Easter Egger club!

[poppycock1974]

Here's the deal, each hen is an individual. Some hens will live their entire lives without ever singing when they lay. Others can be complete drama queens, singing before, during, and after laying. Some just like to sing their egg song for no reason at all. Some only sing for a minute or two. If the whole flock joins in, it can last for over half an hour. Then you need to consider that not every hen is a morning layer. Some lay in the afternoon. 
The thing is, if a little squeaky crow is bothering the neighbors, I doubt that they will enjoy the noises that hens can make.

I completely agree! She told me the neighbor next to her has a hound that howls a third of the day- which I hear all the time- so she's not worried. Now as long as she's happy I only have to worry about one or two more. The lady on my other side works most days then stays inside all night. I only see her getting her mail. I have calmed down and not stressing so much. If the complaints come I'll deal with it at that time. It just pains me to have spent so much time and money building the coop and raising these beauties. I've never actually been around chickens before until I got these so this has been an interesting experience thus far

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

Here is my EE "Puffer" she is the best layer in our coop and we have 3 of her eggs due to hatch today

What a pretty girl!

 

[Cage10]

Any guesses if this is a rooster or pullet? His name right now is Old Yeller.

 

[Cage10]

He/she is 8 weeks old

 

[Cage10]

 

[junebuggena]

He/she is 8 weeks old

Cockerel

 

[User395221]

I was thinking I would clean once a week, but it looks like cleaning and adding pine shavings will be every two days. How often to you clean your coop?

I have quite a thick bed of pine shavings and I pick off the "big poo". It really does make a difference the size of the coop and the size of the chooks. My big girls are in the small coop at the moment and I really need to pick up their (big) poo every day to keep it nice. The more you keep up with reducing the amount of poo sitting around the less "big cleaning" you need to do and it doesn't get smelly. I think it's the urine that makes it smelly, so I have thick bedding which soaks up all the "wet stuff".

If the complaints come

So has anyone complained, or mentioned it yet? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. As long as they aren't up yelling in the middle of the night, a certain amount of neighbourhood noise is normal. Anyone who wants complete quiet in the suburbs needs to move to a rural isolated property ASAP (and they aren't quiet either, you'll get the birds and the crickets and all the other critters yelling their heads off).

They might not be able to hear it, and if they do, it might not be the slightest bit annoying. Sometimes we anticipate things that don't happen.

 

[kekstrom]

Rose at 4 weeks. She is BY FAR the biggest of all our chicks right now. I am guessing she will also be at the top of the pecking order. She is always the first to do anything, and kinda bumps/flys at the others when they do something she doesn't approve of. Chickens are hilarious.

 

[FlyWheel]

Hi, just picked up my 4 EE. Roberta, Nicolette, Georgina and Lizzette on Saturday. They are 5 weeks old. I got to pick up two of them yesterday. Wondering why is smells so bad so soon. I was thinking I would clean once a week, but it looks like cleaning and adding pine shavings will be every two days. How often to you clean your coop? I will also be adding more space for them. Got my coop from Tractor Supply. Whoever designed it should get an award. Very well thought out and great features.
Georgia

The smell is caused by ammonia, which as another posted is present in their droppings (birds don't 'urinate' like mammals, it all gets mixed and dumped out together). Removing any you see when you are in there is one way, another is to spread some Sweet PDZ through their bedding, PDZ is a natural mineral that will absorb and neutralize the ammonia,as well as dry out the droppings, making cleanup a lot easier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeolite

Also be sure your coop is well ventilated, for that as well as other reasons.

Cockerel

Really? I thought a comb as pale a pink as that indicated female. Male combs are supposed to be redder.

 

[love laugh farm]

Have you tried a no crow collar? That would probably buy you enough time to find out if she's a he or vice versa. you could make one or order it! But watch out for the crazy lady trying to sell them for $158 per collar! they are around $20-$25

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...crow+collar.TRS0&_nkw=no+crow+collar&_sacat=0

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=no+crow+collar

My Pet Chicken sells them too and they have bow ties!

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/product-search.aspx?catID=0&Strname=no crow collar&CatName=

here's the original source of them

http://nocrowroostercollars.com/

poppycock1974, I contacted the company that makes the no crow collar and they do a 2-3 day express delivery. If you were interested at looking into them that is, It may make it possible for you to keep him if he turns out a roo! just some info