A Garden Clutch

It feels like Spring now!  While it is only February, the temps are in the mid-70s this week and four of the six hens started laying  within the past two weeks, after a 4-5 month break.  

A couple of days after Sissy started laying, it seemed she stopped for several days, which didn't seem right.  Finally, I found out why she didn't have any eggs in the nesting box.  She had a clutch of eggs in a homemade nest out in the yard!  I felt really bad collecting them all and making a "Sissy omelet" for Remi's lunch, but I got over it quickly.  After losing her clutch of eggs, Sissy started laying in the nesting box again. 

Now that Sissy, Chirp, Shasta and JimBob are laying, we have enough spare eggs for the kids to sell in order to raise money for fostering kittens this summer.  They will purchase the food/litter and supplies we need for taking care of a kitten family. 

Goodbye Rooster

It has been fun keeping a rooster with our flock of hens.  We had started looking for a new home for him and decided to keep him until he crows.  Just when I was starting to think he'd be a quiet type and maybe we could keep him, he started crowing on Saturday at 4.5 months old.  At first, it was really crackly and sounded like a car trying to start.  He's been practicing his crows in sets of 5 around 7 am the past few mornings but today he's really gotten into a groove and started crowing at 6:30 am (a set of 5) and at 7 am, 7:30 am, etc...  He's had several rounds and his voice gets louder and the crowing lasts longer.  Today he'll move to a new home-- a farm in the Cupertino foothills. 

Here is a photo of Coby holding Rooster.  I was afraid to pick him up because Rooster became a little aggressive in the past week.  But Coby could catch him!

Coby took this picture as all the chickens ran after him to the coop, expecting treats.  

They were not disappointed... Coby gave them some scratch!

Coby and I tried to put all 7 chickens on the table, but we only managed to get 4 on before they started jumping down.

Majestic Rooster!

2-ish Months Old

The chicks moved out of their little cage and into a cage 4 times the size of the original one.  At that time, they also moved out of the kitchen and into the garage because they got smelly and messy!  I didn't capture any photos during that time (!!!), but now all the chickies are in the coop and look like big girls. 

 "CHIRP" (Americauna)

 "LORA" (Buff Brahma)

"SHASTA" (Delaware)

"ROOSTER" (Male Salmon Faverolle... oops!)

 "KELLY" (Welsummer)      

 

"SISSY" (Sussex)

 "JIM BOB" (Americauna... we may not keep the name but we like the it for now)

 

 

The big shocker of the day came when the chick we thought was the Brahma turned out to be the Salmon Faverolle and the one we thought was a Salmon Faverolle looked identical to a Buff Brahma, so I guess we had the chicks confused.  Lora's name (when we thought she was the Salmon Faverolle for the past 2 months) is supposed to be a feminine version of Lorax, the cute Dr. Seuss character with a mustache.  Salmon Faverolle's have little mustaches, but since she's a Brahma, she's missing the mustache but is keeping her name.  The one we thought was the Brahma is actually a male Salmon Faverolle.  The females are salmon colored but the males have darker feathers.  You can see that Rooster has lots of dark feathers, including the typical rooster's iridescent green-black tail feathers.  Supposedly they are very sweet roosters, but we won't be able to keep him once he starts crowing.  So far he still has a baby chirp though he's the most quiet of tall the chicks.  

A lot of Rooster's behaviors are making sense now.  We thought he was less-than-intelligent but it turns out while all the other chicks learned to roost on the low and then the high bars in the coop, he was still sleeping on the floor to better protect his flock from predators.  And the reason he stays back when I'm giving the girls scratch is because he's saving the best for them.  What a gentle-roo!

We are really enjoying the chickens.  Kelly and Shasta still seem to be the most people friendly, though Sissy is also quite friendly.  Lora is the most entertaining though.  She likes to run through the coop without a plan for where she's going... just aimless. 

Update on our 2nd Chicken Flock

Chicks are such fun!  The full flock has 7 chicks.  While it looks like there are 2 kinds of chicks above (3 yellow and 4 brown), we actually got 6 different breeds.  Chicks come in only 3 colors though... brown-ish, yellow, and black.  In our last flock, he had 3 black chicks, but we don't have any this time. This flock contains 2 Americaunas, 1 Brahma, 1 Delaware, 1 Salmon Faverolle, 1 Sussex, and 1 Welsummer. 

In the photo above, all the chicks are sleeping, except one!  
 

 

Here the chicks are about a week old and are starting to explore a little bit when the cage door opens.  The first two chicks to sit on the door are consistently Kelly (brown one at the end of the flap door) and Shasta (bright yellow chick nearest to Kelly).  In our last flock, the first two to explore out of the cage also were the friendliest as hens. 

 

Pepper was supervising the chicks... or maybe he was hoping for a snack?

Actually Written Sept. 20. 2012

Today we started our second flock of chickens!  So far, we have 2 different colors of Ameraucanas (the yellow one and the middle one) and we have a Welsummer (right).  These breeds should provide us with a nice colorful basket of eggs this Spring.  Ameraucanas lay greenish/blue eggs and the Welsummer should lay dark (almost chocolate) eggs.  On Saturday we will get a few more from a different store in order to have a bigger variety of breeds.  While we loved our last flock of 2 Barred Rock, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Silver Laced Wyndotte and 1 Brown Leghorn, we wanted to try completely different breeds this time. 

Flock #1 retired at 3.5 years old this past weekend.  Their laying had REALLY slowed down to the point that we got one egg every other day, if we were lucky.   

Coby and Chirp

Remi and Tweet

Our neighbor with Kelly

RIP Ginger

It is remarkable that our hens remained healthy for 3 years. But today, we said goodbye to Ginger. We don't know what caused her to be ill though she wasn't keeping up with the flock and her comb and crop turned purple. In her younger days, she was the top of the pecking order. We will miss you Ginger!

First Chicken Vet Appointment

Minerva injured her foot somehow and had been limping, so we took the sweet hen to the vet to get the foot looked at. Dr. Nakamura at Adobe Animal Hospital reported that it did not seem like an infection (not red/hot) and was most likely due to some kind of trauma. Looks to me like the coop door got caught on her foot (see the dark line on top of the middle digit?). The doctor prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine that the kids have both been helping me administer (while I hold the hen and open her mouth). Minerva has been healing well.

Spring is Here!

So nice to have a full egg carton after a slow winter! Notice the top left egg from Ginger. After a bit of a Winter break in her egg laying, she popped out a mini egg. Lots of brown eggs... until FINALLY Hawk decided to lay one (white egg).

New Feathers for Minerva

After a few really cold days of being feather-less, Minerva has started growing new feathers. Her head has new little feathers and if you look really closely, you can see the tips of the feathers that have just started "feathering" on her wing, above the couple big, old feathers she has. She has been huddling in a corner of straw in the coop and so I've been letting the hens out more than usual so she can find a sunny patch to sit in. I bet she'll be even warmer tomorrow.

Yesterday, I tried holding Minerva to warm her up, but she squawked loose and felt like a porcupine! It was quite an odd feeling. Normally, the hens are so soft and fluffy.

Minerva, what happened?!

Doesn't it look like there is something terribly wrong with this hen? The weather has turned quite cool and most of the other hens are nearly done with their molting process and here is Minerva in the worst of her molt! She lost nearly ALL her feathers and has a bunch of new quills coming in, though the are very narrow and just look like hedgehog spikes. In this photo, she is happily eating carrot tops.

I learned that during the molting process, the hens need extra protein in order to produce their new feathers. I've been giving them lots of sunflower seeds and pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) that I cleaned out of the pantry. Yogurt and cottage cheese are also good sources of protein.

With the cold weather and the hens molting, we often only get 1 egg a day so I bought eggs this week for baking-- I baked a ton this week for Thanksgiving and Coby's birthday! I think only Ginger and Louise are laying right now.

Who Plucked the Hens?

There are feathers all over the coop! It looks like the plucking station at a chicken processing plant. We have 3 hens molting right now... both Buff Orpingtons and Hawk, the Brown Leghorn. Top hen, Ginger, is still laying, despite molting, but her egg has diminished in size. It used to be so big that it would produce a bulge in the egg carton, but now it is much smaller, though predictably there just about daily! The other two molting hens, Hawk and Buffy, are not laying any eggs. Minerva, Louise, and Doily are laying eggs still.

The other night, a loud "scream" emerged from the backyard. I had forgotten to close the coop that night and a raccoon must've gotten in and tried getting a hen. When she screamed, I turned on the light and ran out. The raccoon left but Louise was confused, clucking and walking towards the light. I picked her up and placed her back on the roost, counted to be sure all 6 hens were there, and then locked up the coop. The next morning, I saw a pile of Louise's feathers all in a clump. A patch of feathers were also missing from her neck, but upon further inspection, she had no bites or scratches. She and I were very lucky that the raccoon attack was unsuccessful!

Snow in August?

Could it be snow in August? In the coop? No, it is actually food-grade diatamaceous earth (DE)-- little broken up glass-like diatoms (from the ocean) pulverized into a powder the consistency of flour. This is the treatment I am using to prevent mites. Earlier this summer, Minerva became infested with mites. Her tummy was raw and featherless, but the other hens seemed fine. I used an insecticide to spray all the hens, the coop, and places in the yard where the hens like to dust bathe or nap. I also used the DE as a second round of defense. In fact, I learned that I can just periodically spread it around the coop and yard to help prevent future infestations and to help limit the amount of flies around. Some people sprinkle it into the food, making the chicken poop poisonous for the flies (the structure of the DE disrupts the life cycle of the flies). DE is relatively safe, however because of the fine particle size, it is an inhalation hazard, so I wear a mask when I work with it.

I even treated the nesting boxes.











This is one of the hens' favorite dust bath spots.

Chicken Fight?

The coop is filled with feathers! Was there a chicken fight? I think that Ginger is molting, a natural process where hens lose their feathers and grow new ones. During this time, the molting hen's reproduction system is halted. No wonder Ginger hasn't resumed egg laying after her broodiness ended! Increasing hens protein in their diet (sunflower seeds, yogurt, mealworms, crickets, tofu, etc) helps them grow new feathers. Yogurt is also good for their digestive system.

Since Ginger has only been molting for a couple of days, she's not looking much different yet. I'll post a picture when she's looking good and scraggly.

Ginger Gone Broody

For about 3 weeks, Ginger was broody. This means that she really felt like being a Mama by hatching an egg. She sat in the nesting box that was preferred by all the hens and stayed in there for about 3 weeks, occasionally getting out to eat. Just about every day, Coby would pull her out of the nesting box so she'd join the flock foraging or dust bathing for a bit, but would go right back to the box after 15 minutes or so. Since it takes about 21 days for an egg to hatch, I guess she got over her broodiness after a few weeks. Besides, we continued to take eggs from under her (laid by other hens... Ginger did not lay during this time). However, Ginger is still not laying eggs... more on that in a future post!

XL Nesting Box

Cracked eggs on the ground! We wondered how it happened. Did the hens roll out eggs from the nesting box to crack and eat them? We noticed a pattern-- it was always Doily's egg! Did the other hens pick on her? After wondering about this for several weeks, I was cleaning the coop while she was in the nesting box. PLOP! It landed right on the ground. Doily is a fluffy hen and maybe she likes to face towards the back of the nesting box, rather than facing out like the rest of the hens. So her eggs were falling to the ground as she laid them! My father constructed a new, extra-large nesting box and we have not had any more cracked eggs. In fact, she seems to know it is just for her because she lays in that box all the time now (but the other hens like it too). Thanks Dad!

Which way do eggs come out?

Ever wonder which way eggs are laid (pointy side first or rounded side first)?




















Well, this egg didn't have enough padding when it "plopped" out of the hen and so the tip got cracked. Guess it makes sense... the more pointed end of the egg is the first part out, unless of course, the egg is breach! hehehe

It has been two months since I've updated the blog and lots has happened since then! During our nice warm weather, the hens like to join us in the hammock.




















In other news...

-- Hawk started laying her white eggs regularly again, after going on strike this winter. She laid about an egg a month during the cold, shorter days and now lays an egg just about every day!

-- Another shell-less egg was laid by Doily. This time, it was intact and so both kids brought it to "show and tell" at their respective schools, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

-- The cats and hens get along fine outside together! Sometimes the cats startle the hens, but usually if one is scared of the other species it is the cats afraid of the hens who come running to the door when I open it, waiting for treats. The cats are afraid to come inside when the hens are all blocking the door. Below is a photo of one cat and one hen getting along.

"Worms"

I threw a package of bean sprouts into the coop today because they got old before I could use them... the hens gobbled them up. Seems like the "girls" thought they were eating worms!

Treats!

The hens sure do enjoy their treats. Recently, we spoiled them with some mealworms (photo above) and yogurt (photo below). Remi and Coby enjoy throwing the mealworms for the hens to find. Remi tries to be tricky and throws them into the bushes for the hens to find. Coby likes to make sure that all the hens get some, so he tries to throw them closest to the more timid hens. The hens are funny when they eat yogurt because their beaks get all white. It didn't show up much in these pictures though. Minerva seemed to be posing for the camera (last photo)! The chickens can be such clowns!

Shell-less Egg

I've heard of this before, but it is the first time I see it. One of the hens laid an egg without a shell. It did have a thick membrane, but not a shell. When I found it on the ground of the coop this morning, it looked like a popped balloon because the chickens ate out the inside. I'm guessing it was Doily who laid it because Minerva, Louise, and Ginger all laid eggs today. Hawk "tried" to lay late this morning and her eggs are white, but this one was slightly brown. We didn't get an egg from Buffy today, but her eggs are much darker than this one was. I think it is normal for hens to have some weird eggs the first year of laying.

First Day of 6 Eggs!!

This is the first day that all six hens lay their eggs! In the picture above, starting with the white egg and going clockwise, the eggs were laid by: Hawk, Doily, Minerva, Buffy, Ginger, and Louise. It has been a month and a half since Hawk has laid an egg, so it was quite a surprise to find her egg out there this morning. Then this afternoon, the other 5 hens had laid their eggs. Such a proud hen Mama I am!