Chicken Blog

Day 179

Joshua — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:09:23 +0000

The eggs have been steadily coming since the day they started laying. We’re getting three to six a day. Yes, SIX! That means they are all laying. I guess that one Barred Rock really is a girl. We were convinced she was a boy.

Here are the eggs I gathered today. I think the giant one is Miss Prissy’s. She’s been laying really big eggs all along. Polish hens are supposed to lay small eggs.

Day 161

Joshua — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:39:03 +0000

Apparently Christen was not happy with the name I gave Petard so she made me change it. That’s fine because after a few new suggestions that were rejected, I ended up with Carl. I don’t think she likes that one either, but it seems to be sticking.

In non-related news, our banana plant is flowering. It’s pretty exciting because we didn’t expect it on this plant because it is much smaller than the plant we have in the corner of the yard.

Day 150

Joshua — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:33:32 +0000

The big egg from Monday was a double yoker! Josh scrambled them and they were quite tasty! Since the three on Monday, we’ve gotten an egg a day, for a total of seven. I wish we knew who was laying them.

In non-egg related news- I opened the blinds in the kitchen the other day to find this right outside our window:

Apparently their new thing is to get up on the deck rails. They walked all along the rails and one at a time they all slid down the handrail on the steps to get down.

That has continued to be their preferred method of exiting the deck. I guess even chickens like to have some fun and excitement from time to time.

Day 146

Joshua — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:33:11 +0000

We have EGGS!!!

Josh spotted an egg in the middle of the pullet house today. When he went to get it out he saw two more in one of the nesting boxes. We put plastic golf balls in the nesting boxes to show them where to lay the eggs. That’s what the two white things in the picture are.

Eggs in nesting box

We weren’t expecting any eggs for another couple of weeks and three of them laid eggs today! The chickens are 21 weeks old today. They usually start laying after 22 weeks. We don’t know which three laid them since the Barred Rock and Black Australorp eggs look the same (light brown). We can only say that Miss Prissy didn’t lay one. BA’s lay 4-5 a week and BR’s lay 3-4 a week. Polish lay cream colored eggs and their laying habbits vary, but they tend not to lay many.

As you can see, the eggs are smaller than normal chicken eggs. This is common for the first lay. They will get bigger as they lay more eggs.

Day 126

Joshua — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:44:48 +0000

Ok, this isn’t a chicken, but it’s so cute I wanted to share. Some mockingbirds(I guess that’s what they are) built a nest in one of the crepe myrtles in our backyard a few weeks ago. Today Josh spotted two little birds in it. This little guy has white “fur” on his head, like Miss Prissy.

Here are Mom and Dad watching me from the neighbor’s roof

Day 117

Joshua — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:15:57 +0000

Tomorrow the chicks will be 17 weeks old. In a little over a month we expect to start getting some production out of these birds. The price of eggs is getting too high, we need some free ones! I’ll have to get Josh to run some numbers to see how much these eggs are going to actually cost us. Regardless, it’s nice to know where they come from and having the chickens has been a lot of fun.

Jaden and Avery are keeping a close watch over the hens

Mr. Jingles had a harrowing experince last week… Josh opens up their house door in the morning when he leaves for work, giving them access to their fenced-in run. Well, later that morning the dogs got me up to let them out, so I opened the door and hear Avery bark as she runs out. I turned back to yell at her to come back in and I see Mr. Jingles about five feet in the air with Avery right behind her. They were on the other side of the yard from where the chicken run is located. Well, I was not dressed appropriately to run outside (although the neighbors would have had a story to tell for years to come), so I ran back to my room to get covered up and ran back outside only to find Avery staring into the chicken pen. I wondered if she ate her quickly or if Jingles jumped our fence and was on the lam in the neighborhood. I looked into the pen and counted six chickens. She had somehow gotten turned around and back to the other side of the yard and into the pen in about ten seconds. After a bit of investigation, I found that she escaped by hopping onto the pullet house and then hopping over the fence. I still don’t know how she got back in. At any rate the birds all got their wings clipped that night.

Day 107

Joshua — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:42:54 +0000

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. The chicks were 15 weeks old on Monday.

There’s not a whole lot new going on with the chickens. They aren’t growing nearly as rapidly as they had been, but they are still growing. The won’t be full grown for a few more months.

It’s been really hot here for about a week. Over the weekend it got up to 100 degrees. The poor chicks were panting. I put a fan outside for them and gave them a little tub of water. I thought maybe they’d get into the tub, but they didn’t want to stand in it. I put some corn in it to lure them in, but it didn’t work.

Here they are trying to get the corn

Day 84

Joshua — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:32:31 +0000

I’ve been really bad about posting! With the baby, taking a class and working, It’s been hard to find a free minute. The class is over and Josh is back from the UK, so hopefully I can get caught up.

Yesterday the chicks were twelve weeks old. They are not growing at the same pace as they had been, but they are still getting bigger. Murphy was getting a little too noisy, so he had to find another home today. He went to live with one of Josh’s coworkers who has lots of chickens and no neighbors to complain about roosters. It’s a shame we had to give him away, he was a fun chicken, but he’s just too loud to have in a neighborhood.

Here are some pictures of Murphy as he grew:

Day 71

Joshua — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:17:14 +0000

We’ve had the chicks for ten weeks today.

Jaden loves the chicks. Here she is enjoying watching them walk around her.

Day 69

Joshua — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:02:57 +0000

The chicks are ten weeks old today. They are still growing by the day!

Miss Prissy, who used to want to be left alone, has become quite friendly over the past week or so. Everytime I go out into the garden she wants to get on me and sit for a while.