Chicks in the Henhouse

In all of the excitement over Piggy, I almost forgot about the big chicks day out!

 Batch #1 was moved out to the turkey pen three days ago.  We put them in the corner pen to test their size versus the wire.  The rest of the birds have been doing well staying in the snow fenced area of the garden around the greenhouses, but I wanted to know I could lock them into the turkey pen if these little ones start causing trouble. 

 The little pen also gives them a chance to meet the bigger birds without getting beat into submission.  The hens were very interested in the newcomers.

The chicks seemed happy scratching through the dirt and enjoying the sunshine.

Yesterday I opened the little doorway halfway.  The chicks can now come out into the big, wide world, but the older birds should have a hard time getting into the little pen.  So far, so good.  No chicks in the garden.

Hatchery Update

Yes, I do believe my adventures in incubating are now successful enough to call it a hatchery!  Batch #3 started hatching last night, and we are at 10 chicks so far.

We moved the incubator out to the new coop after the last batch because it was too hot in the house.  Not too hot for the chicks - the heat of the incubator and heat lamp was too hot for the people!

It's a more streamlined process now, with new chicks going straight from the incubator onto the floor of the pen.  There's no overcrowding, and lots of noise from all three batches of chicks.

I believe we'll be ok to do one more batch outside this year, then probably back in the house in September.

The first batch is almost big enough to move outside now.  I have a few repairs to do to the greenhouses after a bit of a wind storm the other day, and then I think it will be safe to relocate them.  (It's safe for them now, but not for my veggies!)

The second batch is doing well, although I'm surprised by how much colour their showing.  Most of them have at least some black feathers, and a fair bit of red.  Few are solid white.  These are offspring of my crossbreed chantecler/frey's dual purpose hens, same as the first batch.  I think the younger ones were laying more eggs when I started this batch than the first.

The new batch are from after the chanteclers went outside, using eggs from all of my hens with the alternate rooster.  I'll be keeping the whiter ones and offering the rest for sale.

Egg production is up to at least a dozen per day, sometimes as many as 16. 

The black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) are really paying off.  I'm feeding one coffee can of BOSS and one coffee can of scratch grains per night.  They get one 500mL sour cream container scoop of sprouted barley in the morning and forage through the day.  Although the BOSS are more expensive to buy, they don't require as much feed this way, so it actually saves me money.  I plan to continue with it through the winter, which I hope will increase egg production and over all health.

Eggs will be saved for incubating over the next few days, and batch #4 should be started by Monday.

Chicken Update

The first hatch this year, started in April while our temps were still up and down, produced 13 chicks out of 42 eggs.  A 31% hatch rate. 

All of them are doing well.  They're almost completely feathered, and starting to fly up onto the nesting boxes.

They're growing really fast, too, like creepy meats.  Their vitality impresses me.

I discovered after they hatched, when the feed store was closed, that the leftover chick starter I had from last year had gotten wet and molded.  These chicks were started on scratch with no additives.  They're busy little foragers right from the get go.


Hatch #2 yielded 20 healthy chicks out of 24 eggs, for an 83% hatch rate.  I think I hit the sweet spot on the incubator.  One additional chick got stuck on the way out- part of another shell stuck to his egg.  I gave him some help, but I don't expect him to live.

They moved to the coop this morning. 

I'm only feeding this batch scratch as well.  The floor is covered in weeds in both pens, and of course, bugs are readily available.

Both of these batches came from the chantecler mix pen that I hatched last year, with the second smallest combed chantecler mixed rooster.  Most are mainly white, with one red tinted chick in each batch.  A few have a few black wing and tail feathers, and I expect will look more like the Frey's dual purpose rooster I started with last year.

Since egg production is down right now, it'll be about a week before I start batch #3.  That will be a mixed breed hatch with a chantecler cross rooster- the smallest, but pointed combed rooster, and eggs from all hens.

We butchered 8 roosters.  I love the chanteclers.  The white feathers and light coloured body turn out very clean carcasses.  The red roosters have very yellow skin, and their quills leave noticeable marks.  It never bothered me before, but it was somewhat surprising to see the difference.  I didn't weigh them, but I would guess they were all in the 6-8lb range, almost as big as the Frey's roosters.

The red and Frey's roosters also had a lot of fat on them by comparison, leading me to believe the chantecler crosses have a better feed to meat conversion ratio.

We ate one. Delicious.  The meat is so juicy and tender.  The flavour isn't dramatically different from any chickens we've raised ourselves before, but definitely juicier.  I've always preferred dark meat, because I don't care for the dryness of the white.  With these birds the white is as juicy as most dark meat.  The bird easily made three meals for 6.

For the time being, I will continue with my crossbreed experiment, but in the future I plan to add more purebred chanteclers to my flock.  What's not to love?  Heavy meat birds, taste delicious, brown eggs right through the winter, great foragers, good feed conversion, pullets lay early, no frost bite, excellent winter hardiness...  These are the birds I was always meant to have!

Spring Update - Calves

Dorie calved - May 30, 2015.

It's a boy.  Tagged, but not yet castrated.

Nelly calved - June 3, 2015.

Another boy, not yet tagged or castrated.

Mindy calved - June 13, 2015.

Not even a picture.  Not sure if it's even been sexed...

Bugs - Not too bad this year.  Very light on the blackflies.  Mosquitoes heavy in the mornings and early evening.

Weather - Beautiful and warm.  Rain was excellent in early spring, a little scarce now.

Chicks - First hatch - end of May.
            - Second hatch - June 26, 2015

Chickens - all extra roosters butchered.  I bred the first two hatchlings with a roo with a smaller comb and fewer points.  The rooster I kept has the smallest comb, but more points.  I figure I'll have a bit more genetic diversity that way, while keeping in line with my overall goals.

Hens are all moved to the garden pen now, with extra space around the greenhouses.  I bought snow fence for the vines in greenhouse #3, and then decided to section off half the garden for the birds since the weeds were going crazy.

Egg production was amazing in early spring, but dwindling now.  I believe it's insufficient protein for most of the birds, and too hot in the chicken coop for the chanteclers.  Since they have free access to lots of greenery, I'm buying straight black oil sunflower seed for them now, to boost their protein.  Hopefully I'll start seeing the difference soon.

Greenhouses - Lost some brassica transplants, and the pumpkins haven't come up yet.  Otherwise progressing nicely.

Garden - started late and not doing well with lack of rain.  Peas are good, beans are just starting to come up.  Only half the garden has been tilled, so I didn't plant nearly as much as I had planned.  Weeds, of course, are doing fantastic.

Wild Edibles - Lamb's Quarters - Oh My...  Why haven't we been eating these all of our lives?  Delicious! They grow everywhere, so easy.  Tastes like spinach.  I pull them while I'm weeding, pluck off the upper leaves, rinse and cook.  And cooking- so easy.  I just toss them on top of whatever I'm making for supper for the last 5 minutes or so.

Cadets - #2 leaves for camp on Monday.  He'll be gone for 7 weeks as staff, have a blast, and come home with a tidy paycheque.  #3 will be going to the same camp, at Base Borden, for three weeks in July.  #4 will be going to Trenton for two weeks in July.  We have one more cadet night this week, and I have to finish next year's training plan and send it in by Tuesday, and then I am off for the summer.  May and June were much busier for me than I usually allow, which is partly why I'm so behind and disorganized now.

Quads - the other reason I'm so far behind.  Both Husband's and my Quad went in for repairs at the beginning of May.  Husband picked them up yesterday, not fixed, and took them to a different place.  Nothing against the first place, just personal circumstances and he doesn't have time to do the work.  But it's the end of June and I haven't really started on firewood or manure yet, so I really, really, need my baby back.

Eggs!?

Well, there you go folks, another pro for the Chanteclers. 

I went out to the coop yesterday to do chores and there were NO eggs.  Ah well, with only two old girls laying, every day can not be an egg day. 

As I fed, watered, relocated an ornary rooster who jumped the wire, I noticed two of the younger hens settled into two of the nesting boxes.  I didn't think much of it- I wasn't even hopeful.

And then, as I went about tossing in grit and oyster shell, one of those younger girls hopped out of the nesting box.  Look what she left behind!

Beauty, eh?

The strangest thing is; that's a full sized egg!  So, maybe the two old girls haven't been laying right through the winter.  Maybe some of those younger girls have been laying right along with them.

I did get one small egg back toward the end of January, I think.  I figured it was a 'fart' egg.  I've never had pullets start laying in the middle of winter, regardless of age.  Those chanteclers:  trickster northern hens!

I now have this sudden urge to go out and buy a bantam rooster.  If I could get these girls to set their own eggs, they would be the perfect chickens for a northern farm.

The Rest of The Chickens

The older mixed girls- Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, unknown, red, and meat hens- are showing feather loss, frost bite damage, and are definitely stir crazy.  They continued to lay through the winter, so I will keep them for eating eggs.

Frost bite damage was not severe on the wattles and combs this year, but there are three hens with lost toes and lameness.  I'm not sure that there's anything I can do about that, as it probably happens over night on their perches.

I do believe I've achieved the right body count to room size for the hardier birds, so now it's just a matter of weeding out the less hardy birds.

This is one of the lame hens.  The other is a red.  I'll be butchering them before the others go outside.

There are a few younger reds and a black that I will keep for eating eggs this summer.  They seem to have made it through the winter unscathed, they just aren't what I want for breeding.

There are 8 roosters who need to go in the freezer.  Most of them are the same colour and weight as the Frey's special dual purpose roosters that I had last year, and should be good eating.  Three of them are red and lighter (two in the picture above).  They may need a bit more time to bulk up.  I'll move them outside with the eating egg hens once the snow melts.

My plan for now is to have 30 potential chantecler cross hens for next winter, and two roosters.  Of course I'll probably have chicks too small to butcher or sex yet in the fall, but I'll deal with them when the time comes.

Breeding Stock

We moved all of the whites into one pen.  There were two roosters in with them that I moved out.  One was an original rooster, the other an offspring, both with large combs and wattles.  There are 13 whites total now, including at least two younger roosters with smaller combs and wattles.  There might be a third rooster with even smaller comb, or it might be a hen with a larger comb.  It's still young enough to keep me guessing.

This pen will be my breeding stock, unless or until I can find a nice roo with small comb and wattle.  Hopefully a chantecler rooster unrelated to my girls.

I am very pleased with my cross breeds.  They haven't started laying yet, which is one of the reasons for the move.  They all survived the winter, and compared to the other hens, almost thrived.  They are well feathered and fluffy, and heavier than all of the other hens.  No frost bite damage, which is clearly visible on some of the others, and such a calm demeanour after all of these months of being trapped indoors.  The reds in particular seem to be a little stir crazy.

I have two buff coloured hens from the second batch of chicks.  They're healthy, heavy, and have small combs.  I didn't move them in with the whites, although I am leaning toward including them as breeding stock.  If it weren't for their colour I would have included them as chantecler crosses.  They may be, and just happened to get their colour from their dads.  It is the small combs, heavier weight, heavy feathering that I want in my flock going forward.  If that white that I'm not sure of turns out to be a hen, I may remove her, since her comb is bigger.

For now the whites are being spoiled - all of the scrap buckets with egg shells, sunflower seeds daily, fodder daily, as well as their regular feed.  I want to bring the younger ones in to lay as soon as possible.  The older girls (the moms) continued to lay through the winter.  Once I start getting 5-6 eggs per day from them I will start saving them for the incubator.

I will also split them back into two pens once I deal with the rest of the birds.

The Girls

Moved in for winter.

The reds and barred rocks- the only ones laying right now.

The whites- Chanteclers and crosses.

Each with a chantecler cross rooster.  I know, I know, inbreeding...  But they aren't big enough to butcher just yet.

 The third batch of chicks.  Sexable, but too small to do anything with yet.  I figure another month before I'll have to separate them, by which time, hopefully, the boys from the first batch will be ready to move into the freezer.

And the babies.  I think they'll have enough room to stay together until spring.

I still have four roosters outside.  One of the older roosters, and three from the first batch.  I'm hoping to put them in the freezer before it really snows, but I may have to move them to the old coop, depending on weather.

The geese are also waiting outside, though I do have a pen for them in the new coop.  They're just enjoying the last of the garden eats before they have to survive off grain and fodder for winter.

We've had a few snows now, but nothing sticking, and temperatures still fluctuating.  A lot of rain, too.  Roads are flooding all over the place.  I could have left the birds outside for a bit yet, but I didn't want to have to move them all by myself in the snow one morning.

Last Batch for 2014

My last batch of chicks for 2014 has hatched- 11 more balls of fluff.  One more black (barred rock cross), and two more reds.  The chanteclers are great producers.

They look dead, but they're just napping, lol.

I think I have too many chickens for the winter coop.  The four main pens should hold 8 hens plus a rooster each.  The fifth pen is smaller.  I think I'll use it for the geese.

So, space for 36.  I have 15 chicks from the last batch, 11 from this batch,- all too little to do anything with, and too many roosters!  Ten original chickens (8 hens, 2 roos).  And 9 chicks from the first batch that aren't quite big enough to butcher.  45.

9 heads need to roll.

The older roos, the red hens, and the barred rocks will be first in the freezer.  I need to get a new rooster next year anyway, for fresh blood lines.  The smaller birds can double up a bit for now, and then I'll need to butcher the younger roosters through the winter as they get big enough.

Free Chicken Feed

So simple...

A few days ago I watched this video.



How easy is that?  I went to Lawton's site, watched the full video, and the follow up videos.   So easy.  When the chicken's free ranged they were always digging through the compost piles.  It never occurred to me to give them their own compost piles after we beefed up their security.

#4 unloading a trailer of heavily worm infested compost.

We've always given the birds the kitchen scraps, and weeds.  I've done the maggot buckets- meat in a five gallon pail for flies to lay their eggs on.

Building up a nice pile of barnyard waste.

 I've given them sunflower seeds, sprouted trays of barley, wheat, and lentils.  I've given them ant infested logs and the occasional scoop of doggy stew.  I still pay way more than I want to for grains.

Minutes after we left the pen.

And all this time, the answer was right there in front of me.  Free for the taking.

Happy birds working their way through a free lunch.

So sad that I didn't see this earlier in the year.  I'll be aiming for a grain free summer next year.  For this year, I'll watch and see how long a pile of manure keeps them entertained. 

One More Batch

After selling the last batch, I put another 29 eggs in the incubator. Despite some temperature fluctuations this month, 17 chicks have hatched so far.

Chicks just hatched

Chicks moved into box with heat lamp

Most are happy, healthy, energetic balls of fluff.

The first black chick (barred rock cross)

We even have one black chick- bigger than most of the yellow chicks.  This should be a barred rock cross.

But then, there are a couple of chicks with issues, that are unlikely to survive.

Issues- this chick hatched with a dark goopy string across it's back.  It's smaller than the rest.  The goop is drying up, but I think it might be intestine or something not properly developed.

Issue #2- this chick has it's head stuck to a chunk of shell.  It's not walking and the others are picking at it.

Again, I will leave the incubator on today, but I think they're probably done.  59% hatch rate.

Chicks in the Coop

The new chicks are moved in to the coop.  They seem to have strong primal instincts.  They chase down bugs and scratch through the weeds like nobody's business.  I've never seen such a vigorous bunch of hatchlings before.

Even the damaged chick is doing fairly well.  Most of the shell is off his back, although I notice now that he has something- egg liner maybe- stuck to one side of his face.  It kind of looks like a dry patch of skin.  It's covering part of his eye.  Hopefully it will peel off soon.  I tried to lift it off gently, but it's wound into his fluff.  Still, he's a spunky little thing!

11 eggs were left unhatched.  I broke them open and all but two were at least partially developed.  Two looked like they should have been ready to hatch with the others, but didn't.  All of the partially developed chicks were dark coloured.  I wonder if there might be something wrong with the barred rocks.  All of the chicks that hatched are light coloured, or red tinged, only one with dark spots.  It seems odd to me at least.


UPDATE:  I sold the chicks!  July 30th, all of them went to the same home.

The New Hatch

They weren't due to start hatching until Monday, but Friday night the first chirps were heard.  We actually thought one of the older chicks had gotten loose and come up to the house at first.  Then I realized my eggs were chirping.  Quickly out of the egg turner and onto the screen.  Three eggs were already pipped and all three hatched that night.

Saturday morning there were 6, then another 3 throughout the day.  Sunday morning the incubator was overloaded with balls of fluff.  11 went into the box beside the incubator.

There are 17 now, with 11 eggs left unhatched.  I'm going to give them another day before I shut the incubator off, but I think they're probably done.  61% hatch rate.

The last chick to hatch had a hard time of it.  Part of someone else's shell got stuck to his shell.  I don't know how long he had been trying to break free when I noticed it.  I peeled off the extra shell for him, but his inner shell had already started drying out.  He managed to break free, but there are bits of shell stuck to him.  He's kind of wobbly on his feet too.  I don't think he'll make it, but time will tell.

With this hatch I added a small dish of feed inside the incubator.  The shells provide all the feed they need for the first 24 hours, but the last batch didn't seem to be eating until about day three.  I thought putting a little feed in the incubator with them might help.  It seems to have worked.  This batch is off to a good start eating and drinking lots.

Now I know I should quit for this year- that's a lot of chicken to feed this winter- but an empty incubator makes me sad.  So I advertised this batch on kijiji.  Oh!  Maybe I'll make some money...  I'll start collecting eggs for another hatch...