New Waterer & Mystery Eggs

Nipple Waterer

Outside the snow keeps coming down and the new coop has seemed to have been keeping them warm enough. I recently got a new waterer.  I noticed that my tub would be getting quite dirty and decided to try out the nipple watering system.  I find that it works great my birds water needs seem to be met and I believe that it is much healthier for them to drink.  I also noticed that it keeps there bedding much dry which is also something I enjoy about them.

Here is a of pictures of two  "Mystery eggs"...

Right: Egg with a Whole in it
Left: Egg smaller than golf ball

Lesson Learned

Winter as come with some different challenges.  In the first days of freezing temperatures my large 3 gallon waterer froze. being the confident person I has I went our there with a hammer and a chisels and started banging away.  I soon found that was not as wise idea because I had rendered my waterer useless with a nice hole right in the bottom of it.  Now I was down to One waterer left, I went out there the next morning and no surprise it was frozen too!  I boiled a small pot of water and thawed out the edges of the water, but the inside was still frozen.  I was determined to get it off, the only thing that came off was the the handle.  There I was left with my only two waters BROKEN.

So, to all you beginners be sure to bring there water in at night or thaw it in hot water completly, trust me.   

Chicken Feed

Feed with mixed in scratch

Over the summer my chickens diet changed. Before I was buying store bought non-organic chicken feed.  Now I have found a much better diet.  I now get my feed from a local business that just started up.  They provide organic locally grown and locally milled feed.  To me There are multiple plus to this. First of all I encourage entrepreneurs and support local businesses.  I would rather support a small local business than a large corporate business.  I also know my feed was grown right in my area and was not made from some field half way across the country.  Another plus is that the feed is actually cheaper by a good margin.   

Daily Egg Count: 8

Where Have I Been? Summary

To answer that question I really don't know, I just took a break for no reason at all.  I had school starting up and actually just forgot about writing my next post. With that said many things have Happened, so here is a brief summary of every thing since about the end of June.

Over the Summer I decided that my chickens would much rather enjoy fresh grass every day, ideal wander around free, but my next alternative was to build them a chicken tractor and that is just what I did.  I moved them around the edge of our property and they loved it.  Also unsurprisingly the grass came back even greener.  Over the summer the tractor, which is 6ft. by 12ft., gave them enough room to scratch and peck as well as providing protection from the elements. P.S. The other main reason for the tractor was because I got more chickens than I thought I was originally going to get so the coop did not have enough room for all 8. *Pictures will be on my pictures page.

The next major event was, of coarse winter and lower temperatures.  My original plan was to use the chicken tractor and put it on top of some hay bales.  I tried that but there were just to many cracks in between the bales and snow would have eventually blown in.  So I started on project: Winter Home. You can see it in the pictures page, but it is and 8ft. long, 4ft. wide and 3 ft. tall coop.  It has a tin roof and one end is covered with plexi glass to protect from the westward winds. I also lined it with straw bales to insulate it. There is also a temporary run so than they can get some exercise.  On one end there is the nesting boxes made with some 5 gallon buckets, and on the other end with plexi glass over the door there are hangers for the feeder and water, you can also see in the picture the two roost in the middle.

Egg production has been keeping up very nicely.  Due to there new shelter I am still getting 7 eggs a day.  I have also noticed that there is more demand  than supply for my eggs. Multiple people want them and I feel bad if I have to turn people down.  All this means is that I will probably getting more chickens this early spring.

Hope you all are still checking in and I probably will try to get a post in every week.

Their First Dozen!

I am still here, I just have not found myself getting around to writing a post.  With that said, today the hens have laid there first dozen of pullet eggs!!  The first egg was laid last Thursday and they have been giving about two eggs a day. Yesterday they turned 18 weeks old, so the others could start to lay in the next couple weeks, except for two of them because they are a week younger than the rest.

They have laid their eggs any where from 10:00 a.m. to around 4:00 p.m. in the after noon, I think that they will start to all lay in the morning once they get in schedule and laying regularly.  One question I had though was if the hens needed to be shut off from there nesting boxes during the night time, because most of the nesting boxes for sale have that feature and I wondered if it was that serious of an issue?

Picture will come soon!!

Repairs and Rain!

In the last couple of days I have been fixing some problems on the coop.  The number one problem was those nest boxes that were still leaking through the top.  I found some old vinyl floor tile and cut it in to strips to place along the edge, so the water would drip off, which I think will do the trick.  I also put a door seal along the top of the nesting boxes where it hinges up.  With these improvements I am hoping there will be dry nesting boxes! (Today is the real test). Some other repairs or I guess additions would be the two roosts.  I really wanted to add them and now I finally did! I really think they like to roost instead of being floor raised, and plus that is the natural way they sleep.

I actually just came in from putting the chickens in after buckets of rain started to come form the clouds.  I do not understand why they will no go in the coop when it starts to rain all they are doing is getting soaked! I did take the topper away form the edge of the fence because it was going to get to stink if I did not. Speaking of smell I recently read somewhere that the Dumor chicken feed makes their manure smell worse, any thoughts or is this just a myth.  

One thing that I also need to get a start on is some kind of feed cover because the last time it rained I was not able to get to the feed in time and it ended me up with some mush.  I am not sure if it is a good idea to dry that feed and reuse it or should it just go to the trash right away?  My idea to cover the feed is to make a little shelter for it so that it can hang underneath (this is just a vision so if I ever finish one I will be sure to write a post about it). 

Butchering Chickens

     So my grandparents came down last weekend, and they are the same ones that have the farm.  My Grandma especially has much experience butchering chickens. Yes, I have done it before but it was awhile ago so my brother and I could have used a little refresher.  All went well and we did actually weight them. We had 5 total; at undressed weight the 3 roosters averaged about 9 pounds, which we called them small turkeys.  The 2 hens at undressed weight were around 6 pounds. Yes, all were a little big and could have been butchery a little sooner, but at least I know one thing is that the two hens tasted delicious.
     The affects of not having the five large Cornish-Cross's as been noticeable and it has only been one week.  The eight Isa Browns do not eat nearly as much as the Cornish-Cross, as of course they are a much slower growing chicken (But from what I hear they are wonderful at laying eggs!). They are just shy of  11 weeks old which they will be on Tuesday.  By my calculations we should get our first pullets eggs in around 10 weeks; give or take.

Composting

With 13 chickens comes....well....the waste of 13 animals.  Where does the waste go you ask?
A compost pile is our choice. What happens is I spread some fresh grass clippings around the pin.  The chickens mat the clippings down and pick through them.  Then in a week or two I rake them all up and send them to the compost bin.  There are many positives to this system like reducing smell (especially if you have nearby neighbors); this method also helps to keep your chickens living space sanitary and clean.

Now at the compost bin arrives some fresh clipping and manure.  Other things such as extra clippings and leaves are also added.  Over the summer the pile slowly goes down.  To help speed up the process sometimes we add about a cup of fertilizer and wet it.  It is also mandatory to stir the pile to give it access to clean air. After we have made some fresh compost it heads to the garden.

   

Check Out Pictures Tab

I finally got the pictures up they are on the pictures tab at the top.

New Home

     Four days ago the chickens got to experience their new home.  I think that they quite enjoyed it.  At first they would not even come out of their coop, as expected because it is a new place.  Now in the morning I open the door and it is a race to see who can get out first, and at night I go out and they are waiting for me all inside. At this size they all fit comfortably in the coop but as they get bigger the Cornish cross will be moved to the toper at night, until they are butchered.  Speaking of the toper it provides a wonderful shelter to where they can be when it rains, like the past few days.  That is also where we keep the feeder so that the feed does not get wet.   

    With the chickens in the pin I had to finish up the fence.  There were four main things I had to do.  First I covered up underneath the coop with chicken wire so that nothing could get in or out. Second I put a piece of fence between the coop and the shed. Third I had to dig post holes for the 4x4's that hung the gate.  Then I hung the gate, I did take out a preexisting steel fence post and stapled the fence right to the 4x4.  Fourth of all before I hung the gate I sealed it with an outdoor sealer.

My Computer is not cooperating with my camera so I  will try but not guarantee to post some pictures! And Happy Mothers Day.