Category: chickens

Grazing the backyard AND Is that a He or a She?

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens, farm3 Comments

The critters have all been stuck in the corral since I took them off the pasture last week so it can recover over the winter. So I thought they’d be happy today when I put them in the backyard to graze. I figured it was tall enough it could use to be eaten down a bit, and there’s nothing back there I care about them damaging.


Of course, they still complain as soon as they see me – Baaaaaaaa!

Here’s Mom and her not-so-little lambs. Marian is in the middle, Indy is on the right.

Here’s Big Bird, he’s starting to get a tail. Unfortunately he’s starting to get those nasty spikes on the back of his legs too!


Just for comparison, here are two of my three buff orpington girls. Two of them look like the one in the top picture, but the third one is in the bottom picture. A lot more red on the face, and starting to get a tail. I think I might have an extra rooster!

Morning on the farm

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Fall has set in and it’s a bit colder now, the grass is pretty sparse out in the field, and every morning I have a list of chores to tackle before breakfast. Let out the chickens (if I remembered to close the coop door the night before), and count to make sure no one is missing – lets see, there’s Big Bird, Penny, the three Buff Girls, Blackie, Big Red (in the nest box this morning), and Little Red – all accounted for. The sheep and llamas need their hay, but I have to get it into the corral without any over-excited sheep, goats, or llamas pushing their way into the yard. Chase Scoops out of the orchard where he’s filling up on windfall apples (the big pest pushed over the fence to get to them). Play with Barclay so he will rest and quit destroying things around the house for a bit. Look for chicken eggs (it’s like an easter egg hunt, I never know where they will lay them next). Then I can come inside and get to work!

Oh, and while chasing Scoops out of the orchard I noticed an apple tree I had not really looked at before, and it had some nice big apples on it, so I tried one – Fuji! Yum! I hope next year I can take better care of the orchard and really get some nice production out of it.

Fresh eggs

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After work I went out and checked the coop for eggs, because I hadn’t found any that morning, and Penny lays one about every day and a half. Well, to my surprise, I found two! That can only mean one thing – the lighter colored, slightly smaller egg on the left came from the biggest of the ‘wild’ hens. Now I have two egglayers! Best of all, she laid it in the coop right next to Penny’s egg. I was afraid she would sneak off and lay them somewhere else because she doesn’t sleep in the coop, she sleeps in the tree in the pen.
*note: after taking this picture I turned around to go put them in the house and immediately dropped the bigger one 😦 Oh well, there’ll be another one in about 36 hours…

Unexpected visitor

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens, farm1 Comment

We had a little excitement around the farm this morning. To start with I had let the flock out to wander the yard, and they came up on the deck. So I had the back door open (screen closed) so I could hear them – I like the chicken noises! I was sitting there working on my laptop when I heard a fuss that was much bigger than the usual ‘hey, I’m pecking here, you go over there’ sort of squabbles they have. This was MUCH bigger! So I jumped up just in time to see a hawk flying off, and the rooster strutting around all ampped up! Apparently the hawk had gone for the hens, but the rooster protected them! So now he’s not just my handsome boy, he’s a regular hero!

So I got some scratch and enticed the flock into the covered pen in case the hawk came back, and they were all happy to go! Everyone was sticking pretty close to the rooster, and he stood outside the pen until everyone was inside then he followed. Once everyone was safe I went back to work. Then I heard another odd sound, a little ‘bok bok bok’ kind of noise, but it didn’t sound like a chicken – because it wasn’t!

It was a wild turkey!

He/she was about three foot tall, look at it in front of that bench! That’s a BIG bird!

He hung around the yard for a couple hours, mostly down in the corner by the shed, where he could see the chicken pen, but he couldn’t figure out to walk around to the other side of the fence, then he could have gone in the orchard and got food and water that was sitting right outside the pen. Then he went on his way. It was cool to have a wild turkey drop by. I didn’t even realize there were any in our area, but when I told the FedEx guy about it he said he saw a big flock of them a little further north a few days before.

We’ve been here almost ten years, and there’s still new stuff to see!

Chicken adventures

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I let the chickens out to wander, and later found them ALL hanging out on the bench in the backyard!

Then they worked their way up to the deck…This is chubby Henny Penny who is still cranking out an egg every other day, and the lazy ‘wild’ chickens who sleep in a tree and haven’t laid any eggs.

Looking around for any spilled birdseed. These are my buff orp girls. They’ve grown quite a bit, but they’re a long way from laying.

Big Bird came over and looked right in the back windows. Isn’t he a handsome boy? And he takes good care of his hens. I think he’s moulting because I’ve found some feathers around the yard. I think his tail is starting to come in.

New hens, one less rooster

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Last week I saw an ad on CL for some buff orpington pullets (that’s young hens), just what I was looking for! I emailed the lady and went right out to pick them up that afternoon. She was out in the gorge, past Washougal.

That’s Crown Point. Very pretty. It was a beautiful day and a nice drive, and she had a lovely farm with a lot of chickens and goats and a huge garden.
And here’s my three new girls!


Meanwhile, the two roosters are hanging out by the feeder in the coop. Does the darker colored one look suspicious?

He should, I put him on CL for free and someone is coming to pick him up the next day.

A couple days later everyone is settling in, and Big Bird is the only rooster.

He’s watching over his flock. Now he has 7 girls! Three wild chickens, Penny the Cochin, and three new buffs. Penny is still cranking out an egg about every other day. I think Big Bird crows less without the other rooster around.

The three buffs are getting comfortable wandering around the yard and orchard.

The whole gang goes exploring in the yard, looking for bugs. The three wild hens are almost big enough to lay, I expect I’ll find an egg from them any day now. I just don’t know if they’ll lay in the coop. They like to sleep in a tree, so they might go lay their eggs under a bush somewhere. Maybe I can teach Barclay to sniff out eggs for me!

First egg!

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens1 Comment

It was strange day around the coop. Started out with the surprise addition of another rooster! This white guy is our neighbor’s rooster. I’ve heard him crowing and seen him down at their barn, which is quite a long ways away. A couple hundred feet anyway. But today he showed up and started hanging out with the wild chickens, I was a little worried he would convince them to follow him back to his own barn! So when I had a chance to get him away from them I let Barclay chase him, and he took off and FLEW over the fence and all the way to the neighbor’s woodpile which is probably 60 feet away – pretty good for a chicken!

Big Bird thinks he is all that now that he has a hen. He was even trying to scare me off by flapping his wings, which he tried a couple times and then thought better of. Good thing for him. I’ve handled Macaws, I’m not even slightly scared of a rooster, and I’m not afraid to tell him so!


I think she is just the most rediculous chicken I’ve ever seen! I love the pantaloons! Too funny!

And she left a surprise in the coop – our first egg! Too bad it got broken 😦 I’ll add more straw to the coop tomorrow. Of course it wouldn’t have broke if she’d layed it in the nest box, instead of on a bare spot on the coop floor!

A new hen!

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens1 Comment

I have been feeling bad for Big Bird, because the other chickens have their own clique, and ditch him every chance they get (they can fit through smaller fence holes than him). So I’ve been looking for a buff hen for him. Yesterday on CL I saw a free chicken, and from the picture she looked like a buff orp, so I emailed and said I’d love to have her. Score!


So today I went and met him and brought her home, and when I lifted her out of the box, I see she has these enormous feathered feet and a bustle!!


A friend set me straight, she’s a buff cochin! She’s as big as the rooster, and about the same color.


He ran right up to her and pecked her on the head! So I knocked him out of the way and put her in the pen, and left him outside.


The other chickens all wandered off exploring, but he didn’t leave the pen all afternoon!

So with evening approaching I went and got some food and let him into the pen, then scattered the food around so they could scratch for it. No pecking or fighting, they seem to get along just fine. And he looks proud as punch to have his own hen!

I’ll keep an eye on them to make sure they get along ok. The hen is super neat, you can even pick her up and pet her! What a great addition to the coop!