Dove aka Peace

Newsflash

Yay!!!! Another one of the chickens is laying eggs. In fact, Peace aka Dove is the first of the juniors to start dropping eggs. Bravo for you.

Look at the beautiful speckles. A little galaxy

Eggciting and Not So Eggciting News

More Eggs

One More Hen Starts Laying!!!!

These are the eggs from Milky Way and Cole. Now all four of the older girls are laying.








And we have some white eggs to add a little color to things.

This morning as I was doing office work early in the pre-dawn morning, I heard what I thought was a rooster.

How could they be? And then I heard it again and it was unmistakable. It was definitely a rooster crowing. Now the question was who could it be?

Oh No, Not You Ostrich

Ostrich is pretty special to me. She, I mean he was born from an egg in our incubator. The night before as I flipped through one of our poultry books, I came across the Naked Neck Turkey, AKA Turken. I couldn't believe how ugly this particular breed was. The next morning little Ostrich broke through his shell and hatched. I couldn't believe our misfortune. But then the little guy grew on me and when it came time to choose which few birds we would keep, Ostrich had worked her way into my heart. So we kept her/him. So when I opened the coup and Ostrich looked at me and then led out a hearty crow. It made me sad.

Fortunately, we have found a lovely rescue that took our other 2 roosters and offered to take Ostrich as well. So at least I know he will go to nice place where he crow as much as he likes. We decided to do one last photo shoot to catch his odd but definite beauty.

Strike a Pose

One tall and proud bird.

I am who I am

Walking the walk



Goodbye Ostrich We Love You!!!!

More Eggcellent Adventures

An Eggsperiment

The other day I thought we'd do a little test and check if you could actually see the difference between home-grown eggs, farmer's market eggs, and "organic, free-range" eggs from Whole Foods. I wanted to get your real "regular" type eggs, but we were already up to our eyeballs in the little orbs so, we ended up with 3 different egg types.



Egg on the left, the one with a really deep orange hue-one from our girls in the back. The other two are the "free-range, organic" and pretty much identical.

Milky Way is Adding to the Egg Count

Milky Way, who is now the biggest bird in the flock, although Oreo still puts her in her place, to keep the pecking order in tact, is finally laying. And we realized again that there is a learning curve to everything, including laying eggs.




A little one, then a really weird, elongated one, and then a couple that seem just about perfect.




But crack them open and you realize, there's more going on in them eggs than we thought. Each and everyone of them had double yolks, which Skye thinks is absolutely awesome because she doesn't like the whites so much. A little weird though.




Eggs of all shapes and sizes. 3 down 6 left to lay. Things are gonna get interesting.

America's Next Top Co...I Mean Rooster

BFF
Oh, the times we had.

Mari-ain't

Well it turns out, that one of the few "keepers" Marianne, is a rooster. The other morning while Cindy and I were getting ready for the Ecology class that I teach/host, we heard a noise. Looking over at our cat, "Cici are you ok?"

Then we heard the noise again, definitely not coming from Cici. We went into the garage where our "little" chicks have become not so little chickens practically overnight and were greeted with the unmistakable sound of a little rooster growing. The sound was coming from a little black cock that I had been having my suspicions about.(Please do not take that last sentence out of context).

Feeling a little "cocky"

Not to be outdone, Marianne, the beautiful Americana(I think) who was going to lay us some beautiful green eggs, craned her neck and HE let out a crow, not a cluck, a throaty albeit immature crow.




Back when he was a she.

So much for my "don't ask, don't tell policy". So now we are in a rush to find homes for these lost boys.



A lot less like a fashion shoot under these new circumstances...more like a mug shoot or for an FBI most wanted poster.

Not Wanted

Dead or Alive

Reward $0

Chicken Condo Upgrade

The Chicken Condo


As the girls are getting bigger their needs have been changing as well. for instance they no longer need a heat lamp. They no longer need ramps to get from one side to another. They do now, however need a roof.




Pre-roof they all wanted to roost as high up as they could.





And invariably chicks went exploring, which lead to them leaving a trail of unprocessed fertilizer behind.




The Myrtle the Turtle complex

Dr. Suess had it dead on that not only humans in penthouses but turtles and apparently chickens will go to great lengths to be higher than everyone else. Note the bird tangled up in netting as she tries to regain access to the roof perch.




I added this high perch. Very popular indeed, in fact there is absolutely no space left.




So here we have improved security. They found many ways out prior to my adding a "door". So far so good, the chicks have not escaped to this point.




A new roof, a new door, and a new perch. For us to do the same in our house it would cost thousands of dollars. Here, little more than time, which is still a lot.



The biggest change though is with the chicks. They do grow up so fast.

America's Next Top Chick(en)

Inspired by the finale of America's Next Top Model, Skye and I arranged a photo shoot for the one-day old chicks that arrived in the mail April 12 from McMurray Hatchery, are now 6 weeks old, and have grown from tiny fuzzy little chickies to the equivalent of chicken teenagers and they are ready to leave the nest as it were. We can only keep a couple of them and even that will be pushing the limits of our hen capacity.

We are unsure as to the breed of the different chicks, they came in a "Rainbow Layers"* mixed special and the 5 and the "bonus" chick are from their "Rarest of the Rare"*2 selection. So if you have an idea what kind of chicken is pictured, please add that in the comments, or e-mail me, lokano7@aol.com.


With that let me present you with the Chicks:








This lovely girl we believe to be a Blue Andalusian. One of the four older chickens we have is a Blue Andalusian, so this one will be looking for a new home.






This is the one bird that we are certain of the breed, a Naked Neck chicken, however because she came from our incubator one of the 5 hatch-lings, we are unsure whether it is hen or rooster. Her name is Ostrich, which fortunately works out either way.



You must be.....?







This is Senor Egghead , one of our hatchlings. All of the hatchlings are around a week younger than the one-day old chick group.



It is hard to see her pattern from this angle




I am guessing a Buff Orpington, like our own sweet girl Blondie, who has been laying an egg a day rather consistently for a while now and is a very lovely chick indeed.




Ms. Blackberry, So many possibilities....




We have a couple of these very pretty girls




This I believe is an Americana, the type that lays the green/blue eggs. She is one of the "keepers", unless of course Marianne, turns out to be Mr. Marianne. Then its quite another story.




"I'm a girl, I promise!!!!"

What are the Odds?

Will they grow up be beer-can chickens? That's what Skye refers to chicks that are roosters and who might feed us not with eggs but....

Most of them are hens, only six of them could be roosters, but we don't know which six. You see we ordered 25 day old female chicks to which they gave a bonus "straight-run" chick, meaning 1 that they didn't determine the sex. You pay more for hens so their bonus really just confused things. Then there were 5 that hatched out of the incubator, so those 5 could be either hens or roosters. At least we know which 5 those are, at least we used to, I am a little unclear on that now, but Skye seems to be quite sure.



Hanging out with Marianne before the shoot.

Rainbow Layers, as put by McMurray Hatchery, "If you aren't set on a particular breed, here is your chance to get a variety of layers that all lay well. Chickens which lay white, tinted, and brown eggs will be supplied in this beautiful assortment. At least 5 different varieties of our choice are included in Rainbow Layers from these groups of chicks: White Egg Layers, Heavy Breeds, Araucanas, and Rare and Unusual Varieties. We cannot guarantee that breeds from all groups will be included. If you're looking for good layers and want a discount price, our Rainbow Layers will fit the bill."

Rarest of the Rare- "This is a truly deluxe collection of the rarest, most beautiful and exotic birds. Have you ever seen any of these: Sumatras, Dominiques, Golden Laced and Silver Penciled Wyandottes, Silver, Golden, Buff Laced, and White Polish, Golden Campines, Golden Penciled Hamburgs, Silver Penciled Rocks, Partridge, Black, Buff, Blue, & Silver Laced and White Cochins, Araucanas, Dark and Buff Brahmas, Phoenix, Fayoumis, Salmon Faverolles, W. L. Red Cornish, Lakenvelders, Black and White Langshans, Red Caps, Silver Leghorns, Crevecoeurs, Silver Gray Dorkings, Modern BB Red Games, Sultans, Buttercups, & Spanish? These exotic, beautiful varieties are found only in your larger poultry shows and are extremely rare. Each order of Rarest of the Rare Assortment will include straight run chicks of at least 10 different varieties from the breeds listed above. We cannot guarantee to include or omit specific breeds from the above list. If you must have only certain varieties, please order the exact variety, sex, and number of each you want."

So as you can see there are an enormous number of possibilities and I am by no means a poultry expert, but it seems that I am heading in that direction.

Two Eggcellent Chickens

We found out which chicken was the one who started giving us fresh eggs. It was our Barred Plymouth Rock hen, Oreo.

Then yesterday after we got back from our mycological misadventure, Skye found a light bluish egg under the rosemary bush near the chicken coup. That color would signify that Mary, our Ameraucana hen had started laying as well.



Skye finding more eggs. Both Mary and Oreo have started laying an egg a day. The first bird we bought, Blondie has yet to lay. Still though we're looking at a dozen eggs a week. This is sooo
cool.



Aren't they just picture perfect.?

Our First Eggs!!!!

We've had our chickens for a while now. And they have been a bunch of fun and getting bigger and stronger and wackier as time goes by. However, while they have shown me how much chickens can eat and what a varied diet they have,( devouring left overs, table scraps and pretty much anything we toss out to them, true-green garbage disposals,) they have not done any producing, save the goodly amount of "fertilizer" they s--t out.

I know that they produce less in winter months, sometimes stopping completely, so I was ready to wait until spring, before deeming them non-egg makers, which will pretty much make them a fryer, although I don't know if that is an option due to Skye.

But then out of the blue, and maybe because it was the first long sunny day after a bunch of rain, I found an egg in each nesting box.



I think they are from the same bird, but can't be sure.
Both were cracked because I had taken the straw out and added it to the rest of the straw in the coup to keep them a bit warmer because of the recent extra chilly evenings.




Now for sure none of these birds will be for meat. Saved by the bell or the egg rather.





The yolks are an amazing deep yellow practically orange and oh so delicious.




They did manage to find a way out and then ravaged a few planters that I had recently added a couple of little plants to. Oh well. A small sacrifice I suppose.

So this weekend will be full of chicken coup cleaning, adjustments, roof and ramp building and escape-proofing. Also will be making more panels to protect the vegetable beds and making some electric heated germination beds.

It'll be an agri-structure President's weekend for sure.

A bird in the hand is worth three in the coup

This morning my post on Facebook read;

"made jambalaya last night. Between the table scraps from prep and what was scraped off the plates after, my chickens and red wigglers are becoming quite accustomed to good eats."

Apparently a hawk or falcon, don't know which was also on Facebook, cause just a bit after I posted, Skye and I hear the chickens squawking.

I send her down to check and....

"Emergency......There's a hawk in the chicken area!!!!"




A beautiful raptor but how was I to get him/her out. I was more than a little nervous about grabbing him with these crazy talons, not to mention the sharp beak.



Not looking happy or co-operative.



At this point the little guy was pretty tired from flaying about trying to escape.




I asked Skye to get a picture of me and the hawk.

I was hoping for a shot that was a bitter wider, like maybe my face. Skye assured me that because you could see the solar panels in the background, you'd know it was our house, and who else would be holding a hawk in our back yard?

Good point?



I only have eyes for you.