Our Chickens - Are They Dead Yet?

Red Golden Pheasants

2009-01-19T21:50:00.001-08:00

Here are our newest additions to the coop. The male (colorful one) is named Barack and the female is Michelle. I found them for sale on www.hoosiertopics.com and I traveled to near Terre Haute to pick them up. They are about 2 years old.

The baby chickens hatch!

2009-01-05T04:08:00.001-08:00

Amazing!

Grilly Girl and Lil' Grill

2008-11-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

Here are two of the chicks from Mama Pickens' brood - Grilly Girl and Lil' Grill, both named after my Youtube friend, Grillmaster33.

Will they hatch?

2008-11-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

On Halloween night and the next day, Sophie, our Double Penciled Silver Rock hen went broody. She has been setting on 9 eggs over the past 3 weeks and tomorrow (Nov. 21) the eggs should hatch. Here is a video where you can see the embryo in one of the eggs moving around... Amazing.

Now the bad news - the eggs may have gotten too cold. Here's the scoop. On Tuesday evening I went down to check on the chickens and Sophie got off the nest to see if I had any corn. I gave everyone their treats and left the barn while Sophie was still off the nest. I thought she would have no trouble getting back on the nest in the dark. Well, it got down to about 20 degrees that night and when I went down the next morning, Sophie was setting on the wrong nest box!!!! Her eggs may have gone all night without any heat! I felt them and they were very cool to the touch. I tried putting her back on the nest, but she flew out of it immediately. I wrote the whole brood off as casualties of my ignorance (she could not see in the dark and I should have known that...) but the next time I went down to the barn she was back on the correct nest and hasn't left it since. So... I have no idea if the eggs are still viable, or if she is brooding little frozen babies, but I have decided to let nature takes its own course. If the eggs hatch and the chicks live it will be great, but if they froze that night then it wasn't meant to be...

Once we know if there are any survivors I will post here, hopefully with pictures.

As for Mama Pickens' brood of 6 babies, they are doing great!!!!

Still kickin' with the chickens!

2008-11-02T08:08:00.001-08:00

I know it has been forever since I last posted, but here is a quick run down of events...

We got 3 ducklings, reared them and then gave them back to Phil (our friend and handyman who originally gave them to us.) Suffice it to say that duck poop is GROSS and they take more water than I can provide! We almost ran the well dry trying to keep the baby pool clean and full so they could swim.

Cleopatra the Egyptian Fayoumi died of an infection - I should get the necropsy report later this week. RIP Cleo. She gave us our first egg.

The turkeys are huge! We have Turkey Girl (original name, eh?) and Lulu Belle and they give us wonderful eggs. But I would not recommend having Broad Breasted Turkeys unless you plan to eat them because they are genetically designed to have unnaturally large breasts (hence the name) and walking is difficult for them sometimes. I feel a little guilty I won't eat them and I dread having to make a decision that might be humane (killing them to put them out of their misery) but so far that is not the case. I don't expect them to grow old, though.

Owl Face got to be way too aggressive so we let the neighbors have him. I think they had fried chicken... I asked for some of his beautiful feathers, though, and I try not to think about it too often...

Our Silkies and Polish are setting now and their eggs are tiny! I love both breeds, but you have to be careful who you put them in with. Certain other breeds will pick on them.

The 2 Black Australorps went to Phil with the ducks. They are a beautiful breed but they picked on the Polish way too much. Plus Phil wanted a couple good layers and those pullets really fit the bill!

One our our Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, Mrs. Pickens, now known as Mama Pickens, went broody and out of 9 eggs she was brooding 6 of them hatched. They will be 2 weeks old tomorrow, November 3, 2008. That was amazing!

Sophie, the Double Penciled Silver Rock has gone broody. I put 5 eggs under her on Halloween night and Nov. 1 morning, so in 3 weeks we might have a few more babies. I will try to stay up-to-date on the posts. I don't know how many eggs she is brooding because I have not seen her off the nest yet.

Keep checking back for updates... And here is a picture of Mama Pickens and her babies. I plan to name them this week.

New website for a client

2008-05-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.turtlehavendairygoats.com/turtle-haven.html

This is the current website I am working on, and my first "all Flash" site. Please let me know what you think.

I know these are not chickens, but...

2008-05-08T19:29:00.001-07:00

These are the kids we helped deliver. Who couldn't love these little ones??? I am sure that at some point we will have some goats on our own farm! These live at the Turtle Haven Dairy Goat farm in Brown County, IN.

Bad hair and disco boots! (AKA Polish and Silkies!)

2008-05-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

It isn't easy being this beautiful! These gals (they are all supposed to be pullets - we'll see...) were born on April 13, 2008.

Some of the chickens (born Feb 10, 2008)

2008-05-08T19:10:00.001-07:00

They are getting sooooo big!

Polish and silkies!

2008-05-08T19:03:00.001-07:00

On April 16 we welcomed 5 Silkies and 5 Polish chicks to the fold.

They were really tired when we got them home...

But unfortunately the little white crested black Polish chick (the black one with the yellow poof head in the video above) died the next morning. We have no idea why. RIP little one... We buried her behind the barn next to gimpy. So out of 37 chicks and 2 poults we have lost 2 chicks. We are going to make a trade with our handy man (who converted the barn into a chicken coop) for a couple baby ducks in the near future.

Turkeys (a little late on the posting, though...)

2008-05-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well, with the end of the semester I have not had a chance to post anything here for a long time.

Many things have changed around here. We have added 2 Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys to the mix. They are amazing creatures! They love to follow us everywhere and will even try to dart out the door if you are not careful! At this point they are about 6 weeks old.

They were such sweet babies (and they are sweet now, too!)

See? I am not the only chicken freak out there!

2008-04-04T08:55:00.001-07:00

I came across this great blog and thought I would like to share it. I am not the only one who babies their chickens!

http://poultryheaven.com/poultryblog/

Plus, here is a great chance to watch me get pooped on by Pedro, the Arucana rooster. Enjoy!

The evolution of the coop, part 1

2008-03-23T10:19:00.001-07:00

This is how the barn looked on the day we first saw the property.

And here it was the first winter we lived here...

And then we decided to cut down a tree next to the barn so it wouldn't blow over (the base was almost rotted through) and while we were at it we knocked down the old corral and made a pile where wildlife could live.

And then we decided to get chickens... So we cleaned up the scrap pile and planned an outdoor barnyard. We even cut a door in the barn for the chickens to come in and out...

It seemed like a big area for the chickens (at the time...)

We even left the stump outside the door for them to play on...

Here you can see the chicken door from inside the coop...

Here is the rest of the barn, when standing inside the coop.

And here is looking toward the coop area from the front of the barn.

This is an old box we had left in the barn from a previous owner. It made great next boxes and saved us a fortune! We had no idea how expensive commercially made next boxes are!

Here is Phil Brown, of Brown's Diversified Services, standing in front of the nest boxes. Phil is our friend and handyman and without him we would not have a chicken coop or barnyard! Thanks Phil!

The completed nest boxes, minus the ledges and perches.

Here is the original roosts we built. We have had to redesign the roosts because this corner of the barn floods when it rains. There will be pictures of the new roosts and coop configuration later...

Here is the other side of the coop. You can see the board over the chicken door on the right side.

And here are the chicks in the coop on the first day. They were almost 4 weeks old when they moved to the barn.

Meet some of the family

2008-02-24T12:37:00.000-08:00

To see some more videos, go to my channel in YouTube. I post videos of the chicks there on a regular basis, as well as tutorial and art videos for my students...

Click on any of the images in this blog to see larger versions...

Well, the chicks are starting to name themselves. Their personalities are really showing through, as well as some individual physical characteristics.
This is Lemon Head. The photo to the right is Not Lemon Head. Lemon Head and Not Lemon Head are the 2 Salmon Faverolles. We think they are both female because of the salmon colored wing feathers. Lemon Head is the one with the more pronounced sprinkles on his back. You can see their sprinkles in the picture below...

Here you can see Clarice to the left. She is the tamest one so far. We do not know what kind she is (I am hoping for a Golden Laced Wyandotte, but I just don't know.) But her personality is great! A real "people chicken" and fairly sweet with the other birds. We don't know if she is a hen or a rooster but her disposition makes us think she is a little girl...

We call the one above Lazarus because when we first got the chicks this one got quite a chill and we did not expect him (or her) to make it through the night. But here it is 2 weeks later and Lazarus is still with us. I think it might be a White Laced Red Cornish Game, but not sure...

The one to the right here is called King Tut. We believe he is an Egyptian Fayoumi. We have 3 of them, and right now I cannot tell them apart so for all intents and purposes I guess they are all called King Tut! I think he is a rooster because he is very aggressive with the rest of the chickens, but I think this is part of the temperament of this breed. They are gorgeous chicks with this lovely red coat. But they are very skittish and don't really like to be messed with. If they are all 3 roosters we will have a problem...

Quasimodo is the one above. He (or she - who knows?) is the one who had a mysterious lump before. I am pretty sure he is a Dominique. We have about 5-6 Dominiques, I think... He started developing adult plumage before any of the others, yet he is still one of the smallest. He is semi-tame and will tolerate a little petting, but not much. He looks really awkward with his feathers and down. The rest are starting to catch up with him in terms of plumage.

The one to the left is Pedro, the Araucana (I think) and the one to the right is Owl Face, also an Araucana (maybe.) Either that or one is an Araucana and one is a Phoenix. I really hope I have a male Phoenix, but I don't think I was that lucky this time. I think Pedro is a rooster because he is very aggressive toward the other birds, but if he starts laying eggs in a few weeks I will know I had that one wrong!

But now, let's talk about an aggressive bird! I have saved the best (!) for last - Godzilla! It is almost impossible to get a decent picture of him since he likes t run the other way when I get near... He knows he is in trouble, I am sure of it! He, and I am sure it is a HE, is a bully. And he is still bigger than the others, although several are reaching his size now. He earned the name Godzilla because he will terrorize the others. I have watched him randomly walk past a group of chicks minding their own business, and suddenly he will run up and peck one in the face and stare it down. He seems to say, "Go ahead, Punk, make my day!" One of his best tricks (and I am sure no real thought goes into it on his part, but I am not truly convinced it isn't calculated...) is to step on a group of sleeping chicks! And since his dinosaur roots are so obvious in his giant scaly feet, the only name for his was Godzilla! He is a Dominique rooster, I believe. But if he keeps it up his name will be Dinner!

Catching up a little

2008-02-21T20:50:00.001-08:00

Life has gotten a bit crazy with school this week, so I have gotten a bit behind on posting here. So I am making one giant post to catch up.

On Sunday we watched (and helped a little) as the goat from our goat share program gave birth to two beautiful kids! In case you don't know what a goat share program is: it is where you buy an interest in a herd of goats and pay a monthly maintenance fee to the goat keeper to take care of your goat. Since you technically own an interest in the herd you can pick up fresh, unpasteurized milk from the goat you own. Plus, it is a great way to stick your toes in the water and see what it really takes to own a goat so if you ever decide you want to bring one home you would have a clue what to do with it. Our goat(named Iris)is part of the herd at Turtle Haven Dairy Goats in northern Brown County in southern Indiana (about 10-15 miles from our place) and it has been a great experience! You can watch the birth here:

The chickens have had an exciting time this week as well! It has gotten even colder (last night it got down to 4 degrees!) so they are still in the house. But now they are too big (and they FLY!) for the tub so I made a brood pen for them in the spare bedroom we have been using for storage. Here are some videos of the move to the new pen and stuff. Enjoy! They moved into their new digs on Wednesday, so they are 10 days old at that point (now they are 12 days old..)

"Chick cam" is such a fun way to see their world! (you can find the first one in an earlier blog) If I had the time and resources I would love to stream a 24/7 chick cam to this blog, but don't look for it any time soon. Until then, little videos like this will have to do...

We switched to red lights because it allows the chicks to rest better and also keeps the incidents of picking (which can lead to cannibalism) down. They also sleep for longer periods this way.

In this video you can see the setup I came up with. I describe what I did in the video. So far it is working well. I hope it stays that way because this is as good as it gets for them until they can move to their permanent home in the barn once the weather gets warm enough. We love the little poof balls, but not enough to let them run wild throughout the entire house (although those who know us would believe we would do that!!!)

I guess they are still alive since they are on my arms!

2008-02-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

Feathers!

2008-02-16T06:41:00.001-08:00

Now they are starting to get tail and wing feathers! They are even starting to attempt to fly. One made it almost the length of the bathtub last night. I think they are going to move to the coop in the barn this weekend. I don't think I can deal with chickens flying through the house!

Day 5 - Chick Cam!

2008-02-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

It's Chick Cam!

Day 4. No more newspapers and a little grit

2008-02-14T16:52:00.000-08:00

Day 4. Still alive!

Quasimodo's lump

2008-02-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

It looks like his lump might be back... Here is a picture where you can see it. You can click the picture (any picture on this blog for that matter) to see it larger. He is also markedly smaller than the others. You can see in the picture of one of the other black chicks how much smaller he is. (By the way, sometimes when they sleep they really look dead, but I assure you he is alive and kicking, not to mention pooping and screaming!)

Day 3 - One has a name!

2008-02-13T20:45:00.000-08:00

No one is dead yet! Here is today's video.

And here are a few still shots.

The one above has named himself Quasimodo because he had a mysterious lump on his neck that appeared yesterday but now seems to have gone away. I am worried something might be wrong. We are keeping our eye on him. I think the others might be pecking on him. He is the smallest of the black chicks. We still are not sure what kind they are.

You can see they are starting to get feathers on their wings.

Tomorrow we will take up the pads and newspapers and they will get to revel in their pine shavings for the first time.

And you can see how they climb inside the feeder. If I needed proof that they are growing this was it. The fayoumis (red headed guy above) have been small enough to crawl in and out of the feeder and even like to sleep in it, but today this one got stuck inside. By tomorrow (hopefully) they won't be able to get inside it any more.

Cute sleepers and eaters!

2008-02-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

They often have a tendency to run around a lot and then just nod off when they stop for a second. Sometimes they really look dead (hence the name of the blog) so I wait to make sure they are breathing before I get alarmed!

Help us ID them!

2008-02-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

We ordered the Rarest of the Rare assortment from Murray McMurray hatchery. The description said we would get at least 10 different breeds from the following:

Araucanas
Brahmas, Buff
Brahmas, Dark
Buttercups
Cochins, Black
Cochins, Blue
Cochins, Buff
Cochins, Partridge
Cochins, Silver Laced
Cochins, White
Crevecoeurs
Dominiques
Fayoumis
Golden Campines
Golden Penciled Hamburgs
Lakenvelders
Langshans, Black
Langshans, White
Modern BB Red Games
Phoenix (see them here)
Polish, Buff Laced
Polish, Golden
Polish, Silver
Polish, White
Red Caps
Salmon Faverolles
Silver Gray Dorkings
Silver Leghorns
Silver Penciled Rocks
Spanish
Sultans
Sumatras
White Laced Red Cornish
Wyandottes, Golden Laced
Wyandottes, Silver Penciled

Original posts from Seeing Sideways

2008-02-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

http://seeing-sideways.blogspot.com/2008/02/peeping-poof-ball-explosion.html
See pictures and videos and read about getting the chicks in the mail and opening the box for the first time.

http://seeing-sideways.blogspot.com/2008/02/baby-pix-let-me-bore-you-with-my.html
See pictures.

http://seeing-sideways.blogspot.com/2008/02/chicks-day-2-kinda-same-as-day-1.html
See pictures and video of their second day.

Switch from seeing sideways

2008-02-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

I originally started posting about our chickens on my seeing sideways blog, but I can see that I want to add so much more info that it will not work under that blog. So here is one just for the chickens!