Meet the Chickens! Finally!

Hey friends! The time has come to finally introduce you to the chickens! I don’t know why it’s taken me so long except that I haven’t been taking that many pictures of them! Gasp! I know. But I finally started taking their pics over the past couple of weeks so you have a good look at all the birds. And I do hope you notice how strong the stink eye is with these girls. Almost every picture I take of them, I get at least one stink eye. But there’s usually more than one going at a time.

Anyway, if you’ve followed along for any length of time, you might remember that I ordered 8 egg layers back in March. I got a surprise pack from My Pet Chicken. I ordered 2 barred rocks because they’re my favorites and I had to have them in my flock. The other 6 birds I said “surprise me!” and ordered them via their ‘rare bird’ package special. Which means that at the end of the hatch day for the week I ordered, they gave me 6 chickens that are considered rare and (mostly) heritage breeds that were ‘left over’ and not designated for any orders. That was fun figuring out what I had. And I think I was 100% correct when I researched what I thought they were.

The girls were brooding inside an old dog crate until they were 5 weeks old. It’s always fun getting them as day old chicks. They were truly day old chicks when they arrived. They hatched on a Monday, shipped that same day, and I picked them up at the post office the next day. I kept an eye on the tracking and called the PO when it looked like they were set to arrive on that Tuesday. The post office was so nice. They took my number down and called me almost immediately when that chirping package arrived. The birds were soooo small! I had forgotten how small they actually are when they are a day old. It’s been a few years since I’ve held a baby day-old bird! Everyone arrived without fanfare. They were all alive, chirping, and healthy.

So they spent about 5 weeks inside. It got to be really very messy. They got so big that they needed extra room, but the coop wasn’t ready (it was still very cold outside too and I worried about moving them outside while it was still cold. More on that in a minute). But back to the messy business. I would let the girls out in the bathroom to play all day. Then at the end of the day I would put them back in the crate and then scrub the bathroom. Everyday. It was good for the bathroom, but that got really old. Real quick! So the Mister got to it and fixed up the coop for them. And then I booted them out the door! I was hesitant to put them outside because of the weather, but I took a smaller crate out, hooked up some heat lamps, and let them have at it. They loved it! So as the days grew warmer I would take away the heat lamps. And eventually they didn’t need the heat lamps at all. But I left the crate. I should have known with how mischievous these girls have been that that was a mistake to leave the crate in the coop for so long! They were using it to vie for the best position on the roosting bar! Once I became smart to their goings-on I removed the crate and now there’s less squabbling for roosting positions.

Which brings us to the actual introductions! Like I said above, I have two barred rocks. One is Sassy and one is Gussie. Sassie is the friendlier of the two and has darker markings on her back, which is how I tell them both apart. But true to barred rock nature, they are both curious and come running towards you anytime you are around. Then I have 3 Anconas: Martha, Tomato-Basil (so named because she was the one to jump up and eat my seedlings). I call her Tomy for short. And then I have one yet unnamed Ancona. She’s not telling me her name yet. But she will. They are pretty easy to tell apart, mostly due to their personalities, but also their markings. They all look very similar except for their tails. Tomy has an all black tail with one center feather that is white. Martha has a mostly white tail with some black mottling. And the unnamed Ancona has a half white, half black tail. Then we have the brown birds. I have three different breeds that are all very similar in coloring. It’s often hard to tell the Barnevelder and the Black Copper Maran apart upon first glance. But the Black Copper Maran, named Maran, has black legs and feathers on her legs and feet. So that’s fun! She’ll also lay dark brown eggs. Oh. All the chickens will lay brown eggs except the Anconas. They’ll lay white eggs. That’s a fun addition to the homestead too! Okay. Back to the other two chickens. I have Winifred the Wyandotte. She’s so small still! But her neck feathers are just gorgeous. And then there’s Gracie, the not so graceful Barnevelder. I worry a little about Gracie. She is so shy and spends a lot of time by herself. It’s safe to say she’s the lowest on the pecking order. But it’s funny. I don’t really know who is at the top of the pecking order. Sometimes I think it’s Sassie. Then Tomy. Then I sometimes think it’s Maran! But I do know that my brown birds: Winnie, Maran, and Gracie are the shyest and will not let me anywhere near them. That was the same with my partridge rocks too. And while the anconas and barred rocks all run away from me, they will eventually come back around. I don’t recall having birds still be this skiddish at 10 weeks old. But maybe it’s just my memory is a little fuzzy. Time will tell. I haven’t spent as much time with them as I’d like so I’m trying to get out there more often.

Anyway, so. The girls are outside and their personalities are really coming out. They are 10 weeks old today. And they’re getting used to being chickens. Sometimes they don’t understand food scraps and lawn debris. But we’re working on it. Speaking of, let’s talk some chicken maintenance stuff really quickly. So I have a chicken coop that will house about 8 chickens. I don’t remember how big it is and I’m too lazy to go measure, but it’s probably 8’x4′. In theory chickens need 4 square feet per bird inside the coop. So I think that’s what I ordered. We had someone local to us build it back when I first got my NY chickens (I had a flock when we lived in TN). So I use the deep litter method in the coop and chicken run. What that means is I put shavings down in the coop and keep adding to it over time. I use lime and diatomaceous earth in the coop to keep odors and bugs at bay. Then a couple times a year (maybe 3 times) I push all the litter from the coop into the run. Then I scrub down the coop and start all over again. We’re actually trying something new this round as well. I want to compost in the chicken run. So I’m adding shavings, lawn mowing clippings, and leaves to the run. Then I throw leftovers and food waste into the run for the girls to eat. This is where they are failing as chickens though! Sometimes they don’t realize that the stuff is edible, I guess. They just look at it. But I leave it all in there and they do the churning up and eventually it will compost. I don’t leave any major food in there overnight though. For example, I gave them a big bowl of their food mixed with the whey from making cheese. Then I gave them some leftover pasta we had for dinner a few nights before. They didn’t eat it all so I took the big bowl of food out along with the leftover pasta. I just don’t want a TON of extra food sitting in the run. That’s only tempting the chicken-eating-critters to come make a meal of the food scraps AND the chickens.

I also free feed the girls. That means that they have access to food all day and night. I leave the food hanging in the coop and it stays there. I fill it up, hang it in the coop, and only remove it when it’s empty. I then put a clean feeder, filled with their food, back in the coop once the other one is empty. I give them fresh water in a clean waterer every day. Eventually they’ll have a waterer hanging in the run as well, especially during the hot summer months. Oh! Speaking of food. They are still on starter feed, but they should be switched to grower until the are about 16 weeks old. I just have starter food left. They’ve slowed down on their food consumption since they are free ranging a bit and I’ve been giving them lawn clippings, food scraps, etc. But I’ll go this week and grab a bag of grower for when they run out of starter.

Speaking of food. The one thing I would like to learn is how to make my own chicken food. That’s been in the back of my mind for a while now, but I’ve never taken the time to research it. We have a mill not too far from us. I really need to spend some time researching and then talking to them. I think it’s so important to not only know where our food comes from, but also where the chickens food comes from. They’re feeding us, one way or the other, so I think it’s time to add this to the top of my priority list!

I still have a to-do list for the coop and run. It actually isn’t that bad and will only take us a couple of hours to finish up everything. But things are busy here at the fishing lodge. And none of this stuff will compromise their health or safety if it doesn’t get done. Anyway, here it is:
1. put metal on roof on run
2. attach run to coop
3. hang feeders and waterer
4. fix door between run and coop
5. hang waterer in run
6. more roosts in run
7. Massive run expansion: due to there being 8 birds, our old run isn’t big enough for 8 of them when they are full grown. So we have plans to expand the run. But that will need to wait until later this summer. They’re fine now though.

So I guess the last thing to mention is the need for a good first aid kit. I wrote about it here, but it needs to be updated. I’ll work on that and get an updated post once I’ve collected all the supplies and built my kit for this flock of birds.

So. That’s the birds. They’re starting to explore farther away from the coop and getting braver and braver. They like roosting outside in the run, making the cutest little ‘meep-meep’ noises. They like sunbathing and foraging. If you’ve never seen a chicken sunbathe before, you are missing out! They look like they’re dying, but the sun just hypnotizes them and they just fall over where ever they are. I’ll try to get a good video of it sometime.

And finally, I’d like to add a rooster to the mix. I love having a rooster. They protect the flock and they can be super friendly, if you get the right one. I love barred rock roosters. They’re so pretty and they tend to be on the friendly side. I’d also like to have more chickens eventually, but that would mean a totally different coop. So we’ll work towards that one. For now, I’ll work on that to-do list above and try to sneak a rooster in at some point! HEHE.

Okay. I think that’s enough about chickens. For now! Tell me what questions you have. And I’m warning you now, there will be lots more chicken pics from now on! I promise you that.

’til next time
-k
xoxo