What Was I Thinking?

When we got our coop last spring, my husband and I debated where to place it in our yard. We have a couple of acres, so we had no shortage of places to put the coop. My husband, in his infinite wisdom, suggested that we choose a spot very close to the house. Me, in my folly, thought that it was too close and picked a spot about 50-60 yards from the house. It was a nice little hollow, near a grove of trees that would give the chickens a great spot to scratch and forage. Now let's be honest, 50 yards, that's not too far. No one minded walking out there a couple of times a day...in the good weather. Even when it got cold and the days grew short, it wasn't much of a hassle to go out at night with a flashlight to close up the coop.
The coop in warmer weather

Well, that was before two feet of snow got dumped on us this past Wednesday. Yes, winter in New England means snow, and suddenly we had lots of it! As luck would have it, my husband was away during this latest storm, which meant that it was all on me to get out to the coop and back every day. As I trudged through drifts up to three feet deep, I cursed the aesthetically pleasing, yet far away spot that I picked for the coop. I had to don snow pants to get out there the first time.

And shoveling? Well let's just say that the coop is 50 yards from the house as the bird flies; the path, a LOT longer.
The path to the coop at its midway point.


Looking back to the house from that midway point

As you can well imagine, I am anxiously awaiting spring!

Double Your Pleasure

As Rob Base says: "It takes two to make a thing go right, it takes to two to make it out of sight." When it comes to eggs, I have to say I agree.

When I checked the chicken coop this afternoon, I discovered two eggs that weren't there this morning. Crazy! So now I know that at least two of my white leghorns are laying.

I was just reading that the leghorn lays about 250-280 eggs its first year, and I have three of them! That's a whopping 750-840 eggs that will be dropped over the next year. And let's not forget that I have five other hens that haven't started laying yet. Anyone want eggs? I'm going to have a lot of them...
Drop me an email if you want some. Seriously!

And I don't know about you, but I like the whopper, *&(* the big mac.
You just gotta love Rob Base if for no other reason than the cheese factor.

Safe and Sound

Just wanted to update you that the three missing chicks made it through the night safe and sound. I found them scratching in the yard the next morning about 20 feet away from the coop. They seemed completely unaware of the sleeplessness they caused me. Typical!

I attribute their survival in part to the big black dog. We've been letting him sleep in the garage (with the door open) at night so he is free to come and go. I think having a wandering 80-pound dog roaming the yard keeps a few of the predators at bay.

You may now remove your yellow ribbons from the old oak tree.
Phew!

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

We're not having a good night at ole Peterson's Peeps:
We're missing three chickens.

The kids let the chickens out this afternoon to scratch in the yard and forgot to prop open the door to the coop. I was in and out of the house and it didn't occur to me to make sure the door was still open.

Normally, with the door open, the chickens put themselves to bed for the night, and I go out at dusk to lock everyone up safe and sound. Because the door was closed, they couldn't get into the coop. I found four of the chickens (the two roosters and two hens) standing at the door of the coop trying to get in through the chicken wire. I found one of the buffs sleeping on a foot-high rock and another one roosting in a nearby tree. The last bird, a white leghorn, was sitting on top of the monkey bars on the kid's swingset (how she got up almost 9 feet in the air is beyond me). Right now, I am still down two white leghorns and one dominque.

I have searched high and low looking for the three remaining missing, but have had no luck. Either they are hiding/roosting for the night and will be back in the morning or they made for a nice dinner for a lucky raccoon or fox. Let's hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't know how the kids will handle losing three all at once. I'm pretty upset by it -- and angry too as this was preventable.

I'll update you in the morning.

Freebird

If I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me?
Well...will you?

I'm trying to free range the chickens as much as possible, but given that I have a big hungry black lab, I'm somewhat limited in these efforts. Yesterday afternoon, I let the chickens out because the kids wanted to play with them and I wanted them to eat bugs and scratch and do chicken stuff. We locked up the big black beast to ensure the birds' safety and all was pastoral bliss until it was time to get the chickens back in the coop. Usually, with a little persuading and gentle nudging, I can get the birds back in with minimal effort....but not last night.

That great juniper bush that the chickens like to scratch under? Well last night I spent a good 20 minutes running in circles around it trying to get the chickens out. I got about half the birds in and then two would run out as I tried to usher two more in. I finally had the sense to quit before I got any more frustrated, but then there was the issue of the barking black beast who really wanted to escape the garage and run free. The dog would just have to wait.

About 45 minutes later -- the kids had been fed and tubbed -- I put the beast on a leash and set out toward that @#*&%^@* juniper to get the chickens back in. This time I was armed with not only a big hairy beast, but also a kiddie fishing net that we use to catch minnows down the cape every summer. Sure the chickens ran away from the dog, but only to the other side of the tree. Even with the fishing net, once again I'm running in circles and getting no where (but hey! that's a typical day for a stay-at-home mom). After 25 minutes of more insanity, I admit defeat.

In a semi-irritated panic, I text my friend Catherine, the guru of all things fowl. She tells me to wait until it gets darker when the chickens slow down and actually want to go to bed. Oh, but she also mentions to make sure that I get to them before something else does... No worries. Never mind that I abut 92+ acres of wildlife land (wildlife meaning the many animals that like to eat fresh chicken). Sure enough, I go out just as the sun is setting and the last three chickens are desperately trying to find a way into the coop. With a little shuffling, I manage to get them back in. FINALLY! All are safe, and I can stop practicing my circle of life speech to explain to the kids what happened to the chickens.

Apparently, you can train the chickens to come running by shaking a bucket of chicken scratch. Alas, I don't have any chicken scratch, but you can bet your sweet bippy that I am going to get some immediately!

Needless to say, the chickens aren't leaving the coop today.

'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you cannot change.
And this bird you cannot change.

All Quiet on the Western Front

The chicks really are no longer ... they are all grown up! They've been outside for a few weeks now and are thriving. Surprisingly, we have not lost a single chick apart from the small accident we had way back on day two. As a complete novice, I was really expecting to lost at least 25% of my flock in the first couple of months, but everyone is doing well. Let's hope I didn't just put the whammy on me.

Life in the coop is much more peaceful than in the brooder. The birds have more room to stretch. There are roosts in the hen house. AND the chickies just love scratching in the dirt. My kids will even look for slugs to feed them. Yummy.

I love this picture. It's Liam holding one of the buffs. Something about both their expressions crack me up.

By the way, we've named some of our buffs -- Butterscotch, Ginger, and Mary Anne. I think one of the White Leghorns will end up being Mrs. Howell! All this is lost on my kids, but it does tickle me!

All Day Chicken Buffet?

I've failed to mention that we own a big black dog named Hoagie. Hoagie is a lab, from a long line of hunting dogs. To say that he is high energy and hyper is a massive understatement. To say that he is smart is a down right lie. We love Hoagie, but ...

Anyway, Hoagie has had limited exposure to the chicks. (Safety is job 1 at the Peterson house.) We've tried to keep him separated from the birds. On the rare occasion he has seen a chick up close -- I've been holding the chick -- he's quickly sat down licking his lips as if I'm about to give him a nice big doggie treat.

So now that the chicks are out in their coop, Hoagie thinks that we've put out an all day chicken buffet. He's acting crazed as if he's hyped up on steroids and he continuously jumps on the coop trying to knock down the chicken wire. He's desperate to find a way into the coop to get to the buffet. I'm hoping that with time, he will get bored and give up. I'll keep you posted.

Out Out Damn Spot...I Mean Bird!

The teenagers were stinking up my basement and it was time for them to get out ... outside that is!

We moved all 18 of the remaining chicks outside today. It was time. Like any teenager, they needed their own space. I needed them to have their own space. They stink/stank/stunk.

The chicks were put in their house with the door to the ramp open. Food and water were left right at the bottom of the ramp to encourage them to move. Unfortunately, the birds were too scared to do anything other than cower. Finally, after five hours, I went out and lifted them all down to the grass so they could eat something before they got put on lockdown for the night.

It took a while, but they finally got it!

Where to Start? How to Start?

Suddenly deciding to raise chickens can seem a bit scary, but we planned to raise only six or so hens. How hard could that be? Luckily, I have an excellent resource in my friend Catherine.

If I'm crazy, then Catherine is bona fide cuckoo (sorry Catherine!). At last count, Catherine has three cats, four goats, two dogs (one with only three legs), countless chickens and ducks, and a goose named Oscar who sits on her front stoop and honks at people. And all of this in her backyard...

Catherine answered countless questions and steered me toward her hatchery of choice, Murray McMurray (are Murray's parents mean or what?). She also lent me her most recent copy of Backyard Poultry Magazine (who knew?). This combined with some books from the library, and I'm starting to feel like I can actually do this.

Now I just needed to order the chicks, figure out a brooder, and find a coop somewhere. Fun stuff!

This was really happening. The kids were so excited. It was early March 2010, but it already felt like spring!