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The days are getting shorter. The chickens must know this, too, because the new laying hens have stopped laying. I figured that would happen when the days got really short, but not this early in the season. Yesterday was the third day in a row that we got eggs only from our heritage chickens -- and even then, only one each day!
Yesterday, I tried something new -- I let the chickens out of their run. I did this late in the day, just in case they decided to wander (figuring they'd want to go home when it got dark). But they didn't really wander much at all. They stayed near the coop, and near me. They enjoyed finding worms (guess they pretty much cleaned all the worms and bugs out of the run by now), and some of them got the chance to stretch their wings and fly. Caleb and Christina had fun (I think) helping me herd them back into the coop when we heard something moving on the hill behind the coop.
Check out our compost pile pumpkin. (The compost pile is up the hill; pumpkin vines creeped down the hill all summer, on top of the azaleas, leaving only one pumpkin hidden underneath.) I think this is our best pumpkin of the year, and we didn't even plant it, let alone purchase seeds for it. I'm never buying pumpkin seeds again.
We picked up the girls' laying hens from the 4H barn Friday night -- put them in the coop after all the hens were asleep, hoping to minimize pecking. When we checked on them Saturday morning, the new birds all had slightly bloody combs. Guess the pecking order is being worked out.Sunday we discovered that the new laying hens are not really afraid of Petra. She barks and barks at them, and they just stand there looking at her, cocking their heads in that chickeny way. She gets so angry and frustrated that they won't react, and even angrier when they peck her nose.
Barlow (the blue cochin) and Superchick (the mottled java) spend a lot of time "herding" the layers into the cubbies. At one point yesterday, all three of them were packed into one tiny foot-square compartment with Barlow standing guard in front of them. So today, I shut the heritage chickens outside in the run just so the new girls could get to the food and water.
We have a small chicken coop at our suburban home in Broomall. It currently houses 3 heritage chickens, but we plan to add a couple more soon.
Our daughters have been doing poultry club at the Delaware County 4-H, and this year, we decided to bring their chickens home after the projects were over. The heritage chicken project ended a few weeks ago, so we brought home Julia's chicken (a mottled Java) and two others (a buff orpington and a blue cochin). When the laying hen project ends in October, we will bring home the girls' two laying hens (red sex-linked, whatever that means).(I think it is very cool that Julia named her chicken Superchick. The other two are named Barlow and Eisley. Get it?) Anyway, on Sunday, Dana found the first egg. Small, speckled, and brown. It's about time!
Yesterday, I tried something new -- I let the chickens out of their run. I did this late in the day, just in case they decided to wander (figuring they'd want to go home when it got dark). But they didn't really wander much at all. They stayed near the coop, and near me. They enjoyed finding worms (guess they pretty much cleaned all the worms and bugs out of the run by now), and some of them got the chance to stretch their wings and fly. Caleb and Christina had fun (I think) helping me herd them back into the coop when we heard something moving on the hill behind the coop.
Check out our compost pile pumpkin. (The compost pile is up the hill; pumpkin vines creeped down the hill all summer, on top of the azaleas, leaving only one pumpkin hidden underneath.) I think this is our best pumpkin of the year, and we didn't even plant it, let alone purchase seeds for it. I'm never buying pumpkin seeds again.
