strange roosting spot

We came home from shopping today to discover that Sunny was roosting on top of the coop door which was odd since we couldn't figure out how she would have gotten up there.

Picture of her in the background through the wire.

Closer up

coziness

Not quite sure if they all really had to lay at the same time or if the cold weather was making them snuggle together for warmth.

chicken sitting

So my chicken sitters so far have been friends who come by every couple of days to collect eggs and generally just make sure the chickens were still alive. But I found a flier on my front porch from some kids down the street who want to make a buck. They advertised as charging $1 a day to collect mail and newspapers when you were on vacation. I wonder if they can be persuaded to collect eggs instead when we are gone. Would I still pay them a dollar though?

Prop 2

Well prop 2 is chicken related so here is a post about it. You would think I would have been all about voting Yes on prop 2. But I admit being very ambivalent about it - I know that battery chickens have a hard time of it (they get debeaked and are crowded together), but I always thought we the public should make that choice and vote with dollars by buying "cage free" (ambiguous as that term is). I could have gone either way and in the weeks before election found myself falling on the No side surprisingly after reading some chicken forums (yes they exist) and seeing how vague the proposition was written. But looks like Californians are much nicer than me and chickens are going to get some breathing room. Now we'll see what my cousin over in Modesto is going to do about his chicken farm - he must be having a heart attack now.

In honor of free range chickens, I let the chickens roam free extra long this morning but all they did was hover around the bucket of sunflower seeds (their favorite snack). Hmm, it must be like crack to them. C says he must teach them chicken tricks now knowing that they love the seeds.

Everything is alright again

Sally started laying her eggs randomly on the floor of the house because of Buffy's broodiness (she would make raptor noises at the other chickens when they got close to the nest box). We fixed buffy's broodiness so that she is back to laying normally again but Sally didn't return to the boxes. C tried putting her physically in the box to remind her but she just ran off screaming. Hmm. Next we piled up eggs in the box since chickens usually lay where they see other eggs but no luck. The thing that finally worked was putting a box where she was laying on the floor of the house (intended for her to lay in) but turns out it bothered her enough that the next day, she returned to the nest box. yay.

chicken jail

So buffy has gone broody. Charles saw her trying to roll the golf ball under her body unsuccessfully (because the nest box is ramped so the ball just rolls away) to try and hatch it. Here is the wikipedia definition of a broody hen:

Under natural conditions most birds lay only until a clutch is complete, and they will then incubate all the eggs. Many domestic hens will also do this – and are then said to go broody. The broody hen will stop laying and instead will focus on the incubation of the eggs (a full clutch is usually about 12 eggs). She will sit or set fast on the nest, protesting or pecking in defense if disturbed or removed, and she will rarely leave the nest to eat, drink, or dust-bathe. While brooding, the hen maintains the nest at a constant temperature and humidity, as well as turning the eggs regularly during the first part of the incubation. To stimulate broodiness, an owner may place many artificial eggs in the nest, or to stop it they may place the hen in an elevated cage with an open wire floor.

So I was trying to stop her broodiness by putting her into chicken jail and not letting her go into the nest box. I felt bad for her tonight when I came home and I picked her up to re-join the others and she immediately jumped into the nest box. sigh. I guess it's chicken jail again for her tomorrow.

A picture of chicken jail (it almost looks like the brown ones are talking to her to figure out an escape plan)

the queue

On the flip side of the two in the box situation, we have the not enough boxes situation. Here is buffy waiting patiently for her turn in the box since both are occupied.

two's a crowd

So Sunny likes the right side nest box and I guess Sally does too. So what happens when they have to lay at the same time? I guess they just have to share.

big bird

This is buffy.

She is somewhat mentally challenged, I admit. I had a pet fence standing alone (not actually fencing anything off) in the middle of the yard and when the 3 chickens went running across the yard, she would stop in front of the fence and take the effort to jump on and over it while the other two just went around it.

Now with the egg laying - she has laid 8 eggs. One has been in the run. Two have been broken and one was randomly found at the top of the ramp. So she's at around 50% right now. Either she's too big for the nest box or just likes to stick her butt out so that the egg just falls out of her ass and breaks. Hopefully she will learn. Well at least she's doing better than sally who still hasn't laid an egg yet!

sunny side up

I had them for breakfast. Yum.

now in the right place

Buffy was the one who dropped her first egg randomly in the run but now it looks like she learned where the right place is but man she created a ruckus this morning trying to lay her egg. She's normally quite a silent chicken so perhaps this whole egg laying is a bit traumatic for her. Puberty always is.

mislaying

So Homan asked yesterday how do the chickens know to lay in the nest box and I answered, "they just know." Well clearly they don't just know. This morning, I went out to the coop and found an egg on the ground in the run. So one of the other 2 chickens is laying as well and hasn't learned the proper place to lay (or was just to lazy to go upstairs into the nest box).

Not quite sure how to train her to go in the right place but I hope she learns because her egg ending up getting dirty. I have to figure out how to get it clean now.

it is sunny

who is laying the eggs. C got a shot of her in action - I'm sure she felt her privacy was invaded. And we did learn that indeed the egg yesterday was the first one.

an egg!

Well we just got back from LA today and discovered that Sunny (we think) has started laying! We had a chicken sitter over the weekend so not sure if it's her first egg or not but it's her first egg to us.

Here is the picture.

sally vicious

I should have named her sid vicious. Sally, the runt of the flock has turned into "The Evil One" as we like to refer to her. In the last week or two, instead of running away when you try to pet her, she has taken to turning around to confront you with her sharp little beak. Today she took a peck out of my arm and when I had to go inside their run to do stuff, she viciously attacked my pants. She is clearly the top chicken since I see her chasing the other two around.

I remember another lady who had posted to the mailing list saying her rhode island red chicken was getting aggressive as well so I emailed her to ask what she ended up doing. Her response was: "I think we were the ones that got "trained." We've learned how to move around her, pick her up from behind, etc. I'll often bring a treat in and throw it away from me."

Hmm. That doesn't bode well. C suggests that the next she pecks at us that we peck back to show her who's boss.

San mateo county fair

So I dragged C to the San Mateo county fair expressly for the purpose of seeing the livestock exhibits. (And he admitted he enjoyed far more than he thought). In addition to the large cows, pigs, and incredibly freaking looking turkeys, we of course found chickens!

This one C referred to as the "Russian"


Also there was a stark contrast between the fat, immovable meat chickens versus the normal egg laying varieties. Here are the meat chickens that would be going up for auction.

Sunbathing

This is a really weird pose that Sunny likes to be in when sunbathing on the deck. Not sure why her feathers are all ruffled but it makes her look very alien and scary.

chicken on the roof

So for the last two days, we've been having the chickens put themselves to sleep in their coop instead of ushering them in earlier. This seemed to be working okay until today. I saw them all go in and made a note to go out there and close the door later. Then the chicks all came out again and started clucking. Suddenly I heard a big squawk so I looked outside and realized Buffy had jumped on top of the big door. I didn't realize she could jump that high. C went out there to get her down and she then stepped up to the roof of the coop. I was a bit nervous that she would then go up to the roof of the house. To make matters worse, the other chicks started squawking - maybe they were telling Buffy to come down? Anyhow, C was eventually able to get her down from the roof. Still not sure what caused her to jump up there.

behind closed doors

The chicks in the last two days have been taking to hiding in their coop behind the door all day. I only saw them come out once yesterday for some food. At first i thought maybe one was laying an egg and they were all supporting her. But I looked inside last night and nope, no egg (well unless they ate it). So maybe they just need some alone time or are plotting their escape. I'm curious to know. I need an interior webcam clearly. For now, all I have is this exterior view which doesn't change all day. I need x-ray vision.

chickens on reality tv

So on the reality show Keeping up with the Kardashians, the mom decided to get some chickens. It's kind of funny how grossed out the daughers are by the whole thing.

eggs for sale

Looks like a lot of people in the San Juan Islands especially Lopez island have chickens. We passed many lanes with eggs for sale signs. Here is one really cute one.

how to beat the heat

The answer is use lots of ice. The chicks are taking advantage of the frozen milk bottle I put in there though today isn't as hot as Tuesday. They have a little bird bath as well though they don't seem to want to go in.

chicken tennis

A somewhat old video but I appreciate it more now.

corn on the cob

I harvested the two ears of corn last week and they were delicious - I really should have taken a picture. Being generous, I shared half the bounty with the chicks who at first ignored it but I yanked off a kernel to show them, they came and attacked the cob with vigor. We had to hold the cob for them since otherwise it would roll around and they would "accidentally" peck our fingers. Hey, we're not food.

Unfortunately, they have now discovered the corn stalks and for some reason like to eat the leaves so they are yanking on the ends. Hopefully the other corn won't go the way of the strawberries which had to be replanted in hopes of regrowth.

chicken run

The chickens are organized (well two of them at least). I believe they are trying to dig their way out.

mealworm shortage

Apparently this is the summer of shortages as we now see it hit pet stores. The chickens' favorite treat is mealworms which I normally buy at the local pet store but I saw on the various forums that there was a shortage so I went to Petco to see and sure enough, the fridge was cleaned out. All the online sites also reported shortages for the next month. Sadly, I had just fed them the last of the worms last week. But I guess it's really the pet lizards out there who are suffering since apparently they consume worms as their main food source. Luckily, this week I finally realized the best way to get them back into their coop when I go to work was to wave their yellow food dish around - they remember it as a food source from when they were young and come running. And the treat I have settled on giving them when they come in is just mash - a combination of their normal chicken feed and water. For some reason, they like the mushy food.

Meanwhile, I've placed an order for dried mealworms. We'll see if they like it at all.

chicks on a bench

When I let them out to free range, they like hanging out on this bench in my backyard. Good thing no one uses this bench or else they may get a poopy surprise.

chicken training

Clearly I should have started doing some training early on. Nowadays, I'm just happy if I can herd them back to their coop.

Coop complete

Here is the final picture of the coop. We had some folks over this last weekend to see the chickens and coop. Everyone was quite amazed with C's work.

As we were taking pictures, the chicks came in their house to say hello



And then proceeded to roost in front of us

webcam control

For those who use the chicken webcam and care, I created some preset camera positions so now you can move the camera around sort of and aren't just stuck at whatever camera view I left it at.

Chicks at 2 months

Here is the latest picture of 2 of the chicks. They are starting to look like proper chickens now. The coop is mostly done as well but will take a picture of it next week.

tucking themselves in

So I was all worried that the chicks wouldn't learn how to put themselves in their house at night before we left on our trip. I was putting them manually in every night because otherwise it would get dark and they would just end up sleeping wherever they happened to be at night. When we were away last weekend, I ended up checking the webcam and realized that they had learned how to use the ramp and were consistently going in to sleep when it got dark. I was quite amazed - I thought they would be the slowest learners in the world. Here they are on the webcam at 8:20pm tonight marching up the ramp.

Almost done

Despite the hot weather over the weekend, we forced ourselves to finish the run in the nick of time since we'll be out of town next weekend and needed to make sure the chicks could survive by themselves for 3 days. Still a few things left like a ramp to help them get back into the coop at night (We had to manually put them back in last night). Still needs a real roof but that can wait for a while assuming it doesn't rain.

heat wave

As you can imagine, the heat wave is hitting the chicks hard since they are out in the coop and don't have a run yet. I rushed home yesterday when I saw in the webcam that they had knocked over their water and were panting heavily. Today, I put in frozen bottles of water that they could lie on (though looks like they have mostly melted now) and a little tub of extra water. I also stuck a fan in there though they are really afraid of it and stay far away. Buffy seems to be using the little tub as her wading pool now and despite being the most feathered chick, she doesn't seem to be suffering as much today as a result. Maybe I need a bigger wading pool for them.

One more weekend

The frame for the run was completed this weekend. Roofing and wire is left and only 1 more weekend to go!

Moving on in

We moved the chicks into the coop this weekend but then I got all nervous b/c it was 50 degrees at night so I moved the heat lamp and webcam out there as well so I could check on them. They slept under the heat lamp all night so I guess they will need it for a while. They also don't like being in the dark (apparently chickens don't have good night vision) but hopefully I can wean them off the light when they get older.

Coop almost done.

Hitting the home stretch with the coop but we do still need to build a run.

Week 5: looking feathered

The chicks are getting more feathered now and buffy is 2 times the size of the other two it seems or maybe it's just all her puffiness.

They also know how to roost pretty well now.

Current coop progress

Latest picture of the coop

Week 4: grazing

Let the chicks out again this weekend. They were rolling around in the dirt which was kind of funny to see.

Week 3: Getting antsy

The chicks are getting antsy in their box and are trying to jump out these days. Buffy actually did jump out and then overshot the edge and fell to the ground. She seemed a bit dazed when I picked up but otherwise okay.

Buffy is almost completely feathered now and the brown ones are getting more feathered by the day. I also went out and bought some mealworms for them so now they get all uber excited when I go clean their box because they think I'm going to feed them.

Coop frame assembled

It's quite large.

Week 2: chicks outside

I let the chicks outside since the weather was so nice this weekend and they seemed to enjoy it. We also found a worm to feed them which made them very excited. Forgot to have my camera at the time to record the feeding frenzy that occurred.

the chicks are here

We ended up driving a lot today to get the chicks I wanted. We went to half moon bay feed and fuel only to discover they only had one sickly buff orphington chick left so we picked up two rhode island red chicks. We then went to a gilroy feed store to pick up a buff orphington chick. So now we have one older yellow chick and two small brown chicks. Guess the buff orpington is a bit older. Luckily this breed is usually at the bottom of the pecking order so maybe her size will help.

frame assembled

After a long days at lowe's

we finally have all the material ready.

after some digging

Ready for construction

chosen site

We decided this was the optimal place to build the coop. Now just have to destroy the greenery.