Chickens: A few recent pics of Foghorn

Isn't he regal? He always looks like he is trying to tell me something. Probably just to get the camera out of his face.

"Whatcha looking at?"

This one looks like he is trying real hard to figure out what the camera is...

and here he is doing what he does best! Being a Fog-Horn!

I took a few of the girls too but they didn't turn out as good. They are more skiddish than he is. He doesn't care one single bit to stare you down.

I'm sharing this post with Deborah Jean's Farm Girl Friday Blog Hop. 

Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs!

I think Spring must be around the bend.. not only do we have Easter flowers blooming, but all three of the girls are laying every single day. I am so happy when I go out to the coop and actually find eggs. I thought winter and the great egg depression would never end!

Chickens: Goodbye Crowbar!

A few weeks ago Michael and I had to make a decision about Crowbar. He just didn't get along with the our other rooster Foghorn or the girls. He has been in a large goat taxi off to himself. Now that he has grown so much, I really didn't feel that was fair to him to be in there. He needed to be able to run like the others can in their coop.

After much debate, Michael and I finally decided to just turn him loose and let him run around. We have acres around us that he could roam on. However once he was free, he would not roam anywhere but on my porch. After about 3 days of cleaning poop off of the porch non-stop, I couldn't take it anymore. It brought me to tears to even think about getting rid of him, but I just couldn't afford to build another coop right now with the holidays coming up and honestly eating him just was not an option. We love him too much.

I spoke with my Sister-in-Law about the dilemma she said we were welcome to bring him down to her house. She has many chickens, ducks, and guineas running around and lots of room for them. He would have friends, but wouldn't have to be in a confined area with them, and I knew he would be taken care of.  It was the best option we had.

Michael and I attempted to catch him during the day and he just was not having it. He is a wild one. He'd walk up to us but as soon as one of us leaned down he would take off like a streak of lightening. We decided to wait until dark and sneak up on him. It was really easy to catch him in the dark. We caged him, and the next morning we took him to Mel's.Of course, I was teary eyed and heartbroken, but I knew it was the best thing for him.

Crowbar has been gone for about three weeks now, and I ask Melanie about him often. He is doing well and I am very happy about that. Thanks Melanie for taking him in.

I shared this post @ Farm Photo Friday!

Chickens: Mr. or Mrs. Crowbar

Ok.. the guessing game continues. I had finally convinced myself that Crowbar is a girl, until this morning and he/she was making a really strange noise that resembled crowing. If Crowbar is in fact a he.. what on earth am I gonna do with another rooster?!

A Book Worth Reading: Mini Encyclopedia of Chicken Breeds & Care

I picked up the Mini Encyclopedia of Chicken Breeds and Care at the local library and after going through all 208 pages, I plan to buy my own copy. Anything that you could ever want to know about chickens is in this book. Honest!

Get to "Know Your Chicken"

It's "Digestive Track"

All about "Incubating Eggs"

"Handling a Chicken"
and so much more! Love. Love. Love this book!

Chickens: Foghorn shows off his crowing skills

Chickens: A recent pic of Foghorn Leghorn

Good ol' Foghorn! Isn't he the handsomest thing you ever saw?! I sure think so. He has certainly put on his crowin' shoes. All day and all night. I think his internal clock is messed up. Thank goodness I have a fan that sounds like a windstorm or I'd never sleep. I reckon his handsomeness makes up for the fact that he is a pain in the patoot.
I am sharing this post at Fresh From the Farm: Farmchick's Farm Photo Friday.

Chickens: A recent pic of Ms. Crowbar

She is growing and looking better, but her belly still doesn't have feathers like it should. Any idea why?

She is so big compared to her size three weeks ago {pic below}

He Crows

or at least he tries! Foghorn that is.

He sounds like someone is choking him to death, and boy is it loud. Michael had heard him several times, but I had only heard him attempt it a couple times.. until last night. Blackie {one of the goats} would beller out and then Foghorn would attempt to crow. They went back and forth at least ten times. My niece Deidra said they must have some sort of language we can't understand. He had a set of lungs this morning too... bright and early. Maybe putting their run that close to my bedroom window wasn't such a bright idea. 
I'll try to get a video on my phone next time to share.

A few pics of the Chickens

This is crowbar. Michael and I agreed that we think she is in fact a female. She is starting to get her feathers, finally! Now she doesn't look so bad. She is still super wild compared to the cool, calm and collected Sussex's.

This is Joanie,

Foghorn,

and Lucy.

Aren't they beautiful? And they are growing so!
I didn't get a pic of Judy this time. I'll get her next time.

Chicken Waterer - Issues again

Michael and I made a homemade waterer a few weeks ago when we first got the chicks. It works perfectly when sitting on the ground as it is now {crowbar uses it}, but when we sit it in our coop it would leak all the water out because the coop is not level. We made another to hang, but evidently our screw wasn't in the exact center and it didn't work out either. So finally, Daddy loaned us one he had years ago when he was raising chickens and we are still having issues.

Our first issue: the chickens had been getting the wood chips into the waterer and they were soaking up what water that was in the reservoir. The second issue: once the reservoir is below where the hole is, it is suppose to let more water out. It didn't.

Michael said the water wasn't filling the reservoir was because I had the whole turned too far one direction. So last night I turned it the total opposite direction and when I came out the whole waterer was bone dry. All the water ran out.

Today I tried to put it in between where I had it at first and where I had it last night. Hopefully it works.

Michael and I found some sort of step made out of wood under the storage building. I have no idea what my brother used it for, but I put it in with the chickens and sat the water on top. So far it keeping the wood chips out of the reservoir. That is one battle down.. now to figure out how to put the waterer so water comes out when it should and stops when it should.

Here is the step and the waterer. You can see it is wet where all the water ran out.

A couple of the girls wanted to know what I was doing.

Then foghorn joined in.

Eventually they were all trying to figure it out. Thankfully, didn't seem to mind the step up.

While I was out there trying to sort out the issues with the chicks, I stopped by to see how Crowbar was. His personality is so different from the others. He is WILD and jumpy. He does appear to be a little healthier.

I think we will figure this all out eventually, right?

Foghorn and Judy, Maybe?

Tonight, close to dark, I went out to make sure the chicks had water before bed. I squat down beside the run and all four of them line up in a row and stare at me. Only Foghorn and Judy were in a position to get a good picture, though.

The ladies are starting to look so much alike. It is really hard to tell who is whom. I believe this is Judy because of her beak. I compared it to previous pictures of them all.

Then we have Foghorn. He is always front and center.

and from the other side.

Aren't they beautiful? I love them! They make me so happy! I shared this post at Barn Hop, Your Sunday Best and The Simple Things. Stop by to see the other submissions.

Cheap Way to Raise Chickens: New Home for Crowbar!

Crowbar was starting to make a real mess in the dog cage everyday. Every afternoon I would have to take the cage apart and clean the entire thing out. So I ask Michael how we could rig up my brother's goat taxi for him/her a temp home. I have no idea if he is a she or she is a he. Anyway, we had a few feet of chicken wire left over from our lot. Michael cut it into 1/4s and we wrapped it around the bottom of the chain link fence on the goat taxi.

If you look close at the back fence, on the bottom half is chicken wire.  Sophie was trying her best to figure out a way in there.

The waterer we made works perfectly inside the taxi because the ground is level. If you look close you can see it is about 1/2 full of water.

The last thing we did was clean out the dog taxi, take off the door, and fill it with wood chips, just in case the little fella wanted to go in there.

Oh, and we left a tarp folded over the top to give some shade.

Now Crowbar has a home where he/she can get on the ground and scratch around and I don't have to clean it every day. I sure hope this works! I'll let ya know.

Cheap Way to Raise Chickens: FREE Roost!

Michael and I decided the chickens needed a roost inside the run, so we used an old broom handle and wired it to the t-posts. It was FREE, works great, and they seem to love it. Every time I look out the back door one or more of them are up on there. Foghorn just hangin' out on the roost.Today the gang finally emptied their food bucket. It has been exactly two weeks since we originally filled it up. The coop is working out great so far. The only issue we have had involved the water bucket, and truly it wasn't the buckets fault. The building is not level, so you had to sit the waterer in the same exact position at all times for it to work correctly. We tried to add a screw in the bottom and hang it from the rafters but the screw must not have been centered, and that didn't work either. Dad found an old waterer he used when he had chickens many years ago and gave it to us to try. It is working, but it too has to sit in that one exact spot. Looks like we are gonna have to level the building up or fix us up one that can hang with it centered properly. Dad also loaned us a feeder he used for his chicks. We put it in with Crowbar. I think he is doing a little better. Hopefully all his feathers will be back soon. Gertie and Blackie wanted to know what we were up to. and what the chicks were up to. They were just hanging out in a little huddle hiding from her. I shared this post at Homestead Revival's Barn Hop.

RIP Cluckey

Poor Cluckey met an unfortunate end today.

Bailey had mentioned getting the chicks out this morning and I told him to just leave them in the pet taxi's. Unfortunately, he didn't listen. He wasn't watching it and our Shih Tzu killed the chick. I don't know if she was trying to play with it or eat it, but either way, she done the little one in. I had no idea he had even got the chick out until it was too late.

Cluckey has been buried and given a proper funeral.

RIP Little One.

Cluckey and Crowbar- Update

I was concerned that Cluckey was pecking Crowbar and that was the cause of the hair loss so I put them in seperate pet taxi's and then wrapped chicken wire over the cage doors to make sure they couldn't get out. I am hoping that by tomorrow Crowbar is doing at least a smidge better. Poor little one.

Cluckey and Crowbar

Here is a quick pic of them today after I freshened up the tub they are hanging out in. I'm going to add woodchips, but just hadn't got to it yet.

Crowbar is on the left and Cluckey is on the right.

Michael had put them in with the other chicks yesterday but Foghorn didn't like them too much. He started pecking them, so Michael took them back out. We decided to keep them in a tub until they are a little older and can defend themselves.

We are having a little issue with Crowbar. His/her feathers on his stomach are missing. I know it is hard to see, but he is pretty much bald. Why?

 

Do you think he is sick?

Cheap Way to Raise Chickens: More FREE Chicks!

Michael, the boys and I went by Mel's house today for just a sec this afternoon and without even getting out of the car we left with two new chicks. Her family is so kind. Thanks Harold {Mel's Dad}. The boys LOVE them. They are 3 weeks old.  Bailey and Cluckey.Dalton and Crowbar.Their personalities are so different. Cluckey is cool, calm, collected. Crowbar is a wild one. However we think Cluckey is a Sussex and Crowbar is a Game chicken. Mel said Crowbar may be a Rooster too.  I hope not. Apparently Game Roosters can be mean. We are hoping Crowbar is a Female.

I shared this post with Farm Chicks Farm Photo Friday, Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, and Shopping Superstars.

Cheap Way to Raise Chickens: New Home!

We put the chicks into their new home around 5pm this afternoon. Michael, Mom, Dad, the boys and I sat outside until 9:30pm making sure everything went smoothly for them. We had a nice time talking about Dad's adventures with chickens as a child. Dad seemed to approve of the run, so I think it is going to work out fine.

 If you look closely at the pics you can see little yellow things at the bottom of the run. Michael used tent stakes to hold the wire down.  It really worked out. There were only two weak spots when he finished. We used bricks to hold those down until we get a few more stakes tomorrow.  He used twelve today.

Foghorn checking out his new run.

Gertie came to see what all the commotion was about.

Then Blackie joined the fun.

The kids were so excited to see the chicks exploring. Bailey was pretending to throw a stick at the dogs for sniffing the chicks and D was screaming No!!! They are so comical. {He didn't really throw it}.

Gertie came down to my chair to say Hello.

Blackie and Slinkie aren't the best of friends. Slinkie gets along with the other goats, but I suppose her and Blackie are too much alike. They both try to rule the roost. They were about to go round-n-round. Sophie stepped in and showed Blackie that she couldn't mess with her best pal. One bark and Blackie took off like a streak.

I guess they decided they didn't like Sophie being so bossy, they left.

Sampson came out to check out the new chick house. See him hanging out under the chair? Surprisingly he didn't try to get in there. He has been pretty calm around the chicks, but I'd say if he could get his paws on them they'd be gone.

I glanced down the drive and I caught Bailey throwing dirt into the air. Boys will be boys I suppose. Of course, being the mean Mommy I am, I told him to stop and I made him wash his hair twice tonight. He wasn't happy with me, but I bet he wouldn't like grit on his pillow tonight either.

Ah.. the joys of being a Mom!

Michael purchased two packs of tent stakes that had six in a pack at Walmart for $2.88 a pack. So holding the wire down will cost us less than $10 once we purchase another pack.