corrEGGtion

We discovered that the hens have not really slowed egg laying production, but that they have just changed location.  They seem to be happier laying in "wild nests" that they make elsewhere on the property.  I am not sure why that is and have completely cleaned out the coop to see if any mice, snakes,,,,,,where hiding in there or if the place was just not welcoming to them.  I think they are just outdoorsy kind of girls and like doing things their own way.  So now I follow them around a bit and do an egg hunt occasionally if it seems that we are missing some of the eggs.  Kind of like having easter egg hunts every day!

The chickens are a never ending source of entertainment.

The Hens

Something like 440 eggs to date from the 6 hens we have living with us.  They started laying in August(?), ya, I think it was August.  For a few weeks it was an egg or two a day and a few malformed at that.  Then about 2 weeks after the first egg arrived we were getting a good 5 or 6 a day.  Just this last week the laying rate has slowed.  I attribute this to the shortness of the day and the cold setting in.

The Brown leg horns were the most inconsistent, and the last to start laying, but they are the ones still laying now. The Red sex link were the first to lay and the most consistent, but were the first to stop laying.  The Tetra's are still laying, but miss every so often.

Having the 3 pairs of hens makes it easy to keep track of who's doing what, it makes it pretty easy to keep a count while working out in the yard and being aware of predators.

We have had our share of predators around.  Hawks sometimes circle but the "girls" take to the wineberry bushes and the dog keeps watch.  One day I caught a Fox about 10 feet from one of the girls, and chased him into the woods.  That was months ago and we haven's seen him since.

We have been feeding them a cup of organic grain/feed in the morning and again in the evening.  They usually finish this, although sometimes they leave a bit in the evening.  During the day the birds are truly free range and can roam as far as they want to.  On occasion I have gone out and herded them back closer to the house but only when I was concerned for their welfare.  They do tend to find thickets to hang out in during the day, especially when it was hot out.  I often just leave the dog out to sit up on the hill and keep watch.  Reminds me of the old Looney Tunes cartoon with the sheep dog and the coyote.

The girls have gotten to know my call to them and come running when I go out and call them.  I do this at mid day when I bring them a snack, usually of corn on the cob, in season, and now dried corn from the summer mixed with sunflower seeds and ground cherries, apple cores.....During the summer when there is plenty for them to forage, I give them less, but now there is not much out there and they need the energy to keep warm, so I give them a bit more.

With the cost of the feed we are spending under five cents and egg, or were when laying was more regular.  Maybe with the winter laying being less we might safely average about spending twice that.  Still ten cents an egg is pretty good in my figuring.

I'd love to get them to eat some of the sun chokes that grow here in large amounts.  Those and the ground cherries grow here like weeds so to get them to feed the hens would be wonderful.  I might try making a mash out of them and see how they like it.

eating our yard

After a morning of painting, and chicken coop improvements we put together and then ate a great lunch that was mostly from our own yard.

Tomato sanwhich
fried potatoes
corn on the cob
sauteed kale, red pepper,onion and Chanterelle mushrooms

 The Kale is from the front yard
The Chanterelle mushrooms from the woods behind the house
We have potato & tomato plants growing in many different places.
Onions grow next to the kitchen
Peppers grow down in front.  So does the corn & cucumbers

Kale and Chanterelles.

For desert there is fresh fruit from the farm, peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, canary melon, nectarines, & plums.
Because of the limited sun we get here our peaches and apples are still a ways from being ready to eat.  Most of our vegetables take as much as 4 weeks longer to ripen than the local farms.
After finding out that I am a vegetarian (who tends toward being vegan) people have asked me, "What do you eat?"  Really?  There is so much to be eaten and enjoyed.  For dinner it was burritos with beans and rice and squash and peppers in a tomato and onion sauce topped with fresh scallions and cilantro.  Really?  what do I eat?  I eat lots, and enjoy it all.

Le deuxieme oeuf

I almost missed it!  Thinking about it, it is pretty easy to tell when a hen is about to lay.  Just like any mother to be she is a bit agitated and she settles into her laying box.  I am very happy that she is using the nesting boxes.  So far one egg at one end of the coop and the second on the opposite side.

The second egg!

It is all very strange.  I still don't like the idea of taking their offspring but I also don't know any of the eggs to be fertile, even though we think Chestnut to be a rooster.

The eggs are small, about 2/3 the size of the eggs we get from our local farm.

double gates yet to be painted.

I built the gates day before yesterday and got the hinges put on yesterday.  I am pleased with the result.  Hope to paint later today.  Funny that the chickens can actually fit thru the balustrades but choose not to.

August brings!?? Egg.

This morning Betty was staying in the coup when all the rest of the girls were out foraging, as usual.  When I went to find out how she was, I saw that she was scratching around in the nest boxes and in the last box was this little brown egg.

The chickens have become hens
well, at least one of them has.
Our first egg.

In truth, I myself am not that interested in eating the eggs.  I have become less inclined to eat any kind of animal food over the years.  Eggs, if there is no rooster around to fertilize them, are not going to become animals, and are in fact just food for somebody yet, a snake, worms, plants (in the form or rot or compost), and even for the hens themselves.  So, why not people?  This starts to become something better discussed on my "ReasonablePath" blog.
So now the little garden is a step closer toward being a micro farm.
We still don't know if Chestnut is a hen or a rooster.  That bird is just larger, with more plumage and seems to lead the others.  Seems like a rooster, but I don't know.
I candled the egg with a flashlight but couldn't even see a yolk.  We gotta get more straw for the boxes and more calcium in the birds diet.

New railing

Learning as we go with the chickens.  Free range, they certainly are.  But that means that they are Free to range, but not that they have free range over all of our spaces.  Cleaning up after them is a bit tedious when they often seem to want to hang out where we are, on non grass or dirt areas.  So instead of penning them in, we are penning us in, or them out, or what ever.  Free range chickens and chicken free range seem to be important items to keep a home happy.  In the morning we can have our coffee at the table and the "girls can be within reach, close enough to make them happy, seemingly.

New railing to create a "chicken free" area.

 The funny thing was that this space seemed to be a bit small and not quite useful before I put up the railing.  Now it seems to add space to the rest of the house and makes it feel grand in size.  Strange.  I guess we needed a defining line between our space and the rest of the place.

By limiting the space with the new railing the space seemed to get bigger.
Weird.

I made the railing out of scrap material, some old decking.  I even reused the old stainless steel nails.  I decided to buy the hinges and latch (not in the picture) so that the hole thing would have a nice finish to it.  The dog has to be let in and out of the gate now, but that isn't to much trouble.  Every once in a while a chicken will decide she has to come over, or thru the fencing.  The funny thing is that once they get in they immediately start making noise, letting me know that they are where they are no supposed to be.  Between me and the dog we chase them out.  I usually have to open the gate, even though they didn't need it to get in.  Go figure.

July

Hollyhock

squash

apple

Bee balm & echinacea

flea bane daisy

grape 

squash

purslane...

Main garden patch

corn

fire wood

Betty

Martha Grahm eating wineberries

asparagus ferns and strawberry pat

steps

                                        
                                  

                                                                             

Chestnut getting a drink

Ginger and Dot.  Banana plant

Chicken Cafe

When you have free range chickens you have to expect them to get into everything.  I can't help but think of the trouble that is caused by a barrel of monkeys loose in a house when I see what these girls get up to sometimes.

I can't tell if they are waiting to be served or
let in the house to escape further from the rain.

It's strawberry season!

For the past 4 days we've been eating strawberries from our patch.  It is doubled in size this year and we have just gotten more plants.
The first batch of preserves was put up over the weekend.  3 jars so far.

Free at last, Free at last.....

The chickens have now been free ranging for a few days, but only when we are around to keep an eye on them.

Free in the berry bushes!

The wineberry bushes provide good cover for them while they are out and that is good because on the second day out a hawk circled over twice, yikes!  When the berries come ripe we will see who gets them, the birds or us..........

3 days in their new home

The Chickens are in their coop, have been for a few days now.  The first night I left the light on for them.  They have lived with a light/heat lamp since they were born.  It was probably more challenging for me than them, although they did peep a bit and sounded really sad, or scared, or concerned.

"Chillin" on a rainy day.

Last night I turned the light on at dusk and when it was dark and they were all inside I turned it off without a peep from them.  We are starting to figure out a routine.

The coop has a bit of a prison feel to it now with all the wire and netting up, but with the news that a family of fox are in the area, and have taken birds from my neighbor, I suppose none of it is too extreme.

coop with wire and netting and chickens

We spent a moment to get the "cafe" in order.  The porch has that feeling with the chiminea and the orange tree and the table.

We have Locally grown oranges in NY state.
They are only the size of a quarter, but hey.

Things are growing here!

Potato, squash, onion.

Asparagus

Little tiny grapes to be!
In the background is the "terrace" garden that
has gotten regraded this year.

7 foot tall deer fencing is going up around the perimeter, to keep the deer out and the chickens in.  I am making fence post from downed trees so it is a bit slow.

I also started digging a hole for the young apple tree that is in a pot.  We started it from seed.

Chicken coop Phase 2

First off, today the ladies got there first experience of being outdoors with open sky!  To this point they have been in the brooder or in the high tunnel garden, so they have always had a roof over their heads.  Even so, they seemed to be more interested, of course, in what was below their feet, in the dirt and in the grass.

BLUE SKIES ABOVE, well gray really, for the first time.

 Phase 2 of the coop was completed yesterday, almost.  This was the addition of the fencing that goes around the coop.

New fence

 The post will get some kind of treatment.  There will be hardware clothe behind the wood and deer fencing above it all to keep the predators at bay.

The Chickens have their own barrel hoop on their fence!

The fencing, and the coop can all be moved if needed but we are hoping that this area is just the default space for them and that they will be out in the greater yard most of the time. (sans the food gardens)

It almost seems like to small a space but I am sure it will work out.  the coop itself will keep the area underneath it dry and I will be adding a little bit more cover from rain and snow.  We are also thinking of using a spare picnic umbrella as a suns shade for them.  It could mount on the post and has a crank handle to raise and lower it.

We have to decide if we are going to paint the fence and make it a white picket fence.  That is almost too cute.

New additions

The press is on to get the more permanent accommodations in place for the Chickens.  In one day we got the coop moved from the shop to its proper place, put on its foundation, and trim milled and painted and attached.  Whew!!

In place and painted!

 There is still the fenced in "yard" to be completed and the security measures that go with that.  They should be able to move in by Memorial Day weekend, if not sooner.

It blends in with the rest of the micro garden just fine.
Springtime is when this place looks it's best of course.

The coop is made completely from scrap material and features "7 nesting bays".  We only have 6 birds so the extra can be a game room or something.
The day after it got moved into place we had 2 days of HEAVY rain.  The roof doesn't leak!  We dropped this thing off it's trolley/wagon about 3 times trying to get it into the pick up, out of the truck, up the hill, and onto it's stand.  It has to weigh 300 lbs. plus.  But no damage.  I built it heavy to be able to withstand predators trying to knock it over or get into it.

Back doors. 

I didn't want to go and buy hinges for the doors that access eggs and clean out, so I came up with these doors that toggle closed and can come off completely for cleaning.  BUY NOTHING!  My attitude is to try and use my brain rather than money!  Sometimes it takes a bit longer to get where I am going, but the trip is fun!

New chicken door/venting

The chick/kids are out enjoying the warmth the sun puts into the low tunnel.

Dot and Auburn dig in for the afternoon.

 The low tunnel was at 105'f when I took them in this afternoon.  Outside it was in the 50's.  Since the whole thing is wrapped in plastic for maximum heating we usually vent it this time of year by just opening the doors on each side.  With the chicks inside I wanted to create a venting system that would protect them still.  So I made a chicken wire door that hinges on the opposite jamb from the plastic door.

New Chicken door!  Ginger looks out at the world.

 I figure this is pretty temporary as the season will change quickly, so I used what I had.  I had just deconstructed a shipping palette I had gotten from the scrap bin at the lumber yard and this seemed just right.

packing strap hinges work pretty well for this application.

I used some packing straps that I had also scavenged to make the hinges.  The door is kept closed by the frame of the opposite door.  When I want to close the plastic door for the night, I just open the one and close the other, simple.  Now I can check up on the birds from the kitchen window, and get in and out of the low tunnel easily.  Now if I can just figure out a good way to round them up when it's time to come in for the evening.