First Snow of the Year

The east coast got hammered with our first snow of the year.  Where I live did not get hit as bad as some places, thank goodness!  I am so not ready for winter and all the snow.  I am just not a cold weather person.  I know - why do I live in Pennsylvania then?  Well I tried to leave, was gone for a few years, but life brought us back.  I can't see us staying here forever - it is just the nature of the job market these days.  Hopefully we will land some place warm next time!

We got about 4" of snow, not too bad considering that it snowed all day long.  This is a picture of the first of 3 times I shoveled off the ramp.

The chickens were not too impressed with it all either.  The heavy wet snow clung to the netting and created a snow free haven of mud for the chickies.  They were not excited but then again the snow was not reaching them.

This morning turned out to be a beautiful morning.  I set out with my camera to get some shots of the snow.  It was warming up a bit and the snow was already starting to melt.  It created a cool mist across the yard.

The sun rise was pale and pretty.

I like the early mornings when everything is still and most folks are still asleep.

The netting on the nursery run did not fare well under the weight of the heavy snow.  We planned on taking that all down anyway so nature was just giving us a hand.

The netting over the main run is supported with beams so it was still sound.  It created a pretty cool roof over the run.  The floor of the run is a mud pit and I have to figure out something to do with all that.  The chickens are complaining and asking for the tractor supply company catalog so they can order some goulashes.  I told them to calm down it was going to be nice all next week and things should dry up some.  I don't think they believe me.

Some of the chickens still lay their eggs on the floor in the corner of the coop.  That means that I have to go into the coop every day to gather those eggs.  It is one of biggest fears that I am going to fall flat on my back in all this mud and stink one of these days.  I think I seen the hens taking bets one day when I went in there.

I would like to apologize to my readers, for being missing in action here lately.  Things have been crazy here.  I don't have hired help to do my house work and everything else, we do everything ourselves.  With me working full time outside the home, them coming home to help our son with his cyber school work there is little time for anything else.  I do try to keep up with things, and  have a few more posts working up in my head, so hopefully as we fall into a better routine, I can get back to blogging more.

That Chicken is not Chicken!

As I mentioned I was in a business trip all last week.  I got home Friday late afternoon and let the chickens out to free range.  We do not let them out when we are not home to keep an eye on them.  We were all settling in to our normal routine when we heard the chickens having quite the time outside.  I happened to look outside, and that is when I saw a dog in the chicken run!  I yell DOG! and run for the mudroom to get my boots on and scramble outside.  My son and husband rally the weapons, ready to strike should this dog harm my chickens or me.  Outside I start yelling and waving my arms around like a crazy woman trying to distract the dog so the hens can scoot into the pop door and be safe in the coop.  It was a tense few minutes but I managed to scare the dog away, unharmed, and all the hens were safe and unhurt.  We did not make a big deal of it - we live in the country, dogs slip off their collars/leads....it happens, so we watched toe dog and learned who it belonged to and went back to our lives.  Fast forward to yesterday, we had the windows  open since it  was a nice evening.  We were just about to watch a movie when I heard the hens cry for help.  Apparently, the cluck line is out of order in the coop so they just yelled for help.  I will have to look into that.  I look outside and again see that same dog after my chickens.  I am very irate at this point.  I tell my husband to get the gun and run for my boots and out the back door.  When I rounded the corner of the house, there was a child in my yard watching the whole ordeal of this dog and chicken do a dance of death.  I distracted the dog and the hen got away.  The small boy was able to get the dog and drag it back home.  We later stopped at the family's house and my husband talked to the parents to reinforce that they need to keep their dog tied or inside because it now immediately comes to our yard after our chickens.  Hopefully that is the end of that situation.  No dog or chicken was harmed in these incidents....yet.

Yesterday I heard the girls having a fit and thought oh no not again.  I peeked out the window to see a hen on the roof of the coop!  This coop is 8' high at the front and it slopes down to about 6' in the back.  There on the top was a Whyndotte happy as you please.  She was probably the one that the dog was trying to get so she devised an escape route.  You know just in case it comes back.  Who said chickens were stupid?  ok they are pretty dumb but they learn and can be cleaver.

This hen hopped up on the feed barrels, then up onto the next box roof.  There she looked, paced, and planned.  Finally up she went to the roof of the coop!  What a goofy chicken.  Now if she can remember how to get up there when danger presents itself on the ground again will be the question.

Since the other seen this chicken who was not chicken to jump up on the roof, they all want up there.  I was in the coop filling their food and I heard this "THUMP!"  I walked out of the coop to see an Easter Egger on top of the nest box roof.  I said, "Get down from there!"  she she pouted and replied, "But SHE did it....!"  "Nope - get down"  and she flew down.  Then the Whyndotte was up there again.

Oh these chickens are something else!

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.

Finally Getting Along

Well I think the worst is over with the hen pecking.  I still have one of the Wyandottes being a little mean but I think all will survive.  They all seem to be getting along better.  Some Still hang out with just their own kind.

Others will mingle with the old hens.  The reds seem to be generally pretty mellow about the invasion of the new hens.  They do get a bit territorial and possessive if I throw a tomato into the run for them.  I hav to make sure I toss in several so they all can share.

They are starting to develop their personalities as as they do I have started to name them.  This is Sally.  She is a Wyandotte that has a wonky toe.  It does not seem to bother her and she can move it so I am not worried about it being bent sideways.  Sally likes to talk and talk and talk.  Quite the gossip she is.

Fuzzy of course is one of my oldest hens.  She is one of my first Easter Eggers.  She got pecked some so I sprayed her butt with the purple spray then she just had to preen herself so now she also has a purple face.  Goofy chicken.

Honey is a sweet Easter Egger that is inquisitive.

I keep checking inside the coop every few hours for eggs.  A few of the new layers have caught on and are laying in the nest boxes while one insists on laying in the corner of the coop under the nest boxes.   So far I have 3 Easter Eggers laying.  I suspect it will be any day now for the rest of them to start.  They Wyandottes and Australorps are as big as the old Reds.  Any day now....

The grass is coming back nicely in the brooder run.  We plan on putting in permanent poles and extending the existing run out to include what was the brooder run to give them more room.

I try to spend time with the hens every day.  I spend time inside the run and coop with them so they get used to me and will come up to me.  Taming them will make thing easier if I have to doctor them in any way.  It also makes for a more fun flock.  I have two chickens now that will submit to me.  Fuzzy and now one of the Wyandottes submit to me by squatting in front of me and spreading their wings out inviting me to climb on as a rooster would do.  I generally just pat their back and pat them in the butt when they do this to me.  They seem satisfied with it - or disgusted with me that I have no clue how to hit home with this open invitation!  I am going to go with satisfied...yeah thats it.....  They shake and fluff out and go about their merry way.

Silly silly chickens.

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.

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.

Happy Chickens

I shoveled out the chicken run the other day.  There is still about 3" of ice all over the ground including inside the chicken run.  The ice build up was so bad we had to chip away at the ice holding the door to the coop fast in its grips, remove the door and cut about 3" off the bottom.  Now the ice should not be able to get its cold hard grasp on the door!  Thankfully there was plenty of overhang coverage of the door that allowed us the liberty to just hack off 3".  The door still has plenty of coverage to keep the chickies safe and protected from the boogie man out side at night.  These chickens are well....chicken about everything!

As I was saying, I shoveled out the run and since it was to be somewhat tolerable temperature and wind-wise, we decided to let the birds out to get some fresh air....Lord knows there is not too much of that in a coop that has been closed up for a few days with 13 chickens inside! I was also concerned that the poor girls would slide on the ice and break a leg.  Then I would have to make soup.  I was not in the mood for soup - so we sprinkled sand down inside the whole run for them to get some traction.  The run is 8x30 so it took a lot of sand.  I sprinkled around to scratch grains for them and opened the door.

They all came barreling out of the pop door.  Yes that pop door is a cutting board!  It works well - don't knock it until you live it, we tried several different materials for the door and the cutting board seems to work the best.  They enjoyed the sunshine and the fresh air.  Of course Curious stayed by me as she always does.

Even Chip the psycho rooster came out to crow his ownership and over-protectiveness of his girls outside against his wishes.  The boy would keep those girls locked up 24/7 if he had his way.

However, as soon as some snow and ice slipped from the truck that was parked nearby he panicked and made all the girls panic.  I don't think I have ever seen chickens move so fast as they did to get back inside the coop before the big bad melting sloshing ice could get them....big chickens....Curious did not panic and she stayed out by me gobbling up the scratch grains as fast as she could peck.  One of the newer, not too bright birds was gobbling up the sand that we put down...stupid bird brain!

Peep season is fast approaching.  We have decided to get 18 peeps this spring to add to the flock.  I am off now to check out the on line prices of peeps and design a new brooder/nursery for them.  We have always kept the peep brooder in the basement of our house but as we have had a few seasons of chickens now we are improving our process.