Just one of the girls.

I was far too happy yesterday when my hens actually came when I called them. Several days this week I have let them out in the yard with me while I've been gardening. They are much more comfortable around me now and will stay with me, follow me, and come to me when I call. I'm pretty sure Ginger actually thinks I'm pecking for things in the dirt the same as they are when I'm removing rocks from the garden because she's started to come over and try to get the rocks as I pick them up just like she competes with Pepper for goodies in the dirt. I love the camaraderie of having them out in the yard. We chat, we laugh... I'm just one of the girls!

Building a Simple Chicken Run

Simple. HA!

I had this "simple" design in my head and it didn't turn out to be so simple to build. What started out as a great idea ended up as a bonafide disaster. But a lesson nonetheless. Here is what I learned in my not-so-handy woman attempt at making a chicken run last week.

I had already purchased some 24" chicken wire from the feed store, so I knew when I went to the hardware store for the wood that I would need 24" sections for the corners. Makes sense, right? Sure.

While I was getting the 24-inch 2x2s, I picked up three 1x2s to lay across the top as a roof for my run. They come in 8-foot lengths. "Would you like us to cut these, ma'am?" Oh, no, 8-feet will be a great size for the run! I even laid all the wood out right there on the floor of Home Depot and asked the two young men who were helping me if this looked like it was going to work. Sure.

I was so excited when I got home, I laid-out all of my materials and got right to work!

 I even laid it out like I had laid it out at Home Depot. Looks like it would make sense, right? Sure.

 

I felt very cool as I stapled the chicken wire to the legs of my run. I even ran out of staples and had to change them myself - I was so impressed with myself at this early point, that I'm pretty sure my pride led to my eventual ruin... Read on. 





 

Things start to fall apart. Quite literally. (Did you know you are supposed to drill holes in pine before screwing it to anything because it can split? I found that out.)

 

BUT! They weren't all bad. I held out hope that it was all going to work out in the end...

At this point in the project, I couldn't get all my pieces to stand up while I was trying to balance them and screw them together. I was pretty sure my husband was standing inside the house watching from the window and giggling at me, but I was determined to do this on my own so I plowed ahead.

 

  Even with ends that don't meet up and loose floppy chicken wire I completed my project! And I did it on my own! I really was pretty proud of myself in the end.

 

 

It fell apart the next day.

 

The screws I used were too short to hold the sections of wood together, the staples popped out as I lifted it to move it around, and the uneven shape caused it to collapse. Much to the chagrin of Pepper who was inside at the time, happily pecking away at the grass until she was set-upon by a pile of chicken wire. Sigh.

 

The eternal optimist that I am, I cannot see this as defeat. I learned a lot in the process and have plans to take the run apart and use the materials for a New & Improved chicken run! More on that another day.

Lesson #57 - Chickens are Messy.

So, it turns out chickens are messy. Go figure.

I had read that they love to scratch, but what I didn't understand is that instinct extends to anything and everything on the ground, and silly me ~ I placed their feeder on the ground. They've been scratching it out all over the place, making a mess and wasting food in the meantime. They've gone through, probably, 3 pounds of food in as many days. Perhaps that is normal, but I'd like it to be going into their bellies, not spread over the ground and mixed with poop!

So, I swung by the local feed store to look at different types of feeders. I was thinking of those nifty little contraptions that are made to hang in the corners. They sure are tiny, though. I don't want to be out there filling them up breakfast, lunch and dinner! So, I asked the helpful young man who was there and he informed me that chickens need their feeders to be at chest level so they can peck the food easier. (Something about not being able to peck at anything head-on, but rather having to swipe at it, which knocks it around... not sure I understood that properly, though.)

 

He said he just has his propped up on bricks. It struck me that I'd read several places online that people had their food and water up on bricks. I guess I just didn't understand why. Well, that's an easy fix! And free! We have several bricks and cinder blocks laying in a scrap pile next to the garage!

I came home and dinked-around with different combinations of bricks and here is what I came up with:

So, now, hopefully the food and water will be easier for them to use, and they won't make such a mess of it!

(He also mentioned that mounting the feeders puts them closer to the roof and takes away any room for the chickens to jump on top of them and try to roost there. I have noticed that Pepper really likes to perch on the water, so that will certainly help there!)

How do you like your eggs?

I have to admit I rushed out at first light to let the hens out and see if they had left us any breakfast in the laying boxes. Sadly, there was nothing in the coop but three piles of garden gold. Ah, well. I figured it might take them some time to get settled in and feel comfortable enough to lay.

All morning we have been taking breaks from homeschool to look at the girls out the window or go out and visit them. At one point I noticed that Ginger was being very vocal and went up into the coop. Although I was dying to stay out there and peek at her, I gave her some privacy. When she came out a half-hour later, though, you better believe we were donning gloves and grabbing the camera and running out to see if she'd given us our first oval gem.

Sure enough!

 (In the left laying box you can see the golf ball we put in to encourage them to lay in the right place!)
 Our first brown beauty:

Now, I have heard from various sources that they do or don't wash their eggs. One friend only washes them if she knows she'll be serving it to guests, another says she only washes it if it has a bit of poo on it. Well, ours had a small spot of mystery wetness on it, so I decided to be "safe and sanitary" and give it a wash.

I have read that a vinegar/water solution is best for this, but I grabbed my bottled of straight white vinegar instead. I have to tell you, it did the oddest thing to the egg... I felt this sort of jelly substance well up as the vinegar ran over the egg. It startled me, so I immediately shoved it under running water, thinking the whole thing was going to turn to goo in my hand! I tested it, and nope - no goo. It was still hard. And, in fact, darker.

I ran to tell my husband about my little adventure and he pointed out that when we dye Easter eggs we soak them in vinegar with the color pellets. Ahhhh, of course. It etches away part of the shell to make the color stick. Perhaps if I would have left it in vinegar it eventually would have eaten it away, but just to rinse it didn't do anything bad. I think next time, though, I'll rinse the eggs in a vinegar/water solution if they need to be washed. (If nothing else I'll at least avoid the nasty jelly feeling.)

Here chick-chick-chick!!

We got our chickens today!

There are three of them: two copper colored and one black. I tried to convince the boys to let me name them Pepper, Paprika and Ginger & post a sign that said, "The Spice Girls." But they wouldn't go for it. (There is something terribly amusing to me about naming chickens for spices I would eat them with.)

So, in the end, I only got to name one little girl: Paprika. My oldest boy named his copper beauty "Madam Flappy" for the obnoxious way she beats him with her wings when he tries to pick her up. I get a kick out of it, so "Madam Flappy" it is! (Plus it reminds me of the perky grandma squirrel on The Animaniacs cartoons, and that makes me smile.) My younger son made the logical connection that his chicken is black and steel is black, so she gets the strong name of the group: Steel.

Paprika, Flappy, & Steel:

Paprika is actually a Buff Coronation Sussex, Flappy is a Red Star Sex-link, and Steel is a Black Star Sex-link. I've read that they are all well-suited to be backyard chickens, are docile and high producers. (Their previous owners collected 6 eggs just this morning!)

We enjoyed watching them get adjusted to their new home this evening. They are very laid-back. I'm curious to see if they feel so comfortable that they will lay tonight or tomorrow... we'll see! The adventure begins!!

Check out my coop here.

If you build it, they will come...

A lovely friend of ours is moving at the end of the month and is giving us her one-year-old hens! The three girls will be moving in fourteen days from now, so this past weekend we decided to get ready. We built the coop, and bought the necessary items from the local farm store... here's what I learned.

The coop I found (don't laugh... okay, well, it deserves a chuckle) on Walmart.com. Really, is there nothing they don't sell? It is a TRIXIE brand coop, "Coop with a View" to be exact. And it is darling. I fell in love with its cuteness and price and decided there was no other coop to be had. It even had a detachable run you could buy with it to give the hens extra room. What a deal!

Or so I thought. It really is cute, don't get me wrong. But, wow, is this thing small. I have checked with a few chicken owners and they assure me it is no big deal and that three hens don't need a lot of space, but I'm not even sure where I'll be able to put the food and water!

Here is a picture of the girls' new home. Coop Corner ~ Girls Only.

The things I like about this coop, or think I will like, are the openings (laying box and coop both have roof openings, the coop itself has three doors, and the run opens on the top, end and side), and the plastic pull out tray for easy cleaning. And did I mention it is cute?

Okay, so with the coop in place we headed down to the local farm store on the edge of town. I already knew we would need to put something comfy for the hens in the laying boxes, and could also cover the ground with said material to keep down smell and catch poo (to be raked out often). I knew I didn't want pine shavings because it would add too much acid to my compost, which is what I'll be doing with this stinky garden gold. So I opted for straw. (Straw, not hay. I learned there is a difference!)

Another lesson: there are two different forms of feed for chickens ~ pellets and crumbles. Luckily I had seen our friends feed the hens when we visited them last week, so I knew that crumbles were what we wanted. Boy, was it cheap! 45-cents a pound. That seems cheap to me. I bought a 10-pound bag for $4.50 that should last me a couple weeks. We'll see how long it takes them to go through it.

So with feed and straw in hand, we went to look at feed and water containers. What a lot of options! In size and material mostly. The options were either galvanized metal or plastic. The helper warned that plastic can freeze and crack in the winter, but since most of the smaller options are plastic, we still went with plastic. I had to weigh how much space I wanted to dedicate to these contraptions compared to how often I wanted to be out there filling them up.

We came home with these cute (I'm learning that I'm clearly a sucker for cute) one-gallon matching feeder/waterers. They are a bit flimsy and I'm not sure they'll be our long-term option, but we'll start here and see what we learn.

My next step is to spray the coop down with a white vinegar solution to ward off mold and bugs in hopes of giving the girls a healthy new home. Then I think I'll feel ready for our new additions!

Check back in a couple weeks to read about Moving Day!