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!

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.

Teenage Little Girl Chickens

Today was a pretty nice day so we let the chickens free range around the yard.  We try to let them free range as much as possible.  This serves 2 purposes.  One, they get to run around and explore and that makes for happy birds, and two, they eat every bug in the yard, and that makes for happy owners!  Let me introduce you to Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb.  These 2 girls go everywhere together.  They are truly BFFs.  Where one is the other is close behind.  They also enable each other and are the most mischievous chickens I own.

Today for instance, as soon as the run door was opened they took off running for the hills!  ok, not the hills as we live at the top of the mountains...but they took off running for the back yard.  Wing in wing they waddled as fast as their little chicken feet could carry them.  This upset Chip the rooster very much.  He is very protective of his girls and he is always looking out for them.  Whoever came up with the term 'mother hen' should have met Chip...overprotective father hen!  Dee and Dumb just giggled and rounded the house out of Chip's sight.  The spotted the duck box and Dee said to Dumb, "Lets hide in there!"  The both ducked into the duck box and played around in the shavings that were in there, giggling and carrying on like two young teenagers.  Chip finally rounded the corner of the house and started to panic....where did his girls go?~!  He let out crow after crow, and the girls just giggled as they hid in the box.  Dumb said to Dee, "SHHHH  he will hear you!  Be quiet!"

Finally Chip gave out another crow in desperation, and gave up and went back to the front yard to check on the rest of his flock.  At that time Dee and Dumb tumbled out of the duck box laughing their beaks off!  "HAHA  he did not find us!!"  Silly birds.  Dee and Dumb like to hang out in the back yard around the central air unit and under the back deck.

When you go near them to try to corral them back to the front yard they will duck under the deck and hang out in the middle where you can't reach them.  "Neener Neener Neener!  You can't get us!!"  Goofy birds.  I fear that a hawk will show them just how touchable they really are!  I hope not and try to keep an eye on them a best I can - but they roam around and dig up the rocks at their will.

Things should get real interesting around here in a week or so.  We ordered 26 new peeps to add to the flock.  Anyone need any eggs??!!

Introducing my Chickens

Here are some more pics of my chickens and their coop.

This is Fuzzy my Easter Egger chicken.  She is almost 3years old and still laying bright green eggs.

Here is Chip my psycho rooster:

This is one of the newer girls sitting in the nest boxes:

This is the poor chicky I had to put down over the weekend:

and another group shot:

Here are construction pics of the coop.  It is made from rough cut lumber board and battened:

The coop is 8x8 square with a height from 6' in the from down to about 5' in the back.
The run is 8' wide by 30' long.  We let them free range in the non winter months.  The

Most people put their chickens in their back yard.  We put ours in the front yard.  That way we can keep an eye on them and keep them safe from predators.

The finished coop.  I may still paint it red and white, and add a flower box under the window.

Here are some of the eggs I typically get, green and varying shades of brown:

I clean the coop out two times a year.  They do a great job at composting 4 bales of pine shavings into fertile dirt!  I wear my space suit and do it early in the morning when the neighbors are at work or still sleeping!  I am sure I am a sight to see!  It takes me a few hours and about 5 loads with the wheel barrel to get it all cleaned out.  That includes scraping down the perches and washing the window.  Lets face it, chickens are dirty birds and this is a pretty gross job but I choose to have chickens and I will provide them with the cleanest living quarters possible.  I use hay in the next boxes and pine bedding on the coop floor.

I get about 8 - 12 eggs a day with this flock.  Thankfully in PA, small time productions can sell their eggs to the local neighbors and establishments.  I sell my eggs to my neighbors and I sell them to co-workers.  I don't have enough chickens and production to try  selling to the local mom and pop resturants.  Maybe some day.

A Sad Day

As I mentioned in my introduction I have chickens.  I have 2 families of hens, one group that is getting to be about 3 years old and a newer family that is just turning 1 year old.  All the chickens live together in a very comfortable chicken coop.  They get along pretty well.  Sometimes there are some arguments as the pecking order is established challenged and maintained.  The newer hens just don't seem to be as hearty ad my older ones.  I have lost some of the older ones due to old age, but I have also had a few of the new one die for no apparent reason.  The new hens are also very skittish and freak out when I approach them as opposed to the older hens that like to be pet, carried around and are generally pretty affectionate ad far as chickens go.  In this newer set of chickens, there is one rooster.  This dear bird is something else.  He is a big chicken in every sense of the word, but he has moments of total stupidity and tries to attack me as I turn my back on him.  I give him an attitude adjustment and he is immediately sorry for what he did but he does not seem to remember and will get a little cocky with me again and again. 

Let me introduce my birds to you.  Here are a few of the cluckers:

In this horrible picture (forgive me it was dark out and all I had was my phone).  You can see Chip the rooster and the hens with the white tails are some of the new girls and the darker ones are the older girls.  The one eating is Fuzzy.  She is one of my favorite hens.  She is an easter-egger and lays green shell colored eggs.  She is super friendly also.

Here is another older hen.  Way up high on the top perches in the coop.  As you can see their coop is deluxe with high and low perches, window, and a wall of nest boxes.

I have more picture to post but they did not seem to make the upload from my phone.  I will re-upload them and post them later.

Anyway back to the sad day.  One of my new hens prolapsed.  If you are not current with the chicken terminology that means that her vent (the hole where the egg comes out) turned inside out some and was bleeding and drawing attention of the other birds.  The other birds would peck at her problem and make it bleed more and draw more attention to it.  A vicious circle.  I did not catch it in time but I tried to clean her up after consulting my handy dandy chicken book.  I had full intentions of saving this poor hen.  According to my book all I had to do was clean the area, tuck everything back in where it belongs and apply some over the counter Preparation H cream to the area to help things shrink back down to normal.  OK, I can do that.  I caught the skittish hen and pet her gently while talking softly to her to calm her down.  I then had to bring her into the house, flip her over and try to clean her up.  As I was cleaning her I noticed that the area that was pecked by the other birds and scabbed over and there was no saving her.  I ended up having to put her down.  I hate killing my chickens.  It would be different if they were meat chickens and what was their purpose but with laying hens death is not their purpose.  I said my apologies to her then broom-sticked her.  I wrapped her up and put her in the dumpster.  I went back in the house and cried.