As you probably know by now, we have chickens.  We used to have a lot of chickens but now we’re down to 7.  Four are laying hens who each lay different colored eggs.  Two are Banties who have yet to start laying and one is a Banty rooster who will never lay an egg. Though if he does I am so going to charge admission.  The benefits of having so few chickens are many, not the least of which is less care and feeding but another benefit is the ability to tell which hens lay which eggs.  It’s fun to know who’s laying and how many and that makes the chickens more like pets somehow.  Aaaanyway, (This is going somewhere, I promise.) one of our hens is a Pearl White Leghorn.  Her breed is known for their eggcellent (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) laying ability which is funny to me because she is the scrawniest of the bunch.  Not too long ago I took a picture of a couple of her eggs just so I could make a point to you.

Here is egg #1.

Here is egg #2.

They look basically the same, huh?

Here they are side by side.

Egg #1 measures in at 2 3/4″ and Egg #2 a mere 2 1/4″.  If all of our hens laid white eggs and I’d had to guess where the big one came from I never would have guessed Pearl.  She’s simply too small.

And this is relevant to birth because of the term cephalopelvic disproportion or CPD. It’s a big phrase that basically means the baby’s head is too large to fit through the mother’s pelvis.  I wanted you to first hear this term from me because I want you to understand there is no way to know if you have true CPD (or not) until after the birth of your baby.  Of late, some doctors have begun diagnosing CPD from measurements taken by ultrasound.  Unfortunately, ultrasounds are pictures and can be deceiving just like my pictures above.  As your due date approaches ultrasounds become more and more inaccurate for measuring purposes. (They can still be helpful to determine positioning, amount of amniotic fluid, etc.)  So be aware.  Trust your body and trust your baby.  The two of you were designed to work together.

Look here for more Birth-Day posts.

About this time last year we embarked on our chicken raising adventures by ordering 25 day old chicks from McMurray Hatchery.  (Twenty-five is their minimum order number and happens to be the only downside of ordering from McMurray.) What started out as a simple pet project for our children evolved into an egg selling business and a lot of trouble.  Let me not imply that we didn’t have fun.  We did and we learned a lot - mostly that we should have stuck to our original plans instead of getting carried away.  We may have more chickens again someday.  We may sell the eggs for profit but right now we are content to practice our chicken farming skills on a select few.  I realized this, as my father was preparing to make yet another extension to the run he first built.  “Enough is enough already.”

We called the man who took Elvis for us and he carried seven of our flock away.  But before they were even gone Sister and I were on our way to Atwoods so I could make good on a promise from last year.  We purchased 3 baby chick replacements.  We chose Bantams because they won’t need as much space.  And we picked them from the ’straight-run” bin which means we may now have threee hens or three roosters or any combination thereof.  But it’s okay.  It’s just a hobby.  I can tell it’s just a hobby because we even named them this time.

Our Banties

From the Original Flock

Sorry I’m a bit late posting these figures this month.  I’m sure ya’ll were just on pins and needles waiting for them. HA!  So without further ado…

271 eggs or 22.5 dozen this month

I’m not sure what to make of that relatively large number since February is a short month anyway AND we lost 13 hens to the coyote over the course of its last week and a half.

Also of interest to you backyard chicken farmers out there, Will & I are in the process of building a moveable hoop house so our hens can ‘free range’ so to speak but still be safe from ye ol’ coyote.  Neither of us are construction inclined so we are just taking our time and learning as we go.  I’ll post pictures when we finish the project.

Actually it was a coyote.  In the wee hours this morning Grandma heard some squallin’ down by the chicken coop.  She hastily threw a jacket on over her pajamas and rushed outside … eight chickens too late.  Still it could have been worse.  The 14 remaining hens were a bit skittish most of the day - wouldn’t you be? - but were otherwise unharmed.  Will and Papa spent the afternoon securing the coop against any more intrusions.

Oh… and Hazel is one of the survivors… in case you were wondering.

Can I just share the cutest, little thing I found in the chicken coop?

The one on the left is a “normal” Araucana egg and the one on the right … not so normal.  And yes, I’m sure it’s not a robin egg.

Speaking of chickens, specifically Auracana’s, I have one (Let’s call her Hazel) that just insists on flying the fence.  We have started free-ranging our flock on some property behind their run.  I used some lattice to create a not so bad looking way for them to get to the new grazing ground which was a MUCH better solution than allowing them to roam about the yard (too many undesirables left lying around).  At least we thought it was a better solution.  Hazel either doesn’t agree or she’s a loner because every morning she flies out and spends the day wandering the yard in chicken solitude.  I suppose I will have to clip her wings to keep her in.  I’m hesitant though because she’s pretty to look at (the other chickens are mostly out of sight) and it’s funny to watch her follow the children around like a puppy.  She even occasionally follows the dog around like a puppy.  Strange but cute.

In other chicken news I am wondering about dressing out our own hens when their laying days are over.  This poem was one of the best descriptions of the process I could find.  While it doesn’t sound hard in the logistical sense  I still remember visiting Aunt Helen’s House of Poulty Purgatory.  Therein existed a certain smell one never forgets.  This may be where I draw the line on simple living.

355 eggs this month - 29.5 dozen.  Pretty good given all the ice and snow we’ve had.

Aunt R rushes in, “Toni, Toni! Your chickens are out!  This is an especially frantic call because Aunt R has a slight bird phobia.  No, that’s not accurate.  She doesn’t fear the whole bird.  Maybe it’s the beak?  What is that, then?  Beakaphobia?  Sorry, I digress.  So we rush outside to find that about a dozen chickens have made it through an almost non-existent hole in the fence.  It’s a typical “grass is greener” scenario except in this case the grass really is greener.  Mostly because it exists.  This past spring and summer our flock just barely kept up with the grass in their run.  Even into early September it was a pretty lush domain.  But now, in the midst of winter it’s a muddy mess.  Who wouldn’t want to escape?  We’ve been toying around with ideas of building a chicken tractor of sorts, expanding the fence,  or even letting them roam free.  But with 23 chickens any chicken tractor would have to be very large and with a cat and a dog on the property any fence would need a top (expensive).  The last option was out for a myriad of reasons.  Out of ideas we put Project: Chicken Expansion on hold.  It’s funny how things will just work themselves out if you let them.  Today’s seeming havoc was a blessing in disguise for we discovered the dog has no interest in chasing chickens and the cat seems scared by their sheer numbers.

Don’t worry girls, you’re up for parole soon.

We still had 386 or about 32 dozen eggs this month despite the cold weather.  The Aracaunas have finally become consistent layers and frequently produce jumbo eggs.  Good thing too - I was almost ready to give up on them entirely since they eat so much.

Like most bloggers I keep track of my site stats.  I don’t know exactly who is visiting but I can see how many people come and what they are looking at.  I share this because the most popular post to date is by far Cold and Chickens which leads me to believe that a lot of people must have cold chickens or… my readers are an odd bunch.  Though I suspect some truth in the latter it is the former that I will address today.

Probably you were looking for some information on how to keep your chickens warm this winter.  We are by no means experts around here.  This is the first winter I’ve had chickens since I was child but here is what we have learned.

• A wet chicken is a cold chicken. So do your best to provide a shelter that will stay dry even in freezing rain and snow.
• Wind - the same thing that can cool a chicken in the summer can also cool them in the winter.  Provide a space that is out of the wind and relatively free from drafts.  In a colder climate than Oklahoma’s it may be necessary to eliminate drafts completely but here where the temperature drops just below freezing (20 to 28 degrees) for only three or four days at a time this is what our coop looks like.  In the spring the blue tarp will come off and the front will remain open.
• Frozen water does not hydrate.  When the temp is above freezing our little auto waterer does a fabulous job.  (This is where I got it from… I get my egg cartons from here too.  Great service.)  I clean it once a week but other than that it is maintenance free. (The supply comes from a rain barrel that I filled with water but which will eventually be fed by a gutter.)  Below freezing the unit obviously did not function.  At that point I switched to a rotation of 2 standard metal waterers.  In the mornings I placed the frozen waterer in the garage sink to thaw and put a fresh, unfrozen waterer in the pen.  By noon the process had to be repeated and once more at night.  I considered getting a heater but for only a few days couldn’t really justify the expense.
• Put the food in or near the shelter.  I usually feed my chickens (kitchen scraps - no meat - and a mixture of hen scratch & crumbles) in a trough at the end of their pen but in freezing weather I fill the auto feeder and place it just inside the shelter by the laying boxes.  That way I don’t have to stay in the cold feeding them and they don’t have to get out in the cold to eat.  (I don’t use the auto feeder all the time because there is way too much waste.)
• Cold weather may cause your hens to go off their laying but warmer weather will return everything to normal.  (example: below freezing = 5 eggs, today, cold but not freezing = 19 eggs).

That’s about all I have to offer right now… seems like enough.  :)

The Black Stars and Rhode Island Reds were by far the better layers this month.  As soon as the cold weather hit our white (Leghorns) and green (Aracaunas) egg count fell dramatically.  272 or almost 23 dozen eggs this month.  (And we actually sold some!)