The other day I went into the coop to collect egg (notice I didn’t say ‘eggs’, because I only have one hen laying right now, so it’s one egg every other day for us), and the stink just about knocked me over! Yuck! It occurred to me that 18 chickens in my 8 x 10 coop might be a bit much. It was ok when they were little, but the youngest chicks, Red’s Six, was growing up fast. I had just put down a fresh layer of chips a week or so before, and it was already time for more. Plus they’d just eaten through another bag of pellets, and I am having enough trouble keeping ourselves fed – no need to be feeding all these extra chickens. Time to lighten the load!

I advertised the 6 chicks on the Portland Chicken List. I already got rid of the roos from this group, so I think all six were pullets, unless there was a slow-maturing roo hidden in there. Also those six were driving me nuts because, just like their mom, they were wanderers! They were never in the coop area, always out wandering around. So I figured when they did start laying I’d be going on easter egg hunts everyday looking for the eggs. So it was an easy choice to let them go, and the money could go towards buying some more pellets.

I got a response, and it was an older lady from a town in the far corner of our county. I made her a deal on the chicks, and we agreed to meet at a nearby store parking lot. She kept wanting to come to my house, but I didn’t want that, my house is hard to find, and besides I would have to catch the chicks the night before anyway – so it’s not like she could just drop by. Well, she canceled, and rescheduled, and rescheduled again, and I was getting the idea she was high-maintenance. And she wanted to pay with a check, which was ok if she was getting them that day, but after a week of trying to arrange a pickup, I just wanted cash so I could go buy some chicken food.

Finally we had arranged to meet Saturday morning at 10, so at 10 I was in the arranged spot, with six chicks in a box, listening to Car Talk on NPR. Time passed and eventually I realized it was 25 after, and she probably wasn’t coming. Grrrrr. I called Dave and let him know. So we agreed to wait five more minutes and give up. A few minutes later, as I was driving home, he rung me back, and said the lady had called, and she was at another store, about 7 miles away, and thought we were supposed to meet there. Dave had told her I would come there, and although I didn’t want to, I couldn’t call her back because she didn’t have a phone, she had borrowed someone else’s phone to call.

So now I had to drive all the way to this other store, and when I got there she insisted she was at the right place. I know she wasn’t, I never would have agree to meet 15 miles round-trip from home, that was a whole gallon of gas or more for my huge van. I didn’t want to argue, I just wanted to be done. Either way she gave me the cash, and I gave her the chicks, and that was done with! And I went right to the feed store and got a few bags of layer pellet for the remaining girls. Then I went home and laid down more fresh chips, refilled the feed bin, and gave them all a treat of leftovers from the kitchen. Happy chickens!

So my current chicken-count is five young hens that haven’t started laying yet, one buff girl who is laying, and four older hens (including Penny) who are not laying – I don’t know if they are done laying forever or just taking a break. And two roos. That’s 12 chickens! Last year I had 8 hens laying all summer and had more eggs than I knew what to do with. So this year even if only the new girls are laying, we should have plenty of eggs.

I was out in the field with Jack and Barclay, when they both started sniffing at something. I went over to see what it was before they started rolling in it (it’s usually a dead field mouse or something disgusting), and I was surprised to see feathers. Clearly it was a bird. I was thinking hawk, but as I looked at it I realized it was a chicken – it was one of MY chickens! Dang it! It was one of the wandering chicks. I knew something like this would happen. They refuse to stay in the chicken yard, and so this one must have been out in the pasture and a coyote or something got it and had dinner. Very annoying, mostly because if coyotes start coming back for dinner all the time they’ll pick off my chickens one by one until they are gone, and maybe eat a cat or small dog while they’re at it (a couple years ago we lost a cat to coyotes, and I’d rather not do that again). Which is why I have been trying to keep the chickens inside the fenced area where there is lots of cover and trees and it would be harder for a coyote to catch one than to just chase it down in the open field. But this latest batch of chicks are just like their mom, Big Red, who refused to stay in the chicken yard. I found her a new home to wander in, maybe I need to do the same for these chicks.

Update: Because of the condition of the carcass I think it was a hawk that ate the chicken. I think a coyote would have eaten the whole thing, but when I found it the back, wings, and legs were still intact, so whatever it was mostly ate away the breast and body. I’m a lot happier knowing it’s a hawk than a coyote prowling around our farm!

Big Red has been seriously getting on my nerves. She won’t stay in the orchard area with the other chickens. I even clipped her wings to make it harder for her to fly over the fence, and that didn’t do the trick. So several times a day I was finding her out and about, and getting chased by the dogs, and calling her chicks to come out and join her (though her chicks don’t seem to need her anymore, they spend more time with the rest of the flock than she did)!. Worst of all she was hiding her eggs somewhere out in the bushes! So I had enough, and asked if anyone wanted her on the chicken list, and sure enough someone piped up and said they’d trade a young buff hen for her. Deal! They came by tonight and gave me a lovely little gold Buff Orpington hen (I’ll get a picture of her tomorrow). She’s very sweet, and calmly sat in my arms while I was talking to the folks who brought her over. When they left it was already getting dark and the other chickens had already gone to roost, so I slipped her into the coop. They should all wake up together and be one big happy flock in the morning.

Likewise I found a home for three of the baby roosters. So far I only had three I was sure of, so I gave those away. There’s two more I suspect, but I’m waiting to make sure. I’m not sure why this lady wanted all the roosters she could get. She asked me to call her and she’d come get any more I pick out. I guess I should just be happy I found someone to take them. I’m guessing they’ll grow up to be dinner, but that’s sort of a rooster’s lot in life. Since you only need one rooster for 8 or so hens, and there’s a 50/50 split, that’s a lot of extra roosters!

I am thinking of building a more secure chicken run area off the coop, where I can confine them when I want to. I’m getting really tired of this constant escaping. It would be nice to build something where I could easily watch them from the house too. Right now the orchard is just far enough away I can’t really see them and enjoy them without going out there. It would be nice this winter if I could just glance out the window and see my girls 🙂

Someone asked me how I could tell my chicky boys from the chicky girls…

I’m going to say ‘Boy’ – cocky strut, big red comb and wattles, walking around looking like he’s running the place.

And for this one – ‘Girl’. Hardly any comb or wattles showing. Soft face. Not standing as tall. Just walking around looking for food.

And that’s at about 6 weeks, they’ve just feathered out. I think not all breeds are as clear cut as these two make it look, and there are more roosters in this group who just aren’t developed enough to tell yet, but I can definitely tell on some of them already, and I have a whole bunch of suspicions about the rest.

This is one of the 11 week old chicks I kept, because I’m pretty sure it’s a hen. The boys all had a LOT more red and comb development.

Eventually the girls do develop a nice comb and wattles (the stuff hanging down). This is my adult hen, the only one who’s giving me eggs right now.

This is ‘Beautiful’, my oldest hen – I don’t know how old she is, but she was already laying when I got her last year. I think she might be done. I was told their combs lose their color when they’re done laying. Look at these two side by side:

Big difference in color! They used to be the same, in fact I could only tell them apart by personality. Either way I’m pretty sure she’s not laying. However she’s safe from the stewpot because she’s very sweet, and she always comes up to the fence to get treats, and follows me around when I’m in the orchard making cute ‘watcha doin?’ noises.

This is the only rooster I kept out of the batch of 11 week old chicks. He’s Penny’s baby, so he has feathered feet, and a rounder, heavier body like a cochin. In this picture he’s busy working over the windfall pears. You can see how he has a more developed comb than the 11 week old hen a couple pictures back (though considerably less than his pure Buff Orpington brothers had). Also when he’s walking around he walks real tall and acts like a rooster. He’s half Buff Orpington, so he might just be taller and lankier than a cochin anyway. It will be interesting to see what he looks like as he matures.

Big Red and her chicks are doing well in another chicken tractor in the backyard. She was also escaping the coop and leading her chicks on field trips around the yard. Not coincidence that Black Hen and Big Red are sisters. The first half a year I had them they slept in a tree every night instead of going in the coop. They are a cross between regular barnyard chickens and game hens, and so they are a bit wilder than other chickens, and I really don’t want their chicks to learn that from them. So I am keeping this batch confined so they don’t get in the habit of thinking the whole yard is theirs to explore.

In the first picture the runt is on the right, in this picture he’s right behind mom, under her tail. You can see how small he is compared to the other chicks. They are all in that awkward phase where they don’t quite have all their feathers, and they have skinny necks, and they just look funny!

Back in the main coop the rest of Black Hen’s chicks are merging nicely with the existing flock, as is the blue cochin rooster. He is mellow, and stays out of my way, while the baby roosters have run right up and pecked my feet – hmmm, shades of Big Bird?! One of the young roosters is a cochin rooster, and seems to have the mellow cochin personality, so I think I’ll keep that one – the rest of them will have to go.

I let Big Red and her chicks out of the chicken tractor today. It was getting a bit crowded in there, and I didn’t want them standing around in their own poop. They were happy to get out and explore again.

This little guy is the runt of the litter (or ‘clutch’, since they’re birds). Notice he’s fallen behind while the others have gotten bigger and started getting feathers. He was always small though, I noticed it even when they were tiny.

We’ll see how the little guy does.

The other hen has just about given up ‘mothering’ her chicks – they are almost as big as her!

My favorite is baby Penny

or Baby Big Bird, the little Roo

You can tell the baby roos because they are getting the red comb and wattles on their head, and their tails look different, while the girls have almost no wattles at all. Though as you can see from the adult hens, they do eventually have combs, just not as spectacular as the roosters.