The Ugly Chickens

Adolescent chickens are ugly. Period. End of story. Those soft cuddly chicks that poop everywhere have turned into awkward teenage chickens that poop everywhere.

 

So far all the chicks we brought home are still with us. I am anxiously awaiting when the coop will be put back together and our garage will be completely resided in beautiful cedar.

This is the very curious Plymouth Barred Rocks. They are a week older than the rest and about a third bigger.  We bought these because my dad is a big fan and they were in stock when we went. 

This is one of our Speckled Sussex chicks. They are quickly becoming my favorites of the bunch. I wasn't originally considering them but since this is what the store had and I read they are good layers I bought them.

This is one of the Black Sexlinks (or Black Stars). Definitely the ugliest of the ugly. Poor ugly things, hopefully they will have a winning personality.

Buff orpingtons. I think these are our friendliest. 

Looking forward to large amounts of fresh eggs with these ladies.

Rusty

I do remember how to log into my blogger account still!

Things here are still as busy as ever. I am helping my best friend work on getting her family's new business up and running and looking forward to when I can share all the details (especially for you upstate New Yorkers)!

We got new chickens. I should probably confess here that late last fall a predator, of unknown origin, took advantage of my mistake of an open coop door and killed my whole flock. I felt so bad that they died because of me. We cleaned up the bodies and most of the feathers and spent the winter wondering if we should get more. My son asked about every other day if it was spring and if we could get chickens so when the signs went up around town saying "chicks are here" we made our way down and got 8 new chickens, knowing we would probably end up with about 6. (we still have 8)

We got 2 speckled Sussex, 2 black sexlinks, 2 buff orpingtons and 2 Plymouth barred rocks. They all are supposed be bigger birds that love to lay eggs. Both kids have been busy watching them and trying there best to take care of them (i.e. not squish them to death). So far so good.

My Monochromatic Flock

We got two new Silver Laced Polish hens (hopefully hens)! All our chickens are some variation of black and white. Not something I planned but they do look pretty all together.

The two new ones are still teenagers and going through their awkward stage. 

We named one Stewart, after one of my favorite Polish ladies, Martha Stewart. I couldn't go with Martha because that is my grandma's name and she might not take too kindly to that.

The other one is named Bock as in the sound a chicken makes - bock bock bock

They are insane looking and we already love them!

Bad Year For Chickens

This morning I saw a sparrow carrying off a feather and thought "Ahhh, how sweet. She is using a feather for her nest." I then go to bring out water for 3.2 only to find feathers everywhere.

Two words - Owl Attack!

Sigh... It is my fault for not bring her crate in last night but I thought she had enough cover under her favorite bush. I was wrong. Very, very, very wrong.

That poor chicken. First she gets scalped and now this. Little Man cried for awhile and seems to be over it. This was a very bad year for baby chicks at my house. I need to stop writing this post and get outside and clean up the rest of the feathers.  Hopefully I will have more cheerful chicken posts in the near future!

Chicken Injuries

We had bad luck with chicks this year. After losing one chick when it was few days old, we lost our Golden Campine about a week ago. I am not sure what was wrong with her but I did notice that she seemed to have stopped growing. The other chick was growing great and I decided it would be a good idea to move her to the big coop now that she was alone.

Because chickens are stupid, I put her in at night and hoped they would all wake up and just think she had been there all along. I checked on her a couple times before going to bed and all seemed to be okay. In the morning she was still nervous but alive and uninjured.

Fast forward to after lunch...  I open the coop door to find one of my White Orpingtons covered in blood, not a great sign. The poor teenage chicken had been scalped. While I am tempted to insert a picture, it is pretty gross and trust me when I say you could see bone. No feathers, no skin just grossness (and I have a pretty high tolerance to blood and guts). So after I was done crying and feeling really, really bad for this chicken I covered the wound in antiseptic cream and waited for my husband to come home and "take care" of this poor mortally wounded chicken.

During those long four hours I talked to one of my parent's neighbor and friend's husband to learn that this type of injury isn't that uncommon and if they live through the night they will probably live. My husband came home to find her eating and drinking with copious amount of cream on her head and decided she didn't need to meet her chicken maker.

Fast forward a week and she is doing great. She has the most nasty looking scab on her head but other wise doing great. She looks like a vulture. My husband bought a crate for the next time we try and introduce her into the flock and my neighbor gave me some additional tips like letting her bond with one of the friendlier chickens in the flock prior to introducing her to the rest and taking out the mean chicken for a couple days when we try again.

The friendly Light Brahmas

In summary - chickens are mean to each other. Chickens are stupid. I am not the type of person that can kill an animal to end its misery.

Chicken Puberty

When we first got chickens I wasn't well prepared for how ugly the adolescent chicken is. They are so awkward! They out grow the cute baby chick phase pretty quickly (a week or two at most) and then spend what seems like an eternity looking like this:

Some day I will grow into my comb!

Who do you think you are!

She will be a pretty chicken by the end of summer.

I sympathize with you little chickens. You just have to trust that puberty does end and by the end of summer you will be as beautiful as a chicken can be.

Three and Four?

On the way home from the farm store with our new chicks (see previous post) M told me that their names were Three and Four. By the time we got home I realized that he named them after the book Big Chickens Fly The Coop by Leslie Helakoski

Leslie Helakoski (Author)

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(Author) and Henry Cole (Illustrator).  

 

Each page starts with "Four big chickens..." He picked that name Four first and then I guess he figured Three was the next obvious choice. Here he is reading that book to Three and Four.

Here is Baby Girl just hanging out with the latest additions.

My Brood Is Growing

After many phone calls to the local farm store this weekend we finally got our chicks this morning. I called them at 9:05 this morning and got there around 10:00 armed with my list of the breeds I wanted to get. When I called the store they said they have about 10-15 chicks left of each of those breeds, but little did I know the elderly Korean couple in front of me was going to buy EVERY SINGLE CHICK in the breeds I had decided on. Seriously, what are you going to do with 60 chicks?? Don't people that buy that many get them in the mail? After pleading the sales man to ask them if we could have one New Hampshire Red and one Araucana he said they don't speak any English. First come, first serve is fair but I feel like to get the chicks you want (in small quantities) you have to camp outside the store.

Now I am thinking, "Crap, I can't bring a three year old and tell him we are buying chicken, show him the chickens and then have to explain that he has to wait a week to (maybe) get the chickens we want."

On to plan B... call up Hilary and make her Google search the remaining breeds to see if they are a match. Unfortunately, I get her on the phone and can't articulate what characteristics I am looking for and she is just reading off a bunch of random notes about the breeds.

I am sure at this point the sales man is thinking, "Is this lady for real? Real farmers don't need Google and cell phones to pick out their chickens." Maybe he is right, but we aren't real farmers, we are just backyard chicken enthusiasts that were 5 minutes too late getting there because I just had to take a shower. With all my research out the door and pleading looks to the elderly Korean couple to please leave some for the rest of us we purchased our two newest chicks. Thanks Hilary for being able to get me the info I want (cold hardy and good egg layers) even though I couldn't speak concisely on the phone.

Without further ado please meet Three and Four (M named them).

Three - The Black Australorp

Four - The Golden Campine

Campine is an older European breed that is a descendant of the Kempishe Brakel. They are named Campine because they originated in the north east area of Begium called Campine. People in that region say the Campine has been around since the time of the Roman cesears.

They lay and an average 3 eggs per week. While they are considered a egg production hen, they are primarily kept for ornamental purposes. Campines tolerate confinement they do much better if allowed to free range.  (Source: Backyardchickens.com)

According to Backyardchicken.com:
The Australorp Breed was developed in Australia at the end of the nineteenth century with Black Orpington stock from England. The breed also has genes from Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Langshan and Minorca crosses. The purpose of the breed was as a “utility” chicken for both high egg production and meat. It was originally known as the Black Utility Orpingtons. The breed was standardized after World War One and admitted to the Standard of Perfection in 1929 in England under the fitting name Australorp. By the end of World War Two, Australian poultry breeders wrote up their own breed standards, which have been accepted worldwide. Historically, Australorps have been egg-laying champions: an Australorp hen once laid 364 eggs in 365 days. They are an exceptionally beautiful bird, quite big, with black glossy feathers that have a green sheen and huge black soulful eyes.

They are friendly, quiet and very good egg layers, laying as many as 300 eggs a year. They do well with other breeds and weather the winter months well.

Here is what they will look like when they mature.

Australorp

Image Source

Golden Campine

 Image Source

It's Been Nice Winter... (now leave)

We have been enjoying a warm spell here in Colorado and it is making us all ready for short-sleeve weather.

Here are some recent pictures taken in our backyard. 

Roma enjoying the nice weather.

 

 This White Orpington is spicy! She was ready to attack my camera.

Baby Girl feeding the chickens some scratch.

Chicken Feed Prototype Bag

I got to thinking last time I bought Nutrena chicken feed that the bags they come in are very similar to the bags I bought at Wegmans for reusable shopping bags. So I got to cutting!

Keep in mind this was a first attempt and I wasn't sure how my sewing machine would handle the material.

First step - take off the top where the bags are sewn shut and then cut up one of the sides along a "seam."

I took the sides off to use at the handles. I was in a bit of a rush (nap time and all) and could have done a better job cutting it out.

I folded the handle pieces in half and straight stitched down the length of them.

Next I folded down the tops of the main bag pieces and straight stitched down them.

Then I sewed body together with right sides together. I wanted to make it a flat bottom so I folded the the bottoms to the side. (Clear and mud?) This part was harder for my machine, I could hear the struggling!!

By far the least thought-out part of this project were the handles! I should have attached them before sewing up the sides but I didn't, so live and learn. Again, my sewing machine wasn't thrilled to be sewing them up. You won't see any pictures of that part close up because to be honest - it is pretty messy.

For a project that was just done on the spur of the moment it isn't too bad. I know I will have plenty of feed bags in the future to practice on. It will easily hold a couple cereal boxes.

Here is Penelope checking it out!

We have eggs! 

I missed the first egg because I was in NY with the kids but now I am rewarded everyday with two fresh eggs. The eggs are still small but I hope as the chickens mature the eggs will get bigger. Kevin can't taste a difference but I can. They have a more vibrant color and I think they are creamer and just plain eggy-er.

Fresh egg in a nest fashioned by Max out of his blankies.

Little boy loves to pull the eggs out of the box but then doesn't want to let them go. The egg pictured above is in a nest he made for it. He almost makes me feel bad for frying them up by saying things like, "Ahhh Mom, look at the baby!" and "Do you hear a baby in the egg?" While I feel momentarily bad about taking the egg out of his makeshift nest, I feel much better after taking a bite out of a delicious fresh egg served over medium.

First fried egg, over medium - order up!

On a sadder, less tasty note - one of the Polish gals died. We aren't sure why but Kevin thinks it got stuck under the roost (a toddler bedframe) and couldn't figure out how to get out and panicked. I thought I would be more upset but think I was prepared after reading about all the ways a chicken can die. The sad part is now the other Polish gal (Elaine) walks around alone. Maybe next spring we can get her some more friends with silly hair dos.

Waiting Patiently

So to answers everyone's questions about the chickens - No they haven't started to lay eggs yet. They have taken to sleeping in their nesting box rather than the roost we made them out of an old toddler bed frame. It is funny to peek in and see three hens all crammed into one nesting box. One poor regular sized hen is always left out (why she doesn't get in the other nesting box is beyond me) and the two crazy polish crested hens (yes we still think they are hens) sleep on the door to the nesting house.

I know I have to get them to stop somehow or when they do start laying we will just have a bunch of poop covered broken eggs - sounds lovely. I am open to any suggestions on what to do to get them out of the nesting box during the night.

Rose and Elaine - the Polish Crested

Eggs or no eggs - I still enjoy having them around to watch and eat bugs.

Polish Gals

It started out as a simple trip to our local farm supply store and we ended up buy two more chicks! They got a large shipment in of a lot of different types of birds including the Polish Crested that my husband loves - what can I say, he has a thing for the Polish Gals. We aren't sure if we got two hens (fingers crossed) but if we did up with roosters I will make an attempt to find them a nice home before taking an other necessary actions .

I kind of wish we waiting to buy all our chicks since their was such a larger selection - but live and learn. I still love my other ugly adolescent chicks and will love them more when they are out of my laundry room.

Here is what they will look like full grown - you can see the appeal. I love these old chicken prints.

Here are my baby girls (positive thoughts). Right now I am calling them Elaine and Rose after two of my favorite Polish women. Hope they don't mind!!
If they do mind I might call them Pierogi and Golumpki.