WTF! Chick hatched early!

We just heard peeping from the henhouse and a chick is hatched -- 5 days before we expected! When I finally got my camera, I couldn't get the hen out of the way for a pic.

How did this happen? When we got the eggs from the breeder, he got 2 from the henhouse. Maybe this egg was already incubating?

Another broody hen

 Spring is in the air ... another hen (Fancypants Johnson) stopped laying eggs and wouldn't leave her nest. When they go broody like this, it's like they're in a trance and can't think of anything except the nest. You remove them and they go right back. 

Since we don't want any more chicks, we are taking measures to "break" her out of it. This involves removing her from the coop so she can't get to the nesting boxes. The chicken tractor (pictured) is coming in handy for this. This cage can be moved around the yard. At night it's warmer and safer for her to be in a cage in the shed. Last time she was broody, it took several days of keeping her away from the nests for her to return to her normal self and start laying eggs again. I guess this means she would be a good mother so hopefully someday the timing will be right to give her a turn.

Meanwhile, we have about 6 days til Penguin (pictured in previous posts) hatches her chicks!

Beautiful eggs

This is a better photo of the eggs that our hen Penguin is incubating. She left the nest for a few minutes to eat, so I went and grabbed my camera.

Broody chicken still hanging in there

I'm lifting her off the nest here to show the eggs. They should hatch in a couple of weeks!

Famous chicken owner...Tori Spelling!

Tori Spelling takes her Silkie chicken to an awards show. I've heard that Coco wears a diaper and lives in the house. Update: here's another photo from last month -- Tori with Coco on the movie set. When I first heard about Tori's silkie living inside, etc, I thought it was pretty funny. Who knew that 6 months later I'd have my own silkie in the house!

Buying eggs for our hen to hatch

One of our hens is determined to sit on a nest for a while (she's "gone broody" -- see Thursday's post).

Today we went out to a breeder and bought some eggs for her to sit on! The kind we got are Black Copper Maran -- the parents are pictured here. The eggs themselves are a dark brown.

Actually getting the eggs under the chicken wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Penguin is usually a very sweet chicken -- bottom of the pecking order in fact. When I was putting the eggs under her, she pecked my hand so hard that it drew blood in a couple places. She's sure a protective mother.

Broody hen -- good timing for a hatch?

Penguin has decided to hunker down in the nest box and hatch some eggs. She puffs up and growls when we open the door or even come close. Last year we had a different hen "go broody", but it was too close to our summer holiday and it would have been bad timing to try to hatch chicks. This time we're thinking of getting her some eggs to hatch! (We don't have a rooster around, so our hens' eggs are not fertile. )

Time to clip wings

This winter the chickens got new feather growth, so they were able to fly out of their run (and up onto the deck). It was kind of cute, but we decided to clip their wing feathers again this year to keep them safely in the yard.

Dust bath

The chickens have a favorite patch of dry dirt by the house where they like to take a dust bath. Three of them crowded in there this afternoon.

First eggs of spring

Walter started laying eggs this week. I found these four in the corner of the henhouse this morning. We know they're Walter's because she's making more noise during the day and squats down when you go close to her. (Hens think people are roosters!)

January cold

The chickens are fully feathered out now that the cold weather has set in. With the days so short and cold weather, they have completely stopped laying eggs. This is normal, although many people give chickens artificial light so that they keep laying all winter. We're following the idea that if they are allowed to take a break in the winter, they will lay eggs for more years.

Moulting feathers

Two poor birds are moulting their feathers right now. Fancypants Johnson (pictured) started a few weeks ago. It's a cyclical thing -- they moult about once a year and stop laying eggs during that time. It's supposed to take a month or so for them to grow back. You can see the new shafts coming in on Fancypants. Looks itchy! Their roosting area is filling up with feathers and they've brought some of the big ones into the nest.

About washing eggs

In a previous post, I mentioned that we don't wash or refrigerate the eggs from our backyard chickens. People occasionally express concern, so here's a recent article about how eggs are naturally protected from bacteria, etc.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129472951

Chicken tractor

Here is our new chicken "tractor" -- a portable enclosure that we can move to different spots around the yard. With this, they'll be able to get their fill of grass and bugs, and we'll still be able to enjoy the backyard. Yesterday was their first day in the tractor -- they spent about 5 hours out there and the rest of the day in their regular run. Penguin even laid an egg in the little nest box.

Richard built the tractor earlier this week when we were wanting a place to separate Vulture for a while to cure her of her early morning crowing. She had started at 7am Monday morning, so Tuesday she spent several hours away from the others and hasn't crowed since. They say that separating a chicken takes them down in the pecking order, which I think would be good since Vulture can be pretty mean. Anyhow, I hope that a change of scenery will be good for all of them!

Crowing hen!

Without a rooster around, Vulture has taken up crowing. This video was taken this morning.

She has always been the top hen; she's a couple weeks older than the others, will sometimes peck on Penguin or Fancypants, and won't let me pet her like the other hens. I hear that it does happen occasionally where a hen will crow as part of the dominant role. In some cases however, crowing's a sign of a hormonal imbalance and a hen may even stop laying eggs. Hopefully she's just doing her thing and will continue laying eggs for us!

Broody - with update

Must be time to hatch some eggs -- Fancypants Johnson won't leave the nest. When we come near she puffs up her feathers and growls. Should we get some fertilized eggs for her to sit on?

Update: We decided not to hatch new chicks right now. So after a few days in a separate cage with no bedding, she came out of her broody state and is back with the other chickens.

New chicken run

The chickens eat every blade of grass that grows in the yard, so I was losing hope for a vegetable garden this year. The solution we came up with was to move the coop to behind the shed and fence off a run for them beside the deck. In this area they'll have the compost piles, raspberry bushes, and a dust bathing area. With any luck they'll eat the dandelions and raspberry shoots that were going wild back there. The top of the coop still backs onto the deck so that we can collect eggs and refill the food and water drippers from up top.

Urban chickens are getting a lot of local press these days since Vancouver passed a bylaw allowing chickens. There's controversy around a city proposal to build a wing of the animal shelter (at $20,000) for abandoned chickens.

First Spring Photos

-Walter and Fancypants deciding who gets to go in first to lay an egg.

-Penguin on the nest box.

-The flock of 4 demolishing our lawn. With all of the rain and chickens scratching around, parts of the backyard have turned to mud. We're going to fence them off to the sideyard later this month so I can plant the vegetable garden.

Eggs!

The hens are finally laying eggs -- this past week we were getting 3 a day. Mary gave me this antique egg basket which I love sitting on the counter. Fresh eggs don't need to be washed or refrigerated.

The first egg!

Happy New Year! We got our first egg.

Are you wondering about the golf ball beside it? They say that if you put a golf ball in the nest box it gives the chicken the idea of where to lay their eggs. How amazing that the chicken got it right the first time. (Update - the hen first to start laying is Fancypants Johnson.)