Tag Archives: chickens

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When winter hits elsewhere, Mesa becomes a hotspot for migrating birds. Especially rock doves. They are a smaller version of morning doves and really very gentle and cute. When you have chickens, however, they are a BIG nuisance! They seem to find their way into our coop, year after year, no matter what. They eat the chicken feed and spread disease. Granted, our coops to date have had some pretty ‘thrifty’ runs.

This year, my husband and father took a day out of the busy holiday schedule and to build a wonderful new run onto our chicken coop. It took about $100. All you need are: 4 metal fence poles, a big role of chicken wire, 8ft of 2×4, a staple gun and some zip ties.

The end result was this:

It does an excellent job of keeping out the doves and provides a lot of running room for some very happy hens!

Also, Eli found a clever way of hanging their food away from the perch with this upside down plant hanger:

Now, off to the feed barn for some hay to really make those hens snug and happy!

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Pecking Order

 

When your whole world has in a metal water tough and expands, at its largest, to a sigle backyard, moving upstate for the summer can be stressful.

My Annabelle Lee got the worst of this summer’s migration and her fellow feathery friends started pecking on her out of frustration. (It’s call “canabalism,” but that term is a little extreme for my taste.)

Now, once your chickens have pecked enough on another that there is a visible bald patch, they won’t stop. Ever. So, you have a couple options: isolate or cover. I chose cover and while a little bit of duck tape will usually do the trick, my inner knitter got the better of my practicality and I decided I just had to knit Annabelle a chicken apron. Yes, it’s just as adorable as it sounds.

I found patterns online, but only for sewing. Undaunted, I used those patterns for measurements and knitted one up using a sturdy, colorful, all cotton yarn.

Now we just wait until her feathers are all grown in.

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Home. Grown.

 

This weekend my husband, two dogs and I all trekked up to Cottonwood to pick up my hens from my aunt. They were summering there to avoid the horrible valley heat after the tragic loss of my big-mama, Bellatrix, who perished trying to lay an egg at 2pm on a day of 114 degree heat :(

It was hard to be without them, but definitely the better decision for all involved. My aunt who has her own chickens (6 living in 2 lovely coops she made herself) was more than happy to have them and my hens were thrilled to be out of the oppressive heat. It may just become an annual event!

Two of my hens, Rue & Merryweather, were mere pullets when they left us at the end of June. They have both grown into beautiful, fluffy ameraucanas and we are looking forward to blue/green eggs in just a couple of months!

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Birds of a Feather: Broody

 

Well, it’s that time of year! Love is in the air, the skies are blue, the temperatures are soaring and mother nature has gotten the better of another hen. Bellatrix, queen of the roost, has gone broody. This means she has stopped laying and started trying to incubate her eggs.

How do you know when a hen is broody? Well, there are two mains signs:

1.) She cannot be coaxed out of the nesting box for ANY reason.

Chickens

2.) She plucks her belly feathers.

 

Belly

There are other signs as well; she will stop laying, her temperature will rise and she will only get up once a day to eat and drink.

So, naturally, the next question is: What do I do about my broody hen? You CANNOT let her stay broody, it will not ‘go away’ and she will starve/dehydrate herself if it goes on too long. Here are the other options:

1.) “Break” her. There are many methods of this and most not very nice. I don’t have the heart for it myself (I mean she really just wants to be a mommy and doesn’t she have the right?), but here’s a link to more info on how to “break” a broody hen. I chose this link because it has some very humane approaches.

2.) Get her some fertilized eggs and kick your heels back for 21 days while they incubate. I have done this once, and it was very exciting! Unfortunately, my hen hatched a rooster and one baby with such a horrible beak deformity we had to have it put down. Not the ideal outcome.

3.) Trick her. This is the way my husband and I have decided to go this time. It’s pretty simple and saves you (and your hen) lots of time. First, seclude her from the group, preferably in a nice, dark nesting box. Second, put some eggs (or even golf balls) under her. Lastly, after a few days, pick up some sex link chicks of your choice at your local feed barn and, under the cover of darkness, swap the eggs for the chicks. She’ll never know!

Nest

Stay tuned and over the next few weeks, I will keep you up-to-date on Bellatrix and her new brood!

Dawn

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Meet the Flock: Annabel Lee & Lenore

 

 

The last two birds in my flock are my Americaunas.

AL

These two beautiful birds came to me as chicks. I had a broody hen & rather then “break her,” I put her in the Eglu by herself, let her sit on some eggs and after a couple weeks (under the cover of darkness) switched the eggs for chicks! It worked like a charm and took all the work out of raising chicks!

Lenore is my husband’s favorite. She loves people, being pet, held and loved on. She also has rediculusly cute cheeks:

Lenore

Annabel Lee, on the other hand, has very naked cheeks:

Annabel Lee

And her cheeks are the same color as her eggs, which I once heard someone say about chickens in passing, that their cheeks match their eggs.

Eggs

I wonder if it’s true…

Dawn

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Meet the Flock: Luna

 

 

Last week I talked about the biggest of my hens, Bellatrix and I mentioned that I got her off Craigslist. Well, we picked up two pullets that day: Bellatrix and Luna. Boy, are they aptly named. Bellatrix is bossy, loud and commanding. Luna is shy, strange and very petite.

luna

The funniest thing about our Luna is that when she’s scared, she gets real close to the ground, puffs out her wings and freezes. Like so:

Luna

It’s a very ineffective defense since all it does is make her bigger and stop her from running away. Lucky for her, I’m not a predator, so she just gets picked up and pet.

luna

As for the Craigslist experience, I only have good things to report. I wouldn’t recommend buying a full grown hen, as you may not get an accurate age, but if you want to skip the chick faze (cute, but a lot of work), pullets are the way to go. Ordering pullets from a breeder can cost up to $75 for each pullet, especially if you want a breed like the maran. On Craiglist, however, they go for around $15-$25.

Now, if you’re adding to an existing flock like I did, it’s very important to have an isolated location set up for you new pullet when they first arrive. They need to be kept from the rest of the hens until: 1.) They are big enough to defend themselves 2.) You can be POSITIVE they aren’t bringing in any pests or diseases. I recommend worming and dusting them right away, no matter how nice the home they came from!

And if you wanna start a flock for the first time, Craigslist is also a great place to find someone local who makes coops if you don’t want to build or pay shipping on a new one!

Happy Henning!

Dawn

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Meet the Flock: Bellatrix

 

 

The biggest of our Black Maran’s came to us, along with sister (meet Luna next week) from Craigslist (more about buying poultry off the Craigslist next week also).

Bellatrix

It all started with my desire for more diversity of egg color. I already had one white egg-layer, one tan egg-layer and two green egg-layers and I was pining after a chocolate brown egg. There are several breeds that lay chocolate brown eggs and I like to do a lot research before I choose a breed. One great help I have found is the Mother Earth News Chickin’ Pickin’ app for the iphone (I use it on my ipad).

Bellatrix

It’s always a good idea to choose a chicken that suites your poultry set up. I have a HUGE backyard and my girls have the run of it all day, so I look for a breed that does well with open range. I also look for a breed that does well in heat (it gets to 115 regularly here in the summer months) and it’s broody.

Bellatrix

I settled on the Maran’s and decided that I wanted pullets instead of chicks for ease. The best place to find a pullet or hen around here is Craigslist. Both Bellatirx and Luna were listed by a local woman who shows chickens. Black Laced Maran’s are a very popular show chickens, but if their adult plumage comes in and they don’t have any lacing, they can’t be shown. They are still, however, great pets and make wonderful (chocolate-brown) eggs!

eggs

Bellarix is a great hen, but don’t tell her that- she’d far rather be a rooster. Every morning she gets up on top of the Eglu, makes a lots of noise and lets me know it’s time for everyone to get on with their day!

Dawn

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Birds of a Feather: Selena Gomez

 

Birds of a feather

Meet the Flock: Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez

 

Before you judge, just know that one of my favorite people in the world is my nine-year-old cousin, Sophia. When I got my first four little chicks, I let Sophia name one. Naturally, she turned to the Disney Channel for inspiration.

Selena Gomez

I love Selena Gomez, because she’s always good for a laugh and of my first four chicks, she’s the last lady standing. She’s definitely the matriarch of the coop.

Selena Gomez

Ms. Gomez, like her namesake, has a huge personality and a propensity for stealing the spotlight. She is the biggest, loudest, most fluffy-butted bird in the yard. She never slows down or looses steam and is actually the only one of my five hens who sleeps on TOP of the coop. Two of the other hens tried to join her once, but she really let them have it and they were back on the roosting post before daybreak. Talk about a Diva. I can’t complain too much though, because for an old bird, she’s still a great layer!

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez

Dawn

Birds of a Feather: The Heart of the Matter

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Reply

 

Early in my journey as a chicken-mama a friend of mine, on meeting my hens, recounted an article he’d read. The gist of it was this: To succeed, for a human, is a lifetime struggle, however, everyday a chicken succeeds one hundred percent at being a chicken.  It’s true. They’re really good at doing just that. Everyday.

I love to walk out side, sit back on my heels and watch my six beautiful chickens live their simple, lovely lives. One of my favorite things is a happy hen. Not only are they physically beautiful with their intricate feather patterns, piercing eyes and fluffy little butts, but they are also so full of energy and curiosity.

Chick

I’ve always loved animals: cats, dogs, hamsters and birds. I was always begging my parents for this animal or that. So, once I owned my own home it was just a matter of time before I started to daydream about filling it with animals. My aunt has four hens of her own and I enjoyed them whenever I visited.

I thought long and hard about getting chickens. I’m the type to agonize over the details of any commitment that puts the happiness of another living being in my hands. Finally, in late April of 2009, I decided that chickens would, indeed, be a good fit and got the back yard all set up.

 

The next day I picked up four fuzzy little chicks, a heat lamp and a cardboard box.

Since then, my flock has grown and changed. What has changed the most, however, is not the flock, but my own heart. I really love them. It’s a different love than I feel for my two dogs (rescues I adopted not long after I started my flock). It has less to do with companionship and more to do with mutual respect and appreciation. I bring them food, water and love. They give me back hours of entertainment and tasty, colorful eggs.

Over the next couple weeks I hope you’ll come back and “Meet the Flock.”