Colorado

[uzisuzuki]

Dudes, those first eggs were exciting yesterday! No eggs this morning, but it was funny watching Odysseus peck chunks of bread out of the treat basket and drop them at his 2 favourite hens' feet. Of course, they couldn't really find the bread chunks because of their crests but it was still super adorable to watch him try.

And then he pecked at my waders until he got tired of me picking him up after every peck. Can't win every day!

 

[COChix]

Dudes, those first eggs were exciting yesterday! No eggs this morning, but it was funny watching Odysseus peck chunks of bread out of the treat basket and drop them at his 2 favourite hens' feet. Of course, they couldn't really find the bread chunks because of their crests but it was still super adorable to watch him try.

And then he pecked at my waders until he got tired of me picking him up after every peck. Can't win every day!

I remember the day we got 12 eggs in a day, I went out to check the nest box and found the 12 one and screamed Wooohoo outloud. Everyone was not so amused by enthusiasm. Funny how they work their way into your heart.

Sounds like Ody is the man of the place, sounds like he is doing a fine job. We had our roo, Bruno, get into a nest box after one of our EE was carrying on. He scratched and made the actual nest while she rested on the perch. She had been at it for while, but she has a long pre-game warm up, this was all in the free range area. I had a front row seat, anyway, he coo'd at her and scratched about for about 6-7 minutes, then she got back into the nest box. It was all pretty cute, if you are into thise sorts of things and I am.

 

[Latestarter]

Hey all! Merry almost Christmas! Only 12 days to go! Haven't even contemplated Christmas gifts yet

Hard to believe how fast this year has blown past. Am so looking forward to the 10 days off work starting the 24th though

I need the break!

OK minor rant

time:

Not sure which one, but at least one and possibly as many as three of my buff orps think they are sea turtles... they INSIST on burying their eggs in the coop litter instead of using the nest boxes I so graciously provided them. Could it be because I'm using deep litter and it's "warmer" than the straw in the nest boxes? I'm almost afraid of what's going to happen once the runs are finished and they can go outside and up under the coop... I am NOT looking forward to trying to retrieve eggs from under there as it's 6 feet wide by 10 feet deep and has buried hardware cloth around the 3 sides not open to the run...
It seems they also like to eat the straw from the nest boxes...

when I check them in the evenings they have full/hard crops and the straw from the nest boxes slowly gets "chewed up" and disappears... It seems my white wyandottes like to eat the nest box straw as well. They all chow down in the am when I bring them their FF, eat all of it over the course of the day and none of them seem ill or worse off from their dietary supplement, but it concerns me a bit.

Any ideas how to get the girls to use the nest boxes (more regularly)? Thoughts/comments on potential dietary issues that might be causing the silly things to be eating the straw?
On a high note; got 16 eggs the other day from 30 pullets

While the buff orps were the first to start producing (3-5 eggs a day now from 7 of them), the new hampshires have become the best of the breeds at present with 7 pullets providing 5-6 eggs a day, most a nice deep brown, all nicely placed in the straw inside the nest boxes. I get 1-2 eggs a day from the group consisting of the white wyandottes (7 pullets) and delawares (I believe are the only producers - 2 pullets). and 1-3 per day from the black australorps. If when these 2 groups really start producing, I should be rolling in eggs... Have developed some customers, but will need more soon.

Stay warm everyone! Back to the sidelines

 

[COChix]

Hey all! Merry almost Christmas! Only 12 days to go! Haven't even contemplated Christmas gifts yet Hard to believe how fast this year has blown past. Am so looking forward to the 10 days off work starting the 24th though I need the break!

OK minor rant time:  Not sure which one, but at least one and possibly as many as three of my buff orps think they are sea turtles... they INSIST on burying their eggs in the coop litter instead of using the nest boxes I so graciously provided them. Could it be because I'm using deep litter and it's "warmer" than the straw in the nest boxes? I'm almost afraid of what's going to happen once the runs are finished and they can go outside and up under the coop... I am NOT looking forward to trying to retrieve eggs from under there as it's 6 feet wide by 10 feet deep and has buried hardware cloth around the 3 sides not open to the run...
It seems they also like to eat the straw from the nest boxes... when I check them in the evenings they have full/hard crops and the straw from the nest boxes slowly gets "chewed up" and disappears... It seems my white wyandottes like to eat the nest box straw as well. They all chow down in the am when I bring them their FF, eat all of it over the course of the day and none of them seem ill or worse off from their dietary supplement, but it concerns me a bit.

Any ideas how to get the girls to use the nest boxes (more regularly)? Thoughts/comments on potential dietary issues that might be causing the silly things to be eating the straw? 
On a high note; got 16 eggs the other day from 30 pullets While the buff orps were the first to start producing (3-5 eggs a day now from 7 of them), the new hampshires have become the best of the breeds at present with 7 pullets providing 5-6 eggs a day, most a nice deep brown, all nicely placed in the straw inside the nest boxes. I get 1-2 eggs a day from the group consisting of the white wyandottes (7 pullets) and delawares (I believe are the only producers - 2 pullets). and 1-3 per day from the black australorps. If when these 2 groups really start producing, I should be rolling in eggs... Have developed some customers, but will need more soon.

Stay warm everyone! Back to the sidelines

Do you have fake eggs or golf balls in the existing nest boxes? I found some eggs here and there on the run floor etc. once I added golf balls or fake eggs to all the nest boxes this fixed it for us, not sure what else you can try.

 

[Latestarter]

Thanks COChix: I just got a link to fake ceramic eggs from another thread... I'm going to order a couple dozen and place 1 or 2 in each nest box (16). I think I'm also going to cut up an old bed sheet and staple it up in front of the openings as a curtain to make the nest boxes a little darker inside. Since all my birds are brown egg layers, I wondered if the (white) gold balls would work...

 

[uzisuzuki]

Woo! Two more eggs today! And I think I figured out who the 2 egg layers are (Athena & Penelope, top 2 on the pecking order). I did have a little scare this morning as Penelope wasn't out & about with everyone else when I came out to feed/water & was just kinda hiding in the house (all the way in the back of the house, where I can't reach - I can't wait to get started on my coop build). I was worried something might be wrong because I'm a worrier, but when she finally came out, she didn't look or feel injured & ate & drank just fine. She did run & hide the minute Odysseus looked at her, so I have my suspicions on why she was hiding out.

I also did finally crack the first two eggs open after a lot of reluctance (they're so tiny & perfect shaped & I'm such a fussy artist OMG) & if I'm seeing this right, the bottom one is fertilized. Maybe? I'm having a hard time figuring out the bullseye thing right now. But if I'm right, it kinda backs up my suspicion on why Penelope was not wanting any of Odysseus this morning.


I ended up pushing myself a little too much today with working on their pen & cleaning everything out & setting up the compost bin, but it was nice to have a day where I wasn't at work looking at numbers that mean nothing to me now thanks to the concussion from my accident. Also, it was funny watching the hens all crowd around the area A & P decided to start laying eggs in. Like they were showing the other two, "This is where you do the thing". They entertain me for days. Hope everyone else has a good weekend & that it doesn't get too gross for weather like the news is predicting!

 

[trsturself]

Hard to see the bottom one but I see a bullseye on the top egg. I'm not an expert though as I was just starting to get fertilized ones when everyone stopped laying. I've gotten an egg most days from my friend's leghorn the last week, but no one else yet, and haven't cracked a single one yet.

We celebrated christmas early while my parents are in town, and my uncle gave us a weather station that remotely measures wind speed, humidity, and temp. I put the temp/humidity meter in the coop. I had a analog one that my camera could sort of see but I didn't believe the humidity readings. It said 100% when it was completely dry out once. So I'm excited to be able to see those numbers from the house. The outside temp is in the 40s and the temp in the coop is 60! I didn't realize it was so much warmer in there. It will be interesting to see what it is tomorrow during the storm.

We got our prototype for an automatic door we can sell, done and installed today. It turned out really nice if I do say so myself. So much nicer than my first door! I'll take pictures tomorrow and list them on my blog. I took a video but it didn't turn out too well. I miss my newer phone! It broke about 2 weeks ago and I had to go back to an old one. It just doesn't take as good of pictures.

 

[Ashdoes]

Golf balls work great as fake eggs. Some thing I figured out after I bought stupid wooden eggs...the chickens don't seem to notice a difference, sitting on any in the box. Cheaper and easier to find, check out a thrift shop.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Hard to see the bottom one but I see a bullseye on the top egg. I'm not an expert though as I was just starting to get fertilized ones when everyone stopped laying. I've gotten an egg most days from my friend's leghorn the last week, but no one else yet, and haven't cracked a single one yet.

We celebrated christmas early while my parents are in town, and my uncle gave us a weather station that remotely measures wind speed, humidity, and temp. I put the temp/humidity meter in the coop. I had a analog one that my camera could sort of see but I didn't believe the humidity readings. It said 100% when it was completely dry out once. So I'm excited to be able to see those numbers from the house. The outside temp is in the 40s and the temp in the coop is 60! I didn't realize it was so much warmer in there. It will be interesting to see what it is tomorrow during the storm. 

We got our prototype for an automatic door we can sell, done and installed today. It turned out really nice if I do say so myself. So much nicer than my first door! I'll take pictures tomorrow and list them on my blog. I took a video but it didn't turn out too well. I miss my newer phone! It broke about 2 weeks ago and I had to go back to an old one. It just doesn't take as good of pictures.

Can't wait to see the door! That's pretty awesome your guys are making it yourself!

Well, unfortunately for my little flock, it seems we have a gapeworm problem. Turns out the egg layers are Athena & Calypso. Found out this morning & was surprised. Penelope was still hiding in the house, back of the house again, so I spent some time calling to her to get her out. That's when I noticed she would stretch her neck & mime making the old witch laugh sound the hens make to each other, but no sound would come out. She can still make the lower kinda rolling R noise, she eats & drinks fine & everything else is fine once she makes her way out of the house, but it seems pretty safe to assume & treat everyone for gapeworm. Does anyone have a type of wormer they like to use? A broad spectrum one seems like the best thing to use right now.

I wish I would have known this yesterday so I could have cleaned the entire area more thoroughly than I did before the weather turned. :/

 

[samsr]

Its been a while since I have posted. It has been super busy around here, with the greenhouse project, the chickens and the season. My daughters got a pair of bantam cochins last weekend. They are quite cute and small. The roo has quite the cute crow. Yesterday when they were putting everyone back in the coop. They found out that the little black cochin hen was missing. We looked for quite a while but could not find here. I honestly think that someone stopped by, while the chickens were out and picked her up. They and I are quite upset that she is just gone without a trace. not really because she is gone, but because the roo is now all alone. I am now trying to find a couple of bantam cochin hens to keep this little guy company. Does anyone know of any for sale?