New Residents

The girls are settling in nicely. There are 12 of them, Golden Comets is the breed, and these are about 4 months old--ready to start laying in a few weeks.

We gave away our old (in every sense of the word) hens before we left for England. They were laying only a few eggs a day, so our eggs were costing us a pretty penny. I can't bring myself to dress out birds we've had for a long time. It just doesn't seem fair. So we give them away when they get past their laying prime. The last ones went to a family who just wanted to have some chickens running around, and to teach their children to be responsible for animals. Egg production wasn't a concern for them. The ones before that went to a young man who planned to gather what eggs the girls were still laying, and start a FFA flock by hatching the chicks. His plan worked. Now he is in the military and I wonder if he even remembers getting those hens.

We found these on the local radion Swap& Shop show, a show Larry listens to religiously. Well, I do too, because it's so entertaining. You never know what people want or want to sell. Here's how our hens came up on the air:

"Hello? Hello? Is Swap & Shop on this morning?"

"Yes, it is, buddy, you're on the air right now."

"Oh. Well, I didn't know cuz I don't have no radio. But I got 12 chickens I want to sell. These are all hens, Golden Comets, and they're about 4 months old. We got 'em in September and raised 'em ourselves. Well, we got 50, but I sold 12 so now I have 37. Lost one you know. I was gonna add on to my henhouse but then I got sick and had to go to the hospital so this is just too many hens. So I want to sell 12 of them."

"Okay, buddy, give me your number and we got you covered."

So I called. At $7.00 a head, these were a good deal. Baby chicks cost about $3.00 each; add in the cost of feed for 4 months and you can see what I mean, plus all the time in caring for them--keeping them inside under a light, bedding, etc.

The hens were about 45 minutes from us, in a beautiful country setting in West Virginia's smallest (and one of the least populated) counties, Wirt. When we drove up, this is what greeted us:

Notice what the sign says? "Beware of the Dog."

Joe and his wife Susie found this little doe beside her mother, who was lying dead in a ditch by the road. They brought her home and raised her inside, putting a diaper on her. They know that she'll leave one day, or might get shot during deer season, but as Joe said, "You can't just leave a little thing crying like that. She come right to us."

Larry loved her, and so did I! I even got to pet her a little bit. What a lucky little deer.

So anyway, now the hens are home. Larry spent a very busy day getting the coop ready for them. He'd been planning to get it cleaned out this winter and ready for new chicks in the spring, so his schedule got bumped up a bit. He's been having a blast with them, going down to check on them often, talking to them, and making sure all is well. He says he'd forgotten how much he enjoyed having chickens.

I am glad to have them again too. I have had chickens for most of 45 years of my life. I forget to buy eggs. I miss seeing them pecking around their yard, and I miss the contented clucking in the coop.

A rooster? Maybe. I'm not sure though. I like hearing a rooster crow, but maybe we can manage without. We'll see.

And for your listening pleasure: Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens. Enjoy!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Few Things Going On

Time for a little catch-up post on what's happening around our place these days. It's been a busy, busy time, as it usually is in the spring.

Baby chicks! I got them about 2 weeks ago. These are barred rock and Rhode Island Red pullets and a couple of unknowns that are straight run, meaning they could be pullets or roosters. Our hens are 2 years old and older so it is time to start looking at replacing some of them.

They are so cute when they're this size.

The potatoes are up and thriving on all the rain. This was taken about a week ago, and they are twice this size now. Larry planted them on March 21 in a lull between rainstorms. It's been tough getting things in the ground but we did manage to get all the spring veggies in.

We went ahead and planted new raspberry and blueberry bushes in the rain. We figured we had to water them anyway, why not? These are lovely big plants I bought at Green's Feed in Charleston with a gift certificate that was a retirement gift from people at work. They knew I liked to garden so this was a perfect gift. We got 4 blueberry bushes with berries already on them and 3 raspberry plants, plus some new herb plants. In this photo you can see the peas climbing up their trellis; they're about twice that height now and blooming.The hay mulch is around the cabbages and broccoli--those plants are struggling because of all the rain. It's been dry for like 24 hours now so maybe they can catch their breath a little.

The big snowball bush in the side yard is coming into its own. This bush is out of sight most of the time so I have to remember to look for it--unless I am hanging wash on the line. Which is what I need to do right now.

I found this lovely, big porch swing at ReStore, the Habitat for Humanity resale place. It's made of oak and is 6 feet long. We need to buy chains for it to hang it, and I think I'm going to put it on the front porch, where I used to have a swing. We took that swing down in favor of rockers but I've missed it. This is a better, bigger swing and I am in love. Can you just see it with pillows, me and a cat or two? That box of junk you can see to the left is another story:

Can you say auction? Can you say $2? The truck is still full and I will be sorting and listing on eBay for a good while from the haul we made. More on that later.


That's a quick catch-up on all the side projects going on in addition to the usual grass-mowing and so on that keeps up hopping in spring.

We also have a special event for this evening. More on that in tomorrow's post, I hope. In the meantime, Happy Mother's Day to all of you! I hope you have a restful and memorable day.

Wild Life and Farm Life

Granddaughter Grace roamed the farm with my camera the other day while I was working on peaches. Here are some of the things she found interesting enough to photograph:

Billy BB (for Bad Butt) the Rooster struts his stuff in the chicken yard. Originally named Trampoline Man because he was found on Derek's trampoline one morning, he's taken to trying to flog any small people who enter the coop. The grandchildren love to collect eggs so his ornery new habit is a problem. Our solution is to arm them with a bucket of water which he does NOT like. He goes around fairly soaked when the grandkids are here. I believe I'll be looking for a new, nicer rooster in the future.

In the turkey pen, the turkeys are growing like crazy. They are now about 2 months old and are already half-grown.

Unlike the rooster, these hens (they are supposed to be all hens and so far that seems to be holding true) are calm and tame. Except: they hate going back in their house at night. Every night Larry goes down and has to catch each one and put it in the pen. We've never had this problem before with turkeys. These girls are just stubborn. But pretty, in their turkey-ish way.

Grace was able to catch some good photos of one type of butterfly currently inhabiting the flowerbeds. This year it is not at all unusual to see five different kinds of butterflies at one time on the flowers. This one, we believe is the Great Spangled Fritillary. These butterflies have no claw on their front feet and are called "brush-footed butterflies. If you enlarge Grace's photo you can kind of see the fuzzy front feet on this one. We also have Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Zebra Swallowtail, Black Swallowtails and Sulfur butterflies (those small active yellow ones that are so hard to photograph).

I believe the reason we have so many swallowtails is because of the coneflowers which they seem to love, and the abundance of Queen Anne's Lace in the meadow. This is one of their favorite foods.

For a long time, I thought these were Monarch butterflies, but closer inspection with my sister Theresa a few weeks ago identified the Great Spangled Fritillary. Monarchs, it seems, disdain our ridge and prefer the lower ground along the creeks.

Trampoline Chickens

The other day I wrote aboout Trampoline Man, the rooster my son found on his trampoline a few months ago. Trampoline Man is now the King of the Roost, having outlasted fifteen other contenders for that position.

A postscript to the story:

Two weeks ago Derek reported that a lone hen had found her way into his yard. His daughter Haley put the hen on the trampoline to keep her safe from their black Lab Jake, who was far too curious about the new visitor.

The next morning, the hen was clucking loudly so Haley went to check on her. She'd laid an egg on the trampoline. Scrambled eggs, anyone?

These are some of my hens, perfectly respectable ladies who know their place.

The following day, two more hens had joined the first. Jake seems to have given up. He's apparently resigned to the hen party in his back yard.



Where are the chickens coming from?



We have no idea, but apparently the trampoline is like an amusement park for poultry.




My hens know where to lay their eggs...except sometimes they miss the box. No one's perfect!

Last Rooster Standing

The crowing is finally down to one lone voice. The last three roosters joined their brethren in the freezer this evening.

I think even the hens are relieved. The Chicken Idol Contest is over and the oldest of them all is the winner.

I had the bright idea this Spring to buy straight-run chicks, raise and dress the roosters for the freezer. We bought 32 chicks and we ended up with fifteen roosters.

While the chicks were growing, another rooster came to live at our house. It happened like this.

The phone rang one evening. It was our son Derek.

"Hey, you guys need a rooster?"

As it happened, we did.

"Do you have one?" Where, I wondered, would Derek get a rooster? He didn't keep chickens. He didn't even have a chicken house.

"Yeah, I got one. Found him on the trampoline this morning."

Now that was a rooster I had to have. Derek brought him over. It turned out that the rooster had jumped up on the trampoline to get away from a dog and found it to be a very safe haven. Where did he come from in the first place? No one knows. But a trampoline-jumping rooster is just the right kind of guy for our place.

As our young chicks got older, I realized that we had some beauties. Silver-laced Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, all kinds of pretty young fellas strutted the run. Then they began to find their voices, and bedlam ensued.

Somewhere I had picked up the misguided notion that roosters don't crow until their six months old. I am here to verify that they start between three and four months and by five months are at full throttle. With 15 young ones and Trampoline Man down there, the chicken house sounded like a brass band warming up.

After talking it over, we decided that we really wanted to keep a Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster because they were so incredibly pretty. If you have never had chickens, you may be wondering why didn't we just keep two roosters. Have you ever tried sharing the same house with two males? Multiply that by the enormous ego of a rooster. What you have is trouble. It doesn't matter if you have fifty hens, two roosters will fight, and usually to the death of one or both. They are ruthless and vicious and scary to watch when they get into combat. (I wonder if anyone has considered using them in the military? I can see it now, ranks of roosters marching in formation...)

What to do with TM, though? The idea of putting him into the freezer didn't sit well. Derek considered taking him back, but with no coop and many dogs in his neighborhood, the chances for survival even with the trampoline nearby weren't good.

We decided in the end to keep the old man. Maybe if we hatch chicks they'll have long, lean, muscular legs.

In the meantime, there is only one ruler of the roost tonight. All the others are quietly resting in the freezer, all 60 pounds of farm-raised meat waiting for our winter meals.

I have a feeling Trampoline Man is relieved. He's keeping pretty quiet tonight. Perhaps he noticed that those noisy fellows left and didn't come back, and he's not taking any chances?

The Weekend List

Our plans for last weekend:

Dig potatoes. Plow garden and plant cover crop. Pick grapes. Make grape juice. Pick elderberries. Make jelly. Cut grass. Change the oil in my car. Dress out seven roosters and five turkeys. Go to the Joe's Run Music Jam and get some homemade ice cream. Chill by the fire pit.

What did we actually accomplish?

Dig potatoes. Check.

Plow garden and plant cover crop. Check. Turnips, lettuce, kale and other seeds await the arrival of rain.

Pick grapes. Check. Make juice. Check. Six quarts of purple passion are in the freezer.

Pick elderberries. Check. A pint of deep red juice is reserved for the making of elderberry butter this weekend, due to the promise of my neighbors that it is delicious.

Cut grass. Check. Larry did that while I messed with berries.

Change the oil in my car. Check. Larry was the man again.

Dress out seven roosters and five turkeys. Roosters--check. Turkeys--we wore out. They're on the list for the coming weekend.

Go to the music jam. Check.

Get homemade ice cream. Check--Larry took care of this one.

Chill by the fire pit. Check, for two nights in a row.

It was a good weekend, and pretty productive. As for those roosters, the hens are much happier now that the stress of so much male ego is abated. The constant crowing had to be driving the girls nuts because it sure wasn't making us happy. That makes twelve birds in the freezer for a total of about 45 pounds of chicken.

What does home-dressed chicken look like?

Like this.

What does it look like after it's been cooked?

Like this.

(You thought I was going to show you terrible pictures of the chicken-cleaning process, didn't you?)

Dinner Sunday night was chicken and noodles, made with our home-raised chicken, onions, celery and carrots. It was delicious, and a good way to end a long day.

Quiet Saturday

That was the plan. A quiet, slow day with nothing planned. This year, for the first time since I can remember, I have no eggs to dye and no baskets to make.

So we had nothing on the agenda when we got up. We figured to hang out at the house, look online to see what was going on that we might go to, do some cleaning up and then head out to see what we could find.

That is not what happened. First I looked online--nothing going on at all. Of course, it's Easter weekend. No festivals or fairs are likely to be planned on Easter weekend. Then I remembered seeing some baby chicks advertised in the Market Bulletin. I called. No answer. The more we thought about it, the more we wanted to get our chicks now. Today. I called Charleston, Ripley and Spencer. No chicks. Parkersburg. No Chicks. Marietta, Ohio--voila! Baby chicks! But we had to be there by noon.


We arrived at Green Valley Feed Store in old-town Marietta at 11:30am--and there were no chicks left. All had been sold just before we got there. BUT the owner had sent about 30 chicks with his brother to a flea market. We got directions and headed to the flea market.


We were in luck. The chicks were still there. 32 babies, straight-run meaning pullets and cockerels mixed. I want most of them for dressing out for the freezer when they're the right size, so roosters were fine with me. We just need a few hens for replacements.



We drove home down the Ohio side of the Ohio River, enjoying seeing places we had not visited in many years. A tugboat pushing a load of coal passed; we discovered an orchard, and we were glad to finally get back to Ripley.


Straight roads and little communities pretty much defines the Ohio side of the river.




This field of purple emperor, a weed, was an incredible sight.

A slow-moving barge moves down the river. I wonder what it's like on board on a day like today?

In town we still had to get chick starter and I got my early Mother's Day gift--a weeping willow tree. It's over 10 feet tall and we were driving the Rendezvous. The lady at the feed store said "I've got to watch you load this." Ha! It went right in, but as our neighbors observed when we met them on Joe's Run, it's a wonder we weren't pulled over for suspicion of having something a lot more illegal than a willow tree! The thought never crossed my mind, but I suppose if you looked at willow leaves the right way...

The chicks are under the quilt, nice and snug in their carrier. The tree extended from the back to the front and curled around on us--a little ticklish for the driver!
Still, even with the tree and the chicks and their feed, the back of the Rendezvous looked a lot better than it did after the auction a few weeks ago!

Tree and chicks arrived home safely. The tree is in the ground and the chicks are under their light and comfortable in their box.

Now to cook up a ramp supper. What a nice, quiet day.

Chickens! Eggs!

I forgot to add this in the updates last night: the chickens are laying! and not just a few eggs, either. We're not getting about 13 eggs a day from our hens. It is sooooo lovely to have fresh eggs again.

Most of the eggs are the small pullet eggs, but one hen started laying by laying double-yolkers. Grandson Clayton got to have one of those for breakfast and he was amazed because he'd never seen one before.

Some random things about chickens, if you've never had any or are just starting out with a flock:

• you can tell when they've laid an egg because they will cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-CLUCK-cluck-cluck-CLUCK--well you get the idea. Very contented, happy sound.


• they like to lay where other hens have already laid. So it's a good idea to keep on egg in the nest to encourage them to lay, if you can spare one. some people use marble eggs, others use those white china doorknobs. I leave an egg, since we've got plenty.
  
• Leghorns lay year-round, with minor breaks. Other breeds mostly take some time off to moult (that is, grow new feathers). They look pretty pathetic during the moulting process, bedraggling around minus feathers here and there.


• Leghorns are nervous and flighty, and noisier than other chickens. The old-time heavy breeds are quieter and calmer--but they eat a lot more than Leghorns and don't lay as many eggs during the year.


• Leghorns aren't worth dressing out for meat, the heavy breeds are, so it's a trade-off. any chicken over about 6 months old will be too tough for frying. I liked to can chicken because it was very tender and easy to use. But it's been a long while since we've dressed any out.


• Chickens lay fairly well for about 5 years if they're cared for. After that, what do you do with them? I know what I do: I call Swap and Shop, the local radio show, and give them away. Someone always comes to get them.


• Chickens need 14 hours of light a day to lay. We keep a light in the henhouse year-round.


• Chickens like a lot of water. We have a water warmer for winter months so their water doesn't freeze.


• Chickens also need grit. Ours get some naturally by pecking around in their yard; I also bake and give them crushed eggshell. You can give them small creek gravel or buy crushed oyster shell at the feed store for grit too.


• Eggs keep better if they're not washed because there is a natural protective coating on them. But these days people worry about stuff like Salmonella so it's probably safer to wash them and keep them in the fridge.


• Fresh eggs are good! But you already knew that.

Ultimate Recycle

Chickens need calcium to make eggs with strong shells.

Chickens need grit in their craws to grind their food for digestion.

Chickens lay eggs with shells high in calcium.

Chicken egg shells can be crushed to provide grit for the craw.

So there it is: the ultimate recycle.

From the chicken to the table and back to the chicken.

The shells need a little processing. Giving "raw" shells to them can cause chickens to peck at fresh-laid eggs in the coop. That's not good. The reason they will do this is that with raw shells, there are bits of egg white still clinging to the shell and the chickens can develop a taste for it.

To avoid this problem, bake the shells at a low temperature for about 15 minutes. The baking will make the shells more brittle and will completely cook any remaining egg in the shell.



Once the shells have been baked they can be crushed easily into little pieces and fed to the hens.

They love it! I like it because the shells get used and my chickens are happy.

A win-win situation.

Surfing Chickens

Up close and personal! The leghorns are the most intrepid of the flock so far. They will approach without fear, and they love to peck at my rings.












Granddaughter Hannah with a new friend. Hannah is also fearless. Pigs and chickens faze her not at all. She gets right in there with them. She and Haley have named a few of the hens and can actually tell them apart. That's more than I can do.







The heat lamp makes a cozy glow in the coop. That's a good thing since today was blowing snow flurries and cold, cold, cold.











I did a little websurfing and found these online places to learn more:

How to raise a flock of hens in your own backyard. Help from other folks, information, links and lots more.

Want to know more about the many breeds of chickens? Go here. There are many there I have never heard of. Apparently, however, my Wyandottes might be Silver-Laced Wyandottes. Who knew?

You can find more general information about raising chickens on this site.

The more you learn, the more you want to learn, but why not go for the ultimate learning experience:

A chicken videocam! Watch the drama unfold before your very eyes! Oh the heartbreak, the egos, the greed and deception. All for you on the ChickenCam.


If the cam doesn't strike you as funny, maybe these chicken jokes will.


Or how about Chicken tractors, anyone? (this is not a joke, really)

One place to get baby chicks: McMurray's hatchery. I bought from them years ago and it was nice to find that they are still in business. I think I prefer buying my chicks at the feed store, though. Less stress on them, or at least on me.

Home Sweet Home, if You're a Hen

I have more pics but hughesnet was being slow again last night (will it never end?) and only one would download.

Here are the girls in their new home in the coop. As you can see, they'd already knocked over their chickie feeder.

We set up the larger feeder for them instead. Almost like they were saying 'you've got to be kidding, that thing's for babies.'

With the weather turned chilly again, we put the heat lamp on for them, and kept their old box in the coop as a familiar place to huddle if they get cold. It will be nice to see the weather turn warm for keeps, but that's a few weeks off.

The coop has solid plywood walls up 4 feet, then oak planks that have small gaps betwen them for air flow on the top 3 feet. There is a trapdoor under the roost for easy clean-out. Last year at the FFA auction we bought a replacement set of galvanized nest boxes--the ones I was using were about 50 years old and had rusted out.

We also have a hanging feeder for them that holds 25 pounds of feed at a time, and a 5-gallon waterer with a warming base so that the water will not freeze in winter. There is a timer that we use on the lights when the chickens are older to be sure they get the required amount of light to lay: 14 hours.

Larry did a thorough cleaning after the old hens left, washing down all equipment and walls with bleach water, and tossing lime on the floor (and apparently some on the walls!).

Chickens need grit for their craw so they can digest their feed. We give them a little pan of wood ash and sprinkle it in the coop too, keep it smelling fresh. Wood ash is good in the chicken yard too, if you keep your hes penned as we do. Our pen is about 8' x 20' long, 6' high with chicken wire over the top to discourage hawks. Every varmint, it seems, wants to get into a chicken house!

We also save egg shells and toast them, then give them back to the chickens. You can buy oyster shell and use that instead--the calcium in both helps make the shells harder when the hens are laying, and provides some grit too.

Growing, Gangling Peeps, and Solitary Confinement

The peeps are growing fast. They're not quite to the gawky teenager stage, but their wing feathers are growing in. This week they graduated from the big tote to the box from the new hot water heater. we cut the bottom out of the box and set it on a plastic sheet so that clean up will be easy (I hope).

The screen on top of the box discourages those who think they can fly out--they're already trying out those new feathers.

The little one below is in solitary because the others were pecking at her and made a raw place on her back. I put liquid band-aid on the wound and we separated her so her wound could heal. but she hates it! She spends all day pacing in front of the screen, crying to be back with the others.

I tried putting her back in with the others after the liquid band-aid dried. What happened? They immediately started pecking her again and she, poor thing, hunkered down and just took it. Who would think chicks could be so vicious? But this isn't unusual--I've raised several broods over the years and the weakest one is often attacked.

My hope is to get this one healed and strong so she can rejoin the flock. That may not be simple because there is a tendency to attack any bird considered a foreigner. I am gambling on the screen wire being enough of a divider to protect her while allowing her to remain familiar to the rest of the birds.