That Blozzz

All this years chickens are growing like crazy. Many are almost full size.

The first batch is thirteen weeks old and the second batch is 10 weeks old. In the picture, you can see my last year hens and in the background you can see this years chickens in the fenced room. As you can see, they are just about the same size.

So far I still only have one rooster crowing and he crows all day long. You can see him sitting higher than the rest on his water container.  He faces the neighbor right next to us and starts at 4 am. They must love us. I think I have about seven roosters all together but one can never be sure until they all start crowing. The Barred Plymouth Rocks are hard to tell because the hens have full combs and are almost as large as the roosters.

The little banties are starting to grow but not very much. They are going to be quite small. They are not as pretty as the large chickens but I am hoping they will grow out to be better looking. I will have to get some pictures for you to see.

Thats all from the chicken coop for now.

Yesterday I was out in the barn with my neighbor and we were trying to determine what was roosters in my batch of chicks this year. All of a sudden one of the chicks let me know that he was a rooster. He let out the cutest little crowing.

The surprise part of the whole thing was that it was one that I would have pegged for a hen. It was one that looked like a barred rock and everything I read, the hens have shorter combs as a pullet and black streaks on their legs. Well this little rooster had a little comb and black streaks on his leg. No I am more confused than every on how to sex them. I thought I had all the roosters picked out but I was wrong.

I am heading to the feed store today to try and get some leg bands to mark out the roosters when I find them. I will be getting rid of all the roosters in the fall. We plan to fill our freezer.

Another bit of news from  the old homestead is that thanks to my neighbor, we discovered we already have a nice patch of Rhubarb growing on our property. We got some roots from Karen’s cousins this year and planted them for next year. The neighbor came over yesterday and thought the old owners planted some Rhubarb several years back. She showed me where she thought it was and sure enough, we have three big bunches. YUM YUM.

That’s all the news for now. If you have news to share, feel free to drop me a comment or two.

We decided that it was time to move our four banties from the house to the barn. They just turned three weeks old and they are quite feathered so we decided to put them in a bigger cage in the barn. The kitchen was starting to smell of chickens so we needed to make the move. I placed a 40 watt bulb in a heat lamp because it got down to freezing here last night. They seemed perky today so I guess they will be ok.

My two Araucana hens are still not laying and I am not sure why. It has been a while since they laid an egg and I can see no signs of health issues. I may have to cull them or get rid of them if they keep not laying. The rest of the chickens are doing good and the chicks from this year are still growing quickly.

That is all from the coop. Any stories from your chicken coop?

I mentioned in one of my earlier post that one of the chicks this year has a crossed beak. We have thought of culling it but it seems to eat fine and is growing as good as the rest of the other chicks. It has become super friendly and I have nicknamed it Twisty.

Yesterday, I went out to let out the chicks and Twisty flew at me and landed right on my shoulder. I have never seen a chicken do that and thought it was crazy. Last night when I went out to shut them in for the night, I was bent down to try and get them to all come in and Twisty flew up and landed on my back and ran up and down my back.

Now the little thing is so crazy that it jumps right into the feed can when I walk in the coop. I guess it must have learned that to survive with a disability it must be braver than all the rest of the chickens. My wife and I was laughing last night because we said it is so crazy that none of the others will pick on it because they are scared of it.

Unless the beak becomes a major problem as Twisty grows or it turns out to be a rooster, I believe that Twisty will have a life long home in the family chicken coop.

Other news from the chicken coop:

The four bantam chicks we brought home last week are growing good. They are still in a brooder in our kitchen and they are super active. Every time we do anything in the kitchen, they are right at the little window watching us. They are cute little buggers.

The second batch of Plymouth Rocks we brought home last week (including twisty) have finally fit in with the first batch of chicks and all 36 are growing like weeds. Of course the first batch is growing much faster than the second. Kenny said the first batch was hatched by the moon cycle and old timers say they will grow faster and hardier. I am not sure if that is true but the first batch at the same age was twice the size of the second batch. Kenny hatched a batch for himself at the same time as my second batch and they too are growing slower than the first batch. There may be some truth to the moon thing.

I have two of my older hens who have quit laying. They are my one year old Araucana hens. I can not figure out why they are not laying. It is odd because they both quit about three weeks ago and have not laid an egg since. My five barred Plymouth Rocks are two years old and they are still laying regular. They all seem healthy and the Araucana hens still go into the nesting box but they leave me no egg.

Anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

Well that is all the news right now. Feel free to leave a comment or two to let me know I have live people reading my blog.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about going to a chicken swap. Yesterday, I went to the same place because they were having a small animal auction. I had thought of selling some of the chicks but my wife did not want to get up too early to get to the auction early enough to register the chicks before the auction.

That was a huge mistake! People are crazy and was paying big prices for chicks. There were about 40 Rhode Island Reds straight run chicks that went through about the same age as my chicks (7 weeks). They sold for between $11 and $16 each. I about fell on the floor. I could have sold all 36 Plymouth Rock chicks I had and made over $400. There were some day old Rhode Island Red chicks that you had to bid on one and buy all of them. They went for $8.00 each for a dozen of them. It was crazy since they were straight run and you can buy the same thing at the feed store for $2.29 each.

They had bunnies go through that went for $16-20 each. They were cute little black and white bunnies but I did not see nothing special that made them worth that. I think they sold about 25 of them at those prices. Everything else went quite high including ducks, pheasants, and turkeys. They had sheep and goats but they did not bring the big prices.

I ended up buying some nesting boxes, a cage, and some chicken wire. I got pretty good deals on them. I was not looking for any new animals at this time but now have an idea to raise a lot more chicks for next years auction. I am also considering going into raising rabbits because of the prices they got.

All in all we got a good idea what people are willing to pay and we had a great day. It gave us some ideas for future farm ventures.

Has any of my readers been to these types of auctions? What kind of prices did you see?

Wednesday we brought home the last of the chicks for this year. We added 10 to our 27 already at home. These were three weeks behind the last batch so they are a bit smaller. The night before we brought them home, our cousin found one of the chicks out of the pen and it looked like a Raven or other type bird might had picked it up. It has a small cut on top of its head and our cousin Darlene treated it. It was doing OK when I brought it home.

I went out yesterday and one of the first batch of chicks was pecking at its head and had caused a bigger cut. I watched out big rooster be killed but I have never done it. I could not allow the chick to suffer so I took a sharp sickle and did it in. I have thought of trying to heal it but the cut was deep and I was afraid it would never recover or never be accepted by the group.

Even though I did not like killing it, I know now that I can do it if I have to. I may have to cull another one but I am trying to decide if I should or not. I have one that has a crossed beak but it seems to eat and drink fine and has grown the same as the rest. I am not sure if it will get worse as it grows. If anyone has ever had this problem, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Will it get worse as it grows? Should I cull it or let it live?

Our silly cousins did it again. They hatched 10 Bantam eggs that they got from a guy they know. They have no idea what breeds they are and the have no plan to keep the chickens. Guess who is taking some of them? That’s right, it is me. My sill wife, who was a chicken hater when I first started raising them, has decided she wants four of the smallest ones.

She started by only wanting two but her cousin Darlene suckered her in. She gave told Karen that the four smallest ones are friends and does she really want to separate them. It worked so we will be bringing home 4 more chicks. I still have to pick up my other 10 from Darlene next week. That will make a total of 41 chicks this year. Geez, I must be crazy.

I am still trying to sex the first batch and trying to decide what to do with the roosters. I might raise them for meat. Another options is to take them to a small animal auction we are going to on May 18th. The third options is dropping them off at a local farm or just lets them free range. He takes all you have and lets them have free run of the farm. I will let you all know when I decide.

I would love to hear from other people who raise chickens. Drop in and leave a comment and if you have a blog or website, leave that in the spot on the comment box and I will visit your site.

Thanks to all my readers and I see the traffic increasing each day. I am planning a small give away in the coming weeks so please check back for that.

My little chicks are grower fast and they are getting crazier. They are so active it is a chore just to go into their area. They hop and fly all over and they are nuts. I have one who wants to be the teachers pet. She (I hope she) sits on my foot and wants me to pet her or pick her up. The rest of them squawk when I pick them up now but she loves it.

I also wanted to share something funny that happened a couple of nights ago. My mother-in-law stopped by and my two brown Araucana hens were up on their top shelf all ready to sleep. They go to bed earlier than the rest of the flock.

My mother-in-law wanted to see the chicks so she came in the chicken coop. I asked who to put her foot by the chicks door so they did not get out and she did not do it and one got out. I tried to catch it and my mother-in-law got excited as usual and bent over to try to catch it and one of the Araucana hens jumped right on her back. You would have laughed or thought that she was attacked by a fierce lion or bear. It was quite the sight.

I told her that I show the hens pictures of her every night and if she comes around, attack her. It shows you that chickens can be trained. LOL

It looks like the new chicks will be just as crazy except there are a lot more of them.

Well that is my crazy chicken stories for now. If you have stories about your own flock, please share by leaving a comment.

I wanted to share some pictures of my chicken coop and the new rooms I added for the new chicks.

This first picture is the inside of the coop. This was just an old shed attached to my big barn. I used it for a couple of years as a goat barn and now it is my coop. Notice the old wood stove, that is where the hens like to sleep. I built a nice new set of perches and they have never used them. You may notice one of my girls heading for the exit after laying an egg.

This is a pictures of perches I built, as I said, they do not use them. You may notice the babies sunbathing in the back ground.

This is a picture of the two doors to the outside one for the older hens and one for the chicks.

This the inside room we built to house the chicks. This was taken before the chicks arrived.

This is the outside room fully fenced to keep the little ones in and any hawks out. This was built inside of the regular chicken pen which is 58 ft x120 ft. It gives plenty of pasture area for the older hens and will be great for the little ones when they grow up. This use to be the goat pen.

Here is the picture of the double nesting box that we had for our seven hens. I have put together a new one to hold all the new hens when they start laying. I came out to check eggs when I found the hens all cozy in the box. They stayed long enough for me to go get the camera and take these pictures. One of the brown ones is tucked in the back on the right side.

That gives you an idea of what my chicken coop looks like. It also shows you that chickens adapt well to any housing as long as it is safe and secure. This one works well to protect them from both predators and the elements. It is not fancy but there is plenty of of room for the chickens to have a good time.

If you have a picture of your coop, please share them by leaving a link to the picture in a comment.

A couple of days ago I brought the baby chicks home. They are four weeks old today and growing like crazy. They are active little creatures who try to climb my legs every time I visit their pen.

Our cousin Kenny decided I could have his first batch of chicks so I now have 27 chicks and 10 more at his house which are just a week old. I am trying to figure out how to sex them. They are mostly Barred Plymouth Rocks. I have read as much as I could find on how to sex them but I am still not sure which is which when it comes to pullets or cockerels. If anyone knows for sure how to determine the sex at four weeks, please leave a comment and let me know.

I have been quite busy getting ready for Spring. My brother in law and I built a new addition to the chicken coop. We built chicken wire covered rooms both inside and out to accommodate the chicks till they are old enough to mix with my older hens. I am busy planning the garden and waiting for my neighbor to get the garden tilled. It has been unusually hot for this time of the year. We have been in the 80s most of the last few days. That is June weather normally here in the North Country of New York.

What do you have planned for the Spring? Leave a comment and let me know what is happening with you.