Chickens
Pardoned Rooster
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Tarrick
Tarrick is one lucky little rooster. We were loading up the others to head over to our friends’ farm for the processing last evening and decided at the last minute to keep Tarrick a while longer and see how things worked out in the flock. He is such a little guy and wouldn’t really be worth the work of processing him. He is a little trouble maker, constantly worrying the guineas and some of the other chickens, but he has never shown aggression towards us – yet. I’m thinking that if we let him mix in the larger flock with the older rooster, Percy will help to keep him in line.
He is a beautiful bird and I don’t feel right about killing him just because he is a pain in the patooty! But he better behave himself or the next processing day that comes around may turn out differently!
Chicken processing day
0Tomorrow evening, “processing” 4 roosters is on the schedule. We say processing because it just sounds better than butchering, but the outcome is the same. We have both been struggling with this, just like we did last year when we had to cull 3 roosters. Maybe we just aren’t cut out to be real chicken farmers and actually eat some of our chickens. It is difficult not to remember the sweet little chicks that hopped up on our fingers and followed us around looking for treats. We have 7 roosters now and that is just not going to work out well as they get older. They are already picking on each other and the guineas quite a lot. We have our original rooster, Percy, and a Maran and a Rhode Island Red from this year’s chicks that we want to keep, and so the rest have to go. We could give them to someone else but most likely they would butcher them as well and who knows how they would be treated up until then. Roosters don’t really have much of a chance in this world. Most of the ones born in large hatcheries are killed right away because most people want only hens and who can blame them? Things are indeed much more peaceful in the chicken yard without a rooster trying to attack you. We do want to keep the 3 we have decided on in order to raise more chicks to keep adding new layers to our flocks, so there will be other roosters to “process” in the coming years. I try to make myself feel better by thinking that if these roosters had been born anywhere else they most likely would have been killed months ago, but it doesn’t really help much. I can’t look at them today; or maybe I should go look at them. Maybe I will just let them out of their yard so they can run away.
Chickens’ night out
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Chickens' night out
The weather has been so hot and dry and because I am such a procrastinator, the Gallus Palace yard has not yet been fenced. I dug five or six holes several weeks ago and even bought the posts and the cement, but the fence gnomes have been on vacation and the chickens refuse to do it themselves, so I guess I will have to get back on that project soon. In the meantime, we have decided that we can let the chickens out for a romp around bed time and they won’t wander too far off. If we time it right, they will run around, do a little flying/hopping, scratch and peck and chase each other around for a half hour and then return to their roosts for the night all by themselves.
We make this our happy hour: pull out some chairs, get a drink and maybe some chips and salsa and sit and watch the ‘chicken show’. This may be something only old fogies like us can relate to, but to help the younger generation relate, let me frame it another way. It’s like a real live screen saver on the biggest wide-screen TV you could imagine. The actors, the soundtrack, and the sunset are different every night and it’s entertaining and peaceful at the same time.
Chicks move into Gallus Palace
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Move in Day at the Palace
Fifteen of the new chickens who are about 12 weeks old now moved into the new coop – Gallus Palace – yesterday. It was a s big a day for us as it was for the chickens. It feels like we have been building the Palace since the Eisenhower administration and it was a momentous occasion. We carried the birds over one or two at a time and although we were happy about it the chickens were not so sure. Being creatures of habit, they were initially frozen in their new surroundings. We set up food and water and after a few minutes they started to walk around and explore their new home.
We moved 13 hens and only two of the six roosters. We will be keeping Big Red and Duran for breeding. We left the three Partridge Rock roosters and the Egyptian Fayoumi in the nursery coop where we added the six guineas. This was the driving force as of late behind the effort to finish the Palace. The guineas have been living in the basement in a smallish box about 2 ft by 5 ft. They were clearly outgrowing that space and they were really beginning to stink up the basement. guineas are excellent fliers, unlike chickens, so we wanted them to go inside of the nursery coop with the roosters outside for a few days until they could get better acquainted. Last night after dark, we put the roosters into the nursery coop and come morning they all seemed to be resigned to these living quarters. We will keep the guineas inside the coop for another day or two so they get used to roosting in the coop. The main coop and nursery coop are both covered, so the guineas can’t fly away, but they will be virtually impossible to catch and we are hoping that they will learn to go into the coop at night.
Exploring the Palace
Eventually, we will move the guineas into the Palace and the soon to be fenced chicken yard will not be covered and the guineas will be free to roam the countryside. It is our hope that they will hang around for the free food and lodging, but there is no guarantee. We have read stories of whole flocks of Guineas just wandering or flying off and never returning 
You can review the entire project through the Picasa photo gallery (139 pictures).
Chicken Run
0Although the chickens will soon have a nice new home, indoors is not their preferred habitat. They need a place to be outside yet remain safe from predators. This is the function of the ‘chicken run’.
The Chicken Run
It seemed like it wouldn’t take too long to build, but of course it is taking longer than expected. The ground here is sooooo hard that digging is a real pain. We went with corregated steel roofing, but I’ll have to climb onto the roof to install it which might be a bit tricky. There is a little ‘tunnel’ between the coop and the run. We didn’t want to screw the whole thing into the side of the brand new coop, so now it attaches by way of the tunnel. The final piece to the run will be a little access door to the yard which will only take a half hour to build – unless it actually takes an hour or three or four!
Gallus Palace
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front door finished!
This was a good day – getting the front door finished and finally a fully weather proof structure! Adding the white trim boards at the corners and around the windows really adds a nice touch. It is looking so nice that we often comment on turning this into a guesthouse! It really does seem way too fancy for chickens, at least on the outside, but that part is more for our enjoyment. So I came up with the name “Gallus Palace”, (Gallus is both the genus and species name for the domestic chicken) and what a palace they will be living in.
I am really excited about all the storage space that we will have for all of our chicken supplies. It will be so nice to get all that out of the garage and have it closer to where the chickens actually live.
finishing touches
We’ve started on the secure outdoor run and are hoping to be far enough along to move this year’s chicks in the next week or so. We really need to free up that small coop where they are currently residing so we can get the guinea keets moved outside. The next steps will include adding the hardware cloth to the entire structure as well as burying about a foot of it in the ground all around the perimeter to keep digging critters from helping themselves to a late night chicken dinner.
secure run beginnings
Maggie…
0We lost one of our Ameraucana pullets on Thursday 6/16/11. Poor little thing had been keeping off to herself for a few days. We brought her into the house and found that she was drinking but not eating at all. I took her to Dr. Ryan in Westminster because the doctors at the vet clinic where I work have not had much experience with birds. Dr. Ryan did a very thorough exam but was unable to determine what was wrong with her without more extensive diagnostics. I sent out some blood samples through my clinic but poor little Maggie died later that night, before results were in. We took her to the Animal Health Diagnostic Lab in Frederick for necropsy. They perform post mortem examinations on poultry at no charge. We wanted to be sure that she hadn’t succumbed to something infectious in order to take precautions with our other birds. I received a preliminary pathology report later the same day. Turns out she had developed an intestinal blockage that led to perforations in her intestines and peritonitis (actually known as coelomitis in birds). The vet who performed the necropsy commented that it looked as though she had been eating mulch – she was full of it. As the chickens do not have access to mulch, I can only assume that she had been consuming an inordinate amount of the pine shavings that we use as bedding. We see most of the chickens peck at the shavings from time to time, but have never had a problem like this before. All the others seems fine today. I’m hoping it will stay that way. Rest in peace, sweet little Maggie.
Cool treat on a hot day
0The chickens really enjoy a cold strawberry on these hot days we have been having lately. Of course, I think they would be this excited about a strawberry at any time, but it makes me feel good to give them something cold when they are so hot.
Growing up so quickly
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Winnie - silver laced Wyandotte
The baby chicks are getting so big! (We will probably always call them “the babies”, just to clarify which group of birds we are talking about. We’ll have
Emily - Ameraucana
to find some different collective names when “the babies” start having babies of their own.
They are very friendly, for the most part, and come running whenever we approach their pen. It’s a lot of fun spending time among them and watching them. They really love clover leaves and we try to give them a few handfuls every day. Their yard was long ago picked clean of the choicest weeds. They have lots of grass to pick at, but nothing beats the nice fresh clover from our hands – what a treat! Of course, some are more friendly than others and they have names because we interact with them a lot more. Out of the 20, there are only 2 or 3 who won’t eat out of our hands.
Bonnie Blue - copper blue maran
Tarik - Egyptian Fayoumi (center)
Ethel lives!
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feeling fine
Ethel was so sick last week I was sure we were going to lose her, but after a few days of special care in the house, she seemed well enough to go back outside. She was still a little weak and wobbly so I didn’t think she was ready to go back in with the main flock. I didn’t want her to have to deal with the dominant hens and the rooster until she gained more strength, so I put her in with the babies. Well, I guess they really aren’t babies anymore – more like teenagers. She had a nice , safe place outside where she didn’t get picked on. After 2 nights in the nursery coop, she moved back home and seems just fine. She still can’t see very well (time for another face trim), but she’s back to normal. Chickens are tough critters.