Early Polar Vortex 2014

Our area (as was a lot of North America) was it with an early Polar Vortex due to a big storm out in the Pacific Ocean. Not much snow, but a lot of wind, ice and freezing rain for us. The first day of the storm never got above freezing and we were caught somewhat unprepared since now we have two coops running at the same time.  The older girls' coop did not have any "technical" issues since we had gone through much of this last year with that coop style. Their A-frame pen area is protected from the North-East winds and the canvas tarp helps protect the coop level from the freezing rains/snows.The hens tend to stay in the protected area of the pen and are outside most of the day, even in freezing temps. They are fine with the temps. They hate the wind, though.

As you can see from the larger view around the older coop, we still have patches of frozen ice pellets that have yet to melt, despite the temps warming into the 40s [F] today. The killer is our east wind that drops the air temps down below freezing.  You can't see it in the photos, but the plastic panel on this (east) side of their pen is actually still layered with ice.

The newer hens are still acclimating to the sudden cold temps. They have been voicing their complaints with chortles and short yelps. We purchased some clear vinyl table clothes to cover their run.  We have a long runner on there now that covers most of the pen.  We doubled up the shade fabric and have it along the north side (other side) to protect them from the wind along with a large white plastic panel over the gate to their pen which is facing the east right now.  What we did NOT anticipate was their access door to their coop being frozen open with about one-half inch of ice. After that happened, we have added a plastic tarp over that portion where the pen connects to the coop to keep it from happening again.  The younger hens spent less time outside during the storm.  I think that, with time, as they adapt to the east wind, they will spend more time out in their pen. They definitely spent a lot of time outside today since they get more "overhead" light in their pen with the very clear vinyl tarp. We have attached clips on the outside of the pen for the hooks on the bungee cords.  So far, the tarp has not blown off, so that's a Good!

Whoops ~ She's a He!

Whoops!  Okay, so I guess I was right in thinking I might have a rooster this year. But when I realized we had a Buckeye in the middle of our young Orloff flock, I pushed my analytical observations aside, with the assumption that everything I knew about Orloffs would not necessarily come into play with a Buckeye pullet.

I sold the Buckeye along with my overload of Orloffs.  The spur buds had not gotten larger nor were the "tell" tail saddle feathers coming in. After all the photos that I had checked on Buckeyes, I sold the chicken  with the belief that she was a pullet but she was a bit "pushy" and my flock of Orloffs don't take kindly to that much pushiness.

Out of the blue I received a plea to help re-home one of the chickens we had sold four months ago.  Turned out that the Buckeye IS a rooster. I was advised that he got considerably larger recently and also started crowing at the crack of morning. He's going to be a beautiful Roo.

So, back to the farm came Beckyrue. Currently in quarantine and wondering "What Jus' Happened?"

No Tar with Those New Feathers

The hens are growing their feathers rather quickly now.  One of the gals definitely will have more spangles this year. With the feathers developing so quickly now, perhaps in a week, we won't even know that they were almost bald two weeks ago.

The "main" hen who thinks she's All That and More is back to attacking the hand that feeds her.  I had to kind of "return the favor" after she bit me hard enough to form a welt. She didn't think I would push her around with a backhanded swat to the chest.... That and a deep voiced "No!" seemed to let her know that she's not the top chicken in the coop. She still has a couple of straggly tail feathers hanging in. It could be that she's a little embarrassed by her less than perfect appearance. She's the hen in the front, closest to me in the middle photo as well as the last photo below.

The first two photos let you see the feather shafts and new neck feathers on the other hen who molted the most severely. You can hardly tell that she was so straggly little more than a week ago.

All in all, they are re-feathering nicely.

Some Feather Fill-In

Another update on the molting as changes occur.  The one hen that lost all the feathers around her neck and face is starting to get more feathers now. She really is a sight for sore eyes, and she almost seems angry that she's in the situation. But if you look closely (my apologies for the photo quality today) you can actually see the feathers sticking farther out of the little shafts and the feathers on her wings and tail are much longer today.

Other Things Happen around McCackcaul farm

The de-feathered hens are receiving a handful of mature mealworms a couple times per week. But they are not eating ALL the mealworms. Some of the worms are turning to pupaes then beetles, so the circle/cycle moves around with time. I keep each group separate. The pupaes, as they form, I pull out of the main tub and put them into a little container inside of the tub. I do this to keep the air the same moisture for the pupae, but the container gets checked once a day for newly hatched beetles. Beetles are placed into a fresh tub for breeding for about a month, then they all are pulled out and fed to the  chickens as a tasty treat. This way, no beetles eat up the newly forming larvae (mealworms).  :) When the mealworms get to their mature size, they sound INTENSEly like a bowl of rice crispies with a cup of milk.... They are eating/pooping machines that produce a lot of castings which end up on my garden.

Speaking of garden, the tomatoes are ripening to the point of needing to share the bounty. This was a great year for them. We have three types growing in five gallon buckets on our back deck.  Having them close to the house keeps the deer away.  In one of the photos is a shot of my little garden plot with a kind of futureistic cover surround to keep bunnies, deer and goats out. Too bad it doesn't keep out the slugs... ugh! But, the slugs don't get into my tomato plants!

Full Grown Mealworms

Pupae ready to hatch into beetles

Beetles ready to mate

The Giant Apple Tomato

Giant Belgiums Ripening

Green Giant Belgium

Bonnies - look like large Strawberries

Lots of Sweet Mojos

Heavy Branches hang down to the deck

Fresh Picked Tomatoes

Fresh Sweet Mojos

And those are just some of the other events happening on our itty bitty farm.

Mir-egg-ulous

Just as miraculous as the development of the feathers on a chicken is the development of an egg! The pullets are heading into their egg development stage. We have our first egg from the new batch. Smaller and with thinner shells, the new eggs taste just as egg-cellent as our others. Here's a photo of the new egg compared to the eggs we received from our first chickens. The one in the middle is not as big around nor as heavy as the two on either side.  Pre-moult, one of our hens laid "short squatty" almost white eggs while the other hens lay longer, skinnier eggs that are a pale beige color.

Once the pullets are all "laying" we will start adding oyster shell shavings to their diet and take them off the higher protein developer food and onto a low protein supplement known as layer pellets. That will probably be in a week or two.

For now, we have only received two eggs from the new group after twenty-three weeks. Yay!

Worse for Wear and Chicken Feathers in Development

Last Thursday, they didn't look worse, but after a very hot weekend, they have lost a lot more feathers. HOWEVER, I do see some feather tips pushing through the little shafts.

I wanted to learn more about how feathers develop in birds and came across an interesting article online.  "A feather develops from a follicle, which is found in the dermal and epidermal layers of the skin. To me, the way the bird’s skin cells are able to develop a large, primary feather, complete with shaft, barbs and barbules is one of those miracles of nature. While a feather is actively growing from the follicle, there is one artery and one vein that runs through the feather to support the growth. Once the feather has reached the full size, the blood supply is no longer needed and the vessels shrivel up. However, the follicle maintains a blood supply in the skin." (Quoted from  birdchannel.com) 

I was able to get a good close-up of this happening on the neck of one of the hens shortly before the all started pecking at the camera. So, one of the gals is hard hit by the new feather development, one is so-so, and the third is just now starting to lose her down feathers, but the majority of her feathers are still intact. You can see all three and their various stages below.