Chicken Coop News

I am sad to inform all of you that we have lost another coop family as well as another chicken. As you know, Keith has decided to drop out for now, as other priorities have trumped his desire to care for chickens, though he remains a friend of the coop and will buy eggs from us. He tells us the experience was very positive and he has no issues, just doesn't have time for it now. He is also interested in any other resilience initiatives we may come to in the future. But this morning I found one of the Rhode Islands dead on the coop floor. I am fairly sure it would be the same one that was trying to crawl under the nest boxes late yesterday. I pulled her out, but she didn't seem to have much energy. Is this a coincidence? The last time a chicken died it was shortly after we found out that the Moehle family was in fact not going to be involved any longer in the work of the coop. Do the chickens know that not so many are needed now? With two families dropping out from the daily care of the flock and leaving the coop, and the eggs piling up in the fridge, maybe they are doing a flock reduction. Just speculation. There are no marks on this chicken. It has not been pecked. Since we do not know why this one died, I am inclined to bury it with Daffy. Let me know if anyone has other ideas.

We are re-naming the co-op the Homestead Coop, as it is now down to the core group of three families living next to each other here on Homestead Road, who have assumed the responsibility of caring for the chickens and maintaining the coop basically for the last five months. The two families that enjoyed the building part and the initial organization of the co-op have found that they have other time commitments now, and caring for the daily needs of a coop and chickens are not on the agenda. We will miss their unique contributions, and assume they will check us out now and then to see how we are progressing. Hopefully they will still come to us for eggs once in a while. There are some lessons here for others considering coops. It is important to realize just how much time it takes and be clear on how much time you can really put into it. It is important to remember that the daily work is the bulk of the operation. The beginning excitement settles down into a routine, if you are organized, and each person needs to look at how they feel about being a part of that mundane routine as well as how they feel about the overall concept. So starting out with more people than you may end up with is a good idea. If there is a strong core group, you will survive attrition. Same thing with chickens. It would be rare not to lose a few here and there. We started with 26 and are now down to 24. This means we still have lots of eggs to eat and sell. We are able to cover all our expenses now with egg sales. The list of friends of the coop grows. The girls are still laying between 15 and 21 eggs a day. Once in a while they go down to 13. A few are showing signs of molting, so they will stop laying during this time. Esmeralda was accepted back into the flock and is still doing well. Jeanne and Peg have returned from vacation, so Wendy, Matt, Frank, Jennie and young Keith get a break from all the good care they provided over the last several weeks. They even fed the fish, filled the bird feeders, watered the house plants, and brought in the mail. What great neighbors. We do not think the coop group will stop with egg production. There are plans in our heads for other things as well on this 40 acre parcel we three families share. By the way, Pete has been on his best behavior since we returned. Guess he doesn't want to be the next to go. It is good to be back to the real world of cleaning the coop and talking to the chickens.

from Peggy, humble servant for 24 chickens