Chickens free ranging

Jack watching over his ladies

Elvira... my favorite.

Our nephew loves the chickens too!

Handpainted Shoes

Today I painted my first pair of shoes.... first of many more to come. I'm loving them! Tomorrow I'll be painting another custom pair for my mom. She's a cross stitcher & LOVES it so I'll be doing a stitchery pair. Of course my first pair had to be CHICKEN CHICK! You supply the shoes I'll custom paint them for $15.
 click here to see these in my Etsy shop!

Dog Meets Chicken

Duke went into the chicken run today. He was such a good boy.

Love these chickens....

This is Ellie... She is one of the newest additions to our flock. Sweet girl too!

The white leghorns gave us 6 eggs today! Their combs & wattles looked deep red today & it looks so pretty!

Elvira gave me a scare last night. I was so worried about her. I thought for sure she was egg bound. Her vent area was contracting as if trying to push out an egg and she was lying around with her eyes closed, walking weird.... just not being herself. Today she seems to be back to normal.... so I'm hoping she'll continue to be ok. Love her!

Elvira

Love this shot of Elvira looking up at me like... "Momma what are you doing with that camera???".

Feeding Chickens Eggshells

Finally I've used enough of my eggs to crush and feed the shells back to the chickens. Feeding crushed eggshells back to the chickens helps to keep their calcium levels where they should be to keep the egg shells hard and prevent soft shelled eggs or even worse shell less eggs. Egg shells alone or paired with oyster shell ensures that the chickens get enough calcium. Although I haven't had any problems with soft shells yet I don't want that problem so I'm preventing it before it happens.

By the way I got 5 eggs yesterday & today... that means another hen is laying!!! Ready to see a brown egg in the nesting box.... that will mean Elvira has started laying.

Transformation Tuesday

Barred Rock Babies

 We added 2 more babies to our flock. These barred rock hens(we hope they're hens) are approximately 12-13 weeks old. These are my favorite looking kind of chicken can't wait to see them grow up into beautiful chickens. I've been told from other chicken keepers on www.backyardchickens.com that these are mixes. Whether they're mixes or barred rocks I love them just the same. They're pretty to me!

4 eggs today!

YAY! Another chicken is now laying. Today was the first day that we got 4 eggs! Just 3 more chickens to go & they'll all be laying. I think that the integration of Elvira into the flock is going a little more smoothly. They have chased and pecked at her this morning, but I went out a few minutes ago to find them actually laying down, perching & relaxing which is a good step. Before they would not/could not relax. So maybe this means that they are slowly but surely accepting her. (I sure hope so).

Stressed out flock....

I feel bad having to leave Elvira in the crate for a whole week, but I feel even worse when I let her out and my flock pecks at her and chases her around the coop. I hope that this will be over with in a week and doesn't last any longer. I know that integrating a new bird into the flock is stressful for the entire flock.... but it's stressful for me too. I have a huge heart for animals and can't stand seeing Elvira cooped up in the tiny crate. So today I let her out into the coop with the rest of the birds but I had to stay in the coop the entire time or they chased her all over the place :( I tried to divert their attention by hanging a head of cabbage up, which worked for a little while. Even though I can tell all the girls are on edge they weren't too stressed out to lay me 3 eggs again today :)

Our new little lady, integrating her into our flock.

This is Elvira.... our new red sex link chicken. I got her from a friend of mine that was getting rid of her flock. She is a few weeks younger than my flock. This is the first time I have integrated a new chicken into my flock, so I've been doing some research online. I will keep her in the run with my chickens but separated by the crate that she's in for her protection. I will have to do this for 1 week before letting her loose with the rest of the flock. Chickens have to reestablish their pecking order when a new flock member is introduced so they will peck at her and torment her until they get used to having her around.

Three eggs today!!!!

They must have known I used 3 eggs this morning making french toast, so they decided to replace them :)

Look at the size difference.... pretty big difference. I'm assuming the XL egg is from the lady that starting laying 11 days ago. & the smallest one from the chicken that started laying today. The first eggs layed are usually smaller.

Their treat for giving me 3 eggs today.

They have it made!

Getting hens to lay in nesting boxes...

My first egg was found today and it was NOT in the nesting boxes, it was at the very back of the coop where I had difficulty reaching it. So in my attempt to get my hens to lay in their nesting boxes I have added golf balls to the boxes to show them where to lay, and I also added privacy curtains to their boxes. I made the curtains from burlap. I cut the burlap into strips to cover the front of the boxes to shade the light & add privacy. From what I've read hens like to lay in areas that are secluded and away from light sources. These are both tips that I have seen/read online. I'm new to chicken keeping, so I'll see how this works. Thought it may help some of the other new back yard chicken keepers.

Update: IT WORKED! The very next day I went out to find an egg in my nesting box.

I found an egg outside the nesting box at the back of the coop this morning but I think it may have been there before I fixed up the nesting boxes with the golf balls and I just didn't see it, because this afternoon when I returned home from work I found another egg in one of the nesting boxes.

First Egg

This morning I had to rush off to work in a hurry & didn't check the coop for eggs. When I returned home this afternoon it was the first thing I did before I even went inside. I've been checking daily for the past couple of weeks because I've been thinking "any day now". Well today was the day.... OUR VERY FIRST EGG!!! I'm just a tad bit excited about this!

Keeping Cool

Saturday my mom & I went to the Farmer's Market. I picked up a watermelon for the chickens (& my husband). I sliced it open today for the chickies, it was their first time having watermelon. They LOVE it! They are still out there now pecking away at it. It's a great way for them to keep cool & hydrated on these hot days.