Miscellany Monday, March 14, 2016: Musical, Date...and Missing Eggs!

This past weekend Elisabeth and I were blessed to have a "date" with my dear friend Vicki and her daughter Sophie.

We first ate supper together at a local fresh Mexican place.  (I have never been there on a Friday night before, it is apparently the place. to. be.  Everybody and their brother was there Friday night!) 

Our next stop was to see a musical that Elisabeth's sweet friend was starring in.  We had a great time!

Never mind the 4 year age difference, Sophie and Elisabeth have always been big buds.  Their time together almost always involves painting nails, so it was fun to do something different!


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From a high of collecting about 18-20 per day, our total per day had recently dropped and we were only collecting about 10-14 per day.  Hmmmph.

The girls were getting enough food, water, light.  What was up?!?

And then Lily Kay came running in one afternoon this past week, "Mama!  You are NOT going to believe it!"

She had stumbled upon this stash of eggs that was tucked into a neglected corner behind the shed:

Thirty-one eggs.  31 EGGS!!!!!

I was so bummed and upset.  The thought of having to throw all those eggs away made me sick.

But then I remembered the freshness test I'd read about: put eggs into a bowl/cup of water to see if they float or sink.  Sink, good.  Float, throw away.  And it hadn't been hot those days, and we don't have a rooster anymore (he attacked us one too many times), so they weren't fertilized.

So we tested the eggs one by one over the next couple of days as we needed eggs (we go through LOTS of eggs here!) and they all turned out to be fine.  Phew.  

And you can be sure we are checking around the back yard extra good after that little episode.



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For Christmas my friend Kathy (or "Dr. Kathy" to our kiddos) gave Jas and I a gift certificate to go out to supper....AND a handwritten note stating that she and Dr. Matt would babysit the children WHILE we went to to eat.


Why it took me 2.5 months to get this scheduled I have no idea.  The kiddos have been chomping at the bit to play with Dr. Kathy and Dr. Matt!

Everyone had just as much fun as was expected.

We intentionally left the animal chores so that the kiddos could "teach" Kathy and Matt how to do the chickens and cows.  Gabriel got his boots on the second they arrived and was rather impatient to get out there and show them.


I got the low-down on the night's agenda later...

After animals the children and Dr. Matt jumped (and jumped) on the trampoline until they all got sweaty.  Then they took showers/baths (we had church the following morning, so I was so thankful they took care of this!).

And then...they finally ate the supper I had waiting on all of them.

Then it was time for the babies to head to bed.

THEN...the big kiddos had Kathy and Matt all to themselves, which they had been waiting for!  They had big plans for all the games they were going to teach them and play with them.  They ended up doing origami, making paper airplanes, and playing Love Letter.

We arrived home right about 9 p.m.  Needless to say, our four were not happy to see us, and wanted us to turn around and leave until about midnight.  And Kathy and Matt weren't in a hurry to leave, and they stayed for another 45 minutes or so after we got home, to finish their dramatic game.

It was a wonderful evening all around.  We are so blessed to have Dr. Kathy and Dr. Matt in our lives!



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We love our local library.  Love!

We know they librarians by name, and they know us.  One of them has been there long enough to see us add (and add more) children to our family.

The new manager has been there for about a year to a year and a half now.  A young (so young!) woman who is so sweet.

Abigail has gone from always being worn in the Ergo on my back, to being corralled in the stroller during our entire visits...to finally being allowed to walk in the library.  Someone is usually assigned to her while we're there, though.

This past visit, I thought I would just keep an eye on her and see how she did without someone assigned to her.


She pretty quickly took a book and toddled inside the big center desk of the librarians, and was very happy to plop herself in Mrs. H's lap when the manager invited her:

I loved, loved the library when I was a child.  I thought it was a magical, wonderful place.  I pray - and believe - my children feel the same way.

Chickens Are Not Vegetarians

The proud claims of "Vegetarian Fed" on cartons of *expensive* eggs always makes me shake my head.

A few minutes after I let the chickens out the front of their coop to free range for the remainder of the day, Elisabeth called out excitedly to me, "They are fighting over a dead frog!"

So what did I do?  (of course)

Grab my camera and start snapping away.

A New Hampshire had the frog when I first got out there.

And they all had quite the game going.

Tag.

Chase.

Tug-of-war:

And they were all moving fast.

Photographic evidence that when left to their own God-given devices, chickens are not vegetarians.

A Black Australorp got it....

...and quickly ducked under the wooden fence to the front yard...

...where she could enjoy (ew!) her "prize" in peace.

But when she saw G and I coming, she took off again, before I could tell her, "Ms. Hen...

"...I *promise* I do not want to take your prize away from you!"

When I posted some of these pics on FB - along with my amazement at the "Vegetarian Fed" claims -  a (super smart) acquaintance who runs a CSA had these insightful words to share:  

It is supposed to indicate they have not been fed chicken parts, chicken litter, or other CAFO waste in their dark, crowded, hellish barns. It ends up catering to ignorance because chickens are omnivores. They should just label it "only fed stuff chickens should eat" or "not fed chicken parts or poop"... our food supply is so messed up. God help us.

Here here, and amen.  Yes, God, please help us.

The Evolution of a Chicken Coop

This is our chickens' cozy home:

I am just a little in love with our coop...and I think it may be the cutest coop east of the Mississippi, because, well...I love it!

But it took quite a bit to get it into working order, because prior to us moving in, it was a neglected playhouse, that you could hardly see:

As crazy as this may seem, after we moved in our children never played in it...it gave them the heeby-jeebies.  

The first order of business was to whack down all the bushes surrounding hiding the playhouse.  

And then one weekend, the first winter we were here, Jas (and all his helpers) got to work on the inside.  

It went from having a loft and ladder...

...to NOT:

Because the chickens didn't need a loft, they needed roosting bars:

First two roosting bars installed

They also needed nesting boxes.  

Well, they don't actually need nesting boxes, but if we'd like for them to lay their eggs in the same (safe) place everyday, then they need nesting boxes. (Hint: some of our punk chickens still don't lay in there anyway.)

My smart hubby repurposed wood from the loft to make nesting boxes.
What they lack in beauty they more than make up for in PRICE!

Installing the new boxes

There are all kinds of formulas that you use to plan a coop.

The "experts" say...

- Chickens need 3 sq ft per bird in the coop.

- Chickens need 8-10in (some sources say 12 in) of space per bird on the roosting bar.

- Your coop needs one nesting box per 3-4 birds, some sources say every 5-6 birds.



We don't meet any of these guidelines.  And you know what?  Our birds are healthy and producing quite well.

We have almost the amount of roosting space we should.  But all the birds cram up together on the top two bars...totally ignoring several other bars.  So much for that rule.

And we knew from friends who keep chickens that they would gang up and only use one (or two) nesting boxes...so we didn't feel the need to have TEN.  Four has been fine.

Ta da!  The slanted roof is so they can't land up there...and poop.

The chickens get outside everyday (more on that later), but we also provide food for them inside the coop.  I have about 100 different DIY chicken feed recipes pinned, but one of our local feed stores now carries GMO-free chicken feed, so we just buy it.

This New Hampshire didn't want to wait its turn

We also hang a water bucket from the rafter inside the coop:

This is a 5 gallon bucket we repurposed to water the chickens.  Jas installed five "nipples" on the bottom.  The chickens just peck at the nipple, which pushes up on the silver part, and water dribbles out.  We add a splash of (raw) apple cider vinegar to their water. 

I'm showing this picture again because it shows the nipples closer up:

Also in the above picture you can kind of see the setup we ended up coming up with under the waterer.  The chickens were messy with a capital M with their water.  Extra water would end up under the waterer, keeping the shavings and the floor underneath soggy...not good for a wooden floor.

So Jas ended up creating a kind of platform under the waterer,  a screen (repurposed from the brooders they lived in as chicks) on a base outlined with repurposed bricks.  We had a shallow bucket under the screen catching the water for a while, but it needed to be emptied out pretty regular, and it. was. gross.  So, Jas cut a hole right in the floor of the coop, for the water to just go right through onto the ground outside.  (I though this was rather drastic, but hey it works...and hey, I certainly didn't want to clean that yuck bucket, so...go Jas!)




I don't have any pictures of this, but the playhouse was already setup with electricity.  (Yes, the original owners set up a rockin' playhouse for their daughter!)  The reason this is important is that chickens slow down or cease egg production in the winter, due to the decreased hours of sunlight.  Unless they received at least 14 hours total of sunlight in a 24-hour period, they won't produce.  You can turn on supplemental lighting in your coop to "trick" the chickens' bodies into still producing eggs.  Some people say that eggs should really be a seasonal item, and that we shouldn't "trick" their bodies...this is a natural process and they need the rest.

I would normally agree with thinking along those lines.  BUT...we just bought these chickens in May, and they were JUST starting to lay when the hours of daylight started decreasing.  These chickens needed to start giving us some eggs, by golly!  Feeding and taking care of them for 5-6 months with nary an egg got old.  Enough was enough!

So Jas has the electricity set up on a timer (approx. $3) to give the chickens the extra light they need.

And it is working!  Our record so far is 20 eggs in one day.  15-18 a day is what we're getting right now.  Just in the last couple of weeks have we gotten to the point where we don't have to buy eggs anymore.



I mentioned that the chickens get outside every day.  They were totally and completely free range for quite a while.  And I liked having them run around, and it was so cute when they would run to greet you in the backyard, expecting a treat of apple cores or such:

Running toward me

What wasn't cute?

Chickens EVERYWHERE.  And therefore, chicken poop everywhere.

They were in the frontyard, crossed the street to the pecan orchard across the street....

...and were all over our neighbor's yard also.  (They never complained, but I felt bad)

One day a school bus had to stop because of our chickens in the road:

And then we started losing chickens to predators.

And they started laying eggs, but would lay them wherever they wanted to, instead of inside the coop.  

And I got tired of chicken poop all over the driveway.  

And then....we finally understood why most chicken owners don't let their flock TOTALLY free range.  We're quick like that.

So, we did what I thought we'd never do: we built a chicken yard to confine our chickens.  Except they aren't "confined", they just now have boundaries.

Jas - and lots of helpers - installed t-posts and chicken wire out behind the coop, inside the pasture.  (The chickens have a little door that we slide open/closed to let them out back, and a ramp with grippers, but they usually just fly up and down)

A supervised all the goings-on

The chicken yard is 1,600 sq feet, so it is an ok size...and it has definitely cut down on us losing chickens.  

From the original 37 chickens, we are down to 27.  (And one is a very mean rooster, so we have 26 layers.)  

After getting some input from other chicken owners we know, we usually let the chickens out to totally free range for the last two hours every day.  They then put themselves back to bed (roost) when the sun goes down.  This gives them some time to free range, but they usually don't get too far 

afield during that window.  

Since installing the chicken yard, we haven't lost any more chickens to predators...but we have lost two chickens during this "free-ranging" time over the past 2 months.  Both of them - at different times - drowned in the cows' water trough.  

Just...yuck.

The chickens did have to get used to not being able to free range all day...and we had some escapees for a while.  To ensure the chickens didn't fly out of the chicken yard, we clipped their wings.  

Well, one wing on each bird, to be exact...so they would be lopsided if they tried to fly.

It doesn't hurt them...and doesn't take long at all.

You just fan out their wings, locate the "flight feathers" and give them a quick snip:

I have dreamed of having chickens for years.

This has been such a learning experience.  I am grateful for all we've experienced, from the fun parts....

....to the not-so-fun parts.

It feels like a special gift to me from the Lord that He has allowed us to do this.