Getting the Chickens Ready for Winter.

 

About a month ago one of our chickens died.  We don’t know how or why.  We just found him in the coop.  It was very sad.  We were worried that he had froze to death since we have been having below freezing temperatures for about 8 weeks now. 

We weren’t getting any eggs at all for about 2 weeks.  We heard that chickens don’t lay when the days get shorter.  So we chalked it up to that. 

We decided we want to prevent that from happening again.  We purchased a water heater to go under their water so that it won’t freeze.   We put a heat lamp in the run and another one in the coop. 

We have also been feeding them our leftover vegetables from dinner.  They have been eating our leftover pumpkins from Halloween too.  I heard that the pumpkins prevent worms and are very healthy for the chickens.  Plus they love them.   

Since making all these changes we are back to getting 4 eggs or so a day.  (one per chicken)

We have really enjoyed having chickens and the eggs are delicious.  When we go out of town, our neighbors take care of them and we let them keep all the eggs.  The day to day things that need to be done are things like filling up their food and water and checking for eggs.  We have a big enough food and water container that they each last for a few days. 

Having chickens have proved to be more expensive than I originally thought.  Not to bad though. 

Chicken Chores

 

I thought I would take the time give you a run down on our chicken chores.  We have 5 chickens. 

Every day we the kids go and check for eggs. 

Every other day we usually Tommy or I clean out the bottom of the water container, and spread fresh chicken scratch on the ground for them to peck at.

About once a week we Tyler rinses out the entire water container and refills it.

This is Tyler’s favorite job.

He even has to help us carry it!  It is really heavy.

When we freshen up their water we Emily or Tommy also cleans out and refills their food container.

 

About once every other week, we Paul replaces the pine shavings with fresh ones.  The nastiest job if you ask me.

   

About once a month (sometimes more) we, yes we, move the coop around the yard, so they have fresh grass and fresh bugs to eat. 

Tommy was mowing the lawn when we did chicken chores this day. 

So if you were wondering….. Now you know.

Tot Time

Tyler loves to help with chicken chores.  He loves to fill up their water. 

When it is full, he gets so upset. 

We solve that problem by having him help us carry the water to the coop. 

He colored with chalk outside. Call me crazy but I really think he wrote a T and a Y, he kept spelling his name out there too.  T Y L E R.   

He spent some time playing with his Singing Elmo again.  He has  really been loving that thing lately.  His favorite song is “If Your Happy and You Know It.”

I took him bowling with the family.  This was the first time I let him actually bowl. He had a very hard time taking turns.  He always wanted it to be his turn.  It was often quite embarrassing the scene he was causing.  Needless to say, I didn’t get many pictures.  I was in control mode.  

He was also our science project photographer. 

 

That’s what I get for leaving the camera in his reach.  (Yes, that IS a towel on my head.) 

Guess what else was in his reach.  Blue food coloring from Emily’s science experiment.  He got it all over his hands and face. 

 

I guess it gave us a chance to work on blue, right. 

This week was crazy as it was our official first week of school.  Next week will go much better, when we start incorporating B4FIAR.

This post is linked up to 1+1+1=1 for Tot School.

Finally, We have eggs!

That’s right our Leghorn hen and our Golden sex link have been laying eggs. 



How do I know who it is?

Well two reasons. 

One is because our Leghorn is the only hen we have that lays white eggs. 


We have 2 Americana’s that lay blue and green eggs, and 2 sex links, one golden and one black, they lay brown eggs.

The other reason, is because we saw her laying.  We would open the lid and she was just sitting in the nesting box.  A few minutes later, she got up and there was an egg. 

It has been very exciting for all of us. 

We got our hens on March 10, 2011, they were approximately 1 week old then.  We got our first egg on July 19, 2011. 

To see our chicken story from the beginning, check out our Family Farm posts.

The chickens

Can you believe just 3 months ago we brought home these cute little chicks?


Fast forward to today!  They are so big!

They each definitely have a personality and there IS a pecking order.  They do not take as much daily care as I first anticipated.  We bought them a bigger water container and a bigger feeder, both of them are 5 gallon size.  The food lasts just over a week.  The water lasts about 3 days, however, we need to clean the part they drink from daily.

We have 5 total chickens now and we haven’t gotten any eggs yet.  I am thinking sometime in July.  We have just barely switched them over to Layers Mash from the Starter Mash they started on. 

They love love love leaves.  Tyler loves loves loves to feed them leaves. 

I cannot believe how much they have grown in such a short time.  It is interesting to me how they all huddle in one of the nesting boxes, instead of using both of them.

Chicken farming has proven to be fun and less work for me than I originally thought. 

Paul does clean out the coop about once every 2 weeks. 

The Coop! The chickens have a home.

 

So the coop is done.  It is installed and the chickens spent their first night in it.  And yes, it snowed here, just a little. 

 

Paul made a foundation for it, that way no critters could dig under it for access to my chickens.

 

Then we introduced them to their new home.  They were very scared and curious at first.

 

 

Emily and Katey installing the stairs.

The nesting boxes. 

 

A cute window, just the right height for little ones to check on the chickens. 

 

The chickens haven’t actually walked down the stairs on their own yet, they were being pushed strongly encouraged to go down.

Once down none of them would go back up on their own either.  They had to be carried back up.  There is also a sliding door from the coop to the run that we closed for the night to keep them warmer.

Here he is, here is the man that built it all!  We are so grateful for him, and the work he put into building this. Thanks!

Here is the finished coop.  We used primer first and then some green paint.  Emily and I had a great mother daughter time painting it.  We were trying to go for a shabby chic look, and well, it’ll do for now.  We are happy with it, and the chickens are too.  It’s pretty cute to see them looking out the windows. 

 

I am really hoping for our first eggs in July!  Can’t wait. 

 

Another thing to note, if you are thinking about getting chickens, be prepared to spend a ton of money in a chicken coop.  I bought these plans from My Pet Chicken and still spent about $400 total after supplies, paint, the foundation the chicken food, pine shavings, and the chickens.   The whole experience has been worth it for us!

Chickens update.

 

So we have had our chickens for 3 weeks now.  They are in the garage.  They are getting bigger every day.  Their little feet, well, aren’t so little anymore. 

They are getting feathers under the down.  They are really growing up into mini chickens. 

 

My father in law is hard at work on the coop.  It should be done in a few weeks. 

 

We went out of town for a few days and left them.  We cleaned the tote they are in out.  We replaced the pine shavings with new ones and the water and food was cleaned and fresh right before we left.  We came back to some big chickens!  When I say we, I really don’t mean it.  It was Paul.    The chickens are not getting held as much now that they are out in the garage.  Which is a problem.  I read the more they are held when they are younger the nicer they will be to humans as they get older.  So we are going to work on spending more time with them. 

What’s up Chicken?

Week 2 with the chickens has been interesting.  We are learning a lot about chickens each day. 

 

 

We have to check them for pasting.  (which is what happens when their feces gets stuck to their bum).  I could not do it.  Paul had to check them, and wipe their little bums.  I still struggle with holding them.  They poop on you almost every time.  With that being said, everyone else in my family holds them just fine. 

They do stink, they seemed to be outgrowing the box we had them in, so we moved them to a bigger tote, and added a perch.  We also had to go and get a bigger water container.  They kept tipping the smaller one over and getting the pine shavings all wet.  I think that made the smell worse.  We were having to change the pine shavings daily.  Also the water was having to be refilled twice daily.  That was not going to work for us.  We need to go out of town for a few days at a time occasionally. 

 

We have also moved them out to the garage we are beginning to get them acclimated to the outside weather.  They do still have their heat lamp.  This also helped the stink not be in my house.  Which really wasn’t THAT BAD, but I could smell it.   Also Tyler kept reaching in and grabbing the perch and chasing the chickens with it. 

Now we still check on them often, and so far the water only needs to be filled about once a week.   They haven’t ran out of food yet.  We do have to clean out the bottom (red) part of the water container daily to every other day, because they kick pine shavings in it.  We also added rocks to the bottom of it, so they wouldn’t drown. 

 

The coop we were going to get wasn’t what we wanted, and it needed some work.  We decided to buy some coop plans from My Pet Chicken.  My father in law is getting started on the building of it now.   Hopefully he will have it done some time in April and then they will move in to it, in our backyard.

 

We are counting down the months till we may get eggs.  We are thinking around July or August. 

We got chickens!

 

I have wanted chickens for a while now.  My friend Erica over at 365 days of my life as a MOM has chickens and they sounded like something I could handle.  We shall see!

 

We did it, we got 4 little chicks today.  We have been wanting them for a while now, for the fresh eggs and the educational experience.  I AM NOT AN ANIMAL PERSON.  So this is taking me completely out of my comfort zone.   They are so cute and I did dare pick one up once since we have been home and it was soft.

 

 

This is the little box we brought them home from the store in.  At home I had a big printer box in the garage, we lined the bottom of it with pine shavings and put them in it.  Then we filled up their feeder with medicated chicken starter food.  Their water bottle is filled with water and some probiotic medicine. We added a heat lamp and they are in the laundry room.

 

 

They will stay in the house until they get feathers, about 4-6 weeks.  Then they will move outside to a chicken coop.

Tyler loves them.  We really have to watch him around them.  We had to keep them in the laundry room for now, where we can shut the door, so he can’t get to them.  And to drown out the sound of their almost constant chirping. 

 

 

What we bought:

Lamp $15

Pine shavings $10  (a huge bail, there is enough to line the coop and nesting boxes when the time comes.)

Water bottle and feeder $7

Chick starter food $10 (there is enough to last until they go outside and are on chick scratch food)

and the chicks of course. 

We got two Americana’s (which lay blue and green eggs)

We got one Leghorn (white eggs)

We got one Sex Link (brown eggs)

The chicks ranged in price but were all around $3 each.

 

All varieties we chose are eggcellent egg layers!

They will take 6-8 months to lay eggs and should lay for about 2 years.

 

We looked at chicken coops at the farm store and online and man they are expensive.  I was going to buy plans so my Father-in-law could make me one.  (He loves projects).  He said his neighbors are giving away a chicken coop and we could have it.  Whoo hoo!