MY CHICKEN BLOG

weird eggs

when I cracked this egg it had a perfect, shelled egg INSIDE plus the usual yolk and albumen. its a rare occurrence... but I resarched that sometimes an egg will back up inside the oviduct of a hen and "absorb" a smaller egg (next in line) and this egg will get laid along with the regular sized egg. CURIOUS!

sept 30, 2013

How funny, a pigeon has decided to make his home in my coop :) That's me with a speckled chicken who is half silkie and half barred rock.... I fear he is a rooster so may have to find him a home when he starts crowing :(

UPDATE 2012

Me and my silkie rooster, donated by my friend Carl

columbian wyandotte and black cochin chicks

columbian wyandotte, I think this is a gorgeous breed.

My speckled leghorn Rooster.
Well suddenly its October 2012! I now have a smaller coop: comprised of a huge speckled leghorn rooster, (Napolean) and his counterpart - a small silkie rooster. I am prompted to write because my buff cochin is dying of old age at this very moment. I have several geriatric hens including the black one who was sitting on my head in a former picture on this blog. Last year I had too many hens and due to problems with my neighbors I had to get rid of 21 of the 25 chicks I had bought from McMurray hatchery. I think I went overboard but my neighbors had called the cops on me because my hens were getting over the fence and wandering in their yard. So this year I was down to 3 young hens and 4 old hens plus my 2 roosters. I beefed up my fence and trimmed the wings of my hens and decided to buy 10 chicks from the hatchery at "my pet chicken" I now have 4 COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTE hens and 5 BLACK COCHINS. One wyandotte chick died accidentally....... So here are some pictures of my latest bunch. It hasn't been a good year for eggs and I hope to have more eggs next year.

4 and a half months old

they look almost full grown except their combs are so small

"the second coop"

My primary chicken coop is a rubbermaid shed...it houses 12 older birds that are not very egg productive and I consider them pets :)

Recently, I had to build a 2nd coop for my 26 pullets and new rooster. It is not big enough for them so I am hoping that when the 12 older birds start to die off that the younger birds will start to roost and lay eggs in the bigger rubbermaid shed.

Here are 5 views of the new roost that I have built for my pullets.

Today I added a lateral egg box for them although the pullets are not quite ready to lay eggs. However, some of my bigger hens have been "visiting" and laying eggs in this new box. (they already have 3 boxes in their rubbermaid coop!) This new egg box sits on bricks, and outside of the main roosting area.... hopefully the hens will NOT roost on this box and poop in the hay! I check my boxes every evening so I never really worry about wild animals stealing eggs in the thick of the night :)

This is the egg box that I built today with hinged cover....I will be checking this a lot next spring since I have 26 pullets!!!

North side of coop, stained with redwood color.

East side of coop. Here is the large nesting box... rests under a hinged cover. You lift the cover and gather the eggs... :)

West side of coop has a mural :)

Front of coop faces south so birds don't get cold north wind. You can see the roosting dowels at this angle :)

cabbage

3 months old

Roosting together at night

The mystery chick at 7 weeks

7 weeks

in the group I am seeing 1 white leghorn, 1 buff hen (orphington?), 6 domineckers, 5 rhode Island reds, 6 black hens (with a little brown) and 6 araucanas, plus an MYSTERY hen, see black and white mixed bird below.