Frozen Egg

Frozen Egg 

With an overnight low of 2˚F, I went out today to gather eggs and found this one frozen egg!  I never thought of freezing an egg before but I guess its possible to have a egg-sicle!

A Neighborly Gift

Happy Holidays!!!  A card and 4 pack for the neighbors....  

4 Packs of eggs for the neighbors

8 months

Princess Aurora, Belle and Ariel at 8months old

Just a photo update of the chickens.  They are almost 8 months old now and pretty big girls!  I guess technically they are still pullets and will officially become hens at 1 year old.

Chicken Run Updates

I had to move the food tube away from the back of the cage to keep from feeding the squirrels!

A couple photos of the run.  I noticed that the chickens were devouring the food.  I had recently changed from the Layena Crumbles to the Layena Pellets.  At first, I thought the chickens were eating the larger food pellets at the same rate they were eating the smaller crumbles.  But one afternoon I was watching the chickens from inside the house and noticed the neighbor hood squirrel was grabbing the food through the fencing!  The chickens weren't gorging themselves, the squirrel was stealing the pellets!  Needless to say, I now have start paying attention to how I was placing the food tube against the back of the fencing.  

Evidence of the chickens escape attempt by digging a tunnel under the coop!  ;)

Another note about the chicken run is the bottom of the run.  When I built the run, I placed stapled wire fencing along the bottom of the frame and under all the rock.  Click here to see the buried fencing.  After reading about several people who did the same kind of thing to keep predators from digging under the coop IN the run.  I noticed today, that the chickens were actually digging inside the coop!  I never thought the wire fencing would be used to keeping the chickens from digging OUT of the coop!  ;)

Chicken run upgrade

Mermaid spreading some hay in her new run

Being a bit new to home ownership and yard responsibilities, I asked around for advice on what I should do to the grass for the winter.  The advice I received was to aerate, fertilize and over seed.  So, I called a guy for yard aeration, and ran to Home Depot for grass seed and fertilizer. Once I got all the seed out, I was about to let the chickens run the yard like normal...  then I Googled "chickens + grass seed" and found out that chickens LOVE grass seeds.  The only thing they love more then the seed, is crisp green baby grass.  

So.... with that info, I realized I needed to quarantine the chickens for a while the grass comes in and get established.  I didn't want to keep them in the coop all the time, so I ran back to HomeDepot for some lumber and hatched a plan (wink wink) to open up their run a little.  I build a short fence along one side of the coop to the fence.  Then I took one of the wire walls down and built a door the same distance to the fence.  When the gate/door is opened up, it allows the chickens out of the smaller run but closes them into the larger fenced in run. 

I'm sad to have to keep the chickens from grazing the yard, but hope the it doesn't take too long for the grass to grow in.  I'll keep you updated on how they like the bigger run and how long they are kept from the yard. 

New coop/gate door opened

New coop gate/door closed

New shorter fence

Winterizing

Little man helping me get the chickens ready for the cold.

This weekends forecast had some temperatures in the teens overnight so I started getting the coop and chickens ready for winter.  The first thing I bought was a Thermocube which is an electrical outlet that turns on at 35 deg on off at 45deg for $11.  This thing is so simple but I was surprised that this was the first time I had seen it.  I'll be using this to run the deicer but you could also use this to run a heat lamp as well.

I got the De Icer for $29.99 from Amazon.  Another simple thing that I have never seen before.  Other then purchasing these two items and plugging em in, there is not much more to do to winterize the chickens.  As long as they have warm water, they are good to go in the cold.  I even got 4 eggs on Sunday!  I'm still trying to figure out how 3 chickens laid 4 eggs in one day...

The deicer in the water bucket

Fall Season

I was raking the leaves this afternoon and Ariel Mermaid thought she would helped me out.  :)

Coop Door

So... when I built the coop in June, I still needed to put add some sort of way to raise and lower the coop door.  Having 98% of the coop done, and being summer and I was a little lazy and just screwed the door in the up position for the heat and didn't think much about it, until this week. The snow came and temps at night were getting as low as 27˚.  The last week of October, $1.79 of hardware and 5 minutes of time, I FINALLY got the coop door hook latch pulley thing done.  I go out around 7:00pm and shut the chickens up for the night, then in the morning, I go out and open it up.  I hope that keeps them warm enough through the winter nights.

Belle checking out my handiwork

3 Eggs

Egg shaped eggs

So, its been a while since I have updated the blog.  School has started back up and with the little bit of time I've had, I have been trying to ride my bike, get some cross racing done and spend time with the kids.

While I haven't written about the chicks, they are doing really well.  They consistently give us 2 eggs a day which is about perfect for our family.  When we get eggs out of the nest box, Lucy says "Thank you for the eggs chicks!" By Sunday, our egg basket in the kitchen is empty and we start another week collecting eggs. The other day I surprisingly found 3 eggs which will be great when my little boy starts eating real food.

When I get home from work each day, I let em run about the yard until dark.  By then, they have returned back in the coop and nested for the night.  One day, I came out back like normal after school to run the sprinklers, and I freaked out as I saw the chickens door was wide open! Someone forgot to close the evening before.  The chickens had put them selves to bed, woke up and spent the day in the yard all on their own! Thank goodness there were no animals to grab the chickens.

The girls carefully check out the lettuce tetherball before demolishing it! 

Water Heater

With the snow coming down, I was kindly reminded of the de-icer I have been meaning to buy for the chickens water for the last 2 months.  $30 through Amazon.  A friend steered me this way from a youtube video he found.  I'll write more later when I get a chance to see how it works in the sub freezing temps.  I just hope the girls will be ok through this late October storm.

3 Nesting Hens

I woke up this morning and being a nice fall day, I wanted the chicks to come out and free range in the yard for a while.  As I went to their run, they weren't in there.  I went and looked in the coop, nothing!  Then I opened the door and saw all 3 of them nesting!  Later on, I went and collected eggs and gathered 2 eggs... it seems like Princess Aurora is still working on her first egg.  I have heard of people building 5 nest boxes only for all the chickens to use one.  I was happy to see each nest being used this morning and that each chicken has enough room to do their business!

3 chickens nesting, Left to Right,  Princess Aurora, Mermaid and Belle.

21 weeks

The chickens are still nesting around the yard and in the mulch. Here is a funny photo of them all huddled and buried under the kids slide.  

While all three are nesting, I discovered that Ariel is the one laying the daily egg. She lays her egg around noon each day.  Not that I want to pressure the other two, but I have promised lots of people fresh eggs and Princess Aurora and Belle better get going on laying some eggs!  ;)

Ariel makes a friend

Ariel and Hannah playing at the water table.

One of my daughters friends came over this evening and was very excited about petting the chickens. :)  Cute!

2nd Egg

The egg, a symbol of life

Firsties!

On Thursday September 6, our chickens laid their first egg!  We have gotten 1 egg a day since then and I don't know which chicken the egg has come from yet.  The egg I gathered today around noon, was still warm!

Its funny how simple and natural the egg is, but how excited I was to find it!  I am looking forward to sharing the eggs with family, friends and neighbors.

Here is a video of my daughter finding that first egg!  :)

Not all those chickens who wander are lost

If you are a J.R.R Tolkien fan, you would enjoy these Bag End inspired Hobbit homes for your chicken!

http://nerdapproved.com/approved-products/your-chickens-can-live-in-the-hobbit-hole-of-their-dreams/

I truly wish I was creative enough, and skilled enough, to build a coop like that. However, for the $1700 price tag, my chickens would need to be laying precious eggs of gold.  Be sure to check out the link to see the details of the great looking hobbit hole coops.

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Chicken-Coops/Hobbit-Hole-Chicken-Coop-Small-Up-to-5-chickens-p1232.aspx#

20 Weeks and nesting

20 weeks old

So, the chickens have been acting a little funny lately. I keep coming across these big holes in the mulch around the yard. One afternoon, I finally caught the chickens in the act of making their holes. At first I thought it was cause the chickens were hot, but it hasn't been that hot around Golden lately.  I am not a chicken pro, yet, but I am thinking they are starting to nest and hopefully lay some eggs soon.

Just to be ready, I got a bale of straw from the Golden Mill and have it in their nesting boxes. I even put a couple golf balls in the nest to inspire the chickens.  

Little Tikes

The chickens getting some water out of our lil girls water table.  :)

18 Weeks/Feed

The chickens turned 18 weeks and are really big!  Its not just their size, but their appetite too.  When they were just little chicks, it took 12 weeks to go through a 25lb bag of the Start&Grow chick feed.  Now as they are a little older, it took 6 weeks to go through the same bag!  I equate the change in feeding a baby boy to feeding a teenage boy.  :)

But now that they are about ready to lay eggs, its time to switch their feed.  I stopped by the Golden Mill yesterday and picked up a 50 lb bag of the Purina Layena crumbles. They say to start the chickens on the Layena about 1 month before they start laying eggs and keep them on the feed through their laying cycle. It sounds like a good feed for them because its free of animal proteins and fats too to help the chickens made strong good tasting eggs.  

I also picked up some straw to start geting their nest box ready.  The chicks have been digging in the mulch around the yard a lot more and its start to look like a war zone with all the random bomb blast holes chicken holes in the mulch.  Since its been a bit cooler lately, I'm taking the behavior as they are starting to feel like nesting.  I'll post some photos of the nest box as soon as I get the straw in.

Speaking of straw, I had to buy a bale of straw...  its quite a bit for my three chickens.  What do others do to store their extra straw?  Is it worth trying to save the unused amount of straw?

Chicken Video

Here is a time lapse video of the girls.  I have a little FlipHD camera that I set up early one morning to capture what the chickens do when waking up for the day.  I found it interesting to watch what they find interesting...

17 Weeks

Princess Aurora, Mermaid and Belle - 17 Weeks old

Summer is quickly coming to an end which means eggs should be here pretty soon.  I have enjoyed the growth of the chicks over the last few months.  At the beginning of summer, I had just built the coop and even brought out a heat lamp to keep the little girls warm.  Now I let them out for 3-4 hours a day to roam the backyard them.  I even ran an errand to the store once while the chickens were free ranging.  Through the fall, the days will get cooler and their time outside the coop will shorten, which will make me a little sad.  I'll do my best to let them have some free time after work.

My son is captivated by the chickens

My son who is a little over 6 months nowLOVES to watch the chickens.  We go out in the back yard while the chicks are free ranging and he just sits and follows them.  They are a little curious but mostly just wonder around the grass and shrubs.

My son following the chicks.

Friends?

Our little cat, Ani, hanging out with the chickens

We have two cats along with the chickens.  Both cats are pretty good hunters and over the years, we have had a wide variety of 'hunts' brought into the house from snakes, bunnies, birds and voles.  While the chickens were smaller, both cats would come outside and immediately you could tell they were about to pounce on the chicks.  I don't know if its the chickens recent bigger size, or that the chickens have learned to flap and protect themselves, but the cats and chickens now live in harmony... well, maybe not harmony, but at least they call all be outside in the backyard together.

16 Weeks

Not too much to say, so I thought I would post some picts of the chickens and kids.

Here is a photo of my daughter going out one afternoon to check on the chickens.

Here are my two nieces with Mermaid.

14 Weeks

Princess Aurora and Mermaid saying hi to each other - 14 Weeks

So, the chickens are now 14 weeks old.  About 8 weeks or less and we should have eggs!  Its been a fun summer with the chickens.  I let them free range as often in the grass as possible and have even gotten to the point where I can open the coop door to let them out, then after a couple hours, they meander and walk themselves back into the coop. It is nice to see them learning and keeps me from looking like a fool running around trying to catch 3 chickens.

Belle - 14 weeks old

I'm watching you

So, my previous theory of not having to worry about predators for the chickens was debunked this past weekend.  While watching movies in the back yard, two little raccoons came out and said hi.  Here is a photo of them on top of the garage, only a few feet from the chicken cage. I hope that the chickens are safe in their coop and cage!

3 Chicks on a Stick

I went out back to check on the chicks and found all three hudled on the outside roost!

Happy 4th!

Hope you had some watermelon too!

Natural History of the Chicken

I came across this film on Netflix Instant Que about chickens. It is produced by PBS in 2001 and is a fun collection of stories of people all over the US who have chickens in their lives. Like the lady who swims with her rooster 'Cotton' and uses a blow dryer to dry him. I'll let her tell you how she takes care of the chicken poop...

Another guy raised 25 fighting roosters and boy were his neighbors mad. They counted 20,000 'crows' in a day!

The video footage of the high production chicken farms was astounding too! Speaking of high production, another interesting fact was that when the video was made, the US slaughters 8 billion chickens per year for meat!

My favorite story is of a chicken from our own Fruita, CO named Mike.  I wont spoil the surprise... Enjoy the documentary!

 Check out The Natural History of the Chicken on Hulu. ( http://www.hulu.com/watch/336685 )

12 weeks

Chicken Coop 360 pan

Chicken Tetherball

When you read the blog post, you probably had one of two ideas.

1 - Two chickens playing tether ball against each other

2 - Two kids playing tetherball with chicken instead of a ball

Well, if you are a reader of this blog, hopefully you had idea #1!

Another blogger sent me a link a couple months ago about what chicken eat.  Its a good read with some helpful info, good ideas for treats (like a lettuce tetherball) and a funny story. Check it out, chicken heads!

http://gardenally.blogspot.com/2012/04/chickens-love-treats.html

Feeder

This post is nothing more then a photo of the 3 chicks eating from the feeder.  When I made the feeder, I questioned putting in 3 holes in it as opposed to one long tray.  From what I saw today, it looks like the 3 holes is working well for the girls.  When they eat, Belle usually tries to take feed or worms or watermelon from the others.  With the 3 holes in the feeder, they each can eat in peace.

Coop Roost

Princess Aurora chilling on the outdoor roost

The rectangular coop is fairly boring to me, so I have been thinking of things to add to it to entertain the chicks and give them something to do during the day.  I have added a roosting stick and was happy to see Princess Aurora Sleeping Beauty hanging out on it this evening.  Anyone else out there have any other ideas or things they have added to their coops or runs?

11 Weeks

The girls - 11 Weeks old

The chicks are 11 weeks old now.  As I was uploading the photos, I saw the red coloring on Belle's comb and below her beak and noticed that both Mermaid and Princess Aurora lacked that color... I still wonder if Belle is a Beast!? 

Mermaid - 11 weeks

Belle - 11 weeks

Mermaid jumping into Princess Aurora's photo...

Chick treats

The chicks have been enjoying these mealworms as evening treats.  How much would you pay for a bag of dead worms...  I thought $4-$5 was reasonable, but the bag sells for almost $9!  Man, thats the price of a good burger!  I hope the chicks enjoy their treats.