A Chicken Named Stinky

21 March, 20131 January, 2017 ~ Grace ~ 25 Comments

With the exception of our barn cat incident, we have had an uneventful chicken raising experience, up until a couple weeks ago……

It was dark and VERY cold the night I went out to shut up the coop and realized a chicken was missing. I called for her and looked around with a flash light, but there was not much I could do at that point. So thinking she had found a nice place in the barn to spend the night I shut up the coop and went in. The next morning I fully expected her to be standing at the coop door wanting in,… but she wasn’t… After collecting eggs I started searching, and after about 20 minutes (beginning to worry I’d only find feathers) there she was! She was stuck behind some chain link gates that were leaning against a rock wall, alert but making no sound. Just quietly hanging there with one wing above her head and her feet dangling off the ground. I couldn’t get her out by myself, so Digger came out and lifted the gates up while I pried her wing out of the gate. I immediately started inspecting her injuries when my husband politely asked me to move out from between the rock wall and the stack of gates he was balancing for her retrieval.

Day One: Chicken Hospital

She was very cold but alert. One of her legs wasn’t working so she couldn’t stand at all, and the one wing seemed tender. We took her into Diggers shop and set up a “chicken hospital”, and she immediately started eating and drinking. As cold as she’d been I figured when she warmed up she would bounce right back. But that was not the case.

Later that day in the nice warm shop, she wasn’t looking so good. We tried to get her to walk by tempting her with scratch. She really wanted it and would try to stand, but would just flop over, and then give up. In spite of all this, she LAID AN EGG that afternoon!?

Day Two: Discussions

She still wasn’t looking good the next morning….maybe worse. She was now sitting on the floor with one leg strait out in front of her and the other stretched out behind her. It looked painful and she was not even trying to get up. Digger and I had a few discussions that day that sounded about like this:

Digger: “Do you want me to wring her neck?”

Me: “Well, I don’t know……..let’s see how she’s doing later today”

Digger: “Just let me know, I’m not sure I like having a chicken in my shop”

A few hours later…….

Me: “She doesn’t look so good, maybe we should put her out of her misery”

Digger: “She’s still alert and she doesn’t look like she’s giving up, maybe we should give her a couple days?”

It went back and forth like this all day.

Day Three: Stinky Chicken

By day three she was not so affectionately being called “Stinky”. This was Diggers idea…. (He was the one stuck working in the shop with her.) Lets just say the name suited her well! She spent most of the day sleeping, yet seemed alert and very interested in whatever nibbles were presented to her. Despite not being able to move, she managed to lay another egg, but still wasn’t looking so good. The discussions continued until that evening when Digger paused to tell her she was going to be soup if she didn’t buck up soon, (the smell was getting to him). As if on cue, she pulled her legs up under her body and tried to stand. I guess she didn’t want to be soup.

Day Four: No Chicken Soup

A good day! She kept her legs under her and even took a couple steps. Digger managed to get her to roost for a couple of minutes on the handle of his forge. It was hard for her to grip and balance, but she managed it. It was amazing how amiable she was to all our fussing and fiddling with her. I was finally convinced that she was going to make it, so I put my soup recipes away. 😀

Day Five

She was now standing up and taking very slow, careful steps, but still sleeping most of the day. Digger did the math and realized the replacement value of all her eggs should she die would be well over $200.00, but was still anxious (to put it mildly) to get her healthy and OUT of his shop!

Day Six

Slowly getting better, walking a little more. When it got dark out she started looking up for a roost. (It’s a wonder how she knew it was getting dark with the shop lights on for hours after sunset, and only two small windows she couldn’t even see.) She hopped up on a little tool box wanting to get higher but had to settle there for the night. It was nice to see her trying to act like a chicken again.

Knowing she couldn’t go back with the other girls until she could balance on a roost all night, we kept encouraging her rehabilitation. Digger would place her on the handle of his forge several times a day, and even shaped a tin to hang from a higher handle that she could only reach from the “roost”. She became very determined to stay up there when a pinch of scratch was dropped in the tin.

Day Seven

It was a nice day out so we took her outside to get some fresh air!! The other hens seemed happy to see her. She hobbled around and nibbled at grass but was soon worn out.

Day Eight

Spent most of the day outside. She couldn’t keep up with the rest of the girls but was VERY happy to be outside. 😀 It’s absolutely unbelievable how fast she is healing!!

Day Nine

It snowed out and she was not fond of the idea of being outside. So she spent the day hanging out with Digger and playing around in the shop. Well, maybe I should say “pooping around the shop”. The name Stinky is still very appropriate!

Day Ten

The sun was shining bright and I went to the shop first thing to see if she wanted to go out. She was waiting right by the door and quickly walked out with barely a limp!! She still couldn’t manage to get up on the roost that evening so we brought her in to the shop for ONE more night. Digger wasn’t to happy when she hopped up on the counter knocking a bunch of stuff on the floor and of course pooped on his bench! No more nights in the shop for Stinky. 😀

Day Eleven: Back With the Flock

Back with the flock and laying eggs!!

Digger now officially has his very own chicken….whether he likes it or not! She follows him around outside and if the shop doors are open, guess who walks right in and makes herself at home. 🙂 I’m so glad we didn’t put her in the crock pot!! Think of all those eggs she’s still going to lay, and the wonderful story we have to tell of a sweet, determined chicken named Stinky!

How to Cook and EASILY Peel Farm Fresh Hard Boiled Eggs!

6 March, 201323 November, 2016 ~ Grace ~ 105 Comments

First of all I want to mention that this method is not just for farm fresh eggs. Store bought or strait from the coop, your end result will be beautiful hard boiled eggs!

Have you ever tried to peel a farm fresh hard boiled egg? I have, and it’s not a pretty sight. Unlike older, store bought eggs, no matter how hard you try the shell will not let go of the egg, leaving you with a lumpy, broken mess!! With my new egg laying machines and tons of fresh eggs the only thing I could think to do was hide a dozen eggs in the back of my fridge and wait for them to get old (the older the egg the easier it is to peel). This works as long as you know two weeks in advance when you are going to want a hard boiled egg. I don’t know about you, but when I want egg salad, I want it now, not two weeks from now!!

That was not my only problem with hard boiling eggs, I usually over boiled them and ended up with a green ring around the yolk….for some reason greenish colored, lumpy, deviled eggs are not very appetizing. So I started researching and experimenting, and experimenting, and experimenting…….and this method left me with sun colored yolks and EASILY peel-able eggs!

Start by placing a pot of water on the stove to boil. Make sure it’s enough water to cover the eggs. While your waiting for the water to boil take a (clean) thumb tack and poke a small hole in the fat end of each egg.

Be careful, you want to make a hole but not push the tack all the way in. The goal here is to put a tiny hole in the shell where the air sack is and not poke through the membrane inside. When the water is at a hard boil, and you have a tiny hole in each egg, gently (VERY gently) place the eggs in the boiling water and set the timer for 15 minutes.Keep them at a low boil for the entire time. If you pushed the tack in to far you will see streams of egg white floating in the water. It’s no big deal, that egg will just not be as pretty as the rest. After you do this a few times you will get the hang of it.

While they are boiling prepare a bowl of ice water in your sink. When the timer goes off immediately remove the pan and drain the boiling water. Then place the hot eggs into the ice water.

Wait about 15-20 minutes and take them out one at a time to peel.

These are eggs that were laid this morning….see how nicely they peeled.

This is an egg that I poked the tack in to far and some of the the egg white escaped. Not a good look for deviled eggs, but will still taste great in egg salad. 🙂

See how nice and pretty the yolk is!!

I’m so glad I can make deviled eggs whenever I want instead of having to plan ahead and hide them in the back of the fridge to get old. I hope this works as well for you as it has for me. The tack trick takes a little practice, but if all you have is fresh eggs to peel it’s definitely worth the effort.

I found this method at: Paths of Wrighteousness

“Chicken People”

2 January, 201323 November, 2016 ~ Grace ~ 3 Comments

I have a confession to make, I used to think “chicken people” were weird. What’s all the fuss about? Aren’t chickens dirty, stinky, noisy and dumb? Who has the time or money to mess with chickens when you can easily buy all the chicken and poop free eggs in a quick trip to the store? And all chicken people seem to do is talk and brag about their chickens…

Oooooops!!

I now find myself driving my husband nuts running in and out of his shop showing him eggs and telling him stories about my wonderful, funny hens. Then I text my family and friends pictures and brag about all the nice big brown eggs they are laying. Oh, and by the way, MY hens aren’t dirty, stinky, noisy or dumb; and there is no comparing a farm fresh egg (even with a little poop) to a store bought egg!!

So maybe “chicken people” ARE weird, but what’s wrong with being a little weird if you are having a good time and supplying your family with good wholesome food….Right?

As long as I’m admitting that I’m a “weird chicken person” and my family is sick of hearing about my hens, I guess I have to do all my bragging on my blog. So here are a few pictures of my girls…and my other girls (wow, I have a lot of girls). I guess weird chicken people also take TONS of pictures of their chickens (and their kids). 😉

9 day old Golden Buff chick.

Look how fast their feathers grow!

1 month old chick

15 weeks old

Here they are being very cautious on their first trip into the harvested garden.

Thanks for letting me share.

Chickens in the Snow

1 January, 201323 November, 2016 ~ Grace ~ 2 Comments

When I go out to the chicken coop first thing in the morning I open up their little door and they all rush out. Usually walking and jumping on each other, trying to cram through the door two or three at a time.

But the other day when it snowed a couple inches, it took them a few hours to wander out and most of them headed strait for the barn so they could take dust baths, dig around in the fire wood for bugs and harass the barn cats. That night we had to carry a few back to the coop, they didn’t want to walk back through the snow!

On Christmas day we received a foot of snow (we blame this on our 9 year old, she was praying for a white Christmas 😉 ) and it’s not melting off very fast. The chickens now refuse to come out of the coop. They will step out, look around, fluff up their feathers and jump right back in the door. You can’t blame them, that white stuff is cold and deep.

With no free ranging going on they have been going through a LOT of feed and water!! I highly recommend that if there is any possibility that your chickens can be let out to forage around….let them!! I’m guessing it cuts the feed costs by half, if not more. (I am keeping track and will let you know exact numbers later). Not to mention it makes for very healthy, happy chickens and more nutritious eggs. Anyway, I got worried about the hungry little buggers getting bored all cooped up. Bored chickens are not a good thing, they will start pecking at each other and if it gets to bad the results could be deadly. 🙁 So I cut open an acorn squash and gave that to them, and they spent hours picking at it; the only part left is a thin layer of peel. The next day we hung up half of a large cabbage in the coop. They seemed disinterested at first, but when I went out that night to shut the door most of the cabbage was gone. We hung up the second half of the cabbage the next day. This one didn’t last long!! Hanging them up is purely for the entertainment value, (for the chickens, not us….well maybe for us too). Watching chickens chase a spinning, bouncing cabbage around the coop WAS very entertaining.

These little treats seem to be keeping them happy and occupied during these snow bound days. To my surprise, being stuck indoors has not affected their egg production at all.

This spring I intend to plant tons of cabbage, pumpkins, and squash just for the chickens to have next winter (and maybe enough for us to have some too).

Egg Laying Machines

20 December, 201223 November, 2016 ~ Grace ~ 1 Comment

I was going to title this post “Waiting for Eggs” but in all honesty, we didn’t have to wait! Everything I’ve read says most chickens will start laying between 5 and 6 months old. So I was hoping to have some eggs by Christmas, that would be right at 5 months old (and what a great Christmas present). It was November, cold out and day light hours were getting shorter and shorter. Hens need 14 to 16 hours of light a day to lay eggs. So after Thanksgiving I bought a timer so we could plug in a light to increase their hours of light. I also bought layer feed for them. Before I could get the light plugged in or change their feed, they started laying!!

Our first 2 eggs!! A little splotchy, but we were so proud 😉

We quickly got the light put up in the coop and set it to come on at 3am. I mixed the layer in with the remaining grower feed and HOLEY COW!! They turned into egg laying machines. It is now 5 days before Christmas and we are getting 15 or 16 eggs a day from our 17 hens!! They don’t seem to mind the freezing weather at all. They have been laying all these eggs by 7:30am and then they get turned out to free range for the rest of the day.

The only problem we had was when they first started laying. Some of them would peck their egg, (one little hole or even just a crack)….kind of like they were curious. Then one hen started eating an egg every day. I would go out to the coop at about 8:30am and find wet straw and little pieces of shell in a nesting box. I had NO idea which hen was doing it! This went on for several days and the only thing I could think to do was just get out to the coop earlier before she had a chance to snatch that egg. So when it was just barely light enough to see I headed out to the coop. It worked! No more broken eggs,…not even any cracks! On most days we even get a double yolker or two. Now my only problem is what to do with all these eggs!….I love problems like this. 😀

Meet Ginger one of our super egg laying machines!

Beware of Barn Cats

16 December, 20126 June, 2016 ~ Grace ~ 1 Comment

I love barn cats!! We have an old barn that is home to several skittish, fat barn cats. We feed them some dry cat food everyday but that’s not why they are fat. They are SUPER mousers!! I hate mice….I mean really, really, really hate mice. I would rather be stuck in a hole with a snake than a mouse…I don’t know why? They just send me into a cold sweat. So having barn cats is a necessity (as far as I’m concerned). That being said, little peeps and barn cats are not a good mix. We knew this could be a problem so we made every precaution (we thought) to make sure the cats couldn’t get to the peeps.

This is not a barn cat, this is “Pumpkin Pie” one of Jo’s pets. But you get the picture. If this tame, well fed kitten is this interested in little peeps you can imagine the temptation for a large hungry barn cat.

I know; faces that only a mother could love!! Well, a mother and a barn cat! 🙁 These awkward, month old peeps have little heads that can fit through chicken wire, and they are very curious critters. So when someone comes up to the screen door made of chicken wire they run over and stick there heads through the wire to check things out. I thought it was so cute that they would run to greet me when I walked up to the door. I had no idea they would do the same when a barn cat walked up!! I went out one night to put them to bed and found a headless peep! 😮 I could only see three others in the coop and I totally freaked!! Went running to the house and told Digger about the horror show in the chicken coop. He came out and found the rest of the frightened peeps hiding behind the nesting boxes. The next morning Digger put extra small wire on the bottom of the screen door. This solved our problem, no more peeking peeps. A couple months later (after the peeps had done some serious growing!) I decided it was time to let them free range. I was nervous not only about the barn cats but the dogs as well. I opened the gate and kept my eyes peeled. To my surprise and delight the cats and the dogs ignored them. In fact, the only chasing going on in our barn yard is an occasional chicken chasing a cat or kid!! The moral of this story is…barn cats + peeps = deadly results. Barn cats + grown chickens = frightened barn cats. So keep those peeps in a well protected coop until they can fend for themselves.

Golden Buff Chicks

15 December, 2012 ~ Grace ~ Leave a comment

When we ordered the chicks we chose Golden Buffs, also known as Golden Comet, Golden Sex Link, Cinnamon Queen, and Red Star. They lay 5 plus big, brown, eggs a week and are small (around 4 lbs.) and docile hens. The other great thing about Golden Buffs is the hatchery is able to tell the sex of the chicks when they hatch by their color. I don’t want a rooster “YET” so this breed seemed to be the best choice for us. On July 18th, 18 peeping, puff balls arrived!! The play pen with a heat lamp worked great for keeping them nice and warm.

My girls and I were instantly in love!! We had a hard time leaving the chicken coop, they were just to much fun to sit and watch. To my pleasant surprise they were very hardy little buggers. I thought we might lose a few in the mail or shortly after they arrived but they were all healthy, active and surprisingly loud!

In conclusion we were VERY happy with our little peeps!! The only bad thing was they all looked identical and trying to name 18 chicks that you can’t tell apart was an impossible task. 😉

Getting Ready for Chickens

29 November, 2012 ~ Grace ~ Leave a comment

Half way through the summer I realized that “getting ready” for chickens was taking to long. So instead of being completely ready and totally prepared I went ahead and ordered 18 chicks. I figured that if we knew they were on the way it would motivate us into getting a coop ready. It worked!! We had a place in mind for our chickens. A small room behind our pump house that had been used for storage. So it was my job to clean it out. While cleaning I found an old play pen that was soon to become a temporary home for 18 little peeps. Chicken coops need to be well ventilated so Digger built a screen door, installed a (recycled, closeable) window and cut out a chicken door.

I went to town and bought 2 little waterers, 2 little feeders, a bag of chick feed, and a red heat lamp bulb. At a yard sale I found a shelf that was the right size for nesting boxes (the average size is 12″x12″x12″). You should have at least 1 nesting box for every 4 chickens and this shelf had 10 boxes so that was plenty. All Digger had to do was add a strip of wood across the front of the boxes to keep the bedding from falling out. After all Diggers hard work and my shopping spree we were ready for chicks!!

Should We Get Chickens?

28 November, 2012 ~ Grace ~ Leave a comment

Should we get chickens? While pondering this question a memory kept flashing through my head. I remember gathering eggs when I was little. You’re probably thinking….awww what a wonderful memory to have of childhood. NO, not so much! As a young child I was a bit of a……ummm, I guess you could call it “germaphobic?” (I know a germaphobic farm girl…weird huh…my parents thought I was switched at birth) Anyway, reaching under a pecking, flapping, squawking bird to grab a poop covered egg was absolutely terrifying!! I don’t remember how old I was when we got rid of all the chickens, but I was relieved. To my mothers relief I eventually out grew my “germ thing”(REALLY outgrew it!). That was my last experience with chickens so this question led to a lot of thought, discussion and research. Finally coming to the conclusion that YES we should get chickens. Why? This is probably the first and easiest step to becoming self sufficient, and they will be great 4-H projects for the girls. We eat tons of eggs and whats better than your own fresh, free range, chicken eggs!!