Henbit explosion

On March 3, 2023 By CarynIn chickens

Yup, spring. And a wetter spring than we’ve had in a few of years. We have a bumper crop of henbit, with its pretty purple carpet, in our meadow as well as throughout the countryside and town lawns (the ones that go natural, at least).

Henbit in the morning light in the meadow

It was easy to pick a handful (for at least the past two years it wasn’t), and offer a snack bouquet to the chickens.

This is the time that I get a little wistful that my hens can’t free range the meadow, but I haven’t done a metal sweep of the whole meadow, oh, and there is the plethora of predators. There’s that. Everything likes to eat chickens.

Egg!

On February 27, 2023 By CarynIn chickens, eggs

Then hens are laying eggs again! (And I can’t help the sound track in my head of “We’re in the money”, even though the price of keeping the chickens is far above even the current cost of a dozen eggs.)

It has been four months since my hens have laid an egg. I saw one do the ready squat the day before I found this nugget in the nesting box. Admittedly, I do not make them into production machines by giving them more light in the morning, so their winter laying break is a long one. The hens are also going into their third summer, which is past a production bird’s peak performance, and eight hens lay enough for my family and the occasional gift of a dozen. I don’t get enough to sell regularly.

Still, it is nice to have fresh eggs again, knowing where they get their nutrition.

Counting chickens

On February 16, 2023 By CarynIn chickens, Coop

I know my chickens and I are spoiled. They have a nice big coop and run with an automatic coop door, and I have two video cameras, so I can count chickens without wandering out in the dark.

There are eight chickens in this picture.

The outside camera has a memory card, so I can scroll back through time and watch them disappear one at a time into the coop. I’ve tried counting them using the inside camera, but there is so much jostling and repositioning that it is like playing a cup game. The inside camera can see them on their roost once they are settled, but the angle is terrible for counting.

There are also eight chickens in this picture

Yay for technology when it is working.

Chicken chopped salad

On February 13, 2023 By CarynIn chickens

I was a little enthusiastic buying lettuces, and ended up getting more when I still had some in the fridge. Oops. No worries, the chickens need some greens too. I chopped up the spinach and romain to make it easier for the chickens to eat. Sometimes I will make a hanging bundle so they are able to tear off small chunks themselves, but spinach is easier to just chop. I layered the ingredients, starting with an apple that had a large worm hole. I cut out the decayed part for the compost bin, but chopped the rest. Then in went the spinach, then the romain.

The chickens saw me coming with the bowl and made excited clucks.When I flipped over the bowl in the chicken run, the apples were on top, which I think was a nice turn out. The hens appreciated it.

Hens tucking into a pile of chopped greens

By the next day it was almost all gone, just the largest pieces of romaine remained.

Fluffy butt Friday

On January 20, 2023 By CarynIn chickens

Here is my submission for Fluffy butt Friday. My hens seem healthy currently, and even Magic’s derrière has clean feathers. In the picture they are tucking in to their daily scattering of dried grubs.

Critters and Craft

Category: chickens