Aussie - 12/25/10 - 4/11/11

I lost one of my girls on Monday. 

I got home from work and started my new after work routine - let the dogs out, put the dogs in, let the chickens out, let the dogs out again (because they never do all of their business right away the first time.)

After opening the chicken door intot he run, I started the head count to make sure everyone was accounted for.  I only come up with 10.  I open the coop door, see the naked necks hanging out eating and talking to each other.  Hmmm...I must have counted wrong.  So I rechecked the outside chickens, sure enough, only 10.  As I'm heading back into the coop, the two stragglers headed outside.  One is still missing.

I go into the coop, and see one of the girls laying in the corner.  It was one of the Australorps. They were all fine when I checked on them in the morning - or at least they were all still huddled together in a corner (stupid things still don't roost at night).

I picked her up and started looking for any trauma.  No pecking wounds and no bite marks (I'm fairly confident it had nothing to do with Kenny's terror spree).  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  It doesn't seem like an illness, as I should have noticed something in the other chickens.  I'm not sure what happened.  Only thing I can think of is maybe she ate something or was just born with bad genetics.  Either way, I'm not sure I'll be able to find out short of a chicken-topsy.  I'll just chalk it up to a mystery death and keep an eye on the rest.

 **Update - at first I thought this was a random chicken, but then it turned out to be Aussie. **

Many Many Updates

I have been remiss in my duties as a blogger by not providing timely updates for my faithful readers. 

To summarize the past few weeks (full details will be added as individual posts):

1.)  The coop is "done" 
2.)  The chickens have moved outside
3.)  The run is up and the chickens get outdoor time every day
4.)  The boys are getting ready for freezer camp - they haven't packed yet, but they are demonstrating interest in going every day.
5.)  Two out of four dogs would kill a chicken if given an opportunity
6.)  I'm turning into a chicken hoarder (but I promise to stop at my max)
7.)  One of the original girls died.
8.)  Non-chicken related stuff, too

They Grow Up So Fast (part 4)

I'm behind on the baby pictures.  I hadn't realized I skipped the 8 week old pictures.  I'm a bad parent - good thing I don't have kids.

Red - 10 weeks

Here's Red at 10 weeks.  He's a good looking boy.  Too bad he's destined for freezer camp in a few months.

Here's Aussie at 10 weeks.  She's still the smallest Austrlorp in the

Aussie - 10 weeks

bunch, but she's still thriving.

Gray turken at 12 weeks.

The turkens are still my favorites, even though some of my co-workers are less than impressed by them.  The yellow-ish one is very docile and kind of skittish.  She takes to hanging out under the roost so she gets pooped on quite a bit.  It's grosss, but whatever.  She cleans herself up.  I also like the sound they make.  It's almost turkey like - definitely more gutteral sounding than the other chickens.



Yellow turken at 12 weeks.



Buffy at 10 weeks.

Buffy - yeah, she's got a name now, but mostly because I found out she's a Buff Orpington which is one of the breeds I want - the former Mystery chick, is being true to her breed.  She's definitely at the bottom of the pecking order.  When I give the chickens treats, I always have to trick the other chickens away from one dish so she can get the treats out of the other one before they start swarming it as well.



Finally, one of the random male Australorps decided to start crowing already.  He's only 10 week old, just like his clutch mates, but he started crowing last weeked (2/26). 

My brother and his girlfriend stopped by to take me to another brother's hockey game.  They like to visit with the chickens when they stop by, so I brought them down to check in on them.  During the visit, my brother's girlfriend started laughing at something, and the one boy decided to respond.  He crowed three times at her.  I was startled and amused at the same time.  

When I was down taking pictures today, he crowed at me.  Today's crowing I think was because of the clucking the girls made when I took them out for their portraits.  Luckily, the crowing wasn't wasn't that loud and it wasn't heard in the house.  He doesn't have to visit freezer camp quite yet.  I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared to go there quite yet.

The picture of him isn't great.  He was moving around alot and was actually crowing when I took the picture.



First Blood - Follow Up

Pecking scab on neck.

Not much to say about the pecking incident other than it seemed to be very isolated.  After monitoring the wound for a few days, it healed up nicely and there haven't been any incidents of blood shed since.

First Blood

This morning when I'm checking on the chickens, I noticed that the buff/brown Turken had a spot of fresh blood on her neck.  Looks like one of the other birds was being a little rough in determining pecking order. 

I took her out of the pen, cleaned up her wound and put some anti-biotic ointment on it.  When I get home from work tonight, I'll check to see if she's still being picked on.  If so, I'll have to separate her for a few days in one of the old tubs until she heals.  From what I've read, the omnivores can keep pecking at wounds until they kill the bird.  I'd be bummed if that happened.

They Grow Up So Fast (part 3)



Red at 6.5 weeks



Two weeks later, so that means new pics of the chicks.  Nice rhyme.

It is pretty interesting watching them grow up, though.  Hard to believe that just seven weeks ago I still only had eggs.



Red at 6.5 weeks



Red has turned into a good looking boy.  Too bad that means rehoming or sending him off to freezer camp in a couple of month.

Aussie is still the smallest chicken in the coop, so she's easy to pick out.  

I'm still not sure which black ones are Jersey Giants or Australorps...they look the same to me.  A little bit of research will tell me the difference, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. 

Well...that took about 15 seconds.  The difference (besides adult size) is the foot color.  The Australorps have black feet; the Jersey Giants are gray.

You'll also notice in the picture that Aussie has jacked up toes.  I guess I should have been paying attention while she was younger so I could have corrected that.  But she gets around fine, so no worries. 



The turkens are still my favorites right now.  They look cool and seem to have the best temperment.  Not that any of them are mean or agressive (well, the roosters are all agressive, but not in a "I'm gonna cut you" kind of way).



Chickens like using power tools.



Mystery chick is still a mystery.  I'm going to post her picture on backyard chickens to see if someone can identify what she is.  I'll update y'all later with the results.

Random Jersey Giant rooster.  He was the calmest of all the chickens that got their pictures taken today.  I think he was looking for a hand out.  He got treats (meal worms and corn) when he was put back.  Gotta fatten him up for freezer camp in a few months.

And here they all are in their home in the basement.  Even with the cold weather it's been in the mid-30s in the room...and around 45-50 where the heat lamp is.  Once it warms up this week, I think I'm going to test them without the heat lamp at night. 

They Grow Up So Fast (part 2)

The chicks I hatched are four weeks old and the turkens are now six weeks old.  They are thriving and getting big (except Crooked Leg).

Mystery chick at four weeks.

Aussie at four weeks.
Still the smallest Australorp.

I've got them trained so whenever they see me, they start looking for food and treats.  They are even to the point where they let me pet them and/or pick them up.  Some are still skittish, but most aren't.

Red @ four weeks

Turkens @ six weeks

Random chick that though the

camera strap was something tasty.

Moving Day

The chicks are no longer living in the lower level of the house.  The new brooder and chickens moved to the sub-garage on Saturday (1/22).  They seemed to adapt pretty quickly after the initial shock of being shut into their plastic bins for the 90 second journey into the cold.

I was initially concerned about the temps down there.  They were used to 70 degree temps in the house.  It was a consistent 40 degrees with a heater running in the garage.

Brooder set up

I rigged up the heat lamp, moved the heater next to the brooder, and blocked in the corner of the brooder where the chicks will hang out to try to keep the heat in.  I checked on them every couple of hours over the weekend.  The temp at the ground level is around 55 degrees in their corner. They huddle together when they aren't roaming around and scratching for food, jumping up on the roosts, and doing other chicken things.

With the move, all the chickens are now living together.  It was interesting to note that the two turkens hang out together, and the other 12 hang out together.  The only real exception so far is Mystery Chick.  It goes and hangs out near the turkens from time to time.  The turkens like to hang out in the right corner, opposite the heat.  I'm not a chicken behaviorist so I'm not going to try to understand what's going on.   As long as everyone is eating, drinking and not pecking at each other, then it's all good.

New Birds

I think I may have started a new addiction.  But I promise I won't get to the point of hoarding (see episode 40).

Last Saturday (January 8), I acquired two new chickens.  They were 4

week old Turken (or Naked Neck) mutts.  The best guess from the message boards is they were crossed with Leghorns based on some of the other characteristics.  I don't know.  Maybe.  I just think they're kinda cool looking.  Keep reading to find out why I know they are mutts.

How does one find Naked Neck chickens in the middle of winter in Minnesota?  Craig's List.  I was doing a random search for coops/sheds/playhouses - something I can get relatively inexpensively to house the chickens once they outgrow their brooder and keep them safe

from predators/etc.  Instead of finding a home, I found new chickens. 

The guy (I'll call him the Random Russian) said he had a few of the breeds I would like to have in my flock - Turkens, Chantecler (because they are very cold hardy), and Brahmas (I think they are cool because of the feathered feet).
On a side note, I've decided the direction for my flock is going to go in a different direction.  At first I just wanted dual purpose chickens (both egg layers and good for meat) that were docile and good egg producers.  Now, I've decided I want cool looking chickens.  If I could have roosters, that would be much easier to accomplish, but with hens, they don't get the great coloring that the boys do. 

Back on topic....During the course of our e-mail exchanges, I asked if he had some Chanteclers, Turkens and Brahmas.  He said he had Turkens and Brahmas.  I thought, great.  Two more breeds I wanted to add to my growing flock.  He explained he'd have some Chanteclers in the spring.  I told him I'd be interested when they hatched out. 

After a few e-mail exchanges (which I am know discovering that the person I was dealing with did not use English as his first language), I told him I would like the Turkens and Brahmas.  He said he didn't have any Brahmas.  My bad, I thought, but I still decided to drive up to Blaine and pick up a couple of Turken chicks.  Before heading up there, I was trying to figure out how he kept chickens in Blaine.  Is there farm land?  I didn't think so, but what do I know

I enlisted a friend of mine to go with me on the trip to Blaine.    You never know with this Craig's List stuff who you may run into.  I had to promise her I would go out for cocktails the night before, so she stayed in the guest room so we'd be ready to go early. 

I readied a box with some pine shavings and we left on the 45 minute road trip at 8:15. I met the Random Russian at his home - which turned out to be just a regular house in the middle of a suburban sub-division - and he directed me to wait outside the garage.  Ah...now it is making sense.

He opened the garage door, we slid in - keeping an eye on the neighbors so we didn't look too shady.  In a corner of the garage was a pretty sweet set up for the chicks he was trying to sell.  It's what gave me the idea for my brooder.  Anyway, in the brooder are a bunch of chicks.  Right away I noticed one of the Turkens had feathery legs.  That's not right. 

Then it dawned on me that when he was telling me what breeds he had, the Brahma was a rooster only.  This lead me to the conclusion that all his chickens were actually mutts.  The Random Russian confirmed this over a couple of exchanges about how he kept his flock - the boys/girls all roamed together - he didn't keep his breeds separate.  No big deal.  The chicks were still pretty cool looking.  

Now I'm up to 14 chickens.  Based on the size of the combs on some of them, I think I have five boys in my original batch(es).  I'll know more in a couple of weeks as more feathers come in and I can post pictures on the message boards to get help from the experts.

To help feed my new addiction, I will be going to a chicken swap in New Ulm in a few weeks to see if anyone has any of the other breeds I'm looking to get.  In addition to the Brahmas or Chateclers, I'd like to get Wyandottes (preferably Blue Laced Red), Black Copper Marans (they aren't very cold hardy, but if someone local has them, then I can ask questions about their line), or Ameraucanas (they aren't particularly neat looking, but produce colored eggs) or their crosses.  Ameraucanas produce blue eggs, but crosses - called Easter Eggers - do produce blue and green shades.  I also like Plymouth Rock (the Barred variety) and Opringtons (the buff one).

New Brooder

Trying to escape.

The chickens are outgrowing the plastic bins much faster than I expected.   The little chicks were starting to use their new wing feathers and jumping off the food tray and whatnot. 

Because I didn't have a good lid on the brooders, one of the chicks got free.  Not a big deal, really, except I didn't notice until I was letting the dogs into the "chicken room" to let them outside.  All of a sudden, there's a little chick freaking out with the dogs hovering over it. 

I was able to corral the dogs outside and get the chick back to the relative safety of its home.  Not without taking a picture first, of course.  The next day, the same thing happened again.  Not sure if it was the same chick, but for now the bins have a baby gate sitting on top of them.

The new chickens were probably feeling cramped from the get-go.

Also, there is an odor issue cropping up.  Yes, chickens can smell, but I had just changed the shavings on Monday (Jan 10) and already had to do it again on Saturday (Jan 15) for the group of 12.

My theory is it is the dogs. Or at least one dog in particular that is not helping things out.  The dogs (i.e. Kenny) keeps jumping up at the table - he really wants to get to the chickens.  But since he's small, he only end up bumping the table and spilling the water over into pine shavings.  Because of this, the shavings get very wet, very fast and therefore are not able to absorb the chicken poo as well as they should.

All that said, it is time to move the chickens out of the living quarters.  A new brooder was built.  It is 4' x 4' x 30".   If I only had four chickens, this would be a big enough home for them permanently.  Since I have more, it will be a temporary home until the permanent coop is built this spring.

Before I can move the chickens in, I still need to build a food/water platform after work tonight and fashion a couple of roosts.  (I would have finished yesterday, but the battery in the circular saw ran out of juice).  Pictures will be posted once the final product is complete.

New Feathers



Red feathering out nicely.

I'm constantly amazed at the rapid growth/maturity of the chicks.  Wing feathers are almost completely in.  Shoulder and tail feathers are starting to come in on most of them, too.  I swear every morning they are bigger.  And when I get home from work, they have more feathers than they did 12 hours before.

Aussie is still pretty small,
but feathering nicely, too.






Red spreading his wings and learning to fly.

Now, With 50% More Chickens

I was reading message board posts over the New Year's holiday weekend and found someone locally who hatched some chicks that she wasn't expecting.  Apparently, the person she bought her eggs from mixed up two different flavors in the batch.  She ended up getting some Australorp chicks to hatch that she didn't want.  She ended up having four chicks that were hatched on 12/27-28 - so they were roughly the same age as my chicks. 

I sent her a private message and told her I would take them off her hands if she didn't want to keep them. After trading a few messages, we agreed to meet (roughly) half way between where we lived - in Pine Island, MN at the Kwik Trip on Monday since I had taken an extra day off for the holiday.

I underestimated how long it would take me to get there and was 5 minutes late.  She was cool about it, and was waiting there with her daughter. 

We exchanged pleasantries in the parking lot and she handed me a chirping shoe box.  I opened the lid to see the four chicks just kinda hanging out.  They seemed content and looked healthy.

After our exchange, we said good bye to each other and I told her if she gets any more Australorp chicks with her next batch of eggs, I may want to take them from her. 

Now, Pine Island is a small town.  I think there was one stop sign in the city that I noticed.  Looking at the map, I wasn't exactly sure how to get out of town - I didn't think the exit off the highway that I took to get to town had a return going back north.  But there was a definite exit another 1/2 mile down the road.  I was going to take that out of town. 

The lady I got the chicks from pulled out of the parking lot first.  Then I pulled out going in the same direction (south) instead of heading back north.  I figured since they were from east of Rochester, I would follow them back to the highway.  Short of that, I would look for the sign that would point me back to the highway. 

They were driving down Main Street, and I saw a sign for county road 11 - which I thought was the exit from the highway.  And was the street the Kwik Trip was on. But they continued on down the road.  I drove through the downtown area of Pine Island - very cute little town - following the lady.   After about a mile, and the road curved away from the highway, and I'm sure she thought I was now a stalker and was going to follow her back to her home. To avoid police intervention, I realized I had to turn around and go back the way I came. 

So after a five minute detour, I was on my way back home.  No police in the rear view on the way home.  Just snow and fog.

I got home and introduced the chicks to my existing flock. 

All 12 huddled in a corner

After a few minutes of the Rhode Island Red pecking at a couple of them, the new chicks were accepted and have fully integrated with the others.  I now have 12 chickens brooding in the basement. 

They Grow Up So Fast

 Crooked Neck is doing quite well.  I probably shouldn't spell that with 

Crooked Neck looking crooked - day 4.

capital letters - it makes it seem like it is its name.  Not a good thing if it turns into a boy.  Anywho, Crooked Neck's neck isn't that rooked any more.  I didn't do anything for him except massage his neck a couple times a day when it was crooked.  I've seen it eating and drinking on its own.  It is still kind of wobbly when walking around, but I don't think I'll have to cull it after all since I'm not raising the chickens for breed perfection.

 

All the others seems to also be doing well.  

Mystery, Austrolorp (not Aussie), and Jersey Giant
(not Crooked Neck). 
Mystery looks (comparatively) huge.

Aussie the Australorp (again, nicknames are just as bad as real names) - it is the one that was shrink wrapped - is also doing much better.  He's all fluffed out now - mostly-  he has a bald patch on his back, so hopefully that'll feather in soon.  I think I can now tell the difference between the Jersey Giants and the Astralorp chicks. The Jersey Giants (which Crooked Neck is one of) are all a little bigger - which makes sense.  The color pattern is slightly different, too.


Aussie (on left) and Mystery chick. 
Day 5



Rhode Island Red chick - day 4.





Crooked Neck eating (3rd one)



Dogs Like Chicken, Too

But not in a good way.



What's up there?  Betty and Kenny smell chicken.



Ever since the chicks hatched, the dogs have been very interested in what is going on in the corner of the basement.  Any time the chicks make noise, the dogs' ears prick up and they feel the need to go investigate (or at least bark if they are being lazy).



My original intention was to leave the brooder on the floor with a lid on it.  I knew the dogs would be curious, but they (and by "they", I mean Kenny) turned out to be a bit crazed.  I think he only sees little snacks.

Because of that, I put the brooder up on a card table.  The heat light is not really set up ideally - I hope the pop cans don't fail me and I get BBQd chicks - but is doing the trick until I can set something up more permanently.



All the dogs milling about.

I'm hoping as the chicks get older, I can start to introduce them to the dogs so they don't see them as food but as just a curiosity.  I would like to have both the chickens and the dogs free ranging in the yard in spring/summer, but time will tell if this can happen. 



Chicks Are Here

That was a long weekend.  Day 21 was on Friday.  After not having any eggs hatch on Friday, I was sure I wasn't going to get any.  I got my first two to hatch on Saturday.  The next five hatched on Sunday.  The last one hatched today (Monday).  Long story short, of the 36 eggs, nine hatched, two died while trying to get out, and one that hatched has since died.  For those that don't want to do the math, I have eight chicks hanging out in the brooder.  One of the eight has what looks like "crooked neck".  It's not as bad as the one in the link, but it gives you an idea of what I am experiencing.  I'm going to give her/him a couple of days to see if it eats/drinks on its own.



First egg with a pip.  The one to the right has one, too.


  

Which one will hatch first?

The first one to hatch was the one on the right.  It had cleanly "zipped" itself.  It was one of my mystery eggs, so I don't even know what kind of chick I got.  In the last pic, its the all yellow one.  Based on some pics in the chicken hatchery catalogs, it is probably a production layer chicken like a Golden Comet.



That was a long day.  Time for a bit of a nap

The one on the left is one of the Australorps.  He ended up "shrink wrapped" in the shell.  This means the membrane around the chicken dried out (low humidity - my fault) and it got stuck.  It eventually made its way out, but ended up all matted and gross looking.  In the days since then, he has fluffed out and is looking much better, but is still kind of small.   Here he is fresh from the egg.

Here's a series of pics that shows the final steps of the hatching process.  This is the Rhode Island Red.

It's all crowded up in here.

One more push



Free at last.



Here's the last one that hatched.  This is one of the Jersey Giants.

December 27, 2010 - 1-2 day old chicks

And here they all are a few hours later in the brooder.  The little yellow one in the foreground is the one that died.