A new family member...

Meet the newest princess in our family, Lola Belle.  She's an adorable 8 month old mix (we're still in debate on what exactly she is a mix of... Pit Bull/English Bulldog/Corgi...?  Who knows!) who we adopted from the same shelter where we found Charlie.  Things worked out so well with him, we found ourselves back there, looking again!  After a little bit of an adjustment period for everyone, it seems like Lola Belle is fitting right in as the newest member of The J Family Farm.  She puts up with the big, loving lug that Charlie has become (all 80lbs of him) and loves the attention from B & O, wether they are dressing her up (above) or just cuddling on the couch (below).  Here are some pictures to better introduce her.

Broody Hen Condo

S and I went down to the coop and did some renovations this morning.  We added a broody condo to the coop.  We didn't move our currently broody hen, who is sitting on eggs, but we have the area ready.  If any chicks hatch under her, we'll move her and the chicks into the broody condo, this way she'll be able to get used to being a mama in peace, without the other girls trying to steal her space.  If none hatch (which, sadly, is pretty likely) we'll move her or our next broody hen, into the condo before we officially give them their eggs to sit on.  The condo is a sectioned off part of the current coop, separated by welded wire.  This way the broody hen/mama hen and her babies can still be seen and heard by the other hens (and Rudy, too).  Hopefully this should help when it's time to re-introduce mama and babies to the flock.  Chickens are known for being very "clique-y" and not wanted to accept any newbies into their group.  Ahh, yes, doesn't it take you back to middle school days?  ; )  But, the process of allowing the new chicks to be seen and heard, but not in a place where the other hens can harm them, is supposed to help with the introduction.  Some say that if you have a really good mama hen (and she is high enough in the pecking order of the flock to begin with) she will keep the other hens in check and away from her brood.  At this point, I'm not willing to try this just yet.  If all goes well, I'll first introduce them when they are out free ranging, rather than letting the hens think that the new chicks are intruding in their coop.  Pretty much, we're just taking things one step at a time and figuring it out as we go.
Here are some pics of our most current renovation project.

Before:

There were 10 nest boxes open for use.  All the girls laid eggs in 2 of the top boxes, so we had closed off the bottom 5 and used them as storage from the outside.

After:

Inside the coop- broody condo on the right.

 Broody condo- not the best pic, but inside are 3 open nest boxes and some floor space.

 We hinged the wood that covered the bottom nest boxes and added legs to hold this side open (3 nest boxes long).  Then we enclosed it with welded wire.

Rudy and some of the girls, waiting outside for our work to be done.

And the point of the whole project... to get more of these!  ; )

Here is Miss Broody herself, Buffy.  She's a Buff Orpington.  This is her, nice and calm, just trying to look out and see what we're doing...

 And this is when she gets protective of her nest!  Watch out!

Hmmm...

Well, I don't think things are looking very good for our first attempt at hatching eggs.  The broody hen has been on the wrong nest a few more times, but each time there has been another hen on the eggs.  There's no telling how long the eggs were left unattended, and if they get too cold, all development stops.  We're planning some coop renovations tomorrow so that we can isolate any broody hen in her own "broody condo" inside the coop, this way she won't get bullied off of her nest or mixed up when returning from a food break.  Hopefully these renovations will work for now, and I hope to build a whole new coop in the future.  I'm still leaving her with the eggs and crossing my fingers we'll get a hatch, but I'm trying to be realistic about it too, and I'm not sure we'll get anything this time around.  Hopefully she'll stay broody long enough to try a second batch, if these don't work; and if not, we'll be anxiously awaiting our next broody hen.  The end of next week is when we'll be watching for action in the nest, if anything is going to hatch it should be by Saturday the 25th, at the latest.

Possibly our first hatch...

A few weeks ago one of our hens went "broody", meaning she rarely left the nest box and just wanted to be left alone, sitting on eggs.  Well, for a while I moved her each day, collected the eggs and then left her (she is in the most popular nest box, so almost all of the girls lay their eggs there, even when she's in it).  Once she had shown me that she was in this for the long haul, I decided to give in to her broodiness and let her try to hatch some eggs.  I marked 6 eggs and left them with her.  Each day, when I go collect eggs, I take all but the 6 marked eggs- those are hers.  This weekend, when it had been 7 days since I left her the eggs, I went out and "candled" the eggs.  This means I looked at them (at night, so it was dark out) with a flashlight shining through the egg, to see if I could tell what was going on inside.  Well, I only candled 2 eggs- but I saw signs of baby chicks developing in both!  S was with me, so I know I'm not crazy, we even saw movement in the eggs!  So, now I'm excited that we may actually get a couple chicks from this hatch!  I'm still trying to keep my hopes pretty low, and I keep reminding B & O that the hatch may not happen- but if it does, we'll all be so happy.  I'm a little concerned because yesterday when I collected eggs, the broody hen was in the wrong nest box...hmmm...but I put her back and she settled right down on her eggs and has been there since.  Hopefully she wasn't off them too long and that won't happen again.  If they don't hatch, we'll just try again with the next broody hen, and if that doesn't work (after a few tries) we may get an incubator one of these days- but I'm crossing my fingers, because I'd love to do it the natural way and make one of my hens a mama.  I'm thinking the hatch should be around Feb. 25th, so we'll be watching!

A long overdue update

Wow, it's been 2 months since I last updated.  Sorry it's been so long!  I often think to myself that I should write an update, but it hits me about 11pm on a night when I'm already in bed and ready to go to sleep, so what do I do?  Put it off until the next day... when I, of course, forget.  Well, here I am- remembering at a decent hour.  So, here we go!
Most of our little egg layers are getting the hang of things these days and what we have to show for it is about 6-8 eggs a day!  I'd guess that by spring we'll get 10-12 a day, but for now 8 is fantastic!  It's plenty to be providing us with as many as we could need, plus I've sold them to a few friends here and there, which helps pay for the chicken feed.  Rudy Roo is getting a little temperamental and has "attacked" me a few times and O once- which is no good.  He even tried it with my mom one day when she was here helping feed and collect eggs while we were out of town.  The adults can handle him just fine, because he is still young and doesn't fly up very high to hit at you, with me he hits about knee level.  But, it scared O quite a bit the day he got her and now she hasn't really wanted to go in there when they are out free ranging.  If Rudy keeps it up, he might not last too long around here.  Then there's Dallas and Dixie, who are on their last chance to stick around here, too.  It's a good thing they are sweet and we love them, other wise they'd already be gone.  We got an automatic chicken coop door recently, so the door has a little motor that opens and closes it at the times we have it set to do so.  The motor is hooked up to a battery, which is also hooked up to a solar panel to keep the battery charged.  Well, after the first day of us using the chicken door, Dallas and Dixie thought the wires that they could barely reach near the roof of the coop looked just too good to resist...so they chewed through them.  That night the door didn't shut and when we got down there to check on it, we found out why.  The next day Shannon made the needed repairs and hooked up the door once again, with the wires well out of reach of the goats.  Then we started having trouble with the battery staying charged enough to power the door, which ended up being a manufacturer defect.  To make up for the defect, the company sent us a sensor that will allow the door to open once it's light outside and close when it's dark, instead of having to be set (since you need to re-set the times for opening and closing when the daylight hours change).  Well, we hooked that sensor up on top of the coop where it would get lots of light once the sun comes up, and waited for it to work the next day.  In the morning the door opened, but come that night it didn't close.  I thought for sure there was still a problem with the battery.  Nope.  The wires to the sensor were chewed through.  The wires that were stapled to the eave of the chicken coop roof were pulled out of the staples and chewed off in two 3-4 inch sections.  Now, I guess it's partly our fault for having the wires within reach of the goats.  You think we would have learned our lesson the first time.  But, who knew that goats would balance on their back legs and be able to grab wire that is tightly stapled along the wood eave, then pull it enough to remove the staples and then proceed to try to eat the wire?  Well- FYI, they can and will.  Don't leave ANYTHING within the (at all possible) reach of a goat.  They just can't be trusted.  For now they are all still here and part of our little farm, hopefully they can all behave themselves and it will stay that way!

Our first egg!

Imagine our surprise when we went out to open the chicken coop this morning and inside we found our very first egg!  Luckily B & O were done with breakfast, so I let them come with me to feed the goats and let out the chickens before heading off to school.  We fed Dallas & Dixie, opened up the chicken door, then I opened up the nest boxes to see if they had left them alone (they've been scratching all the straw out of the boxes lately).  Well, what do I see inside- in a nest box right where it's supposed to be?  An egg!  Right next to the golf balls.  "Golf balls?" Yep.  Chickens want to lay their eggs where they think they will be safe, so putting fake eggs (wooden ones you can buy at craft stores or feed stores) or even golf balls will help the chickens think others have laid eggs there, so it must be a safe spot.  Most chickens are followers- they trust other chickens and will do what they do.  If one pecks at something, the others will as well.  So, my little golf ball trick worked, and in the nest box were 2 golf balls and the very first egg.  B & O were so excited!  They each got to show the egg to their classes as I dropped them off and they were so proud!  We think it was the work of Trixie, a Barred Rock hen, since she is the oldest at 22 weeks (and the others are about 18 & 19 weeks) so we all gave her a little pat and said thank you.  Now we'll look forward to collecting eggs every day!

Here it is next to a grocery store XL egg for comparison...

Their first eggs tend to be small, and can vary a little in size as they lay more.  This one is pretty good size, though!

Here she is, Trixie, who we assume laid our first egg!

Have you met Charlie?

I just realized that I had not introduced Charlie to everyone!  How could I forget?  He was our first family addition after we moved in to this house.  He is our sweet boy, who plays a little too rough, but we all love him.  He's still a baby and still learning how to behave, but he is a wonderful addition and he would do anything to protect us.  He patrols the backyard every evening and loves to cuddle.  He just turned 1 this September and is still not sure what is a chew toy and what is mommy's shoe... but we're getting there.  ; )  We're thinking about the possibility of getting him a friend (of the canine variety) in the next few months or so...

This is Charlie when we first adopted him from the shelter, he was about 8 months old.

 

 He loves that when we're camping he gets to sleep with the girls.

 Then he tries it at home...  : )

 Here he is recently, just before his 1st birthday!