Grey: The Escape Artist

It has been far too long since my last blog.  However, the days have been long and cold and I was focused more on the survival of the chickens the last few weeks.  They dislike the snow and will not leave the coop when there is snow on the ground.  Needless to say they were literally "cooped" up for a couple of weeks - going stir crazy! I felt so bad for them.  I would open the coop door and they would just look at all the snow and give me this look, like you have got to be kidding me.  I feel their pain, in fact, I think we all do.  This winter has been the longest and coldest winter I can remember.  And I am SO ready for spring and so are the chicks. 

Anyways, once the snow melted last week. I opened the doors and it was like they had been freed.  They ran around the yard, pecking at the grass and pooping all over the place.  It was good to have them out again.

Can you find the chickens in this picture? There are 4 that I see.

 

 All my chicky babies out enjoying the sun!

And once they had their freedom, the egg production immediately went back up.  For awhile we were only getting about one egg a day.  But you have to realize that optimal laying conditions is 12 hours of sunlight a day.  Let's be honest, we haven't had those days in awhile... But after they had been out for a few days, I started getting 2 a day, then 3 and today I had 4 eggs! Very exciting.

But here is a funny story for you all.  Earlier this week, I let the chickens out before I left for work (around 7:30am) and was planning to put them back in the coop after work.  When I came home and went outside - I only saw 4. And then one appeared on the outside of the fence underneath the deck.  Hmmm I thought that is weird! Poor Grey, how did that happen? So I went and caught her and brought her back in with the others.  Not thinking much of it. 

Well then just yesterday I let them out early and went back out around noon to clean the coop.  It was starting to get sunny and the chicks came running towards me.  But only 4.  I did inventory and sure enough, Grey was missing AGAIN.  I called for her, no chicken.  Searched under the deck, looked outside the fenced area, out in the perimeter of the woods and NO evidence of a crime scene (aka a fox attack). I was starting to get sad. And mad at myself for not checking on them earlier. 

But then I remembered, as I was sitting at my desk (which is in the front room of our house and has 2 large windows that face the front yard) I had heard something and I actually opened the blind because it sounded like a human rustling in the bushes.  But I didn't see anything when I opened the blinds, but it dawned on me, maybe it was Grey.  So I walked up and looked around.  Didn't see anything.

Until I heard her little clucking noise.  Her white feathers looked like a pile of snow in the bushes! This is how I found her....

 

 

 

I tried to pick her up and she pecked me. Hard.  She was laying an egg in her own nesting box.  She had pushed her way through the dead bush and made herself a nice little nesting area, complete with leaves and straw like fronds. I left her alone and after several minutes she started clucking away, announcing she had laid an egg. 

The other chicks and Savannah were quite concerned.  Look at them all standing along the inside of the fence. 

She came walking back over like no big deal.... Can you see her in this picture? The small white blob on the edge of the mulch bed.  She was even further up and around the front of the house when she was laying.  I have NO idea how she found that bush or what made her venture out. 

 

And sure enough, I went to go check. 2 eggs.  One warm one, freshly lain, and one frozen one from earlier in the week when she had escaped. 

So today, I thought, I am going to watch her and figure out how she gets out.  Well I ran to the store and came back and she was outside of the fence again! Just walking around, trying to get back in.  I went to check the bush - another egg.  I have NO idea how she is getting out of the fenced in area and I have NO idea why in the world she wants to lay her eggs there. But I guess she is bound and determined to have it her way.  So I officially have an escape artist on my hands.  At least I know she doesn't run away?!? I mean she is definitely not dumb, she knows where the food and water are and she doesn't go too far. 

Anyways, as the snow begins to fall again, the 4 eggs gives me hope for a bountiful spring filled with sunshine and new baby chicks. 

Stay warm. Peace, love and chickens.

Chicksicles

Frozen chickens like whoa. With temperatures well below zero and with the wind chill, I was worried the chickens would freeze to death.  Tuesday morning it felt like -25 degrees (or something absurd like that) and I was just praying that they would all be alive when I went out to check on them before work.  Luckily I have no causalities to report. 

I have decided that they actually don't mind the cold weather, but HATE the snow.  With that being said, if they didn't have a dry, protected area to sleep in, I don't think they would have made it through the below zeros days/nights.  I did turn the heat lamp on in the coop during the day, but would turn it off at night.  Since my chickens are used to the cold weather, meaning that I do not leave the heat lamp on on a regular basis, thus allowing them to acclimate to the winter weather and build up a tolerance, they could withstand a couple days of extreme cold.  During the below zero days they would stay inside the new addition.  Check out pictures here, if you missed the last blog: Happy Year Link

Luckily this area provides much more space for them to walk around in and roost, and I had the heat lamp shining over towards the addition.  They would venture out when I would bring them fresh water and then hurry back inside.  They aren't dumb, that's for sure. 

The biggest issue I had during the below zero days was the water.  I could not keep any amount of water out in the coop for very long without it freezing.  The next item on my list is to look into water heating systems/elements so that I don't have to go out every hour taking them fresh water.  Surprisingly, chickens do drink a lot of water. 

The number one thing I was worried about was frostbite.  Everything I read, said that the biggest issue with extreme cold weather is the chickens getting frostbite, which can lead to death.  Here is a picture of one chicken(not mine) with frostbite...

 

You can see that his face is so swollen that his eye is swollen shut. The factors which can cause frostbite include: insufficient ventilation, waterers that allow a bird to dip its comb/wattles into the water, drafts, too much moisture, and extreme cold.  I made sure to check my chickens for any signs, but all seem to be clear. 

 

Since they have been stuck inside of their coop - they don't like to walk out in the snow, I bought them a "Flock Block", which is literally just a block of tasty treats which helps keep them occupied while "cooped up".  It is very hard, solid block of sunflower seeds, cracked corn, oyster shells, cane molasses, and lots of vitamins to keep them healthy and active.  They weren't sure about the big block at first... it was funny to watch them.  

Chickens inspecting the new block....

 

And today, I let them out of their coop for the first time this week.  And they were happy birds again! So glad they all made it through the FREEZING weather.  And you stay warm out there too! Coming soon: an update on new baby chicks!

 

A Happy Year

I can't believe that we have had the chickens for almost a year.  2013 was a year of change and many new things for me.  The chickens were just one of them.  The question I get asked the  most often is - "Why?" And my question back is "Why Not?"

And I have determined that "Why Not?" is the theme of my year... Why not figure out what you enjoy doing? Why not try something new? Why not challenge yourself? I have noticed that we get so caught up in what we are "supposed to do" or "supposed to be"... Speaking from experience, I graduated college and I was supposed to get a job that expected me to work at my desk for 45+ hours a week.  But maybe I wanted to do something different.  So Why not take the summer off, go back and learn something new and change my life path?  Well there were lots of reason WHY NOT to do that - money, insurance, stability, and the list goes on. But I decided I would figure it out as I went along.  I spent my summer learning the basics of Pilates, raising chickens, teaching swim lessons and barre classes and being a professional pool cleaner :)  And it was wonderful. 

For being so superstitious - 2013 turned out to be better than I ever expected.  There are so many wonderful people in my life that have supported me along this journey, especially my husband who puts up with my crazy chicken ideas.  Last weekend we added another "addition" to the chicken coop. 

Here are some pictures of the new room...

 This room is fully enclosed and has another roost for them to sleep on.  The hope is that this area will be warmer for the cold nights this winter and will provide more space that is covered and out of the elements - snow, rain, etc.  I plan to paint this addition in the spring. 

Another reason to add on - we are planning to get more baby chicks this spring, and we will offer other family and friends the opportunity to "sponsor" a chicken.  My aunt suggested that they would buy the chickens and pay for the feed, if I was willing to raise them.  So another new adventure will unfold in 2014.  If you are interested in sponsoring a chick - let me know! Once they start laying you will be guaranteed 6 eggs a week for each chicken you sponsor.  Terms and payment is still TBD. 

Thanks for everyone who has followed my blog this year - yet another successful endeavor for me. 

Here is a recap of the photos from 2013:

Final thought for 2013: Each day you only get 86,400 seconds - that's it.  And you will never get those seconds back.  So how will you spend each second of every day in 2014??

 

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!

Merry Chick-mas

Merry Chick-mas! Winter has arrived! And the chickens do not like the snow.  Go figure we have had more snow this month than we had during the entire winter last year...  They don't seem to mind the cold, but when the snow is covering the grass - they don't leave their coop.  The plan is to build an extension that will provide more covered area with another roost for them to sleep on.  Right now at night, they all huddle up in the small nesting area. 

It was funny - last weekend, after some of the snow had melted, I was wrapping presents and all of a sudden saw something out of the corner of my eye.  After several months of wandering around in the back yard - they finally made their way up on the deck.  Note: they had to walk up about 30 steps from the ground to get to the top level of our deck. 

 

 

I quick snapped a couple of pictures and then went outside to watch them.  They got scared and quickly made their way back towards the stairs... I wasn't sure if they would go down one step at a time or how they would make it back to the yard.  They looked around, went down one step and then took off FLYING back down! It was crazy! I had never seen them fly that far. 

 

 

Stay warm and enjoy the next few days with family and friends! From our family to yours - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!



Thankful Chickens

Well I wasn't sure how the chickens were going to handle the cold weather, but so far they seem to be just fine.  I figure that as long as they continue to run around the yard like normal, have an appetite and are laying eggs, then they are fine.... at least I hope so. 

Although when it snowed for the first time a couple weeks ago, they were quite unsure about venturing out of the coop.  Once they realized it wasn't food or some sort of treat, they had little desire to partake.  Although I don't blame them - I wasn't ready for snow in the middle of November (this picture was taken on November 12th - way too early for snow in Cincinnati!)

The temps have been quite chilly at night too.  I have gone out to check on them and they just all huddle up on the roost and get as close together as possible.  I would like to expand the coop with some more covered "indoor" areas for them to stay warm and dry. 

I had them outside when it started to snow today and found them all under the bushes, trying to take cover.  You can barely see them in this picture, but they are there.

Spooks of course was walking around in the snow flurries.  I did put a heat lamp up on the run of the coop.  I have turned it on just a couple of times to see how they react and they definitely don't go running towards the warmth.  Much to my surprise they seem to stay away from it.  I guess it's kind of like our bodies - if we go on vacation in the middle of winter and it is all of a sudden 90 degrees when we have been used to 30 degrees - it takes a while to adjust.  So I haven't turned the light on very much.  Also, from talking to some other chicken people I found out that if the heat lamp is too close to them or directly pointed at them, it can actually cause a dew to form while they are breathing and then once you turn the heat lamp off it can freeze and actually kill them if they can't breathe anymore.  So don't want that to happen.

Also, another new addition is a sand box in the coop.  This will allow them to dust/clean themselves during the winter when the ground and dirt are frozen.  Normally they go under the bushes or in the mulch and bury themselves down to clean off their feathers, but once the ground freezes they won't be able to utilize the natural dirt.  So I had to get a little plastic box and some play sand.  I was hoping to find a green turtle sand box - like the kind kids play in - but the store employee informed me "It isn't exactly the season for sand boxes" Point taken.  So I was the crazy lady looking for a sand box in November.  oh well...

I would like to wish all of my faithful blog readers a very happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you can share the day with loved ones and remember everything we have to be thankful for. This year I have quite a bit to be thankful for...  My family, friends, husband, health, my many jobs and ever changing career, my dog and chickens, my ability to learn and grow, and I am thankful for everyone who reads this and finds my chicken adventure to be entertaining! Enjoy the day!

And remember, eat turkey - not chickens :) Peace, love and chickens.

A Whole New Can of Worms

As the days get shorter, the chickens sleep longer.  They are sleeping when I leave in the morning and some nights when I am teaching and get home after dinner time, they are already sleeping when I get home.  They follow the sun.  And the shorter days affect their laying cycle.  Instead of 5 eggs a day, we are now getting 2 eggs a day.  The chickens are definitely feeling the change in seasons.

I was getting worried about the sudden drop in temperature.  I wasn’t exactly thinking that it would be 32 degrees mid-October, so needless to say I hadn’t taken the time to research what would need to be done to prep the chickens for winter.  So I was laying in bed, worrying about how cold it was going to get at night, I read what other backyard chicken farmers had to say.  I came to find out that the chickens are actually safer in the cold temperatures than in the extreme heat during summer.  As long as the chickens aren’t huddled all together, then they are fine.  And when the temperatures do go below 0 degrees we will most likely run a heat lamp or light bulb out to the coop to provide extra heat.  But they recommend only doing that when it is REALLY cold and below zero, so that the chickens don’t get used to the warmth.  Whew! That was good to hear. 

A couple of tricks I did read about… I have been giving them cracked corn at night before it gets dark, which gives them some extra calories to help keep them warm through the night.  But so far, they have been just as active as normal.  If anything, they want to run around even more now. 

 Also, other bloggers said to make sure they have plenty of hay in the coop area that stay dry.  So I added some extra pine shavings and hay to the little closed off area for them.  Also, they have each other for heat!  When they roost at night – they are all up on each other and their body heat keeps them warm.  Makes perfect sense.  The one thing I did have to worry about is their feet.  Once the ground gets frozen, others said to watch out for frost bite on their feet.  So as winter truly arrives in Cincinnati and the ground freezes, I will have to make sure extra straw/hay is in the coop. 

So I was feeling much better about the cold temperatures and my little flock living outside.  And then I go out to clean the coop yesterday and noticed that Grey was starting to lose feathers all along her neck.  I was so nervous that this had something to do with an infection from Savannah attacking her several months ago.  I was sure it had to do with the cold weather and I was scared to look up the symptoms online. 

I tried to take some pictures – but she was not having it with me trying to hold her still. It was like she was self conscious and didn't want me looking at her without her feathers :(  I could see down to her skin almost and noticed that some of the feathers that were left were a little blue/purple color at end attached to her.  So weird.  She still had an appetite and was running around the yard with all the others – so I was hopeful it wasn’t anything serious.

I am pretty sure that Grey is the first to start molting.  It is either that or mites.  Ew.  I'm pretty sure it’s not mites. Because they take regular dust baths in the dirt/mulch in our yard, which is supposed to help keep them clean and mite-free. 

Apparently chickens can have pretty hard molts and can get almost completely featherless – look at this picture I found!

Note: This is NOT one of my chickens and I really hope they don't molt this hard... so creepy looking and they would be so cold!

Some facts I Learned about molting:
(taken from Backyard Chickens - Managing Your Chickens Molt )

Full grown hens molt once or twice a year. Molting is caused by exhaustion and or sickness, when their laying cycle is completed, (that means they are done laying eggs for a while) and reduced lighting.

Molting also gives a chicken’s reproductive system time to rest. This process can be very stressful for chickens so it is important they stay happy and healthy. Usually after molting their hardier and more resistant to disease

During the molting process, chickens will start to lose their head and primary wing feathers first then the feather loss works its way down the body. Chickens may have a hard molt or a soft molt. A hard molt is when the feathers drop out very quickly but don't come back for a while. A soft molt is when the feathers drop out and new ones come in soon after. The new feathers that come in are called pin feathers.  I am curious to see if Grey continues to lose more feathers and if any start to grow back or if she just goes bald… yikes!

Did you know? Feathers are 80-85% protein and eggs are around 13% protein. So the chicken has to make a choice to put protein toward molting or laying, there is not enough for both. Because of this, during molting, laying stops in hens.  So I guess I will need to up the protein in their diet to make sure they are getting enough.  Especially if they start to get bare spots, I don’t want them pecking at each other. 

There is always something to learn with these chickens.  I was just so glad to find out that Grey losing her feathers was normal. 

I also am slightly concerned about scaly leg mites.  As I was researching the molting information, I came across some pictures of what scaly leg mites can do to a chicken.  The mites burrow under the scales on their legs and only really bad cases can cripple the bird.  But the recommended treatment is Vaseline, as it will smother the mites.  So today I put Vaseline on their feet.  Yes, I held each chicken one at a time and put Vaseline on her feet.  I’m telling you – if these birds die, it will not because of poor care.  They are my pets and I don’t want them to have mites on their feet. 

 

 

Anyways between the change in temperature, the first signs of molting and potential leg mites – it was quite an interesting week with the chickens.  I continue to learn about raising chickens and I do love my little chicky babies. 
Have a great Monday!

 

Chicken Owners Scramble When Pets Feel Foul

The thought has crossed my mind - what would I do if one of my chickens gets sick?  A family friend sent me a copy of her Wall Street Journal, which had an article on the front page titled "Chicken Owners Scramble When Their Pets Feel Foul"  You can read the online article in full here: WSJ Chicken Article

According to the American College of Poultry Veterinarians, there are about 260 members in good standing.  However, most of those poultry vets work in the food industry.  So how many vets are out there that could properly treat a chicken?  I could see why previously, poultry veterinarians were not in high demand because as the WSj article states - "If there is something wrong with a commerical chicken,  'It's cut its head off and find out what's wrong with the flock" mentality.  But when you bring the recent increase in backyard chickens into the picture - the whole game is changed.  Once you name a chicken and you have raised them from the time they were only a few weeks old - I would never be able to have the "cut its head off mentality". 

And I am not the only one out there raising backyard chickens that are treated like pets!  According to the WSJ article, the US Department of Agriculture does not track statistics on backyard husbandry (the care, breeding of crops and animals) however, the popular site backyardchickens.com has over 220,000 members. Feel free to check out the website at: Backyard Chicken Website 

I utilized this website when I was first researching chickens - what breed of chickens should I get, what should I feed them, when can I feed them certain veggies, etc.  The backyard chicken website offers forums that allow members to ask questions related to a certain topic and then other members can comment and provide insight/their experiences to answer your question.  Then members, like myself, have the ability to search for topics or questions that have already been asked to view the responses.  It serves as an online database that houses the most random information about raising chickens.  Not sure I would have been able to raise my chickens without the help and guidance I received from the Backyard Chicken site - because let's be honest, I didn't exactly know what I was doing :)

For example, when Izzie got attacked by a fox – I searched “fox attacks” in the forums on Backyardchicken.com to see how to treat a chicken in shock.  I was provided with a plethora of information on how to care for her, the average recovery time and what symptoms to looks for if the injury was getting worse.  

I also researched “curly toes” on the backyard chicken site.  Ever since we got the chickens, Izzie has had curled toes.  At first I did not think it was a big deal, but then I realized it may be affecting how she is able to hunt and peck around the yard.  When they are younger they rely on the instinct to “scratch” the ground for food.  And since her toes were curled under, she was not able to truly scratch.  But according to other backyard chicken farmers, as long as the chicken is able to eat and seems to be growing (which Izzie is plenty big!), then the chicken will be fine. 

The knowledge that other share is very helpful when dealing with a minor health issue or for researching, but there are also detailed pictures/videos of how to care for life threatening diseases and injuries.  I will say, self treatment is NOT for the faint of heart.  I do not know if I would take a scalpel and operate on my own chicken for bumblefoot.  It definitely is venture at your own risk and be prepared to close your eyes if you have a weak stomach. 

It is comforting to know that there are many other backyard chicken farmers who experience the same difficulties.  But also, with more people turning to self-sufficient, grow-local lifestyles, the trend and professional discussions of chicken raising is a hot trend at vet conferences.  According to the WSJ article, “We’re responding to the need” (of more poultry veterinarians).

So the question comes down to this: would I reach out to seek medical help for my backyard chickens if the medical condition was life threatening? – yes.  Would I try to treat the chicken myself, if possible? – yes.  Do I also realize that sometimes the natural circle of life is necessary and as with any animal or pet, it may be in the best interest to end the chicken’s life? – yes. 

I am hoping that I don't have to make any of those decisions in the near future, but you never know.  It has been a fun adventure so far... hoping the fun continues! And for right now, I am going to enjoy the eggs!