Boredom Busters!

Our Barred Rock hen sleeping in the sun

Do you know what happens when chickens get bored?  No really!  It's a real thing! The weather is sometimes bad for days.  Rain, rain, rain in the spring.  Snow and ice in the winter.  Excessive heat in the summer.  What do the chickens do?  They mostly stay inside the coop to keep warm, dry, cool, etc. according to what the current situation might be.  When the chickens are accustomed to being outside with plenty of room to move around and because of the weather they have to resort to being inside the coop all or most of the day then behavioral issues can arise.  Feather picking and egg eating are two of the most common issues.  Feather picking can result in sores and sometimes blood is spilled.  This just 'eggs on' the chickens to pick more and more at the wound.  Egg eating can also occur.  Once this starts, it's hard to correct.  But most of this can be avoided by giving the chickens something to occupy themselves with.

Some ideas:

• Scratch, crumbles, sunflower seeds, etc in a plastic bottle with holes drilled in the bottle.  Make several.  The chickens will roll them and kick them and scratch at them to get at the food.
• Hang a green cabbage head, purple cabbage head, boughs of kale tied together with some string, etc. for the chickens to peck. They'll love it!
• Flock block - either purchased or homemade.  The chickens will spend hours pecking at the goodies.
• Places to climb - ladders, stumps, different levels of roost bars - chickens love to jump on something up off the ground.
• Place a mirror in the coop or run.  The chickens will enjoy looking at themselves for hours.
• Extra food - Instead of feeding them at certain times of the day...during stressful times place an extra variety of food for them to enjoy.  Pecking at food will keep them from pecking at each other.
• When it's hot out freeze some berries in a plastic container of water.  Place the big chunk of ice and berries in the chicken run.  They'll peck the ice to get at the bright pretty berries and hydrate themselves at the same time.
• Chicken Salad - Serve up a nice pan of greens with some strawberries, blueberries, grape tomatoes thrown in.  They'll love it.  They are so funny chasing blueberries and trying to steal them from each other.

Kale salad with tomatoes and blueberries

Enjoying a refreshing salad

Saddle up!

Every time I mention saddles for chickens I get the strangest looks!  Seriously y'all they make saddles for chickens!  If you've ever been around roosters and hens then you know, well, you just know what a rooster is famous for!  Our poor little hens were looking a little rough this spring.  I mean we have two roosters and 16 hens so you'd think that would be more than enough hens to, you know, take care of those boys.  But the ole roosters are a little rough on the hen's feathers.  They will begin to wear them down and the hen will get a bare spot on her back.  It looks painful!  I felt so sorry for the girls I went in search of something to help them out.  I found a site on Etsy and ordered 5 chicken saddles.  I figured I'd give them a try and if they work out ok I'd order some more.  Our girls have been wearing them for almost two weeks now.  Their feathers are growing back in nicely.  I'm ready to place an order for a few more.

If you're interested here's the link: Etsy Chicken Saddles

There are many sites on Etsy that have them but I would highly recommend ordering from this link. They are so well made.  They came in 5 cute fabrics and they fit our standard size hens perfectly. They are easy to install (ha!) and the hens have no trouble adjusting them and keeping them on.

Cute, cute fabrics....and very well made

Etsy stock photo

House of Chickens

Today was a mostly cloudy day here in NC.  The temps did get over 80 degrees, but there wasn't a lot of sun today.  I worked and the hubs ran around most of the day looking for a part for his lawn tractor. After dinner tonight we let the chicks out to free range.  He took them some strawberries we had in the fridge that were starting to get a bit mushy.  They loved them!  They rambled around the yard looking for goodies to devour.  The big buff hen and one of the Golden Laced Wyandottes are broody and they were sitting in the nesting boxes and didn't want to leave.  Wade made them get out to get some exercise, eat and drink.  They didn't like it one bit.  They stayed out until it started getting dark and then they all headed to the run.  I was out pulling weeds from flower beds and headed down towards the coop to be there to close them up.  I forgot to take my big stick and Roo the big red Aracauna rooster decided to make me mad. He is huge and has big strong legs and he can really do some damage if you don't watch out.  I took my sandle off and swung it at him a few times and he finally left me alone.  Bad boy!

Rupert the Rooster (Roo)

We built our coop large enough to accommodate several chickens.  There's several roosting bars and 6 nesting boxes.  We use shavings in our coop currently.  A lot of people use sand and some keepers use straw.  The trouble with straw is that straw is hollow (like a drinking straw) and it's a great place to house mites and bacteria.  Shavings make it easy to clean and freshen with new shavings.  We keep deep shavings in the nesting boxes also to keep the eggs clean and cushioned.  Even though they have 6 nesting boxes they tend to use a couple of them and pile several eggs in each one.  I guess they have their favorites.  Outside the coop (building) we have a large run where the chickens stay when the weather is nice.  Half of the run is covered so they have shade or they can sun in the other end.   We have stumps in there and they love getting up on the stumps.  Especially the roosters.  We also have a big wash tub in there for them to use for dust bathing.  Dust bathing helps to clean the chickens and rid them of any mites.  They love a good dust bath!

The Hildreth Coop

Roo is ruling the roost up on his stump!

Heading to the house in the snow (Winter of 2016)

Chicken Keeping - How it all began.......

Where did our story begin? About four years ago I was visiting one of my favorite places for all things vintage and the owner had a few hens that she let free range in her yard.  The girls would come up to greet you as you got out of the car and they would cluck and 'talk' as if they enjoyed visitors. On this particular day when I went up on the porch to enter the shop something caught my eye and in a planter beside the entry door snuggled down beside the plant was the prettiest hen.  I spoke to her and she turned her head and gazed at me and clucked and cooed and I just fell in love with her.  I came home and told my hubby Wade that we should get a few chicks to raise.  Well I didn't have to say that twice!  He went to tractor supply that very day and got ten little chicks and ordered two roosters.  The latter was a mistake but we're making the best of that situation! More on that later.

He brought a cardboard box in with the cutest little fuzzy peeping chicks.  They won my heart right away.  We started with 4 buff orpingtons, 3 aracaunas and 3 barred rock.  We kept them in Wade's shop in a big wire crate that he built and we had heat lights for them at night to keep them warm.  We touched and held them daily and they all became very friendly girls.  A couple of weeks later I picked up the roosters while Wade was on a birdwatching trip and I took them down and added them to the crate with the girls.  I stayed and watched them for a while to make sure they were going to get along ok.  Even though the girls were only a couple of weeks older they were already much bigger and I wanted to make sure they weren't going to peck the little guys.  The next morning as soon as it got daylight I went down to the shop to check on them and couldn't find the little roos anywhere.  I searched high and low and could not imagine what had happened to them.  There was no way they could get out of the crate and there was no feathers or fluff to indicate a catastrophe.  I just didn't know what to think.  Just as I was starting to close up the crate I noticed some tiny little feet sticking out from under one of the girls.  Sure enough she had her wings spread over the little guys trying to mother them and keep them warm.  She was only a couple weeks older than them but already she had the mothering instinct.  Shew!  I was so glad that turned out well.  I didn't know how I was going to explain to the hubby that I had lost the roos.  Looking back over the last couple of years maybe it wouldn't have been so bad after all!!!!  Shhhhhh don't tell anyone I said that!  Those darn roosters don't like me.  I do everything in my power to treat them right but they are downright mean to me.  They make me say words that I normally don't say and they put me in such a tizzy sometimes I could just pinch their heads off.  But they are beautiful and I love to hear them crow.  They are almost 4 years old now.  I guess I'll let them stay.  I just carry a big stick!

We have enjoyed the chickens a great deal.  Almost 4 years later and we still have 5 of the originals.  Last year we added 16 more to our flock (that made those Roosters happy!) and enlarged their outdoor run.  I never dreamed I would enjoy being a chicken keeper but I really do.  Wade had had chickens before and he was familiar with what they needed as far as food and housing.  I like to 'girlie' up things a little.  I haven't made them curtains for their nesting boxes yet though.  That may be on the agenda soon.  I do enjoy making them treats and watching them devour it.  My favorite thing is to watch them free range in the evenings.  They love to kick leaves and mulch and mosey around all over our property looking for goodies.  It brings me great joy to keep chickens.  Just call me the Crazy Chicken Lady.  I don't care one bit!