Cold weather

Oh I so don't like cold and icy weather!!!! I had to take stephanie and put her and her eggs back in the regular coop because I don't have any way to keep her water from freezing and no way to keep her warm especially if the electricity goes out and it did.I've read several places that say you can't leave a broody hen in the pen with the other hens or there will be problems and now I know first hand why!! When stephanie got off her eggs to eat and drink, chickzilla jumped on her nest and layed an egg, so stephanie couldn't get back on her eggs but there were 2 other eggs in a nearby nest that had just been laid very recently so she sits on the 2 eggs and leave the 6 she was sitting on so they stayed uncoverd in below freezing weather for several hours!! I took the 6 eggs out and discarded them and gathered the rest of the eggs, I guess that ticked stephanie off so bad that she's not broody anymore!!! women!!( saying this very softly). If she goes broody again when its warmer, we'll try it again!!

Couldn't take the pressure

I gave in and am letting stephanie sit on about 5 eggs since she wants to set so bad!! We'll see if she lasts out the 20 days or so and maybe we'll have baby chicks for her to care for!! Waiting to see!!

Isolation pen

Well put stephanie in a seperate pen, she is so not liking it!! I had already taken the eggs out earlier, like I suspected she was just sitting on the nest and aggravating the rest of the hens and there was not even an egg under her!! I'll leave her in there for a couple of days, maybe she will straighten up!!

Broody

Well stephanie has gone broody, you try to move her and she makes an awful racket and will peck you pretty quick!! I'm trying to decide whether to break her or let her sit on 5 or 6 eggs. The only problem with letting her set is you get pullets (female chick) and cockerels(roosters). Don't need any more roosters and kind of hard to give them away too!! Hard choice!!!

halfbreeds legs

Halfbreeds legs are doing a whole lot better. She also has started laying, legs must have been bothering her more than we thought. Philip my youngest son says she started laying cause we turned her upside down.(if you turn a chicken upside down and grab them by their feet they become very calm and you can get them use to whatever they're scared of or do anything you need to do like put vaseline on her feet) We put vaseline on her feet again this weekend and will probably do it again next weekend just to make sure!! Oh by the way she's getting a little easier to catch too!!

Puff puff's eye

The medicine we gave puff puff worked very well,his eve still has a spot in it, but he is keeping it open and can see out of it. He's strutting for the ladies pretty regular too!! (pretty funny to watch)

homemade feeder

I made this feeder out of a 5 gallon bucket and an old garbage can lid, works very well too!!

Home made water heater

I like doing stuff myself and save a little money at the same time. I built this water heater from a metal pan and a 2 socket light holder. Did a very good job at 12 degrees lately.

Hen cam

A pretty cool website and blog to check out!!! She has a camera in her chicken pen and in her chicken coop!! Also has a rabbit. Have to catch it during the day,it cuts off at night. She also has books she (Terry Golson) has written. Quite impressive so have a look. Her link is the first one in my favorite links.

Ohwell!!

The quail eggs didn't hatch, we have a lot more projects we're going to be doing the next few weeks so we'll keep you informed! The eggs were probably damaged during shipping, not hard to do. We'll get some more from another source and try them . It's probably going to be chicken eggs this time.

OOOOOHH!!! Impressed!!

Went out this morning and checked the nest, found 1 egg. Went out before dark to put them up and checked again. there were 3 more!! GOOD JOB!!!

New updates

Two things happened today. Obamma laid her first egg today, about the same color and size of stephanies. Puff puff crowed for the first time also, his right eye is still closed and he had a cold. I've been giving him antibiotics and he seems to have more pep in his step,( saw him strut yesterday) so maybe he's getting better!!! We now have 3 hens laying, 1 rooster crowing, 1 chicken (halfbreed) is neither laying or crowing(don,t know why) and 4 quail eggs in the incubator!!! (We'll see!!!) Halfbreed looks like she has a case of leg mites so I'm going to have philip catch her and we'll put vaseline on her legs and it should clear it up!

Quail eggs

Still waiting to see if our quail eggs or going to hatch,they should hatch tues or weds if they're going to.

Dog scare

We had a couple of large dogs show up this morning, nothing bad happened. Obamma flew the coop as usual,don't know where she was hiding she just showed back up later on. Stephanie and chickzilla was doubled up in one nest together, took a while for them to start moving around again. Puff puff was just hid on the ground not very easy to do if your a bright white color. Halfbreed was in the middle of the coop where they all sleep, she didn,t come out for several hours!!! Pretty sure they'll come back, just hope I've got their pen secure enough to keep them out!!!

nest

the nest are in the very back of the coop and completely lined with wood chips. This does a real good job!! We haven't had to wash an egg yet!!

Chickzilla

Chickzilla laid her first egg recently,(no mistake this time) pretty good sized egg. both chickens are laying their eggs under the nest instead of in them. We put a egg in one of the nest and chickzilla laid one in the nest today.