Can You Hear the Screaming of the Hens, Clarice?

I happened to be in Buck Moore Feed yesterday and overhead a woman talking with another customer about the noisiness of roosters and the 'pastoral sounds' of hens. I had to interject, saying my hens are PALENTY noisy. She agreed, but her opinion was that their 'noisiness' is more zen like. I had to chuckle.

These girls are NOT feeling very zen like right now:

Scratching, clamouring, clucking and howling. They are very, very, very noisy.

It is spring and my yard needs some grass. They do a very efficient job of consuming all those tender shoots and thus will be confined to their mobile coop for a few weeks. Much to there very, very audible chagrine.

I DO hear the screaming of the hens, Hannibal Lecter. I hear it every morning and so do my neighbors, much to THEIR sometimes audible chagrine.

Good thing we don't have a rooster, ay?
Do your hens cause a ruckous, or are they pastoral, cooing darlings?

Alternative To Hay: Nest Box Filler

I occasionally find myself working part time at the lovely Umlauf Sculpture Gardens & Museum. Like many office spaces, the Museum goes through some paper and I'm lucky enough to have access to their shredder - or the results of their shredder, at least.

Straw isn't sold around here, and I hate to use a giant bale of hay that could feed horses and just ends up molding in my carport... Even the $2 bags of scrap hay at Callahan's seem a waste that i can't get through in a cost effective way before they get stale. Leaves are a decent alternative, but it just doesn't seem right to scoop up dirty, buggy leaves off the ground and put those in the ladies' nest boxes.

Belina's looking so healthy lately. Look at that tall, full comb and lovely wattles! She does not, however approve of the leaves.

They are LADIES, after all! Pine shavings work alright, but again: i hate to purchase something that's destined for the compost heap, even if it is to be soft bedding for nutritious eggs first. Cedar shavings are an absolute NOT ALLOWED due to the fumes they give off: can be deadly! Other than that, creativity is welcome and the girls seem to enjoy these paper shreds just fine. They're soft, push aroundable, easy for me to clean up, and are a great alternative use for what would otherwise be wasted.

The ladies inspect and approve of the change. Happy laying, pretty hens. Molting/Winter update: Belina is being a real trooper and laying almost an egg a day, with Olive slowly catching back up. BB's still off, but she's been squatting so i predict eggs in a week. Soot, on the other hand is tail-less, tummy-less, and generally bedraggled and NOT laying.

"Queen Soot" has been showing lovely Belina much more respect lately.

This post can also be found at Simple Lives Thursdays.

Chicken Update

It's been quite some time since i've posted about our hens. I would like to do a more elaborate posting on their health and life stages, but will keep it short today. I keep an 'egg log' to track how many eggs each hen lays per week, and it is looking pa-rit-tyyyyy bare these days. Nary an egg in over a week. Our Australorp was our last trooper, holding out even during her ridiculous molt with an egg about every other day. Our Wyandotte was first runner up, but even both of them have stopped laying. Our Buff has started squatting again, so I'm hopeful that they'll turn things around and start earning their keep. I could use some scrambled eggs for lunch about now!


Make a gif

It's Winter in Austin, which doesn't feel much different than Spring of Fall and we don't really need to 'Winterize' our coops. Even in the coldest climates chickens can fare pretty well on their own as long as they have A. Plenty of water B. A draft free place to take shelter and C. Plenty of food with supplemental fat. I give our girls scratch on the chilly days to warm up their metabolisms and i covered their open-air coop with plastic last year since they were pullets without their true downy feathers grown in.  Open air coops are really the best housing for any climate because they allow plenty of circulated air to flow about, minimizing smell and disease, and keep things cool in the Summer. The girls all pile into the nest boxes on chilly nights (which i'm SO happy to clean out in the morning, gross) and their warm feathers do all the insulating they need. Roosters can suffer from frostbite on their combs and wattles in very cold climates because they do not tuck their heads while sleeping.

Belina gave us another scare earlier this year. We went out of town for my Grandmother's 90th birthday and left the chickens cooped up the whole time we were gone. Belina (the Buff Orpington) has been slowly demoted to 4th hen and when cooped up isn't allowed at the food and is pecked at and harassed constantly by evil Queen Soot (despite BB the Chantecler being #1 amiga). We returned from our trip to find a pale, very skinny, bedraggled Belina in place of the big, sassy, fat and happy hen we'd left. I'm happy to say that the last few months have been good to her, she's fitter than ever though her comb is still chalky and she still gets kicked around quite a bit.

Hens on the porch = lots of messy poop and potted citrus shown disrespect

Pocket and the chickens have been getting along quite well lately. She rarely chases any but BB who seems to enjoy teasing her, though she does eat a bit more chook poo than i'd like. I mean that CAN'T be good for her, no matter how delicious she seems to think it is. Just this morning all 4 girls were in individual holes taking dust baths. When i let Pocket out she strolled up to them, gave Soot a little sniff and strolled along again. I've even seen Pocket laying down with a dust bathing chicken right next to her. Just another chicken.

I haven't noticed many mites, lice, or other problems with the flock lately. I worry about the chalkiness of their combs, but not enough to do any research about it. I dust their nest boxes with diatomaceous earth whenever i change them to prevent nasty bugs, and i give them poultry vitamins in the water every once in a while for good measure. Otherwise, they pretty much manage themselves. We let them out, feed and water them, say hi occasionally and lock them back up at dusk. Chickens are sure easy going pets. I say that now, before i'm trying to move across state lines with them.... hmmm.........

The Molt Has Begun

What is it with my chickens? They seem to pounce on me with multiple calamities/ new issues all at once. First BB with her broodiness, and now Soot with 'the molt'. Chickens molt their first adult feathers for a whole new set when they're about 18 months of age. It can be quick, it can be slow, but they almost always stop laying during this time. As chickens are man-bred animals, they've been bred to get it over with quick and get back to laying, though they never lay as well after their first molt as they did when they were youngsters. (All this information is research based, this is my first year with my chickens and my first experience with molting). I believe they start with the head/neck, to the tail, to the body, all in steps and stages so no 'naked chickens' will be had. Too bad.

The girls besides BB are still laying, but Soot is definitely beginning the molt, so we'll see how it goes.

Thank goodness, we won't have to eat Belina.

Apologies for two egg themed posts in one day, but this was an exciting event that just MUST be documented.

I was beginning to think that our buxom blonde Belina was a "bad egg" or should i say "bad egg layer!"

But today the squawky, bossy, big and fluffy head hen has finally done her duty and laid a very diminutive egg.  Took some convincing to get her off the nest, but i was just happy it finally happened.

Congratulations, Belina.

It's about time!

The laying of a young chicken's second egg

It is so nice in this busy Christmas season to have gotten enough done yesterday that you have time the next morning to ponder with your young hens. Yesterday was a big day: BB and Olive both laid their first eggs. Christmas crafting was in overtime in my studio, and art commissions are coming in and joyfully being worked on. I'm loving being busy, but this morning i took joy in being quiet and still with my lovely ladies.

I let the girls out to run about, they were less 'flap all over the place' than they have been thus far in their lives. Calmly skittering here and there, scratching up bugs while i changed their water and nesting materials. I moved the tractor to a new spot with tasty rye grass to snack on and filled their suet cage with cauliflower stem and greens from last night's meal.  At some point BB beelined back to the coop: i knew something was up. Up into the nest box she went!  I did NOT want to miss this so i went inside to brew some tea to keep my chilly hands warm and came back out to settle in with the hens. The other girls continued to graze while BB nestled in, but soon came in to the coop: to be with her? to enjoy snacks? who knows. It seemed to me that Soot and Belina were taking interest in BB's activity and wanted to keep her safe. I watched, took pictures and filmed waiting to here that joyful song of "i laid an egg" she did not sing, but when she started shuffling the nest material around i figured she'd done her thing.
Sure enough, a peek inside showed a soft hen and her beautiful fresh egg. I plucked it out still warm, and encouraged her down to the snacks - don't want her getting 'broody' now.

What a joyful morning.  Now it's back to Christmas crafting and G is for Grace.

Rainy Days and Ravenous Chickens

The chickens are growing. Soot and Belina are both clucking. Belina's wattles are pinking up. Soot is getting more assertive and less our darling molestable baby doll. And most of all: They're eating a LOT.
I feed them grower crumbles every morning and it's almost gone by late afternoon. You're killing me, girls! The garden isn't giving me much scraps to throw, so i need to be creative.
These rainy days have brought a 'chill' to Austin. It's Austin, it's not "cold" per say, but the coolest their little chicken bodies have ever encountered. So I decided to give them a cool weather treat. Hopefully it will fill their bellies and warm them into a docile slumber this evening.

• Organic rolled oats
• a few raisons
• a tablespoon brewer's yeast
• sprinkling of frozen corn
• and a smattering of shelled sunflower seeds

Heated on the stove until soft and mushy and delicious (albeit bland). They seemed to enjoy the treat quite a bit, though I feel a little bad for their chicken selves: chicken tongues just don't do the lip-licking trick! Much oatmeal was spattered all about the coop, me, and each others' backs.

Pretty cute, actually.