Chicken? Yep, chicken. We have an egg sucker – or rather an egg eater – in need of a 12 step program to help with her addiction. We’ve been trying to catch her in the act, or figure out who the culprit is, for weeks now. We have an idea, but no proof. We tried holding an intervention, but none of the chickens were willing to say anything~ so that was a no go. Many people are surprised to hear that chickens really do like eggs. – They also like to eat cooked chicken, but that’s another story. – Most of the time, egg eating starts innocently enough; an egg accidentally gets broken in the nest and they get a taste for it, then it becomes a habit. There are also other reasons that chickens may start feel compelled to eat eggs, so we’ve taken great pains to make sure these do not apply to our hens. Continue reading
Ya, dirty, ol’, egg suckin’ chicken!
27 Friday Oct 2017
Posted in Co-workers
We’ve had a quiet Labor Day Weekend, but we still managed to get some things completed. I just wasn’t much help to Sue this weekend as she cleaned out the large side of the chicken coop. She didn’t plan on doing the total clean like we did on the littles’ side, this was just to get some of the old out and put a new layer of clean on the top. In general, you leave an inch or two of the old so that you don’t get rid of all the beneficial enzymes and such. Usually people do it once a year, but it was getting a bit stinky in there, so wanted to change it up a bit. Instead of hauling it out, like we did the other side, Sue scattered it around the enclosure. This will help to replenish the earth around the coop and give the chickens something to rummage through for bugs during the day. Leaving the hay on the ground also encourages bugs to come into the enclosed area, thus giving the chickens a nice supply! That was the big project for Saturday. 
Dusting is a natural activity for chickens. In fact, it is necessary for their health! Our chickens seem to enjoy this activity greatly. They enjoy it so much that they have set aside a whole section of the coop just for this activity. They have dusting holes that can swallow up the smaller chickens, like Maeve, and we can barely see them! Sometimes when we go out there, a chicken will be almost upside down in the hole and for a second we think, “Oh no! She’s dead!” But – no far – that has never been the case. They really get down and dirt in their little dusting holes. The photo on the right shows one of the buffs in the dust hole and another waiting. What you can’t see are the other three or four holes to the right. They just pick a good place and turn it into the communal bath. 
Yes indeed. Little chickens arrived today. Our first batch anyway. Because they are Bantams, they are extra small! Therefore, extra cute. You know I’m biased because I grew up with these little, cute, feisty chickens, but it’s difficult for people to get excited about extra small eggs! However, they are exceedingly great foragers and bug getters. We need some bug getters, let me tell you! The Hatchery sent us 21 babies! We were only supposed to get 16, I’m wondering if they thought we were going to lose some in transit. So far, they all seem quite hale and hearty. They don’t walk anywhere- they run! Then they stop wherever they get too tired and take a nap… sometimes that’s right in the middle of the food dish. 🙂 I took a short video of them that I’ll put at the bottom of the post, just to share the cuteness.
As I write this, I’m outside watering some of the trees because it’s been a number of days since we’ve had helpful rain. Although it takes some time, watering is one of my favorite things to do in the evening. I get to outside, focusing on something further away than the computer screen ( unless I’m bogging), and – in the quiet – I notice things that maybe I wouldn’t otherwise. Today I noticed that an army of ants had beat a path from their nest – in the center of the cleared area of the photo – to the other side of the fence. It’s a perfectly cleared highway and it was bustling with workers. I think most of them were hauling seeds, some had filched chicken feed. It’s a little hard to see, but it starts center photo and goes up, just to the left of the little tree. If ants can work together to make highways… what can we accomplish as a species? We’d just like to feed some people. And we’ll keep you posted on how that works out. Until then, as always~ thanks for reading!
A lot went on here while I was out in California for my Dad’s birthday. You know, Sue just never stops! She’s been working on adding some improvements to the brooding table and doing last minute clean ups, etc. When ever we’ve had chickens in quarantine – regardless of the reason – when they’re out (or gone) we like to make sure everything is cleaned really well, with a bleach solution, just in case. Especially if we’re going to using some of it for littles that should be arriving tomorrow! This is the batch of stuff that Sue cleaned up on Monday, while I was driving back. 
Wing and a Prayer 