Beautiful Life of Zig Zag Zoom

I have been quite busy and have not had a lot of time to blog. It has been a while since I have sit down and wrote about my chickens. I am still busy raising chickens and it is loads of fun.

I am now at 24 hens and one rooster of the full size chickens and I have 3 hens and one rooster of the bantam chickens. I was getting 12-15 eggs a day but as of the last few days, I am only getting nine eggs a day. This is ok because I am having a hard time finding a steady market in which to sell the eggs. I am trying to get to the break even point where I can supply my family with eggs and the excess can pay for the feed. The last month I have just about paid for all the feed with egg sales so it makes raising chickens cheaper.

I am preparing for what looks like a possible very cold winter. We have already received sub-freezing weather here and it is not a good sign for what is to come. I and hoping to get the chicken barns covered good for the winter and i am hoping have more chickens together will keep them warm. The banties are alone just the four of them but they sleep huddled up. I hope this will keep them warm and safe all winter. They have all gained some extra weight during the garden harvest season so that should also help keep them warm.

Around the rest of the homestead, I am preparing for winter by cleaning up the garden and getting the house winterized. Over the weekend, I installed plastic to weather proof the windows and I cleaned the furnace and vents. I still have to get the plow on the ATV and get it in good running condition to be prepared for the snow.That is about all that is happening right now. What are you doing to get ready for winter?

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 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.

Our cousin Kenny has been hatching eggs for us and yesterday was hatch day. I gave him 11 of our eggs to hatch and out of that we had 9 chicks. They are so cute! Eight of them are black and one is yellow with brown strips. I am pleased that I had such a high rate of hatching.Kenny hatched 21 of his own eggs and he got as of last night 11 hatched and four that had peck holes in them. Below is some pictures of the new babies.

This is what is left of the babies former home. Mine were the blue shells.

This is all the little babies but one. We had one still in the incubator waiting to dry off.

This is the chicks sitting on their food.

Nine of the eggs I gave Kenny were a cross between a Plymouth Rock Rooster and Arcauna hens. Two of the eggs were from my neighbors flock and they were a cross between and Aracuna Hen and who knows what rooster since they have several breeds. I believe the yellow may have come from one of those two eggs.

I just took 14 more eggs to be hatched so we will see how many more we get.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the baby chicks. Also wish me luck that they are a majority of hens.

Last week I collected my chicken eggs as usual. Of course this time, they were not for eating, I gave them to my wife’s cousin to hatch out for me. I am excited to get new chicks in a few weeks. I have a rooster who is a Plymouth Rock and the hens are the Araucana breed. I am excited to see what the cross will look like.

I was given all my chickens last year and I got the rooster and my five Plymouth Rock hens from my wife’s cousin and one of the hens was the rooster’s mother so we decided not to mix those for hatching. My two Araucana hens are no relation so that is why we used those to breed for new chicks. I gave my wife’s cousin ten eggs last week and I am hoping for at least five new chicks. He also said he will do another batch from his eggs, all Plymouth Rocks, for me in April so I have more chicks. I am hoping for about 12-15 hens this year when I am all done.

I would like enough to supply my house with a dozen eggs, my wife’s parents with a dozen, and my wife’s brother’s family with a dozen each week and have a couple dozen eggs to sell to offset feed cost. My goal in the future would be to raise enough to have a supplemental income for our farm.

Right now my five Plymouth Rock hens have not laid any eggs for a few weeks and I am not sure why. They went through moult and started to lay but now have quit. The two Araucana hens lay eggs just about everyday and one egg is white and one is bluish green. If the others do not start laying, they may be stew meat in the fall.

I will write more here when the chicks are born and I am hoping to be able to sex them early so I do not have a yard full of roosters. Wish me luck and stay tuned for more news on the baby chicks.

Well my hens have finally finished their long moult and they have started laying again. I have 7 hens and I was getting one egg a day but I am now up to between two and three a day.

It has been cold and since i have no electricity in the barn, I do not have a light for them so I am happy with the amount I am getting.

I am hoping to add another dozen hens in the spring to up my production. I am thinking of starting to sell fresh eggs once the production is up.

It has been in the 30s for a week or so and it has made it easier to take care of the chickens. Last night it hit below zero so i had to go back to thawing the water everyday.

Well that is all the news from the hen house for now.

Take care and if you are dealt a poor hand, say “That Blozzz” and move on!

I started raising chicken this past summer and it is fun and everyday I get nice fresh eggs. They are one of the easiest animals to raise and require only minimal care.

I allow them (except) in the winter to free range on a nice fenced area. One of my first concerns was that they like to fly out of their area. I had thought of clipping their wings but I watched and only one of the breeds I have fly out and they stick right in the main yard then fly back in shortly after. Because of that fact, I decided to forgo the wing clipping.

Chickens do need to have food and water at all times and if they do not have access to small rocks, you need to add grit for them to be able to digest their food. They also need a safe shelter to protect them from the elements and other animals. Any place will do, I use an old shed that was built on to my main barn.

If you plan to hatch the eggs you need a rooster. If you are just using the eggs for food, hens do still lay eggs without a rooster but they will not be fertilized. I chose to get a rooster even though I do not hatch the eggs. I thought he would be good protection when another animal comes around.

At times, I feel that getting a rooster was not my best idea. He protects too well and in the fall I went out to the barn with shorts on and he attacked my leg. Let me tell you, roosters can do damage and they do hurt. I was lucky he just got two good cuts on my leg before I kicked him off. He was headed to the guillotine before my wife convinced me to give him another chance. I pardoned him from death row but now I have a 2×4 handy and he has learned who is the real boss of the roost.

The one thing I learned about raising chickens is that if you read too many books, you will spend all your time worrying about problems. I have one good book and use it as a reference guide. Otherwise, you can learn everything you need to know by just doing it., it is really easy.

Collecting eggs must be done daily. If you have new hens expecting to start laying (approx. 23 weeks from birth), make sure you look everywhere for the eggs. I made really nice nesting boxes and the older hens have laid their eggs in them. I have two newer hens who just starting laying and they laid everywhere. The first bunch of eggs, I found on a high shelf in the barn (12 in all). Then I found them under an old wood stove. Now they lay on the floor in a corner. I guess they do not like the boxes I made. Well at least they lay in the same place everyday now.

The chickens love treats and they eat many scraps like apples, apple peelings, pumpkins (chopped up), tomatoes, zucchini, and more. They for some reason do not like broccoli or any of the cabbage family.

The downside of raising any animal is the winter. The last few weeks it has been in the teens down to below zero and it is a pain to change the water everyday and collect eggs when it is so cold. The chickens also hate being cooped up but that is part of the life.

My farm is also a no kill chicken farm, they are here for eggs and as pets. We are looking at raising for meat in the future once I get some experience in doing so.

This post should give and idea about raising chickens and I will include future posts on the topic.

Remember when the manure in life gets too much, just say “That Blozzz”, and move on !