Mother Cluckers

It has been a busy few weeks here at the urban farm. Luckily with more daylight hours the chickens have finally ramped up the egg production. Up until the end of this week we've only been getting one egg a day from our Leghorn chicken Marge. Imagine my surprise when I went to put the chickens away at the end of the day and discovered 4 eggs in the laying box! I guess Spring has officially arrived.

The better weather unfortunately ignited a wanderlust in the chickens, as they have been escaping their pen on a daily basis this week. Since wing clipping is a two person job, we had to wait until today to give everyone a little snip. The photo at top left is of our decimated kale plant! (Mother cluckers!)

The hardest part about wing clipping is the catching of the chickens. Luckily Mr. Mills volunteered to crawl in the cage and face off with the ladies, who started screeching and flapping their wings at the sight of him invading their home. Fortunately for us, once they are caught and turned upside down they are putty in our hands! 

Now that wing clipping is complete we have to start thinking about seedlings. We had good luck with squash, cucumbers, kale and chard last year, but completely failed at growing heirloom tomatoes. Hopefully we can fix that this year, and add to our kale bed since that is a popular juice and dinner vegetable.

Truly Evil Rooster - Craigslist Gem

Someone posted the link to this Craigslist ad on the Chronicle of the Horse and I thought it was hilarious! Love the closing line, "...Love does not always triumph over evil." (Please note...spelling is in context of the ad, not my errors.)

Urban Chickens and Hawks

Just because your chickens live in a metropolis doesn't mean they are safe from predators! I knew we had possums and raccoons on our street, but I had no idea hawks would be swooping in, too.

I was reminded of this by my friends who live a few miles away from me, who recently had a hawk go INTO their chicken coop and attack and kill two of their chickens. (Photo at left is of this killer hawk sitting on their roof.)

I had a close call a few months back, when a hawk came down and tried to grab Marge, our White Leghorn. Luckily my husband was in the backyard and able to scare the hawk away, but Marge was still left was some horrible scratches on her neck from the hawk's talons.

I feel terrible for my friends, but I still am letting my chickens out to roam during the day. I think they would be way too unhappy confined in their coop, so I'm willing to take the risk.

Evil Chickens

The evil chickens as I find them every night. Why they insist on having me personally escort them into their coop I have no idea. They certainly don't enjoy me grabbing them or prodding them with a stick, and I could do without their piercing shrieks of terror. I'm afraid to think what the neighbors believe goes on in our yard every night!

Picky Chickens

Okay, the chickens made liars out of me, but only with TWO measly eggs. The same day as my last post, 5/31, we got one egg and we got one today. (outlined at right)

Although I can't fully explain these new slacker egg-laying practices, I think it has to do with Lottie going broody and the fact that the ladies aren't exactly excited about their feed.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I ordered the organic feed from Purina. They only had "crumbles" and the ladies had previously been only eating "mash." I foolishly thought they wouldn't really mind trying something new, but they seem to be partial only to the mash. I find leftover food in their feed bin every morning, which never happened when I was feeding the mash.

I tried to order mash today at East Valley Feed since they don't charge me shipping, but apparently Purina only makes organic in crumble form. So, I broke down and ordered the expensive organic layer mash from McGeary Organics through My Pet Chicken. Although $26 doesn't seem like a lot for a bag of feed that lasts several months, the shipping ends up costing an additional $29! This better pay off in some serious egg laying!

Still Brooding

This has become our daily ritual: Lottie refuses to leave the box. I extract her from the box. I then ply her with treats and hope she is motivated to stay outside the box, which doesn't work, so I repeat the same process the next day. How long can this go on?

Lottie Extraction:

Lottie & the other girls eating their sunflower seed treat:

By the time I posted this and looked outside, Lottie was back in the box.

Brooding

Brooding is the new black for Lottie. Starting last Monday, she decided to become a hermit chicken, sitting in the nesting box and refusing to move. If you take her out from the box and put her on the grass, it takes her a few seconds to even respond. She just sits there, sad and sloth-like. She'll then get up, run around, have a snack and return to the nesting box. We have been removing the eggs she sits on daily, but it doesn't seem to matter. Egg or no egg, she wants to sit in there.

We thought she snapped out of it this morning as she voluntarily left the nesting box, but she has now returned. I've heard you can trick hens by placing a chick in the nesting box with them so they think they hatched it and then they will stop their broodiness, so we may need to resort to this soon if she doesn't cheer up!

Easter Poop

While most people were attending church or hunting for eggs, we conducted our own Spring service - gathering horse manure for the garden. (see containers at left) I should clarify that my husband did the gathering, but it does have to ride in my car, so I can claim SOME credit for it, right?

We're getting ready to do some planting! While last year we had a frighteningly large pumpkin patch, this year we're going to devote that space to tomatoes. We haven't decided what else we're going to plant, but we need to start the seed trays soon.

This year we have the added challenge of keeping our feathered friends OUT of our planted areas. They love "nesting" in our herb boxes, leaving chicken "dirt angels" between our basil and parsley. They will take up so much dirt that they expose the plant roots. BAD CHICKENS.

Below are the chickens enjoying some sun on Easter. They are difficult to photograph because as soon as they see me they come running!

Dobbies

Dobbies.com just included Now and Hen in their list of "Chicken-keeping blogs we love." Sweet!

There are some great blogs on the list, some I'd heard of and some I had not, so check it out! Lots of great tips, photos and humor.