Chicken Lady

It's official (and very redneck). I am known as the chicken lady...

Locked Up

Interesting week on the chicken farm.  Travis got locked in the chicken coop.  I have to say it.... "Travis, I told you so."  I JUST asked him if he would fix the coop so we could get out from the inside because I was afraid I would get locked in.   The girls' water turned over during the day and apparently they were getting dehydrated.  Travis, being the good chicken father he is, was trying to hurry to fill up the water so the girls wouldn't pass out when "WHAM" the wind blew the coop door shut.   Ooops.  At least the girls had water, but Travis had other problems.  Equipped with absolutely nothing Travis searched the coop... "surely there is something in here I can use to get out" he thought.  After climbing through the tiny door the chickens walk through to get inside the coop to sleep, and crawling around inside the tight space he realized "oh, that door is locked too."  He wiggled his skinny butt back out of the tiny door into the "run" and searched for, in his words, "MacGyver tools" to maneuver his way out.  He tried to use a piece of rope poke through the wire, to swing around to the latch, to catch the hitch to open the coop.  That didn't work.  (Shocker.)  He thought about yelling out to the neighbor across the street, but that was too embarrassing.   He the found what he describes as a "chicken toy" (the chickens don't have toys by the way, it's this wire contraption that I put lettuce in for the girls to eat out of) and ripped it apart piece by piece, twisting each wire piece together end on end to push through the chicken wire on the door, to catch on the latch, to raise it and lead him to freedom.  It actually worked.   The girls were happy to get him out of their space and Travis delightfully sent me a text that stated, "Got locked in the coop, MacGuyvered my way out."  Oh Travis, I would happily be locked up with you. 

Heat

It is so hot outside I'm afraid I might find a fried egg in the nesting box soon. It was 112 degrees today which is ridiculous! I've been giving the girls ice water for the day and cold cottage cheese when I get home.  They must not be too stressed out because everyone is producing eggs. Everyone. 5 eggs a day. I must stay though, I am a little disappointed. Miss Bunny finally started laying and her eggs are NOT colored. That's the whole reason I got her and NAMED her after the Easter bunny.   However, I am very proud of her for producing an egg in this heat.  Her eggs are a light cream color.  Spot it in the pic? Maybe it just takes a while to work up some color.  We'll see. 

Fresh EGGS!

Business is booming!  Well, it would be if I could sell these eggs for $45 a dozen.  We'll have to if we're going to make up the cost of this fancy chicken coop... Le Coop DeVille.  The girls are popping out eggs left and right, 4 a day to be exact.  Someone is slacking.  Based on the colors, the slacker has got to be Miss Bunny.  Ameraucana chickens are slow to lay (sometimes) and lay color eggs.  I have no colored eggs.



4 eggs, 2 golf balls

Because the girls are doing so well, we celebrated with yogurt and cheese.  Don't worry, no one has runny poo (please see prior "yogurt day" post).  The poo is fine people!  I gave them yogurt because they like Yoplait.  Ok I also gave it to them because I can't give them the layer feed yet because someone isn't laying and I can't switch feed too early.  SO...the yogurt and cheese is giving them come calcium to make their shells hard.

Soft Shelled Eggs

Hold the phone people, we've got an emergency.  At least that's what I thought tonight.  I thought Dottie was dying. She was standing there like a statue, panting.  The poor girl didn't even attempt to eat a single mealworm I put in front of her little, dotted beak.  I was prepared to stay the night in the coop.  "Maybe she's just hot," I thought.   It was a chilling 104 today, so went to the garage to grab the big fan.   I wasn't even gone for one minute when I come back to find a soft egg in the nest and a broken egg on the ground.   Then I really started freaking out. (Thus, no photos of the broken egg).  I knew someone was stopped up because I only got one egg yesterday.  So what did I do?  Google.  There was no time for backyardchickens.com.  Well Google says it's too dang hot. (Shocker.)  I'm going to post what I read.  Don't feel like you have to read it. I'm only posting it for my future reference in case I forget.  Here's a picture of the egg, well membrane...

In younger hens, sometimes an egg stays in the shell gland for too long and the egg that follows it doesn't spend long enough. In these circumstances, the two eggs are laid closely together on the same day.

Thin egg shells can occur on hot days when the temperature rises. This is associated with a lower food intake and shell thickness will return to normal when the temperature drops and the food intake returns to normal.

A 'soft shelled egg' is one that has a membrane but no shell. Most people immediately think that Oyster shell grit is what a hen needs if she is laying soft shelled eggs but a dietary deficiency can also be the cause of a ‘soft' shelled egg. Whilst chickens need calcium in their diet which can be provided by soluble grit (such as Oystershell) to form egg shells, sufficient calcium can usually be found in modern formulated poultry feeds. Chickens need the correct level of protein in their diet as well as minerals and various other vitamins. Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) for example is used for the metabolism of calcium and phosphorus so that they are able to form egg shells as well as strong bones. Vitamin D is found in Cod Liver Oil but they shouldn't normally need this if they are fed the correct formulated layers feed, are free range and have sunshine on their backs.

Soft shelled eggs laid once in a while are nothing to worry about. Hens that are at the start of their laying period, or have come to the end of it, often lay a soft shelled egg.

If diet doesn't seem to be the problem and soft shelled eggs are being laid regularly during the middle of a laying period, then there could be a number of reasons for this:

• Inflamation of the oviduct (and there isn't anything that can be done about this as far as I know).
• Calcium absorbtion problems (if the diet is correct and oystershell grit is provided ad-lib then there is sufficient calcium available but it cannot be absorbed correctly by the hen).
• Stress. The problem usually goes away once the cause of stress is removed. Keep an eye out for bullying, especially if it is occuring around the nest boxes and you are finding the soft shelled eggs outside of the nest boxes.

From:  http://poultrykeeper.com/egg-problems/soft-thin-or-missing-egg-shells 

Switching gears...

I realize this is a blog about my sweet baby chickens, but I'm switching it up just this once because I have created a monster...a monster of a garden. 

Small widdle plants

Ahhhh!!

The start of the overtaking

Bohemith size tomatoes



Manageable

What?! 65 tomatoes today?!

I had to do something with them

The girls like tomatoes too

The versatility of an egg...

What am I going to do with all these eggs?  Well, well my friends...the EGG can be used for so many things.  Think about it.  You can scramble it, fry it, hard boil it, soft boil it, make deviled eggs, poached eggs, scotch eggs, steamed eggs, tea eggs (look it up, its weird), egg souffle,  eggs benedict, egg salad, and sunny side up eggs.  Did I miss any?  Oh wait, there is quiche, omelets, frittatas, egg casseroles, egg drop soup   You can put eggs on a pizza, on a sandwich, on a salad, in stir fry, in a breakfast burrito (my fav).  Eggs are in almost every cake, cookie and pie known to (wo)man.  In addition to ALL baked good, there is egg custard, creme brulee and... wait for it.... EGGNOG.
You can use eggs in an egg toss contest, go Easter egg hunting, let one rot in the car of someone you hate.  I'm talking endless possibilities.  So don't ask me what I'm going to do with 5 eggs a day.  I've got options people.

By the way... there were TWO eggs in the nesting box today!  Ginger was in the nexting box around 11:00 this morning.  Two hours later there was an egg.  I let her have her peace while laying.  Her egg is on the right in this first picture and is slightly larger than the other mystery eggs. 

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They have produced 6 eggs I ate one and Cora Grace took the one she found.