Week 20; Day 6... Part 3

This thing is TINY!

And, for the most recent update.... we have eggs!!!

The girls were expected to start laying between 18 and 26 weeks of age, and as of the day we found the first, they were almost 20 weeks old. We still don't know for sure which one is laying, but we think it's Shelley (one of the ISA Browns). It IS a bit perplexing, though. The ISAs are supposed to lay brown eggs, and these are bluish-green, so we assumed at first that they were from Mama. However, after some research, I discovered that Brahmas are supposed to lay brown eggs as well. We still haven't eaten any yet; I'm trying to wait until we have enough for all of us to try them together.

Also according to my research, when pullets first start laying, the first few eggs will be as much as 3 or 4 days apart. But, so far, we've gotten an egg every day for the last 5 days. And I'm sure that at least the first four are all from the same hen; until today, each egg was progressively bigger than the previous day's.

In its 'natural habitat'...

Today, I kept a fairly close eye on the chickens, to see if we could determine who's laying. Mid-afternoon, I heard one of them making odd noises, and sent one of the the kids to check. He found an egg, still very warm, and Shelley standing over it, so we're pretty sure it's hers.

Because of the size differences, I'm turning the eggs into an OCD experiment, as well. For the first few weeks, I'll be keeping track of the eggs -- time of day laid, size and weight of each.

And that's about it for now. Don't worry, I won't be posting charts of the egg sizes, etc.; nor will I be posting photos of every single egg. I was far more excited when my husband found the first one than I expected [and continue to be excited each time we find another one], but not quite that excited. LOL

Compared to a store-bought egg.

Week 20; Day 6... Part 2

Tearing down the old pen

And now, for a change in the chickens' accommodations, and lots of photos that have piled up over the weeks.

My son helping out with the tear-down

The pen we built worked out just fine, but it did create a few small issues; the worst being that the low 'roof' made it impossible for anyone to go into the pen without creeping along, crouched as low as possible. I've also been sketching out the plans for their coop come spring, when we re-make the garage to accommodate them. I was planning on scavenging dog kennel panels to build the pen come spring; this will make it so that we can easily move it if we choose, and even better: regular-sized people will actually be able to enter the pen.

The kennel in place, just waiting for the coop to be moved.

I realized a couple of weeks ago that our neighbor had an unused dog kennel, so we asked to borrow it long-term (and perhaps buy it from them). It took some work to get it across the street, but with the use of the lawn tractor, my gardening wagon, a length of hose, and a half-hour, we got it done. The kids and I cleaned up the area along the garage, moved the coop, and arranged the kennel around it. I gradually added chicken-wire around the bottom half of the kennel, to provide a little added protection against predators (although I acknowledge that it wouldn't stop those that can climb), and so far, the girls love it.

And all set up

The new pen is at least twice as big as the old one, and the girls love having more room to roam around. Being up against the north side of the garage, they can find good shade no matter what time of day it is, and at least for summer, they can get plenty of sun as well. Whenever I go out to the yard, they rush to the door, hoping that I'll open the gate and let them wander.

They seem to have developed a fascination with the area under the deck. For the most part, it's not a problem -- there are plenty of weeds that keep popping up under there, and the chickens love tearing them out. But we also have to watch them a bit closely. The deck used to accommodate a hot-tub, and the 'pad' is still underneath. The chickens have taken to tearing at it, trying to rip it apart, and I don't know if they could hurt themselves on it or not, so better safe than sorry.

The sign came with the kennel, so we just left it.

The nesting box I made & attached to the inside of the coop.

Our friend's dog, intently watching Mama.

Week 20; Day 6... I think

I haven't updated in quiet awhile, mostly because I didn't want to share a whole lot of 'nothing to report' posts. There is now something to report. But first...... [this update will be split up into three different posts, so bear with me!]

My last post was about the meat-birds' demise, so I am now happy to announce: They. Were. DELICIOUS!! Two of them were made into the best fried chicken I've ever eaten (at least, in my opinion). The third bird went on the grill a few weeks later, cooked up with my homemade barbecue sauce. It was amazing. I wouldn't say that the meat tasted different than store-bought; it had the same taste, just a lot more flavor. Definitely worth the time and trouble, thus far. The fried chicken smelled so good that my oldest daughter (the one who vehemently protested the entire venture) wound up trying it. And then serving herself a couple of pieces. :)  Feeding two adults and four children, two entire chickens got almost entirely wiped out in one meal. I managed to hide two pieces in the back of the fridge for my lunch the next day, though.

Week 9; Day 4

Sitting in our living room this morning, my husband and I both heard a very strange noise. The dogs started looking through the house, trying to find the source of the noise. After a moment, David and I suddenly realized what it was: one of the chickens, trying to crow. I'm sure it wasn't loud enough to disturb the neighbors, but in a few short minutes, it seemed to be getting a pretty good grasp of crowing. So.... late this morning, we began the final step of the meat-bird experiment. To quote the Red Queen: "Off with their heads!!"

First, I will say: we did take some photos throughout the process; however, I have decided NOT to post them. I'm certain that someone would take offense and report it as a violation of terms of use. While I would like this to be a complete account of the experience, I have no desire to lose the entire blog over some photos. So, don't worry, no graphic photographic content here. A somewhat graphic description will be included; however, you will be warned before that begins.

Overall, the experience was not too terrible. I think it's safe to say that, assuming the quality of the meat proves to be superior to store-bought, we will most certainly make this a regular event. I was a little uncomfortable with the actual slaughter, but not as bad as I expected. I'm certain it would have been much easier on me if I had ever dissected anything. Until today, I had never, in my entire life, cut into an animal. It was a little..... unnerving, but tolerable.

From start to finish, the process took about 5 hours for all three birds. It probably would've taken considerably less time if we weren't learning while we worked; however, considering our complete lack of experience, it went very smoothly. There are only a few small points that we need to refine before the next batch. The chickens are currently residing in the refrigerator, to 'age' for a few days. I will then cut them up into fryer-pieces, and serve two of them as fried chicken for dinner on Thursday.

Do not continue past this paragraph if you have a 'weak disposition'; I am not responsible for loss of recent meals, nausea, distress, or revulsion. Continue at your own risk. I will elaborate on some parts of the process; others, not so much. If you want to know more specifics, I recommend reading "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens". We followed the steps detailed there almost to the letter.

In preparation for the day, we had discussed various methods of dispatching the birds. The most well-known method (an ax to the neck) also turns out to be the worst possible option; it severs the windpipe at the same time as the blood vessels, greatly increasing the risk of blood being sucked into the lungs and contaminating the meat. We opted for dislocating their necks, instead; a quick tug [until you hear the neck pop] and it's done. Quick and easy, right? Well, it turns out that this option is a very delicate one. We discovered this when the 'quick tug' decapitated the first one. However, as we later decided, it was still a good option. It was quick and painless to them, and removed the need to sever the blood vessels.

If you're wondering, yes, they did proceed to 'run around' like... well, like what they were. Much wing-flapping, and running around, for 15-30 seconds, then it was done.

We strung them up by their feet to drain the blood, then began the plucking process. A short dip into a pan of scalding water (to help relax the skin and loosen the feathers], followed by plucking out feathers by the handful. The first one took me 15 minutes (not bad, according to my research), the second [and largest] 10 minutes... and the last one took over an hour. For some reason, the scalding didn't seem to help much, and the feathers would break off, leaving the shaft still stuck in the skin. So I had to keep going over it with a pair of pliers to remove the pieces.

After plucking, we dunked the carcasses into a bucket of cold water to chill them before evisceration. At this point, we removed the feet; this meant a quick cut with sturdy poultry shears for each foot. The actual 'gutting' process only took about 10 minutes or so per bird, and turned out to be much less disturbing than expected. I'm sure this was mostly due to the heads and feet no longer being attached. It made it much easier to 'see' them as food, not animals; after cutting away the feet, they looked like any whole chicken you'd buy in the store.

The kids came home around this point in the process. Most of them wanted no part of it; however, the youngest was thrilled to watch me open up the last one, and remove its innards. She asked questions, identified the organs that she could (pretty much limited to "intestines"), and is still excited about eating them in a few days.

Also, a side note: it turns out that my husband and I were correct about the genders of all three chickens. As part of the evisceration, the testicles or 'mass of undeveloped eggs' must be removed as well. Both are inside the cavity, in the same location. The testicles look much like kidney beans, but white in color; the 'mass of eggs' looks like a sturdy, transparent bubble. The two bigger ones, with the large combs and long, dangling wattles were males; the smaller was a female. [This does not change anything; any meat-birds we raise will still be referred to as 'boys'!]

The necks, hearts, lungs, and livers were all set aside to make chicken stock. The gizzards are usable, too, but by this point, I was simply not up to taking the necessary steps to use them, so they were tossed into the 'offal' bag with the feathers and other unusable parts. [I re-used a large cat food bag for this; it worked great, so we will be saving feed bags for this purpose.] The newly-cleaned chickens were put into a fresh bucket of clean water, to lower the temperature further. After soaking in the water for about an hour, I transferred them to paper towels to dry. Each of them was then wrapped in an old dishtowel, and put in the refrigerator to 'age' for a few days.

Being ridiculously over-emotional, I fully expected to cry, or feel sick to my stomach. I'm happy to report that I did not cry, and didn't have any nausea whatsoever... until it was all over. I'd already scrubbed my hands 4 or 5 times, and was sitting down to relax for awhile. I brushed my hand across my face, and caught a whiff of something that my brain could only identify by saying, "Oh, nice. You smell like death." And enter, stage right, tears, nausea, and general disgust with myself. Hmph. Well, at least I wasn't trying to work through tears. It could've been worse.

And, that pretty much wraps it up. As I said, I'll cut them up into fryer pieces in a couple of days; one of them will go straight to the freezer, while the other two get prepped for cooking that evening.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or would like me to elaborate further on anything, feel free to leave a comment below.

Week 9; Day 1

My daughter's adventures with the camera. The is the
chickens favorite place to rest during the middle of the day.

I will never again tell anyone that the chickens won't bite. One of the 'boys' bit me the other day. I was giving them some wilted lettuce from the fridge, and they didn't seem terribly interested. So I would pick up a piece at a time and hold it out for the chickens to take. The girls took to the idea immediately, and would run up to me, grab a whole piece, then run away and drop it, just to run back for another. Two of the boys would actually peck at the pieces I was holding; they would pick off a small bit, eat it, then peck off another little bite. Then, the biggest of the boys decided that the little flesh-colored thing underneath the lettuce looked more interesting. So he tried to take a bite. Of my finger. OUCH!!! It didn't break the skin, but it left a mark for a few hours, and for the first few seconds, it felt about like having my finger slammed in a door. For not having teeth, those things can be vicious when they choose!

The rubber mat on the door to the coop is turning out to cause a slight problem: the chickens love to poop on it, so it gets coated pretty quickly. Luckily, I attached it to the coop using a door hinge. So, when it gets soiled, I can just pop out the hinge-pin, remove the door from the coop and spray it off. Clean door, without having to soak the chickens' pen and risk them getting wet and possibly sick.

Other than that, the coop arrangement is still working wonderfully. I didn't think any of them were even using the roost that I'd installed. But a few mornings ago, I went to let them out earlier than usual, and peeked in through the window before opening the door. Isa was perched up there, sound asleep. But the second I unlatched the door, she jumped down, anxious to get out to the yard. I really need to get their nesting box built, but I've been busy the last few days, assembling a shed that's been begging for my attention. That should be done tomorrow, though; if I have enough energy left, I'll try to put together the nesting box.

Today, we borrowed the 'tarp' from the coop for a little while. Then the rain started, so I had one of the kids rush over and put it back on, to make sure rain didn't get in through the windows. He threw the tarp across the top, and when it thudded onto the roof, the chickens all came running out of the coop, scared silly, and huddled on the other side of the pen. It was a few minutes before they calmed enough to brave the coop again, but I found it rather amusing.

Rushing to the fresh grit in the can.

The boys are now officially old enough to be 'dispatched'. We're pretty much waiting for both of us to have the energy and motivation to finish the job once it's been started; hopefully that will be by the end of the coming week. I have to fine-tune a few details for the procedure, but we've pretty much got it planned out [official translation: we've got a vague idea of what to do, and will adjust our ideas as we go. This doesn't always work out well, but sometimes it's the best way to do things. For us, anyway.]. I was considering taking photos during the process, but I don't really know about that. I don't want to take photos of the actual slaughtering, draining the blood, etc. *cringes*

"Hey, I think you dropped a piece. Don't worry, I'll get it.
And that piece. And this one over here."

Hmmm... chicken bites, chicken poop, nesting box, roost, blood, amusement... yeah, I think that's about it.

Essay

Our 7-year-old daughter is absolutely thrilled with us having chickens. When her teacher gave an assignment to write about a farm animal, she -- of course -- chose chickens. Her essay was so funny, I wanted to share it. Typos are included.

"I'm going to tell you about chicks.  There are 2 reasons that I'm going to tell you about them, that go together.  One, I got a prompt that said "write about a farm animal".  Two, I have them at my house.  They are furry, they have wings, and some are called different things than others, like Bramm, Cornich Rock, and Easa Brown.  Some are good for different things.  Some could be good for meat.  Some could be good for eggs. But you can't  let the meat ones get to big because if you do, they'll explode from heart attack.  I know this because my brother's friend had some chickens and his mother couldn't kill them, and then they exploded from heart attack."

Week 8; Day 2

Feeding time!!

Another long break, but there's been really nothing note-worthy going on. But a few new photos, and short updates today....

Whenever I refill the feeder, they push and
shove to try to get the 'best' of the feed.

The chickens have stayed outside since the first time they were put in the pen. It hasn't been too cold; the rain has been fairly steady for the last two days, but the coop seems to be working wonderfully at keeping out the water. Last night, I completely forgot to close up the coop. This morning, all was well; the chickens were thrilled with wandering out for a moment to scratch for worms, then rushing back inside to get out of the rain.

A few days ago, I went outside to open up the coop in the morning. It was already open; apparently, they managed to push against the door hard enough to pop the catch loose. I remedied the problem that day, with a spring-loaded hook-and-eye set; I installed another one to secure the gate into the pen. So far, they seem to be just what it needed.

Both ISA Browns are getting what one of the kids referred
to as "Amish beards". They look funny, but still cute.

The chickens need to eat grit for digesting anything beyond the bagged feed, so I salvaged an empty can [think the short cans from bean dip] from the recycling bin. Add a short length of dowel driven into the ground, and a screw to fasten the can to the end of the dowel, and voila! a grit feeder. It collects rain, but it takes only a second to pull the dowel from the ground and empty the water. They seem to love eating the grit almost as much as a fresh worm or a freshly-filled feeder.

The first night that it rained, the hinged roof-board warped horribly, but once it dried out, it flattened out again. We then salvaged a section of an old pool-liner to drape over the roof; my husband used a ratchet-strap to hold it down so that the wind can't blow it away. Problem solved.

Mama [the black tail feathers] knows she can't fit between
the boys, so she shoves under them to get to the feeder.

It's hard to believe, but there are only a few days left before we can plan the first slaughter. Depending on how well it goes, we may do all three 'boys' the same day. They're absolutely enormous; I can no longer pick them up easily -- they're simply too big around to get a good grip. The girls are getting big, as well, but nowhere near the same size, as you can see by the most recent photos.

All the chickens seem to be getting a little anxious about not being handled at all. I hope to be able to remedy that issue soon, as well. If we can put up more fencing along the back of the yard, we might be able to let them out into the yard for short periods. This will ONLY work with fairly strict supervision, though, as the girls will almost certainly be able to fly over the fence, and I do NOT want to have to climb fences into neighboring yards to rescue them.

I'm sure there were other small items I wanted to mention, but I can't recall any more at the moment. So, until next time....

Week 6; Day 4

The chickens spent their first night outside last night! I was nervous about it: not knowing if they'd be warm enough, the knowledge that there are raccoons around, etc... but I knew it would have to start sometime. I am pleased to announce that all is well; all six chickens are accounted for, and they were happy to wander out of the coop and start exploring their pen again this morning.

Now, to move backwards with news: the pen and coop are basically done. We still have a few kinks to work out, and minor details to deal with, but I can (hopefully) finish up with most of those today.


The door on the front is hinged, and acts as a ramp when open, so the chickens don't have to step up to get through the door. I attached a section of a rubber mud-flap to the ramp; this serves to help clean debris off the chickens' feet upon entering and exiting, and will also help give them a better grip to climb the ramp. Come winter, it will help seal off the entrance, and prevent drafts at their level of the coop. Ventilation is good (yes, even in winter); drafts are not.

Inside the coop is a wooden platform for the waterer, to hopefully keep bedding in the water to a minimum [so far, it looks promising!], and a support made from a wire hanger to suspend the hanging feeder [which can be raised as needed].

The roof is hinged, to allow us access to the inside, and slanted to ensure no rainwater collects on it. The backwards slant should also ensure that the rainwater runs off the back of the coop, rather than into the pen, possibly flooding the chickens' foraging area.

I used the location of the coop to help build the pen, attaching chicken wire to the deck, the clothesline pole, and the coop itself; I only needed to add a few fence posts to complete the task. It's not exactly a work of art, but it looks pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

Within minutes of being placed in the pen, they were busy flapping their way from one side to the other, picking up little pieces of yard debris, and happily scratching at the ground. The 'boys' [as we've taken to calling the meat birds] aren't going to be able to fly up and out of the pen; the 'girls' are another story. So I used them as my motivation to get the pen done quickly. With the predatory birds always flying overhead, I didn't dare let myself get distracted and leave them with no covering to the pen.

Using plastic garden fencing, and a length of thin wire, I attached the cover to the top of the pen. It seems to work wonderfully, and the chickens [hopefully] have no chance of finding a way out. This doesn't guarantee that a predator won't be able to find their way in, unfortunately; but that's something we'll have to watch for and try to prevent.

Immediately after finishing the cover, I moved the waterer and feeder to their places. The chickens either were too nervous about being in the coop, or simply weren't hungry or thirsty. They waited a full hour or so before they braved the inside. I'm sure it was partly the lack of bedding in the coop, too; I remedied that shortly after.

David and I had previously discussed the idea of putting up a few roosts around the pen for their use during the day; after some consideration, I decided this would not be a good idea. I don't want them to get the idea of sleeping out in the pen at night.


Just after dusk last night, we went out to get them settled in for the night. They were already in the coop, huddled together [for comfort, I'm sure, not warmth; it wasn't very cold out, and they had no problem wandering from the huddle to eat or drink]. We moved the heat-lamp out to the coop for the night, just to make sure they stayed as warm as they should be. After the first few nights, we'll see how they do without the lamp. At last check, there's a frost advisory for tonight [?!?!], so we may bring them in for tonight, but for now, they're enjoying the outdoors.

As a temporary measure, we attached 'mug hooks' to the door and the front wall, using a twist tie as a closure for the time being. We're discussing pros and cons of a couple of different permanent ideas for this, but for last night [and a few nights to come], the idea worked great.

And now, items that still need to be dealt with. These include: set up a roost inside the coop for the girls; build a nesting box [not necessary until they're ready to start laying, but good for them to be used to beforehand]; add the shingles to the roof [these are being salvaged from the old roof, so I need to dismantle them carefully]; decide on a permanent closure for the door; arrange a way to fasten the roof closed [it's highly unlikely that a predator could open the roof, but I'd rather be safe than sorry]; and the last item: correcting an idiotic problem caused by poor planning.

At the moment, the only way for anyone to get into or out of the pen is THROUGH the coop. Seeing as how I have no desire to climb into the coop and climb through the little tiny door just to get into the pen, I need to design and add a small gate to the pen. Granted, whoever enters will still have to crawl inside the pen; since the only solution to that would be putting forth the expense and effort to double the height of the walls... yeah, crawling will be just fine.

I have a few ideas in mind for the gate; the biggest part of it will be implementation. And, that being said, I should probably be working on that, rather than updating here, huh?

Week 5; Day 6 -- ESCAPE!

Mama finally decided to roost for awhile.

We finally had an escape attempt! Very short-lived, but an attempt nonetheless. One of the ISA Browns was roosting on the top of the hutch, and decided to make a break for it. She fluttered about 8 feet away before landing. One of the cats was right next to her; thankfully, one of the kids was also nearby, and grabbed her before the cat could do more than sniff.

The ISA Browns, exploring the world around the hutch.

We've also run across a slightly messy problem. When the girls roost on the top of the hutch, they sometimes sit with their heads pointed towards the hutch.... which means when they've gotta go, they go.... right on the carpet. Luckily, most of the time, they seem more interested in watching what's going on outside the hutch than in it, so it could be worse. I just have to keep a close eye on them when they're up there, so we can take care of any messes immediately. I would just put newspaper down around the hutch, but the other animals would just pull it up and play with it, thereby spreading any mess.

I've come up with a temporary change of plans for their coop. I'm a bit nervous about cutting into the wall of the garage without any real contingency plan for mistakes. Low budget means no room for error, therefore, I was thrilled when I got another inspiration. We have an old doghouse out in the yard that the dogs don't even use. The roof and floor are a little worse for wear, so yesterday I ripped the roof off so that I could spray it out and get it cleaned up. The next sunny day (supposed to be tomorrow), I'm going to replace the floor and the roof with some good plywood. We bought a roll of chicken wire, which we're going to use to enclose a section of the yard around the doghouse. I'm planning to raise and hinge the roof, give it more of a slant, build a community nesting box to attach to the wall, and replace the floor. I'm also going to made a hinged door to close off the entrance; we'll be able to leave it open during the day, and close it off at night to keep them safe. This should be more than adequate for all six chickens for a few weeks, and the three pullets until next spring, when we'll have a bit more leeway in the budget to do the garage idea.

I'm really hoping to get that project underway tomorrow, so that we can get them out of the house more often. They're old enough now, and have all their feathers, so we can start getting them accustomed to the outdoors, and soon they'll be able to stay outside for good.

Yesterday, I bought a copy of "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", which is supposed to be one of the best sources of information out there. So far, I'm impressed. I was a little leery about spending $20 for a book (if you know me at all, you know I'm a tightwad!), but from the little bits that I've read so far, I think it's going to be well worth it. It gives all kinds of information, from specifics about different breeds, hatching and caring for new chicks, to kill methods and how to butcher them. It even gives specific information on canning the meat!

Week 5; Day 5

Whoops, guess it's been a bit longer than I thought. I had to pull up my calendar to calculate which week & day we're on. I haven't had much motivation at all in the past few weeks, though, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

The chickens are doing wonderfully! The first three photos are from April 11th. They're absolutely enormous, and getting noticeably larger every single day. They've also seemed to become very well adapted to being handled. Originally, picking them up entailed reaching in and chasing one around the hutch till we could corner it. Now, all I need to do is slowly put my hand into the hutch, and they (usually) will just sit there and wait for me to pick them up. The Cornish Rocks still HATE being picked up, but they don't mind being petted; considering how large they are, I'm sure it's a little disturbing to be held. The only safe way I've found to actually pick them up is to place both hands around their bodies, so that their wings are pinned to their sides. Otherwise, they flutter their wings and claw until we put them down.


Shelly and Isa [pronounced ee-sa] are still absolutely fascinated with fluttering up to the edges of the hutch. I'm not as nervous about it as I was originally. They seem to have realized that getting out might not be the best idea, and seem perfectly content with roosting up there for awhile, then hopping back in. They have become obsessed with dive-bombing the others when they jump back in, though. They seem to take great pleasure in choosing a 'target', and jumping onto its back to make them all run around and shriek for a moment.

Mama and one of the Cornish Rocks

At some point last week, I realized that we may have another problem. I was originally convinced that the Brahma was a pullet, since she was chosen from the bin of 'sexed' pullets. However, I realized that we have no reason to believe that. Brahmas were NOT part of the intended selection in that bin; therefore, it could've been one that was 'sexed', is a pullet, and was accidentally placed into the wrong bin... or it could've been a 'straight-run' chick that was accidentally placed there, and could be either a pullet or a cockerel. Adding in the fact that the Brahma seemed to have no real interest in the roost, and I realized that 'she' could very well be a 'he'. The last couple of days have mostly alleviated that concern; in fact, she has spent the last half hour on the roost, preening and napping. It is still a very real possibility; however, until I confirm otherwise, she will still be considered a 'she'.

Last week, I had to 'upgrade' their feeder and waterer. I simply could not keep up with how quickly they were emptying the smaller ones; also, the low edge of the waterer encouraged them to sit on the edge, invariably leading to droppings IN the water, which meant cleaning out the waterer at least 10 - 15 times a day. The new one has a much higher lip around the edge, which discourages roosting on it. The chickens' shenanigans also guaranteed that a large portion of their bedding would get thrown into the water, which also necessitated cleaning it out.


Unfortunately, the new waterer didn't help much on that aspect; however, I placed a couple of short lengths of 2x4 into the hutch as a base for the waterer, which has helped immensely! The new feeder has a sturdy wire 'handle' which can double as a hanger; a dowel run through the bars of the hutch, across one of the corners, has worked out wonderfully as a support for it. I would like to come up with a design to hang the waterer, but I'm not sure if/how that might work.


With the addition of the hanging feeder, the chickens have taken to sleeping under it. This is not an issue, but occasionally, it leads to a slight panic during my random head-counts. "Oh, no, there are only five -- where's the other ISA???"

I can't change their bedding with them in the hutch anymore; they're simply too curious and hyper for me to work around them. If it's a warm, sunny day, I'll transfer them to their playpen outside for awhile; if not, I have to move them to a laundry basket. As you can see by these photos, from April 20th, in another week (at most), they'll be too large to all fit into one basket. I also have to divide my attention between changing their bedding, and watching to make sure the cats and dogs stay away from the basket!

No matter where they are, as you can see, Isa and Shelly adore roosting wherever they can. I realize now that I have a lot less time to get their coop set up than I thought. They've shed almost all of their down already, and I don't know how much longer they'll all be able to handle being in the hutch all day. So, I guess the next project is getting that room in the garage cleaned out, and getting it set up as their new home.

It rained all morning, but the sun came out a couple of hours ago, so I'm hoping that the grass will dry enough to take them outside for awhile. And, that being said, I think I've run out of things to say. So, I'll leave you with more photos, and a reminder to leave a comment if you have any questions, suggestions, or anything of the sort. :)

The 'big boy' -- the largest of the Cornish Rocks.

Isa going for a stroll around the top of the hutch.