The difference

Can you tell which egg yolk came from our chickens and which one came from the store?

Snow Day

We had a decent snow storm (well, decent for the Willamette Valley anyway) last night and this morning. I let the girls out to mill about the yard this afternoon. Even though they've seen snow before, they weren't too keen on walking around in it.

They did a great job of avoiding the snow, walking along the back edge of the flower bed alongside the house to keep their toes from getting cold.

Once they made it around to the other brick patio, they set to scratching about in the flower bed, and doing whatever it took to avoid setting foot in the funny white stuff.

Once they realized there wasn't going to be much to scratch around in, they bee-lined it for the coop, and huddled up together to keep warm.

And then there were four...

We were pleasantly surprised to discover four eggs in the nest box today....one from each hen.
All of the girls are now back to earning their keep. Way to go, ladies!

And she's back!

Patsy has resumed a regular laying schedule! We found her first egg on Sunday, then a second on Tuesday, and a third today.
Looking very forward to scratching "eggs" off our grocery list and just collecting locally once again.

Surprise!

Patsy was making quite a ruckus this morning, and now we know why.

Way to go, Patsy! Way to earn your keep!

It was completely unexpected since it's been about two months since we collected our last egg, and we're still receiving less than 10 hours of light a day. We aren't getting our hopes up that they are about to resume regular laying, but we'll be inspecting the nest boxes for more than just fertilizer in the coming days.

Barbecue, anyone?

As it was Saturday and we were home, we let the girls out to roam around the yard this afternoon. The sun was out and they had a nice time pecking around the lawn and generally making a mess of the hazelnut shells and remnants of bark dust. As it began to cool off, Gary went out to put them back in the coop, but found that Patsy had other plans.

A little barbecued chicken, anyone?

Sunday Afternoon Snooze

The girls take a little snooze in a cozy dirt bath on a sunny Sunday afternoon in January.

January Update

It's been awhile since I've posted. Fall was a tough time for our family, having lost our sweet Simone in October. Without their favorite herder to escort them around and around the lilac bushes, things have been a little quieter for the girls. Time in their coop, time in the yard, scraps of veggies and seeds to eat...overall, a fairly peaceful existence. The only thing that gives their little hearts a jump these days is our cat Millie, who occasionally stalks them from a distance. Once they see her coming, they make a good amount of noise to alert us to the potential danger and run the other way.


We enjoyed collecting nearly four eggs a day from late August until early October. We shared about half with friends and neighbors, and used the rest for cooking and baking. Home grown eggs really are of a much higher quality. The yolks are much brighter and larger, and the eggs overall just taste better. That plus the satisfaction of knowing that they came from chickens we raised in our own backyard has made it a more than worthwhile venture.

As the light began to wane in the afternoon skies this fall, the girls began laying less frequently. We went from finding three or four eggs a day in the nest box, to one to two eggs a day, and then finally to none. The last egg of 2010 was laid sometime mid-November. Digby and Cleo, our two Ameraucanas, stopped laying first, around late October. Patsy and Pinky managed to lay one every other day for another couple weeks, and let us enjoy fresh eggs until almost Thanksgiving.

Although there is a light in the coop, we've opted to not supplement the natural light with photons of the electric variety. We've decided since winter naturally gives their bodies a break from laying to just go with it. We'll let them resume laying when they are good and ready, sometime this spring. We've checked the almanac, and Corvallis will be getting 12 hours of daylight as of March 17th. We'll be up to about 15.5 hours of sunlight as of the summer solstice, so they should be in full swing again by then.

We can hardly wait.

Girls' First Snow

The girls' first snow.

They weren't sure what this cold white stuff was. I couldn't even get them to set foot in the yard. They took one look and headed right back into the coop!

Peek-a-boo

First Dozen

Well, the first dozen we kept for ourselves, anyway! We gave the first five to our friend Laurie who so kindly supplied us with more than a dozen empty egg cartons, and then started collecting for ourselves. We figure these eggs are worth about $50 a piece right now. We made a huge bowl of scrambled eggs with them for breakfast with Gary's family. Next carton will be for our neighbors, for putting up with our chicken noises...

Blue Egg!

We got our first blue egg today, and also another green! Everyone is laying now!

Pinky's Comb

Pinky's comb has been coming in nicely!

Green Egg!

We had a three egg day today. Patsy laid one, Pinky laid one, and one of the Ameraucanas did too! We found our first green egg!

Not sure if it was Digby or Cleo, but we're excited that three of them are laying now. Egg value is quickly depreciating...no longer worth hundreds of dollars a piece. Can't wait to see what color egg our fourth chicken will lay...hopefully soon!

Second Egg!

A few hours after we found our first egg, a second one appeared!

Gary took it from Patsy while she was still sitting on it, much to her disdain. She made a horrible racket for a good five minutes after it was removed. I think we will try and wait until the nest box is unoccupied before collecting in the future.

The Girls Begin Earning their Keep

We found our first egg this morning!

It was actually in the nest box when Gary went to clean it out this morning. And it's good sized and a good shape. Not an extra large egg by far, but also not tiny or oddly formed. It's beautiful! We think either Pasty or Pinky must have laid it. Both have been making some new, rather loud, and sometimes unsettling clucking noises this past week, so we wonder if approaching egg production might have been the cause. We decided to celebrate the accomplishment by frying it up.

We can't wait to see what's out there tomorrow morning!

Squaking Chickens

The girls have begun making some new, very loud clucking sounds....
we wonder if this isn't a precursor to impending egg laying?

Coop Visitor

The girls had a visitor today. See him down there in the wood shavings?

Gary came home to find all four chickens huddled in a corner.
They knew something wasn't right, and figured it was best to stay away from the uninvited slithery guest.

Just a garter snake, and only about a foot long, but menacing nonetheless. Gary helped the snake remember it had a prior engagement, and sent him packing. Hopefully the snake won't be back, but we'll be keeping an eye out for him.

19 Weeks

Although we haven't seen any eggs yet, the girls continue to grow and change

(and occasionally play Reservoir Dogs).

Check out Pinky's new comb:

Patsy's comb is starting to come in as well:

Millie has also been sneaking out into the backyard lately to take a look.

She has managed to keep her distance thus far, but we are leery of letting her get too close...

...as is Pinky.

17 Weeks and Counting...

The girls have continued to grow and change, and are now about 17 weeks old. We let them out to run around the yard after work, and most of the day on weekends. Much to my disdain, they have figured out how to break through the barrier protecting our vegetable garden. They have also learned how to squeeze through the openings in the baby gate to get onto the back deck, much to Gary's disdain.

We are still enjoying having them around, and look forward to when they start to lay eggs, probably sometime late next month. We've been gradually increasing the amount of time that they can be outside, although the cooler weather has found them huddled up in the coop more often than not. Hopefully soon the weather will start to act more like summer than winter, and maybe they'll want to be out and about and getting more exposure to that FSH-stimulating sunlight. No rush though, as we don't want them laying too soon!

Getting Bigger

We let the girls out today to "free range" it a little, and also to get a closer look at everyone's feathers. Look at Digby's new beard! It's coming in quite nicely.

Although Digby has recovered from her round at the chicken fight club, Cleo continues to be a victim of the bullying. Despite the appearance of the fullness of her tail feathers in the photo below, she's missing a few back there.
Shame on you, Patsy and Pinky. Really, girls, it's gotta end.

And then because we were on a roll, we thought we'd try and get a few photos of ourselves with the chickens. Gary went first:

Then it was my turn:

I think by the time I tried to get Cleo to sit on my wrist, she'd had about enough of that, and promptly tried to scurry up the back of my neck to escape. Can't say I blame her!

Coop Tour

Watch the video below to take a three minute tour of our finished chicken coop:

Comfy Condo Living

The girls roost in the condo together on a chilly April afternoon.

Synchronized Sunbathing

It was nice today, nearly 70°F and the girls decided to spend a little time soaking up the rays. Here Digby and Cleo engage in a little synchronized sunbathing:

And here is Patsy and Pinky's valiant effort:

I'd have to give Team Digby & Cleo a 9.8 for form and style.
Patsy and Pinky have a lot they could learn from them.

Moving Day

Today was moving day!

Gary worked on the condo most nights after work this week so the girls would be able to move in this weekend. Simone was there to help supervise their transition from bathtub and storage container living to fancy condo life.


We made sure the girls were comfortably settled before we closed them in for the night.

As of today, Digby and Cleo's feathers have begun to grow back in and they are looking better. They are also a little bit bigger, so we hope they are in a little better position to defend themselves if bullied again. We're keeping our fingers crossed that they will be able to successfully cohabitate now that they have a little more space and that we won't have any more problems.

Major Progress on the Condo

We made serious progress on the chicken coop, or chicken condo as we are calling it, this weekend.

Gary got the walls up, nest box built, and roosts installed.

We decided to cedar shingle the outside to give it that upscale condo look.

All we have left to do is finish encasing the whole thing in chicken wire, get the feeder/water hung, construct the door, and build a ramp. Then we can move the girls in!

Mother Hen

Simone keeps watch over the chickens during one of their outdoor field trips.

The Iso Tank

I was disturbed to discover over the weekend that both Cleo and Digby appear to have been the victims of chicken bullying. Both were bleeding and missing a good number of feathers on their backs when I checked on them Saturday afternoon. I suppose it's possible they they could have done it to themselves, or that they could have done it to each other, but I think Patsy is to blame. I've caught her a few times picking at the other birds, and for some reason she's decided that the two Ameraucanas are on her hit list.

I had no choice but to separate them. I put Cleo and Digby into the storage container, and then headed off to Bi-Mart to pick up another one in the event that Cleo and Digby were doing this to each other. When I got back, I set up the second cage and then separated them. Before I could get the cover on top, Digby hopped out of her container and into Cleo's. I grabbed Digby and put her back in her own container, only to have Cleo hop over into Digby's cage. They both made it pretty clear that they didn't want to be alone, so I opted to just give in and leave them both in one.

My next task was to then get a better look at their owies.


This photo only shows a small section of the hurt area. Poor chicks. I took each of them out separately and then managed to coat the picked area with an antibiotic ointment. I imagine the whole scene was fairly comical as I was alone, had Simone at my heels when carrying each bird into the other bathroom, and then couldn't stop Simone from whining excitedly in each of their faces as I tried to hold the bird and have her remain calm while I smeared a cold oily substance on an area of her body that I'm sure was quite tender. Both Digby and Cleo let me do it though, and then I returned them to their iso tank.

I checked on them again Sunday morning, and their backs appeared to be much better. The ointment seemed to be helping, so I gave each of them another coat. I had also read in my Encyclopedia of Country Living that coating a chicken's feathers with petroleum jelly can help in cases of picking as whoever is doing the picking will get a beak full of goo. So I thought since they were both salved-up that I would try putting them back into the tub with Patsy and Pinky. I quickly learned that was a mistake.

I heard squawking and pulled back the curtain to see Patsy picking on Cleo. I shooed them apart, and then went back to what I was doing. A little while later I went in and Digby and Cleo were both on the other side of the plastic lining the tub. Fortunately they didn't suffocate. I put them back into the tub while I answered the phone and contemplated moving them back into the iso tank. I think Cleo and Digby pretty much made up my mind when they both hopped up onto the edge of the tub and made themselves comfortable, presumably to get away from the other two chicks.

So the iso tank is where they will stay until we are able to build the coop, which we have decided can no longer be postponed. Hopefully it will be up and completed by the end of this coming weekend.

And hopefully once they have more space, the bullying will stop.

Outdoor Adventure

It was so nice out this afternoon that we decided we wanted to take the chickens outside for a bit. Only problem was we didn't have anything to keep them contained. So we ran off to Del's Farm Store just down the street from us to pick up some chicken wire. We're going to need some for the coop anyway, so we figured we'd just pick some up now. When we got back, we rigged up a make-shift pen and then brought the chickens downstairs for their first outside experience.

They seemed to have a fine time picking around in the jungle that is our lawn. They ate some grass and presumably some bugs before the sneezing attack began. First one chick started sneezing, then another, and within a few minutes they were all doing it with increasing frequency. So, back into the tub they went. Hopefully they don't have allergies....but if they do, do they make Benadryl for chickens?

Chicken Curiosity

Both Cleo and Digby continue to be mesmerized by Simone.

Any time she pokes her head into the tub to check in on them they quickly hop onto one of the feeders to get a better look at her.

Simone's been doing a great job of limiting her interest to sniffing and looking with her eyes. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she will continue to stave off investigation by way of mouth....

Tail Feathers

The gang continues to grow!

Aren't they a cute bunch? We estimate them to be about five weeks old now.
The latest thing we've noticed is that their tail plumes are becoming more and more pronounced.