December 2016 Egg Production
Crazy month this December. A few big swings in temperatures, some chicken chasing going on, and the presence of a fox all made for some changes. Production pretty steady until the 11th, which brought about a drop. The 10th was visitor day, and a couple of the young boys took great delight in chasing the […]
Ice Skating Chickens
What a surprise! No, not the cold weather, we saw that in the local forecast, temps in the teens, breezy to drive the wind chill into single digits. So no surprise the pond was frozen over, and the chicken waterers would also be iced up. The morning routine is to let the hens out, feed […]
November 2016 Egg Production
The downward trend in production seems to have settled at 3 to 4 eggs per day from the ten hens that are laying. I’ve read that putting a light in the coop that switches on in the early morning hours improves egg count. Seems the hens have to have a certain number of hours of […]
Update on New Chicks
The end of October came the predator. A nasty looking Opossum, on the hunt for fresh meat. I thought perhaps the brooder was secure enough against pretty much all the predators in our area, except for perhaps a racoon. But it was the possum that created the problem. Just as my daughter was arriving home, […]
October Egg Production
The Ameracauna has been laying quite well. She has laid 28 eggs in the 31 days for the month. Her place at the bottom of the pecking order has changed and she has moved up into the middle of pack somewhere. She is not aggressive at all, but no longer submissive to all the others. […]
Monster Brown
Okay, it is a short video, and it might take you a few plays to take it all in. We had a great day of fishing with Duane Bell of White River Troutfitters guide service.
September 2016 Egg Production
All ten hens are laying this month. The Ameracauna laid her first egg on the 30th. Two eggs were laid without a shell. Both on the 18th. Those are not accounted for in the chart. September 4th gave us another double yolk egg. On the 7th, we caught a black snake attempting to swallow an […]
Sophia Red
It is difficult for us to tell some of the hens apart, which one is which? Particularly with the Barred Rocks. The Wyandottes too are are very similar in appearance, but the differences are a bit easier to tell. Except when they are all moving about with the rest of the flock, they sort of […]
Estes Hatchery Guidelines for New Chicks
So we got our second batch of chicks this week. Picked up from the local farm supply when the chicks were a week old. The farm supply gets their chicks from Estes Hatchery in Springfield, Missouri. For this round, we purchased a dozen chicks, purported to be all pullets. A third of our first batch […]
Second Batch of Baby Chicks
So we got our second batch of chicks this Wednesday. We bought them from the local Orsheln’s Farm Supply. The farm supply gets their chicks from Estes Hatchery in Springfield, Missouri. Checking the Estes website, the hatch date was August 31st. Currently they are showing hatch dates of each Wednesday. I’m not certain they don’t […]