April 28th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: eggs
Today I got back from work and cleaned out the chicken coop. On my way back into the house I suddenly noticed a very small egg laying on the floor of the run! This is the first egg I’ve got so I’m pretty excited – if I can get up early enough tomorrow I will be eating it for breakfast!
I weighed the egg and it weighs 37 grams. It small, very dirty and I don’t have a clue who laid it. Hopefully next time they will lay it in the nest box instead of in the middle of the run.
This egg weighed in at 36.96 grams
April 23rd, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, free range, weldmesh
Today I took the day off of work to take delivery of an extension to my run. The weather was great today so I spent the whole day outside.
I didn’t know what time the delivery was coming so I had to hang around all day, so I spent the morning in the garden doing a few jobs that I’d been meaning to do for a while. First of all I went out and broke up some wooden pallets that I’d scrounged from work a couple of days ago. It took me a while to figure out how to do it but I got there in the end. After that I did a bit of gardening, and was just about to go in for lunch when the delivery turned up with the run extension.
The girls had been begging me to let them out all morning, and as I needed to take the end panel of the run off to fit the extension I let the girls out. Out of all of the times I had let the girls out in the garden, I think today was the time that they looked like they were enjoying them selves the most! Straight away they went over to the flower bed and had a dust bath. This is the first time I have ever seen them do this and they looked like they were having a great time. There are now 3 chicken shaped holes in that flower bed.
Daisy enjoying a dust bath
(I still haven't thought of a name for this chicken)
It took me less than an hour to put up the extension – the main difficulty came from the fact that my garden is not very level. I had to use various bits of wood and bricks to rest one end of the run on whilst I put it together but it wasn’t too much trouble. I have to admit that I am very pleased with the way that the run has turned out. I bought it from here: wood-crafts. I would definitely recommend them if you are thinking of buying a chicken coop/run – the overall price that I have paid was very good and their customer service is excellent.
My extended run
After I had finished building the run I tempted the girls in with some treats and went off on my first geocaching expedition which I thoroughly enjoyed! When I got back from that I finished making the pallets into a compost bin. All in all I think I had a pretty productive and enjoyable day!
April 21st, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, Flubenvet, free range, parasites, poo, sick, treats
This morning when I got up Daisy was still not quite herself. When I opened the pop-hole this morning the other two girls jumped straight out but Daisy waited inside for a while. Whilst the other two were running around the coop Daisy was very slowly edging down the ramp and standing about all hunched up. I had a look in the nest box where the girls sleep today and there were some poos with blood on them in the nest box which made me even more worried,
Daisy is all hunched up
I posted about Daisy’s health on the forum and JuicyLucy said that it is normal to have bloody poos when you are worming them – she said the blood would be pink and stringy which is exactly how it looked. I was still worried about her so I popped home at lunch time and she seemed to be fine by then. I’m glad I went home because it meant I could relax this afternoon instead of being worried the whole time.
Flubenvet
When I got in from work I had the usual task of weighing out some more medicine for the birds. I must admit I will be glad when the treatment is finished – only a few more days to go now.
I let the girls out just after 6:00 and they all decided to attack the forget-me-nots that my parents brought up for me last week. I moved the pot up on top of the bench but they still finished off the bits that were hanging down low enough to be pecked. I think there are still enough of them left to just about survive!
Forget-Me-Nots
After dinner, the birds kept trying to jump in through the closed patio doors so I thought I’d go out and play with them for a bit. I gave them a few treats and two of them even sat on my lap at one point!
The red one is definitely getting a lot more tame. Daisy has always been the most tame and she will let me touch her, but recently I have been able to touch the red one without her minding too much. Today I was running around in the garden and the girls were following me and the red one was always the first to catch up with me. I would run across the garden and put some treats on the floor – both of the others would go straight for the treats but the red on would stand right close to me and look up at me. When I ran back to the other side of the garden the other girls would carry on eating the treats but she would run after me straight away.
When the girls started to go in for the night I suddenly realised I hadn’t cleaned the poos out of the house yet, so I quickly took the roof off and tried to clean it out before the girls went in. Before I could finish though they all ended up on top of the coop and getting in my way. One thing I’ve learnt about chickens is that they love to get in your way!
April 20th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, free range, sick, sleepy
The girls were out in the garden free-ranging today, and I went outside to find Daisy sitting down on the floor with her eyes closed. When I moved up to her she waddled off and I went back inside.
A little while later I went back outside to see what the girls were doing and I could only see the other two. I checked all of the usual places such as the side passage and the bushes down the back of the garden but she was nowhere to be seen. The only place I hadn’t checked was inside the coop so I lifted up the lid and there she was inside.
Is Daisy just tired or is she sick?
I am a bit worried about it because I have never seen the girls disappear inside the coop before bed time. One thing I did notice is that when she was laying down she seemed to have her butt in the air a bit so maybe she is trying to lay an egg. Also whenever I grab her she squats down on the floor but she has done that since I first got her. This could be another sign that she is coming into lay.
One other thing that I noticed today when Daisy was sitting down outside is that chickens close their eyes differently to people. Where people close their top eye-lids down over their eyes, it seems that chickens raise their bottom eyelids up! I’m still learning things about chickens every day…
April 17th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, free range, insane
I let the chickens out to free-range today and they were up to their usual tricks. First I went inside for a few minutes and they all disappeared. When I went out to investigate I found them all in the side passage pulling the paint off of the wooden gate post! I moved them back onto the patio and went back inside.
After a little while I heard a tapping on the French doors – the girls had come over to the window and were trying to eat a little speck of dirt on the window. They carried on pecking the window for ages so I grabbed the camera and managed to film this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ot6J7Ms0Ms .
The chickens were pecking at the window trying to eat a tiny speck of dirt