Together Again...(almost)

Five of the original six, reunited after raising their kids. This is their favorite spot for waiting out the rain.

About a month ago I decided it was time to put Phoebe back with her flock. Her chicks were 9 weeks old and she was getting a little testy with some of the larger cockerels. I made the mistake of just setting her out of the pen and thought she would happily scamper off with her former flock who would welcome her back. Wrong....! Rudy immediately began to chase her and she ran shrieking as though a terrifying predator was after her. Now you have to understand that in Rudy's mind, he was rounding up one of his hens. One of a roosters jobs is to keep the flock together and safe. When the hens wander back to the coop to lay eggs while freeranging he comes running when he hears the "egg song" and escorts them back to wherever the rest of the girls are. Here at last was one of his sweeties...gone for over three months.... Well Phoebe was just back from maternity leave, had been cooped up with 11 babies that were becoming brats and here comes this huge mass of testosterone rushing to turn her back into a baby machine. I caught up with Rudy and put him in the coop for time out. I held Phoebe for awhile until she calmed down and her little heart stopped beating so fast. I put her down with the two girls who remained with Rudy when the other three went broody and went off to raise families. I thought she'd be welcomed and embraced...sisterhood, right? Wrong! Sadie, who assumed head hen position while Phoebe explored motherhood, walked over and pecked her on the head. Phoebe cowered! I've never seen Phoebe be submissive in any way, she used to throw Rudy off her back and one certain look from her was enough to send the other hens running. I decided that she and I had had enough drama and trauma and put her back in the pen with her kids.

I decided on a plan. I'd devote the whole next weekend to re-uniting Phoebe with her former flockmates. The plan was to introduce both Phoebe and Izzie back at the same time. Even though Izzie was not showing the signs of restlessness that Phoebe was, and was still attached and attentive to her 8 week olds, I felt that there was safety and solidarity in numbers. I kept Rudy penned and threw out some corn. I let all four girls scratch and eat for a while. They were together yet separate, Izzie kept running back to her babies until I threw out yet more corn. After about an hour with no confrontation, I picked up Rudy and held him for another hour as we watched the girls. He struggled mightily at first (he so wants to be in charge) but after a while he grew calm and when I turned him loose he was a gentleman and just chortled that there was food to be found. I hung around the rest of the day to supervise. I didn't want to interfere with them too much as this would prolong the re-establishment of pecking order, but I wanted to be sure no blood was shed in the process. At one point Rudy decided to get reacquainted with Izzie and I had to crawl under my truck and peel her off my muffler where she was hiding. By nightfall Sadie took forever to join the others on the roost...Phoebes is BACK....

Four weeks later. They all hang as a flock, but the dynamics are subtly different. They all get along, Phoebe is less domineering, and Izzie is still very timid. We all are changed and affected by our life experiences I guess.

Soon it will be time to integrate Ellie as well, then the original six will be back together again...the same yet changed.

Growing and Crowing

Ameraucanas: Wheaten Ranger with Sophie and Ophelia (Opie) @ 15 weeks.

Blue Wheaten Mia @ 10 weeks. She is just perfect....

Marans: Toby, the best Black Copper cockerel @ 12 weeks.

Marans: Bleu, Blue Copper pullet @ 17 weeks.

Welsummer: Jax, Welsummer cockerel @ 12 weeks. Jax escaped his pen today and when I caught him and picked him up his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted for a minute. The chicks raised by the broodies are not used to being handled like the ones I've hatched in the bator. Don't worry Jax, you are my only roo for seven Welsummer ladies... I call you stud...not supper!

Welsummer: pullet @ 16 weeks. She is either Josie, Jessie, Jaci, Juno, Jenna ...you see where I'm going...

The Wellie girls are all J's. I need to band them so I can tell them apart. They all look alike, which is where we want to get to with the Marans and the W/BW/S Ameraucanas.

These are the chicks hatched in August and September. I'm concentrating on 4 breeds: Buff Orpingtons (friendly and sweet, they lay a pinkish brown egg). Welsummers (beautiful partridge coloring, they lay a dark terra-cotta egg). Blue/Black Copper Marans (known for their dark, almost chocolate colored egg). Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (awesomely friendly, they lay a sky blue egg).

I'm enjoying watching them grow tremendously. The Marans and Ameraucanas are in the developmental stage, so I'll be selectively breeding them for color and conformation, as well as egg color.

Meanwhile, the original Buff Orp's continue to be the best pets ever...they follow me around, "help" with the gardening, and continue to provide us with much joy and amusement.

Mama and Mia

Our little Blue Wheaten Ameracauna, Mia, was hatched by Ellie nearly a month ago. She is three weeks old in these pictures. I'm not sure why the other eight eggs she was sitting on didn't hatch. They were shipped from Maryland and trying to hatch shipped eggs is always a gamble. Also, we had a heat wave here the last week of the hatch with temps in the high 90's. In an incubator you must be careful to keep the temperature above 99, but prolonged heat above 103 can kill the developing chicks. It's possible that under the hen and in the unventilated nest box the eggs simply overheated. So we consider little Mia a survivor, and Ellie is being a good mom and teaching her all things chicken. They have their own pen, but they are beside Izzie and her five week old babies and spend a lot of time watching them through the fence.

Ellie had been joining Izzie in the nest box to lay her eggs and Izzie was fine with this at first. Every day I just removed Ellie's egg and pulled her off the nest to run with the flock. As Izzie got closer to her due date, she was becoming a little distressed with Ellie's intrusion. One day, instead of putting Ellie on the ground to join her peeps, I plopped her into an adjoining nest box. When she stayed there for several days, I ordered her some eggs.

Mia will join Ranger, a Wheaten cockerel, and Sophie and Ophelia, the two Blue Wheaten pullets when I split up the four groups by breed at or near point of lay-sometime early spring.

Miss Izzie and Her Babies

Izzie teaches her 5 day old chicks to eat scrambled eggs-their first treat. I thought I chopped them up small enough, but she breaks them into smaller pieces with her beak and sprinkles them on the ground. Some things only a mother can do.

Izzie's chicks were born one week after Phoebe's. She hatched six of seven eggs-five Black Copper Marans and one Olive Egger (EExMarans). We should have a multi-colored basket of eggs in about six months. Izzie and her babies live in the pen next to BFF Phoebe and her brood.

I was out in the yard when they were two days old when I heard a chick peeping in distress. Seems the hens had been scratching along the boards between the pens and dug a tunnel big enough for two of Phoebes chicks to join the two-day olds, and one of Izzie's newborns was chirping her little head off as she found herself in the midst of the "big kids". Izzie was very distressed, but Phoebe just eyed the baby with amusement as if to say, "hey, it's not my kid".

The families were reunited and the tunnel filled in. We buried the wire around the perimeter of the pens to keep out predators, but not between the pens; forgetting that the chickens are pretty good diggers themselves.

Miss Phoebe and Her Babies

Phoebe's chicks hatched this past weekend. I think she looks pretty good considering she has been sitting for five weeks, only leaving the nest once a day for a few minutes to eat, drink and poo. It only takes 21 days for a chick to develop and hatch, but she sat on a golf ball for 2 weeks while we waited for shipped eggs to arrive. I got more Welsummers since the last hatch gave us all girls, and some Black Copper Marans that lay the chocolate colored egg. I put eight of these under our broody plus two of her sisters eggs (she stops laying after full broodiness kicks in) and set the rest in the incubator. She hatched seven and only four in the bator hatched. Her chicks were more active and dried off more quickly. I kept the bator hatched chicks in an inside brooder until they perked up and dried off, then put them under Phoebe's wing. She adopted them immediately after giving me a curious look.

Above is a group shot of Mama and all eleven chicks. They are under her body and wings to stay warm.

She has been busy teaching them to scratch for bugs.

Such a good mama!

The Maternity Ward

Left to right-Ellie (wants to be a mama, but doesn't want to put in the time), Izzie (commited to motherhood,but just can't say no to Ellie's intrusion-although she is distressed by having to share) and Phoebe (into her second week of a three week gestation and whom nobody bothers). See below...

Hormones in the Hen House

Just days after my last post,..."peace in the hen house...yada,yada..." things have gotten very complicated with our teenagers.

For a few weeks two of our girls have been acting strangely. Both Izzie and Ellie have been making odd little squawks, have been more skittish than friendly, and at times walk around like fluffed up golden basketballs. My research into this behavior says this is an indication of "broodiness". A "broody" hen is one that wants to sit and hatch babies. Broodiness has largely been bred out of production egg layers, but several breeds (including my Buff Orps) still retain this characteristic. Broodiness can be a curse if you only want a hen for fresh eggs as they stop production while broody. They will sit on a nest all day for weeks or months, waiting for chicks to hatch, even if the eggs under them are constantly removed. A broody hen can be a blessing if you want chicks, as they maintain temps and humidity better than an incubator...and no need no worry about a power failure. Plus the hen will raise the chicks and keep them warm, thus eliminating the need to keep them indoors and under lights until they feather out.

About a week into this odd behavior from Izzie and Ellie, I noticed Phoebe had not come out of the nest box all day. I gathered the eggs from under her and put her out to play. I tried this for several days, but she kept returning to the nest to sit on the golf ball. Apparently, as queen of the flock, Phoebe had decided she would be the first mama, even though she had not portrayed any broody behavior. That is our strong, decisive Phoebe. No playing around...just do it.

I ordered some eggs to put under her. Since we hatched only one Copper Marans, and all four Welsummers are pullets, I bought some of each and waited nearly a week for those eggs to arrive. Phoebe sat on her golf ball for the whole week. screeching like a cat whenever I opened the nest box to collect the other hens eggs.

Since I received more eggs than she can cover, I set half in the incubator. It will be interesting to compare hatch rates. Letting her sit seems the path of least resistance. If a hen cannot be dissuaded from "setting" by removing eggs and constantly pulling her off the nest, the only other thing to do is to isolate them in a wire bottom cage so that heat doesn't build up underneath them, for a week or more. I was not ready to do this to sweet, proud Phoebe, who just wants some babies. Sitting can be hard on hens, who only come off the nest once a day to eat, drink, and poo. I've read stories of broodies with no fertile eggs, who will sit for months, eventually starving.

Phoebe had been sitting for a week, when Izzie commandeered the other nest box. She sat in the same zen-like state as Phoebe, allowing only Ellie to join her and lay her eggs with her. This was a problem for Sadie and Violet. They waited in agony for one of the nests to be vacated.

I put a cardboard box with nesting material and a golf ball in the coop, but they were having none of it. At one point Ellie must have kicked Izzie off her nest because I found Izzie scooping a golf ball out of the cardbord box using her beak and neck, onto the coop floor, wanting to sit on something.

Ellie was not a commited broody and soon abandoned the nest to free range with her pals. Izzie, however is totally dedicated, so I put some Black Copper Marans eggs under her.

I was very stressed out about the other hens not having an available and open nest box when Bill came to my rescue (as he always does). He put an addition of three more nest boxes onto the coop. It took Violet an hour of standing and looking at the occupied nests before she finally laid in the new nest. Sadie followed her lead and laid an egg right beside Violet's while I was at work.
Ellie continues to lay right beside Izzie, and I remove her eggs every afternoon. I'm hoping she'll get the hang of laying in the new nests and not go fully broody as well.

Two pregnant teenagers at once is plenty!

Drama in the Henhouse

Ok, so the chicken experts tell you to provide one 12" x 12" nest box per four hens, and to place a plastic fake egg or golf ball in said nest so they will say, "hmmm, this looks like a good place to lay an egg...why there is one already here!". Why my visually acute chickens who can see a treat dish and come running from 25 yards away, or can distinguish a tossed lima bean from a lima bean shell would think a golf ball is an egg is beyond me...but it worked.

So according to the experts, with five hens we needed one and a fifth nest boxes. Instead we gave them a three foot long addition, to provide ample room should more than one hen need to lay at the same time. This worked great a couple of weeks as the first few began to lay. As all the chickens began to lay, we noticed at times a line forming waiting for the nest. They looked like human chicks waiting for the only stall in the ladies room. This was further complicated by pecking order. If a dominate hen was in the nest, she would growl at her underlings until they backed off to the coop door. If a bottom pecking order girl was on the nest, a more dominate hen would get within several inches of her and stare her down while she quickly did her business. I saw one gal stand up during this intimidation and turn around so only her fluffy butt was facing the intimidator. I've seen Izzie who is #2, but is #1 Phoebes best friend, climb on top of her bud and practically lay an egg on top of her.

Seems they all wanted to lay on the side with the golf ball. The girls that had to wait sometimes an hour or more were looking red in the face and very uncomfortable. Too much drama in the coop. Being smarter than chickens we decided to put two more golf balls in the nest-one on the left, one in the middle, and one on the right. By the end of the first morning they had all been rolled to the right side and Sadie sat on them most of the morning assuming she had a nice clutch to hatch! By the afternoon she abandoned the nest and the carpenters came by and installed a partition. One golf ball on each side and for the next few days, two or three eggs laid on each side.

Peace in the nest box. Violet has her own space on the left. Phoebe allows Izzie to share her space.

All goes well, although at times there is still a line for the facilities...

Ellie patiently waits her turn.

Two on deck...one in the hole.

New Babies

This cartoon was in the paper the morning after the babies hatched.

We have 13 new additions here. I ordered hatching eggs from breeders of quality chickens of several different breeds that I want to raise. I selected these breeds for appearance, temperament, and egg color. Although I didn't have a high hatch rate on these (common with shipped eggs), I am thrilled with the hatch overall. Besides the three Buff Orpingtons that are the offspring of our newly laying flock and the infamous Rudy, these are the 3 other breeds I'm working with:

Welsummers are the brown chipmunky looking chicks. They are a dutch breed, good foragers, and are beautiful adults. The rooster has the tradition greens and golds that one thinks of for roosters, and the rooster on the original Kellogg's Corn Flakes box was a Welsummer named "Cornelius". They lay a huge, very dark terracotta egg.

I wanted Ameracaunas for their blue eggs. These birds are originally from South America and are noted for their "beards and earmuffs". The nearly white chicks with the round heads are Wheaton/Blue Wheaton Ameracaunas. The adult hens have a light beige color and the roos have gorgeouse plumage. Both have slate blue legs. Looks like I have 4 Blue Wheatons and 1 Wheaton.
I love their personalities already. They tilt their little round heads up and watch us when the others in the brooder are more interested in food and water.

Lastly, the little gray/black chick was the only Blue Copper Maran chick to hatch of six eggs. The Marans, of which there are several different colors, are highly prized for their dark, almost chocolate colored, flavorful eggs. Top chefs seek Marans eggs. They are not prolific layers, but the birds and their eggs are stunning. I never thought I'd follow this fad, but got a great deal on a 6 each egg combo with the Ameracaunas. When a Marans is crossed with an Ameracauna, the resulting offspring lay a dark olive egg.

I may order more eggs after the next batch of quail is out of the bator. It looks like all four Welsummers are girls, and I might as well try to hatch a few more Marans.


Sleeping babies. Too cute... Helmets off!

The Egg Song

The Chickens continue to amaze and delight me every day. As they began to lay, I noticed that they would sing a little song after laying an egg. I did a little research and discovered this is known as the "Egg Song". If I had to describe it it would be "bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, BAAAAAWK", repeated over and over for 10 or 15 minutes. Adam caught this event with his camera, which I uploaded to UTube and can be seen Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ak9laPQCM

This begins with the unseen hen in the nest box, but Rudy joins in and two hens in the run jubilantly proclaim to the world that an egg has been laid! This cracks me up as they prefer a quiet, secluded place to lay, (I assume to keep it safe from predators,) yet when the deed is done, they announce it to the world. Two things to listen for - Rudy's noise at the very end, and a sound like a baby crying in the background. I've come to find out that Rudy can make that noise and sing at the same time. How cool is that!

Rudy and the Hawk

I just read that chickens have more than 35 different vocalizations (exceeding dogs and cats combined) and heard a new one just the other day. Rudy let out a sound much like a human scream and all the hens dove for cover. Me being the mere human that I am, had not noticed the hawk that must have started to swoop down behind my back but once alerted by my vigilant rooster, I spied it flying up over the roof of the house. It's intended victim may have been Phoebe as she stayed crouched and trembling under a bush for nearly a half hour, even though her sisters instantly rushed over to surround and comfort her. They were all a bit freaked out and clingy the rest of the evening. I sat on the porch swing with them until dusk. At one point I had a chicken sitting on each leg and one perched on my shoulder, and the rest huddled under the swing.

We have seen hawks from a distance before, and Rudy always warns us with a throaty growl. The sound he made with this possible attacker transmitted "immediate danger-hit the deck" and probably scared the bird away.

Although they are locked in the coop at night to keep them safe from nocturnal predators as they can't see in the dark, I know that there is a little risk in letting them out at all, even if I am outside with them. They are just so eager to get out in the yard and explore and scratch for bugs that I will continue to let them free range in the mornings and evenings. Part of the joy in raising chickens is to see them being as chickens were intended to live-which is not being confined to battery cages as egg producers.

I also have more faith than ever in their instincts to keep themselves safe and Rudy's abilities as flock protector.

Rudibeckia Cherokee Sunset

Every year I experiment with growing a few new perennials from seed. This rudibeckia was one of this years. Of five plants I set out, each is sporting different sunset colors-rust, mahagony, golds and yellows, in both double and semi-double petal formations. The coloration is much more interesting than the normal yellow rudibeckia. These have been blooming about six weeks now. They don't seem to like a lot of water and humidity, so are looking a bit tired under current weather conditions. I'll cut them back soon and hope for another flush of flowers as fall comes. They really are autumnal colors and should bloom until first frost.

Girls Gone Wild

The girls go crazy for watermelon while Rudy stands alert...

Soon, though, he can't resist...he asks to join in...

He's almost timid, and very dainty in his pecking. The girls get their whole face inside and shovel it in....

Soon they wander off, one by one, to look for meatier morsels....

Leaving only Phoebe and her BFF, Izzie...

And then only Phoebe. "Where did everybody go?"....

"Wait for ME!...

Eggs!!

The first batch of quail are eight weeks old and we began getting our first quail eggs two weeks ago. They come in lots of pattern variations, but each hen lays the same color and pattern throughout her reproductive life. We are up to 17 a day, and have eaten most of them...fried, scrambled, and deviled.

The size of the eggs we've collected thus far have ranged from two finger-tip sized "barbie doll eggs" to several of these huge, almost bantam chicken sized eggs. Ouch!

We finally got our first real chicken egg! I say finally, but the normal age of age egg laying onset is 20-26 weeks. Our girls are 18 1/2 weeks old, but in the last couple of weeks their combs and wattles have gotten bigger and redder-a sure sign of reproductive maturity. Also, Rudy has been doing his duty for a couple of weeks now. (I had read that roosters mate 30-40 times a day, and I'm here to tell you this is no exaggeration). I also say "real" egg, because two days ago I was out in the garden with the kids and noticed two were missing. This is highly unusual because they always hang together, like they are attached with an invisible teather. I searched and found Phoebe and Izzie in a brushy area standing over a sort of egg. It was missing a shell and looked a bit like a silicone implant. This is common for first eggs. You aren't supposed to put birds on layer feed or give extra calcium until point of lay, as it can hurt their developing organs before they are ready to utilize it. I've since added a bowl of crushed oyster shell for free choice feeding. Anyway, I knew Izzie was the layer because she looked positively shell shocked. I was proud of Phoebe, her BFF, for staying with her and holding her hand through this traumatic event (if chickens had hands).

No more eggs for two days. This morning Izzie did not come out of the coop at daybreak with the others. When I let the rest out for morning free range, she was sitting in the nest box. She sat for over an hour until Rudy informed me by chattering and leading me to the coop, that she was down and ready to join her pals. I opened the door to let her out and found in the nest box; a warm, perfectly formed, hard shelled egg. Woo hoo!!

Hangin' with my Peeps

I like to sit on the porch to shell lima beans so I can just throw the shells into the flower beds to compost. The chickens investigated the shells and quickly decided they were not edible. When I offered them the small or buggy beans though, they gobbled them up. It didn't take friendly Violet long to join me on the swing (me, me...pick ME!). Of course I can't play favorites and each got their turn, although gentleman Rudy gave most of his to one or another of his girls. After awhile Violet did try to snitch limas from the colander, but after I nudged her head away a couple of times, she caught on that she had to wait her turn. Meanwhile, sneaky Sadie who is pecking at the bag of unshelled beans, managed to pull it off the swing, causing a chorus of squawks- and one human version of a squawk.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

II have focused a lot of attention on Rudy the roo, as he is so smart and has so much character, but now it's time to introduce you to the "girls". These young pullets are developing into quite beautiful hens. While Rudy takes his responsibilites as flock keeper and protector quite seriously, the ladies are content to pursue nutrition for their occupation as future egg layers. Rudy keeps one eye on the ground, and another on the sky and another on his girls as they forage carefreely. (I know I've given Rudy an extra eye-but that's how watchful he is).

I've purchased colored leg bands (they are now hippy chicks with ankle bracelets) so we can tell them apart and they now have names. Introducing in no particular order, (ok, pecking order)- Phoebe, Sadie, Izzie, Ellie Mae, and Violet. Above is Phoebe, who is the biggest and a bit aloof. Nobody messes with Phoebe-not even Rudy. Check out her posture. She is the queen of the flock.

This is Violet, the smallest but friendliest. She's the first to come running to greet us.

Sadie could also be called stubborn Sadie. I'm convinced that she is the chick we've had to chase around the pen to get her in with the rest. She gave Adam a frustrating hour once when she balked at the coop door and led him on a chase to the back of beyond.

Ellie Mae and Izzie are true middle children. They get along with everyone and don't ruffle any feathers. Ellie Mae (pictured on the far left looking a bit like Mae West) does wander off on her own more than the rest, so she has a streak of independence.

This photo shows it well. I've called them and Violet in the foreground is first to come running; Izzie, hovering in the air, has delayed to find one last grasshopper-then flies to catch up; Sadie, on the left, is saying "maybe I'll come, or maybe I'll run over there". Phoebe, sitting on the right, is saying, "I'll come when the rest of these fools are out of the way", and Ellie is out of the picture doing her own thing.

Quail

We are raising quail for eggs and meat. These are Coturnix quail and are amazingly efficient converters of feed to food. They begin laying eggs at 6 weeks of age, each hen laying 300 eggs a year and are ready to proccess for meat at 8 weeks old.

We raised these Coturnix (aka Japanese Quail) for awhile nearly 30 years ago, and they are delish! Since then, we have discovered through selective breeding these quail mature to nearly a lb. apiece. When we had them back in the eighties, the largest weighed in at maybe 10 oz. Also, they come in more color variations now, including the Texas A & M, developed by that university as a white meat quail. So when a friend gave us an incubator, we decided to grow us some quail. We started this project a mere seven weeks ago.

This is a batch of two day old quail. They are a bit smaller than golf balls.

I bought the first set of eggs from Ebay-50 Jumbo Browns and 50 A & M's. Here are the first hatchlings. I'm using a still air Hovabator and turn the eggs by hand three times a day, which keeps the embryos from sticking to the sides. It's a bit hard to tell from this pic shot through the incubator window, but I've marked the eggs with an X on one side and an O on the other, so I can see that I've turned them. After fourteen days of 101 degree temps and 45-50% humidity, I stopped turning, added more water to the incubator to increase humidity and by the 17th day we had 55 baby quail. This is not a bad percentage for eggs shipped in the heat and incubated in a still air (no fan). We should do much better when we are setting our own eggs, but we are establishing our breeding stock here.

The babies must be kept warm until they feather out. We brooded them for two weeks under a heat lamp while Bill built their grow out pen.

Here they are at three weeks old. They are raised on wire so the poo falls through (fertilizer!) and the pen stays clean.

Rabbit feeders allow us to easily provide feed from the outside of the pen.

My genius husband designed this watering system. We can flush it out by removing the lid. To add new water, we close the valve until the bucket is full and the lid is on, creating a vacuum.

Just after the first babies hatched, I ordered eggs from a different Ebayer to give us more diversity in our breeding stock. Forty-nine of these went into outside pens at a week old, because it is so warm now.

One week old quail chicks. They grow so fast!

I call them quailey-poo, Adam calls them critters, Bill calls them dinner!