GS Farm Musings: My first chicken blog of 2015

What else to blog and hopefully enhance my writing skills (if any)? Chickens. They add purpose to my life. Okay call me crazy or maybe I'm having mid-life crisis.

Chicken ranching in the middle of the winter is not easy. Our set up is not very efficient since we don’t have electrical power supply at the coop. It’s too far to run a cable from the house (around 100 feet). And with the dogs outside, they chew everything if not supervised. The problem without having power in the coop is that the water freezes within a couple of hours or less. I’ve been reading some tips online that putting a ping-pong ball on top of the bowl will prevent the water from freezing especially if there’s wind blowing in the air as it will keep the water surface moving. I will do that this weekend. So at the moment, I have been going outside at least twice a day bringing warm bowls of water. And it’s frustrating to see the chicken will tip it over within minutes. That’s why I said, I had to bring the warm water of water at least twice. On a bright side, it’s much easier cleaning out the poop inside the coop because they are all frozen and they don’t smell.

The chickens have frost bites on their combs. There’s nothing I can do about it. They are birds and no way I can bring them inside the house. Frost bites on chicken combs are not deadly but it just doesn’t look pretty. Most chickens are not as active as before due to the very cold weather. But they go through feeds quite fast because they cannot forage in the fields.

So today, I decided to take a few pictures of the 49 chickens as I was locking them up inside the coop. This is the best time to document them because they are too sleepy to move around. There's always that sweet point when they all go inside the coop and it changes as time progresses towards springtime. Last December they were all inside the coop just around quarter to 5 pm (that's when it gets dark). Now it's 5:35 pm. It won't be long when days will be longer again as we progress towards springtime. Sweaty cat (our outdoor cat) has disappeared for weeks now. I hope he's fine or found a new home.

So here are a few pictures I took today after I did the head count. I wasn’t sure how they’re gonna turn out because it was very dark inside the coop but somehow my Olympus tough point-and-shoot camera captured them quite well. They all seem contented and settled.

This rooster has a unique long tail. The feather’s colour is split between black and white. He is definitely a keeper in case I want to hatch some chicks. He used to be bullied all the time and used to be in a separate cage for a long time. We had to force him (along with the other peacock feathered rooster not pictured here) to merge with the rest of the group because of the freezing winter. Somehow he managed to get-along or the rest managed to make him feel included.

These are Black Australorp hen and rooster. Birds of the same feather sleep together indeed!

Here’s another example of same chickens with the same feather colours sleep close to each other. Although it’s not always the case as you will see in the following pictures.

Behind these two chickens on the left is another rooster that I missed in my initial count. The next picture shows the rooster behind these two who has a bloody comb. Maybe got picked on by another rooster or just due to the freezing weather.

Everyone’s cozy on the 3-tier roost my husband built made of branches. They are very docile at night. I wish the roosts were removable so it would be a lot easier to clean the poop on the floor. So you can imagine how I had to put my yoga skills to work in order to avoid the nasty poop-covered branches as I crawl underneath.

I was trying to take a group shot but can’t include the ones on the far left next boxes. There are a total of 12 nest boxes. Notice the Barred Plymouth Rock (black and white stripes) chickens cuddle together. Or maybe they’re comfortable with each other since they were part of the last batch of pullets we got them in October.

Here’s the shot showing all 12 nest boxes. No one wants to sleep on the two lowest boxes on the left. I guess they all have pride and don’t want to be at the lowest pecking order, haha.

The rooster on the top right is what I call peacock rooster. He used to be bullied badly by the rest of the group. I think it’s because of his beautiful feather. He is very unique and very docile. He is a keeper.

I moved this hen to one of the nesting boxes or else the feeds will be full of poop.

Of course she already did.

The lowest right hand nest box is very hard to clean because it’s right in front of the permanent 3-tier roost. And guess what, this is their favourite spot to sleep. Here, there are 4 chickens but there were times 5 chickens fit in there.