First come, First Served

Not these girls. These hens are the ones who come last when I call the chickens to come for a grain treat. Most of the hens come out of the woods and rush towards me, some flapping, all excited to get to the grain. But these hens come late (or not at all) and will only come up to check for grain after the other hens have finished. So, I went off to the side away from the other chickens and left a "puddle" of grain just for them. It is interesting how the chickens have decided who can go where and do what. Two Buff Brahamas, a Wyandotte and a Buff Orpington.

This is the front path next to the gate. Kristine and I had a discussion about "gophers" making tunnels around trees and on the paths and driveway. After the windy storm, I thought that at least some of these places where the dirt was turned up was made by tree roots moving the soil and was a sign of the tree possibly coming down. Kristine went with gophers. Well, I guess I'll win if this tree falls over. This is one I would like to lose. Correction: Kristine said "moles" not gophers. Oops!

Apples! Nice surprise to see that there were about ten apples on the tree. The last few years we have had some very bad weather that knocked the blossoms out of the trees. The cherry tree didn't have any cherries and I didn't think the apple tree would have any apples.

Morgan was all tired out and I guess this was her way of cooling off next to the slider. Morgan is such a good dog and cute too! Tom brought in a box of kindling for the wood stove. Next he will burn the box. Or take it out and fill it up again? We had some more wood delivered today.

[no eggs today]

It is supposed to be 75 tomorrow.

Painting?

Smiles

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Pumpkin?

I went to check on the hens before I left for the dentist to see how they were adjusting to the new ground cover in the pen. Wow! No muddy feet. Pretty neat. But they were unhappy and wanted out even though it was raining off and on. I told them they were good girls and I'd let them out when I got back, but they weren't impressed. The molting Light Brahma is in the upper right corner. Poor thing. She doesn't look any better.

On the way home I took this photo of the clouds moving through the canyons.

Pumpkin? The hens are not too sure what to do with the pumpkin I got them. They would peck at it and then go away and then try again, but they finally gave up. After they left, I poked some holes in the pumpkin so they would get a clue about it being a food item.
The hens were more interested in being outside than playing around with the pumpkin. Pumpkin was left all alone. Morgan was glad to get out of the house. She doesn't like it when we leave either.

[5 eggs today]

Very glad to find eggs today.

They were clean!

I usually find muddy eggs when it rains.

Smiles

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Muddy Chicken Pen Or Maybe Not?

Dark Brahma, Orpington, Curly the Cochin, Light Brahma, Dark Brahma, two Buff Brahmas, Orpington, Wyandotte, Light Brahma, Australorp

This afternoon a bunch of the hens congregated near the green house fence. I haven't seen this before. Maybe the afternoon sun warmed up this area and the girls had found a cozy place.

The KentuckyFarmGirl's question about the chicken pen got me thinking about what a slippery goopy muddy place the chicken pen can become and I decided to try and do something to head off the mess instead of dealing with the mud after the fact. This is the pen when I started. It is a little damp from the last storm but not muddy yet.

My way of dealing with the mud has been to cover it with leaves. In past years I have been putting down leaves after the pen was muddy, but it is a lot nicer to haul around dry leaves than wet ones. It is also a lot easier to walk around on dry ground. And this year I'm trying out wood chips, from where Tom cut up the wood, on one end of the pen. What usually happens is that the leaves sink down in the mud and I keep topping the pen off with new layers of leaves. I feel so sorry for the hens when they have to stay in the pen when the weather is bad and Morgan can't go outside. So, I'll see what happens with this experiment.

I wonder if the wood chips will work out better than the leaves? When the rains are over, I usually take out the leaves and put them in the garden and put down a new layer of dirt in the chicken pen. Sometimes I have just covered up the leaves with a layer of dirt.

I read about making a shallow ditch to divert water from the pen and decided to try that out. Morgan is wondering what I'm up to. The ground looks level in the photos, but it slopes toward the chicken coop. Hopefully, this little ditch will keep runoff water out of the pen. There have been times when Morgan has run around the pen and made a path that looked pretty much like this.

We got a little rain this evening and it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Good thing Kristine and I unplugged our computers, because there was lightning and the power went out for a few hours.

[no eggs today]

I hope the hens are saving them up for tomorrow.

Smiles

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Where's The Door?

I had to herd these two hens into the coop tonight. Everyone else was in the pen having their evening snack. But these two kept going past the door and running around like they had lost what little chicken minds they possessed. It took me quite awhile to get them inside and Morgan was no help. She just kept running past them and making them goofier. They would rather sit out here until it gets dark. Maybe they can't find the door until it's dark? Strange.

This is a little tea cosy that I made out of an old place mat. I cut it in half, covered it with some fabric pictures I made, and stitched it together leaving the original ruffles around the edges. I made the little heart on top for a handle. If I made another one I would make openings for the spout and handle. I recently broke my last teapot, so that will go on my Christmas list.

It keeps the tea pot hot for a long time because the place mat has some kind of liner inside that traps the heat. I don't know what the liner is, but it makes a rustling sound. I made the house to resemble a type of home I always would have like to have lived in. The girls did have a swing. It was fun to make, but not put together well enough to use in a quilt. I wonder if the zig-zag over the edge of the fabric would hold up to a lot of use.

[5 eggs today]

One egg was very thin and had a hole.

Smiles

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Dry, Crackly Woods

Morgan is way down the path waiting for me, or not, I can't see what she is doing. I walked back here to see what she was barking at, but didn't see any critters running around. I do need to come back here and rake these leaves off the path and up against the wire to stop the rain (we will hopefully get rain) from undermining the fence. Morgan has run out here four times today barking madly, so there must be something going on out here. Skunks?

More dry crunchy leaves and thirsty trees. I have cut out a lot of brush between the trees, but I can see that I need to thin out more of the small trees. Most of them won't survive anyway. They get some tree disease that turns their bark black or they just die from lack of water. As soon as it does rain I need to get back out there and cut off dead limbs and do some thinning.

This big White Brahma is very loud and the one I usually see on top of the slanty roof of the old nest box. Most of the hens are already roosting or are asleep in their nests. I had to shoo one Wyandotte into the coop tonight before I could lock them up. The hens cackling cracks me up. I don't know why she is making all that noise. She started up before I came out. Beats me. Maybe she was yelling at the Wandotte to get her fluffy butt in the coop?

I guess you have to be a farm girl to appreciate this but I think it is really neat. I love those sheep!

[4 eggs today]

Smiles

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Cool'n Under the Porch

The hens have found a nice cool spot under the porch on the east side of the house. Pretty smart chickens. I wondered where they went off to during the hot part of the day. I spotted the girls leaving their cool spot this evening when I went to make another check for eggs. I bet there are lots of eggs under the house. If so, there must be critters coming around for eggs.

Today I worked in the chicken coop and pen. These are the tall nest boxes. This used to be a bookcase that I found at a flea market. I added the roosts and boards to hold in the straw. Since I would like the hens to lay their eggs in a nest instead of in the dirt I am going to turn this around against the roost area and hope they will lay eggs in a nest.

I love power tools! I took the roosts off and cut away

the chicken wire over the bottom open area

so the hens will have access to the nests.

Then I cut an opening so the hen can get in the bottom nest. Hopefully, the hens will not stop and lay their eggs in the dirt. I spent a long time with a pitchfork and shovel getting chicken poo and dirt cleaned away from under the roosts. And I took the branches away. They didn't work to stop the hens from laying their eggs in the dirt. I hope the girls will be lured into the nests by the comfy straw. Maybe?

Here it is turned facing the roosts. Tomorrow I need to make an opening of some kind so I can reach in the nests and search for eggs. And figure out something to block the light from leaking through that opening. One reason I think the hens are laying their eggs back there in the dirt under the roosts is because it is dark. Well, it was dark. And it is cool back there too. So, I need to block the light. Or not. If the light is on the dirt, that should be a good thing. I need to make the nests dark. Duh.

I hope I can come up with some great ideas tomorrow. Maybe I will even turn the gate in the pen around. Maybe? If I can figure out how I can remove the hooks that the gate hangs on. I'll need to find a really big pliers or wrench or something like that. I would like to be able to get the wheelbarrow in the pen to remove the old chicken stuff and to bring in some new dirt to make a new clean surface for the hens to scratch around on. Taking the chicken poo and dirt out a bucket full at a time is great exercise, but boring. I would much rather use the wheelbarrow.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Good Night

Tonight I waited until it was almost dark before I went to lock up the chickens because I wanted to check and see if some of them were sleeping in the nest boxes. First I strolled down to the gate. I love my gate with its night light. Since we are at the end of the road we keep the gate chained and padlocked. When my brother lived here he had people blasting through this property on old dirt roads and knocking down his fences. The area is much more built up now with houses so we haven't had that problem, but some people seem to want to open and drive through unlocked gates, especially at the end of a road. I stood by the gate listening to the neighbor's dog barking at me. It is a good watch dog. Barks at any noise. Then they yell at their dog. I'll post the video I took of the dog barking sometime. Fascinating.

Then I walked back to the chicken coop to check the girls. I think I woke them up. They just sat there clucking at me. It was totally dark in there, so when the flash went off they were startled. My brother had tree branches for the hens to roost on, but I couldn't find any that fit this space, so I used old handles from rakes and shovels. The hens don't seem to mind. I liked the tree branch roosts.

Then I went around and checked this side and found these two hens on top and one in the middle nest box. Tomorrow I will check and see if these are the same hens that are there in the day and if so I will chuck them out of their cozy nests. They need to get out and eat and get a drink. I remember reading that if you want to break a broody hen you need to cool off their tummy. I really don't want to cage these hens so that when they sit they have air circulation under them. I admit it. I'm lazy.

I found an egg in the middle and one in the bottom nest box, but no hen down there.

Kristine's throat is better, but now she has gone to bed early with a headache.

Hope she feels better tomorrow.

Kristine took a photo for me to use in a post, so I'm saving it for when I totally run out of ideas. Thanks for leaving a comment, Kathleen. Thanks you to all who leave me comments. I never thought anyone would read this blog but my family. As soon as I feel a bit better I will answer the comments that have been left. The deal was I was going to make a blog and post on it with at least one photo for every day for a year. And I'm at the half way point already! Time flys. The other part of the plan was that I was going to have the blog printed. I still have to figure out how I want to do that.

[8 eggs today]

None in the dirt!

Smiles

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Just Post!

"Just Post!" That's what Kristine tells me, "Just Post!" I tried to get her to do another guest post, but with no luck, sorry. I like her posts much better than mine, for sure. I'm stuck with my ramblings this evening. After three migraines in a row, I'm suffering from brain damage. Well, it feels that way and it makes me sleepy. Surprise! Yep, I was sure surprised this afternoon when the phone rang and it was Kristine telling me she would be home an hour later. Tom wasn't home. He needed to take his Mom to the doctor. I had slept most of the day! So, first I let Morgan out. Poor Morgan. And then shuffled outside to let the chickens out. Wow, Tom is still working on the antenna, evidently since the ladders are still there.

Oh, dear! Poor girls! I'm so sorry you were locked up so long.

They are cussing me out!

I checked for eggs. Kristine says the hens fluff up when I open the door to express their displeasure at being disturbed. Makes sense.

When I went to fill the feeders, I tripped over a branch. Branch? Oh, yes, the branches! Sure enough, when I went to check there were eggs under the roosts. I guess the girls were bored and with nothing to do with their time they decided to haul the branches out into the pen. Arrgh! And then they, three of them, laid eggs in the dirt and chicken poo. Go figure? Ok, it is my fault because I didn't let them out. But, but, I was asleep.

On the way back to the house, I noticed that there was a volunteer berry bush in the rock pile. I think the seeds are dropped on the rock pile by birds/chickens because there are quite a few wild plants that get started amongst the rocks. The berry bushes are strong growers and do the best growing in the rock pile. I usually pull them out, but I think I will let this bush grow and see if it will actually produce berries.

I made some chicken soup with rice click here I love that song by Carole King and Maurice Sendak. I bought the Sendak books for my girls when they were little. They were such cool books. The girls loved to play the records that came with the books. Yep, those were the old days of record players. What can I say... I'm old.

And then I gave the chickens a treat of carrot peelings and lettuce which they ate up very fast, although only about half of them showed up at the slider when I called them. I guess the others had headed out for part of the woods that were on the other side of the house.

Tom called and he will stop and pick up some sour dough french bread and some meat loaf for Kristine, since she can eat that as her throat has healed up a bit. I'm back eating eggs, vegetables and fruit. I never would have eaten the ice cream if I had realized what would happen. I was living dangerously and hoping I was back to being able to eat what I wanted. I took Dilantin for over thirty years and that controlled my migraines, but I eventually got hives and had to stop taking it. I remember when I started the Dilantin my eyes wouldn't focus, I couldn't read, I was dizzy, and it made it hard to concentrate. That lasted about six weeks and then after I adjusted to the medication there were no more migraines. I would like those no migraine days back. So, I will have to be a good girl and be careful what I eat... but I get them anyway. phooey! Maybe Tom will eat the ice cream? I wonder if chickens eat ice cream?

Lots and lots of thanks to Kristine

for posting for me yesterday!

[6 eggs + 3 in the dirt]

Bad girls!

Smiles

(Yeah, gotta keep smil'n)

Duct Tape and Chickens

I didn't see Henny Penny this morning because Tom let the chickens out before I got up. Henny Penny showed up with her duct taped sister when I went out to look for eggs. The duct tape on the Orpington looks like it is coming loose, or maybe it got messed up when the other hens jump on her. Henny Penny looks and acts fine. These two hens are smaller than the others. Maybe they get picked on? They seem happy to come back into the pen when the other hens are out in the woods. Duct tape is pretty neat stuff. I read that the duct tape will come off when they molt, but I think I will check and see what's happening under there before that.

The duct tape will keep the hens from getting sunburned for sure and should keep the mosquitos from a free lunch. I really don't know if that was what made Henny Penny sick, but I hope the duct tape is a fix for whatever was the problem.

Eggs! Tom found all these eggs, when he was counting the chickens last night. Yep, there are still 18 chickens. And all these eggs under the area where the chickens roost. I caught a Wyandotte sitting on them this morning. But from the different sizes and colors of eggs you can tell lots of other hens are laying eggs here. I picked up all the eggs and got rid of them and then got a bucket and filled it several times with dirt and covered up the area. I will have to check tomorrow and if there is an egg here I will find a branch with lots of twigs to put in the corner.

I'm going to go back to bed and see if I can catch up on some sleep.

[2 eggs so far]

The weather changed and the chickens started laying eggs

in strange places.

Can I blame the weather?

Smiles

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Look'n Better!

Henny Penny is looking better today! She looks bright and alert. She ate a lot of her feed and all her lettuce. The feed was a combination of raiser and corn and it was filled up to the top.

Today the other hens were coming up to the cage and visiting. Or maybe they were just trying to get to the feed? But she does look better. Hope she recovers!

I dumped out the four hens that were sitting in the nest boxes for most of the day. It was like they were in a daze. Once they were out and about they clucked happily over the corn and went and did chickens stuff like scratching around for edibles. I guess I will have to get them out of the nests earlier every day.

[4 eggs today]

Smiles

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