Chickens Part 6: Discoveries

Chickens provide an awful lot of comic relief around here.  I thought I would share a few of the things that have had me chuckling recently.

My discovery

The only one who LIKES to go out to feed the chickens and check for eggs (besides myself) is my little guy.  I thought he was just being helpful.  You know, taking to heart the responsibility for their well-being.  It struck me as odd, though, that once when I went out with him, the girls didn’t come running to the door for him like they do for me. 

Then one day I discovered why.  Apparently he has been practicing his aim.  I caught him firing pieces of bread at their backsides.  No wonder the chickens move to the back of the pen when he brings their scraps!   Sheesh!

Middle Man’s Discovery

My middle man lost video game privileges for his lack of kindness and respect around the house.

Last week, when I asked who wanted to take the scraps to the chickens, my middle man immediately jumped up, totally surprising me.  Taking the bucket, he said, “I will.” Then he leaned forward and added with a meaningful look, “with kindness and respect.”  I about lost it, lol!  Guess who would REALLY like to get video game privileges restored?

Turns out, feeding the chickens “with kindness and respect” is a great way to put a smile on mom’s face.  But it’s not the magic wand he was looking for. 

My Husband’s Discovery

Yesterday, my little guy went out to check for eggs and saw an egg way behind the nesting boxes.  Just out of reach.  Having to leave for soccer training, I left a note for my husband to retrieve it out of the coop when he got home.

When he did, he found ELEVEN more eggs in a makeshift nest in the back!  And a whole bunch of them were blue ones!!  It would appear that one or both of the new girls have started laying!

Now we just have to bring them up to speed on WHERE they are supposed to be laying them! 

My husband removed the makeshift nest and put the only golf ball I could find in one of the nesting boxes.  We read that doing so can help the chickens know where to lay their eggs.  A friend from the Philippines recommended the same thing.  She said that growing up, they had free range chickens and her mother would always leave one egg.  That way the chickens would “know” where to lay them and her mother would know where to FIND them, lol!  Makes sense!

This morning I snuck out and lifted the door on the nesting boxes and saw two girls doing their thing.  When I came back out later, there was another hen busy at work.  Yay!  Hopefully, they won’t get confused again.  And hopefully, I didn’t annoy them so much with my checking they move to the back again!!

By the way, we’re having quiche for dinner!

What funny discoveries have you found lately?

If you are new around here and wish to catch up on the chicken posts you missed, you can do so here:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and part 5.  It’s been a learning process!!

Chickens: I Hate To Even Go Here, But I Must…

Yes, another installment to the story of our chickens. 

As you remember, we added five little hens to our flock of three, bringing the total to eight.  And everything was going very well.

Until one day last week.

When I heard one of them crowing.  Drat!

This morning I staked out the pen to see who the culprit was, and discovered there were TWO separate crowers.

Double drat!!

So I came back in to do some online research and discovered I likely had THREE roosters out there.

Triple drat!!! 

Here are the five as they look now.

And here are the three “hens” that I now think are roosters.

The first one has tufts of feathers sticking out of the sides of it’s head.  He cracks me up.

This next one is kind of the dominant one.  If there is any food to be given, he is first in line.  No ifs ands or buts.

This last one is my favorite.  It is the most mild mannered out of the three, and I think the most beautiful.

And alas, I just got confirmation from several people on Backyard Chickens that I have three boys and two girls.  Shoot.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with them, lol!

Anyone have any ideas?????

Anyone want one???

Chickens Part 4: Lunacy Confirmed.

The “homemade” eggs, as my oldest son fondly calls them, are so much better than store bought ones that I began to entertain the idea of getting a few more girls!   Oh, yes.  You know right where this is going.
So when I saw an add on Craigslist for 12 week old hens, I couldn’t help myself.  “Hey, Honey…?” I called.   Lol!
He thought it was a good idea, too.  Why not get them started?  We are committed to building a proper pen anyway, right?
We picked out and caught FIVE more little hens from a local chicken-raising family.
These little girls are Americana chicks and will lay pink or blue eggs.  Two girls look like they will be a pretty brown/red.  And three are silver.  We added them to our pen.  Smiled.  And said, “Cool.” 
Hubby went inside, and I stayed out to water the garden.
Those five chicks stayed in the pen all of two minutes!  Then they popped through the chain link holes and trekked through my garden-- right in front of my three cats!—who immediately assumed their stalking positions. 
Not to be left out, the dog came running over, too.
Honest to goodness, those hens hadn’t LOOKed little enough to squeeze through that fence!  But apparently, they can squeeze themselves through much smaller openings than their fluffed out selves would lead you to believe!
It was one of those duh moments when I just wanted to kick myself.
The race was on!  Who would catch them first?
The only positive thing was, it was 9:00 at night and our lovely neighbors were all inside where they should be.
I yelled at the dog. Shooed the cats, and chased the chickens round and round the pen.  They wanted to go back in.  But only four had the brains to squeeze back in on the second lap without looking for the perfect spot.  The fifth one looked like a little kid playing duck duck goose who couldn’t remember where to sit. 
Eventually, she worked her body back through the fence. 
After stationing my little guy at the pen with the command to patrol the perimeter and scare them at will, I ran for backup, dragging the dog behind.
So from 9:30-10:15pm, my husband and I fed the mosquitoes while we added hardware cloth to the bottom of the pen.  All by the shaky  light of my little guy’s flashlight.
We made sure everyone had settled into the coop.  Then we went to bed.
The next morning, there was enough racket out there to raise the dead.  Did you know that hens do not necessarily adopt newcomers with grace?
Sheesh!  Those crazy birds would flutter out of no where and peck the slowest chick. 

Can you say danger behind the water cooler? 
Is this where the term “henpecked” comes from?  Thankfully, there seemed to be less chasing and pecking by midday.
And they did very well for the next two days.

*  *  *

Then the heat wave hit.  100.  102.  105.  They began to show signs of heat stress.  There just wasn’t enough shade for them. 
So my oldest son and I went out to cover the pen.  We found a silver sided tarp in the shed and tied it on, overhanging the sunny side a little bit.  Then we dragged an old privacy fence panel over to shield them from the intense afternoon sun. 
You are laughing, aren’t you?  It’s ok.  It’s such a redneck monstrosity that I’ve stopped caring what the pen looks like and just want the chickens to live. 
Taking this thing apart to do it right is going to be a bigger chore than building a new pen!  Lol!

I read that misting the pen helped when it was really hot.  So every hour or two I went out and misted things well. 
So much for thinking chickens were easy!!

Between the shade and the mist, though, they were a much happier bunch of birds.  :)
Thank goodness. 
Now, if it would just cool down out there, I can begin to relax.  :)
And that brings me to the end of my chicken posts for now.  I promise to keep my nose off of craigslist for a while (that should help).  However, when we get the new pen built, I’ll be sure to bore you with the details! 
Thanks for hanging in there through it all!  Hopefully you laughed along with (or at) us!  I know I laughed at us! :)

Chickens Part 3: Home. Now What??

We parked by the road while we wandered the property looking for the best spot to put the coop—which, we decided, would be by the garden.
By the time we got back to the van, the first neighbor had arrived to see what we had.  He smiled and just shook his head.  But he helped my husband unload it with our skid loader.  They put a chain around it’s belly and hoisted it in the air.  We thanked him profusely!
Then he went home, apparently to call Neighbor-Number-Two.  Good grief. 
Neighbor-Number-Two appeared shortly thereafter to laugh his head off.  Said he had just gotten a call from Neighbor-Number-One. 
The rest of our neighbors showed more restraint.  They simply filled our dead end road with traffic as they walked, jogged, or took to their golf carts to get a better look.  
I did my best to ignore them while we worked.  However, I began to regret that we didn’t put it farther back on the property!
We put the puppy’s kennel around the coop.  Then we added  a wire covering, and used the loader to dump 6 inches of extra dirt around the edges . 
Finally, we put the coop back together, painted it, and called it quits.  If they survived, they survived.  They would already be dead if we hadn’t brought them home.

The girls seemed to like it just fine! 
See the cardboard in the corners?
Neighbor-Number-Two told us that raccoons will stand at the corners and reach their grubby little hands in to grab a chicken.  He said they would pull a leg right through the fence.  Nice.  Apparently chickens aren’t bright enough to retreat to the middle.  They would just run from corner to corner.  In keeping with our redneck theme, cardboard was the only thing we had on hand to give them some cover.   
We left the next morning for Pennsylvania.
Two days later, I got the following text from my friend along with this picture:

“Look! Three eggs and three live chickens!  My husband wanted to know if I was going to put them in your fridge, I said no way!  I’m eating these!  Lol!”

Two days later I got another text from my friend:

“Three eggs yesterday, two today.  Somebody is slacking off!”

You’ve got to love good friends!
We have found two eggs every day since.  I guess two out of three isn’t bad.  It pretty much keeps us in eggs.

But our chicken saga isn’t over.  I know you wish it was!  Lol!
But, thanks to Craig’s List (I really need intervention!), there is a Chickens Part 4, and provides proof positive or our lunacy.

Chickens Part 2: The Ride Home

I watched in the side view mirror fully expecting to see our free coop, along with our free hens, go free-falling around one of the next bends in the road. 
We were going all of about 25 mph. 
I watched the cars pull up behind us then back off till it was clear to pass.  No doubt they were trying to avoid our trail of feathers and poo-dust.  Not to be confused with star dust.
My husband began to quote random Jeff Foxworthy.  I don’t know why.  And he wouldn’t stop.
The insanity of what we were doing had us laughing to the point of tears.  
Yet my deep-seated type A core knew it would be great if we arrived home with at least half a plan for what we were going to do.  I got out a scrap of paper and pen, and put on my serious-plan-face.

• First of all, where are we going to put it?  Back yard?  Side yard?  Near the garden?  Hmmm.  Not sure.  We’ll have to walk around and look.  Just not close enough to the house to smell…
• How are we going to get it off the trailer?  Pull it to the end of the trailer with the loader.  But then what? The two of us sure couldn’t budge it alone.  We’ll keep thinking about that one.
• Clean out the coop.  Easy, but SO not looking forward to this new job.
• Tools we’ll need from the garage to repair the door… Screw gun, screws.
• For the actual pen part?  Have the boys drag the kennel panels up from out back.
• And finally, something to put over the pen to keep the hawks, eagles and owls from dining on our new fine feathered friends.   Pick up a roll of fence from Rural King… 

With at least a few plans in place, we addressed the inevitable.  Someone was going to have to look in on these girls while we were away.
I pulled out my phone and texted my good friend and neighbor.  “Hey girl, do you think your husband would mind checking on a few more critters when he feeds our cats next week?”
I included a grainy picture of the hens in their crate.
When we got to the house (and yes, we did make it all the way home with our cargo intact), there was a message from my friend on our machine. 
“Hello, are those CHICKENS???  Call me.”
Lol! 
We will never live this one down.
Stay tuned for Chickens Part 3:  Home.  Now What??

Chickens Part 1: Our Weakness For All Things “Free”

The Wednesday before vacation, I happened to see an ad for a free chicken coop on Craig’s List.
My husband has been dreaming of building a chicken coop for ages.  It’s part of his bigger dream of going off the grid and making our family self-sufficient. 
On impulse, he called the ad.  The following evening, instead of packing for our trip (which we really should have been doing), we traveled an hour away to look at a chicken coop.  If we got it, we decided to just leave it on the trailer and deal with it after vacation.
It was a decent sized coop, framed with 2x6’s, and sided with cement board.  It weighted approximately 800 lbs and the owner already had it suspended from a giant loader waiting to swing it onto our trailer.  We were a little apprehensive about how we would ever get it off the trailer if we took it. 
But free is good, right?
So we gave the O.K. and he swung it onto the trailer.  In the process, the door and various trim pieces were jarred to the ground.
One leg was split and the coop swayed back and forth on the trailer.  It made me worry we would lose it somewhere along the way home.  The men on the scene assured me, however, that it was “perfectly fine” and “not going anywhere”. 
Hmmm.  I vowed to hide on the floor of the van if it did.
Then the owner asked if we wanted the three laying hens left somewhere in the yard. 
Of course not!  We are NO WHERE NEAR ready to get chickens, I thought.  The coop needs to be put back together, we have to build a pen, and I have ton of RESEARCH to do!  Not to mention my plans to pack and bake treats before we departed for Pennsylvania!
He added he was only going to kill them once we left.  Varmints had killed the rest of the flock and he was seriously done with keeping chickens. 
I looked at my husband.  He looked at me.
We were both weighing the doomed free hens part with the amount of work we would need to do before we left on our 800 mile road trip.  If we took the hens, we wouldn’t be able to leave the coop on the trailer till we got home. 
We struggled with indecision for a full minute, tossing ideas back and forth of what we could put up fast for a pen.  The second hand dog kennel we picked up for the puppy came to mind…and we said O.K.
They owner’s wife came out to join the chase.  In all, there were five of us working to catch the chickens.  My little guy tried to help, too.  However, the idea of cornering the birds eluded him.  Twice, he split them up like bowling pins before we assigned him a place to stand, lol!
Again and again we dove in the bushes and came up with nothing!  Who knew they could run so FAST! 
Finally snagging one was kind of like giving birth to my firstborn son.  I was awfully glad to have it in hand.  But I had no idea what I was going to do with it in the weeks to come!  When all three were captured, the owner placed them in the open (and still full of poo) coop—along with:

• The little chicken ramp
• the broken door
• the various pieces of trim
• a feeder
• a water thingy
• a heater for the water thingy
• and a metal trash can half-full of feed. 

He really was DONE with chickens, lol!
As we carefully pulled out of the drive, my husband and I burst into laughter. 
What did we just get ourselves into??
More of our insanity to come in Chickens Part 2:  The Ride Home.