It is October now, and we have been getting eggs for one month, but a lot has happened to get to this point, and there is still work to do. So I'll try to get from there to here as quickly and succinctly as possible.
24 chicks are actually pretty easy to take care of. You keep them in a box and give them food and water, and they pretty much take care of themselves. The first two weeks of our chicks' life, they spent at Pat and Joan's as we were away for a week, and then had to move into our new place. When we were finally settled into our place, the chicks were getting big and starting to peck at each other, so we had to find something bigger than a box. We have a shed attached to our house that we quickly converted to a temporary coop (please note, there is no coop even under construction at this point). They did well there for a while, getting some time out in the grass once a day.
We only had one mishap. I was on my way to work one day and noticed one of the chicks didn't look quite right - she was lethargic with all the other chicks kind of checking her out as if to say, "What's wrong with you?". I called Keith, and his first reaction was to separate it. So I put her in a box and put a screen over the box and put her inside next to the wood stove. Then I put Gracie, our golden retriever (rest her soul) inside, as we weren't comfortable leaving her outside alone yet. And went to work. I did not put anything to weight the screen down.
When Keith got home, he called me at work and said, "I thought you said you put the chicken inside".
Me: "I did. In a box. By the fire."
Keith: "Well she's not there now".
Me: "Hmmph."
Keith: "Oh wait, there she is. But she's just laying there. Not moving. In the middle of the living room. And there is garbage all over the place."
Me: "Ooops."
I guess Gracie got a little bored. Chicken tragedy #1. My fault. But she was probably going to die anyway, right?
The next challenge was getting a coop built in time. The chicks now had free reign of the yard during the day as they do their magical return-to-home-to-roost-at-sundown trick. We would leave them to roam during the day and close up the door at night after they all got inside. But they were getting bigger and pooping EVERYWHERE. All over the deck and all over Camden's only paved play space. And they were quickly outgrowing their shed. So after many schedule conflicts, we finally got a weekend on the calendar where Jenn and John and Pat could all come over and lend a hand to get the coop underway. Keith did a lot of prep work upfront, but by the end of the following weekend, the chicks had a new home. And not a bad one at that if I do say so myself.
To detail the rest that has happened, would bore you to tears, so I'll summarize via the major challenges we have faced so far.
Challenge #1: Keeping the chickens in their "yard".
Between then and now, we've added doors and gates and fences and they continue to elude us and come on over to "our side" and poop on our deck. Jenn and I have clipped all of their wings (twice) and now instead of flying over the gate, they walk all the way down the hill and around our fence. This weekend we did some reinforcing of the fence and some brush clearing on the chicken's side (as they clearly like the open areas better). So we'll see how that goes. Challenge remains unsolved.
Challenge #2: Getting rid of the roosters (and other breeds you don't want).
When you buy chicks you can pay a little more and get "sexed" chicks, which means that you should get all females (as our goal is eggs and not meat). When you get "6 free chicks", they are not going to be sexed. So, in and amongst those 6 free chicks, we ended up with 3 roosters. In addition, these free chicks were of a breed that were for mostly ornamental purposes, not practical purposes. We are all about practicality, and did not want to pay to feed chickens for their looks and their itty bitty eggs. The roosters were OK for a while as it was hilarious to hear them learn how to crow, but it didn't take long to tire of being awakened at 5:00 each morning.
This was an easy problem to solve, and when my family was here visiting, they were all about doing a trial run. The hardest part of course is catching them.
My dad did the honors of laying this chicken to rest, and I will spare you the details (and the video). I'll just say he did the spin the chicken by the neck method, and it was less than quick. We cooked it up right away, which we later learned is not the best (it's better to let the chicken sit for a couple days in the fridge, so the muscle fibers can relax again).
Round two was with Jenn and was a more organized affair. There were still three roosters remaining and one female bantam. We managed to leave only the lucky four in the coop in the morning, so catching them was no big deal. We crafted a cone out of a milk carton, sharpened our knives, got some buckets and gloves and went to work. (Warning: The next few sentences are a little graphic!) After reading a little about the best way to do it and watching a couple YouTube videos, we thought we shouldn't have too much trouble. We wanted to bleed the chickens first, so the plan was to stick the chicken's head in the cone, slice the jugular, let it bleed for a few seconds, then insert the tip of the knife through the roof of the mouth and into the brain to bring death on a bit quicker. Nice plan and it worked great for the folks in the video. For us, however, it was a bit more challenging. The skin is way tougher than you think and that brain is surprisingly hard to find. Those birds took way too long to die. Even when we thought they were dead and went ahead and dunked them in the scalding water (to make feather plucking easier), we quickly found out they weren't. It was quite the learning experience for us, and while we won't be afraid to do it again, it was a while before either of us had a desire to eat chicken.
One way or another, Challenge Solved.
Challenge #3: Finding the eggs.
We received our first egg on our anniversary. Awwww. The production was slow at first, and the eggs small, but we quickly worked up to about 5 or 6 a day (yes, we tally the egg count every day - nerdy, I know). All of these eggs were left nicely for us in the nesting boxes, with a couple chickens choosing to lay the eggs on the floor. Then production stalled. We figured we should be getting about an egg a day from most of the chickens. We've heard about free range chickens having the tendency to lay eggs elsewhere, but besides finding some in Keith's shop and behind some plywood on the shop deck, we couldn't find any elsewhere.
Until last weekend, when my mom and I were trying to add some fencing. We stumbled on a couple stray eggs laid in strategic places in the woods, then came upon a nest by a tree that had 7 eggs in it. Jackpot. The next day, I looked there again, and there were six more! The dilemma then, was to leave things as they were because at least now we know where to look for them? Or do we try to train them to use the coop somehow? The only way we could think of to do that was to try locking them in for a couple days. We haven't tried that yet, but we're close to that point. Because then, over the next few days, production suddenly dropped off again and all of a sudden there were no more eggs at all in the nest in the woods. They were either laying somewhere else again, or the cold weather was getting to them (we are giving them artificial light to try and keep production up throughout the winter). Then, yesterday, I heard suspicious cackling coming from way on our side of the fence, looked around in the brush, but couldn't find any eggs. Today, after again only getting four eggs this morning, I went on a more thorough search and found this:
I guess they have a new spot and are not appreciating me raiding their nests! Challenge remains Unsolved.
Challenge #4: Teaching a 2 year old how to be nice to the chickens.
I'm sorry. There is no hope here. He loves the chickens. He grabs them. He kicks them. He grabs them by the tail and lifts them up off the ground. Then they peck at him when he taunts them with the chicken scratch and he cries. Then he goes back for more. He laughs in hilarity as he watches them scratch around on the ground with their feet. He yells "Here chicken, chicken" in the cutest voice you ever heard. I even caught him lying on the ground hugging one the other day. To his credit, he is the one that is able to get them to hunch down the quickest - he holds them down, and then we can pick them up. But my biggest fear is that he will get pecked in the face one of these days. I am trying so hard to teach him the appropriate ways to handle and be around these birds, but you know what? He's 2.
Challenge unsolved until he turns 5?
And there you have it. We have fourteen beautiful birds that are smart enough to get around a fence but have no clue as to how to get back around it when they want to go home. (24 minus 5 does not make 14 you say? We had one unknown loss. The one Gracie got. And we gave Pat three. That should get you to 14.) We get handfuls of beautiful brown eggs everyday that are so much tastier (and hopefully better for you) than even the organic ones you buy at a store. I doubt the eggs will ever be cheaper than the store (especially if you were to factor in time spent) - after 218 eggs gathered, we are sitting at about $3.46 an egg (again, nerdy!) - but we are glad we have undertaken this little venture. More stories to come.
