The grass is greener on the other side...

Because the hens are now no longer in the vineyard and the coop isn't moving to fresh grass everyday, they spend the morning inside "cooped" up (so I can find their eggs and they don't bother the neighbors) and then around noon, I let them out so they can forage to their hearts' content all over the front yard and through the dirt work behind the house.  They have water and corn in the morning, but it is rather humorous to see them in there.  They stand there longing for the green grass and freedom on the other side and counting down the minutes until noon.  Kind of like an impatient 3rd grader a half an hour before the end of the school day! :-)  Now, don't get me wrong...they're not suffering in there...they spend the morning laying eggs, running laps back and forth, taking dustbaths, scratching for corn I've thrown in for them to find and doing other chicken things.  But it's pretty hard to be patient when the grass is literally greener on the other side of the fence and it's pretty tasty yet besides!! :-)

And there wasn't light...

A couple weeks ago, after seeing it grow dark by 6pm and watching the daily egg count take a dive, I decided to get out the extension cord, the timer and the small LED nightlight.  That's right - it's time for some fake sunlight.  I had read sometime last year about someone who had noticed an improvement on winter laying possibly stemming from a simple candle*.  I don't think I want to take the chances of an unguarded, open flame so I opted for electric....  But I also didn't want something that was going to cost a fortune in energy, so I found a small LED nightlight that supposedly costs only pennies a year to run and I also bought a small timer so that I can program when the light is on during the day.  14 hours of daylight is supposed to make the best production.  After hooking it up, I did notice a rise in egg count - yeah!  I really notice it now that for the last two days it hasn't been working and the egg count has dropped again.  I have to do a little testing...our outside plug-in is a little touchy anyway (flips the breaker sporadically) but so far the breaker hasn't flipped and nothing still works.  I plugged in something else directly into the plug-in and that works, so my guess is that the extension cord must have gone crazy.  Ah well...I'd best get to it so I can still keep having tasty eggs for breakfast in the morning... :-) 

*By the way, I can't remember exactly which issue it came from, but the "reading" I mentioned above was from the Backyard Poultry magazine I subscribe to.  SUPER magazine!!  Would highly recommend it to anyone who has poultry...

Drop in laying...

For all you who are interested in buying eggs or have bought eggs from me in the past - sad to say, but the hens' egg count has dropped considerably in the last few weeks!  Each egg is extra precious now!  The 17 older hens are at various stages of molting and as I said in another post, they spend more time losing feathers than laying eggs!  So 17 down.  That leaves the 26 spring hens as the main layers.  Those ladies are trying to do a fine job, except that with the shorter days for this time of year, their body clock tells them not to lay as many eggs.  Apparently laying eggs and bright sunny days go hand in hand!  With all this to consider, you may not be able to buy as many eggs at one time as you did a couple weeks ago.  It's a first come first serve thing now and if you'd like any substantial amount, let me know as soon as possible and even then I may not be able to fill your needs at this time.  As sad as this is, there's a positive side - in a few months when the days get longer and the older ones are back in their prime (and barring no illness or small hen stealing varmint!), I will have eggs filling the fridge and looking to get rid of them!  Your patience will be rewarded! :-)

Check for freshness!

I found this cool link to tell how fresh your eggs are!  http://www.helpwithcooking.com/egg-guide/fresh-egg-test.html

The prodical peachicks are back...

Today Keith found two more of the brown baby chicks and then the big white peachick appeared on the front lawn as well.  So that brings my total back up to 4 of the 7 birds back where they belong.  Tomorrow night after they've found a place to roost, I'm going to go look back on the other side of the yard and see if the missing 3 are around or if I can't find them and can assume that they have met an untimely end at the teeth of some wild critter from the corn field...  :-(  We'll see!!  But 4 out of 7 isn't bad either and hopefully they can stay nice and cozy in the calf hut until Sandy comes next and then she can see them... :-)

One returned peachick!

Lindsey came down the sidewalk this morning with one of the runaway peachicks!  It made my day. :-)  Only one though.  He found it on the diagonal other side of the yard by itself.  So, I still have no idea if there are others, but for now, this one is going into the calf hut for safety and some food and water! :-)
This evening, I wasn't sure what to do with the baby all by itself in there.  Animals just do so much better when they have a buddy!  Choice 1 is to put the little guy in with the chickens.  With the whole pecking order, though, I'm not sure this will be such a great idea...  I don't know if he's big enough to fight for himself yet!  Choice 2 is to put a chicken in with him to keep him company.  I opted for Choice 2 and picked my docile little buddy of a Gold Star.  I picked up Goldy from her roost and carried her across the front yard and put just inside the calf hut.  She tried to make a fast get away back out, but I stopped here.  Then there was a lot of hissing and feather puffing on the part of both birds so I decided that that maybe wasn't such a good idea either and finally chose Choice 3 - leave the chick by herself and hope she survives while I hunt for the rest of them...  Goldy then was returned safely to her perch and enjoyed a nice quiet rest... :-)

Molting...

My spring 2008 hens appear to be molting.  I have read only a little about molting, but it's rather a curious phenomenon...
1.  Once a year, chickens lose almost all their feathers and look just terrible. 
2.  Supposedly this should happen in February/March, but mine just must be early...??
3.  They stop laying eggs.
4.  I think it lasts a month or two, but not sure.
5.  I also can't quite figure why God made them to loose all their warmth during the coldest months of the year.
I should post some pictures on here, it is rather interesting to see!

Where did they go...?

Today, Sandy and David came to visit and to see the peachicks.  (Sandy was connected with our getting them a couple months back and even picked them up and brought them out to us!) :-)  Anyway, we saw the peachicks right after church around noon and then all afternoon, no sign of them.  They didn't even get to see them!  Ah well, maybe later...  Even into the evening, they still have not returned and now I'm started to getting a little worried.  The corn field is right up next to the yard and because they appear to have to sense of home and staying near it, who knows where they could be...