That's a beautiful egg

I love it when I find an egg in the nest boxes that looks like this one.

We must be famous

We had another visitor yesterday afternoon.  It seems like the neighborhood birds are spreading the word about what our chickens have going on around here.

There were actually two birds, this rooster and his matching hen girlfriend that ran off into the trees to hide.  I tossed food out for them and the rooster stuck around all evening, the girlfriend I never saw again.

I'm sure the birds came over from the neighbor's barn and I still caught myself telling him "You better go home Rooster, or you'll be the fox's dinner tonight.... Oh wait, if you go home you'll be a person's dinner next week..." and then I didn't know what to say so I went inside.  :/

It is farm life

Last night Faith was barking at about 12:45.  My natural reaction is telling her to shut up but I suddenly sat up straight in bed and remembered that I hadn't closed the door to the guinea coop. 

When I left it open, my thinking was that the goats would be around, I hadn't seen evidence of a fox in awhile, and the door was inside the run so a fox would have to go inside the run to get into that coop.

At 12:45, with a fox barking, none of those reasons mattered and I went to the window to look outside.  I kept seeing the light in the original coop moving, where the month old chicks are, so I pulled on my boots and jacket and went outside.

The fox was still barking off to the North of our property and I hurried out to the coops. The three guinea were alive in the coop so I closed that door and then I checked on the chicks with the light.

The chicks were walking back and forth under the light, knocking the safety cage around.  Darn birds.

I hurried back inside and jumped back into my bed.

When the alarm went off at 4, all I could think was "farm life problems"...

Moving Day

Although the coop isn't completely done, it was done enough to move the birds in.  So last night once all the birds were in the old coop, I took each of them and moved them into the new coop.  They were a bit shocked and stayed huddled by the door.  Half way through the move, I went inside and put them on the roost bars.

Apparently the other half of the birds didn't understand they could follow suit, so they got up in the nesting boxes.

I moved them around, making sure the rooster got a higher perch.  Then I was able to clean out the old coop and move the hatched chicks into it.

They too stayed huddled near the door in confusion

By morning they had moved to the other corner of the coop and because of the cold temperatures I put a lamp in for them.  I'm not sure that they have figured out the hanging food as I saw them scratching around in the shavings.

Clyde and the hens were all still perched and happy.  They'll be locked in there for a couple days so that they learn it is their new home.  Luckily there is a lot of space.  I need to do some more work, but I think it will do for now.

My amazing students

Last week I was so excited to see my former students share their Science Project at the school Science Fair that I hurried past all of the other projects just to find them and their presentation.  

I blocked their faces out since I didn't ask if it was okay to share their pretty faces :)  How amazing is this?  They even had a video that was constantly sharing the eggs and the chicks.

Last night I finally got the birds moved into the basement brooder.  They were so darn cute and kept trying to climb over or under each other to get to better hiding spots.

Welcome to the flock

Today I picked up the 12 chicks that my former students hatched.  The mom of one of the girls told me I should count the chicks and then the younger sister counted them out loud.  There were 9.  I chuckled and thought maybe they were stashing a couple in the house to keep a little longer.

A few minutes later I saw them pull the chicks out of their sweatshirt pockets and I laughed.  The girls have been caring for the chicks very well since they hatched last week and I've seen pictures of the chicks in the sleeves of their robes and now I've seen them tucked in pockets.  They've named them all and know all of their personalities.  Meanwhile I will need pictures and notes to keep the names straight.

I got them all home and into a temporary brooder with the five buff orpingtons that I bought two days ago.

Everyone is doing well and tonight when I went to go check on them, they were almost all passed out.  

Mystery Visitors

I came home from the gym this morning and I saw something in the yard.  I backed up to use my headlights to see it and this is what I saw.  

I had no idea what this thing was so I took a few pictures and then hurried inside to research it.

I headed back outside to get some better pictures with my camera, and while the bird walked away from me and tried to hide behind a tree, it wasn't moving very fast.

I finally found out that it was a Red Golden Pheasant.  In the United States, people keep these for pets, sort of like chickens or peacocks.  They're apparently very fast, so if I had tried to catch it, I probably wouldn't have had much luck.

I threw a bunch of bird seed and treats out for it and went to work.

I decided that if I came home and saw the bird again I would try to catch it, but I haven't seen it since.

It sure was pretty.

Protecting the garden

The garden needs to be protected from chickens that scratch and mice that dig holes through it....

Keeping the chickens out seems like an easier task so I purchased 100 feet of deer fencing.

It's five feet tall so the birds can fly over it, but right after I put it up a bird came around and then couldn't figure out how to get out of the garden.  

I will need another two rolls to finish containing the garden and I will need to build a door at the entrance, but I think this will help to keep the birds out of the garden.

Next task: how to kill all of the mice that dig through my garden?

The new coop - almost

The coop is coming along, but not fast enough for me.

Yesterday a friend came over and we got the four walls put up.

It was so much easier with someone helping me.

Today I was working alone and determined to get part of the roof done.  I decided to take it apart and put the rafters up and then to see what I could salvage from the roof.

I pried the 2 x 4s off the roof which wasn't too hard, but the sun was definitely beating down on my back and shoulders.

I put the rafters back together.

And then I managed to get them all attached to the coop.

I may be able to salvage the particle board and I have a roll of tar paper, but I'm sure I will need to buy more shingles.  I also need to buy some linoleum for the floor so that it is easier to clean and some paint so I can make this thing look a lot better.  And I still have to build the roosts and nest boxes, the door, and the ramp for the birds to get in and out. 

I don't think this is going as fast as I would like it to.

What Was I Thinking???

We have 9 chicks that are in our basement in a home made brooder/cage.  They can go outside now since they are a month old (March 11th birthday for the oldest) but they would still need some heat sources.  The problem is that my new coop isn't finished so I can't move the adult birds to the new coop to free up the smaller coop for the chicks.

Meanwhile, my students have hatched 12 chicks that they want me to take sometime after Monday.  I think they're still trying to convince their parents to keep them as long as possible and I did say they could keep them for a few weeks before they'd need a coop or start being a size the neighbors might notice.

So you would think that I was done with chicks.

I did.

I went to my first chicken swap event yesterday with clear expectations that I would only buy adult hens of certain breeds.

And I bought five buff orpington chicks.

They were just so darn cute and the woman selling them was teaching me about how to feather sex chicks and about breeding birds that are related.

So I have five chicks in my kitchen.

The good news is that they chicks are the same age as my students' chicks so I will be able to put them together.