to do!  I had to scramble eggs!  So much to do so little time.  Not to mention it is hotter than all get out.

I finished chatting with the chickens and hand feeding them some grass and then headed inside to start things rolling.

I  cooked up a little more than a dozen eggs.  Why you may ask?  There is a good reason.  I gave the older hens the scrambled eggs to fill their bellies (ok ok their gizzards) with protein.  This will discourage pecking when we integrate the babies into the big coop with them.  The eggs and protein also  seem to make the hens a little more docile and easier going.  This will help the introduction go smoother.

I woke up my hubby, and son and had a good breakfast, while we talked about how to move the babies with as little trauma  as possible.  We devised and plan and out the door we went.  First we had to get all the babies into their nursery.  Then we had to keep them there while we closed off their pop door.  To do this we just stapled some chicken wire over the pop door opening.  Then I picked up all the bricks holding down the big blue tarp and took out all the stuff from inside their nursery.

Together the three of us slowly picked up the nursery and we walked it to a new location out of the mud and chicken poo.  The babies were not too cooperative so we decided not to try to walk them around to the big coop door as we had planed.  Instead we took off the top of the nursery and I started grabbing birds.  I would quickly grab a chicken and hand her off to my Son who would carry her over to the coop where Hubby was manning the door.  We did this over and over, one by one, chicken by chicken for all 25.  It took some time and I only got pooped on once, and bit once.  Not too bad considering I was really scaring them.  No chickens (or people) were harmed during this process.  Although, I was wing slapped in the face a few times.  Thankfully I did not loose my glasses!

Once we had them all in the main run, I filled their waters while the boys mixed their feed.  Just like changing a dog's food you want to mix the old with the new  - we had to mix the chick feed with the layer feed.  I then slowly corralled all the birds from the run into the coop, and we shut the pop door for about an hour.  Since our babies were used to using a pop door they knew how it worked and knew that beyond the pop door was either shelter or a yard depending which way they were going.

They were hot and they duked it out a little bit but all in all the hour they were locked in together with the old hens seemed to go well.  While they were locked up, we quickly dismantled the nursery and set the pieces behind the coop to wash off in the rain - should we get any- and to get it out of the site of the babies.  Out of site out of mind.  They will forget they had a different home and will only know their new home as their only home.  We left the fencing up for now.  It was too hot by this time and I was melting into a gross puddle in my insulated boots.

We also found out that our one mystery chick in indeed a roo.  He has been crowing for a few weeks now.  He is aggressive when I had feed them grass but he has not tried to attack - yet.  He seemed pretty docile when I grabbed him to move him.  Maybe he will be a nice roo.....hey a girl can hope!

Now I have to find some of the golf balls we have laying around to put in the nest boxes.  Why golf balls you ask?  Well the golf balls with look like eggs to the chickens and it will teach the babies where to lay their eggs - in the nest boxes.  It works quite well.  This way using golf balls I can keep collecting the eggs several times a day so they don't get trampled but still leave a visual learning aid for the new hens.

 I only have one new hen laying so far but the rest will start soon.  This is kinda early for them.  We got these peeps April 4, 2011, and today July 31, 2011, 3.5 months later, they are starting to lay.  The new eggs will be pretty tiny bit totally whole.  Soon they will start laying huge eggs and double and triple yolks while their bodies figure things out and they settle into a laying routine.  Now a new issue starts for me - soon I will be getting up to 32 eggs A DAY!  I need to order some egg cartons....and make a sign for the road.....and buy a bigger fridge...make more cookies, cakes, and goodies.  oh my.

Peep Update

My peeps are growing like crazy weeds!  They are now4 weeks old and about 5" tall.  They are very skittish now as well.  I have  a few that are pretty inquisitive and like to investigate me, but the rest run and cower at the other end of the brooder screaming 'Monster!!  Run for your life!!!'  Drama queen birds...

It is about time that we open up the rest of the brooder to them.  This will give them the whole 8x8 area to run and scratch through.

They are also getting pretty stinky.  If it ever quits raining here, I need to clean out the brooder and put down fresh pine for them.  However since it has been pouring for days on end I have postponed cleaning the brooder and started drawing up arc plans.

My older hens out in the coop called me up on the cluck line again requesting life vest be issued to everyone.  Poor hens are knee deep in mud in the run.  I try to let them free range as much as possible when the run gets really mucky.   But when it rains, they all hang out in the run and coop anyway so they end up staying in.

The peep are feathering out nicely.  My basement is riddled with fly away tiny downey feathers.  It is always a cleaning chore when we move the little ones outside from the basement.  They dust and feather everything up something terrible.

Four weeks ago it was all they could do to reach the food and water rings.  Now they tower over them and are ready for some low perches to be added to the brooder, and the food and water tanks raised up.  You have to keep the food and water tanks at about shoulder height on the birds to keep them from kicking litter and flooring into the rings.  Its a clean thing.

Pasty Butt

Sometimes small peeps can develop what is called Pasty Butt.  This is very important to be aware of if you plan on raising chickens.  I have had 3 different flocks of peeps and I have always had to deal with this with a few peeps of each flock, this flock included.  Of the 25 peeps we have now 4 of them developed pasty butt.  Basically paste butt is when the excrement from the peep does not fall free from the body and it gets stuck in their butt feathers, dries, and crusts up.  This build of waste will eventually block the vent hole all together and can cause death.  At the least it causes irration, redness, attention, and pecking from the other peeps.  It is easy enough to remedy.  All you need is a quick hand to catch the peep, a dish of hot water, an old tooth brush (preferable one that is no longer in use!), and some olive oil. 

Since I have had peeps before, I was on the look out for pasty butt to get it cleared up and nip it in the bud before their little hiney's got all irratated and pecked.  With the help of my boys, I managed to catch all of the ones that were showing signs of pasty butt.  I put these peeps in the box that they were shipped in - since I still had it laying around.  Working quickly so they did not get chilled, I donned some purple gloves and handled each peep individually.  I turned them over so I had good view of their rear and commenced to wash their butt with the hot water and tooth brush to dissolve away the crusted poop.  You have to be very gentle here as you do not want to scrub their delecate vent hole or their skin.  It does not take very long to clean them up.  I pat their butt dry with paper towels and then apply a smearing of olive oil to prevent poop from sticking again.  I turn the poor traumatized peep right side back up and talk gently to her, as she shivvers in my hand and protests loudly.  I put them back in the brooder under the lights to warm up again. They run and dive under the rest of the peeps cowering in the corner as they all think they will be next.  One by one I clean them up and put them back in the brooder to join the rest.  Just part of chicken ownership.  As I was placing the last peep in the brooder I overheard one of the first peeps recounting her traumatic experience and telling the others how brave she was to escape and return to the flock.  The other peeps were mesmerized by her tale and were wide eyed and bobbing thier heads up and down in agreement. 

New Peeps!

My new peeps finally arrived!  We ordered these cuties came from McMurray Hatchery in Iowa, a few months ago.  They were scheduled to be delivered the week of April 4th.  We did not expect them on a Monday!  The post office called my husband at 830 this morning to tell up we have a chirping box waiting for us.  He called me and I wrapped things up at work and scrambled home to get to the post office.  I know that you have to keep the peeps warm, so I had the heat set to inferno in my car.  I was so hot when I pulled into the post office parking lot an hour later!

I opened the box at the post office to make sure they all made it and did a quick head count.  I ordered 25 and they were to send 1 extra exotic rare breed as a bonus.  I counted 26 bobbing little heads and made sure they were all alive.  I thanked the post master and skipped out of the post office totally giddy with these cute little critters chirping loudly in the box in my arms.

At home Hubby was busy mixing up the medicated water that we have to give them as a preventive measure.  We only give it to the peeps for the first week and then they are unmedicated for the rest of their lives.  He also turned on the lights and did the finishing touches on the brooder.  He made sure the basement brooder was nice and warm when I got home with the peeps.

We got home safe and sound and went to the basement.  There I pulled out each peep out and dipped their beak into the water to make them drink.  I was also counting them as I was doing this and ended up with a total of 27 peeps.

We ordered 10 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 5 Black Astralorps, 10 Araucana (Easter Eggers - they lay green/blue eggs), and we ended up with 2 bonus "Rare Exotic Chicks". I don't know what those are yet. All I know is that they are plain white/yellow peeps. Who knows. We will hopefully figure them out when they feather out. We picked these breeds because they are winter hearty and friendly birds.  These cuties will come up to you and investigate your hand and fingers.  They don't run to the other side of the brooder screaming bloody murder that a monster is after them.  

We watched them for a while and we finally pulled ourselves away from them to try to get some work done.  I have been down to visit with them, talk to them and of course take pictures of them.  I will try to take daily pictures to document how fast they feather out.  It is amazing how fast they grow.  

The peeps are very fragile at this stage of their lives.  They are only a few days old and look for everything to be taken care of for them.  When they get exhausted they just kinds fall over asleep where they are.  They drift off to sleep and fall over or collapse and sleep for a few minutes or until another peep runs them over.  They have no regard for each other and will just plow each over over in their activity.

The brooder is 8x8 and we have sectioned it off in half.  They are too small right now to need all that space.  The brooder is made out of OBS board cut in half and held together with zip ties.  We make it so we can tear it down and store it until we need it again.  There is a big tarp on the floor and pine shavings over the tarp.  We have wire lids what will keep them in when they get bigger and try to fly/hop out.  There is 4 lights with 100 watt bulbs and a heat bulb to give them heat.


Here are just some more random pictures of them all:

I hope you enjoyed reading about these cuties!  More to come later!  Stay tuned.

Cleaning out the Coop

A week or so ago we actually had some decent weather.  It was still cold out but sunny, a good day to clean out the chicken coop.  I clean out the coop 2 to 3 times a year.  I scrape and shovel out all the litter and put in on one of the garden spots.

It is a daunting task and not one for the weak stomached to clean out a chicken coop.  Lets face it they don't call them foul for any old reason!  I have worked with some seriously raunchy lab samples in my day, so this does not bother me at all.  I don several layers of clothing, a nice shower cap thing that my husband has to wear from one is his surgeries, gloves,  and a dusk mask.  Also I have to wear my glasses - can't be in all that dust and ick with contacts in.  Sexy isn't it?!  :o)

I gather up a shovel and the wheel barrel and off to the coop I go.  We had purchased new pine shavings for the coop and left them in the truck.  My son drives the truck over to the coop so I don't have to carry the bales of shavings.  Our coop is 8x8 and it takes 3 bales of shavings to give a nice layer for the coop floor.

The chickens start to panic because they are spooked by my get up.  Had I just walked over to them without the dusk mask and shiny shower cap they would be all running for me looking for treats.  I open the door and the goofy birds are so panic stricken they don't know which way to run.  I finally chase them around the coop and out the door.

Once I have all the birds out of the coop I remove the feed and water tanks and the blocks they each sit on.   You have to raise their food and water so they don't kick litter and whatnot into it.  You want their feed and water to be about shoulder height to the birds.  As you can see I also have ropes from the top of the coop to the feed and water stations.  This is to keep the birds off of the tops of the tanks.  Chickens love to stand (and poop) on everything so you have to do what you can to keep them off of some things.

I commence to shoveling load after load of the spent litter into the wheel barrel and taking it to a garden plot near by.  This litter is pretty well composted and pretty much just dirt now but it is still a little hot. This mean that the nitrogen levels are pretty high and the compost needs time to mellow.  This will be the last time I can throw the litter directly into this garden spot.  I will move to the next garden spot the next time I clean out the coop.  As I work on the coop the chickens have the option to free range in the yard but they are too scared to move and just huddle at the end of the run.  I think I hear a few scream, "AHHHH Monster!!!"  When I stepped out of the coop to wheel the loaded barrel out to dump it.

  

I takes about 4 loads to clean the coop out completely.  I inspect the fool to make sure it is holding up - which it is very nicely.  I also look for possible signs of vermin.  We built the coop very tight and so far so good no rat holes or signs of vermin!  *phew*  I do not want to deal with rats!  *shudder*

  

I generally change out the hay in the nest boxes as well but my husband just put fresh hay in them so I will leave them alone this time.  It looks pretty good.  You may have noticed there are only 4 nest boxes for 10 laying hens.  This is just fine as the goofy birds all lay in the same hole anyway.  I could have gotten away with just 2 nest boxes and it would have been fine.  I rarely find the eggs in all 4 holes.  Usually they are all in 2 holes.  I will do a post about the coop and our lessons learned from our design in a later post.

    

Once everything is cleaned out to my satisfaction, I dump in 3 big bales of shavings and kick them around to cover the floor with new fresh litter.  I also will open the window and the lid to the nest boxes to air out the coop for a few hours.  I replace the blocks and the food and water tanks, and that is it.  The chickens usually meander in after I take off my silly shiny shower cap and scary dust mask and wonder about the coop in total amazement.  I hear them whisper to each other, "wow its to clean in here!  Everything smell so new and fresh."  They cluck their thanks to me and proceed to poop everywhere again.  Ah the vicious cycle of having chickens.  I love having them and I don't mind taking care of them.

  

This litter will last until mid to late summer.  I will go in every now and then and stir it all up with a shovel.  That helps keep the smell down and it rotates the used litter on top down to the bottom and brings up some fresher stuff.  The chickens are pooping machines and the used litter has been very beneficial to the garden spots.  We hope to be able to plant corn in the one spot this year.  Once I am done and put all my tools away and trow away the plastic bags from the shavings....I head straight to the shower!!  The dust from the coop is very fine and it gets everywhere.