Meeting the big girls!

Today we messing with the chicks, and they are now almost a month old. They look very ugly at this point, they are in their inbetween stage from fuzzy to feather! We inspected each of them and handled them. Later we took a few out side into the grass to play. Shortly we brought a few of the chicks out to meet the ladies. The ladies weren't interested in them one bit, and the chicks began to forage a bit.

Sadly all the chicks have been growing really well, however all but one! We named her Quazi. She is one of the runts and we've noticed that her toes were slightly curled a bit as a young chick. We thought puting in a perch an allowing the chicks to perch would help with her toes but apparently she doesn't perch at all. Now her feet are full on deformed. She is a very sweet bird but I don't think she will be able to perch, so we'll have to make somehting for her. =(

Poor Lylevetta Love It! =(

Yesterday, the 26 of April, Lylevetta Love It was butchered. =( That afternoon we went out there to play with the girls and we noticed that her duct was covered in blood. We thought she might have poked her but on something sharp, but upon further inspection we saw that she had her insides sticking out of her duct, known as a prolasped oviduct or blow out! We cleaned it up, put some cool water on it and tried to push it back in, however it wouldn't stay, and you can see where the tissue had been damaged from exposure and the other hens picking at her. We were hoping that it would go back in when then swelling goes down, but the other hens were ruthless and harrassing her non-stop. Saddly we decided to put her out of her suffering and we butchered her.
We let her out to forage one last time all by herself where she could gorge on grubs and worms, and them Glen come and got her. Glen said she went quickly and looked like she went to sleep. He cleaned her up and prepared her and he said it was really easy and quick. He tossed her in the oven when I went to class and when I got home, we made some mashed potatoes, green beans and stew veggies. Kathren was a bit upset about the whole thing, but eventually came around. She kept telling Glen she wanted to keep her feet!  Yuck! I was thinking a feather would have been more appropriate, but luckily she forgot all about it after dinner.
It was bitter sweet, but we agreed that the ladies were for eggs then meat. Lylevetta got to live a nice life while she was here, spoiled on treats, got free time to forage, dig and be a bird. She had fresh air, clean cage, fresh water, feed and sunshine every day! She had a good life with us here, gave us plenty of eggs and made us wonderful meal. We are greateful for her for giving us that.

A Day For The Birds!

   Today is such a beautiful day, about 88degrees, glorious sunshine,wild brids singing and chirping and butterflies chasing each other about!  The smell of fresh cut grass in the air, such a beautiful day! With that being said, we took the little chicks out and let them get some sunshine and learn how to peck at the ground for bugs and vegitation. It took them a while to figure it out, but they finally figured it out! They are adorable and Kathren adores them.

   Later Glen got a great idea to hang a piece of fruit or veggie from a string and watch the ladies hit them up!  They had a lot of fun messing with that and it gives them something to do.

   Glen discovered the big Domenuques ability to high jump for worms and cheerios! He has alot of fun with these girls.

   Kathren finally got over her fear of hand feeding and was so proud of being able to feed the ladies! She treated the ladies who get picked on the most !

   A wonderful spring day, spent playing with the chicks and ladies, got 5 eggs out of the girls today, and the day is still young! Going to enjoy this Sunday!

OH MY!! What is this!!

   So I came home from shool on Friday the 8th of April, tierd and ready for a nap after my three hour Humanities class (which I love, just really long), and Glen rushed me down stairs to show me something. I reluctantly followed down to the garrage (the only thing in the garage is is car, the motorcycle or his toy car... so I'm never really thrilled to go down there). To my surprize, when he opened the door, I saw my rabbit hutch rigged with a heat lamp! OH MY!! What is this!!?!! There were 5 little chicks, cute as can be! We had talked about getting chicks to replenish the flock come fall when we slaughter a few, and to make sure we have laying hens laying! I didn't think he'd act on it right away! Keep in mind, I only wanted 5 chickens to start with and now we have 13!  He told me all excited they were White Leghorns and filled me in on all the little details, he cleaned them all up carefully and added electrolyest to their water and like a mother hen kept watch on them. Here orry is checking them out, he's just as excited as his daddy was!

   We headed back to the feed store to exchange out a heat bulb and I started comparing the Australorp and the Leghorn, and realized the Leghorn is a lighter bird that layes really good but is fllighty and can fly. Where as the Australorp is a heavier breed, more friendly and a good layer, less likely to be flighty.
   We discussed their differences when we got home, and Glen went to go trade the Leghorns for the Australorps, he came home with 8 cuties. Yep, now we have 16 birds! Oh boy!

   So he kept an eye on them and stuggled to find  a way to keep their temp a constant 90 degrees. One thing we noticed at 90 they were laying around and seemed very hot. We droped the the temp to 87, and they didn't seem to improve much. At 84 they were acting normal again but we had hard time keeping it there. Finally we got the temp to regulate at 87 and set their enclosure up to have the heat in one part more than the other, that way they can regulate their own temp.  They have been doing really well, eating, drinking, moving around, are curiouse in things shinny and are being handled regularly and adjust very well. They are cute which helps me adjusting to them!

   Here is Glens monitoring system, from one laptop to the other, with a web cam monitoring them. Pretty high tech, but he has got a thermometer system rigged in there as well, and it show the flucuation in themperature as well, as their food and water etc.!

Eggs already!!

   Everything we've read said that after a stressful expierence don't expect for the hens to lay for a couple of day. Evidently, the move for the ladies must not have been that stressful, the girls gave us two eggs right off the bat the next morning. They were eating and drinking and starting to take an interest in us, especially after some tastey bread chunks. They seem to adapt quickly. They were a bit calmer around us when we went in the coop and seemed to be interested in just about everything we were doing.

   Right off the batt we got know the largest one in flock, and named her Faddy. She was HEAVY, missing some feathers around her bottom (where the White  Leghorn was plucking  her) and her feet were swollen, scaley and reddned.  The rest of her plumage is beautiful and a light buff color.It seemed like it was uncomfortable for her to walk, but she got around just fine when she thought you had a snack. She is on the Right next to the coop!

   Then there is Lylletta Love-It, her comb abit rose comb and flopped over to one side. She is the thrid largest, with some dark lacing on her buff feathers around her neck. She is a mouch, she loves to take snacks out of your hand, and isn't shy about it. She has very nice plumage and feet, and her head dress was very clean.

   Next we have Blondie, she is a beautiful blonde coloring all over. She is one of the smaller ones, and her comb was a bit tattered from other birds picking on her. Her legs and plumage were very nice, and her light blonde coloring is just beautiful. This is Blondie on the right and Faddy on the left.

   Now we have White Cheeks, who is petitie just like Blondie, but she has white patches on her cheeks. She is the lowes and most flightines of them all. She is on the right closest to the coop!

   Next is Biggie, she is the second biggest and has more of a darker buff on her plumage. She is not as sociable as the the others, and has the most beautiful comb on her head, almost looks like  a rooster. She too is missing some feathers around her bottom like Faddy, but her feet are in much better shape. Biggie is the one up front and Faddy is in the background, think they are buddies!

   Then we have Rosi, who is another petite girl, in a medium buff color, nice plumage and feet and and a cute little rose comb that sits tight on top of her head. Rosi is in the front on the far right closest to the house.

   The first Dominique is a larger female, slight rose comb, beautiful pulumage, clean feet and head dress. She is higher on the pecking order. She is pictured here comming out of the nest box, the lighter egg of the two is hers!

   The final bird, is the smallest of them all, she is a very petite Dominique, beautiful plumage, feet and a cute little rose comb, slightly picked on but she is low on the pecking order. She has the most regal neck and head carriage and is probably the pretties bird we've got.

   Over the week we've dusted and treated them for scaley mites in the event that is whats messing up their feet, and treated them for intestional parasites. They have adjusted to us nicely. Glen has also made adjustment to the coop, putting on a good roof and making a perch ladder for them.

   We've let them out a bit for free time in the yard, and they were so excited to find the worms, and found the majority of them  in out back porch area next to their coop and they are obsessed with them.  They love apple chunks, oatmeal, honey nut cherrios, bread, fresh grass pickings and V8 juice (Lylletta and Faddy hog it all)! Glen is always out there hanging out with the ladies and scoping for eggs. In the first week they have given us over a dozen of eggs, but you'd never know it because Glens egg breakfasts! =)

An April Adventure Begins - cluck cluck cluck!

   On April 2nd, my husband Glen, daughter Kathren and son Orry ventured to Tractor Supply to check out the local small critter swap. They had local farmers out to swap, sell and inform with people.  It was alot of fun, we checked out a bunch of goats, lambs, Kathren went to all the puppies begging for one, we saw ducks and bunnies! It was great. 
   I had been bugging Glen for over a year about getting some backyard chickens, for egg and if need be meat production.  He kept brushing me off, "another one of my endevours"! I bought books and researched city codes on chicken keeping.
   Of course as our luck would have it,the event at Tractor Supply was all out of chicks and chickens (except for one rooster- yea that is not going to happen). We did however get to talking to alot of the local farmers who raise chickens, which drew Glen in right away. Inside Tractor Supply they had Cornish Cross chicks, which I wasn't crazy about because have been selectively bred to grow quickly and over muscular, by which in 6 months if you don't slaughter them, their body weight will break their own legs and collaps on their lungs and heart. I find that cruel existence! So those were out!
   We decided to check out our local feed store, Wards, and check out their chicks.  They had Black Austrolps, Buff Orpingtons, Road Island Reds, White Leghorns.  The guys over there were extreemly helpful and recomended that maybe we start off with mature birds.  Glen kept harping on how he wanted eggs ASAP (part of his new diet). They recommended the board, where there was an advertisement for laying hens to be re-homed. 
   We gave them a call and headed out there.  When we got there, we checked out one coop that had 8 Campine  hens, they were very pretty, but flighty and seemed to be looking for any opportunity to escape as we peered through the chicken wire.  They were extreemly active and didn't seem to stop for one second. Beautiful but way to active for us and our kids!
   We climbed up a slight incline to another coop at the top, and there were some plump Orpington in a beautiful buff color. They too were a bit flighty but nothing like the other guys. There were 10 Orpingtons, 1 Leghorn and 2 Dominique hens. One of the Dominique had just finished laying an egg. They were pretty birds, and from what I had researched befor, the Orpington was a great dual bird, good egg production and heavy enough to eat, cold hard and heat tolerant.  They are supposed to be friendly birds and easy to handle. I was really attracted to them, for those reasons, but also the two Dominiques were just beautiful. While the Leghorn was running around plucking the feathers off of this one extreemly large Orpington hen and picking on the others.  We told the man that we'd have to set something up, and we'd get back to him, but expressed our intrest in the Orpingtons.
   We went home, and Glen was convinced backyard chickens was a great idea. We went to Lowes and bought a sturdy dog kennel and some other supplies and began working on it right away. We cleaned out our back patio area, and sanitized it. We put up the kennel in a matter of seconds, and furnished the inside with 4 homemade nestboxes, stainless steel feeder and water, with a ton of fresh bedding, and chicken blocks (treat/vitamen block). We were ready!

   We called the man back and headed out to pick up our ladies. We told him we cold only take 8, he had wanted us to take all 11, but I only wanted 5 initially and the White Leghorn was a bit of a bully! We settled on the 8, six Opingtons and the two Dominiques. As they rangled them up, I saw the extreemly large one that was getting plucked on, and I really didn't want her, her feet were scaley and she was missing alot of feathers, but in the heat of the moment, I didn't get the words out fast enough before they threw her in one of our dog crates. Oh well, I figured. I had my eye on this cute clean little blonde one, and she was the last one they picked for us, and I was happy to see her in the bunch.  They fit all 8 of them in Turexs' crate! He'd love that! They just lay there, not moving or making noise, I thought maybe some had died, w'd have to see when we got home.
   When we got the ladies home, we set up a perch in the corner, and let them out! They were cautiouse and curiouse. Glen shook them out of the Crate and they went scattering everywhere! Kathren and I didn't give the girls a break and took turns holding and petting each one, which we found they were quite calm, being dusk and all. Glen called his folks over and we all sat around and chatted abit and watched the chickens adjust. All had gone pretty smooth, and we were pleased.