Fresh grass :-)

Funny ducks!

My four runner ducks are fascinating to watch.  They trot around the yard looking at everything and usually quacking up a storm, especially when they find something they like, like a puddle. :-)  The other interesting thing is that there are always four of them together, we never see them apart.  Well, today I looked out the window and found only three quacking up a storm in the front yard.  I immediately went outside to find out if someone was hurt and all I heard was one loud quacking from the other side of the yard, so knew that she/he was ok. :-)  Later on I went looking for the missing one.  And I found her somehow stuck inside the other chicken run on the other side of the yard.  It was rather humorous...here she was on one side and the other three were cuddled up in the grass on the other side of the run wall.  Still had to be together!  I tipped the run up and she did run out then, much to the thrillment of all involved... :-)

Beautiful grass :-)

There is a definate difference in the grass that was under the run as it moves through the rows of the vineyard.  The grass in the beginning of the first row is starting to get thick and a darker green compared to the stuff that wasn't under the feet of the chickens.  The nitrogen is taking root, literally! :-)  Way to go chickens! :-)

Straw is essential, evidently...

I have come to the conclusion, after watching egg numbers rocket up, that chickens love a comfy place to lay their eggs.  What they did with them since the last of the straw disappeared from the nesting boxes, a week or so ago, I'll never know...  But since I re-stocked the nests the other day, they have been laying nicely!  I had purposely let the straw run out (and by run out I mean not refill it from them taking it all out or eating it or whatever...?) since I built the nesting box to be a rollaway nest and I figured the weaning period for a normal flat nest was over and since they were laying nicely in there, I was going to set it at a tilt.  (I had read somewhere that chickens may not normally be thrilled about going in a nest with no straw, but if you fill a rollaway box with straw for awhile to get them used to it and then remove it and tilt the nest, they take to the change better.)  The nests would subsequently not have straw in them since an egg won't roll in a nest filled with straw.  But after seeing the difference in eggs, I think I'm going to leave the nest flat and filled with straw.  Whatever they like, I will do... :-)

Where did the eggs go?

My latest dilemma is that the egg count has dropped and I don't know why.  I've also seen yolk on some of them, so I'm guessing that some are being eaten, but not sure on the rest.  I think I have two choices for attempting to solve this - 1)they really seem to like a lot of straw in the boxes, so I'll just add more, and 2)the nesting box I made them is supposed to be a tilted rollaway one, so I simply need to tip it so the eggs roll down safely into the storage area and *voila* no broken eggs.  I will try the extra straw today and see what happens.

Peachicks

Today I moved the peachicks from their warm light bulb outside into the fresh air!  Unlike chickens, these little guys seem to take quite awhile to become adjusted to new living quarters.  They're growing larger too, so soon I'll need to put them into their own larger run.  So far I don't know how many are males and how many are females, so we'll keep watching! :-)

Naughty leghorns

I have previously mentioned how leghorns are naughty and very flighty birds.  There is still one running outside that I just can't catch.  She's very fast even after dark!  Now the fun part will be hunting all over the yard to find her eggs... :-)

A one person job

So I have now moved the entire chicken truck summer coop with all 47 chickens in ALL BY MYSELF!  A little heavy but not too bad.  Our engineering work has finally paid off...:-)  The nice big wheels make it easy to push and the chickens don't mind the smooth ride either. :-)

Flighty Leghorns

I moved the coop all by myself last night and tonight!  Yeah!!  Our engineering is getting better! :-)  It really didn't even take that long either.

I let the chickens out of the coop tonight just before dark just to see what they'd do.  4 ended up roosting in the tree on the other side of the yard from the coop, so I probably won't be doing that again anytime soon.  They're content where they are - why ruin things?? :-)  Two of the birds were Leghorns.  I had read that Leghorns are extremely flighty (ha ha) birds, and after experiencing them myself over the last few months (they were hatched in the spring), I'd have to wholeheartedly agree!!  Whereas most chickens go into sleep mode when the sun goes down, Leghorns don't seem to.  Or at least mine don't!!  I managed to get one of them out of the tree, but the other one would flutter down and run away (or to be more accurate, flap her wings in a frenzy, squawk up a storm like I was a fox or coyote and run screeching the other direction from me...)  I never did catch her.  Sometimes they get themselves into such a fit, it's best to just leave them alone and try again tomorrow.  But for as many eggs as Leghorns are supposed to lay, I can't say I'd be jumping up and down to get more of them just because their personality isn't the greatest...

Yum, apples!!

Yesterday, Keith used his fantastic home-made apple press to press us some juice.  The best part about this for the chickens is that they get all the excess peelings/cores/etc for a treat!  They enjoyed it quite a bit today when I dumped it all in for them.  They made the happy clucking noises that chickens do when they are quite thrilled with something.  Chickens are very entertaining! :-)

Sneaky chickens!

I noticed 4 chickens out of the run today.  They like to be sneaky sometimes.  The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence! :-)  Not really sure where they got out except that the plastic tarp part of the run is a little saggy in places (needs to be tightened up). 
The moving of the coop now is GREAT!  Such a quick and easy process now!  See the "Why...Truck 'o Chickens" link to the right to see where the coop has come just this summer.  Hopefully our work can stop and I can just enjoy my chickens now. :-)

New run piece!

The chickens like their new longer run with the covering!  It's such a pleasant sight to see chickens pecking away at fresh grass... :-)

Roof

I'm making a plastic roof for covering one of the runs today.  The chickens I've noticed don't seem to like hot sunshine in the afternoon and hopefully this one they'll like!  I'm using plastic tarp that the local elevator used for covering mass quantities of corn that don't fit in the bins.  It's durable and free! :-)

22 eggs!

Definately have to get to finishing this site this weekend.  The eggs are a-comin' (22 yesterday!!) and I'm going to need to find more buyers!  Anyone interested in some fantastic eggs?  Stop on by!!
Last night I got a good count on how many chickens I really have.  47!  6 of them are roosters and some will be butchered sometime.  (Otherwise they fight make life miserable for everyone...)  I'm saving in particular my nice Buff Orpington and one of the three Blue-Red Wyandottes.  The Blue-Reds are massive birds and I would like to keep them and their respective hens to breed nice offspring next spring.  We'll be getting into the meat chicken market hopefully with some birds that aren't like the typical Cornish Broilers who are bred to fall over and have heart attacks if fed too much.  Ours will be all natural and God-made! :-)

In the vineyard!

The chickens are back in the vineyard now!  (They spent the last few months in a different part of the yard to allow the grass in the vineyard to get a good start on growing.)  They seem to be liking it and I love that they will just move down the row now in an easy to move coop!

Eggs, eggs everywhere!

Since the coop has been redone, I've gotten just a ton of eggs.  12-18 a day!!  Sure beats the 5-10 I was getting before!!  More eggs being laid generally means happier chickens, so yeah!  They really seem to like the new coop with the wonderfully dark nesting box and all.