The First Egg!

The first one!

Last Wednesday evening when the chickens were exactly 21 weeks old, I found the first egg lying next to the feeder in the coop.

The last grocery store eggs ever!

It was very tiny--bantam-sized (seen here next to normal sized grocery store eggs), but I fried it up and it was delicious! Another one appeared yesterday so it looks like we're off and running.

Flicka and Belle

I'd been thinking they might have belonged to Belle because she appears the most mature with a red face and a well-developed comb and wattles......

...but this morning it's Rachel who's showing signs of laying, constantly moving in and out of the coop and rummaging around in the nest boxes. There'll probably be another egg today!

Finn and Goldi

Meanwhile, I heard Finn crow for the first time over two weeks ago, but so far he's only doing it in the privacy of the coop. Fine with me and the neighbors!

Clucky and Zen

I've seen him do the "wing dance" courtship displays for a couple of the Orpingtons to no avail--they each edged quickly away. On the other hand, Belle runs to his side often (maybe for protection from the more dominant pullets), but I haven't seen him courting her.

Zen and Rachel

Flicka

A Big Week

It’s been a big week for the chickies. I’ve been increasingly concerned about hawk predation after a friend’s big Australorp hen was recently killed and after reading that comparatively small Cooper’s hawks will often strike first and worry about the size difference later. I had gotten large breeds of chickens specifically to remove Cooper’s hawks from my list of worries. They’re common here, but since they always seem to target mourning doves at my feeders, I didn’t think large chickens would be on their menu. We’re in the process of stringing twine over the chicken yard, but Cooper’s are pretty nimble--built for chasing small birds through forests and I don’t know if string will be as effective against them as it would be for red-tailed hawks which tend to dive from perches to kill prey on the ground.

I had also been reading about how beneficial a rooster can be when it comes to warning the flock of predators. None of my girls turned out to be boys in disguise, so I had been thinking about getting three more day-old chicks, with one cockerel among them. However that would require a long wait and another coop for them to stay in until they were old enough to join the others and I’m hesitant to plow more money into the chickens just now (although a separate coop will come in handy one of these days and I should definitely keep it on the to-do list).

Meanwhile it turned out that 4 (out of 7 total) of the speckled Sussex from this original group have turned out to be roosters (the rest of the breeds are all pullets as promised, so I think Privett sent us straight run Sussex). So although they’ve been free-ranging with my friend’s older chickens this winter, I held my breath, skipped the quarantine, and took one of her boys back. I’m calling him Finn.

I put him in a dog crate and set him in the run for the day. The girls quietly filed out and cuddled up. My previous experience with groups of animals has been with cats, so I was taken aback by how well this went. The last kitten I brought home lived in that crate for a month while things got sorted out! When I got home from work and let him out, there was a bit of flapping and sparring, and then it was over. He trooped inside with the rest for the night.

They’re all 18 weeks old now and on the cusp of maturity. Finn has yet to crow and the girls are just beginning to look like hens. Belle in the last two weeks has started sleeping on the roost, but the rest of the pullets still sleep piled up in their original corner next to the water bucket where they’ve been all winter. Since it’s been so cold and brutal and because they are so young, I have let them do this, but I will be opening up the nest boxes in a couple of weeks and I don’t want them to get in the habit of sleeping there. My friend has been spending a lot of time each evening herding her young birds to the roost, and I was prepared to do the same, but then I got the idea of just blocking the corner and seeing what would happen. Sure enough, now they’re all spending the nights on the roost!

I also finally broke down and got legbands to distinguish among the Orpingtons. They were breathtakingly expensive, and I had to buy 100 in a single color, so Goldi is band-free, Flicka (I’m pretty sure) has a green band on her right leg and Clucky (also pretty sure) has a green band on her left. So now I can finally figure out who’s who in the pecking order.

I’ve been letting them out into the “outer perimeter” as weather and fence permit. I saw a big black Lab get zapped by the fence a few weeks ago and he ran to the far horizon as a result, so I have confidence in it when it works, but it’s been temperamental in all the bad weather, and I’ve had a bit of a learning curve with it. I’ve noticed in the past week that Belle does not venture beyond the run. She seems to be the bottom hen of the group and tends to hang by herself. She’s gotten to be my special pet, and I have a big soft spot for her.

A Long Winter

At 13 weeks, the chicks appear to be chickens although they still sleep in a pile on the floor in a corner of the coop and they’re still months away from laying eggs.

It’s been a tough winter so far--the coldest since the 1970s blizzard years I’ve heard. The chicks went out to the coop during a thaw before New Years and it has hardly been above freezing since, with most days not getting out of the 20’s and nights in the teens and single digits. I worry a lot, but the birds seem to be handling it well for the most part. The coop is utterly draft-free--my biggest worry there is how much ventilation I should provide during these bitter nights. They do seem comfortable in the coop--apparently they feel like I do when I’m in my Carhartt’s with hat and gloves.

They like to pick off the snow from my legs and boots.

There have been some issues. Early on I noticed a lot of feathers from all the birds on the floor of the coop and I suspected feather-picking. I never spotted the culprit, although if it was only one chicken, it had to be one of the Orpingtons. I checked them all over carefully for bald patches, found none, and increased their protein with black-oil sunflower seeds and backed off on the carb-heavy scratch mix. The loose feathers seem to be decreasing, and I haven’t seen anything that resembles aggression in anybody.

Another thing I worry about a little is that they refuse to go out into their run if there’s any snow at all on the ground (and there nearly always has been this winter), so by their own choice they’ve been cooped up all winter. This has got to increase their boredom which will certainly contribute to the feather problem above. On the other hand it’s just as well they aren’t pining to roam since the inch of ice we got last week has totally incapacitated the electric fence and a hawk hit a window during a strafing run just a few days after they initially went out.

The latest issue is that one of the Orpingtons (I think it’s Goldi but I confess to no longer being able to tell them apart) has developed a reddened face and a constant head-flicking that goes along with a low-pitched sort of growl-cluck. She seems uncomfortable, but I can’t tell what her problem is. Yesterday, I looked her over, decided that perhaps her face is irritated from the cold and spread a little Vasoline on her skin (recommended to prevent frostbite), which of course irritated her even more.

Everybody else seems happy and healthy. Since I’ve lost track of the Orpingtons I haven’t been able to determine a pecking order. I notice Belle and Zen tend to hang back, one or more of the Orpingtons is always first to venture outside if they dare to go, and that Rachel is happy to approach me. They’re not exactly hand-tame anymore; they always retreat to the far corner when I come in, but if I stand still they come right up.

The groundhog predicted an early spring this year. We’re ready!

Home at Last!

Two days after Christmas, I took the chickens out to the coop. It was a cold day and a colder night, so I worried about them and shut them in tight despite all I’ve read and heard about giving them adequate ventilation (now that it’s warmer, both windows are open). They slept huddled in a pile wedged in next to their water bucket, but seemed none the worse for wear the next morning.

It’s finally warmed up and the sun’s out today so I took advantage of the thawed soil to readjust the fencing a little. The energizer quit in the rain two nights ago, but the battery’s fine, so I’m guessing I need to protect it from the weather. Once I have that squared away, I can let the chickens out.

I’ve had their chicken door open to the little run for a couple of days now, but they’re only now thinking about coming out, tempted by treats left at the bottom of the ramp and their first experience of the sun!

In Transition

By the time the chicks were five weeks old, they had thoroughly outgrown the tank and needed to be housed in something a little more spacious.

They're little chickens now, bantam size, and fully feathered.

Zen is getting very tall.

Rachel, hoping for a handout.

I had hoped to be able to transfer them outside to the coop at this stage, but they're still a little tender for our current Arctic conditions.

I rigged up a very inelegant pen in my unheated mudroom with a piece of drywall and the top I had made for the tank. They are enjoying their space, but it's pretty cold, even here.

Currently I'm keeping the heatlamp on at night and they huddle under it to sleep.

The weather's predicted to remain cold, with a string of single digit nights this weekend. I think I'll be keeping them in until after Christmas.

Growing Up

Last Saturday, I paused during a very busy weekend to take a few pictures of the girls. At two and a half weeks old, they have already changed drastically from the fuzzy puffballs of their first week and are well on their way to gangly adolescence. Their growth rate is really impressive--I can usually see changes day to day. Today I noticed Belle's comb reddening--a sign that she may be a he. I have no other Dominiques to compare with so we'll see.

Goldi's feathers are coming in and she's changing from blonde to buff.

Steve put a beginner perch in their tank and they vie with each other for the chance to use it. The chicken on the perch usually gets its feet pecked by the others! This is Zen, who as a Jersy Giant, is slow to mature and is a bit behind the others in getting her feathers.

Rachel (the speckled Sussex) is getting her speckles coming in on her shoulders and wings.

As soon as they mastered the perch, they started thinking about getting out of the tank which is only a foot tall. There's a lot of hopping and flying around when I take the lid off to feed them. They've yet to reach freedom, but Belle especially, makes it her mission to reach the edge of the tank at every opportunity.

Now, a week after these pictures were taken, they've been moved from the kitchen to my unheated sunporch because of the dust level (which blossomed in their third week) and their increasing discomfort in the heat. They seem fairly comfortable out there with two heat lamps despite the now-freezing outdoor temperatures.

We decided to insulate the coop and should have that completed this weekend. There's no electricity out there so I'm not sure yet when the chicks will move out, but they're growing fast!

Meet the Girls!

The day after Steve and I finished the outdoor run for the coop in October, I started calling hatcheries to get day-old chicks. All the hatcheries in Ohio had closed up shop for the season, but Privett Hatchery in New Mexico had chicks available.

The minimum order was 25, so Nancy, a friend from work who has a farm, graciously agreed to acquire 20-odd chicks so I could have my six! I had planned to get just Buff Orpingtons, but once I looked at the breeds that Nancy chose, I ended up getting a mix. Her criteria are the same as mine--dual-purpose brown egg layers that are cold-hardy and docile.

I took a chance having them shipped this time of year, and they came on a very cold day. They were sent in a small box with lots of ventilation holes and no insulation, so they were very lucky to have made the trip alive (and now after reading horror stories of chicks dying of cold in transit, I would not do it again). But they did make it, and they were screaming their heads off in the post office when I went to pick them up!

I had hoped to be able to keep them warm enough out in my unheated sunporch, but it was immediately clear that they were too cold, so we moved them to the kitchen and kept them in a stock tank under two heatlamps the first weekend. They are still inside, but down to one lamp. We’ll see how it goes.

I ordered all pullets, but sexing day-old chicks is an art and the hatchery only guarantees a 90% success rate. I won’t know for sure for another month, so for now I am assuming they are all girls!

Today they are 8 days old and their wing and tail feathers are emerging. Some of them are adept at reaching the “starter perch” that Steve made for them, and they’re also the ones that are eyeing the walls of the tank thinking about escape!

I’ve been watching them this week, and have worked out a rough pecking order although I’ve read that they really won’t get into it for another week. This appears to be true, because most of the pecking I’ve been witnessing has seemed more exploratory (does this taste good?) than aggressive (take that!).

This is Flicka who is at the top of the heap for the moment. She’s an Orpington, a breed that was developed in 1886 by William Cook in Orpington, County Kent, England. The buff variety which is currently the most popular was developed later from Hamburg, Cochin, and Dorkling breeds. They’re known to be quick to mature, and my three really seem to be the most busy and inquisitive of the lot. Of the three, Flicka is the medium-sized one, and it surprised me that after adding up the numbers for the last 4 days that she was the one that ended up on top.

Goldi is another Orpington and is the biggest chick of my group. She’s not the boldest, but spends a lot of her time stretched up peering at me and over the edge of the tank.

Rachel is a speckled Sussex, the most common breed in England from about 1850 to 1950. It’s possible that this breed was bought to England by the Romans 2000 years ago. The Sussex chicks were initially the most bold and curious during the first three days when I had all 29 chicks. Rachel was the first of my group to get tail feathers, but she’s mellower than the Orpingtons.

Belle is a Dominique, the oldest breed in the US. She looks black now, but she’ll end up with an indistinct barred pattern that can already be seen in her wing feathers. She’s the boldest one of my group--first to eat out of my hand and the first on the perch. The breed is known for liking to free-range and I can tell she’s contemplating escape!

Clucky, named by Steve in his proud family tradition of pet names (Scruffy, Scrappy, Chubby, Tubby), is the third Orpington and she came to me pasted up (which is what it sounds like). This is a potentially fatal condition, and I spent a lot of time cleaning her up and watching her the first couple of days. She’s been vigorous the whole time though, and now, although smaller than the other Orpingtons, she seems like she’ll be fine.

Zen, at the bottom of the totem pole, is a Jersy Giant, so although she may be low-ranking now, she’ll eventually outgrow the rest. Giants are the largest chicken breed--capons can weigh 20 pounds! They’re slow to mature, so that may be why she’s at the bottom of the heap right now.

All the breed info in this post came from:

Ekarius, Carol. 2007. Storey’s Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA.