The Ladies Have Arrived!

I picked up the new hens this week. They arrived at our local post office all healthy and cheeping merrily after their long journey.

Loss of Flock Due to Predation

Recently, we lost our entire flock due to a raccoon attack. I won't elaborate as there is not too much more to say but we ordered more hens and are rebuilding the flock.

2010 Chicken Photo Essay

 

 

 

Chickens Have Been Moved

We recently moved to a different house and of course, took the chickens along.

It was a scene moving the coop, we have video and will try to post it soon!

 For the record, we not did move them as they do in China:

You get some large sacks, poke some holes in the top, weave the birds into each so each head is sticking out, and then you can throw the entire sack on a bicycle or truck. Source.

Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon...! Arrival of the First Eggs

My little helper Nick and I headed out to shut the chickens in their coop for the night. We opened the door to count them, and I noticed a little egg shaped item on the coop floor. I could barely believe my eyes, but I reached down to touch it, and while the shell was soft, it was indeed an egg! The girls turned 22 weeks old this week, and they are entering womanhood!

Here you can see the various sized combs they are developing, which is a sign of maturation.

Dot's comb seemed to grow overnight.
This photo was taken this weekend, and the comb is even bigger today.

Nick helped me look in the nesting boxes, and there sat another beautiful little egg. Nick was very excited, but I told him we needed to go get Joe, and away we ran back into the house to get Joe.

We grabbed flashlights and headed back outside as quickly as we could. I was so nervous they would step on an egg or that the eggs would be terribly fragile and break, but I was pleasantly surprised to find how well they stood up to the boys handling them. The soft-shelled one even stood up to Nick throwing it on our kitchen floor when we got inside because Joe told him it was "bouncy" and he wanted to see how it bounced. It didn't bounce, but it did stay intact!

We ended up finding three eggs! One truly hard-shelled blue-green beauty, one soft-shelled oddity, and one membrane-covered mutation. I have read that when chickens aren't getting enough calcium, their shells can be soft or non-existent. Doing further reading tonight, I also found out that first eggs can be like that too. Soft-shell, no shell, smaller and sometimes oddly shaped are all normal in the first 2-3 weeks of laying. I have more research to do.

Left to right: Soft shell, no shell, hard shell. This is before I washed them off.

We don't know which of the 9 layed these eggs, and we don't know if it was 3, or 2 or even just 1 of the girls that produced these. There's probably not a good way to know with the configuration we have for their coop. I feel confident, however, that we will be seeing MANY more eggs soon!

Sadly, Jason missed the excitement as he was in class this evening, but as soon as he got home, the boys couldn't give him all the details fast enough.


So begins our sustainable egg supply, from happy, healthy chickens, that we can feel confident are untainted by weird hormone treatments or poor living conditions. I can't wait to fry up one of these eggs. Maybe tomorrow morning, with a side of bacon!

New Coop Door

I was having issues with the previous coop door that would be pulled up and down using a cable. Mainly, It would not reliably latch closed (I had fashioned a weighted latch for it) and the boys could not easily work the action open and shut as it was mounted too high.

I abandoned the traditional up and down coop door and opted for the Star Trek sliding-type door (without the dude working it behind the scenes). I had welded a lever/handle with a mount and hooked it up via a linkage to the coop door, which rides back and forth in a slot. There are locking pins that friction-fit into the lever panel to secure the door open and shut (although I am not too concerned that they can be moved unintentionally).





I am VERY satisfied with this solution and I must say that it looks pretty slick. The door secures tightly and boys can work the door easily.

And the Release...

So, here's the deal (for all you raccoons, foxes, and other predators out there that may be reading the blog):

If you are caught in one of my traps overnight, you will receive option 1:

Be delivered to a Missouri state park (see map).


This will be you, incarcerated and then released into the wild, Thunderdome-style, like your buddies below:




But, if I CATCH you in the act, messing with my chickens, I will deal with you using option two.

• Coleman 530 lumen spotlight
• Ruger MKIII 22/45 with Hi-Viz front sight
• .22 caliber, 40 grain, CCI Max segmented hollow-point varmint ammunition

The choice is yours varmints...