Drag Me Out!

The first two weeks of December had some days for the record books.  We started the month with some pretty good winds arriving from the south. While not the most fierce winds we have experienced. The wind had already knocked over my PVC pipe greenhouse a day or two after Thanksgiving. Those south winds brought in a lot of warmth and some rains. But one week after Thanksgiving (which was late in November this year), an arctic front flew in from the north and turned our weather upside down for this time of the year!  You can see based on our regional weather records that our temps went from the low fifties (F) down to almost five degrees above 0!!!  That's pretty darned cold around here. 

Here's the local weather chart for the first two weeks of December.

Day	Date	Hi	Lo	Wind Avg	Wind Gust
Sunday	12/01/13	53°	46°	11.4 mph	26.0 mph
Monday	12/02/13	49.9°	35.4°	4.9 mph	15.0 mph
Tuesday	12/03/13	39.8°	26.5°	2.2 mph	11.0 mph
Wednesday	12/04/13	35.1°	22.9°	3.8 mph	7.0 mph
Thursday	12/05/13	30.3°	15.6°	5.1 mph	15.0 mph
Friday	12/06/13	27.8°	21.5°	8.4 mph	18.0 mph
Saturday	12/07/13	26.3°	11.4°	5.6 mph	12.7 mph
Sunday	12/08/13	27.4°	5.7°	0.6 mph	4.6 mph
Monday	12/09/13	27.7°	9.3°	1.0 mph	4.6 mph
Tuesday	12/10/13	34.1°	23.4°	0.3 mph	3.0 mph
Wednesday	12/11/13	42.5°	19.5°	1.5 mph	8.1 mph
Thursday	12/12/13	39.8°	22.8°	1.0 mph	5.8 mph
Friday	12/13/13	44.2°	37.9°	0.3 mph	4.8 mph
Saturday	12/14/13	41°	33.3°	1.2 mph	8.1 mph

This was quite the test for our Four Little Russian Orloffs! 

I think we did almost lose them one night.  We had been using a 75W red heat lamp all night with a 40W white light coming on at 4:00 a.m. each morning. But as the nights just kept getting colder, the guys thought we should, perhaps, use the 250W red heat lamp (Saturday the 7th). Well, that was just too hot inside the coop and the next night at dusk, the four girls adamantly refused to be cooped up! At 8:00 p.m. the guys changed back to the 75W bulb, but still, the girls refused to go up.  Finally, at almost 11:00, I went outside in my bathrobe to try to entice the girls to go up into their coop with some mealworms. I was able to get three up there, but one, as hard as she tried, kept falling over. At that point, it was only 14F and I think she was too tired and cold to make the trek up the cold (now slippery) ramp.  I had no choice but to crawl into the pen, under the coop, scoop her up and push her up the ramp. I had already been out there for 20 minutes trying to Chicken Whisper them into the coop. My fingers were starting to feel frost bitten with that achy burning. When I grabbed Orange, aka Little White Wings,  to help her, she actually felt colder than my hands, so she had to just be freezing at that point! That next morning, the temps had dropped down to a little under 6F! I doubt that any of them would have survived outside that night, even huddled together.

We also think that some of the issue is the loss of ramp traction for the girls.  During the cold weather, the ramp has basically turned into a slide, especially in the mornings.  The skateboard grip tape isn't working in the cold. I picked up a couple of wooden yardsticks to cut up and staple onto the ramp. That new traction has been accomplished today and we will see if it helps Orange get up that ramp on her own power. 

So, for the rest of this last week, I've been helping Chicken Wrangle.  On Tuesday night, I ended up having to crawl into the somewhat muddy/poopy pen to chase down Red who had shooed Orange into the back corner.  Of course, Red, being the feisty one, was not happy with me trying to carry her out of the pen.  I ended up getting stuck as I was  backing out on my elbows and my knees, firmly holding Red with both hands. I got stuck just inside the pen's door and so D grabbed my feet to help pull me out of my stuck position. Finally, got Red into the coop and had to head back in to get Orange. It was a lot easier getting out with Orange since she's not so wiggly and squirmy. But, the ground was not yet frozen for the night, and I was a bit of a mess, by that time. Friends were asking me where the YouTube of this feet pulling event could be found online.  Um! Ha Ha! We don't have Night Vision Cameras for this potential Funniest Home Video :)

The rest of the nights, the three "big" girls have made it up the ramp on their own. Orange will make a half-hearted attempt to go up but seems to prefer to have me reach into the pen and either push her up the ramp or slip her into the coop's side door. What a silly little game. They all wait for us to get out there to insure that little Orange will have help, then they proceed to go to bed and wait for that day's Orange solution.

When we had the freezing temps and the wind-chill factor, we watch the girls' combs and wattles for frost bite.  Nothing yet. Their wattles are fairly well protected in their neck feathers and their combs are basically just slight little red bulges on the tops of their beaks.  Their feet seem to be holding up, also. 

I'm really hoping that the ramp's new ruler traction does the trick. And, if the girls try to use the ramp as a slide tomorrow morning, they are in for a very rude bum thumping on the way down!

The First Four-Egg Day

Yay. Four chickens and four eggs laid today!  Obviously, our pretty little Orloff girls were a bit slower to develop into full blown egg layers than some of the other breeds. We adopted them on the 3rd of May, they had to be at least a week old by that time, and while it was apparent that two of the girls were older (based by size) it was still way longer than 20 weeks to egg production, for all involved.  

This last chicklet didn't start laying eggs until (at least) 29 weeks of age!  Her eggs are darker, as well.  While still beige in color, the eggs are a deeper hue than the others. 

We have had a lot of wind, 20-30 mph with 50 mph gusts, the past week with temps in the 30s and wind chill into the teens and twenties. We don't have a lot of protection from the wind for them since their coop gets moved twice a week.  There is no way to buffer the winds in each new location. They have the ability to get into their coop during the day, but choose to stay outside at long as there is light outside. The coop is well protected from wind and rain. I do have a canvas panel though, that I could try to wrap around the pen on windy and rainy days (sideways rain) but they don't like things that flap around so that might be more stressful than useful. We will just play it by ear to see what/if anything else needs to be attended to, as we head into the winter months. 

Cold Nights and Warm Eggs

While the girls were a little slow to actually start laying eggs, they now gift us with at least 3 eggs every day, rain, shine or freeze. The temps have dropped down below freezing the past few nights and we are still receiving the gifts of 1.5 dozen eggs per week.  They seem to have no problem leaving their coop on the frosty chilly mornings. So, given the year we seem to be having, selecting the Russian Orloffs was a good choice.  But that's the nature of our area. Even when the temps are not yet freezing, our east winds create a wind chill factor that routinely drops the feeling of the air temps down into the 20F. But the girls truly don't seem fazed by the cold winds. It's all good and the eggs are great!  

We do still have a small heat lamp in the coop that comes on at dusk and turns off at dawn. So they have a little extra warmth at night, just in case. Then, we also have a 40W white light that comes on at 4:00 a.m. to add that extra little boost of light for them in the mornings. By 5 pm, it's totally dark here, now. So they really are only getting about 13 hours of light per day, but they are still laying. That's pretty good :) 

Fake Light and Real Eggs

Another of the girls has started laying eggs as of today. A little more than two weeks ago, one of the girls began laying eggs, but none of the others were so inspired. After some more "research" I realized that we just really were not getting enough sunlight during the day. I hope we have that part fixed now.

Today, I found a smallish, slightly blood smeared egg early in the morning, and another egg arrived around 10 this morning. It would appear that we now have two layers in the group.

Last Sunday (October 12) I added a small 40W bulb, on a timer to turn on at 4:00 a.m. in the coop. I set it to be on from 4 to 7:30 since some of our mornings can still be quite dark even after the sun comes up.

Essentially, this is week 26 for the girls. And my guess is that we just needed to add a little extra light in their day to activate their pineal glands for egg laying purposes.  Hopefully, this will do the trick and all four will be laying eggs soon enough.

Twenty Plus Weeks Equals Eggs?

Although, at least two of the chickens hit their 20 week point on/around September 13, I'm guessing that the other two had to be 20 weeks old around September 29. Yet, the eggs did not arrive until October 1. Or should I say "the egg."

I'm not sure if they were just confused because the nesting box had not been "finalized" yet, or if they are simply slower to mature (likely it's the latter). D divided up the nesting area into two smaller boxes on September 29, and two days after doing that, we were gifted with our first egg. Since then, we have received one egg per day. Cute little beige eggs that are getting larger each day.

As soon as the egg was discovered, we switched the feed over to Organic Layer pellets and added some ground oyster shell to their food to help encourage healthy egg laying. Hopefully, the other three will join in soon to contribute to our egg supply.

We had a series of events over the past few weeks that may have contributed to the egg delay, as well.  A little more than a week ago, around September 21, we had a pack of coyotes chasing a dog through our property.  I'm sure that this was stressful to the poor chickens since it was stressful for me hearing all those coyotes cay-yie and yelp in such close proximity to the house. Then, the week before, we were having water issues (heavy rain drain) leaking into the coop and drain into their feeder under the coop. We also had sideways rain, adding to the feeder getting drenched.

We purchased a waterproof army tarp to cover the coop and keep the heavy rains out (the floor is staying dry).  I think this will also help keep the coop warmer at night. We purchased some plexi-glass panes to create a wind shield on the door and also attached it on the side of the wire that the feeder is closest too.  Interestingly, the girls seem to like the plexiglass.  It provides shield and light for them, as well, while they are in their "yard."

Despite the heavy torrential rains that we had last weekend (we had record breaking rainfall last weekend), the girls stayed outside (in their yard) all day, each day. We have been moving their coop a bit more frequently since the rains have added to their quick destruction of the ground. Thankfully, we have plenty of areas to move their coop.

D is still working on the watering system.  The waterer has not worked out like he envisioned, but he continues to tinker with it each weekend in hopes of getting it to work.

That's the latest news.  The pictures of an egg and the nesting boxes are below.

Big Girls Don't Honk

As you can tell, it has been more than a month since I have posted anything. Partly because I have been busy with a lot of other things, but also because I have been waiting for some "good news" on the upgrades. First off, all the girls are big now. They are starting to sound more like chickens too. All except the one which sounds more like a goose. I think it's Blue, but I'm not really certain since they all kind of look the same now.

The first two photos are the girls approaching me to see what I'm doing.
July and the first weeks of August were hot, so I picked up some "sunscreen" for the girls. No more sun bird... uh, I mean, sunburn. haha
Their feathers are incredibly beautiful! They almost remind me of a mini Bald Eagle feather.... and they definitely are everywhere.
This is the new feeder system, below and above. A double decker feeder using PVC pipe and plant saucers. Hopefully, this feeder will be less "buoyant" as the girls tend to knock the other feeder all around as they fly by.
The girls have sauntered back to the other end to check on me again.
Another pix of the girls and a pix of the new watering system in the making. It's still not done, but it is going to have an auto fill system built in. It is still being tested and developed. If it doesn't work, we have another idea in mind.
	This last photo is one of the girls peeking at me around the edge of the coop, as if to ask "Whachadoin?"

As you can see, we have all been busy and the birls, I mean girls, have been growing. :)

A week of fireworks and other concerns

Darned Fireworks!  Not actually on our property, but, all around us for the past week (plus), we've been hearing and seeing fireworks literally every night. This totally stresses out the chicklets!  They are way more hesitant in the mornings to leave their coop, but they eventually do ramp down for the sunshine and fresh air. They do love their dust bath area. They do love their mealworm treat at the end of each day. They definitely are ramp trained to go into the coop each evening now as soon as they see their people.  Even when it is not evening, and I'm just working on finishing up a few things on the coop, Red or Blue marches up the ramp to check out what is going on up there. Red has become considerably more trusting, at least with me. And gradually is settling into her routine with the others.  She and Green seem to be best buddies.

Little peep and Green are getting their face feathers now, and it is becoming more difficult to tell them apart from one another.  There are a few distinguishing factors, but very minor.  I may pick up some ankle "bracelets" to help keep them identified. Or not.  I'm kind of torn on this idea.

It is interesting to see more predators on our property.  I don't know if we are just "noticing" them more because we are worried about the chicklets or if it is because there are more predators on our property and interested in our chicklets. In the middle of the night, the coyotes definitely sound like they are crossing "on" our property more this summer rather than off in a distance.  I'm torn on the idea about putting a monitor in their coop.... do I want to be listening in on chicken talk all night?

Speaking of Chicken Talk.... D asked a good question that I have yet to see in any of the backyard chicken books.... when do chickenettes start sounding like real "brack bracks"?  They are going into 11 weeks of age now and still they sound more like little peepers than the real deal. Granted, they are still young pullets, but they don't look all that young anymore.