Randy's Chicken Blog

First Egg!

I found this pretty little brown egg in a nest box today. Pretty sure it belongs to Arlene Barred Rock - she's been showing a lot of interest in the nest boxes lately. Yay, Arlene!

Here’s a recent shot of Emile, the dandy little birchen Cochin roo! Emile has become my bud since I nursed him back to health from his bout with sour crop. All of the handling has made him less shy & he's quite happy to eat grain out of my hand now. He crows at sunrise, just like roosters should & sometimes at other random times of the day when he gets confused.

I was clueless as far as what was wrong with him when he first got sick. I just noticed that one morning, he didn't crow, or do much of anything and just sort of stood around with a droopy head. I wondered at first about coccidiosis, which is something all chickens get at some point, or some other infectious agent, which would have probably meant that the whole flock would get sick. I finally hit on the idea that he might have sour crop, and sure enough, when I tipped him over, nasty stuff ran out of his beak just like I was pouring cream out of a pitcher. With the help of a neighbor, who is a vet, I’ve managed to get this little guy back to good health!

Mary Tries to Break Out of the Big House!

So now the chickens have this cool new coop and also a great chicken run so they can be outdoors. I have not yet put any sort of roof on the outdoor run yet and that needs to happen so I can be sure I’m keeping predators out. Another reason for fencing the top of the run was that I discovered Mary the Campine roosting on top of the six foot high fence on a couple different occasions. Unlike the chickens in the movie "Chicken Run" she fortunately didn't realize that once she was on top of the fence she could escape into the wild blue yonder. Mary really can fly REALLY HIGH!

Last night I discovered the two foot gap between the eight foot high (8 FEET!) walls of the coop and the ten foot ceiling are also going to be a problem, again thanks to Mary. When I built the walls I figured no chicken could fly eight feet in the air, right? Wrongo! As the chickens were starting to roost for the night, Mary decided it would be nice to roost on top of the walls of the coop. There she was, sitting eight feet in the air and pleased as punch.

To scare Mary back in the coop, I picked up a shovel and frantically waved it in front of her. That mostly confused her. Next plan: I prodded her with the shovel. That prompted her to hop ONTO the shovel. So then I was standing there holding a shovel in the air with a chicken perched on the top. I tried waving and turning the shovel to get her back on top of the wall, but amazingly she bravely hung on. Too bad there was no video of this because I'm sure it looked very much like a trained chicken act. Finally, I lowered the shovel and made a grab for her. That's when she flew off into the shadows of the greater part of the pole barn. Keep in mind there are still piles of coop construction material, tools, & other rubble - so catching a chicken in that mess was definitely an athletic endeavor. Long story short, I finally nabbed her, and as she and all the other chickens swore loudly at me, I chucked her back into the coop. Next project: Fencing in the two foot gap between the coop walls and the ceiling.

Mary the Campine with her friend Mary the Campine (Yup - They're Both Mary!)

Moving to the New Coop

The new coop was ready for chickens and the day arrived for moving the flock from the woodshed, where they’d spent their whole lives to this strange new place.

I put all the chicken equipment in the truck late in the afternoon & moved it to the new coop. We didn't move the chickens until after it was dark—sleeping chickens are calmer chickens.

I nabbed them one by one from their roost and put them in a cat carrier--they got transported three or four at a time. We decided a cat carrier would work better than hand-carrying them individually since it would hopefully keep them from freaking out or escaping. Still they weren’t happy birds. Here Sam and Charlie ask, "What are you DOING to us???"

First trip to the new coop - Paul is the first one out.

Rhoda jumps into her new home

First batch: Confused & frightened.

Eventually there were more in the new coop than the old coop. Frightened chickens at both ends - in the new coop they huddled together in one spot & didn't move from that spot.

Finally they started to explore & discovered their huge new roost.

Amazingly, not only did Paul manage to get on the roost, he managed to flap his little frizzled wings hard enough to get to the very top. Even Courtney managed to roost - though in her case, getting on the roost was more a matter of some heavy-duty jumping rather than flying. When they had all settled down, I turned off the lights—that caused about fifteen minute’s worth of really forlorn clucks and peeps, but they eventually went to sleep.

The next morning I threw open the door to their new run. They all cautiously went out except for Jennifer who could not figure out that the giant hole in the wall was a door. It took major vocal encouragement and arm flapping from me to finally coax her outside.

They love the new run—fresh dirt to scratch in! This is more fun than an amusement park on the 4^th of July!!

More Coop Progress!

I just finished building this people-sized door into the coop, next to the chicken-sized pop door. They will both open into the yet-to-be-built chicken run. I made the door out of 100-year-old tongue and groove pine boards that I rescued from an old grain bin on the farm I grew up on.

A view of the door from inside the coop.

Bailey inspects coop construction progress. The roost and the nest boxes are done - I recycled old cat litter containers for the nest boxes.

I've been enduring mosquitoes the size of birds and August heat and humidity to reassemble this prefab dog kennel into a chicken run fence. It is slow going due to the need for frequent ice cream breaks. It still needs a top, plus I need to bury some fencing around the perimeter to keep predators from tunneling underneath, but I will hopefully be done enough to move the chickens from their temporary quarters in the next week or so.

Self Sufficiency

Foreground: Garden. Background: Chickens

Going Outside

A fine July day. I decide that it's time to slide the screen door open and let chicks venture out into the great world of the chick run. Drama ensues!