Chickens and Toddlers

I really don't know who is more entertaining to watch. Emily talking and playing with the chickens or the chickens following and playing with Emily.

I know I just posted about Emmy and the chickens not too long ago but they are just fun to watch. They equally enjoy each others company. She's trying to get them to come to her by offering them mulch.Apparently it works. She isn't afraid when they take it out of her hands. She just smiles.Here is a picture of one of my Buffs. She is one of my favorites. So sweet and she will let you pick her up anytime. We may get a few more of these kind this Spring, that is if I can talk Will into it.

The Littliest Egg

Tony found a "little" surprise in the nest boxes last night. He came running in carrying this tiny egg saying "you have to blog this and you have to tell them that I found it". So here is the egg that Tony found next to a regular size egg. This is by far the littlest egg we have ever gotten from our hens. Even the pullet eggs have never been this small. I have no idea which bird left us this little treasure.

It is hard to tell from the pictures but it is really about the size of a robin's egg. I am debating on keeping it just because it is so fun or cracking it open to see what the insides look like.

Not What I Expected...

This wasn't what I expected when I went to check for eggs yesterday morning. I was sitting at the kitchen table when I heard lots of sqwaking outside. I figured I better go check it out. I realized the gate door and the house door where both left open overnight. When I first opened the house door I saw all the hens on the floor of the house. They were sqwaking and running around. I figured they were just antsy to get outside.

So I shut the door and locked the gate. I decided to check for eggs and that is when I saw this guy. He was all curled up in the nest box. I was shocked to say the least. I opened up the doors of the gate and coop and headed into the house to get my camera and call my husband for advise! (I figured no one would believe me if I didn't have proof).Then I went back out and was able to scare him into the corner of the house where he just sat huddled. In the meantime I tried to push all the hens outside but they wouldn't go because of the snow on the ground. Finally I got them out.I then called my brother who lives next door. He came right over and was able to get him out. We then had to chase the birds around the yard to get them back in the house so they didn't freeze their feet! It was quite the event.

Thankfully no one was injured in the above chaos! All the birds were unharmed. We learned our lesson though. ALWAYS close the door at night.

Baby Chicks

Here are the new babies. We added 4 new Barred Plymouth Rock chicks to our house. The kids are enjoying having babies again in the garage! These ones were about a week old I am guessing when we got them since some of the fuzziness on the wings have turned into feathers. They are growing fast and are already bigger than what this picture shows. (This was taken a few days ago).They will stay in the garage for the next couple months before we try and move them outside. I have a plan to get them mixed into our existing flock. Remember the chicken tractor my husband made me last year? Well I am going to keep the new hens in there next to the chicken coop for a couple weeks. Then I will eventually add the new birds in. Hoping it works out ok and I don't start any hen fights!

I'll keep you posted on how they do.

Chicken Update

I haven't updated on the girls for awhile. They are still doing great. Not really looking forward to a long winter. I have been going out to check for eggs at least twice a day. Thankfully I have lots of help.

We put a ladder up to the nesting boxes and Drew makes it his priority to check for eggs each morning at least once. The birds have been so desperate to get out and roam that they have started flying out of the boxes as soon as the kids open the latch. You can see one of them peeking out in the picture below. In the other picture is a Plymouth Rock or "Cluckles" that was lucky enough to escape. It has been chilly but so far I have still been letting them out in the afternoons to forage a bit. They always seem to wonder up on the deck looking for any sort of treat.

We have set up a heat lamp inside the chicken house to supply the birds with a little warmth and a few more hours of light. The lamp has helped with egg production. We are still getting about 5-8 eggs per day.

That's One Huge Egg

The other morning around 6:45am I was awoken from a deep sleep to a BAWK BAWK BAWK BAGAWK! It went on for a few minutes so I got up to look out the window to make sure the chickens was secure in their coop. Everything looked ok and after a few minutes she stopped. About an hour later I sent Tony out to check things out and he came back in the house with this fantastic egg!Isn't it huge?? I guess this is why the hen was so noisy. She was sure proud or sore about this egg! When we cracked it open this is what we found. Double yolk, awesome.

Jackpot!

I have been hitting the jackpot in the egg department. The last 2 days I have gotten 7 eggs both days.

This morning I headed out to check on the girls around 9:30am. I had one Buff on the floor in the corner sitting (where I have found an egg almost daily) and one of my Brahmas was making herself cozy in the first nesting box. Just 2 1/2 hours later at noon I found all 7 eggs!

There was one on the floor.Two in the first nesting box.One in the second nesting box.And three in the third nesting box.My total egg count for August was 59 . This is pretty good considering I got my first egg August 5. I got one a day for 3 days and then nothing until August 17th. Now I am 2 days into September and I have already gotten 14 eggs.

The Chicken Whisperer

We like to call Tony the "Chicken Whisperer". He has formed quite the bond with the chickens. Every time they see him they flock to him. This has been the scene the last few evenings.The Buffs most especially love the attention. Not only has Tony been able to pet them he picks them up and they don't seem to care a bit.

They were very curious when he was shaving a stick one night. It started with just a couple of the birds wondering over to see what he was doing. Then they all headed over to check out what was going on.I guess you could say he is quite popular with the ladies.

Behold...The Egg

Drew happily showing off our long awaited egg.

This morning while checking on the birds I found our first egg! The post I wrote below I actually wrote a couple days ago. I wrote how I have been checking daily to see if we had eggs yet. And today was the day! The egg was actually laying right inside the door. You can see this Buff came in while we were confiscating it. I am not sure if she was the layer or not. I am not sure which one of these hens was the first prize winner. I knew the pullet eggs would be small. I didn't realize how small. Here it is compared to a regular egg.This is the first of many hopefully and I am so excited!

Chicken Update~18 weeks

My chickens are doing well. The are now 18 weeks old, so any day now they should start laying eggs. I filled up their nesting boxes with straw hoping to make it a little cozier in there for them. Every day I head out in the morning to open the door to the run and check to see if "today is the day"! So exciting.I have been letting them out of the run in the evening to free range the backyard. They have been doing really well staying close to home. Sometimes they venture off into the neighbors yard but usually I can still keep an eye on them. They seem to get more adventurous each day. Here are some of the birds creeping up on the deck.They are fun to watch. The way they run, or try to fly hovering over the ground, chasing moths. Pretty entertaining. Drew likes to chase them around saying "heeeey girls".When they are our free ranging the yard this is pretty much how they look.Heads down, tails up. They love them bugs.

At dusk they always come back home and put themselves away in their house.

Chicken Tractor

If you asked my husband he would say I love my chickens more than him. Now I do like my chickens alot but he still ranks higher on my list! This weekend he was busy in the garage building me a chicken tractor so that I can get them out and move them about the yard. This will provide them with fresh grass. They have pretty much pecked away at the grass in their run.I did let them out of the house the other day to have free roam of the yard. They stayed relatively close the whole evening. I just get nervous because our yard isn't fenced in and we have alot of wild animals around. Having this movable run makes me feel a lot safer. I know the birds will be protected at all times.

He finished the tractor tonight and tomorrow (crossing fingers it won't rain) I am going to paint it. Then all we need to do is add a roost and the fencing around the outside. See it is even complete with a nesting box just in case one of the girls feels the need to lay while they are in there. One end has wheels so that all you have to do is lift the other end up and move it about the yard. The lid pops up so I have easy access to the nesting box. It is a little on the heavy side but it is definitely sturdy.I'll post more pictures once it is painted and has the fence on!

Our Week...So Far

Whew this has been a crazy busy week for us and it is only Thursday. Jake has 3 track meets this week and he and Tony have a choir concert tonight. Tuesday night Jake and his team broke their own school record again for the 4x200 meter relay. That was pretty exciting. They have one more meet tomorrow and then they are done for the year.

Today Tony is giving a Power Point presentation on "how to build a birdhouse". Dad and Grandpa Joel helped him work on it last weekend. He did all the preparation himself and even came up with his own design. He did a really great job. The chickens have moved into their new home. The house and run are finally complete! Well, almost. I have to reinforce the bottom of the run with chicken wire because when we came home Tuesday night we found 8 of the 9 birds in the yard. Apparently they can squeeze through the fence. The 9th bird was stuck in the fence and had to be rescued. Thankfully they all stuck together and stayed in our yard when they got out. I got my garden fenced in and it looks really good. I am hoping to plant the rest of the vegetables this weekend. We are suppose to get heavy rain tonight and then it is suppose to be really cold tomorrow night (38 degrees) so I am thinking Saturday after our trip to the Farmer's Market should be a perfect time to plant.

I am still here. Things have been super crazy around here. We have spent the last 3 afternoon/evenings working outside on our chicken house and run. We are so close. Just have to put up the rest of the fencing on the run and it will be complete.

Wednesday we spent the day painting. It was a family event.Here is how it turned out. I just love it! I can't wait to move the girls into their new home.