Category: Coop

Schmoo

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop
Photo description: three hens from left to right, Seashell the Faverolle, Schmoo the Faverolle, and Wing Ding the Black Star

Molting season is almost over for my three hens, and I can say that the mystery chicken’s name is Schmoo. I wasn’t sure if she was Jade or Schmoo, but Jade had a distinct molting pattern, which I did not see this season. So Schmoo, Seashell, and Wing Ding are my remaining chickens. I have to say they have done remarkably well in our month of 100 degree weather. I did have a foot bath filled with water for them, but did not add ice, and the fan in the coop went out, but I’ve had the people doors open, which gives the coop a breeze. The back door of the coop is covered in hardware cloth, which has kept the raccoons out. So my advice for new chicken keepers is to not have a coop fan, but do have adequate ventilation (but have draft free zones), and in the summer have a large shallow pan, like a large plant coaster, for a foot bath, but don’t worry about icing it. Make sure there is plenty of shade as well. My hens are roughly seven years old.

Watching a rat

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop

I scroll through camera footage to check on my chickens between visits to the coop. Mainly the scrolling is to count them (three) and see where they sleep (separately). I saw a dark blip on the floor as I time jumped, and went back to find a rat.

Photo description: rat on the floor of the coop, circled in purple. There is a hen on the roost, one in a nesting box (middle, behind curtains), and the third hen on a bench on the right.
Photo description: the rat is now climbing the back screen porch. It tried that a couple times. The screen is made of two layers of wire mesh.
Photo description: the rat is now underneath Wing Ding the hen, who can hear it and moves her head to listen, which spooks the rat and it leaves her alone.
Photo description: now the rat is near the nesting boxes where Seashell is sitting, it also leaves her alone.
Photo description: the rat also investigated the work table, peeking out from under the cover.
Photo description: the rat climbed up on the bench with Schmoo, who could also hear the rat and made it think twice about bothering her.

Rats will eat chicken given the opportunity, but not these hens today. Chickens will eat mice and rats, but not this rat today.

How the rat got in is no mystery, I keep the coop door open in the summer for the breeze. There is enough hardware cloth to keep the larger predators out, but not rats. I keep the food stored in a locked metal can, and the feed for the chickens is in a hanging feeder outside the coop area. I have no doubt the rat is able to get to the food outside the coop, rats are clever and dexterous. I think it was curiosity that brought it into the coop, looking for snacks.

22g

On By CarynIn Coop, eggs

I found a very small egg in the coop. It only weighed 22g.

Photo description: 22g egg held in my hand with the probable culprit, a Black Star hen, in the background

Sometimes when this happens there is no yolk, but I poked holes in both ends and blew out the contents, and there was a yolk and a white, just in smaller amounts.

Photo description: small glass bowl containing a small yolk and small white next to a small egg

I suspect it was just a reproductive track hiccup, most likely from Wing Ding the hen, since she is my only active layer, and it doesn’t have the translucent white deposit that makes Faverolle eggs look pink.

Moving golf balls

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop, eggs

Last year I had a reader reach out with a conundrum: she had three nest boxes with a golf ball each, and somehow the hens moved all three balls into one nest box. I suggested that they nudged or rolled them and to look for a ledge.

Fast forward to this week, and I found my two golf balls in my two nest boxes both in the same box.

Photo description: two golf balls in a nest of straw

There is no rolling or nudging possible between my nest metal boxes.

Photo description: the metal nest boxes in question

So I did a little more digging with the search phrase “can chickens move eggs”. We are not the only people to experience this phenomenon, but it is not common. One person even captured a picture of a hen carrying two eggs! The hen tucked the eggs between her legs and body and stabilized them with her wings. That particular internet chicken forged while carrying eggs, so moving eggs from one nest box to another is certainly possible. Or golf balls.

Of course these two nest boxes are not viewable with my web cam, so I don’t have photographic evidence of my hen moving her treasures.

Decommissioned

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop

When we added two chickens to the flock and had them separated, I put a hanging feeder in with them. When I integrated the flock I kept the hanging feeder full because I wasn’t sure the new hens would be able to use the Grandpa’s Feeder my original flock used. Turns out that all the hens preferred the hanging feeder. The advantage of the “Grandpa’s Feeder” is the wild birds and rats aren’t heavy enough to activate the lever and open the food bin. The disadvantage is that bugs can still get in. When checking feed I discovered that the entire bin was full of food riddled with holes.

Photo description: chicken feed in a Grandpa’s Feeder riddled with insect holes

One of the other advertised advantages of the Grandpa’s Feeder is that the metal grid and high sides keep the chickens from wasting food because they can’t fling it out of the container. A hanging feeder has this same advantage, so I emptied out the Grandpa’s feeder and decommissioned it, since I was only feeding bugs.

Photo description: hanging feeder filled with chicken feed

Another advantage of the hanging feeder is that I can see the food level from a distance. A disadvantage is that it is open on the top and if we get a heavy rain storm I loose a batch of feed to the wet. I’ve moved the feeder farther inside the porch area of the coop to see if that fixed the weather problem. Overall, the hens prefer the hanging feeder, and the hanging feeder is a fraction of the cost of a Grandpa’s Feeder.