Chicken Happenings

Over the past couple of days we have been feeding our chickens a mix of pollard, calcium carbonate, rolled oats, powdered milk and water. The mix is divided into two portions to feed both of the flocks.

Our mix is:

• 175 grams of pollard;
• 75 grams of rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of powdered milk;
• 1/4 teaspoon of calcium carbonate and
• 3 cups of water

The pollard mash is mixed up and then fed to the chickens twice a day. They have shown themselves to be VERY interested in this feed mix and don’t seem to miss their chicken pellets at all. In fact, the chickens are SO excited by their new feed that we are now having to teach Howard not to peck us. He has drawn blood on me once and has pecked my darling wife’s gumboots quite savagely. He is being taught by being booted up the cloaca (well pushed away vigorously, really).

Today our young rooster was sent to a new home out in Forcett and the hens were moved from their run into the larger run. It was sad to say goodbye to our little rooster, but it is a hell of a lot nicer than the alternative … a fight to the death with the dominant rooster.

My darling wife, gorgeous daughter and I had a great time catching the young pullets so that we could take them from their old run to the grown up chicken run. Ferrying the chickens from run to run wasn’t too hard, once the chickens were caught, they settled down very quickly and it was easy to carry them the 200 meters or so. The older chickens were a little bit put out, but Howard thought that it was another Christmas present … just for him. We gave the chickens an extra feed to distract them and that seemed to do the trick.

We will leave the door to the chicken run closed for a couple of days so that the pullets get used to their new coop and settle in to their new position in the pecking order. There is likely to be some disagreements over pecking order, but then, that’s nature.

I will post some pictures of the mega-flock tomorrow.

First proper actual egg from the chicks

It’s official … the chicks are now pullets. I found this egg in the nesting boxes in the chicks coop.

As you can see by the weight, it isn’t a particularly large egg, but it is perfectly formed. 43 grams is pretty small by the standard of our chickens, we usually run from 50 to 70 grams (one egg actually topped 89 grams).

And here is the egg in comparison with the eggs from the much older White Leghorn chickens. It is no surprise that the pullets first eggs are small. It is normal to get unusually shaped eggs while the chickens get their cycle into gear, so it is very good that this chick has laid a perfectly formed egg with no surface impurities or calcium deposits.

The White Leghorns are pretty much off the lay at the moment. I’ve had only four eggs with shells since the 2nd of January. Normally, I get between 3 and 5 eggs a day from the grown-up girls. I think that the heat has had a serious impact on their cycle. Since the 2nd, I’ve also had about four eggs without any calcium shell … just a weak and leathery skin. All but one of these shell-less eggs has been broken, so they have been fed to the dogs.

Also, I am very happy with the colour of the egg shell. It makes no difference to the taste of the egg, it is purely an aesthetic thing. White eggs come from chickens with yellow legs and white earlobes … brown eggs come from chickens with red earlobes. I think I can identify the chick that laid this egg, she is very dark in colour with reddish yellow legs. She is probably the most developed of the hens too. Anyway, we will see what we will see.

Chicks First Egg

Today one of the chicks laid an egg. The egg was small and didn’t have enough calcium deposited on it for the shell to be hard, but it was the first egg.

The egg was laid next to the chicks roost, so it looks like it caught the hen by surprised … I suppose I can’t really call them chicks anymore, the babies have grown up.

When the chicks arrived, they were 8 weeks old … it is now another 12 weeks since then, so they are about 20 weeks of age. That’s just about spot on for development from chick to pullet.

The cock has grown into a magnificent young rooster and he struts around the coop just like he is supposed to. His development has been good, developing his comb and wattles early and then his height and greater size.

The hens are all gorgeous young chickens indeed.

I expect that the first hen to lay will be a bit inconsistent in her laying initially but her body and behaviour will adjust to the new stage of her life.

Our older chickens, the White Leghorns are now pretty much off lay, they seem to have reached the end of their laying life, so it’s retirement for them. I intend to allow the chickens a graceful and peaceful retirement. Although the hens will not produce many eggs in their retirement, they will provide the pullets with the wisdom of their age.

I now just need to find a new home for the new rooster.

The Chicks Development

We have now had the chicks for more than a week now and they are growing nicely. They are all more outgoing and interested in what is going on outside the coop.

They have developed a fine taste for the grasses and weeds that have been growing in the coop since the older chickens moved out more than a year ago. They are depending less and less on the chicken pellets and eating lots of insects and greenery, and this is all for the good.

Some of the chicks are still a little smaller.

But I still think that they are a week behind the rest of the flock in growth. Nevertheless, they are growing nicely. They spend most of their time under the heat lamp.

As you can see, they are bright eyed and very interested in their surroundings.

The last lot of Isa Browns we got had their beaks clipped as they had been bought from a chicken battery. I am very glad that the business has since folded after investigation into their husbandry practices and failure to treat their animals humanely. I am still perplexed by people who make animals their livelihood but feel nothing at all when abusing and mistreating the animals that are their life. I think that the best thing that we can all do to stop this kind of treatment of animals is to keep our own and vote with our wallets.

Besides … what is better than keeping chickens? They are funny, they eat almost all of our table scraps, they keep down the insect population, they give us eggs (most of which I sell to my work colleagues). All of this and they take almost no effort to maintain! Sure, I understand that many people can’t keep chickens, just from the simple fact that they need some space … but those of us who can keep chickens, should keep chickens.

They keep us in touch with our Dinosaur past.

Heat Up the Chickens

Today, we replaced the heat globe in the heat lamp for the brooder. The lamp that we had in the chicken coop last night, wasn’t really a proper heat lamp. The lamp did put out some heat, but not enough for keeping the chicks warm. Fortunately, the weather is warm enough so the temperature at night is only going down to about 5^o Celsius.

My youngest daughter had a friend visiting today, and they spent a long time out in the coop with the chicks.

The chicks need to have some interaction with humans so that when they are older, they will not be so flighty. I was really proud of my daughter, she handled the chicks with confidence and she was very gentle with them.

I made some home-made pizza for lunch today, yummy ground beef, bacon and prawn pizzas. Our pizza also had chilli on it, but my youngest daughter is a bit soft when it comes to spicy food. They took their pizza out to the chicken coop to have a picnic with the chicks.

I managed to do some sexing of the chicks based on their ruff feathers. It seems that we have two boys and six girls. I’d call that a pretty good result.

Two of the chicks are a lot smaller than the other six, so I’d say that they are about a week behind the others in age.

Despite the problems with Isa Browns (not very hardy) I like them, they are very good layers (about 350 eggs per annum per chook), their eggs are a good size (averaging 70 grams each) and they are a nice brown colour. Of course, the colour of the egg has no bearing on the flavour, but I think that, given the choice, most people will pick a brown egg over a white egg every time.

Chickens are usually at point-of-lay at about 21 weeks of age. Ours are about eight weeks old, so they won’t be laying until about January, 2013.

Chicks in the Coop

The new chicks have been installed in the old chicken coop. Sadly, one of the chicks didn’t make it through the night. Now their are eight.

I’ve put a heat lamp in the coop so that they have a heat source. We need to replace the heat lamp in the brooder lamp since the old one has broken.

The temporary roost was replaced today, an old log isn’t really good enough for the chicks, so I made a roost from a pair of broomstick offcuts and some fence rail offcuts.

They are still very small and I think that they will be staying in the coop for at least the next two months while they get bigger.

I’ve spread some straw over the floor so that the chicks have some insulation from the cold concrete floor.

The chicks are still too small to roost, so they will be staying on the floor for most of the time. Hopefully, there is enough warmth and that the weather improves over the next couple of months.

Additions to the Flock

This month we have been cooking a new brood of chicks in the incubator. Our reconditioned auto-turn incubator gave up the ghost and I’m going to have to either get it repaired properly, or get another one. Our stop-gap incubator is a manual one. The manual incubator is pretty good, it does everything that you want an incubator to do ... it keeps eggs at a constant temperature and you manually manage the humidity and egg turning.

About half of our previous brood of chicks had curly toe. This is a condition where the toes of one or both feet are bent and will not straighten. Having researched this a little (seriously ... only a little) it is likely to have been caused by one of three things:

1. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency in the hen (pretty likely as the hen has curly toe herself);

2. Temperature in the incubator too high (must be maintained at <= 37.5);

3. Foot bent in egg (I find this unlikely ... but then what do I know?)

At first I thought that I’d have to cull the chicks with the condition, but according to my reading, the condition does not cause the bird any pain, nor does it offer a health threat to the bird or to us. So, I am very happy to report, the chicks will not need to be culled. I accept that I will need to cull chickens in the future, but I am adamant that I will only do this when necessary.

I’ve looked into different ways of delivering higher levels of riboflavin to my chooks so that the reoccurrence of curly toe is less likely. There are a couple of food-stuffs that you can use with your chooks to increase the intake of riboflavin. Things such as raw soy flour, calves liver, etc. can be used. These carry a modest level of riboflavin and you could try them. I don’t like the idea of feeding my chooks calf liver, personally. Alternatively, a good source of riboflavin and other B-complex vitamins is Vegemite, good ole Aussie Vegemite. I hope it puts a rose in my chicken’s cheeks!

All that said, my current clutch of eggs in the incubator and the chicks that are now more than 8 weeks old are not going to benefit from their mothers getting riboflavin.

For the chicks that are already out of the brooder, there’s nothing that I can do. They will have to live with their curly toes and I will have to make sure that they are happy and comfortable.

For the chicks that are in the incubator, I will need to try to reset the feet of any of the chicks with curly toe. This is done, apparently, by splinting the toe to a light and strong flat “shoe” using surgical tape. The shoe should remain on the toe(s) for about 3 weeks after which time the toe should have resumed its natural shape.

There are a dozen eggs in the incubator at the moment:

Date Laid	# Eggs	Stop Rotating	Hatch Date	# Hatched
26/10	3	13/11	16/11	2 (died)
27/10	1	14/11	17/11	1
28/10	3	15/11	18/11
29/10	3	16/11	19/11
30/10	2	17/11	20/11

I will update this table throughout the hatching period to get an idea of my hatching success.

The eggs from the 26^th have not had any success. Two of these eggs hatched and the chicks died within 18 hours of hatching. One chick did not hatch, dying in the egg. I do not know what happened with these eggs, other than incubator failure in that period. Possibly, the incubator had not run in sufficiently when the first eggs were put in. I am heartened that the egg from the 17^th hatched (although it hatched late). This chick is quite hale and hearty.

The chicks have taken longer than the usual 21 days to hatch. I suspect that this is due to a combination of things. The failure of the auto-turn incubator to turn would have partially influenced this, but I think that the temperature in the incubator was a bit low. I also suspect that the hardness of the egg-shells may be causing my chicks some jip as well.

Chickens Growing Apace

The thing that surprises me so much about growing your own chooks ... is that they are not chicks for very long at all. They go from being the lovely little balls of fluff one minute, like the picture above, to being ungainly things half fluff and half feather with long necks. Nevertheless, they are still lovely little things that I am quite attached to. I think that there is one cock and three hens.

The chicks hatched on the 29^th of September. Now it’s only three weeks later and they have turned into half chick half chicken hybrids. They have grown wing feathers and their wings have grown bigger, their tail feathers are starting to grow strongly, their necks have grown longer, their wattles are starting to appear and their eyes have grown bigger.

Three weeks more in the brooder and these chickies will be heading for the new chicken run. Then the next round of chicks will be ready for the brooder.

Ideally, we want to have a dozen hens. Any cocks that we get from our breeding, will be kept with Raj until they are big enough for the pot.

The Incubator is Empty

Now that my latest batch of small yellow bundles of chirpy goodness have hatched, the incubator is almost empty again. I have now got four chicks (three more to hatch) chirping and running around the incubator. They’ll be moved into the brooder box soon so that they can have more room to grow.

This clutch of chicks is the second batch of progeny from my Rhode Island Red rooster and White Leghorn hens. They are very funny little creatures and give us hours of entertainment at night as we wind down from a day of work and watch television.

These little chicks are growing quickly and we will be putting them into the brooder box very soon.

The Army of Chickens is growing and I will soon have a vast horde of chicken minions (not mignon) at my beck and call! Mwahahaha my evil plans to take over the world with my legion of chickens is coming to fruit!

Eh ... not so much.

Chicks

We have been experimenting with raising our own chicks. The rooster is a Rhode Island Red and the Hens are White Leghorns.

The first out of the shell was this little chick.
Soon we had more …

From the six eggs that we incubated, only these five hatched.

From the five that hatched, three survived. We had a problem and we didn’t know what it was.
After much researching and observation, we discovered that our chickens had Marek’s Disease (a herpes virus that affects chickens). This has a couple of nasty prognosis: Tumours grown on the chicks organs resulting in the chick dying of starvation, alternatively, their sciatic nerve is destroyed and the chick cannot move, also resulting in the chick dying of starvation. There is another alternative … the chick is not affected at all (very uncommon). However, the virus is carried in the dander (the skin and feather flakes that float around in the coop) and affects all of the flock. Typically, if the chicken has not been affected by 8 weeks old, it will not be affected. However, the chicken will carry the disease.
Our only course of action at this stage, is to wait for our flock to die naturally (those that are not affected by Marek’s) and then set up a new coop. The old coop needs to be thoroughly cleaned and left for about a year until the virus has died out in the coop (not guaranteed).
The eggs are unaffected by the virus and it cannot be transferred to humans, so we are just fine to eat the eggs. We’ve taken the decision to keep the chickens alive and let them live out their life as comfortably and happy as possible.