Chicken in the woods (and more woods)

[rolohman]

Almost a week with the chickens roosting now. Phew. My poop boards were too narrow, so I cut new ones that were as wide as I could handle, about 16”. Since I have slide these in and out they can’t be much bigger than that. Cleaned out the coop entirely so they are now starting from some nice clean shavings.

Am planning a five foot add on coop and run (8’ deep run) where we would move the pigeons. Then the rest of the chicken coop could be used for…a couple more chickens!!! I’m still a bit sad about our beautiful Marans being a boy, but it does mean he could give us some interesting barnyard mix chicks!

Some beauty shots since we’ve come out of our first three days of freezing and are now in the 50’s.



Beans, the Easter egger. Very curious and chatty and calm if I get her, but runs away when I attempt to pick her up.


Taco, the laced Wyandotte. Isn’t she beautiful??? Not very friendly.


Shakipiyo!! We love Shakipiyo. Curious and friendly and purrs when you rub her neck. Here’s a repeat of my profile pic!


And the man of the coop, Atilla.


He is iridescent and big and beautiful.

 

[rolohman]

It’s cold!! But the chickens and pigeons seem to be fine. Chickens have two roosts and seem to be selecting the one closest to the open vent window anyway, so they must be relatively comfortable.

SO glad I got my poop board worked out. There is SO much more poop than even a couple weeks ago.

Pigeons are becoming more friendly - they let me get closer and seem to pay attention when I chat at them. Goal is to have them take a treat from my hand someday.

 

[rolohman]

Meant to add that I have some videos of the pigeons “billing and cooing”. Too bad we can’t post videos! Not up for dealing with a YouTube acct.

 

[rolohman]

They are still going at seven increasingly large chickens on one 34.5” roost. There are other roosts, folks!!!



Rainy and gloomy here today, but the girls posed for a few nice pics in front of the outdoor coop cam.

Midnight, showing some attitude


Dolly, showing off her lovely ruff:


Taco, having grown into her lovely laced feathers:


When the big girls left it empty, the pigeons took over the camera roost:

 

[rolohman]

Beans felt left out of the photo shoot yesterday.

Other news is that my kids are starting to help out with the daily poop dump, at least on the weekends.

 

[rolohman]

I’m so happy! They are finally settled on two separate roosts!!! Hmmm… looks like I could get more now, doesn’t it?!!

 

[rolohman]

Haven't posted for a bit, but lots has happened!

First off, we returned from holidays in California to greet a rooster who'd gone from a nice, peppy crow or two around daybreak to an "every-five-seconds-from-4-am-onwards" crowing. None of our neighbors are THAT understanding!!!

So - we went and learned about the broomstick method, scalding, etc. It went well. Hubby accidentally pulled hard enough to pull the head off, so at least we know it was instantaneous. Plucking in below-freezing weather on our driveway was not ideal, but worked. I tried "beer can chicken", and feel like I'd be better off just using the instant pot next time. That's always perfect and this was a bit on the chewy side. We rested him for 3 days in the fridge - maybe not long enough? He was only 4.5 months old. I was a bit sad about it, but GREATLY enjoy not waking up that early. Plus, now we don't have to worry about aggression, etc.

The hens were, perhaps, a bit off for a day or so, but seem to have gotten used to him being gone. All was well from Jan 4th to the last couple of days. Then, new wrinkle! We've been having lows in the range of -10F. Chickens are still coming out of the coop when it is sunny, water isn't frozen, so they seem fine. But then I went to glance at the in-coop cam the other night and NONE OF THEM WERE IN THERE! I ran outside, visions of raccoons in my head, and found them roosting all over the outdoor part of their run. Two were nestled right up at the door, as if they WANTED to get in there, but others were just in random spots. One had gone up and wedged into the 3" gap between the top of the coop walls and the overlying rafters+hardware cloth. That one was hard to get down. Might rename her "Cholla" after the cactus with the stubborn hooked spines.

Fun for me was that Shakipiyo (from my profile pic) grabbed onto my forearm and "roosted" there for the first time when I picked her up. It was hard to get her to let go and go on the real roost! I've only ever held her, never had her hang out ON me, so it was kind of nice.

Crossing fingers that they will sleep inside tonight.

 

[rolohman]

Argh!!! Y’all didn’t TELL me about late winter and the overwhelming need to look at baby chicks on the web!!!!!

 

[rolohman]

Six chickens is PLENTY.

 

[rolohman]

First eggs! We got one yesterday as a valentines present but I didn’t find it til this morning. By then it had frozen and cracked. So, the chickens had a scrambled egg treat! This afternoon, whoever it is laid another one, which we proudly brought in and poached.

It is a nice olive. The inside is light blue.