Bountiful harvest

I decided to have scrambled eggs and corn for lunch today. I hadn't made my first gather yet so used some in my frig. One was extremely large and wouldn't fit in a carton so I chose that one and one other jumbo egg. Both were from my Aracauna hens, the huge one from the youngsters who started laying a month ago, The other from my old ladies.

Here is the result of just two eggs!!!! I've had doubles before but never a triple. Needless to say my meal was wonderful, my hens outdid themselves.

New roof netting

Before work started

Partway through, Julie, Sara, Mike and Mic hard at work.

After, shorter poles and tight fitting net...priceless. Pile of old netting in front.

Thanks to Gary Brown of American Netting here in Cody I now have a new one piece netting over my two hen yards. And special thanks to great friends, Sara, Julie, Mike and Mic for using their expertise and willingness to put it up. I spent a couple hours removing all the old netting as it was up for a long time and this last heavy snow did major damage.

It took a total of five hours to complete the job. I can now walk all around the two yards without having to duck once to go from one house to the other. The ladies stayed inside while the work was going on but now have a wonderful bright place to pick and scratch. Of course the next project is putting the shade cloth up on top of the netting so they can enjoy the hottest days in comfort.

Jurassic Park in WY?

When I got the call about this bird and saw it for the first time I was baffled. It looked to me sort of like a turken which is another name for a bare-necked chicken. But the feathers were not at all like normal chickens. And the knob on top of his beak???? He was tame and probably someone's pet but whose????

He arrived at the Coca Cola office on the Husky Road this morning. Mike McCarthy, the gentleman who called me, said he'd seen it on Sunday around his yard but didn't give it a thought other than wondering what it was. He lives in Wapiti, 20+ miles west of here, and when he stopped his truck at work this strange looking bird jumped down from underneath it.

I stopped by Linda and Elijah's to ask their opinion and to have them foster it until the mystery was solved. They're the ones who thought they knew what it was.....a turken crossed with a silkie. I Googled that and sure enough, that's what he is. We decided to name him C-REX (chickenasaurus rex), doesn't he look like a species of dinosaur? And those weird feet! Mike is going to ask around his neighborhood to see just where he came from so we can get him home.

UPDATE: His name is MARVIN and he'll be a year old next month. He was a learning project for a kindergarten class at Eastside School last year. Because of his personality and uniqueness he remains with his teacher and will do so forever. Yay, MARVIN!

This is a photo from the internet of a very beautiful female turken x silkie, isn't she something?

New babies!

My new chicks arrived early today. Not only before 6:00am but also by at least a day. I ordered 55 of them from a hatchery in Ohio who said they would ship them on the 10th, yesterday. Usually it takes two or three days, luckily the babies can survive on their yolk sac for three days. After dipping each beak in their water pans I put them in their new home, a large metal water trough. With two shielded light bulbs for warmth and lots of food on the floor, they started eating right away.

I got 26 Araucana (they sent one extra), 15 Rhode Island Red and 15 Black Sex-link. All girls as I don't like bullies and most roosters are just that. This is the earliest I've gotten in chicks but I want them to start laying eggs early enough for when the farmer's markets start up and to fill orders from my regular egg buyers.

I kept a little over 40 of my older hens after giving 23 away a couple weeks ago. I'm not getting but a few eggs a day now, not a good percentage considering the number of hens, but they'll start up again in a couple months.

Oh My !

I have about 70 laying hens and some days are a surprise. This is a photo of a normal, large, chicken egg next to one of my Aracauna eggs. I have no idea how this hen got this egg out but as it's too large to fit into one of my egg cartons I kept if for myself. And ate it for breakfast this morning. It contained TWINS ! ! ! !

Jammies R Us, part two

Okay, this is a first for me. Some of my 87 hens have been picked on for a long time and altho it wouldn't bother them in the summer, this cold weather (it's 30 today) will probably hurt them. This one in the bottom photo is completely naked on her back, neck and elbows.

So what to do.....the answer, make some chicken jammies. I used leftover fleece material from the ones I made for my friends dog. No pattern, just a cut and pin as you go. The bottom is the original design, she had to have an extra covering over her elbows as they were also very naked. The blue material is the second design. Worked out but the funny thing is that all the other hens in the flocks are now outside the house, those with clothes are inside, they're scared of the unusual clothes. Take that you meanies.

Soaring with eagles

Okay, not really but this beautiful young hen on the left is being protected by one eagle feather. The saying, "pecking order" is true, especially among older and younger chickens. They have to be close to the same size to be introduced to each other. In this case I put eight young Araucana hens in with my old ladies. For two days all was okay but then it was apparent the younger birds were being picked on.

Whenever a chicken sees the color red she picks at it. Once one drop of blood is exposed it's fair game and can be quickly fatal. It was for one of the young birds so when it started happening to another I decided to intervene without having to separate them.

I gather up molted raptor feathers to either send to the federal feather depository near Denver or for imping purposes. This particular feather was damaged and not good for either purpose so I did some trimming and then taped it to the young hens back to cover where she'd been injured. As long as they can't see the wound it's able to heal and replace the missing feathers. You can see the narrow strip of tape and the rather dark feather just above the base of this babies tail.

My new flock

I now have a total of 116 chickens but these won't be laying until Fall. In the meantime this flock of 50 tiny babies are eating and drinking and looking so cute. There are Rhode Island Red, Partridge Rock, Red Sex Link and Black Astrolorp and will all be laying brown eggs. I wanted to get some more Aracaunas but they didn't come in, perhaps this next week.

All finished

The DIVA DEN is all covered with metal now so it's maintenance free and matches all the other mews on the property. Thanks to John McGee for an awesome job. My baby hens are now laying eggs altho they're still "practice" sized but they should be "real" eggs soon. And with the protective fencing and netting above them they will be safe from ground and air predators.

Home safe

Here are the latest photos of all my "ladies" in their safe haven. The new hen house is finished with the old girls living in it. The old house was refurbished so the new youngsters would have a home too. They aren't laying yet but should start in September. I am also planning on trying to add 20 more to their group but those should already be laying.

After so many deaths at the hands of predators, i.e. fox, raccoon and skunk, it feels good to have them all behind the fencing around their large yards. Of course there are now grasshoppers around the house which were never there when the hens were roaming near it but it's worth a few buzzing insects knowing the "ladies" are safe.

The dark roofing is the shade cloth now over the top as it's been so hot this summer.

Temporary guests

Yesterday I agreed to keep these banty roosters temporarily until a new home can be found for them. They are extordinarily handsome fellows and only about six months old. Luckily I have an empty pen for the time being but they will not stay here. Altho I love hearing the sound of a rooster crowing, I hate bullys and most roosters are just that to hens.

My ladies have a renovated home

Both my chicken houses are now occupied. The new one has the old ladies as there are more of them and a bigger yard. The renovated old house is home to the 26 young hens who will start laying next month if all goes as planned. And now they also have a sign to hang on the fence so everyone will know just what it is.

Thanks to my friend Jenny in CA who suggested the name and Tiffany for cutting out the sparkly silver vinyl. It's hard to tell but on each large starburst there's "diamond" inserted. Now when the sun hits it there will be sparkles galore.

New home

My new hen house is now under con-struction. John McGee, the builder who has done extensive work on the place, is now putting up a new house for my younger hens. It's being attached to the existing building and then the whole thing will be covered in metal to match all the other mews. I found the windows at a garage sale and the door came from the Shippens. I'll never sell enough eggs to pay for this but that's okay, I love my chickens and everyone loves their eggs.

I'll post a photo of the finished combination hen house for all to see. I now have about 80 birds in two flocks.

Getting bigger

The baby chickens are growing quickly. They are about 20 days old now and getting cuter by the day. I've moved them into a dirt floor pen where they can practice their scratching and learn to dust bathe. I don't expect any eggs from these tiny ladies for a few months so now it's just a matter of them growing bigger and better.

New resident hens

Today a friend and I drove about 30 miles to pick up some young pullets from a breeder just inside the MT line. As you've read in other posts, due to heavy predation by fox, I am down to 32 hens. These eight are not only nice but they gave me two eggs on the trip here. I'm not sure of the breed, I'll add that when I find out but they are bred just for laying eggs so my supply will be supplemented from now on.

Note: I found out these are Red Star Sex Link chickens. Not the largest eggs so far but they are just babies themselves so the size will increase.

Ms. Frizz, honorary owl?

A friend of mine, Jenny, in CA has received four raptors from me in the past few years for use in her educational programs all over the state. Amazingly she also uses domestic animals in her shows too, including this little lady. This is Ms. FRIZZ, a half grown bantam chicken of the Frizzle variety. They come in lots of colors, I tried red but they all turned out to be roosters. I think Jenny lucked out and got a hen. As you can see, she's not in an outside, dirt floored, pen. She's sharing the house with Jenny and her wonderful old Golden Retriever, SPIRIT. The dog puts up with some hair pulling and pecking probably wondering just how yummy a bit of chicken would taste but is much too good natured to do anything about it as you can see in the other photo. I wonder just what SPIRIT is thinking? Or Ms.FRIZZ?

If you ever get in the San Francisco area be sure to try and see any program done by the Native Bird Connections (see links), they are very informative and entertaining.

Say what?????

Today when I gathered the eggs I found a slight discrepancy in the sizes. I have no idea if this is a delayed reaction from the horrible trauma my hens suffered at the hands of the fox but as you can see, two of them are not producing the proper sized eggs. This has happened only once before, last year sometime, and when I broke the shell the only thing inside was the whites. Perhaps this will become the egg of the future for those who are watching their cholesterol.