Good-Bye Mr. Dove

T

After 2 hours on Criaglist Mr. Dove has a new home. I tell you, if I was looking for a business to be in I'd have one that focused on chickens. I know they don't sell for much, but anytime I've posted a chicken on craigslist.com I've had response in a matter of hours. I've had people drive for hours for some of my extra chicks. Granted, we live in Central New York and you have to drive hours to go anywhere it seems, but still...for a little chick them come from miles.

I thought a rooster may be harder to find a home for because there were a few listed. However, we are taking little Mr. Dove to his new home on the way to the soccer game today. I always get so nervous when we part with a feathered friend. I can't come out and say "you can't eat him!"...though I'd like to. I always charge, because I feel that a free chicken is sure to end up in the pot..but then again $5 is nothing for an organically grown chicken. He's small though....

You can tell that we not actually farmers. It's a shame really. I do see the irony in it. We eat chicken, and I spend a lot on the local chicken. Why can't we grow and eat our own? That was that plan really. A friend and I were going to each grow a small clutch of meat chickens and then trade them. That way we would have no emotional attachment....and neither would our children..to the chickens we were eating. Organic chickens are crazy expensive and I'm forced to only offer chicken occasionally because we are too weak to grow our own food. We wouldn't survive in the wild.

My husband looked at all the YouTube instructions on how to process them and thought for a while he could do it. ( what would life be life without YouTube??? It's the best thing EVER!!) He thought about it for a while and we got all excited about being homesteaders. Then it kind of hit him. One of my sons is a total vegetarian. We are all pretty close to being meat-free (except my oldest son - he would eat a cow on his own if he had never met the cow face to face) I guess we just have to accept that we can't do it. Our chickens keep us in fresh eggs and friendship.

We wish Mr. Dove well, but we know his fate is his own. I don't want to know.

Diving Hawk

I have been under the misunderstanding that my chickens were too big for the seemingly small Red Tail Hawks we have flying all around us. I've been letting my girls run around the yard for the past three years. I've only been letting them out in the center of the day where I've felt safer from the foxes. I have seen a fox in the middle of the day, but most often in the morning or evening. I'm always on the watch for coyotes but it's actually been a while since I've seen one of those mangy things running through the yard. They are my least favorite animal of all! Of all the things I feared for my hens I was just blind to the threat flying above us.

Perhaps it's because my cat has cleared out what ever field mice and moles there were in the open field next to us. Perhaps this hawk just woke up and felt like a change in diet and felt extremely bold. I do have to say that a Red Tail Hawk is a beautiful majestic looking creature. I admire them from my front window as I see them circle above. They always seem so small. It's hard for me to believe it could really pick up one of my hens. That didn't stop her from trying.

I was standing on the deck talking on the phone and admiring the zen-fullness of the clutch pecking around happily under the willow tree when from out of the tree dives the bold hawk. I screamed and got off my call to run down to protect my girls. As I was standing there the hawk took another dive right next to me! I always walked over and stood in the middle of my hens whenever I saw the flying predator before. I just assumed that my presence would deter any interest. I was wrong. This bird either didn't notice me standing there shooshing it or it was simply amused by my waving arms.

To make a long story short, I rounded up all my girls with my super duper pool noodle and got them back into the run in a flash before the attacker had a chance to take another dive. All is well, however, my girls complain to me when I refuse to open the run door. I'm going to leave them en the run or the tractor now. It's such a shame. They were loving those bugs in the ditch area. At least they are safe.

Baby Eggs

"Hello....are you talking about me again?"

Momma, Pappa and Baby omelets

 This is Betty. She's a Dominique and is the softest, friendliest, sweetest, bravest, and all around fun young lady in the coop. I got her when she was a couple weeks old, so I'm not sure of her exact age. I keep forgetting to ask. Her cohorts are Yorkie the Barred Rock and Lemonade and Fifi the Salmon Favorollies.
She's the biggest of the group and she also has started hanging out with my older layers. It's like she's in the "in" crowd now. I wouldn't be shocked if it did turn out to be Yorkie, but we'll see.

My wonderful husband.

 My husband is pretty sure the newest egg belongs to Betty. Ever since he built them the new nest box he has taken to collecting the eggs. I leave them in there until he gets home so I don't take his fun away. I love that he's getting involved with the chickens. He sees now why I love them so much. He's always been so good about it..even letting me let them live in the garage a couple of cold winters...<3

I know my coop isn't fancy, but it's 4x8 with these old windows that I can slide to open or close in front of the hard wire that's over every opening in the coop. It's safe and I have two doors in back I can get right in there if I want to. I do need to pretty it up a bit. I have screen door windows over the fenced run right now to keep the rain off the back of the run. They hang out under it a lot when they aren't running around the yard. It's hardwired all the way around the back. I've had my share of scares..so I have enough fear in me to double check everything every day. Knock on wood..I've never lost a feathered friend..sure have come close though.

Reba - The best layer and dog-chicken

 Reba is now 2 years old and lays about every single day. My 3 1/2 year old Astrolorp also lays like 4-5 a week when she isn't broody....which drives me and all my hens nuts! My 3 1/2 year old Easter Egger is really not a great layer at all. She was hiding them at one time, so I can't say for sure. I do leave her in the run some days to see if she is laying. I think she holds them in until she can find a hiding spot though. She has such great personality that even if she doesn't lay I can't see letting go to someone else. She's the alarm bell and has saved the clutch in the past.

I wish they all layed like Reba! We run low on eggs with 6 of us and my husband likes to show off my deviled eggs. I haven't had enough to send to work with him. Now that Betty and her cohorts are going to start laying I'll have 7 layers. That will be good for us. It will be a while for Lilly to start and well....I'm thinking Dovie never will:( I'm not letting her/him go until there is absolutely no doubt and Lilly is big enough to cuddle with the bigger girls. They still haven't really accepted the little ones. They do let them hang out with them, but they won't let them on the big roost. They'll be big enough soon. Ahh..they grow up so fast.

Crows from the Coop

But "She's" just a baby.....We could be wrong, but Dovie was stretching her wings at the exact time we heard the crowing. She is so young so I was really surprised. The jury is still out because I've only heard this once. I'm holding out hope because I love this little bird and I'm not allowed to keep a rooster...I'm kind of not supposed to have any chickens but I told the town I'd fight them and never stop. I guess having chickens is a "hobby farm" and you have to have 5 acres. We have 2 1/2 and live in the middle of no where...really??? It's been a few years, so they aren't saying anything but I won't push it and get a rooster. That's just inviting trouble.

I'm holding out hope that the crowing was a fluke. Keep your fingers crossed for me. She's my only Buff Brahma and just look how beautiful she/he is. 


update...my son "thinks" she did it again today. I still don't want to believe it...since I didn't hear her..I'm not going to count it. She has gotten a tiny bit bitty with me though... (tears)

Our Lovelys

 Dove is a Buff Brahma and the sweetest little thing! We had 2 Lt. Brahmas for a while but they were crazy. Our favorite was a Lt. Brahma named Bunny and she was wonderful except she turned so mean on both sets of the babies and we thought she might actually kill someone. I really wanted to be able to put them all together and saw that if she was gone they get along without me having to keep the babies in the tractor or the rabbit hutch I use for "isolation". We gave her to our friend who had given us the babies. They love her so everyone is happy. She is a great pet and a great layer. I guess being in a new family brought the bossiness down a bit. The 2 little Lt. Brahmas were impossible to catch. We keep chickens as pets and they aren't good pets if you can't catch them! They were so flighty that the others would beat them up to try to calm them down. We see this with Reba who gets a bit crazy to get that coop window seat.

 Yorkie is a Barred Rock...named Yorkie because we thought she was the Dominique and that's an old American breed and we live in New York..my son choose the name..I went along with it. She is so soft, but not as soft as our Dominique Betty. OMG..Betty is the softest most cuddly girl. Beautiful..just beautiful! I never want to be without one. She is brave and friendly. Love:)

 This is one of our Faveorilles Lemonade inside the coop. I'm happy using the deep litter method. I use the DE and it never smells at all and they are happy all winter in upstate NY....it gets coooold up here.

 This is my baby. Lily is the one chicken I will have to take with us when we move next year. She is a Golden Laced Wyandotte and she is the only chick I've ever had that come running to me at this young age. We picked her because she jumped up on my husbands chair. She snuggles and I bring her inside to just sit with me. She is my favorite hen ever!

This is my daughters baby Lemonade. She has actually become a bit flighty now. She had sooo much love in the beginning but now she has lost a lot of that calmness. I think it might be that she is low in the pecking order and she does get chased a bit by the other hens. So sad, it seems like the best pets have a harder time dealing with the others.

Too busy with Chicks for Crafts

I hate to admit that I'm waiting for a rainy day so we can get back to crafting. It seems I ripped my rotatee cup or something like that...I meet with an orthopedic surgeon soon. That leaves me out of gardening for a bit. I must have done it throwing rocks. My girls are too captivated with the baby chicks to want to come inside. We only got 4 from a friend this year, but two of them are Faverolle chicks. I have never in my life seen such easy going holdable chicks!
Luna will put her "Lemonade" on her lap and she will just sit there nicely and go to sleep. I would half think a panic coma, but the little bird lets her catch her and gets carried around for hours. I have to tell them both to put the chicks down enough to let them eat. These are some very very well chicks!
The other two are a Dominique and a Barred Rock. Both are very sweet, but a bit flighty and nothing like the two Faverolle chicks. I think we are hooked.
Look how cute these chicks are!

New Chicken Blog

 I've decided that I needed to separate my thoughts and I started a new blog only about my chickens...because if you know me, you know I love my chickens. I've only begun, but I have a couple of posts so far. One is my introduction and today was about coop safety. I think I'll be moving back over to this site, but I'm still learning what I'm doing...in case you can't tell:)

Here is The Yellow Hen House blog site:                  http://yellowhenhouse.wordpress.com


update.....ok, so if you've been there you know that I haven't been.... I mean well..really I do.

That picture is of my dear Bunny. She was so mean to the baby chicks I thought she might actually kill one. I gave her to a friend and they are all very happy together...I miss my Bunny:(

Trying to keep my chickens happy in the winter.

So far my son is convinced that global warming is the main concern in upstate NY. It's December 22 and it's about 40 degrees outside. They are hoping for snow for Christmas Eve and it may happen. While my children aren't pleased about this wonderfully warm winter my hens are very happy. I've been able to have them out in the tractor a few days. It has been easier to keep water in its liquid state for them with this warm spell. I would like my winter days to be no colder than 40...actually 50 degrees. I'm not a winter person. There is nothing I like about being cold...but here and I and I'm really trying to make the best of it. I bought myself a treadmill to keep me from going crazy. It's the best money I've ever spent on "recreation".

I have my coop full of wood chips and hay. I have been keeping the water in the run area but I do need to find a better solution. They tip it in the coop and I can't have it getting wet in there. I did have a small waterer in a pan, but they wanted to roost on it. When I had it in there we did have a very cold spell.... 10-20 degrees! The water actually didn't freeze, so that tells me the coop will work for them.

I've been bringing them into the garage for the past 2 years. It got so messy in there last year when they kept breaking out of the make-shift coop that we decided not to do that this year. The lawn mower will never be the same... I'm a bit nervous about keeping them outside, but all the breeds I got are selected because they are very cold hardy. There are 6 of them to keep each other warm and the coop is pretty good. I tried to insulate the walls with that foam insulation... STUPID mistake. They ATE it!

I've read a lot about the deep liter method, so that is what I'm doing. I've caulked around the outside for any drafts on the northern side of the coop. I did leave some slits around the southern facing windows for air though. I just can't be sure if I'm letting in too much cold or if it's the right thing to do for air circulation. I've read many warnings about the need for circulation in the coop, but it does get COLD up here. I think I'll put some kind of cover on the slits to keep direct wind from blowing in.

I don't have a heated waterer, but I'm home all day and I'm neurotic about them and like the idea of checking on them a few times a day. They are so happy to see me come out with warm water and oatmeal. I don't provide them with any heat except an occasional milk jug of super hot water. I place it in the corner of the coop to dissipate some heat when it's super cold. I don't supplement light for them either. I did when they were in the garage last year and they kept on laying. I haven't had more than 1 egg a day lately. They need a break. 2 of them are in the first year, 3 are going on their 3rd year and 1 I'm not sure of because I adopted her. I'm guessing she's about 2. They all seem very happy and healthy. So I must be doing OK for a city girl.

The Fox won't leave!

I have really had enough of this fox! The gray fox that was here the other night hasn't been seen since. However, this red fox has been here every day! The movie I took of her (I say her because I also now have a picture of her going to the bathroom across the street) was at about 11 AM. The pictures I just took today were at 1 P.M.. This fox is running for the whole day it seems. I wonder if it's too late in the year to be feeding babies? I do know that she isn't shy and she has NO fear of me. She will just stand and look at me. Yes, it kind of freaks me out.....

Move on Mrs. Fox... my chickens are not for dinner!!

Fox in the window

Wow, I just had a stare down with a red fox and even with calling my family so they could see him he didn't move. I heard my Easter Egger "Jumper's" sounding the alarm and I know to listen to her by now. She is amazing! All those hens owe her their lives on more than one occasion. I ran out to the run and couldn't see why she didn't want to go into the coop. It was about dusk and they are usually like clock work. She was standing in the run on the Lilac tree limb I put in there and just squawked and squawked with her head up like a newly crowned beauty contest winner.  I knew there was danger close by. She's the only one who will sound the alarm like that. Perhaps it's because she has spent time in the mouth of a coyote??

When I ran out of the basement door I must have run right past our visitor without knowing. I ushered Jumpers in once I saw the coop was safe and counted to 6. 6 lovely hens sitting on the perch. They just make me happy to watch:) I can't imagine why anyone with a yard wouldn't want a couple of hens in it. I love my girls and no one can convince me that they don't love me....except for one of them, but she's coming along.

Once everyone was in and calmed down I started walking back into the house.  There is a very small cement patio with a retaining wall at the basement entrance about 12'x12'. Right in front of the window standing on the retaining wall between me and the door was a rather large (the biggest I've seen around here) red fox with a black tip on it's fluffy tail and a dark black mask on his eyes. Just gorgeous! He stood there and starred at me and acted like he wasn't planning on getting out of my way. I started screaming for my family to come out to the deck and look down at him. My sons came out and watched him as he jumped off the 18" wall and ran a bit into the yard and stopped again to look at me.

We had direct eye contact for what seemed like 10 minutes. It was a good bit of time and when you look an animal like that in the eye it makes you feel like you are special. I would have liked it more if I didn't know that he would make a main dish out my beloved hens if he had the chance. I have a tomato plant sitting in the garden that I didn't clean up yet with a few extra ripe tomatoes that the bugs got before I did. I figured that I would allow some to just sit there and see what happens. This is one of the only gardens I'm keeping for next year since we are having grading down. I had tons of tomatoes this year that volunteered from neglected plants last year. I think my plan didn't take into account that other animals besides my girls would like to nibble on the ripe fruit left there. I did realize that my compost pile had fox visitors last year. I put a stop to that and am looking for a tumbling compositor on sale.The welcome mat is gone.

It was nice to meet you Mr. Fox, but you are not welcome in my yard.

My mean pet chicken

I don't know what to do...well, I do, but I don't want to. I didn't choose my Easter Egger Eastie, my son did. (as well as her name) She isn't very pretty, she gets beat up on all the time, she's neurotic (why she gets beat up on..or because of it...we need a chicken LCSW) This chicken choose me. There's no question. I've held her when she was sick and have protected her to great extremes including getting rid of half my clutch with my favorite girls because they were mean to her.

Eastie thinks that she is a dog and follows me around closely. She tries to get into the house when you open the door and when I pull up in the van she runs up to great me and hops up into the car. The fact the kids drop french fries on the floor might add to that wanting to get into the car. She's even tried to get in through windows. She just wants to be with me. The small group (she's grown up with them except for one) I have now are wonderful and even they peck at her back...she doesn't have any feathers above her tail area. I couldn't see why everyone..EVERYONE was mean to her. I thought maybe because she is my pet and gets extra treats and the others were jealous.

My husband brought her other behavior to my attention and I see her in a new light. Maybe she just loves me for the treats? No, I still think she loves me though. She HAS to be free range. I don't let them unless I can watch them since I've spotted countless foxes and coyotes in our yard. I've never lost one, but they have been saved literally from the jaws of death. She'll pace and jump and just go nuts sometimes when they are in the run and I can only imagine in the coop. (It's 4X8 with a 10x8 run) They have good space for 5 chickens and they spend most of their time in the front yard at the bird feeder or digging up my gardens.

The other chickens just hate her. Momma is nice to her and will cover her at night, but will also peck to keep her in line when she is getting spazzy. Now my daughter and I each have a new baby. They are about ready to join the big girls. The hen I've been babysitting is going home so that's 4 hens and two babies. One would think that would be fine. My other 3, 2 black Astrolorps and my other Easter Egger, are nice to the babies and will peck around the yard with them and hang out together on the bricks. Eastie will charge them and peck at their heads! They could just be sitting there in the sun and she'll attack. We've spent time really getting these chicks to be calm. Luna holds her RIR Reba like a rag doll and plays with her in the sand box. She LOVES that chicken. I hold Bunny all the time and we sit on the bench swing all 4 of us and she cuddles, closes her eyes, and falls asleep. This chicken just sleeps in my arms like a baby. So, to have my 2 year old spazzy hen attacking these babies is NOT acceptable.

Eastie and I have a relationship though. I know I'll have to get rid of all my girls when my husband finds another job, but I actually had secret plans to keep her and just build her a nice indoor coop until we got where we were going. So you see, I'm close to this chicken. Am I so disloyal that I'm choosing the babies over her? Wouldn't life be easier if I didn't have to worry so much about the social issues of my chickens? I have no soap opera any more..so they are my replacement. I'd have a peaceful hen house without her. Would she be happy with strange chickens in someone else's run? I know someone with 1 chicken that free ranges and sleeps in a small coop on her porch. I'm going to ask her if Eastie could live with them. I got her as a 1 day old chick over 2 years ago. She lays a perfect pale green egg for me almost everyday. She looks at me as a mother and here I am sending her off to a place that won't be as safe as the home she has known her whole life. Just to keep babies that I'll have to part with maybe before they even start to lay if  job comes in?

The drama of a chicken keeper......

update: Eastie is still happy and healthy at my friends more than a year later. Sadly she has forgotten me. Yes, I did think she would remember me:(

Here come the Chicks!

In one week we'll have 25 baby brown egg laying chicks! Yea!!!! I just couldn't make a decision this year so I went with the assortment from McMurry. I was just going to get maybe 5 from Tractor Supply this year, but, well, I just couldn't help myself. I have to build a new coop for any chicks that I get anyway, so I might as well build big. I figure that with more chickens huddled together over the winter I could keep them outside in the coop instead of bringing them into the garage. I do love being able to go down there, but I'm so not looking forward to the clean up. I don't want my husband to even go down there right now.

One more week....I'll get my brooder together today. I use the big storage tubs for the first week, but I'll have a big box for them after that. The first few weeks from 90 degrees to 70 and they don't need the lamp any more is the hardest. I've never lost a chicken though, so luck is with me. My last batch was from Stromberg though, and my Dad recommended them. I've heard good things about McMurry on the boards and I got the extra gel stuff for when they arrive. I'm a bit nervous . Last year I only kept 12 after the first day. I'll need a whole lot more room this year. Fun! My kids can't wait.