Glamour Chickens

Hi All!
Just wanted to post a couple pictures that I took some time ago. I must say, photographing chickens close up is a bit of a challenge. In order to get them to look at the camera, you first have to get their attention away from whatever tasty little morsel they have discovered on the ground. Once you have their attention, of course, their curiosity takes over and they immediately begin trying to determine whether the camera and/or the photographer's fingers are a food item. This mostly involves a great deal of head tilting followed by a vigorous peck or two. Or three...

Enjoy!
Matt

News from Peggy

(November 22, 2009)
Total egg production for the past week is 80 eggs. This does not count the two cracked ones we had to feed to the compost. We are currently up to 16 a day, with two blue ones today. We are trying to make sure each family gets at least one blue egg in a carton. Egg size is becoming more uniform, though there is an occasional gigantic one, which will have a double yolk. So the return by family for the week would be 16 eggs. So far people have been taking what they need, but we should probably have some sense of the group on what distrbution system makes sense. There are several issues involved. If we go back and look at the history of the co-op, we will see that at least one member of each family, and usually more, has contributed a good share of labor time toward the building of the coop and the care of the chickens. We have put in lots of time, labor and a fair amount of money to get us up and rolling. But everyone did a part of it and we have 26 very happy and healthy responsibilities now. The eggs are each worth about $10 at this point, but over time the economics will blance out. It isn't why we did it in the first place. We are building community and developing a model for one kind of neighborhood project to address the needs of a resilient community.


Each person went into it with their own agenda and needs, of course. So the co-op needs to keep communications open and frequent if we are to meet everyone's needs. We agreed on a few things at our one meeting, which we should either stick to or change. Please correct me if I got any of this wrong. We agreed we would share the messy jobs like cleaning out the coop. We agreed Jeanne and Peggy would have primary daily care responsibilities, but be able to call on others when they can't be here. We agreed to share the purchase of food and bedding. That's about all we decided. The rest has been worked out as we go along. We put out a call when a need arises and someone answers it. When there has been work to do related to the coop, most of you have showed up to do it. We are ready for winter with the girls (and Pete, who seems to want to stay around). So this is a survey, since we don't seem to be able to actually get together very often. Please share your thoughts on the following: If you reply to all, then we can all see where we stand. In a little over five months we have come a long way. Others are watching us with interest. So it is a good time to polish it up a bit.


1. What do you think would be a fair distribution system for our group?


2. How many eggs do you think your family will want in a week, once production has leveled off to a fairly regular amount?


3. Are you willing to clean the coop once a month? Twice a month during winter when they are in more?


4. When is a good time or day for you to do the cleaning? We want to make sure we save it for you.


5. How many dozen eggs do you think Jeanne and Peg should keep in their fridge at any given time for pick up? Should we be looking for a small fridge for the pole barn?


6. How many should there be in reserve before we call our "Friends of the Co-op" list and sell them. This is similar to question 5.


7. Do you have friends or relatives you want on the "Friends list" and will you be responsible for calling them if you know it is their turn for extra eggs?


8. Does $2.50 sound like a fair price for the extras, and do you agree the money should go toward food?


9. Are you willing or able to contribute toward food and bedding material? Sales of extra eggs will cover some of it, but the current cost is about $25 a month.


10. Do you have a digital camera you could come take pictures of the coop and chickens with for the blog? Or do you know how to teach me to scan my pictures into my computer and add them to the blog?


That's all I can come up with for now. Hope all will share ideas and other concerns.


Submitted by Peggy,
egg manager, chicken herder, poop scooper, and news reporter

Coop Co-op news

(November 20, 2009)

Today was an interesting day. One of the Araucanas gave us another blue-green egg, but laid it outside in the pen, so it had to be washed. That's two blue ones now. Then we got this enormous egg, twice the size of any others. Can't even close the lid on the carton now. It is amazing and I can only imagine the labor it took to release it. Like delivering an 18 pound baby. The total egg production for today was 16, the last one delivered just as the girls were finally being shovelled into the coop. I mean this almost literally. I thought if I didn't turn the light on right away they would go in faster and roost when it got dark. Wrong. I got them all in the pen at darkness. However, when I went out after awhile to close the chicken door, they had all decided to roost on the ramp outside, except for the one who was laying an egg at the time. They were all sound asleep and didn't want to move, so I had to go into the pen, flashlight in hand and push them in. I was a bit reluctant to push much on Pete, who was fourth in line, but he got up and went in on his own. The rest I literally had to pick up and place inside. All of this was after I turned on the light so they could see their way. Lesson learned, leave the light on for them, they like it, even if it keeps them up later at night. We have a 60 watt bulb in there right now, and it seems bright. May switch to 40 until it gets colder outside. Since I left it on all night last night and there were no eggs on the floor this morning, I guess they have decided they are happy with the new light. Thank you David. Wendy came up to help clean out the coop today, and plans to help next week at least once. We don't want anyone to miss this fun job though, so feel free to sign up for a time. Right now it is easiest to do it in the late afternoon when the girls are out free ranging and out of your way. Also we don't have to figure out how to keep them from escaping at that time. We figure twice a week will be needed once the weather changes and they are in more. We just use a snow shovel particularly under the roosts. Clean straw goes back into the nest boxes. Dirty in the pile outside the door for compost prep. The girls really enjoy throwing it out of the boxes before laying eggs.

There are currently two and a half dozen eggs in the frig, and more on the way tomorrow. If you let us know how many you might want in the next week, for holiday baking etc. then we will know how many to keep around. We probably should sell those we can't eat within a few days, as production is increasing. We have sold one dozen so far. The money will go into a can for food, etc. Our list of those interested is up to five now. Let us know your needs. Who wants to try the blue ones? Maybe Jeanne and I will share the monster for breakfast. Peggy

News From Peggy

(November 19, 2009)
This has been a great week for all of us. Pete and the girls are thrilled with the weather and have been out ranging all over the place every day, eating bugs, stirring up all the compost piles, chasing off the stray cat, and producing eggs (many of which must be fertilized). We are averaging seven a day right now. One day with 10, and today there were nine. We have hd two so far with double yolks, and today we got the first blue egg! We are waiting for Keith to get his eggs, then everyone will have had a chance to try the first ones. Some are small, but each day more get bigger. One hen lays on the floor each night, so that egg has to be washed. But we have just learned that it is better not to wash them until right before you use them, as they have a protective coat of some kind that keeps bacteria out. So as of today we only wash the dirty ones. Most are really quite clean when they are laid, and we are now putting them in the frig right away, which is added protection. So, wash your eggs just before using from now on. We are trying to keep the coop and particularly the nest boxes clean. The girls do a good job with that on their own. They immediately throw out most of the straw before laying an egg on the bare wood. We are also collcting several times a day, so the eggs are not dirtied by other hens.

Wendy, Frank, and Jeanne finished digging the trench on Tuesday, and David put in the wiring for the light and the outlet yesterday. We are now really ready for winter. If it should get really cold we can put a bit of heat in there, but most of the time the light bulb should do the trick, combined with body heat. We read that giving them scratch just before bed gives them energy to put out more body heat during the night. So out I go soon to gather them in with some scratch. Peggy filled in the trench dirt and the girls have scratched out their designs on the dirt to show their approval.

Amy has put the blog together, as you already know. It looks great. I have some good pictures but don't have a digital camera, so either someone has to show me how to scan them in or others will have to post pictures on the blog. I also have to learn how to add to a blog. But I will probably continue to also post occasional emails to the group. Amy has offered to host a potluck where we do egg dishes, besides quiches. Sounds like fun. We do like quiches though. Do my chocolte chip cookies count? They use two eggs.

Cheers to all of us. Things are working out really well here on Homestead road, and those eggs sure taste better when you know exactly where they came from and what kind of community labor went into them. What a blessing to live in this community. Peggy

Nadia and Sonja enjoy the first Eggs!

Today David did some electrical work at the coop and it inspired me to get moving loading all the pictures onto the blog! Especially when we admired our first eggs!!

Those girls (the hens) and that one rooster, sure do good work!! And so did everyone else!

News!! We have Eggs!!

The First Eggs found November 5th (if I am reading my emails right!) Whomever found them, please post your thoughts!!

News from Peggy and Jeanne:

Today the girls went all out and produced 10 eggs. One of them was really huge, so we looked around for a duck, but none had slipped in. Matt and Wendy came over on friday and did the remodelling on the inside of the coop, moving roosts and nestboxes around and securing the door better. The girls were under foot and rather vocal about the disturbance, but they settled in well when night came, now spreading themselves out evenly on both roosts, with a few still sleeping (and pooping) in the nest boxes. We are mostly getting very clean eggs, but we wash them anyway, and you will probably want to do it again at home just to be sure. When you come to get eggs, take them from the top carton in the frig first, although nothing in there is more than a few days old.

There was no response to the idea of a potluck Sunday, so there is none scheduled. Frank has almost finished digging the trench for the wiring, though he says it still needs to be deeper and some roots removed.

Pete has been very busy, so my guess is that we are now eating fertilized eggs. I guess they are supposed to be helthier in some way. So far he has behaved himself with his human caregivers, but some of the hens are finding his attentions tedious. They all seem to still be in good spirits however. No eggs from the Araconas yet.

Currently only 3 families are eating the eggs, so we have about one and a half dozen in reserve at any one time. when we get to the point where we have too many eggs, we talked about having a list of friends of the co-op who would be able to purchase the extras. suggested price is $2.50. There are three people on this list so far. Does anyone else want to add someone? We would put the money in a caan and use it for food. What do you all think?

The coop needs to be cleaned at least once a week, maybe more once we get to winter weather and they are inside mostly. We will also probably need to stock more straw for winter. Frank and Jenny brought up a bale the other day, so we have one and a half right now. We have food for probably another two weeks, maybe less. Scratch should last about 3 more weeks. They really love that stuff. We have enough grit for a year. Matt and Wendy bought the last food, so please sign up if you want to be next. $25 gets us two bags of food, enough for about a month. We have also been feeding the girls lots of bread which is coming from the food pantry and would otherwise be thrown out. And with the great weather they are getting lots of bugs as they free range in the afternoon when we are home. The shells on the eggs are nice and hard.

If you haven't cleaned the coop recently, please let us know when you might want to come to do it. We don't mind giving up the privilege now and then. Jeanne is having some breathing issues these days, so I get to do it fairly often myself. Don't mind sharing at all. The girls find it fascinating and will keep you company. Wendy & Matt, and Frank & Jenny just finished caring for the kids for nine days while we were away and they got to find the first eggs. Keep coming to get your eggs. We don't have to be here. Empty cartons all over the place now to pack them in. Just sign the log on the counter, if you collect eggs or if you take them for consumption, so we can keep track of how the girls are doing.

Peggy, for Pete and the girls

Coop News

(October 28, 2009)

Things are moving along for the girls, but we have no eggs yet. Our rooster is crowing alot now though, and he has taken a real interest in the hens the last few days. While the weather is nice, we have been letting them all out to roam the yard for longer periods of time. They are having a great time. At first they were willing to come back in if I went out with a cup of scratch and walked them into the pen. I looked like the pied piper as i tripped over them. The last two days we have let them out fairly early in the day, and they have gotten so engrossed in everything that they don't want to come in until it starts to get dark. This is ok if we plan to be around. We have been splitting wood for two days so it didn't matter. However, tonight we couldn't find a few of them as dark approached. After quite a search, two were found way back in the woods under a tree, and the white one was up near the road trying to figure out how to get around piles of tree limbs to get back home. We had to lead the three strays back. All are still with us, but it was a moment of panic as we imagined them carted off by a fox.

Matt and Wendy bought the last food, and we are now using layer mix rather than starter, on the advice of the feed store lady, even though we are not laying yet. The food is now in the metal can that says scratch on it, and the scratch is in the blue plastic tub beside it, or the bag we just bought. There is grit on the counter and a small handful should be mixed in with the can of food when you put it in the metl feeder. Peggy cleaned the coop on Tuesday. If you use the snow shovel to scoop out the poop, you can put it on the pile behind the compost bins. Don't put it directly on the compost. A sprinkling of the pine bedding (just inside the big garage door) on the floor keeps the smell down, then some straw on top. we don't need to use alot of straw, but we do have to get the poop out of the nest boxes now and then and replace straw in them.

We have put a temporary light in the coop, awaiting the digging of the trench (Frank, Matt and Wendy?) and the real light (David when he returns next week) There is a simple light fixture sitting on the counter in the barn, which we got at Odoms. Also there in a bag is another doorknob with a strike plate, if someone wants to install it. The board over the door handle will not work once we have ice and snow, so we need to spruce it up a bit. Hopefully the stuff we picked up will do the trick so we can just turn a knob to get in. Frank is going to put a simple sliding latch thing on so it is more secure (but I won't be able to lock myself in again.)

So, since we do have predators here, if you plan to let the kids out of the pen, plan to be around, and probably do it about an hour before dark. They are really good about going in to roost by themselves when dark comes. Egg laying should occur in the morning, we are told, so check when you let them out to the pen.

Call Frank if you can put them away, since he often takes the late shift, and call Wendy and Matt if you can do the early shift and give them a break. Would appreciate it if anyone here would put the mail in the house, and the newspaper is for whoever wants it, or can go in the house also. There is bread usually in bags just inside the garage door for the kids.
By the way, I want to name the rooster Pete, after Pete Seeger, in the hope that he will remain a gentle thing. His voice is about as good as Seegers is now too. He is quite beautiful and has not attacked anyone yet, except the expected behavior with an occasional hen. Hopefully he will earn his keep and be able to stick around.

Thanks all, Peggy & Jeanne


(October 12, 2009)

Note that I finally got email addresses for everyone on this, I think. Matt and Wendy have offered to buy the next round of food. Keith cleaned the coop this past weekend. Thank you all. The rooster is definately feeling his oats. He lets out a string of crows shortly after emerging from the coop in the morning. So far that is the only time he sounds off, and otherwise acts just like the girls. The girls had a big outing today. They spent about five hours out of the pen cleaning up the gardens, digging in the compost piles, and practicing their flying (they do not have much lift off yet). When it started to rain and we knew we had to go out tonight, I went into the pen with goodies and all 26 came in with me, so I could shut the door and leave them safe. They are getting the routine down pretty well, though we have an occasional escapee to round up when we open the gate.

Please let us know if you want to be on chicken duty during any of that time. Maybe someone besides us can work out a schedule. I will put the log in the barn tomorrow for marking when the coop is cleaned, and the food purchases as they occur. We have not been buying organic feed lately, and should probably discuss that in the group. Do we have a source and what is the cost? As we get close to laying time, it seems we should make a decision as we switch from grower to layer feed. Let us share our thoughts and preferences.

from the co-op communications room,
Peggy