Teaching New Tricks, or Losing Control?

Farmer Man thought the goatlings seemed a little restless this morning, so he decided to take them out for a walk.  A little ramble would do them good.  He was gone for a while, probably up to the big back field, let the Girls browse naturally on some of the willow trees that bisect our property.  He decided, apparently, to bring them by the house as the company was just getting up and may enjoying saying 'good morning' to the cute little goaties.  Well, a little pandemonium ensued as the Girls got a little frisky.  Jumping up on tables, kicking up their heels, into the garage, tearing at some Swiss Chard, going through the compost pail, knocking over buckets!  Our Goat Whisperer got them back under control and quickly herded them back to their pasture.  Now a little cleaning and disinfecting will have to go on, something that was not on the agenda for our 'day off'!

The Girls Say It's Fall For Sure!

Finally, The Girls and Rocky are going to bed before us! It's kind of embarrassing when your chickens want to stay up later than you do. However, as the days get shorter, and cooler ( high of 7 Celsius today!!!), The Girls and Rocky are sleeping in a little later and going to bed a little earlier. They have also started to molt - a nice array of feathers decorates the coop every morning. And, egg production is down - way down. Now, commercial poultry people augment the light their chickens get to keep up production. They 'fool' the chickens into thinking it's still summer. We're letting ours go the natural way - although once it gets really cold we will put in a heat lamp, which will increase production somewhat. We've also noticed that the Leghorns (the white chickens) are laying smaller and smaller eggs. Now, we've always gotten the occasional tiny egg; we figured it was from Funky Butt, a chicken with a crooked tail. But all of a sudden, we've gotten two tiny eggs a day for a couple of days. We hope - and our loyal customers hope - that it's not the wave of the future!

A Stroll, and Then a Bath!

It's a very nice day in the neighbourhood!  Currently -6 C, projected high of -3 C (about 26 F).  Farmer Man had gotten some nice straw on the snow, spread out around the chicken coop door.  We 'seeded' it with some nice scratch and hey! if Rocky and The Hens didn't come out to play!  They're having a nice little stroll in the sunshine - getting their Vitamin D.  I noticed that The Girls (the Leghorns) were looking a little dingey and dirty.  Now, in case you don't know, chickens have dust baths.  They snuggle into a little depression in the dirt and then throw soil up onto their backs with their wings and feet.  In their wood chip bedding, there wasn't much chance for a good bath.  The Chicks (the Browns) weren't looking as bad, but the white hens, well, it wasn't their best look!  So, we devised a little bath: a large size kitty litter box filled with potting soil (Sunshine Mix without fertilizer), a little sand and a little diatomaceous earth.  Although the Chicks were the first in - The Girls are looking better already.  And, as the weather is suppose to stay quite nice, the snow is receding in a few places so they may be able to dust bath under the spruce trees soon.

Teeny Perfect Egg!

Out to the chicken coop first thing this morning (well, after my first cup of coffee!).  Not in the nest boxes, but in the corner under the roosts, I find this perfect little wee egg.  It's such a beautiful little thing!  Now, The Girls, the Leghorns, are a year old and have been laying since June '09.  Why one would lay such a tiny thing is a mystery to me!  For the photo, I've included a quarter, for perspective ( a shiny new Canadian Olympic quarter!) as well as some of the regular eggs.  I wonder how they actually make those awesome, handpainted Ukrainian Easter Egss........

Chicken Integration!

The new coop is finished, and just like that The Girls and The Chicks are moved in! Buddy has gone back to where he came from, Rocky rules the roost and everyone seems to be settling in much better than we anticipated. We had debated about how to join the two flocks, but the weather made the decision easy! We did try to put a bamboo fence between the two but it didn't want to stay up; the two flocks mixed when the fence went over and everyone seemed to be getting along fine. We hung out a while last night after we got everyone in: we wanted to check the temperature, break up any fights or whatever needed doing. Not much needed doing! This morning, too, I sat up there a little while and every thing seemed quite calm. I was just up there again, early afternoon, and there seems to be a little jocking and pecking for position but there are no feathers strewn around or other signs of violence - so fingers crossed for a peaceful transition!

Chickens in the Snow

It's chilly - but The Girls and Rocky decided to take a little stroll in the snow, anyway. We've got to be careful about letting them out in colder weather - they may go even though it may not be good for them. They can freeze combs, wattles and toes as well as have respiratory problems. However, I needed to get into their little coop to clean and collect eggs and refresh water. I don't think they will be staying out long!

A Case of Bumblefoot?

I noticed a couple of days ago that one of The Girls had a swelling on her foot. I remembered reading something about this but couldn't remember the details or where I read it. It took a couple of days, but I am pretty sure she has something called bumblefoot. It seems she would have gotten a cut or scratch on the bottom of her foot which has been infected with, most likely, a staph infection. Various treatments are described both in our books and online, all which involve a little 'surgery'. The bottom of the foot will have a scab, where the infection entered. This must be removed, lifted or lanced and then pus and goo must be removed from the wound. It should be disinfected and treated, bandaged and then the little Girl must be contained in a small place with deep bedding to cushion the foot. We've got to get organized and get this done because it has definitely gotten worse in the couple of days of research; the poor Girl has quite a limp today!

Rocky's Baby

An update from Linda: Rocky's little son is a teenager now (in chicken years) and Clucky effectively kicked him out of the nest on the weekend! The three babies are on their own and Clucky has returned to her routine with the other hens. The little white rooster will return to Aagaard Farms, soon. He'll hang out with The Girls and Rocky, and cock-a-d00dle-doo his way around here!

The Chicks Are Becoming Hens!

A banner day on the farm! Six eggs from The Chicks - four small, a medium and a monster! Probably has a double yoke; we'll find out at breakfast tomorrow! We started with two eggs the first few days, then none (that we found), then four yesterday and six today! The Chicks are getting bolder, too. Farmer Boy had them out for a little walk today. Only five went, but he had the barn door wide open while working in the area and the group was following him everywhere so they went for a stroll. We've not been able to pasture The Chicks like we have The Girls, so this was quite an exploration for them. They seemed to pay absolutely no attention to Rocky and The Girls, who were quite close by in their pasture. The other Chicks stayed in the pen, settling into all the new straw Farmer Boy has put in. So cute as they were taking little dust baths in all the new straw. We thought, perhaps, they were also creating nests, but no eggs so far in that area.

Rocky's Babies

New photo from Linda of the chicks (as apposed to The Chicks). The little one that had black spots seems to have lost the spots and is fluffy white. Linda has only Isa Browns, so the two fluffy white chicks are Rocky's babies but The Girls DNA seems to have over-ruled. Linda is quite sure the bigger chick is a rooster, so he will probably return to Aagaard Farms because Linda doesn't really want anymore roosters. Rocky has more ladies than he can handle now, and we intend to introduce The Chicks to The Girls soon!

The Chicks Are Growing Up!

Farmer Boy went out early this morning to let the chickens out. What did he find? Two little brown eggs in the pen with the Isa Brown chicks! One, unfortunately, was broken but the other is a perfect little egg. And not a real tiny egg, like some of the first from The Girls - a really decent-sized, medium egg in a gorgeous shade of brown, like coffee with a lot of cream!

A Bummer of a Summer, So Far!

Middle of July, literally the 15th of the month, and the daytime high was 15 Celsius (roughly 62F). The nightime low was 6C (about 48F). Not the kind of weather the tomatoes, peppers, melons.....well, most vegetables want or need! Not the kind of weather people want or need, either! We were shutting windows, wearing extra layers and even thinking about turning on the heat! Things are growing very slowly. As a matter of fact, last Saturday was the first day EVER that we went to the Farmers' Market at Riverbank Discovery Centre and did not set up a table. We had almost nothing to sell, and the little bit we had we were saving for our CSA on Tuesday. Then, Tuesday, it poured; we had to cancel the CSA pick-up 'cause it was toooooo mucky to get on the land to harvest. Will it never end? Will we ever make any money this year?

The few bright spots are our animals. The Girls are laying consistently well - about 15 or 16 eggs a day. The little Isa Browns are growing like weeds. The Berks are settling in very well, they appear to love being pastured and are romping throughout the day. They recognize Farmer Boy when he goes to feed them, and they all run up to the fence when he talks to them. Very cute!

Another concern is a white truck we spotted in our alfalfa field Monday night. It had pulled right in and was parked by a camper stored on the edge of the field. The driver must have heard us, and drove away, right through the middle of our alfalfa field! He or she accelerated past us and hid their face by holding up a small dog in the window. Now, if someone was interested in buying the camper, don't you think they would come over to talk, introduce themselves or something like that? The field has no fencing or gate, so it is pretty accessible. We are a little casual about security, so the incident has mobilized us to be a bit more careful and watchful. It's not really how we'd like to live our life, but that's the way it goes!

The Chicks Leave Home

Well, leave the house, actually. It was all getting a bit much - they could get up on the sides of their pen, from there onto the furniture where they were, well, pooping with great abandon. The whole house was starting to smell like a chicken coop. So, Farmer Boy built a new pen in the barn and we carefully placed them in crates and moved them out! Empty nest time for us! I kind of miss the sound of their peeping and cheeping. The new pen has more room and higher sides, but still has the heat lamp so they should be happy. And all just in time - niece Laura is coming for a visit in a few weeks and the sunroom is probably where she'll sleep. A BIG cleanup is in order, now!

The chicken coop has been started. It has a floor! Construction should go fairly quickly now. Nothing happened yesterday, though, as we had a very good (and timely) rain. The Girls seem quite happy in their makeshift coop but it is getting a little dirty for our taste. We did 'muck' it out a few days ago but they can get up on the sides and we can't wash down hay bales. So, time for a move, soon.

The Girls Get Down to Business

Babies get all the attention, and our Leghorn hens must be feeling a little left out of late. The Girls are doing fine. We're consistently getting fourteen to seventeen eggs a day and the sizes are getting larger. They have a pen larger than our living room and kitchen combined, incorporating five large, old spruce for protection and shade. They happily scratch and cluck all day, particularly enjoying the couple of mole hills in the pen. They've gotten very comfortable in their makeshift coop; we no longer find any eggs outside under the trees, they are all in the coop. As the real coop gets constructed, we wonder about transitioning them into their new home. We may take their nest boxes and move them into the new structure, for some familiarity.

We wonder why we're not getting more eggs in a day. Officially, hens lay every twenty four to twenty eight hours, so maybe the Girls are just not co-ordinating their schedules. We've also wondered if Funky Butt is capable of laying with her deformed rear end (is that politically correct to label her?) The first hen we ever named was Old Mama, because she seemed bigger and older from day one. Maybe the supplier snuck a mature hen in and she IS older and not laying consistently. She has seemed more lethargic in this heat, as well. Well, nothing to do but wait and see!