New Egg Layers, Introducing Our Roosters, Christmas Chicks Update

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

1 Corinthians 3:9

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Lots of fun stuff going on at the farm.  We are blessed today more than ever and we continue to grow our farm and our relationships with our Lord Jesus Christ.

The weather has been cold lately.  The past week or so we've had a lot of cold and wind.  Today has been bitterly cold with some sleet coming down in spurts here and there, sometimes pretty heavily, but, fortunately, nothing sticking so far.  The next couple of days are expected to be much the same as a winter storm moves across a huge amount of the country.  I'm grateful it hasn't been more than it has been so far and I pray it doesn't get any worse.  I hate winter weather.  I'm ready for sunny and 80 degrees, sitting outside enjoying the summer breeze, flowers blooming, gardening, evening campfires and all that!  That is my kind of weather!

The small egg on the left is the first egg from our newer flock.

We board up the nesting boxes to make them inaccessible until the chicks start showing signs that they'll be laying soon.  This just keeps them from roosting and pooping in the nesting boxes before they realize what the purpose of the nesting boxes is.  A couple of the pullets in the second flock started squatting last week so my husband took the boards off of their nesting boxes so that they could get comfortable with them before they started laying.  Then this past weekend, we got our first egg from this flock.  It was laid on the floor of the coop.  It was small, but that's normal for a new layer.  They usually start off laying small eggs, sometimes even without a yolk, but the eggs continue to grow into "normal-size" eggs.  "Normal-size" depends on the breed of the chicken.  They may stay on the smaller side or they may be jumbo size eggs.

The day after we got this pretty dark brown egg, we got a light tan colored egg, again, laid on the coop floor.  We've continued to get eggs from these two chickens every day since the first one was laid and they have continued to be rotated in the same order of darker brown one day and light tan the next day.  They did start using the nest boxes, though, after the first eggs were found on the coop floor.

I'm now working to try to figure out who is laying what.  There are nest box traps that we could build, but I really don't want to do that.  Without that option, patience is what I have to use.

I am checking the chicken coop often to see if I can catch a chicken in the act.  I was able to find the layer of the tan egg: a Red Ranger.  She was in the nest box laying her egg when I went to check on them.  I shooed the rest of the chickens out of the coop and closed the door so she would be separated from the rest of the flock.  Once she laid her egg, I caught her (a pretty easy task for a chicken that's squatting) and tagged her.

I previously purchased a pack of colored leg bands from Amazon.  There are 5 different colors in the pack.  I've used these leg bands to mark which chickens would be used for meat and which had a possibility of staying.  Now I'm using the bands in a combination to tell which chickens are laying which eggs.  The first chicken got a green band and a yellow band, both on the right leg.  My records then indicate that green over yellow (like a fraction) on the right leg lays a tan colored egg.

I haven't caught the other chicken in the act yet, but when I do, she'll get her pretty jewelry too and her laying record will begin.

Once we have finished culling the rest of the meat birds, I am going to try to consolidate down to one chicken coop.  Right now we are just using our chickens for eggs and meat so there's no selective breeding going on and, thus, no reason to have everyone separated.  It will be much easier for me to take care of the chickens and it will take less time if I can get them all into one coop.  When we get to a point where we want to start selectively breeding our chickens, we will figure out what to do then to make that happen.  But we aren't there yet.

The problem with moving all the chickens in together is that there are multiple roosters.  Right now we have 4 roosters and we would need 12-15 hens per rooster if you're keeping multiple roosters.  That would be about 4 dozen eggs a day.  I just don't need that many eggs.

Unnamed Asian Black Rooster

We have an Asian Black rooster that's been raised with Oreo, our Cuckoo Marans rooster, but we have the unnamed Asian Black up for sell with 2 Asian Black pullets so, hopefully, they will all be sold soon and taken to their new home.  He is a beautiful bird with all black feathers that glisten green in the sun.  He's gorgeous!  But he's not the dominate rooster in the flock and I like the Oreo better, so the unnamed Asian Black rooster has to go.  So, if he doesn't sell, he'll likely be going to freezer camp.

Fred, our Easter Egger Americauna Rooster

Fred is another rooster we have.  He's an Easter Egger Americauna and he's got 4 Easter Egger ladies in the coop with him.  He was given to us over the summer from a friend that isn't allowed to have roosters since they live in city limits.  He's a sweet, gentle rooster and he sure is pretty.  He looks like an Americauna, but he is a mix-breed between what I assume was an Americauna or an Easter Egger Americauna and another colored egg layer so he likely has the gene to produce green or blue egg layers.  I really want certain, true-blue egg layers so I'm not sure I'll keep him since I don't know for sure which color gene he posses and it would be a lot of work just to find out it's not blue.  Another issue is that Fred's ladies aren't laying well.  I have discovered lice in their coop.  I treated it with Diatomaceous Earth, but it hasn't got rid of it completely, so I sprayed the coop down with Permethrin, sprayed some on the chickens and now I'm waiting once again to recheck them.  If they start laying after the lice is taken care of, then I'll probably get rid of Fred and move his ladies in with the other two flocks when I move them into the one coop together.

Hei Hei, our Rhode Island Red Rooster

Hei Hei is our Rhode Island Red.  He is one of the original 10 chickens we bought at the beginning of April 2018.  Even though he is a breed that is known for aggression, Hei Hei is a very sweet boy.  He is protective of his ladies, no doubt about that, but he isn't aggressive towards them or towards humans.  He is gentle with his ladies and does a great job of keeping them in line.  He is, however, a chaser.  When I walk by his coop and his outdoor run, he runs right along beside me.  As long as you're not running or walking too fast, he will leave you alone.  I'm a fast walker.  For this reason, I'm glad he's contained to a pen.  And, if he weren't contained, he would chase the boys all over the yard.

When I take treats out to Hei Hei and his ladies, they all flood to me.  I throw some treats behind them.  The ladies all rush to get to the treats, but Hei Hei comes to me.  I then hold some of the treats out to him in my hand and he gently pecks the treats, never pecking my skin.  Once the ladies eat all their treats and see that Hei Hei is getting treats, they run over to me and I repeat the process of throwing treats behind them.  I've tried letting the ladies eat out of my hand, but they are so rough!  They peck the treats as well as my skin and it's not fun.  Well, maybe it's fun for them.  Not so much for me.

Oreo, our Cuckoo Marans Rooster.

Oreo is a younger guy than Hei Hei.  Hei Hei was likely hatched at the end of March or so.  Oreo was hatched more towards the end of August or the beginning of September.  Oreo is just now coming into his Manhood....or, rather, his Roosterhood.  He has now starting to crow and his behavior has made it easy to acknowledge that he is the dominate rooster in his flock.  He is gentle with his ladies and will quietly mount them when they squat for him.  He isn't aggressive towards humans either.

When he was little, he loved to be snuggled and petted.  He was the boys' favorite chick because of how vibrant his barring was and because he begged for their attention.  He would fly right up onto their shoulders or backs or even on top of their heads when they would come out to the coop with me.  Now, that he's a big boy, he stays at arms length.  He often roosts on the outdoor roosting post and watches over his ladies.  He stands tall and proud with his gorgeous draping tail feathers.

A couple months ago, the chicks busted out of their run and went on an adventure free ranging in the yard.  Oreo made his way over to the neighbor coop where Hei Hei and his ladies live.  Hei Hei didn't seem to mind being nose to nose with Oreo, but Oreo would fluff up and act all crazy.  I'm hoping this was just his hormonal teenage self and that it won't be a problem when I put them all together.

I'm still researching the best way to introduce them.  I'll let you know how all that goes when we get there.

Christmas Chickie Babies and 2 1/2 weeks old

Meanwhile, the 2 remaining chicks that hatched out on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are doing well.  Now at 2 1/2 weeks old, they are going through their "ugly" phase as they shed their down and start to feather out.  They are flying all around their brooder, playing, pecking, and doing their chicken things.

One of them has developed a cross beak..  This is my first time dealing with this issue.  I've learned that most people cull chickens with a cross beak chick and, honestly, I likely would if it weren't for the fact that we only have 2 of chicks.  They share a very close bond and I hate the thought of the other chick being lonely.  So, I'm keeping a close eye on the cross beak chick and watching for signs of malnutrition.  Somehow, it is eating and drinking because it's keeping up with the size of it's flock mate just fine.  Preening, I suspect will be an issue.  If it can't preen, it may be susceptible to bugs and parasites.  I'll have to figure out how to deal with that when the time comes.  For right now, though, I'm just watching and keeping an eye on things.

As far as birds go, we are down to just chickens now as the ducks are gone.  The female Pekin duck went to live with a couple that has 2 other female Pekins and a creek for them to swim and play in.  The Black Runner and the Rouen drakes went to a lady that wanted ducks for her pond.  I believe both of the homes are going to be fantastic and the ducks will be happy with their new families.

Well, that's what's going on with us.  Now that I've got y'all updated, I'm going to go watch some football with these boys of mine.  Hope you have an incredibly blessed week!