Back in the Money

Praise the Lord, all the girls are a' layin' again. Now to celebrate I need to find an enemy's house to go throw eggs at.

Conspiracy Theory Resolved!

So after talking with some other neighboring chicken farmers I found the answer to my non-laying hens. They are molting! Here I was thinking I knew almost everything about these things. Goes to show what little I know.
Molting is the shedding and renewal of feathers and occurs about once a year. The order in which the different sections of the bird lose their feathers is fairly defined: head, neck, body, wings and tail. Molting is a difficult time for birds, since it involves hormonal fluctuations and increased energy requirements. Eliminate stress during this time: keep temperature in a narrow range (70-80o F), provide a high quality diet, and each day mist the birds with a fine spray or provide a pan for bathing. It takes about seven weeks for new feathers to complete their growth cycle. Domesticated chickens bred for high egg production have a definite molting pattern. A natural molt does not normally occur until the end of an extended, intensive laying period. Chickens that have been laying heavily for one year or longer molt easily in the fall since this is the natural molting season. If they finish their intensive year in the spring, they do not molt easily and may wait until the fall. A chicken loses feathers from various sections of its body in a definite pattern. The order is: head; neck; feather tracks of the breast, thighs and back; wing and tail feathers. Some birds molt more slowly than others; some molt earlier. A good high producing flock tends to molt late and rapidly. Decreasing day-length is the normal trigger for molting. Therefore, lighting programs for egg production flocks should provide either constant or increasing day-length. Stresses caused by temporary feed or water shortage, disease, cold temperatures, or sudden changes in the lighting program can cause a partial or premature molt.

So I guess the ladies are saved from becoming chicken pot pie for now.

Conspiracy Theory

So we have only been getting one egg a day since CooCoo went broody awhile back. She is back to normal now, but not laying.. and somehow has convinced 2 of the others not to lay either. I think she has started an egg strike to get back at me for kicking her off of her broody ass. Since she has been with us the longest (and also the smallest thus probably has a small chick complex) she probably hold some sort of sway over the others. At least one of my girls is breaking the strike and laying. Until I find out who the producer is the non-producers are fairly safe from me ringing their necks. But there ain't no free rent around here so I better start getting my 4 eggs a day again.

Gone Broody

So one of the ladies has decided to try and hatch our unfertilized eggs and gone broody (she sits on the eggs all day).. I often go to the forum on Backyard Chickens.com to find the answers. Apparently I am supposed to kick her off the lay box over and over until she gets the pic that no babies are gonna come out of those eggs. Also, good news on One Eye Lucile- her bad eye is no longer the size of a marble. A few days on antibiotics in their water got it down to normal (however it is still unusable so she will still be one eyed). I learn something new about this chicken thing every week.

Chores

Around here all children must help out around the farm

Chicken Portraits

The girls- CooCoo, Black Claudette, One-Eyed Lucile, Henrietta

Vet's view: Backyard chickens are fun, and lay the best eggs

Great blog from USA today on fun and healthy reasons to raise your own.

Benefit # 10 from backyard chickens- no salmonella

From CNN:
About 1,300 cases of salmonella have been linked to eggs from Wright County Eggs and Hillandale Farms of Iowa, forcing a recall of their products in at least 17 states, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control reported. Wright County Egg has recalled 380 million eggs, while Hillandale Farms recalled 170 million eggs.

Video: What is salmonella?

Video: Bad eggs the beginning?

Video: Still eating eggs

Video: Safe from salmonella?

RELATED TOPICS

• Food Safety
• Food and Drug Administration
• Salmonella
• Product Recalls

"We have a very complicated network of food distribution in this country," Hamburg told CNN's "American Morning" on Monday. "You start with a couple of farms in Iowa and you can get nationwide exposure."

Eureka! All hens a go.

Finally, all four hens a layin'. Eggs anyone?

Chicken dinners coming soon

So still only two hens laying.. Lucile and Black Claudette are way over the 20-22 weeks they are supposed to start laying at. Anyone in the mood for chicken dinner? We brought back some good jerk seasoning from Jamaica that I will start sprinkling on them to motivate them to lay.

Weathervane

So many eggs, so little time

We are doing a good job at our egg production to consumption ratio with only the two chickens laying, but I have a feeling that very soon the other two will get on board ( I think they are close or over 20 weeks) and start laying. In fact I saw a third egg in the nest the other day but had to question myself if I forgot to do the egg collecting the day before and maybe it was really just Henrietta's egg. We will see- I just don't want to get all excited before I am sure. Once that happens our egg p:c will jump and we can get into business.

Intern

Since my international readers are telling me I don't post enough- this is for you....Although I really don't have fabulous news. You guessed it, we lost "Iron Man".. really- I just lost him. My guess is the hawk, but who knows. Here one day, gone the next. We really had no room in the coop anyway, especially since my friend, Nancy Jane's hens are staying with us for the month. Maybe when the boarders are gone we will try to find some full sized Auracana Hens- no more of this chick rearing business.
On a brighter note, I have gotten myself an intern. Yes, she is an intern at work, but I may also use her to do chores around the coop as well. I have named her Darin and am working on training her now. She is a recent grad and has no other good options, so might as well not just learn marketing (or office grunt work) but also how to clean out a filthy chicken coop. Those are real life skills.

Don't count your chickens

Easy come, easy go.. little yellow hen was cruelly murdered by a neighbor's wiener dog. It was really tragic as she died in my hands. So now the little brown chick- "Iron Man" (my kid has been picking names again)- is lonely in her baby chick house (aka dog crate). I feel so bad as she keep peeping peeping, so now she has a temporary house pass and is running around our den. Since we really don't need 6 hens, I don't want to get a new one, but Iron Man needs company.. Maybe she will graduate to the big hen house tomorrow and just take her chances with the hawk/ cat.
Also... we found a new kind of egg in the coop! It seems that our bantam CooCoo has started laying- finally.. They are small tan eggs. I will take a pic soon. My kid ate the first of "his CooCoo"s egg once I told him there was no chance of it becoming a small chick.

Rock-a-bye Chicken

Here is a pic of Henrietta's eggs. Now if the others would just fall in line we will be in business.

New Additions- Easter Eggers!

I could not help myself. The Quality Feed Store (N. Main- my favorite feed store) had baby Araucana chicks and they should have blue or green colored eggs. So here we go again with the chicks- just when I though I was done with chick rearing. If these two are indeed hens and survive the hawk/ cat into adulthood, then we will have 6 hens! Wow, that is a lot of eggs. I will then be able to quit my job and sell eggs for a living. Get in line people. Look how big the others are now (CooCoo not pictures as she was being pissy)

Quote of the day

"Mom, the egg has poop on it again".. I have now trained my child to wash chick poo off eggs.

Chicken Treats

So if you are wondering what else chickens will eat outside of chicken food, here is a chart of chicken treats.. it seems they will eat almost anything:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

Flock Getting Bloggy Fame

So exciting.. a fun blog about blogs wrote about my blog. This crazy blog world is so fun.. maybe someday my confidential alter ego can come out of the closet and I can make chicken farming and blogging my full time job. http://houstonblogblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/heights-has-chicken-blogger.html?showComment=1271638249383_AIe9_BElIm5kKQI1oak4EJFLDVVPSW8Hp9GSm9YfpYQ3WGZTuB_ZeBYyF0cCoyLKQdNZGdSdgh71cTxZ0EtKUIBS7mzSRMhREGsIFh8wp3yW84U0KM5MLmARIiIsnCZhzYIWGJMMQkIRl7jRrDfbjw77wRxH1H6uNMetMj8lDpP6Y5vVLHNnSpVxcBCLVFLPSYsR76ngmZxrR8TOwk--P2Z7dd3bBLhgGSs56gFMrY-g3V4EzBw3UV0#c7689203793142840823

Almost a dozen

Darn the life of a working mother.. barely no time remaining for chicken blogging. Still only one laying hen. If CooCoo, who is over 12 weeks, does not start laying soon she may become chicken pot pie.
My 4 year old has become an expert egg collector (now if I could just get him to feed and water the chicks). He has collected 11 eggs (we lost a few to droppage) and he is pretty excited to fill out the whole egg carton.  I don't know why but he won't let us eat any of the eggs until the carton is full. Kind of ruining the point of "fresh" eggs, but they will be fine. I think you can keep them up to 6 weeks or something in the fridge.. someone correct me if I am wrong. I am sure I have kept store eggs longer but probably shouldn't have.

Pay dirt!

FINNAALLLYYY! Big Red Henrietta #2 payed off and laid us our first egg! My kid was so excited to collect said egg and show the neighbor that he accidentally dropped and broke it. He then proceeded to cry for about 20 minutes he was so upset- sad really. He recovered when Henrietta "laid" another (surprisingly cold) egg.  I did not get a photo of the true first egg so maybe tomorrow I will post a picture.

Farewell Claude(ette), hello Henrietta #2

Unfortunately Claudette started crowing. In respect of being a good neighbor, we have returned him to the store and exchanged him for a big fat layer hen (who is not nearly as cute). Hopefully this big red hen will be a good layer. She got loose on the way home and all hell broke loose in the car. My kid ended up with a few scratches but in one piece. He now hates the new chicken. I am sure he will change his tune when get gets to collect eggs every day.

Breed?

In trying to figure out what type of breed the older chicks are (we now only have 2.. I have no idea where Henrietta went- I am guessing neighbor cat strikes again).  After some research I think both of them are Cochins- they have very feathery feet. They should have smallish brown eggs. Here is a link in case you would like to figure out what type of chickens you would want to invest in.. We just get whatever is available at the feed store. Maybe when we get more experienced in this I will order some other fancy chickens.

Waiting waiting

So I figure my bigger chickens must be around 12 weeks now.. not really sure when they hatched, but still no eggs. They don't look fully grown so maybe we have a few more weeks. The anticipation is killing me. I hope we don't hear crowing soon though as that would mean I would have wasted all of that time and effort on a bunch of cocks. Not unlike my college dating years.

New Flock Additions

So we figured we should replace some of the downed members of the flock- mostly to guarantee we have a few laying hens- and also because the Quality Feed Store had a straight run (meaning all pullets or female chicks) of Production Reds. So we got one of them at a whopping $2.75 (expensive for a chick)and also one of a breed called "Black Giant" who is thought by the feed store owner to be "probably a hen"- only time will tell. So now we are back at 5- one grey names CoCo, one yellow named Claudette, one brown smallish one named Henrietta, new baby red named Lucile, and new baby black named Blackie for now.. quite the colorful and fabulous flock. See how big the 3 older chicks are- hopefully they will start laying this month!! You can cut the excitement with a knife around here (not really).

Chicken Sex

So a common question I get from friends is if I need a rooster to get eggs. No, you do not need a rooster to get eggs. If there is no rooster you will just get unfertilized eggs. Then someone asked me the the other day how are the eggs fertilized- inside the chicken (aka Chicken Sex) or once they are layed? I was not sure the answer of this so of course I had to find out.  So turns out chickens have sex.. fairly awkwardly but it happens. Here is a demonstration on youtube:

And then there were Three

Seems we have a "problem cat" who is hunting my flock. On the positive side, there is now only one chickie of each color making identification easy. Rest in Peace yellow chickie #2. I am hoping the three we have left are hens or we will have to start again with a new batch (or spend $20 0n a full sized hen). Now what to tell the kids about the mysterious reduction in chickens? I am thinking that three decided to go on a trip somewhere fun. Wonder if they will buy that. Thus is life on the farm. You have to be tough.

Day 24- And then there were Four

Sadly we have lost two chicks. Yesterday morning we noticed there were only five chicks. My theory is that early that morning one of them got out of their cage (they are able to get through the wire while they are small, but cats can't get in) and was captured/ eaten by a neighborhood cat. It was the brown chick that I think was a rooster anyway. Then later that afternoon while we were around the house and the chicks were freeranging around the yard we noticed there was another one missing. This cat must have thought he has found some easy chicken dinners. We will need to keep a closer eye on these guys now. Rest in Peace, yellow chickie #3 and brown chick #2. Other than "Coo Coo" who is easily identifiable, we have not officially named any of the others. Now that there is only one brown one, she will be named Henrietta.

Just hangin' with the chicks

Chicken n' Children

So the chicks have become a plaything for the kids. Here I was thinking that we were saving a few chickens from a miserable existence in a too cramped cage. Maybe that would have been safer for them. So far they have been handled and harassed by my kids and the neighbor kids. They have been pushed down the slide, forced to swing in the swing, and chased constantly around the yard in a game they call "chase the chicken". Here is the baby chasing them around:

Finally finished!

After two weekends of hard work, sweat, and a little blood, we are finally done with the coop. Many thanks to my husband, my neighbors, my parents, and Vince for helping out with the
project. The chickies seem to like it so far. Has this project been worth it? That has yet to be seen.

First Blood

It was inevitable. I finally drilled into my finger. Thankfully it was fairly minor and we were able to continue with the coop building without much downtime. Days without incident- zero.

Warning

This is how we discipline in our house.. I show them what their fate is if they misbehave. No more problem chickens after this demonstration.

Day 8- Freeranging

Sorry to my avid readers- all 3 of you- since I am not posting more frequently. My day job is getting in the way of my chicken rearing. I am a little worried that my chickies are not going to imprint on me so I took the day off to work at home and let the kiddos have some outside time. Since it has been rather cold lately they have been in the garage in my dog's kennel with their heat lamp, but finally it is sunny and beautiful so we are taking advantage. Here are some pics of the chicks, I think they are getting bigger:


Here they are helping out with the blog...

Day 5- Imprinting

My 4 year old named his chicken Coo Coo. It is the largest of the 6 so he has determined it is the "mommy" of the group. It pretty much pecks the other ones and pulls it's own feathers out- very much like the mommy of this house- like he said, coo coo. So in order to help these chickies imprint on us we are trying to handle them and talk to them daily. Here is a pic of Coo Coo imprinting on our dog Dulce.

Day 4- Big Day

Saturday was a big day for the Heights Chicken Project. Not only did we almost build the entire coop but we also acquired 6 baby chicks. Although we were only planning on 2 to 3 chickens, our neighbor kids came with us to the feed store so everyone had to have their own chicken. I figure we have a 50/50 shot of each one being a hen so hopefully a few roosters will turn up and go back to the store as our coop was not built for 6 hens (nor do I know what to do with 6 eggs/ day). We won't know if they are hens or roosters until they start crowing or laying eggs- it is very scientific. Supposedly some people can tell the difference at the baby chickie age, but I have yet to figure that one out. Below are pics of the kids in the feed store and our 6 chicks.

After getting the chicks, we set to work building the coop de resistance. After realizing most of our power tools (not that we had that many) had been stolen we borrowed the neighbor's much better power tools. I have never used a nail gun or a table saw before but now I have seen the light. Never before will I be able to use a regular ole hammer again. And how fun is a table saw? I amazingly did not even cut any appendages off. I may have found a new career as a carpenter (as long as nobody looks too closely at the finished product). Here is the progress of the coop build:

Front wall being built out of recycled shutters and a plastic window material.

Interior with shelf for the nest area and ladder for roosting.

Mostly finished coop. Side is made out of recycled ship lap.
We figured if the kids were misbehaving we would send them to the coop too- so we checked to make sure they would fit.

So far the costs of the project are:
Chicks- $2 each + food & water bottles= $37
Power tool replacement, heat lamp, misc wood- $161 (I am debating whether power tool replacement should be included in the project cost- I think not)
Back to hardware store for more stuff- $30
So backing out the power tools I am guessing we have spent about $100 on chickens and coop materials. Humm.. that is still a lot of money.. maybe it will pay off when we start our all egg diet and save on other groceries.