Noisy Chickens

We've got really noisy chickens this morning.  Here's hoping for lots of eggs today.  To my neighbors...I'm sorry.  At least they are quiet at night....

All the nesting boxes are full.

And Georgia and Amelia are even sharing nicely.

We have gotten a couple brown eggs and I believe they are coming from our Rhode Island Red Riley.

I am the Eggwoman...

I am the rooster...goo goo g'joob

I think its safe to say that all 3 of our Easter Eggers are now laying eggs.  We've been getting 2 every day for the past 4 days.  Amelia is now laying consistenly every morning and either Henrietta or George gives us another one in the afternoon.  In about a week all 3 will be laying consistently.  In the meantime we are waiting for the other girls to start laying.  The Buff Orpingtons aren't giving us any signals that they will be laying soon.  They only like to practice the egg song.  It can be rather annoying, but it doesn't last long and a handful of corn or oats distracts them and they quiet down.  I've read that they are slow to mature but once they start to lay they will be very good egg layers.  The Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks are showing signs of maturity and are squatting.  Especially when I'm out there.  They all gather around me and when I pet them they sqaut and then shake themselves when I'm done.  I've become the rooster and they are being submissive to me.  In a way it's a little creepy but I just tell them they are good girls and remind them that I want eggs.  The Reds have been more and more friendly and don't go and hide from the camera anymore.  Now it'll be a guessing game at which one will lay the first brown egg.  It will be impossible to tell what eggs are coming from what chicken but so far they have all been VERY tasty.



Riley



Penny

Everyone likes to explore the nesting boxes since we've made them more cozy with a nice blanket of straw.  With the aid of a golf ball, egg shaped rock and a plastic Easter egg they are learning to use them quite nicely.  We've only found 2 eggs outside of the boxes.

In the meantime we keep trying new treats.  They LOVE plain yogurt.  It gets messy tho so I put down the bowl and move away quickly.

Buffy taking a breather from the yogurt.

And weeds from the yard and garden make a nice green salad.



First egg!!

This beautiful little egg is from Amelia.  Scott found it in the run about 10 minutes ago.  Woo Hoo!

~The waiting is the hardest part~

Sing it with me!  Our chickens are now 21 weeks and 17 weeks old and we still have NO eggs!  I broke down today and bought eggs at the store to make this Zucchini Pie because I have far too many zucchinis, and cukes and tomatoes and peppers....the list goes on as it does always this time of year.



These will be the last store bought eggs I buy (I hope)!

I can tell we are getting closer to actually having homegrown eggs because our Easter Egger Amelia and Patty our Barred Plymouth Rock are both squatting. Which is basically a submissive pose meant for the rooster letting him know that she is "ready for action".  However, they don't need the rooster to lay eggs.  We will have unfertilized eggs and by my calculations once everyone gets going we will have about 3 dozen a week. They squat when we go to pet them on their backs.  The other chickens just seem to run away like we are bothering them.

Amelia at 21 weeks



Patty at 17 weeks



The rest in the group are getting bigger and everyone has been enjoying our nearly perfect weather.  70's during the day and 50's at night.  We've been hearing more chattering and clucking from the run and sometimes it makes me cringe that they might be disturbing the neighbors.  But I still think dogs are noisier.  They've been getting lots of scraps from the garden and enjoying dust baths and preening, especially Henrietta.  Her and our Buff Orpingtons, Buffy and Bonnie continue to be our most friendly chickens.  The Rhode Island Reds tend to go off and hide in the coop when I go out to visit.  Maybe they just don't like my camera.

Henrietta pretending to be a turkey

Bonnie and Buffy looking on from their perch

Next blog will be about the first egg!

Hot enough to fry an egg...

When the temperatures reach the 90's and dew points are hovering in the mid 70's...it's HOT! Chickens need some extra attention during the hot weather.  Then again we all do. Chickens are like dogs in that they don't sweat when they get overheated, they pant. (In the big picture, chickens are easier to take care of than dogs, as I was reminded of by dog sitting for my sister's dogs over the past weekend. Hmmm, I see the topic of my next blog!)





Buffy panting





They also hold their wings out away from their bodies.  We all know how good that feels when the breeze blows.  Another way to stay cool is to dig around and lay in the cool sand in the shade.



Amelia



Riley

 

 Here's what we've been doing to keep the chickens cool.  Below are some things that help.

Frozen bottles of water, watermelon (or cantaloupe, frozen grapes, cucumbers...) and chicken "gatorade", which is an electrolyte/vitamin powder added to water. The frozen bottles can be just tossed into the run on the sand to cool the sand off as it melts.  I've heard that they will sometimes lay next to the frozen bottles, but I have yet to see that.  One bottle was put in the main waterer and another on the sand in the run to see what happens.

The watermelon gets eaten.

The refrigerated chicken "gatorade" goes into 2 smaller chick waterers I keep in the run.

We've also added a pan of cool water for them to splash around in. Although chickens don't generally like water, when it's this hot a few of them don't mind getting their feet wet.  We also add a chunk of ice to this during the day.

Penny dipping her toes.

To give them some extra shade I hung a tarp on the west side of the run which is also where the sun shines directly on in the late afternoon.

By the time I was done with my photo shoot and changing all the water, they had eaten up a 1/4 of a watermelon.  There is another 1/4 sitting in the freezer that they will get tomorrow morning.



Fun with grapes!

Most of the time a picture says a thousand words but in the case of chickens and grapes, a movie says a million words...

Down to 9

We sent some of our birds packing last weekend.  They are now happily living in a friend's barn.  Meanwhile back at our urban farm we have 9 chickens.  3 of them are 11 weeks old and 6 of them are 7 weeks old.  Everyone gets along great.  Most of them have found the very top shelf in the coop a wonderful and safe place to roost.  It's really high up and we keep wondering just how they are getting up there and how they are getting down.  The shelf is 6 - 6.5 ft high so I'm sure that its a long way down for a little chicken.  Hope no one gets hurt.

The weather has been a bit of a roller coaster.  Hot, chilly, hot chilly....but what are you going to do?  They spend a majority of their day out in the run and when we open the pop door in the morning it's like recess has let out.  They run out as fast as they can.  I like to think they are happy chickens.

Eating watermelon.

Here is our flock.

In no particular order, Amelia, George(ia)(ette), Penny, Patty, Buffy, Bonnie, Ruby, Rylee and Henrietta.

Only my daughter knows who is who.  We've had lots of friends and neighbors stopping by to see them and everyone seems really impressed and open to the idea.  We have yet to hear someone ask us if we are crazy.  I'm glad.  At first I was a bit nervous because our city doesn't have an ordinance for or against.  I like it when people come to see, I feel like I'm lending some education and awareness of urban chickens.  If you are in the neighborhood, stop by!

Cool water helps them stay cool on a hot day.

Amelia sitting pretty.