Coop Life

 

  When the girls were about seven weeks old it was time for them to be outside full-time in the coop. When Cory and I were looking for which coop style was going to best fit our needs I was blown away by all the options available!
   It can be a bit overwhelming trying to decided which style coop you want, how large do you need it to be. Do you want to build it or buy it?  Decisions, decisions. We started out by doing some shopping around locally and looking at ideas online. I am a huge fan of Pinterest!! So I used the web to my advantage. There are some pretty extravagant coops out there. For fun, I would suggest looking online at some chicken coops, you will be amazed at how fancy some of them are!!
  We found you can purchase one from the local tractor supply store, however, for our eight chickens it seemed a bit too small. They also sit very low to the ground and we knew we wanted ours raised for easier access to the eggs and for more protection from predators. The material of the one we saw in the store also did not seem that sturdy and we wanted more assurance that the product would last.
  Then there is the other side. We found beautiful coops made by some local Mennonites- absolutely gorgeous! However, they were a tad bit out of our price range (about $2,000 per coop). Beautiful and exactly what we thought we wanted but we needed something more affordable. We decided to build, that way we could design something in between.
    Depending on how many chickens you have determines the size coop you will need. They recommend about 4 square feet per chicken. We have eight chickens so Cory built our coop to be 4' by 8' (32 square feet) . You will also need egg boxes in your coop so they have a place to lay. You will need one egg box per 3-4 chickens. We put in three egg boxes just so they had extra room. Make sure the egg boxes remain dark and that the entrances that the chickens climb through to access the box is small in size. They like to be a bit confined when laying, almost hidden so they feel safe and secure to lay their eggs.
  For building materials, most of what we used was extra wood Cory had left over from other projects. We also found two old windows out at my grandmothers house that we were able to incorporate into the design. Other than buying a few hinges, latches and some paint, the material was relatively inexpensive.
     Cory designed the coop to have great ventilation. You want to make sure the temperature in the coop is comfortable and fresh air is able to circle in and out. He went with a slanted roof, not only because it looks great but because the functionality of the ventilation would be perfect for the chickens. We placed two windows up front, egg boxes on the left and a latched door on the right. We made the door on the right large enough where we could access the inside of the coop to feed and water the girls and also for an easy clean out. Cory made sure the floor on that side of the coop did not have any raised edges so when we rake out the bedding it can be scrapped right into a wheel barrel. The front door of the coop is just a pulley system with a carabiner clip to help keep it open while the chickens are out.
  We also used those same carabiner clips and rope to hang the feeder in the coop to increase sanitation. The waterer we did not hang because we have not found one yet that has great functionality. So they get fresh water each day using a basic watering dish until we find one we like. (we are open for suggestions on this!) There is also a small tree that was cut down to size and attached to the back wall so the girls have something to perch on. An actual tree limb is best for this because it is easier for them to grip with their feet since they sleep on it at night. To get in and out of the coop, Cory built a ramp with slats on it that the chickens can grip their feet on when they walk in and out of the coop. They will learn how to use this on their own. I did not think they would, but after awhile they just figure it out! Hint: leave the food and water in the coop at all times, this helps teach them to use the ramp. If they are hungry or thirsty they figure out how to get inside!
   The bedding we use are pine shavings which you can purchase at the local tractor supply store. We do what is called the deep liter method which works great and I can blog about that another day.
  The chickens have plenty of room and they know to go there each night once the day turns to dusk. We are very pleased with how the coop turned out and I think the little ladies are too!

An EGG-citing Experience

   Today I spent most of the day outside with the Chickens working on the coop. They were busy running around eating grass and taking dirt baths.When I noticed that one of them was missing. They tend to wander off and lay down in the shade or sun so I did not think too much of it at first.        

 However, after looking for her for twenty minutes, I still could not find her. Panic set in! I was looking all around the yard, inside the coop even checked inside our garage- nothing! I went into the woods and before I my anxiety kicked into full gear, I saw her. She was peacefully nestled into the brush. I must have startled her because she slowly started to walk out of the woods into the yard, it was more of a waddle than her normal walk.
                              

  I thought something was wrong so I calmly followed her. The feathers near her hips were ruffled out and she was squatting down low to the ground.
    Right then, it hit me, before I knew it I got to see her lay her very first egg!!! I was so proud of her! Her egg was a little bit smaller than what the others have been laying and it was light brown in color instead of white. Watching her lay her very first egg was something that I thought I would never get to witness. It was a very neat experience.  I gave her some time alone then picked her up and placed her back in the pen with the rest of the group. I am one proud Chicken Mama!

Introduction to The Great Outdoors

     Going outside seems like a simple concept right? You have to take out the trash or get into your car to go to work. For the chickens, it was a whole new adventure! There are things outside they had never seen, heard or even tasted before! It will be the first time they hear another bird chirping other than themselves and the first time they had felt grass on their bird feet. It will be the first time they chase after a bug or even eat rocks out of the driveway! Very exhilarating, a mind explosion of new things.

It is suggested to introduce your chickens to the outdoors in moderation. Once they are about two weeks old you can begin to take them outside for a few hours at a time. I would be outside with them as well at this point for their safety. Since we had never transitioned a brood of chickens from indoors to outdoors before, Cory and I tested the waters first. We took Luna out first because at that time she was our most mature chicken. We took her out and set her on the grass and waited. She just stood there at first and then slowly started pecking at the ground. No running around quiet yet. Then we brought Betty out with Luna to see if begin together would make them bolder. It did, they are much more comfortable when they are all together. If one chicken is alone, you will hear her clucking loudly until she is back with the rest of the group.

Now, to their first time outside all together. It was exciting for me just as much as it was for them. Okay, maybe they were a little more excited than me. Initially they kept close to the brooder box we carried them out in. They were slightly hesitant to leave it once they began to feel the wind and hear other birds chirping around them. Which I was okay with because we were outnumbered at this point, that’s a lot of chickens to keep an eye on! Ultimately, curiosity struck and they were running around and pecking at the grass and chasing butterflies. It was Chicken TV for Cory and I. They also enjoyed eating the stones from the driveway. They need grit in their stomachs to help with digestion, the stones are that grit and it is actually good for them.

You will not want to put them outside full-time until they have all of their feathers. The down is cute and fuzzy but it does not help keep them warm, hence having a heat lamp in the brooder. However, I have read that if you live in a climate where the weather is consistently warm you might be okay putting them outside sooner rather than later. I have read some are able to put them into the main coop at around three weeks old. But in Upstate NY it can be 70 degrees one day and snowing the next so Cory and I waited until the chicks were about 7 weeks old to put them in the coop. You will know when they are ready based on their actions as well. They will no longer sleep under the heat lamp, or all huddled together anymore. They will enjoy being out of the brooder more than in. (which I do not blame them.) And they will be fully feathered and able to withstand temperature changes.

It is amusing, because now that they are five months old (almost six months) they itch to get outside. They pace back and forth like dogs do at the door wanting to go out and play.  I am looking forward to the seasons changing even more this year because it will be full of more “firsts” for the chickens. First time they will experience fall (my favorite season) and even the first time they will get to see snow!

I Believe I can Fly!

  It is incredible how quickly chickens grow. Within only a day you can notice a difference. Their size is increasing, their down is turning into more defined feathers and their chirps are getting louder. At only a week old they were starting to use their wings and learning how to fly.
   At first they are not the most graceful flyer's, but you are still excited to see them learn something new. You can always tell when they are about to take flight because they look at the top of the brooder and then pace back and forth until they get enough courage to give it a try. Luna and Charlotte were the first ones of our brood to be able to fly to the top of the box. They would fly up and perch on the rim. Sometimes they would even walk around the rim once they were more comfortable.  At this point it is recommended to place some chicken wire over the brooder so when you are not around the chickens can not get out. You want to prevent them from getting injured. At this time I was not worried about any other predators because they were inside our garage and we kept it closed up when we were not around.



Luna

A few times, it was a little startling watching them fly. There were a few scenarios where they over-shot the rim of the brooder and ended up on the garage floor. Immediately I wondered if they are okay, they were fine. I had to give them a little more credit, their flying skills are actually pretty impressive. I never knew that chickens could fly. Now, they cannot fly South for the Winter, however, to give you an idea now that they are older, they can jump off the side of our deck and fly down to the ground. Our deck is about ten feet up in the air!! Rock stars!
  You will notice that they will try to fly from one part of the brooder to another. Sometimes using their necks as hooks until they can plant their feet. Although, it is awkward and looks a bit painful, this is normal.
  Once they are comfortable flying, you will also noticed that they will climb up on things more frequently. The chicks love using our arms as a ramp to climb up on to our shoulders. It can be a little uncomfortable, especially if they get after you hair. But it is all in good fun! Flying will be a major activity that they love to do. Even five months later, they get so excited to leave the coop they fly out of the door and star hopping around the yard, silly girls!

                         

1973 Robin Hood - Disney Cartoon Movie

       Happy Wednesday from Lady Kluck!! 

The First Eggs

  The last few posts have been about when the chickens were babies. I still have a lot of catching up to do before we are fully up to speed on where the chicks are today but I have to hit the fast forward button because a pretty big milestone occurred this morning.
 Drumroll please... we have EGGS!!! The girls are finally laying and it is a very exciting time! Cory found three white eggs in the coop. Wahoo! Nice work little ladies -very proud!!

Our two White Leghorns. (Betty and Luna)

  The girls are five months old so technically they are a month ahead of schedule for egg laying which is great. Now, we do not know who exactly laid these eggs just yet but we have a feeling it was our White Leghorns because those breeds typically lay white eggs. The other breeds in our brood are brown egg layers. I found a helpful egg color guide on one of my favorite sites Backyard Chickens that gives you a general idea of what color eggs your chickens will produce. (link below)
Backyard Chickens Egg Guide
 

The egg I am holding is store bought

Now, do not be surprised if when your chickens first start laying that the size of the eggs are smaller than what you are use to seeing in a grocery store. That is normal. The eggs might also be a little different in shape. As time goes on the chickens will begin to lay eggs that look like ones you are use to seeing. Surprisingly, our first eggs were better than expected. Only slightly smaller than what we would consider "normal" and the shape was excellent in comparison to a store bought egg.
 There is also a really neat application you can get on your phone that I will now begin using called Count My Eggs. This application allows you to track how many eggs you collect each day. I view it as a fun way to see if there are specific times in the year where the chickens lay more frequently than others. I have read that they tend to lay more in the Summer than in the Winter. I am interested to see the difference in their laying habits this upcoming Winter season. It will be our first Winter with chickens so that will be a new adventure in itself.

The application is free.

  After collecting the eggs you can wash them off and place them in your refrigerator until you are ready to make a meal. Breakfast is served! A little trick that I have just learned of myself to help preserve eggs even longer is rub their outer shell in mineral oil. This is suppose to stop oxygen from getting into the egg and spoiling it, it acts as a sealant.

As the chicken ladies keep laying I will post photos so you can see how different breeds lay different eggs. 

Happy Tuesday!!
    Thank you to everyone who has been checking out the blog so far! Woo!
  I am still trying to work out a few of the kinks on the site. For some reason the videos only play and show up if you are on a computer. Which does not work for the iphone and ipad viewers (myself included). So I am still trying to figure that one out! Other than that, stay tuned for the next post and always feel free to comment!

Mom, We're Bored...

   The first few days with our new feathered friends was pretty exciting, we have chickens..how cool is that?! However, we started to notice that some of the chickens were pecking each other. My immediate reaction was to say "hey, knock it off" but I mean common they do not know what I am saying. We needed a better understanding of what was going on and how to correct it. We did not want any of the chicks to become injured or for them all to pick up this bad habit.
 We learned a few tips and tricks after doing some online research that we tested out and actually worked great! It was reassuring knowing that others have had the same problem before. Thank goodness for the Internet! hah!
 The chickens first home was down in Cory's work shop and although they have the red light bulb on them for warmth we left a few regular shop lights on overhead so they could see and for better lighting for the wireless camera. We read that too much light on them is not a good thing, it makes them cranky. Especially if they are too hot on top of that. So we raised the heat lamp away from the brooder a little and shut off one of the overhead white lights. This seemed to help calm them down. I would suggest watching the chicks behavior for the first few days. See if they are all huddled together or if they are trying to stay far away from the heat lamp. This will tell you if you need to make adjustments to your set up.

The other interesting thing we figured out was that they were bored! They did not have any activities to add stimulation other than looking at four walls of a box. We needed to get a little creative.  We put a Mason Jar in the brooder on its side which they all loved, especially Dumpling. Remember I said I had a funny story about her. Well she LOVED the Mason Jar. She was always making a "tinking" nosie on the jar, very comical. Cory also made a small perch that they could sit on which was great because they could begin to practice roosting. When making a perch it is best to use a real stick or branch from outside because it is easier for the chickens to grip with their feet. Just make sure you have one that is large enough around so they have enough surface area to hold on to.
 Lastly, we read that increasing their protein source would help eliminate the pecking so we added extra protein to their food three times a week.
  With all of these things combined, the pecking eventually stopped! Success!!

Good Morning!!!

         Good Morning Monday... meet my Friend Coffee!!!

Whatever you do, don't name them...

 Remember how I mentioned in the previous post that we wanted to get some Chickens that are not only egg layers but also meat hens that we could process? Let's just say that is no longer happening. We did get some Chickens that are what is called "multi-purpose" (both meat and egg chickens), however no one is going to become a chicken nugget if you catch my drift.
    What happened you ask? Well, we named all eight of them which led me to become super attached and now we are buddies! The positive side of things is they still will all produce eggs and "earn their keep". Chickens are known to lay eggs for about 6-7 years which is a great length of time, and if you think about it a TON of eggs. Chickens can only lay one egg a day, there will be some days where the chicken will not lay at all. However, if you think of the potential here of one egg a day times eight chickens...that's almost three thousand eggs a year... THREE THOUSAND!! Holy Moly! Now, as much as Cory and I love eggs, we certainly cannot consume that many without getting sick of them so we will be sharing the wealth with our fellow egg lovers!
    Now, back to falling in love with these little ladies. Even though I was advised to not name them because that would lead to becoming attached, I could not help myself and did it anyways. The names of our hens are: Luna, Belle (aka Betty White), Dumpling (funny story about her for a later day), Charlotte, Olive, Colt, Reese, and Peanut. Not your typical names but they fit our girls perfectly.
  Even though we have a large amount of eggs coming our way, chickens do not actually start laying until they are around six months old. In the meantime, you get to see how they actually all have their own personalities and quirks that you will learn to laugh at.
   Since they are all named and I have obtained the title of Chicken Mama. I wanted to come up with a way where I could keep an eye on them without having to stay downstairs peering over the ammo crate watching their every move like a crazy women. Naturally, I bought a camera that would link to our phones. Now, before you laugh it was actually a great investment. We now had the ability to see what they did when we weren't around and we were able to show our friends and family the streaming so they could watch them grow up with us.

  I purchased the camera from Walmart for about a hundred dollars (again- worth it), the brand is called D-Link. Many people use these cameras for home security or maybe to monitor their baby while they sleep... we used it to monitor our chickens!! It is a wireless camera that produces a live feed using a WiFi connection to an application on your phone or computer. This thing even had the capability of moving 360 degrees from your phone so you can change the view of the brooder.

This image is a snap shot from the wireless camera.

 I highly recommend anyone who is new to raising chickens to do this. It was a great experience and having a break in your day from work and see them hopping around, chirping and falling asleep like drunk college kids is awesome!
When I say falling asleep like drunk college kids im being serious. They just fell over they were so tired, it was adorable and hilarious at the same time.

Here is a short clip of them catching some Z's! Enjoy! 

A trip down memory lane

In order to get to where we are now, we have to go back to where it all began. A little trip down memory lane if you will.
  Cory and I have been talking about getting Chickens for a few years. We thought it would be such a fun and cool experience. Before we went out and got them we had to get a general idea of what we were signing up for. We met with another local couple who had been raising Chickens for a few years. They were incredibly helpful! We talked about different kinds of Chickens, eggs, food, coops, bedding, predators, etc. You name it this couple has the knowledge which we were so grateful for and appreciative that they hooked us on finally getting Chickens!
  After meeting with them we went over to Runnings, a local tractor supply store, and bought 8 tiny little chicks. They were only two days old! They looked like little fluffs of down feathers.
   There are several different kinds of Chickens that you can get so we did a little research online to see which types would be best for us and the environment we live in. We wanted breeds that were a little hardier since we all know Upstate NY winters can be pretty harsh and the weather changes at the drop of a hat. We also decided that we wanted all of them to produce good eggs but also have some of them be meat chickens for processing. We ended up buying two of each of the following breeds: White leghorns ("I say, I say boyy"-foghorn leghorn- a little cartoon reference for ya), Barred Rocks, Buff Orpington, and Black Australrops.
  After we picked up our 8 Chickens we grabbed some other supplies to get us started since we were first timers at this. We grabbed a heat lamp, chick food, a waterer and chick feeder. Oh! A thing to note, depending on where you live, make sure your Chickens are sexed to be all females. Runnings did this for us because in our area we are not allowed to have a Rooster so it was important we knew they were all hens before purchase.

  A few tips on supplies, when getting the heat lamp buy the red bulb. Chickens are very curious creatures and how they explore their curiosity is by pecking. The red light helps it so as they grow they do not peck each other as much. When they are babies you can see some exposed skin sometimes and chickens like to peck at things that are pink, even my pink nail polish! It's very unique. The red light helps eliminate the pink color. Also, buy specific food made for baby chicks, it's smaller and easier for them to handle since their beaks are so tiny. (You could also make your own food if you do not want to purchase the bags from the store). Get a chick feeder and water too! These things are poop machines and they go when and where they want too, including in their food and water- gross! The feeders and waterers are designed to help with sanitation. You could set them up on something in the brooder to help even more with cleanliness but make sure the babes can still reach. We purchased the feeder with multiple different holes where the food was exposed. This way the chicks did not have to fight over it and everyone could eat at the same time if they wanted to. (The photo above is what the feeder looks like).
  Shopping was done so we brought them all home and I personally had a moment of "now what?" Haha. Cory had an ammo crate that was the perfect size for our little chicks first home. We shredded some newspaper as bedding. I read a lot of articles that said that newspaper was bad bedding for chicks because it does not soak up moisture well which could lead to the chicks developing spraddle leg. Spraddle leg is when the chickens legs are spread very far apart which causes them to have issues walking and moving around. If this does occur, do not panic, it can be corrected. We changed our bedding every day and we did not have any problems. But if you are nervous they said pine shavings are the best. Then we added our feeder and waterer to the box and lastly put on the heat lamp to keep them warm. I would suggest placing your heat lamp in one corner of your brooder box. That way if the chicks get too hot under the lamp they have other areas in the brooder to go and cool down. You can tell when they are cold because they will all huddle together. This could indicate that you need to move the heat lamp lower and closer to them to add extra warmth. Also, make sure your food and water are not directly under the light, warm water is not as refreshing! Hah!

 
 Once the set up was complete we added in the best part- the tiny girls! (This photo is from the first day we brought them home- a few of them are sleeping).














One other thing Cory and I decided to do, which I am glad we did now that I am writing this blog, was keep a daily journal of the chicks and what was going on as they started to grow. You don't have to do it daily if you do not want to, but some pretty neat things happen that you will want to remember and the "chicken log" as our is called, is fun to look back on and read.