Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Lol, their like ' what you lookin at dude ? '

****** monsters started nibbling on my fingers when I was trying to take pictures. The led on the phone really caught their attention. But seriously, that Vilma is adorable. Reminds me of a miniature T-Rex when she's stomping about. I might have to get a video of it at some point. And the demented goose egg song as well.

*Edit* Seriously? D*mned is a forbidden word as well? This censorship is really limiting my ways of expressing myself. Gosh darn it. Or then my favorite curse, as featured on 30 Rock, Hogcock, which is of course a combination of the very PC hogwash and poppycock.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Lol never forget their origins or they will have you for lunch.

 

[vehve]

Lol never forget their origins or they will have you for lunch.

Pfft, I could take a T-rex in a boxing batch any day.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Ok, three eggs in three days now. She seems to be on a 23 hour rhythm, making smaller eggs all the time, today's was only 27g. Do your chickens do the eggsong both before and after laying? Veera started by going into the run, climbing to the top roost and making this demented goose sound for about 5 minutes, the whole flock chimed in, especially Taneli the head roo. Then she went to the nest (different one today) and started fussing about. Took about 20 minutes today for her to produce an egg. Towards the end of it, Virpi went in to check on her, hopefully she'll start mimicking the behavior soon. We then got another two minutes of demented goose sounds again, accompanied by weird noises from Taneli.

Some of ours started to lay quite close together, others just stood idly by and did nothing. Amy the Wyandotte is still doing nothing!

Lol, when the egg song starts here it's like a ' chain reaction '. The hen laying the egg starts then the roos start off , one by one and then every other hen that even contemplated laying an egg joins in on the chorus. Lalala.

If there is enough of them in the coop we get a chorus going, if only we got as many eggs.

I just found it strange that she started singing before laying already. And the non layers had no problem chiming in too. Virpi, even though her comb and wattle are the least developed of the three, was showing some interest in Veera's nesting too, so I'm hoping that she would start too. I don't know why Viiru hasn't started yet, her comb and wattle are the most developed and Taneli has been enjoying "business time" (If you're familiar with Flight of the Conchords from that close by island nation over there) with her for almost two weeks now.

Pretty much all our girls sing before getting on the nest, most give a little "I'm done now" song after, but it's the chanting before that seems to get everyone going. Anyone in the coop joins in, our old roo Smudge used to try his version of an egg song too.

Don't mind some FOTC ep's. My wife is not a huge fan though so I don't get to watch as much as I would like.

Lol, their like ' what you lookin at dude ? '

I thought the same. Chooks give the best stink eye! You have a great looking flock Felix.

I have some news fresh off this afternoons hot plate.

Look who I found in a nest box. Two sunny winters days and it seems to have pushed them into 'business time'



I was quite impressed with her first go. I should not be too surprised considering she is over 30 weeks old! Has a nice pink tinge to it.



I didn't get a chance to snap some new ones of the chicks. Car shopping and visitors squashed any spare time today.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Pfft, I could take a T-rex in a boxing batch any day.

, batch.

 

[vehve]

, batch.

Someone has misplaced the keys on my keyboard... What scoundrelous behavior!

Ben, your first egg is a lot more impressive than ours. Nice color too. And Amy will surprise you one day still, I'm sure of it.

I personally think that our flock is the most beautiful ever, no one else's comes even close. There may be a slight bias involved though...

How can your wife not love lyrics like "The most beautiful girl in the room (depending on the room)"

Our flock chimed in even though they where all out in the yard. They really do make some noise.

So, what car are you getting? I would love one of those Toyota Land Cruiser V8's, but with Finnish taxes the price comes to 170k, so not really realistic. Karin could get one registered as a veterinary car for maybe 90k, but still that is way too much to pay for a car. Especially if you can't have back seats in it. So for now we have our trusty '08 Nissan X-Trail (with 220000km on her) and our '97 Peugeot 406. And Karin inherited a Volvo PV 444 from ´56, I really should get it out for a spin at some point. Beautiful car.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Some of ours started to lay quite close together, others just stood idly by and did nothing. Amy the Wyandotte is still doing nothing! If there is enough of them in the coop we get a chorus going, if only we got as many eggs. Pretty much all our girls sing before getting on the nest, most give a little "I'm done now" song after, but it's the chanting before that seems to get everyone going. Anyone in the coop joins in, our old roo Smudge used to try his version of an egg song too. Don't mind some FOTC ep's. My wife is not a huge fan though so I don't get to watch as much as I would like. I thought the same. Chooks give the best stink eye! You have a great looking flock Felix. I have some news fresh off this afternoons hot plate. Look who I found in a nest box. Two sunny winters days and it seems to have pushed them into 'business time' I was quite impressed with her first go. I should not be too surprised considering she is over 30 weeks old! Has a nice pink tinge to it. I didn't get a chance to snap some new ones of the chicks. Car shopping and visitors squashed any spare time today.

Ben I hope those ' nasty rock sisters ' don't lay you a handful of eggs and then go broody .

 

[Bens-Hens]

So, what car are you getting? I would love one of those Toyota Land Cruiser V8's, but with Finnish taxes the price comes to 170k, so not really realistic. Karin could get one registered as a veterinary car for maybe 90k, but still that is way too much to pay for a car. Especially if you can't have back seats in it. So for now we have our trusty '08 Nissan X-Trail (with 220000km on her) and our '97 Peugeot 406. And Karin inherited a Volvo PV 444 from ´56, I really should get it out for a spin at some point. Beautiful car.

We are looking at some more modest machines. Was torn between the 2012 Hyundai Elantra and the 2010 Ford TDi Mondeo, leaning towards the Mondeo. Just need to find the right one now. Looking to trade a 2008 Ford Territory 'soccer mum' car for something a bit more reasonable on fuel for 'round the burb's.

Ben I hope those ' nasty rock sisters ' don't lay you a handful of eggs and then go broody .

I REALLY hope you didn't just put the mocha's on us Fancy! She did well for her first egg, but I am still watching them sideways.

Time for bed, early start tomorrow for a training run.

 

[vehve]

We are looking at some more modest machines. Was torn between the 2012 Hyundai Elantra and the 2010 Ford TDi Mondeo, leaning towards the Mondeo. Just need to find the right one now. Looking to trade a 2008 Ford Territory 'soccer mum' car for something a bit more reasonable on fuel for 'round the burb's.

I REALLY hope you didn't just put the mocha's on us Fancy! She did well for her first egg, but I am still watching them sideways.

Time for bed, early start tomorrow for a training run.

The Mondeo is probably a good choice, especially the station wagon. Haven't tried the Elantra, and the Territory isn't sold here. Only bad thing I can think about the Mondeo, is that they tend to start feeling a bit wobbly once you go much over the 100000km mark. The Mondeo isn't as bad as the Focus, but still. And the Fiesta is pretty beat up after 60k. The 1.6 diesels really give nice mileage, we had a '06 Peugeot 307 before the Nissan, and we got the consumption down to about 5.4 l/km. The Nissan is much worse at 7.4, but still reasonable.

I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, who ever heard about a broody rock? It's virtually impossible! Right? I'm not jinxing this am I?

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

 

[vehve]

Today's project was re-potting our biggest tomato plants, and building some supports for them. Also, our feeder has been pretty much worthless so I threw together this, borrowing a bit from an idea here on BYC.







Took about 3 minutes for the chickens to get used to it. No waste feeder with a compost bucket and a storm vent, cost was a bit under 10 euros.