Winter

 

This picture was taken when we only had a dusting of snow.  Speckles was the only chicken brave enough to walk outside at first.  Eventually Cous Cous joined her and reluctantly the others followed. 

 

After the last storm that went through we have well over a foot of snow. The chickens are not impressed and none of them are willing to go outside the run.  Speckles is thinking about it, though, and I won't be surprised if she decides to give the deep snow a try.  Her breed of chicken is known for being very good in the winter.

 

Winter means a little more work for us.  We have to take the ice out of the water dish and refill the water often.  The chickens don't eat as many bugs and plants so they are eating more grain.  I also have to shovel the roof of the run.  It's normal for chickens to stop laying eggs in the winter, but Cous Cous continues to lay almost every day. Sadly, none of the other chickens have started laying yet. 

BIG CHICKEN!

We have a new chicken in our flock!  Happy Halloween!

Flock Update

It's been a long time since we have updated the blog!  The beginning of the school year is always busy for us.  We have had a lot of things happen. Here is an update.  Couscous was "broody" for a couple of weeks.  When a chicken is broody it means that they want to hatch eggs, and sometimes they will sit on imaginary eggs.  That's what Couscous was doing, and I had to take her out of the egg box many times a day so she would eat and drink water.  Unfortunately chickens stop laying eggs when they are broody, so we have not had a fresh egg in a long time.
We have had some problems with predators.  Predators are creatures that hunt and eat chickens. Emma was attacked by a dog and went to heaven. The dog was visiting Auntie L. and broke the leash he was on when he saw the chickens.  Last week a hawk attacked Couscous.  I heard her making noise and saw the hawk on her, so I ran outside with a broom and scared it away.  Couscous was hurt and I had to give her first aid.  I cleaned her wounds with saline and put medicine on them.  She had to stay in a separate cage for a few days, but now she is doing well!
The new pullets are doing well and now are getting bigger than Chicky!  Chicky will probably lay eggs soon.  When she does, I will put up a picture of it.

Our First Egg!!

We were very excited to find our first egg on Friday.  We think it was from Emma.  Lately when Leanora tries to pet Emma and Cous Cous they go into what's called a "submissive squat".  They hunker down low on the ground instead of running away.  Pullets do this when they're about to start laying eggs.  Leanora really likes it because she can now pick up Emma and Cous Cous and carry them around.  She looks so proud!
Here is a picture of our first egg.  As you can see it isn't very big.  Cous Cous and Emma are "bantam" chickens, which means they will always be small and their eggs will be small.  (The eggs might get a little bigger. Sometimes when a young chicken starts to lay eggs the eggs are smaller than normal.) Even though they are small they taste really good!  We've had one egg each day since Friday!

The picture below is of the little egg in the frying pan. Isn't it cute?

This is a store bought egg. What do you notice about it that is different?

New Chicks!

A little over a week ago Little L and I drove to a farm in the country (yes, even more in the country than our house!) and brought home two chicks.  They were eight weeks old and still making baby chick sounds!  They came from a large free-range flock, which means that the chickens did not have any fences.  They could go anywhere they wanted and many slept in the trees instead of the coop.

These little chicks were at the bottom of the "pecking order". Chickens have to know who is the boss. They will pick on birds that are the weakest or the smallest, often pecking at them and keeping them from the food.  So these two little chicks were smaller than they should have been, and their tail feathers had been pecked quite a bit.

I put them into "quarantine". Quarantine means they can't go near our other chickens because they might make them sick.  (Chickens can have a lot of different health problems.) So I put them in an extra large dog crate that I made safe for chicks, and put them far away from our chicken coop.  They will have to stay in quarantine for 30 days!  During that time they cannot go near our other chickens.  During the daytime they leave the dog crate and spend their time in a movable chicken pen.  We are going to wait to give them names until they are done with quarantine.

I am glad I put them in quarantine because they have had bloody poop.  Bloody poop is a sign of a disease that often strikes chicks at this age called coccidiosis. They are on very expensive medicine to fix it and I think they will probably be fine.  They also had mites.  Mites are little bugs that like to eat chicken blood. (Yuck!) It is kind of like a dog having fleas.  So I have had to treat them for mites and so far it looks like that is working.  I treated them by dusting them!  (More about that later.)

These little chicks are really nice.  The bigger one is a Speckled Sussex and the other is a Welsummer. Those are two breeds of chickens. (An example of breeds in dogs would be a poodle and a golden retriever - they are both dogs but have different characteristics).  The Speckled Sussex is very tame and will sometimes let Little L pet her. The Welsummer is a little more wild and doesn't like to be caught or picked up. She lets me know with a squawk how unhappy she is to be caught!

Here are some pictures of them on the first day they came home.  As you can see, they were in tough shape. But don't worry because they are doing better and getting bigger.  I will put new pictures up soon.

Pip is a BOY!

That's right - our hunch was correct. I got an email from the man who took Pip. He said he just tried to crow for the first time a couple days ago. So Pip is officially a cockerel, and when he turns one year old he will be a rooster.  Here's a picture he sent.  You can really see his long beautiful tail feathers and large comb.

Cousins

L's cousins came to visit!  It was fun to see them and fun for them to have a chance to meet the chickens in person for the first time.  Cousins E and M were great helpers with the chicken chores!  Cousins A and Ay were a little more shy about the chickens, but they still got to see them and say hello.  Little L really enjoyed having her cousins visit the chickens with her too.

Cousin E helping to rake the run

Cousin M helping to rake the run

Pip has found a new home

Last Tuesday I put an ad on Craigslist to give Pip away.  The day before he/she came after me a few times trying to peck my legs, so I decided not to wait to find out if Pip is a boy or girl. A very nice retired couple came and took Pip to live with their four hens.  They will keep Pip even if he is a rooster, and they promised to send me a picture when they find out if Pip is a boy or a girl.  Things have been very quiet since Pip left.  The four pullets left are very calm.
Good luck in your new home Pip!  We hope you like your new hens!

Is Pip a boy or a girl?

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a chick is a boy or a girl.   Boys are called cockerels until they turn one year old, and then they are called roosters.  Girls are called pullets until they turn one year old, and then they are called hens.

Lately Pip is acting a little bit like a boy chicken. She is chasing around the others a lot and pecking at them, and in general is being pushy and just a little bit mean.  Pip is also starting to look like she might be a cockerel. The comb is the piece of red flesh on top of a chicken's head.  It is much larger in cockerels and roosters than in pullets and hens.  Feathers on male chickens are also pointier and fancier looking.  Their feet are also much thicker.

Pip's comb is turning a bit redder and bigger, and some of her feathers are starting to look a little pointy, but it's too soon to tell. Her feet are kind of delicate and don't really look like a cockerel's.  I've shown pictures of her to people who know a lot about chickens, and most of them say they can't tell yet. Some say she's a pullet, and others say she's a cockerel.  Time will tell!

Unfortunately if Pip is a cockerel, I will have to give him away.  There are a few reasons we cannot have a rooster.  One is that they make noise when they crow. Another is that they don't lay eggs!  We really want to have a lot of eggs.  Often times the roosters become aggressive, which means they might bite or attack people.  (Pip has already bit me for no reason.) And the last reason is that most of our chickens will be small. They are called "bantams".  They might have a hard time if they were living with a standard size rooster since there are so few of them.

Here are some pictures of Pip from this week.  What do you think?  Is Pip a boy or a girl?

The Coop

Our chickens live in a plastic coop called the Eglu Cube. This chicken coop is made in England. We bought ours from someone who gave away their chickens and didn't need it anymore. The chickens usually only go inside to sleep at night. They sleep on roosting bars inside and their poop falls between the bars onto the poop boards. When I clean up all I have to do is take out the poop boards and dump the poop in the compost pile. There is also a little room called a nesting box and when they are old enough to lay eggs they will lay eggs in there.  It has a special door so I can reach in and take the eggs without having to take the whole roof off the coop.  The best thing about this coop is that it is very easy to clean. I can take it apart and hose it all down in about 10 minutes.  

Chickens use this ladder to get into the coop.

Can you see the word "omlet" on the egg door?  That's the name of the company that made the coop. Pretty clever name for a company that makes chicken coops, don't you think?

As you can see this coop has a damaged section by the door. The previous owner melted some of the plastic with a heat lamp and made a hole in the wall.  I covered up the hole with black tape.  I was worried the chickens would peck at it but so far they have left it alone.  You can see the roosting bars in this picture. At night time I close the orange door to keep the chickens safe.

Chickens like to have a lot of space so there is a fenced in area attached to the coop. It is called a chicken run. The one you see in this picture is temporary. We are building a stronger one that will have a roof and use a stronger type of wire called hardware cloth.  In this picture you can see Pip keeping an eye out. She is the oldest (by one week!) and is definitely the leader of the group.

Chickens Can Predict the Weather

Today we had a big thunderstorm. About half an hour before it came, the chickens all went and hid in the coop. That is the first time they have gone into the coop themselves.  At night I have to go and pick them up and put them in. (Soon they will learn to do that for themselves.)
I guess they really didn't want to be outside during the thunderstorm!

Meet the Flock!

We picked up our chickens yesterday!  We couldn't get little babies because they have to have a heat lamp to stay warm and they would have had to stay in our little house. Mean Kitty and baby chicks just shouldn't be in the same house.  So we got some birds that are 6-8 weeks old.  They have their feathers and are ready to stay in the coop!  (Coop is what you call a chicken house.)
I have discovered that taking pictures of chicks is really hard to do.  They don't like to sit still for the camera. Here are some pictures of our new birds.

Chicky and Pip:  Chicky is 6 weeks old and was named by Cousin A.  Pip is 8 weeks old and was named by Cousin M.  Pip is the black one.

Emma is 7 weeks old and was named by Cousin Ay.

Cous cous looks just like Emma and is the same age. She was named by Cousin E.

Melia is also 7 weeks old and was named after Amelia Earhart because she flies very well.

And so they don't feel left out, here are pictures of Libby and Mean Kitty

Welcome!

We are new chicken owners!  I am starting this blog so my nieces can see what is going on with our chickens and perhaps learn about chickens along the way. This is a blog intended for young children and is really just for fun!