Yeah, yeah, yeah...it's been awhile since I've updated the blog. Not much happens in the chicken world from day to day that warrants a post.
Egg production
All the girls are laying now. A 'slow' day is eight eggs. An average day is ten-eleven eggs. Record day so far has been fourteen. I've gotten that a few times. I'm waiting for my first 18 egg day (it would have been 19 until recently), but the girls can't seem to all sync up their productivity yet.
Roosters
Red is still living in the basement. He's pretty miserable down there. Chickens are meant to be social animals (or so I'm told), so he's not digging his bachelor pad. He's been molting (i.e. losing feathers) and his once proud tail feathers are frayed.
One of the many updates I promised back in April that I never got around to is about the three new chickens I was getting. I picked up three straight run (i.e. non-sexed) Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. Guess how many ended up being roosters? No, not all of them. Two. And guess what happens to boy chickens at five months old? Yep, they start sexing up the ladies. Oh, and they start crowing.
For now, only one of the two 'upstairs' boys is making noise. Unlike Red, he is not as loud nor does he crow as long (Red could go for hours in the morning; new boy only for 10 minutes at a couple of different times and i've only heard him crow later than 7am once.)
Depending on his behavior, Red may be getting a room mate soon. Or they may all end up at freezer camp. I'm not sure yet.
Light and Winterizing the Coop
It's October, and that mean crap weather coming soon. I added an additional light source to the coop already so the chickens don't slow down production. The light is on in the morning from 5 - 7 then again from 6-8 at night. It's weird in that the chickens are 'up', but don't really want to be outside until there is natural light.
For winterizing, I do have a heated waterer, but shouldn't need to plug that in for a few week yet (I hope). The coop walls were insulated when it was built, but the roof wasn't, and there is open air up there. My initial intent was to leave the eaves open, but to insulate the roof, so there isn't a build up of condensation in the coop. Damp coop leads to frostbite in the winter. That's still the plan, but I haven't gotten around to execution yet. Soon.
Nesting boxes
Oh the nexting box. I'm about as far from handy with tools as you can get. The nesting boxes I built looked great, but they fell apart when it got hot. I used particle board and glue to build it. Not the smartest thing, but live and learn.
First, the interior walls fell apart. Great! One big box that multiple chickens can use at the same time. That lasted maybe a couple of weeks. Then the whole thing fell down. Hmmm...all that weight, hot weather, glue, and no support. Wonder what could possibly happen? Luckily, no chickens or eggs were harmed due to my negligence.
I've been meaning to rebuild them, but the chickens seem content laying on the floor in two 'community' nests - one under the nesting box bottom (which is still attached to the wall) behind the feed, the other behind the nesting box boards that collapsed. Apparently, as long as they feel safe, the chickens will lay where ever. I'm good with that solution.
So now the chickens just use the bottom board as a night time roosting spot. I'm good with that. Easy clean up.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
RIP Effie - December 2010 - October 8, 2011
Well, he finally did it. I had plenty of warning, but thought he outgrew this behavior. Kenny finally killed a chicken..and it just happened to be my favorite one - the grey naked neck, Effie (short for favorite chicken).
She was my first to lay an egg. She was the chicken that was tormented and almost pecked to death (a story for later), but I nursed back to health.
She was always happy to see me and would follow me around the yard, would always come up to me and want to be hand fed, she would always let me pick her up, all-in-all the perfect pet chicken (I even decided I would let her hang around after her egg laying days were over.)
I got home Saturday from the St Paul Oktoberfest and Dachshund races (no, none of my dogs raced - but I may start training for next year). As with most days, the dogs were let out upon getting home, they chase around, do their dog thing, then go back inside. Meanwhile, I go let the chickens out and collect the eggs. Effie was, as usual, hanging out in the coop/run after the other chickens run out and start doing their chicken thing in the yard. I hand fed her some scratch and she went to lay her egg (or at least she sat on the nest of eggs.)
A little while later, as the dogs were eating their dinner, I went out back to do something in the gardens and i recall hearing a dog go outside (the front door doesn't shut tight, so they can push the door open and let themselves out). This is part of the routine so I didn't think anything of it. I came back inside a few minutes later (maybe 5 minutes?). Kenny wasn't at the front door, so I went out and called him. He wasn't responding, but I could hear him. The noise was coming from the behind a bush, next to the garage. I thought he was chasing a chipmunk (it's where they hang out and all the dogs go mental back there from time to time). I turn the corner and there's Kenny on top of a very dead Effie. I'll spare the readers the state she was in. Needless to say, I picked Kenny up off the carcass, loudly scolding him and putting him back in the house. I grabbed a bag and bundled her up while I thought about what to do with her.
Kenny knew he did something wrong. Normally, he's all over a person (usually me) looking for attention. But on Saturday night, he was just laying on the floor, cleaning his paws, not looking at people. Even at bedtime, he didn't even put his chest on someones foot (his signal to let him out). He did come to bed, but just burrowed at my feet.
Sunday morning, he was acting like nothing happened. In his dog world, it was so long ago, that the murder was old news. I, on the other hand, was still annoyed, but really, what could I do? It's in his nature to hunt prey.
Anyway, Sunday was yard work day. (Back story: Saturday morning I had dug out a bunch of overgrown bearded irises and day lilies but didn't know what I was going to do with them or where to put them.) I pulled out all the dead/dying annuals from a few gardens and decided this is where a good number of the plants could go. I paired an iris bulb with a group of the day lilies and circled the gardens. I'll put something else in the center in the spring - or i'll do annuals again - whatever...not really relevant to the story at hand.
Why do you care about gardening? You don't, but it was while I was preparing the garden at the mail boxes that I decided on what to do with Effie. I couldn't just put her in the garbage can to be picked up on Thursday. Instead, I buried her in the garden. I made sure it was deep enough and hopefully compacted enough to keep predators from digging her up (the dogs can't get there, but wild predators could).
My hope is that she will be able to give back to the flowers I have planted/will plant in that spot. I may even put up a sign "Effie's Garden - Dogs not allowed."
She was my first to lay an egg. She was the chicken that was tormented and almost pecked to death (a story for later), but I nursed back to health. I got home Saturday from the St Paul Oktoberfest and Dachshund races (no, none of my dogs raced - but I may start training for next year). As with most days, the dogs were let out upon getting home, they chase around, do their dog thing, then go back inside. Meanwhile, I go let the chickens out and collect the eggs. Effie was, as usual, hanging out in the coop/run after the other chickens run out and start doing their chicken thing in the yard. I hand fed her some scratch and she went to lay her egg (or at least she sat on the nest of eggs.)
A little while later, as the dogs were eating their dinner, I went out back to do something in the gardens and i recall hearing a dog go outside (the front door doesn't shut tight, so they can push the door open and let themselves out). This is part of the routine so I didn't think anything of it. I came back inside a few minutes later (maybe 5 minutes?). Kenny wasn't at the front door, so I went out and called him. He wasn't responding, but I could hear him. The noise was coming from the behind a bush, next to the garage. I thought he was chasing a chipmunk (it's where they hang out and all the dogs go mental back there from time to time). I turn the corner and there's Kenny on top of a very dead Effie. I'll spare the readers the state she was in. Needless to say, I picked Kenny up off the carcass, loudly scolding him and putting him back in the house. I grabbed a bag and bundled her up while I thought about what to do with her.
Kenny knew he did something wrong. Normally, he's all over a person (usually me) looking for attention. But on Saturday night, he was just laying on the floor, cleaning his paws, not looking at people. Even at bedtime, he didn't even put his chest on someones foot (his signal to let him out). He did come to bed, but just burrowed at my feet.
Sunday morning, he was acting like nothing happened. In his dog world, it was so long ago, that the murder was old news. I, on the other hand, was still annoyed, but really, what could I do? It's in his nature to hunt prey.
Anyway, Sunday was yard work day. (Back story: Saturday morning I had dug out a bunch of overgrown bearded irises and day lilies but didn't know what I was going to do with them or where to put them.) I pulled out all the dead/dying annuals from a few gardens and decided this is where a good number of the plants could go. I paired an iris bulb with a group of the day lilies and circled the gardens. I'll put something else in the center in the spring - or i'll do annuals again - whatever...not really relevant to the story at hand.
Why do you care about gardening? You don't, but it was while I was preparing the garden at the mail boxes that I decided on what to do with Effie. I couldn't just put her in the garbage can to be picked up on Thursday. Instead, I buried her in the garden. I made sure it was deep enough and hopefully compacted enough to keep predators from digging her up (the dogs can't get there, but wild predators could).
My hope is that she will be able to give back to the flowers I have planted/will plant in that spot. I may even put up a sign "Effie's Garden - Dogs not allowed."
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