Proof

We now have proof that we FOR SURE have a rooster!!! The last two days the girls have come in and said that they heard the rooster crow. Pathetically try to crow but crow nontheless.
To be certain though I wanted to hear it for myself and I got that wish this morning!
As I went out to do my chores I heard the rooster crowing MANY TIMES!!! He sounded funny(he's just warming up his pipes yet) but he was cockadoodle-dooing!

More Snow

Yesterday, Tuesday, we woke to more snow, about 1"-2". It was beautiful! The kids ran out to play and I went to do barn chores. For some reason the chickens do not like the snow, they just don't want to come out of their coop when it's white outside. But on this day, we had one brave little bird that ventured out to see what was going on.

Mina goes out to the goat yard more and more now so that she can get used to being out there with them, learning to be their friend. She wasn't too happy in the cold snow but sat at the gate whining at me to let her out.

And Killick, the ever-present chicken defender, sat guard at the gate watching, obsessively, the one lone chicken.

An Article

Sugar Creek Farm lists "Ag Links" each day and today she put a link to an article in the New York Times titled "On Martha's Vineyard, Using Scallops as Currency". This is a very good article and a beautiful example of small farms working together as a community who cares for and supports one another. I LOVE IT!

Snow and Egg Count

Woke this morning to a beautiful layer of snow, maybe 1 inch or so. All of Western Washington is under a "rare Winter Storm Watch" for Monday night. We'll see what happens, but in the meantime we will enjoy the beautiful cover of snow. The barnyard covered in snow is so pretty, a much more beautiful sight than all the mud we usually see.


I just wanted to point out that Sundays I rarely get the egg count and milk count updated for the previous day. But today I need to at least tell you that Saturday I got 15 eggs!!! That's a record count for my flock this time of year.

Rough Chicken Morning

Last night when I went to lock the chickens up for the night I noticed one of them was not walking well. She is one I've been watching for awhile but it appears as if she took a turn for the worse. She wouldn't come into the coop so I picked her up and set her in the door, she just sat there. She was light as a feather. I had to go into the coop and get her out of the doorway so I could lock it and she fell over. So this morning after finding her hiding behind the feed can, still alive but not better at all, we decided to cull her. (That's the nice term for putting her out of her misery.) I felt bad. It's the first time we've had to do this.

In the other coop we had a "near" tragedy. I went in to feed them (the new flock) and found one chicken wedged in the wall of the coop, which is made out of pallets. She got wedged in between two closely placed 1x3's in the wall. (picture below of the wall) Stupid bird could have walked just 3 inches to the other side of the 1x3 to easily escape but decided she needed to get through a 2inch space. Probably scrambled hard all night long to get through there. She was so worn out she couldn't even hold her head up any longer. Her head was through and one wing...in a 2 inch space!! I didn't think logically and tried to stuff her back through, it felt horrible. But then that didn't work so I ran to get James. He walks out and simply says, "Pry the board off. " DUH! So 2 minutes later I had the board free and she flopped out. In shock and exhausted beyond belief she looked nearly dead. But last I was out there she was perked up and eating. I'm headed out to check on her again.
Phew!! What a morning.

This is the wall that has the close together boards. She was wedged between the last 2 on the left. I pried the middle board out. Maybe I should go pry off a couple more close together ones.

The girls above surrounding the rooster who is right in the front center. The one with the large red comb and black mixed with brown colors.

Earlier this week Dawn commented on my "Rooster" post. She said, "how does that work with the eggs for eating, vs eggs for hatching?" This makes a nice blog post so here's the answer.

Until they begin an incubation process all eggs are for eating, even fertilized eggs are eaten. There are some who say fertilized eggs are more nutritious than non-fertilized but I have not found any research that says this for certain. Chickens who feel "broody" and want to incubate actually spend a week or more collecting a clutch of eggs. The eggs are kept dormant until she feels she has enough. She'll then sit on them nonstop for 21 days. Once she begins sitting on them you no longer want to eat them of course. If you collect eggs everyday you have no worries about grabbing an egg that has begun incubating.

I do have a desire to eventually have enough roosters (they recommend 1 for every 20 chickens) so that I can incubate them myself instead of purchasing chicks each year. My aunt does this. She collects eggs every spring. She'll do just as the chickens do, collect eggs for 7-10 days and then incubate. In 2006 she collected 300 eggs (she got some from neighbors as well) and usually hopes for about 50% hatch rate. This time she had over 200 eggs hatch!!! She does this for meat supply more than anything. She only keeps about 30 laying hens. She had lots of meat to share that year! I really want to do this eventually so I may need to purchase just some roosters because I don't think one rooster can keep up with 42 laying hens. :)

Moving Day

We accomplished much of what we wanted to accomplish yesterday. We didn't do anything on the list after the "if there is time" because by the time we go to that part it was time to make dinner. But we got done enough to call it "Moving Day" for our 43 chicks (that no longer look like chicks).

The coop is complete!

Kelsey moving the first chick.

We began moving the chicks one at a time from the barn to the new coop. After a bit we decided this would take too long so James got creative.

He used a big bucket and hauled 3 at a time. They were terrified and would hunker down in the bucket. They looked dead.

Charissa moving chicks...one by one.

Here they are settling into their new home.
I hope to get their outdoor fencing started today. Although it is so cold I'm not sure they'll venture out.