December 3, 2011

Winter approaches, but we haven’t had any significant cold or any snow at all as yet. The days have shortened enough so I seldom see the chickens in the daylight during the week. We took down the second length of fence so the propane tank can be accessed, but moved Steve’s latest hawk guard “contrapulation” over so the chickens can have an extra playground.

Today Silver naps on top of it in the morning sun. They seem to have accepted the reduction in their space, but I have been seeing more aggression from the (molting, grumpy) older hens toward the pullets too. The pullets try to stay out of range, but they all look splendid so I’m not too worried about them.

Bucky has beautiful plumage, but has been left with an odd tuft of feathers on her neck which I assume was caused by her earlier pecking injuries. I hope she loses it with her molt.

They’re not laying yet with the short days, but they’re 23 weeks old so they could start any time. Holly especially has taken on a mature look.

The “mommies,” Flicka and Zen have recovered nicely from motherhood and their light molt and Flicka’s back to laying again.

Finn has beautiful new plumage too, and is looking especially well.

Here a molting Rachel “kisses” him. I don’t know what this behavior is. She approaches and nibbles him lightly around his beak and he just stands still with his head raised and lets her. She has done it since Finn’s first day here, but I’ve never seen from any of the other hens. It seems sweet--a grooming gesture if not an actual kiss!

The Chicken Show

In the fall of my sophomore year at college, after I had been working with the chickens at the bio station for a year, Prof gave my friend Frank and me $100 and sent us off to buy some chickens at the Ohio National poultry show. I was without a car in college, so even the prospect of a road-trip was exciting. We drove the two hours down to Columbus listening to the “Flashdance” soundtrack.

In my year with the chickens I had learned a lot about their care and I had gotten to know about the various breeds that we kept. We had a good variety, from the common egg-laying Leghorns to the unusual, naked-necked Turkens and the top-knotted Polish. There were game breeds too--Aseels and bantam Old English games, so I had worked with a lot of different breeds (but curiously none of the ones I keep now).

Silkie

The poultry show opened my eyes. In the huge, chilly hall were hundreds of caged chickens, the roosters creating a din that had to be shouted over, the dusty air smelling of chickens. I was instantly smitten with the fluffy poodle-like Silkies (in those days coming only in black or white) and also the rainbow of modern games, their long skinny legs lending them a stilt-like quality; they looked more like shorebirds than chickens. There were broad, double-breasted bantam Cornish and well, giant Jersey Giants.

Bantam modern game

Our $100 went pretty far that day. We came home with Silkies, a trio of bantam blue rocks, birchen modern games, and white-crested Polish bantams. We rounded up boxes at the show for transport, but I remember that some of our new chickens had to ride the two hours home in paper bags!

Polish

Over the years I returned from time to time; I ended up living in central Ohio after I was done with school, so it was never much of a drive. Every time I went, especially after I had my house in the country, I’d spend the next few weeks dreaming and planning for chickens until the business of the holiday season distracted me. But always, in late fall, my thoughts turned to chickens.

Last year I went to the show for the first time in many years when my new chicks were only 2 weeks old. As I walked from the parking lot, the noise and smell hitting me, exhibitors unloading chickens in wooden cages from the backs of pickups, the decades fell away and it was like I was in college again. Only this time I had chickens of my own.

Shamo

Yesterday I went again, determined not to buy any since my flock is finally down to a comfortable size. I didn’t get any, but this time I was stopped in my tracks by the Shamos. You can’t doubt the T. rex-chicken connection after you’ve been stared down by one of these! I was also drawn to the Sicilian buttercups with their antler-combs. Neither of these breeds would thrive in my unheated coop, but they are striking birds.

Buttercup

Birthday chickens

Finn, of course

A year ago I ventured out to the post office before dawn on a snowy, windy morning and brought home my first chicks. This first year has been quite an adventure, but a successful one: there have been no losses.

The birthday chickens are looking a little rough right now. It’s the right time of the year for molting, but they’re too young for it. Chickens molt at 18 months of age, which is in the fall if they’ve been hatched in the spring like most are. I’ve been finding a lot of loose feathers, but Belle is the only one who seems really committed to the molt. Adding protein to the diet is usually recommended to help ease them through the process, but they’ve been eating chick starter since Elizabeth and Mario were hatched, so they’re getting plenty of protein.

Belle, a little worse for wear

Goldi, with pumpkin treat

Clucky wondering if it’s really a treat

Rachel digging in with Clucky

I’ve been struggling with the decision of whether and when to sell the young birds. The grass is showing some wear and their space will be halved when I take down the extra fencing (which I need to do before the ground freezes so the propane tank can be filled later this winter). There are three social groups at present based on age--the older hens without babies and Finn, Clucky’s four pullets, and Flicka and Zen who are still in mommy-mode with Mario and Elizabeth. At ten weeks the moms are looking worn out and are showing no signs of cutting the cord.

Flicka after 10 weeks of motherhood

Zen, looking worn out too

Elizabeth

After selling both males and Acorn from Clucky’s brood, I am still left with four pullets. Mario does have to go, but I was worried that since he’s a mixed breed there wouldn’t be any takers unless I offered him for free. So I finally decided that I would sell both Mario and Elizabeth and offer a deal if someone would buy both of them. Within an hour of posting them on Craig’s List I had a taker.

Mario

I went out before dawn yesterday morning to wrangle the babies. I had decided to put them in the kennel until the buyer arrived in the afternoon so they could have some contact with Flicka and Zen, and the moms wouldn’t be tempted to try to fly out to them. Even though the moms were once hand-tamed, I have not handled the babies and they are pretty wild. It was a rodeo even in the dark. I was able to get Elizabeth pretty easily, but then I had to trap Mario in the corner under the roost and while he yelled, Finn crowed, and Zen attacked me. When I had to catch them later in the afternoon it was even worse because everybody knew what was up. Next time I do this, I’ll try to tame them a little beforehand and wait to sell until the babies are weaned. Although it was a stressful day for everyone, they are lucky birds because they are going to be pets in their new home.

October 2011

We’re now well into fall and the leaves are accumulating on the ground and getting thinner overhead. The chickens enjoy scratching among the leaves, but a more open sky keeps Finn watchful.

I submitted pictures of Holly, Elizabeth, and Marie to the Backyard Chickens site to see if anyone could settle the gender question. The verdict: Holly and Elizabeth are pullets, while Marie is probably Mario.

Holly with Rachel, Goldi, and Clucky

Elizabeth

Mario

So incredibly, after hatching out nine chicks this summer, I ended up with only 3 boys after all--Hazel (who is happily adjusting to free-ranging with 30 hens), Dandelion, and well, Mario.

I’m once again looking at the grass in the enclosure (under the leaves), and it does seem somewhat worn, so I’m wondering who to keep. I was thinking of selling Mario, Elizabeth, and Holly as a mixed flock trio instead of trying to sell Mario alone. If I do this, I will have 10 chickens which seems like enough.

Silver

Clucky’s girls are growing up beautifully. The lavenders have gotten big and poufy suddenly,

......and Bucky, who is very shy and hard to photograph has incredible plumage. They’re about a month away from laying eggs.

Flicka and Zen are still actively mothering the babies at 7 weeks. Both are molting somewhat and seem worn--Clucky was done with the whole thing at a month!

I was out watching and photographing the chickens last week and all were ranging throughout the enclosure.......

I heard a quiet trilling from the woods that I couldn’t identify--could have easily been bird, mammal, amphibian, or insect. The chickens heard it too and went into hawk-mode before my eyes. They melted into the weeds around the cherry tree at the east end of their enclosure and FROZE. They did not move a muscle for at least a minute. Having spent a lot of time trying to photograph them in low light, I know for a fact that they’re normally never still. This behavior was striking, and I know from watching wild birds that it’s a response to a raptor, but I didn’t see any hawks. After a while all the chickens went back to their activities--it’s nice to see that their instincts serve them well!

Belle

Freeing the "Dirt Chickens"

Flicka and Zen and their two new babies Elizabeth and Marie spent the 3 weeks since hatch in the dog kennel/A-frame broody suite. It looked like a lot of room and technically it was, but within a few days the mommies had torn up all the sod looking for goodies and the run was reduced to a dust/mud pit depending on the weather. I put in a half pallet just to give them something to stand on besides the mire. The chicks, especially Elizabeth are still pretty small and I would have liked to leave them in the run for another week until they got big enough to not be tempted to run through the openings in the electronetting, but last weekend I had the opportunity to stay home all day to monitor things (a rarity) and the weather was nice so I sprung them.

They didn’t rush the gate like Clucky and her brood did. The moms are protective and the babies are shy of me because I haven’t spent any time with them. (Since the end of last month I’ve been dealing with a fairly virulent allergy to something in the dirt in the chicken run, presumably mold. The allergist says it won’t kill me but that it could get worse with repeated exposure, so I’ve been limiting my time with the chickens, waiting for a hard freeze). So anyway, I went back inside and left them to sort it out. A while later I glanced out the window and saw that the hens had gotten out, but the chicks were still inside. I went out to wrangle, caught Elizabeth and released her, but couldn’t get my hands on Marie. I finally trapped her in the A-frame and opened up the nestboxes in back so she could get out.

Once out, they enjoyed their day. The other chickens left them alone and they scratched around and sunbathed. When I brought the scratch out in the afternoon both mommies joined the rest of the stampede leaving the babies screaming out of sight back behind the coop. Flicka came to right away and went charging back to them, but Zen finished her snack first. Some mothers are better than others!

My plan was to have them move back to the main coop so I can clean up the A-frame and re-seed the kennel run. I put their food and water out for the day and at dusk came out to wrangle them in. It turned out that I didn’t have to--Marie went in through the compound with Flicka and Elizabeth managed the series of leaps up the steps through the main door long after Zen went in. So now I have 13 chickens all in one coop. We may have to make some more roosts, but they should all fit.

Goodbye to Hazel

My friend and chicken mentor Nancy lost her black Jersey Giant rooster this week. An enormous bird, he disappeared off her fenced property without a trace. He was one of those “good roos” and was much loved. Hazel, named for the Watership Down rabbit leader, will now get the chance to take his place, although he will have a Sussex rooster from the same hatching as Finn and Rachel to contend with. With more than 30 hens to share, they will probably be able to work something out! I’m very happy he’ll get to have a good free-ranging life instead of ending up as someone’s dinner.

Clucky, the Orpington on the left has snapped out of her broodiness

Last weekend I (reluctantly) set Clucky on 5 of the eggs I got from my neighbor and placed her in a bucket in the kennel with the two mommy hens and their chicks (the mommies have claimed the nest box area). She settled in and Steve reported that all was well the next morning, but by the time I returned from work Clucky was pacing the kennel hollering to get out. I thought she had broken, so went in to retrieve the eggs and found them smoking hot. So I waited a bit and she went back on the eggs. In the evening, I found Clucky outside pacing again and Flicka setting on the eggs (with the new chicks underneath her her as well), apparently in broody mode again (or still). I didn’t see this coming! So I gave up, released Clucky from the kennel, and pitched the eggs because I didn’t want to have to make a decision right then about where and how to set them. I blocked the nest boxes that night because I’m trying to get the babies to start using the roosts to sleep, and that was apparently the final straw. By the next afternoon, Clucky had rejoined the others, no longer broody. This is a relief for me--I’d like to start whittling the numbers down a bit.

Oops!

Just when I thought I had the babies figured out I failed not only the gender quiz, but the breed quiz too! I had thought from the beginning that Hazel was one of the Wyandottes based on his coloration as a chick, but as he grew, he looked less and less like Dandelion and what I thought a Wyandotte should look like. When it became clear he was developing a single comb I thought it was just a result of some cross to a single-combed breed in his background, but I was troubled because that meant I couldn’t sell him as a Wyandotte.

The day after I noticed this, I was idly gazing at Acorn (a dark-colored, shy bird that I usually see from a distance under cover) as she spread her wing and I thought “Wow, she’s a BLR Wyandotte,” and it all became clear.

This means that Hazel is actually a Barnevelder, and now that I know and he has matured a little more, he’s looking quite handsome with a lot of lustrous black plumage.

This also means that Bucky is a Barnevelder pullet--obviously female next to Hazel.

Also, if Acorn with her dark charcoal lacing is blue-laced, that means that Dandelion with his light lavender-colored lacing is a splash-laced. I found all this out in the nick of time as he was to be sold a few days hence. I emailed the buyer and sent pics and luckily he was still interested in Dandelion. He also offered to buy Acorn and I let her go with the promise of being able to buy future hatching eggs from him.

So back to the gender quiz--both lavenders are now looking similar to each other and now I think they are girls.

Holly, the Sussex is still looking like a boy to me, but at this point I wouldn’t swear to it!

Meanwhile, about a week after I set Flicka on her eggs in the new A-frame deluxe broody suite, Zen went broody again (after breaking the first time). I gave in and put her next to Flicka and gave her two of Flicka’s eggs so they’d both hatch out on the same day. My friend Nancy set a bunch of Sussex-cross eggs earlier this summer and all her chicks look like Sussexes, so I expected to see mottled brown babies.

Mine hatched two days ago--one black chick, Marie (offspring of Zen I think based on the head markings).....

.....and one beautiful buff stripey chick, Elizabeth, clearly of Orpington descent, both probably doomed to roosterhood now that they’ve been given feminine names!

So far Flicka and Zen seem to be sharing nicely, but I will keep my eye on them over the next couple of days.

I was thinking we might be at the end of the broodiness, but now Clucky is trying again. I was going to try to break her, but then was offered a dozen hatching eggs (of undisclosed but brown egg-laying breeds) from someone up the road who made a special effort to collect them. I might set 4 or so if I can integrate Clucky into the broody suite with the new moms without strife. I keep hearing about “chicken math” where people keep acquiring chickens as they get interested in different breeds, but my own hens are bent on reproduction. I have enough chickens!

Building the Empire and a Gender Quiz

One last endless day working in the sun, and all the major pieces have finally been put together. It is now a chicken empire! I got up before dawn that day and pulled Finn off the roost before he started crowing (or even woke up) to cut the primary feathers on one wing and since then he has stayed put in the run. While I had him in hand I decided to trim down his spurs too. I cut one too close (really only about a quarter of an inch from the tip) and it bled like crazy. With Finn under my arm and a paper towel held over his spur, I rummaged through the kitchen with the other hand looking for the corn starch to stop the bleeding. I’ll have it right in front of me the next time I try this! No corn starch, and I had a horrible memory of having to cauterize this type of wound on a Polish rooster at Hiram using a knife heated on a stove burner (I was not the only one involved in this and we had NOT been told that the spurs would bleed so we just cut them flush to the leg--the poor rooster did survive the ordeal). Luckily the bleeding finally slowed with pressure and I put Finn cautiously into the spa. Gathered up the hens and put them in with him and all was well (although I think it made quite the impression on Finn--despite doing no more than flinching when I cut the spur, he’s been very respectful ever since). Did more before 6:00 am and coffee than most people do all day, but it had hardly begun....

I dismantled the partitions inside the coop that had kept the chicks separated from the adults so they now have the run of the coop. Steve cut a fallen log so I could run the new length of fence through a corner of the woods and we moved the dog kennel into place in front of one of the A-frames. I put broody Flicka in the spa with the others for the day, trying to break her, but no dice. Gave up, put her on 4 eggs (2 from Rachel and two not--we’ll see what Sussex crosses look like) and installed her in the new, deluxe broody coop. It’s a big improvement over Clucky’s dog crate!

It’s been a lot of work and it’s still kind of overwhelming, but they all love their new space. It’s as close to free-ranging as I can get here. Hopefully once the male chicks are sold I will have the right balance to maintain some grass in my back yard. The naturalist in me watches them as if they were wild and I see how they use their habitat. Just like wild birds, they prefer to have some cover, and I usually find them under the trees and in the weedy areas. Nobody just hangs out in the open yard. I think of how I usually see chickens kept in open runs and I think they’d be a lot happier with some habitat. Despite it’s drawbacks, the poultry netting has allowed me enough flexibility to provide that.

The chicks are now over 6 weeks old. Clucky got done with motherhood a couple of weeks ago, so they are on their own. They mix pretty well with the adults, but they tend to hang together--outside under one of the “hawk guards” and they still cram together to sleep in their nest box. They’re starting to spar with each other, and I sure am seeing a lot of boys!

There was never any doubt about Hazel (the gold-laced Wyandotte) with his tree-trunk legs.

Silver (a lavender Orpington) also seems quite masculine, especially next to Blackberry who may be my only pullet.

Dandelion looked like he could go either way for awhile, but sadly (because I wanted to keep a blue-laced red), is male.

Holly (the speckled Sussex), here sparring with Hazel, is also a boy,

.....and I’m not sure yet about the slow-to-mature Barnevelders, but I think Bucky may be a boy as I had thought originally and Acorn a girl.

It’s tempting to pick one or two of the males to keep as a back-up roo in case something happens to Finn, but I think it would be a mistake to plan to keep any. I put them on Craig’s List two days ago, and already someone is interested in Dandelion.