Growing Pains

One afternoon not so long ago I gazed out at my chickens happily roaming their enclosure and I felt that I had got it right. No aggression, the grass, if not thriving at least surviving in the outer run, no one pacing the perimeter looking for greener pastures. Ahhh.......

Then Clucky went broody and I figured having a hen raise a couple of chicks wouldn’t be that hard. And now my numbers have doubled (although luckily Zen has broken and Rachel decided it wasn’t a good idea anyway, so hopefully we’re done for the year). To accommodate this, and other eventualities, I ordered two small A-frame coops and another strand of electric fence. All the components are here, but lots of work will be required to get it all set up, and honestly, just getting the spa together has taken all summer (and while now workable, it has yet to be completed). My vision is to add the fence to the existing one to double the enclosure space during the summers and remove it in the winter (when the chickens are more coop-bound anyway) to allow access to the propane tank. I have one A-frame set next to the main coop and the dog kennel will be attached to it next to, but separate from, the inner compound. This will be for broody hens and birds that are part of the flock but need to be kept separate. The other A-frame is in the back corner of the yard, and this will be used with the spa whenever I have an ill or quarantined bird. Meanwhile, the spa can be used for its intended purpose which is to move around the yard and provide greens and a diversion for whomever I put in there.

Last Saturday morning I was out in the run with the babies and noticed that Buckthorn, one of the little Barnevelders, looked slightly droopy. All the others were running around, but he was sleeping. After a bit, he came to and ran to the others, so I stopped worrying. The next afternoon, we arrived home to find him suffering from bloody diarrhea and his neck pecked bare by his siblings. I put him in the brooder on the porch and treated his wounds with Blu-Kote (it is and it does--I still have it on my hands), and his coccidiosis with medicated chick starter and neomycin in his water. He seemed pretty miserable after the Koting (which must really sting), and I worried that he might not make it through the night. He survived but he hasn’t exactly bounced back. He seems less ill though so I slipped him under Clucky with the rest of the chicks last night, and all are spending the day in the spa. He isn’t being overtly picked on (he’s still pretty blue), but he stands out from the rest as being mopey. He’ll be going back into the brooder tonight.

The rest of the kids are enjoying their vacation from the desert of dirt and wood shavings that is the inner compound. None of them are tame--Clucky’s been a good mom and I have been too busy these last couple of weeks to spend any time with them. I also had to spend the first few weeks wrangling them back inside the coop every night, first when Clucky decided to have them all sleep outside with her, and then later when she started going into the coop for the night with some of the chicks leaving the rest, unable to comprehend the ramp, to scream outside. Now they can all negotiate the ramp, but I’m viewed as big trouble! It was quite the rodeo this morning trying to get them into the spa.

They’ve all been named and now since Bucky’s misfortune I can also tell them all apart! Gender is still a mystery, although I feel Hazel here is definitely a boy. He’s a hulk, noticeably bigger and heavier than the rest and he stands very upright. He had the gall to bite me a few days ago when I was wrangling him inside for the night. He’s one of the Wyandottes--not the blue-laced red that I ordered, but a gold-laced. Blue does not breed true, and two blue-laced parents will produce 50% blue-laced, 25% gold-laced (the lacing is black), and 25% splash (mostly white)-laced which is what I think Dandelion is. If Hazel and Dandelion end up being male and female, I could breed them together and end up with all blue-laced--a consideration for later! Dandelion was initially the runt of the group, but just in my short time with them this morning, has shown himself to be the most fearless of the bunch--at least of me. He was happy to approach me more closely than the rest even though I came without treats.

The two lavender Orpingtons are very similar except in size. Silver’s the bigger of the two and Blackberry’s the smaller one with the puff of a tail. Silver’s showing the most interest in pecking at Bucky’s neck, but not really in an aggressive way.

Acorn is the other Barnevelder. She seems shy and quiet. The breed is known for docility and if either one of these two end up being roosters, he would be the one I would consider keeping as a back-up for Finn (or a replacement if Finn continues on his feisty trajectory).

Holly is a speckled Sussex, the offspring of Finn and Rachel. He was from one of the two “safety eggs” I set under Clucky just to make sure something would hatch if the other eggs didn’t survive the transport. Shows what I know--the other Sussex egg didn’t hatch! Already outgoing like his parents, Holly is very fast. He was the last one I was able to round up this morning. If he ends up being a she, I’ve promised her to Nancy who only ended up with two Sussex pullets out of six from our original order, and has recently lost one of these.

So I’m feeling stressed, but all is basically well. I’m not happy about having to maintain three separate groups of chickens, but I’m working out the logistics. Once all the enclosures have been finished, it will go more smoothly.

The First Death--Warning! Disturbing story

Ever since I started with the chickens last fall, I have been expecting that one of them would die at some point. From the first, when I had the chicks shipped in the late fall, and throughout the cold, relentless winter I worried that they would succumb to the weather, but they never seemed to be too bothered. I only found out about Marek’s disease after it was too late to vaccinate, and I have worried about that ever since but so far they have been fine. I was prepared for Clucky to have an unsuccessful hatch or to lose a couple of chicks while we both got the hang of things, but they’re all doing well. I worried from the beginning about predation, but aside from the neighbor’s dogs, and the odd whiff of skunk, I have seen neither critter nor raptor. The only casualties so far have been Clucky’s two unhatched eggs.

I’m a soft heart when it comes to animals, and I try to provide well for my pets. A few years ago when my aging cats were all ill, it was an unusual week when I wasn’t at the vet’s for something. My remaining cat gets hypoallergenic food and allergy shots. I do poison the mice in the attic, but if the cat finds one alive I release it back outside. I went over the top with the chickens, thinking of them as pets, and trying to come up with a plan that would allow them to have a nice safe coop and run with some space without impacting the habitat that my property has become too much. I’ve been spending the weeks since Clucky and Zen went broody obsessing over the logistics of keeping two broods of young chicks in the facilities that I have.

We’ve sweated the details--we insulated the coop against cold and heat, strung flagging up to deter hawks, and installed the electric fence to keep chickens in and critters out. I stopped feeding my wild birds when the chickens moved outside because I didn’t want to attract hungry critters. I bought an axe for eventual chicken euthanasia (because I’m not planning on bringing a chicken in to my small animal vet to be put to sleep). I know the fence can be a hazard, and I’m keeping Clucky’s chicks in the inner compound until they are too big to be inclined to try to get through it. I’ve seen it work correctly when it shocked a dog last February and sent it running off. I’ve seen the chickens get zapped occasionally too, and they respect it without appearing to fear it, leaving a foot-wide belt of grass untouched along it. But I was not prepared for what actually happened.

I went out Saturday evening to close up the coop and heard the fence snapping in the back corner. It does this when weeds or grass contact it, so I didn’t think much of it, but when I was done with the chickens I went back to investigate thinking a fallen branch was leaning against it or something. What I found was a dead adult opossum entangled in the fence. He had gotten inside the fence somehow (possibly by going under it since the bottom strand contacts the ground and is not electrified). He got trapped on his way out, getting his head through one of the lowest openings and then not being able to continue out or to pull back. He was dead, but there were signs of struggle, and he was caught so tightly behind his jaws that if I had been alone, I would have had to cut the fence to get him out. As it was, Steve worked him out and left him in the ravine for my resident vultures. What a terrible death. I only hope it was fast. It happened during the afternoon sometime; we were inside with the windows open and heard nothing from the possum or the chickens. I told Steve I would have felt better if he had gotten in, killed a chicken, and gotten out again. At least then it would have been clean.

Hatching Day--June 25, 2011

After a few bumps in the road during Clucky’s incubation, hatching day arrived last Saturday. At about Day 13 I had come home to find her on the wrong nest box with her clutch exposed and cold on a 60-something degree day. I quickly got out the dog crate and set her up in there, but was now wondering if anything would hatch after about 4 or 5 hours of chilling. Rookie mistake not to pen her up with her own nest right away, but a survey on the Backyard Chickens site gave me hope, and I waited out the last week with fingers crossed.

The housing dilemma remained unresolved until the last possible moment. The spa is unfinished and the two A-frame coops I ordered the day I bought Clucky’s eggs have not yet arrived. Meanwhile, driving home from Marysville last weekend, we passed a most excellent dog kennel for sale by the side of the road. The price was right, so I now have another enclosure. It’s a monster at 10 x 10 x 6 ft., and once covered in hardware cloth, set up with an A-frame, and added to the run with another length of electric fencing it will be just the thing for broodies and babies. I can see it from here, but there’s a long way to go with it. Meanwhile, Zen has gone broody for sure and Rachel’s giving it serious thought....

Friday afternoon I got home from work and noticed Finn was not among the (diminishing) group of non-broody chickens that met me at the gate (as they do every day when I arrive anticipating the scratch I give them). He came barreling out of the coop when he realized I was there, but he’s usually right there to meet me. Found Clucky on her nest as usual, clucking softly. Hens and their chicks “talk” to each other right before hatch, so I was feeling hopeful. And after dark when I went to close them up, there was peeping!

Saturday morning, there was still peeping, but there was also a strong smell coming from underneath Clucky. I was afraid a chick had died, so in the afternoon I checked underneath her as well as I could since she was sitting in the back of the crate beyond my easy reach. I had to actually put my head and shoulders inside the crate and I seriously ruffled her feathers in the process. She was nice about it though and did not go for my head! I found her on 6 live chicks and two unhatched eggs leaving one unaccounted for (apparently hidden up under Clucky’s wing). One of the eggs was peeping madly, and I found no evidence of a dead chick or exploded egg so I removed the broken eggshells and quickly put everything else back under her. More waiting......

A stupid amount of mental and physical effort early Sunday resulted in a temporary enclosure attached to the inner compound where they will stay until they are big enough to handle the electric fence.

By Sunday morning there were seven.

We ended up with two lavender Orpingtons,

....one blue-laced red and one gold-laced (I think) Wyandotte,

...two Barnevelders and one speckled Sussex (Finn and Rachel’s baby). They’re all doing fine and are very cute. Clucky’s being a great mom, except for abandoning her chicks for the coop in a sudden rainstorm. She called them, but they couldn’t figure out the ramp, so I ran out and rescued them.

It’s a little stressful. My numbers have doubled in one fell swoop and I still have more broodies. Some of these babies will be boys (I can already make some guesses), so they will have to find new homes. But for the time being, all is well.

Counting My Chickens

A day or two after Memorial Day I noticed that Clucky might be broody. I watched her for a couple of days and she was showing all the signs: spending days and nights in the nest box, “growling” and raising her hackles at me when I tried to pet her, and puffing up once out of the box. She’s pretty young still at just 30 weeks--I didn’t expect this until next summer, if at all. I also recently read that young pullets sometimes try on broodiness for size and then snap out of it, but I also know that it is sometimes impossible to “break” a broody and they go on to starve if not allowed to raise chicks.

I considered my options. I could try to “break” her, but if she was serious about being broody, I’d rather let her raise some chicks. My plan would be to sell the boys and keep the girls. I didn’t want her to set her own eggs (or those of any of my other pullets except Rachel) because then the offspring would be mixed-breed, and while that would be fine for the females, it would make it hard to sell off the males. I could set Rachel’s eggs and get more speckled Sussex, but I saw this as an opportunity to get some additional breeds I’ve had my eye on.

Some time on the internet led me to Nellie from TheFancyChick.com who sells hatching eggs from some of the breeds I’ve been interested in and who is also located near enough that I could drive there to get the eggs rather than risk having them sent through the mail. So after a day of phone tag, it was arranged, and yesterday morning I went on a road trip and picked up my eggs (after checking on Clucky one more time).

I didn’t want to get too many for this first time, especially if Clucky snaps out of her broodiness before the eggs hatch, but some extras were included. So I ended up with 2 lavender Orpingtons, 1 blue/black/splash Orpington, 3 Barnevelders, and 2 blue-laced red Wyandottes. I also put 2 of Rachel’s eggs under her for good measure.

We didn’t get off to a great start. When I arrived home, I went out with the eggs and some scratch, and knowing treats were in the offing, Clucky came off the nest for her share. This was fine--it’s what she’s been doing every day, and it gave me a chance to put the eggs in her nest without disturbing her. I went back inside to give her a chance to settle back in. Meanwhile, my farmer neighbor (and the rest of central Ohio) has been taking advantage of our dry spell this week to get his crops planted at last. The tractor in the field right behind the coop must have spooked the chickens because when I went back outside, Clucky, Finn, and Goldi were pacing outside of the electric fence. I hazed them back in, but Clucky stayed off the nest long enough for me to think she’d given it up for good. She did return eventually, and now this morning seems dedicated to her task. So now we wait.....

I also have to consider how these potential babies will be raised. Best case scenario is that I can leave them in the coop and Clucky will keep them safe from the other chickens and raise them. This would be the easiest for me since I wouldn’t have to deal with re-introductions later and wouldn’t have to worry about additional housing until the boys got old enough to be a problem. However, the electric fence would be a hazard to little chicks for at least a few weeks--they could get trapped outside, or worse, entangled in it, and I would also have to start feeding everybody chick starter again until the babies got to be 18-20 weeks old.

I’m planning on another coop for Clucky and her brood--I know I need one anyway for any birds that would ever need to be separated, but the additional expense gives me pause. We could use the as yet unfinished “spa” for the inner run, and I could buy another string of fence which my charger should be able to accommodate. Steve, with visions of chicken hoarding is mentally rolling his eyes. Stay tuned.....

More Eggs

Friday was the first day that I found 6 eggs when I went to collect them. This means that all the girls are laying and I will have to get busy trying to find some buyers!

I don’t know for sure which egg belongs to which pullet, but I have some guesses. I AM pretty sure that the light colored one on the bottom left is from Rachel the speckled Sussex, because they were the first to appear and the breed is known for producing cream-colored eggs. Because there are three (in the middle and on the bottom right) that look roughly the same, I am assuming that they are from the three Orpingtons. I have no idea about the last two, but I fervently hope for little Belle’s sake that the giant double-yolked egg is from Zen the Giant hen. But there are no guarantees.

Early this spring, Steve constructed some 2 x 4 frames upon which we piled pine boughs (stripped from the trees by the ice storm last winter) thinking they would provide some cover and protection from hawks. I don’t know if they’re working, but the chickens love to hang out under them and I have not seen any hawks around. Friday evening I saw a small bird fly out from one of them when I went to put up the chickens for the night, and found a cardinal nest with 3 eggs!

This is pretty interesting, but I’m not sure how it will work out for the cardinals. They’ll be mostly safe from mammalian predators inside the electric fence, but once the young fledge the chickens themselves may kill them. I’ll try to watch and keep the chickens inside for a few days when the time gets near. Of course the eggs have to hatch first and the female cardinal bolts off the nest every time I enter the run, so the incubation may not go well anyway. But I’m hoping for the best for the cardinal family!

Building the chicken spa

Flicka and Finn

Our weather is warming up at long last, and I see already how hard the chickens are going to be on the grass in their run.

Outside things are greening up, but the grass inside never had a chance and the wooded portion of the run has already been thoroughly mulched.

The endless rain this spring has made everything a soggy mess which doesn’t help--I can hear the chickens squish along as they run.

The Spa

Ever since I got the chickens off the porch last winter I have wanted to have a spare coop of some kind. At some point I will have a sick chicken or broody hen which will need to be kept away from the others and I have no intention of having them back inside if I can help it! I’d also like to use less (no) chemicals on my lawn so I started planning a mobile hoop-type chicken tractor “spa” which would be sturdy enough to serve as a permanent run someday with the addition of a small coop inside and surrounded by electric poultry netting. For now, I'm planning to add a small run-in shelter and just toss a couple of hens inside during the day. Steve has worked hard on it in his spare time and it’s shaping up.

Finn, caught here in an awkward preening moment.......

.....is growing up to be a handsome boy.

He’s starting to get a little feisty with me however and I’ve had to chase him and carry him around to remind him who’s boss. Mean roosters have never been on my radar. The whole time I was in college working daily with large numbers of chickens I got attacked by one rooster one time. I hear they can be a big problem though and I have no intention of putting up with one. My friend is getting some meat birds processed in the fall and if Finn turns out to be vicious, he will join them. I bet he tastes like chicken..... For now, he’s settled down and stays away from me when I’m in the run. So far, so good.

Goldi in the nest box

I am beginning to be awash with eggs. At least four of the hens are laying, and one is producing huge, double-yolked eggs.

Belle and Flicka

The girls are looking more like mature ladies now and I think everybody’s about as big as they will get.

Clucky

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