Category: chickens

Hindsight

On By CarynIn chickens

We did our monthly health check of the whole flock: checked vents, looked for parasites under the wing, checked feet, checked weight. This time we moved all the bands to the chickens’ left leg to make it easier to identify them. Navi’s colors were changed too, because a white band on a white feathered leg is not helpful. Although honestly, it is really easy to tell which one is Navi since her crop is distended.

Updated weight chart, note Navi’s decline

Not surprising, Navi lost some weight. It looks like what ever is ailing her started over a month ago. Although she gained weight the month before, it was not in proportion to her flock mates and dropped her to the lowest weight bird. Her comb also has not developed, which may or may not be related. Most of the flock now have bright red defined combs, while Navi has almost no comb and the area is still light pink.

Isolation and eggs

On By CarynIn chickens

What an eventful day. We have had our first eggs (!!!) and put the first chicken in isolation.

Navi in the center

The move to isolation came first. I noticed a couple days ago that Navi had a larger crop than everyone else, like softball size and squishy. But she is eating and moving around, and I kept checking in the afternoon and evening. After consulting with my Mom and the chicken health book, we decided to check again in the morning to see if her crop empties. The isolation is to be able to observe her droppings and catch her before she hit the food bin in the morning. We decided not to make any further measures because her breath is not sour smelling as would be the case with sour crop.

Navi in isolation ward. She has a roost, but came off it when we left.

While setting up the isolation ward (I had been using it for storage), my eldest asked if I had checked the nest boxes for eggs. Honestly I had not in a couple days because I had resigned myself to no eggs until the chickens were 8 months old. So she checked. Not only were the nesting boxes behind the curtains visibly sat in, there were eggs in both bins! Holy cow! Three itty bitty eggs! (Yes, I weighed them! 38g, 38g, and 35g, which is about 1.3 ounces each. Extra small eggs.)

First eggs!!!

Teaser apology

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop

Here is the video of the chickens actually leaving the coop. At least I hope it is. I’ve trimmed and uploaded it five times, messed with it with four different apps, and finally went back to the original and only used the YouTube trim option. Interesting that a video trimmed in iMovie, then trimmed again in YouTube gives a completely different 40 second clip. Did I say interesting? I think I meant frustrating. So sorry for that little teaser in my previous post!

Chicken cam

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop

Yes, we installed a chicken camera. No one reading this is probably surprised we did, but I do feel a bit of chagrin at installing the tech in a coop. But, you see, my youngest’s favorite YouTuber has a camera in their coop and they could see when the chickens were in the nesting boxes (still no eggs here). My youngest doesn’t go out to the coop at all right now, so it is a way for her to see the chickens, and maybe get more comfortable with the idea. And I had points.

Still peering around (from the glint of their eyes) near midnight

Now I can finally see the chickens sleeping. Is that weird? I’ve never really seen them sleep. As chicks they would always get active whenever I went into the coop, and it hasn’t changed as they get older. But they don’t seem to really sleep until the wee hours of the morning. At midnight they are still peering into the darkness. Huh. The secret life of chickens revealed. Sort of.

Finally asleep

Happy Friday!

On By CarynIn chickens, meme
I made it to Friday!

Here is a little something for all of us that made it through the week. ‘Cause chickens are funny looking straight on, especially with a beard and muffs.