Its a Rooster!

In the past few weeks it has become official.  We have one rooster for certain, and another that may just be a late bloomer.  This batch of chickens were hatched from a friends eggs and some of his chickens may have been bantams, so this one may be a bantam cross.  He is smaller than the other chickens and much more curious about things than any of the other chickens I have raised.  He is also very active - chasing the girls all around the yard and calling to them whenever he finds a goody (even though they just ignore him most of the time).  The other potential rooster is bigger than all of our other chickens and is fairly timid.  He tends to hang out with the little rooster more than the girls.  Together they explore the yard and play rooster games.  Thankfully they have been getting along for the most part though I have seen them do a little sparring here and there. It doesn't seem serious and no one has drawn blood yet.  If they start fighting the little one may have to go.  I want my flock to be dual purpose which means that I want them to be meaty if I eat them so the bigger roosters will always win in the grand scheme of things.  For now though they both get to stay until I am certain that the larger one is indeed a rooster.

Here is our little guy crowing to his hearts content proving his rooster hood.

Chicken Freedom

I have decided that the garden has grown big enough to withstand the onslaught of the chickens.  They were allowed out for the first time this summer for a few hours before dusk yesterday.  They loved it!  They didn't even know which way to go when I opened the gate.  They started for the driveway, made an abrupt right, then did a 180 and went around to the other side of their pen to scratch happily in the straw around my chicken pen flowers. 

It's a good time to let them out because I am between harvests right now.  The strawberries are done so there is no temptation there.  The peas growing along the fence don't seem to interest them unless I throw the picked pods to them.  I don't know if they just can't see them or if they are just too interested in everything else to look up to find them.  The broccoli grows inside the fenced in portion of the garden and so far none of the chickens care enough to make the easy flight over the four foot fence to get to them.  The lettuce are inside the fence as well and well screened by the weeds growing in the fence line.  The only plants that may have some trouble it seems are the pole beans.  I've had to chase them away from them several times before they pecked all the leaves off the young plants.  Otherwise they seem quite content to eat dandelions and grass and chase bugs through the field. 

The ladies eating weeds by the sunflower volunteers.

Brave young rooster making his way along the chicken coop.

The girls exploring a ditch.

 

The younger chickens have yet to stray very far from the yard. They are more than happy to gorge themselves on the feeder while the older chickens are gone. I think it will take a few more days of leaving the gate open before they figure out that there is a bigger more exciting world on the other side of the fence. The young rooster is by far the bravest of the bunch. He ran the gauntlet of the older ladies and made it down to the lilac bushes before he became too frightened and hightailed it back to the safety of the pen. Chickens can be so funny when you let them just do their thing.

Chicken Littles are no longer little

The baby chicks that hatched in late march are now almost full sized chickens.  It's truly amazing how fast those little creatures grow up.  They have even started to make the same noises as the big chickens, though they still make little chicken peeps here and there.  As of yet our suspected roosters have not begun to crow, but I think they will start any day now.  They certainly are trying to play rooster games with the other littles, though I don't think they have quite figured it out yet.

Here are the teenagers exploring the big chicken's yard.

I decided that they are now big enough to intermingle with the older chickens so the doorway has been opened between the pens.  Yes there is some bullying as the pecking order is established but it doesn't get out of hand and the littles have plenty of escape routes and places to hide if they need to.  I'm sure things will work themselves out eventually.  Until then we can be entertained by the antics of everyone getting adjusted to living together in one big flock. 

A couple of the older girls are keeping an eye on those mischievous youngsters.

 

The big girls love to hang out in the baby pen.  I think they were mad that they were closed out of it for so long while the littles grew up.

 

Happy Chickens

If there is one thing our garden is really good at growing it is weeds.  It is a constant battle to keep the weeds down since I refuse to use herbicides in my garden.  We do a lot of hand weeding which leaves us with buckets and buckets of weeds.  And what do we do with all those weeds you ask?  Why feed them to the chickens of course!  Now the chickens don't actually eat everything we throw in their pen, but I'm sure they are finding plenty of bugs and other things amongst the piles.  It also acts as a nice surface for them to scratch in and play their chicken games.

 

With all the extra forage they are getting they are providing us with many eggs.

 

Right now I'd say that we get 3 to 4 dozen eggs a week from nine chickens.  Not a bad trade if you ask me.

 

 

Moving on Up

The "baby" chickens have reached 1/2 chicken size and I have decided that they are big enough to have a little more room to roam.  I closed off the door between the chicken runs and let the kids out of their box.  They started acting like big chickens right away - pecking and scratching at the dirt and taking dust baths in the shade.  I think they are quite enjoying their larger area.

 

 

 

 

The younger chickens are still going to be kept separate from the adults until they are pretty close to fully grown.  They are only separated by a fence so they can still interact with each other a little bit.  I want them to get used to the idea of being a part of the same flock, but I don't want the big birds to harass the young ones too much.  Right now they seem happy to chase them along the fence when the opportunity presents itself.  Once that gate is opened between the runs I'm sure there will be a few days of turmoil while the pecking order gets reestablished, but I am confident that they will integrate into the flock nicely.  I have even noticed that the black and white chicken that I think is a rooster has been eying the older ladies.  I hope they don't hen peck him too much.

 

The downside of raising baby chickens

I was looking closely at the babies today and noticed that one of them had a bald patch on the back of it's head.  Looking closer it appears as though the other chicks have been pecking at this particular chick quite badly in the past few days.  Then after I put the baby back in with the other babies I noticed something else.  That same pecked baby looked knock kneed to me.  It was standing on both it's legs and using both equally to move around, but one leg was definitely at an odd angle to the other.  At first I thought that somehow it had gotten a broken leg.  I felt up and down the leg and nothing seemed out of place, though the thigh bone did feel curved to me.  The poor baby had a leg deformity.  It would never be able to walk normal and as it grows the deformity would probably cripple it completely.  Unfortunately this means that I did not want this chicken in my flock.  I do not want to breed sickly chickens with health problems.  I also think that the other chicks were pecking at it because it was the weakest chick in the group, and it couldn't defend itself well.  I decided that it should be culled to end it's suffering.  I know it sounds cruel, but from a farmer's point of view, it would only cost me more in the way of feed and time to allow this deformed chicken to live out it's natural life.  The same feed and time I could be devoting to the other healthy, normal chickens that I would like to have more of.  I don't regret killing the baby because it's future only held more suffering - of getting picked on by the other chickens, and pain in it's deformed leg when it got bigger.  Sadly our flock has shrunk by one, but hopefully none of the other chicks will have that problem and grow up to be healthy and happy.

Baby Chickens Big Day Outside

The chicks are about 5 weeks old at this point and they are almost completely feathered out.  They are getting to the point where their brooder box is looking a little small for them.  Since the weather was so nice today I decided that they should have their first introduction to the outside world.  In the begining I will only allow them to be enclosed in the "broody cage".  It has an outer area enclosed by wire mesh where they can run around and scratch at their bedding.  The inside area is more enclosed and has a roof to protect them from the elements.  When they get a little bigger they will be spending all their time out here, but for now they will just get to spend the daylight hours out here.

 

The doorway to the inner box also gives them a place to perch which they don't have in their brooder in the house.

 

Overall the outside box gives them more room to run around and also gives them time to aquaint themselves with the adult chickens from a safe distance since it is inside the chicken run.  Once these chicks are big enough they will have more access to the second pen while still being seperated from the adult chickens.  When they reach their full grown size the pens will be opened to each other  and the chicks will be able to become a part of the bigger flock.  I believe that gradual introductions into the flock are much safer and less stressful for every one involved when they are done right.

The Babies are Growing Up Fast!

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the chicks hatched and I swear they get bigger by the minute.  Feathers that weren't there in the morning are clearly visible come sun down.    Every day they take up more and more space in their brooder.  They have been making quick work of their food every day, but I think they do more spilling than eating.  Baby chickens are cute, but they sure are messy!  Once their feathers fill out more they will get to start spending their days outside in the "addition".  They may go out there even sooner if they start escaping their brooder on a regular basis.  They may be little, but they are learning to fly!  I came home from work one day last week to find a lone escapee running around in the back room.  She may have figured out how to escape, but getting back in was not quite in reach.  I am sure she was happy to be reunited with her friends.....and her food and water.

Chicken Littles

I can not believe how fast our little hatchlings are growing up. 

It seems like only yesterday they were tiny little balls of fluff dancing around in their brooder. 

 

 It has only been about 10 days and they are already growing real feathers.

 

It has been very interesting to see what color their real feathers are going to look like.  These chickens are pretty much just mutts, so none of them look like any breed I've ever seen before.  If you look really closely you can see the beginings of tail feathers too.

 

 

I am happy to report that all seem to be growing nicely and have been very active in their little makeshift brooder.  Once they have a couple more weeks under their belts I will start to put them outside during the day in what I call the baby chicken box where they will learn more about this great big world.  Eventually they will have free run of the second pen until they get big enough to go in with the big chickens.

 

Baby Chickens Are Here!

They are finally here!  After 3 weeks of turning eggs two or three times a day and hoping that something hatches, they finally hatched!

 This is a couple of chicks in the incubator waiting to dry out.

 

 

I am amazed how they go from looking nearly dead when they first tumble out of their shell to the little fluffballs that everyone thinks of when you mention chicks.

 

 

Here are some of them that have dried out already in the brooder.

 

Each one of them is a different color! 

 

 

 And the grand total comes to 5 chicks out of 11 eggs.

 

Still an improvement over last years hatch (2 out of 12).  Now we just have to wait to see if any of them grow up to be a rooster!  I can't wait to see what they look like when their real feathers come in. 

 



New Chickens on the Way

Spring fever has struck again and it's time for baby chickens to appear.  Last year I bought an incubator because none of my chickens went broody, so I wasn't going to get more chickens unless I hatched them myself.  Then I did something silly - I counted my chickens before they hatched, and ate the rooster before I was sure that I had a replacement.  So here I am with an incubator and no fertile eggs for hatching this spring.  Lucky for me, I know a person that has chickens and a rooster, so I traded him my non-fertile eggs for some of his fertilized ones.  I was going to borrow his rooster, but that would have been stressful on him and my flock, so I just opted to get some of his eggs.  This has two benefits: I will have new genes to add to my flock so I can have a better breeding program, and I hope to get enough chickens this year so that we can eat some of them.  Now before you go judging me for killing my chickens and eating them, please keep in mind that our chickens are not pets and they live the life that battery chickens can only dream of.  Also their deaths are as fast and painless as we can possibly make them.  I actually feel it is better to know that the chicken I am eating led a happy life that ended quickly and respectfully rather than to wonder if it spent a miserable few months in a crowded warehouse only to be carted off in a scary truck to wait in line to be killed in a smelly, filthy place it had never seen before.  But I digress......

So I set up the incubator in the corner of the kitchen where it was last year and made up a sheet where I could record the number of days they are to be set for, and when I flipped them. Eggs need to be turned two or three times a day in order to develop correctly.  Each egg is marked with an X on one side and an O on the other so I can keep track of which eggs have been flipped.  Chickens only take three weeks to hatch and the most exciting part happens each night when I "candle" the eggs to see how they are progressing.  It is amazing to see them develop from a tiny speck of an embryo to a wet chirping hatchling in just a matter of weeks. 

Its time for the Incubator

According to most of the things I have read online, Buff Orpington chickens are one of the most likely breeds to go broody.  Broody means that they want to incubate and hatch some eggs.  So I waited for one of mine to show signs of being broody.  Then I waited some more.  Apparently the chickens I have don't have the broody instinct and would much rather spend their days chasing grasshoppers and eating corn than hatching more baby chickens for me.  So I bought an incubator.

The plan was to wait until I was able to hatch out some of our own chicks and then make the second rooster into stew.  You see, he was a beautiful rooster and he was very good at doing what roosters do.  That is: crowing all day long every day starting at about 3 am, protecting his flock (aka attacking me), and making it with the ladies.  His was the life that most roosters could only dream of - and it was becoming our nightmare.  Let's just say that showing up sleep deprived to work bleeding from rooster gashes on your legs was getting old.  Not only that but he liked the ladies a little too much.  They were loosing feathers on their backs and some were so bad that they were quite bald from his mounting.  It was time for him to go.  So when the 12 eggs that I put in the incubator were just days from hatching and everything looked good the rooster met his end with as much grace and dignity as we could give him.

Then we discovered the truth behind the old saying: don't count your chickens before they hatch.  When hatching day came only 2 of the 12 eggs we had incubated hatched.  A third tried but didn't make it out of the shell.  I've read that you shouldn't help them get out because if they are too weak to make it out of the shell, they will be too weak to make it in a flock.  Twenty one days of turning eggs, and making sure the humidity was right and only two baby chickens to show for it.  Good thing they were cute!  We spent alot of time handling these chicks every day and it has definatly payed off.  As they grew into chickens they were never afraid of us and were pretty easy to catch compared to the ones that we got that were a month old. 

 

How our flock grew last year

There was no real plan in place when we got our first chickens.  We guessed about how many chickens would fit comfortably in our repurposed coop and took the plunge.  The six (then five)chickens seemed like a good fit and things were all good for that first year.

The following spring we had some friends stay with us for a couple weeks and in that time they bought us a gift...make that three gifts.....and they were baby chickens.  If I remember correctly two of them were welsummer chickens (the brown ones) and one was a black sex link chicken.  All three turned out to be hens - which is great - more eggs for everyone!

 Unfortunatly you can't just put baby chicks in with the big chickens.  The chicks would never survive the establishment of the pecking order (chickens can be brutal!), so while they grew up in their baby chicken brooder box we built a makeshift pen and coop right next to the original pen. 

The baby chicken coop was my attempt at making a broody box in case one of the original chickens decided that she wanted to hatch some eggs.  I made it using scrap lumber that our landlord gave us.  I think it only cost $10.00 and that was for the mesh sheet that made up the exercise portion of the box.

 

In any case, we had the pen servicable by the time the babies had learned how to escape from their brooder.

The next stage was to let the babies grow to their adult size in their safe and separate pen where the other chickens could see them and interact with them, but not hurt any of them.

Once they were big enough the babies were introduced into the main flock.  It took a couple weeks but they worked out all their differences and now happily sleep in the same coop at the big chickens.

Chickens in the garden

Letting the chickens have free reign while the garden is sleeping keeps them highly entertained.  I love how they explore the whole yard, pecking and scratching as they do.  In early spring they "help" us as we turn over the garden beds.  You never know what tasty worms and grubs have been sleeping out of sight!

 In the summer they love to catch grasshoppers.  They will jump to get treats from your hand.  And when the others realize that there is a yummy snack to be had, they chase each other all over the yard to get it.

They also love to help themselves in the garden, so for the most part they are kept contained in that season.  As soon as the garden beds die back, they are let out again to help with clean up and spreading fertilizer (aka chicken poop).

 

 



Chicken Gifts

When we started our little flock of chickens we really had no idea what to expect.  We got as prepared as we could and then we just took the plunge.  They seemed to take forever to grow up, except for the roosters.  They grew plenty fast.  We ended up with two roosters out of the origianl six chicks and had wanted to let chickens do what chickens do - which is to make more chickens.  Problem is when you have two roosters crowing at the crack of 3:00 am every morning you get a little annoyed.  Not to mention that one was getting a little rough with everyone.  So roosty number one became stew.  Now we were down to five chickens. 

The other thing about raising chickens from chicks it that it feels like you are just feeding them and they keep growing, but they never lay any eggs.  I kept counting the months since we got them trying to estimate how old they were and when they should start laying.  I've read that chickens will start laying anywhere from 4-7 months.  Our chickens were at least 6 months old when they finally started laying.  You couldn't imagine the amount of feed 5 growing chickens can consume in 6 months! 

I remember cracking the last carton of store bought eggs next to my homegrown eggs in a frying pan.  Once I saw the difference in the eggs I knew I could never go back to not having chickens.  Storebought yolk are pale and runny and they lie flat in the pan.  Homegrown eggs have a rich orange yolk that stands up tall and cooks up firm.  Nothing beats the taste of a fresh homegrown egg!

Now when I can't keep up with eating the eggs I also have the option of selling the extras (though with only 4 chickens there aren't many extras).  Finally my chickens were earning their keep.  Who knew that poultry could be the pet that actually earns it's keep?

Adventures in chicken rearing

Before I moved out to the country I never once dreamed that I would actually own chickens.  We decided to take the plunge about two months later.  We bought six 1 month old Buff Orpingtons and the needed supplies from a little old couple up the road that raised chickens as a hobby.

 

 

In a few short weeks they were too big for their container

 

 

 

 

We quickly had to build a pen for them outside.  Luckily one of our neighbors told us that we could repurpose an old rabbit hutch that he was throwing away.  A few adjustments and it became the new outside home for our chickens.

 

 

 

The chickens in their new digs: