Chicken Update--Skunks, Eggs, and a New Dog

A little to my surprise, we successfully raised six chicks into pullets (teenagers) and then into hens. Desert Girl spends a lot of time with the chickens, and she can catch them pretty easily. She's also the best chicken herder in the family.

One day we were out walking and saw a skunk in the nearby meadow. On no! Skunks killed most of our last round of chickens, so we don't like them too much.

When I called for my husband, he was already chasing another skunk. It turned out they had used a nearby wood pile as a den. We've killed quite a few skunks this summer, but we still smell more.

I thought our hens would start laying in July, and fortunately they did. They weren't the most consistent layers, with sometimes only one or two eggs a day in the middle to latter part of the month. We did get some fun surprises, like double-yolked eggs (the one on the left in the photo above). 

When new or old friends come to visit, Desert Girl loves to show them the chickens. Kids who have never gathered eggs or touched a chicken are in for a treat. Here the girls play in the back of the truck with a chicken, who put up with it amazingly well.

We adopted a dog from a rescue shelter in early August. She's not quite a year old and it was apparent from the start that she would need some training around the chickens. We kept them separate, with either the dog or the chickens ranging free in the yard at one time. Then, one day when we were at the nearby swimming pool, the dog disappeared and returned with a chicken. It was obvious she wanted to play with it, but instead she killed it. Another day three chickens got loose from the chicken run, so when I came back from exercising the dog, she immediately went crazy about a loose chicken and killed that one too. We thought we would try and discipline her by tying the chicken to her collar. She looked appropriately shamed for awhile. Then she chewed the chicken off. 

Fortunately some friends loaned us a shock collar, and we're making more progress with that. It will still be a long time before the chickens and dog can conmingle, but maybe someday.

In the meantime, we try to give all our animals some good quality time. And those chicken eggs sure are delicious! The hens have turned out to be great layers, laying every day. I enjoy seeing them wander through the yard, and when we come out of the house they often run over to see if we have a treat for them.

Chicks!

 We decided to get chickens again (we had some problems with skunks last year and finally gave our last chicken away). We've been trapping skunks, trying to reduce our predator problem. So I picked up six black americauna chicks (if you're wondering why that breed, it's because it was the last one left in the store!). Our first experience with chicks was that they seemed rather feeble and stupid (not getting away from the heat lamp if too hot, or not going to it if too cold). Fortunately, these chicks seemed to be a little more with it.

The kids were immediately happy and wanted to hold them the next morning.

I thought that was a good idea--if the chicks get used to the kids, then they will be easier to catch when we want to put them in the coop early.

The chicks look quite similar, so only one or two have names.

Within a week they had about doubled in size and were flying up to the edge of the big rubbermaid container we have them in. Sometimes they even end up outside it, which is telling me that they will be moving from the house to the coop sooner than we had planned. I don't like chicken poop on the carpet!

The kids have been having friends come over to show them off. They've done well refreshing their water several times a day and giving them new food, so that's been great. We are looking forward to this chick adventure. And hoping that come about July, we'll be getting some blue eggs from these chickens.

Why We Ate Our Rooster

 So last year we decided we would try to have chickens. We got baby chicks twice, but lost them all due to disease, dogs, and skunks. Fortunately, we were able to buy a grand champion rooster at the county fair, and the nice lady offered a couple hens.

The hens took awhile to lay, but finally we were getting two eggs a day. The rooster was doing a nice job protecting them. But then the rooster started chasing me. I looked up on the Internet what to do and started chasing it back. Then it started chasing the kids occasionally, and even my husband. Even when we hit it with the pool noodle, it would still come after us. (I really wish I could have gotten some video footage of that, because although I was fearing many bruises, I was laughing at the comical situation of a flailing pool noodle trying to make this rooster start behaving.)

It got to the point that the kids wouldn't go out in the yard alone, and I even had to alter what I was doing at times. Finally I told my husband that we either needed to fence in the rooster or kill it. We decided to kill it. (I had read on the Internet that in suburbia, people will take problem chickens to the animal shelter. I can't imagine that happening out here!)

We didn't want to waste a good chicken. After all, we hadn't gotten anything out of the previous nine, so it was time to get something out of chicken number ten. We researched how to kill and butcher a chicken, and it didn't take too long. After letting it tenderize in the refrigerator for a couple days, it went into the crockpot.

The kids were a little unsure about eating the rooster (which we fortunately never named), but we thought it was an important lesson for them, as before long they will be raising and selling animals for 4-H.

The rooster tasted great, and we got several meals out of it.

How are the hens doing? They seem fine. One didn't lay an egg one day, but now they're back to regular production. And so far they've managed to stay alive. We can even walk by them and not fear for our shins.

Our First Egg…After 12 Chickens and 7 Months

Some good news today, after yesterday's post. I was cleaning the chicken coop when I noticed a real egg! I had gotten so used to the golf ball in there that it took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. I bellowed (yep, it was more than a yell!) for the kids to come so they could see for themselves. 

Then I had them pose with the egg.

We found another one in the run, but I suspected it was from the day before when they were locked up in it all day. That egg unfortunately didn't quite make it to the refrigerator due to an itsy bitsy fall. I guess we could call it the Humpty Dumpty egg. My reply to the wail of "I dropped the egg and it's cracked" was "Make sure you clean it all up." I'm a little tired of messes lately!

I had noticed that the second hen had a more filled out comb and wattle, and I think she's the layer. I think the other one still hasn't figured out what to do. Maybe someday. It's only taken 12 chickens and 7 months to get our first egg.

The rooster is so pretty. He crows every day, whether it's morning or not.

The rest of the family didn't seem that interested in actually eating the egg, so I did. It was delicious! Now we will be looking for our egg every afternoon (she lays between 2:30 and 4:30 right now).

Making Our Own PVC Chicken Feeder

Our chickens are doing really well. The rooster crows every morning, and I look forward to the cock-a-doodle-doos. The hens still aren't laying, despite giving them more calcium, putting a golf ball in a nest box "to give them the idea" and putting a light in the coop on a timer so that they get an extra couple hours of daylight every day. From my research on the Internet, it looks like they grow a big wattle right before they start to lay, which one of the hens has done. (A wattle is the red part under the bill.) Otherwise, although 5-6 months to lay is average, it does take some of them 12 months. I guess we'll just keep waiting (if you have any good ideas, let me know!)

Despite the lack of eggs, we're really enjoying the chickens. They are very messy, though, and I was getting tired of them spilling their chicken feed everywhere from the metal chicken trays. I looked around the Internet a bit to figure out a better solution and decided on PVC feeders. I didn't follow any one plan, but got ideas from several and went to the hardware store. I bought two 3 ft long sections of 3 -inch PVC pipe, two Y joints, and two caps of different types.

The design was simple enough for Desert Boy to assemble: stick the pipe into the Y-joint. We added a lid for the bottom, put it on a brick in the coop, tried to secure it as best we could, poured in chicken feed (the newly-acquired canning funnel helped!), and then put on a lid just to keep anything else out. Assembly was less than ten minutes.

We also made one for the run, and for this one we used the sturdier cap for the top and the plug for the joint to keep rain out.

Here's Desert Boy filling up the PVC. We only need to do that once a week or so.

The chickens seem to be very happy eating out of the new feeders, and the mess is greatly reduced. Success!

Chickens!

 Watching the chickens gives me great joy. They are so stupid (one still has problems finding the door of the run, even when the other two go out in front of her), but so fun.

The hens should be old enough to lay eggs, but haven't started yet. We've put a golf ball in the nest box to encourage them. Hopefully soon!

The kids have given names to them all, but I'm not sure if they use the same names each time or change them around.

We're still trapping skunks, so are very careful about getting the chickens in the coop each night. We have some changes planned for the run, but haven't had time to implement them. Hopefully we will do better with these chickens than our previous chicks.

Our Chicks--a Sad Tale

 We moved our chicks out of the house and into the chicken coop (an old shower house next to the garage) when they started pooping all over the house. They took to it well. So did I. I don't like poop.

We also finished the chicken tractor. My husband adapted an old swing set.

The chicks liked the chicken tractor okay, but they really loved free ranging. The first night wasn't so great, though, with us running after them, trying to catch them to put them away.

We read up about how to put chicks away and the next night turned on their light early, had treats ready, and had a big red rake to herd them. We went out, and they were all in the coop already. We thought they were brilliant. Well, almost. There's a reason there's a term 'bird brain.'

The following day we put them in the chicken tractor for awhile, but it was so hard to catch them. We hoped they would be hard for predators to catch too. We left them for awhile free ranging, and they did just fine. They stayed close to the coop, went under things when they felt threatened, and headed into the coop if they spotted a hawk.

I felt good about them free ranging, having their freedom, being tough and strong birds. But I also figured we might lose one or two, so we made plans for my husband to get three more from town today while he was doing errands.

Then calamity struck. It was not a good chicken day. This morning my brother shared news that all ten of their chicks had disappeared. I felt so sad for them.

This afternoon when I got home I saw our three chicks were doing fine and smiled to myself. Seeing them peck the ground, eating all those ants made me happy. (I sure enjoy it when the simple things of life make me happy!)

We went inside for a bit, and not half an hour later I went out to check on the chicks. I went over to the coop and found just one. Not a good sign. Then our dog brought one up to the front steps, dead, in plain sight of the kids and me and our friends. The other one was still missing, and I figured its chances were slim to none. While the kids hunted for it, I called my husband to tell him to pick up some extras, but he told me that the two places that had chickens had stopped selling them. They could order 25 for us. We're not ready for 25.

Our chicken adventure hasn't turned out quite like I was hoping. We only have one left, and it's the one we think is a rooster.

We're not sure what we're going to do at this point. Hopefully those of you reading this who have chickens have much happier stories! And if you don't have chickens, we hope you have better luck than us if you ever get them.