keeping chickens- part 1

I am so ready for fall.  August in Texas is brutal.  We all become hermits and hunker down in our houses.  It's just too hot to be outside!

This week I lost a chicken to the heat.  And one to a hawk.  We are down to three hens, so naturally, we are thinking towards getting some new layers this fall.  Which then reminded me that I have been asked several times to write a little about getting chickens and I have continually failed to do so!  But today I am carpe diem-ing the subject and getting it done!

If you are thinking about getting chickens for the first time, and live in a warm climate, the fall is a great time to do so.  You can get your chicks soon and have them at a decent size before the cold sets in.  If you would rather not care for chickens over winter just yet, then by all means, spend this time researching and preparing a coop and wait until spring.

Blackberry, our first australorp

 Some questions to get you started are:

1.  What are the laws and regulations in my area?  We live in a small, rural town with very relaxed rules about keeping livestock.  We can have as many chickens as we darn well please.  Goats?  Yes!  Donkeys?  Why not?  Emus?  But of course!  Pigs?  Now you're pushing it.
To find out our regulations, I called the county extension office.  

2.  How do you want to keep your chickens?  Do you want them to free range, or would you prefer to have them contained in a chicken tractor that gets moved to fresh grass daily.  There are pros and cons to both.  We have done both methods.  Free ranging means they get the grass and bugs they need daily.  They are able to wander and find shade when they need it, and take dust baths where ever they please! I love having my hens free range!  I miss them when we keep them in their tractor.  However, if you have an open garden, they will eat it.  I mean it!  I lost all of my squash plants to my chickens in one day this summer!  They will also poop all over the free earth.  Actually, they won't poop all over.  They seem to prefer pooping right on the porch, where your baby likes to play.  So yeah.  That's a con.  You also risk them being targeted as prey.  Like I said earlier, we lost a chicken this week to a hawk.  If you are in a neighborhood you have to consider cats and dogs as well.

If you keep them in a chicken tractor, they are out of your hair. They are pooping in properly defined areas.  They will be properly protected from predators all day.  But you have to factor in the daily move.  And you miss out on the ambiance of it all.
Poop vs. Ambiance.  

3.  Which breeds would you prefer?  Might I make one tiny plea here?  Please consider heritage breeds.  They are delightful, and in some cases endangered.  They are beautiful and unique.  They may not lay 14 times a day (ok, that's an exaggeration- no chicken lays 14 eggs a day...yet), but they have virtue and beauty, and there is something pretty special about raising an animal that your great, great grandmother could have raised!  If you are a backyard chicken keeper, or plan on interacting with your chickens daily regardless of yard size, the breeds I recommend are australorps, barred rocks, and auracanas.  They are all friendly and docile.  They are curious and hilarious!  They also lay very regularly.  Now, these are my preferences, anyone you ask will have their own.

4. How will you procure your chicks?  I have both ordered chicks through the mail and purchased some at my local feed store.  Either way is fine.  One more request (man- I'm pushy!) I would make is that if you are planning on ordering chicks through the mail, please order from a nearby hatchery.  I prefer Ideal Hatchery here in central Texas.  You likely will have one closer to you.  McMurray is a reputable hatchery as well.  Or maybe you don't want to start with chicks, but rather laying hens, how will you find them?

If you've made it this far and you're still thinking you would like to move ahead with your search, then now is the time to research!  My personal favorite part of anything!  The resources I recommend are:

and

Also Backyard Chickens is a great website with forums on all sorts of subjects!  

I'm going to stop here.  This is enough to get you thinking about for the weekend.  I will earnestly try to actually finish this series next week!  Next up will be chick care.

broody hen {part 2}

Well that didn't work!  The moment we placed her in the new coop she stopped sitting.  She wouldn't go anywhere near the nesting box.  She paced and made such a racket!  After about three hours of hoping she would sit, and her NOT sitting, I moved her back into the original coop.

That afternoon we picked up our fertilized eggs.  After marking each one with a small "X", we put them all under her and she cozied herself right up on top.  The next morning an egg was missing.  By that afternoon, another one had been eaten.  With a little investigating, we found that our barred rock was standing under the nesting box (that is chicken wire on the bottom so the poop will fall through) pecking at the eggs and eating them.  We had to come up with a Plan B, fast!

I moved said barred rock (she does have a name- and it is Bumblebee) into the smaller coop, and put another chicken in there to keep her company.  They pecked a little, re-establishing the pecking order in the new coop, and then went about their merry way.  Fast forward 21 days.

The chicks began hatching!  It was like magic!  We could hear them peeping through their shells, and the eggs were shaking.  Two hatched successfully, while one did not.  We found that little one had been cleared out of the nest right after hatching.  I was amazed to see how clean mama kept her nest.  All egg shells, and any other debris were quickly discarded down below.

After a few days of waiting and worrying, we decided that we were only going to get the two chicks out of the deal, so we quietly moved the other eggs out.  Mama hen immediately got up and began stretching her legs.  She went down to the water and drank for a very long time.  Just like that, she was done nesting and was ready to mother.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was an absolute learning experience for me.  No matter what I read, or who I asked, no one could speak directly to this experience.  Because every time it is different and has its own variables.  Here are some things I learned:

• I will move the mother hen much earlier next time.  Probably 2-3 days before getting the fertilized eggs in.
• I will place fresh water and food next to her, instead of shooing her off of her nest to the waterer in place.

broody hen

I mentioned in my last post that we have a broody hen on our hands.

You can't really tell from this photo, but she is hunkered low in her nesting box protecting all of our (unfertilized) eggs.  When we go to collect eggs she puffs up big like a turkey and lets out a low, long cluck.  She never pecks, because she is a sweetheart, but we know that she does not approve of us taking her eggs!

We do not have a rooster right now.  From our experience, roosters are hard to handle in a backyard flock where you are interacting daily with your chickens.  Our last rooster was very protective and continually attacked Buddy, drawing blood at times.  He had to go on to that great big pasture in the sky.  Because of our rooster-less situation, we have no fertilized eggs on hand for our girl to hatch.  We were at the feed store over the weekend and I asked if anyone knew someone local that I could get fertilized eggs from.  One of the employees told me that she would be happy to donate a dozen eggs for us to try and hatch.  We go after lunch today for pickup- we are very excited!

We spent some time this weekend setting up an area for our broody girl to be safe and alone.  We are using our smaller coop (with attached run) for her so she can sit undisturbed.  This morning she is practicing on fake eggs getting nice and cozy in her new spot.  We will trade out the eggs later today.  Once her body heat begins heating the eggs, the embryos will begin to form and grow.  It is so fascinating to me how they can be laid on different days, but all hatch at the same time, at the end of a 21 day incubation period.

This is our first go at hatching our own flock.  I know that Blackberry up there will be a good mama to her little brood!