Chickens on the alert

The girls got several shocks this week. First of all Matt left them for some out of state work for a few weeks. For the first few days they were just out of sorts, picking at each other, yeling alot, fighting over the smallest scraps, and taking their sweet old time laying those eggs. They are adjusting now, particularly since they realize they still have everyone else to pamper them. Also there are lots of grubs and really ugly bugs for them to eat these days, and we have been letting them roam alot. But then three guests arrived and they brought another dog with them. The girls freaked out when they saw Charlie for the first time, even though Charlie is old, basically deaf and ignored them. They tried to fly away, but they were in the pen, so that didn't work out too well. They were hysterical for quite some time. Poor Charlie just wandered back with his human to the house. On the other hand, they seem to ignore Boots now, even though she would love to play a bit rough with them if she could. The girls are not such good judges of intent sometimes. Yesterday they seemed upset about something , and put themselves back into the coop early. We never figured out what bothered them. Maybe they are getting smart about the hawks. There is a resident red-shouldered out in the woods.

The girls were glad to see Joan and Mary again, visiting from Canada. They haven't seen them since before they started laying eggs, so they were happy to get a taste of their fresh productions and hold the warm eggs at last. Pauline, who is Charlie's human, also likes the warmth of the newly laid eggs, and their appearance in Jeanne's good cooking.

The coop is gradually moving to expand its activities to include a community garden of sorts. Jeanne and Peg already grow their own veggies here and are constantly expanding the diversity in the gardens. Now Wendy & Matt have built their own large raised bed, and Frank, Jennie, and Keith have built one for their family. We have brought in a huge load of compost to start the new garden plots off, and use raised beds to smother out the knapweed and grass existing there now. This will give the other families a chance to get more sunlight on their veggies. And it is more fun when we can work together growing healthy food. We have added some fruit trees this week also. All of us are on tent worm patrol lately, as they have hatched out again. We are hoping this year is no where near as bad as last, and we expect the girls to help by eating every worm in sight, along with the grasshoppers. Right now they are working on the flies that hatched last week and doing a pretty good job. We finished the big fence around the vegetable garden so we can keep the girls out when things are sprouting, but let them in early in spring and for fall clean up. They have plenty to do running around in the woods and the rest of the yard. They are taking too much time growing back the feathers they lost during Pete's reign. We suspect they are now taking out their own feathers or each other's. They eat the feathers usually. It's not like they are starving. They are very well fed, with extra calcium supplied in the form of oyster shell. We might think they are molting, and maybe some are. But they still lay from 13 to 17 eggs a day. They take regular dust baths, and we don't see parasites on them, so we really don't know what is going on with some of them who remain too bald in spots. They all seem quite healthy. It seems it takes time to recover from roosters. We met some other chickens who had had the same experience recently and they were full of bald spots too.

Submitted by Peggy

Chicken Coop News

The girls were really unhappy about the snow today. They only gave us 11 eggs. They have been averaging about 14 this week. They are still eager to get out of the pen in the afternoon and run around a bit. But then they are just as happy to go back in when we want them to. If they are left alone outside for about an hour, they come running to us when we show up with scratch. They will then march right into the pen to get their treat. Sometimes one or two are not paying attention to the program and have to be picked up and hauled home. Generally they have been very cooperative. We have now fenced off most of the flower gardens they like to dig up, so they are concentrating on the compost piles, the vegetable gardens that are still open to them, and the nice litter under the trees. The posts are up for a large fence around the vegetable beds, so we will soon be able to keep them out after we plant, or selectively let them in one of the three gates to forage in particular beds as needed. We will be adding some more raised beds for the use of coop members. Work has begun on the back and side pens. Frank is working on the new trenches. Peggy is working on post holes. Jeanne has finished painting the back of the coop and Matt is busy designing the juvenile coop annex for the new chicks we plan to add soon. Wendy has gone back to work and the girls are having to adjust their schedule a bit, but are getting used to the slightly later timing of the opening of the coop. But they miss her. Boots is still on the morning route however, racing around the coop until Matt comes along to continue the morning run. We looked at the chick choices yesterday while picking up feed. Too many of course. I suggest we send a delegation so I don't come home with more than the ten we think we want. I found a large plastic bin for brooding today. We just need some big cardboard to put around the outside to keep them in and we are ready to brood again. We can get some that are already three weeks old if we want, or start again with the cute little ones.

It seems that the egg eating and pecking are focused more on the blue eggs than any others. Two of the Araucanas are now laying often under the ramp, perhaps to hide their eggs. They seem to get pecked more than the others. This week we have managed to avoid outright eating of eggs, but that is because we collect a dozen times a day. The buffs and a few others are willing to sit on several eggs until we get them out safely. Hopefully next week we can finish up the fixing of the back pen and get the side pen built. We should be ready to give the new ones their own quarters by the time they are big enough, and keep them safe from the big thugs until they can fend for themselves. With grass and bugs coming along now, the girls should be able to soon leave each other alone and maybe grow back some of those feathers they either lost to Pete's attentions, molting, or each others picking from boredom.

Peggy for the girls

Spring came early...

Not a great deal of excitement around the coop lately, which is good. Warm weather arrived early this year, with the crocus blooming a full three weeks ahead of last year. Although winter has returned for a brief visit (it's actually snowing as I write this), sunshine and 70 degrees is the forecast by the middle of next week. We've all been busy outdoors, cleaning up the last of the winter debris and marvelling at the new growth of spring. The girls have been loving it; out free ranging for at least a couple hours every day, gobbling up every last little green shoot they can find. Unfortunately, some of these shoots just happened to be the strawberry plants in the garden, but Peggy has since added temporary fencing to keep the chickens at bay. Speaking of fencing, Peggy has gone completely crazy and spent much of last Saturday digging postholes and setting fence posts in the rain. All that fun in preparation of putting up a 6' tall chicken and critter-resistant (I know better than to say say "critter-proof"!) fence around the raised beds. While fences are rarely asthetically pleasing, Peggy chose to use raw, round wooden posts for the fencing which helps to soften the appearance considerably and will result in the barrier blending in nicely with the wooded surroundings. We had considered building a "chicken tractor" (a portable, easy-to-move structure to protect/contain the chickens while they are free ranging), but in the end enclosing the garden just made more sense.

Our flock will be growing soon as we have decided to purchase 10 new chicks this spring. They should be arriving in about two weeks and will spend their early days in a nice protected area (in the kiddie pool in the basement perhaps?) until they are robust enough for the great outdoors. They'll have their own coop and pen until they are large enough to fend for themselves in with the adult hens, at which time they'll move in with the grown-ups. The juvenile coop and pen will be attached to the main pen, so the newcomers will be in close proximity to the hens while they are growing up. We're hoping that this will allow the two groups to become reasonably familiar with one another and will ease the integration process when the time comes. We'll see - Chickens can be kind of funny sometimes...

Matt