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If you keep up with me on Facebook, you may recall that last week I posted that I was looking for a home for a cute little Phoenix cockerel.

This guy narrowly escaped freezer camp a few weeks ago. He was spared for two reasons 1) He was really too little to eat and 2) he’s a full bred Phoenix. I really love my Phoenix hens and roosters. Not only are they pretty, they have very nice dispositions. I was really hoping we could find him a nice home. And that is exactly what we did.

When my friend, Charlotte, read my post on Facebook, she immediately wrote to tell me if I couldn’t find a home for the Phoenix cockerel, she would take him. Charlotte has wanted chickens for a very long time, and she somehow convinced Tex to agree to this cockerel. I wrote Charlotte back right away and said “Consider him yours.” She named him Feathers.

Bernie and I went over to deliver Feathers, and help work on the new coop and chicken yard that would be Feathers’ new home. When we got there, everything was well under way.

Within no time, Charlotte and I had the chicken walking plank ready to go, and Tex had constructed the sliding chicken door.

Charlotte tiled the floor of the coop. I am not kidding.

Tex went in to install the roost. But there was a slight problem. Tex is a little bigger than a chicken.

But he figured out a way to make it work.

Just look at these new digs!

Charlotte put the litter down, and we installed Feathers. He immediately showed his approval by scratching around happily.

The guys quickly closed in the chicken run.

And Feathers was allowed outside to check out his new yard.

He looks pretty darn happy in his new home, doesn’t he?

I can’t tell you how happy I am that Charlotte took this little cockerel. I had hoped to find him a good home and I am just tickled that I found him the perfect one.

I have learned to never say “never” on the homestead. I never thought I’d let my hens hatch out babies. I never thought I’d cull one of my chickens. I never thought I’d eat one of my chickens. And I never thought I’d give one of my chickens away.

Hmmmmm. Following that logic, I never thought I’d win the lottery either. So maybe, just maybe, Feathers won’t be the only lucky one around here!

PS - Thank you Tex and Charlotte for bringing Feathers into your lives and providing such a wonderful home for him. Oh, and thanks for letting me use your camera and sending me all the pictures.

When my hens started going broody back in March, it caught me by surprise. I really did not expect to have broody hens because I intentionally bought what I believed were non-broody breeds. I quickly built a couple of brooders in the coop out of hardware wire. I disliked those brooders immensely. They had sharp wires poking up everywhere and, as a result, I have had scratches and torn clothing all summer. And I always worried that the chickens would get hurt on that wire. I actually suspect that may be where Duke got the foot injury that resulted in the Battle-of-the-Bumblefoot we’ve been going through around here.

So this past Friday, I took the day off work and Bernie and I rebuilt the brooders. I’m much happier with them.

We also put a much steeper slope on the top of the nest boxes to keep the chickens off of it. And we moved one of the roosts to keep the poop away from the brooder area.

While I had the camera out, I remembered to take a picture of a volunteer flower that came up in the strawberry bed. That area had previously been a wildflower bed and this flower is apparently the result of a seed that was left in there:

I honestly don’t remember seeing a flower like that in the wildflower bed. I’m sure I would have remembered such a beautiful bloom! OK, all you flower-name-knowing people, any idea what kind of flower that is? I plan to keep the seeds. That’s one of the prettiest flowers I’ve ever seen! It’s like a bouquet of flowers in one bloom.

I’m not very good at remembering to take pictures so, since I had my camera handy, I took it along when the pups and I went on the mail run this afternoon.

Diesel is obsessed with tall grass and weeds. He absolutely loves laying in it and playing in it. Can you see him in this picture?

Look right slap, dab in the middle. Here’s a closer view:

He finally poked his head out

Which is just what Dolly was waiting for. She immediately pounced on him

And then she ran around with reckless abandon

Until she spotted a bug on the driveway

Hey good lookin’

Dang, I never even knew the boy could move this fast!

Lordy, I do love these pups. And my flower. And my new brooders.

I am so dad-gum easy to please.

I let the two broody moms out of their brooder pens with their babies today. I really need to get them out of the brooders so I can put the next two new mamas in them. They are due to hatch their babies out Wednesday.

As usual, these two broody moms just can not get along. They immediately launched into a brawl. I sat out there with them for a while and separated them several times, and eventually Broody1 took her chicks into the chicken run and things seemed to settle. Before too long, Broody2 had her chicks in the run as well. Everyone seems to be getting along just fine now - even if the two broody moms both now have bruised eyes.

Against my wishes, Broody1 has already taken her chicks into the woods, next to the coop. I really worry about them being out there, but they don’t pay any attention to what I want.

They are still all in the woods as I type this. Broody2 has her chicks in the chicken run.

Even though the chicken coop is right next to the woods, the sun shines on it all day long. I normally don’t worry too much about that. In the winter, the sun heats the coop nicely. And in the summer, the chickens spend most of their time in the woods - or under Bernie’s pole barn next to his barn shed. That’s a constant source of annoyance for Bernie, by the way. But it makes the chickens happy, and happy chickens makes me happy, so Bernie doesn’t complain too much. Even if they have scratched out holes the size of the grand canyon under his boat, behind his tractors, and around each support pole to dust bathe in.

At any rate, with broodies living in the coop right now, and new babies staying in there as well, I started getting a little concerned about the sun beating right on the coop all day and raising the temperature inside the chicken coop. I decided to tarp over the shrimp net I have covering the chicken run. Not only would that shade the coop a great deal, but it would keep the chicken run from getting so muddy in the rain. So this morning, Bernie helped me secure the tarp over the shrimp net. It now looks like the Big Top Circus resides in our yard.

I know it looks awful - but the coop and chicken yard are mostly shaded all day long now. The chickens seem to like it. Bernie seems to hate it. And I can overlook it since it makes my chickens more comfortable. We’ll take it down in late fall so that the coop will get sun in colder weather and the weight of the ice and snow doesn’t pull the shrimp net and tarp down.

Something I meant to mention earlier about this last hatch is that four of the eggs I put under the broodies were eggs I had stored in the refrigerator from 1 - 3 days before hand. I had heard that refrigerated, fertile eggs will hatch out just fine, and I wanted to experiment with it myself. So I opened one of the egg cartons in the refrigerator, randomly pulled out four eggs, marked them with a different colored pen than the other eggs I gave the broodies, and then put the refrigerated eggs under those broodies. And guess what? All four of those refrigerated eggs hatched just fine. I share this with you in case you have chickens and happen to lose a favorite hen. If you recognize her eggs and have some in the refrigerator, you can take them from the refrigerator and put them under a broody or in an incubator and hatch out her offspring. Be sure to bring the eggs to room temperature before placing them under a broody or in the bator. Otherwise moisture can collect on the inside of the egg and possibly mess up the hatch.

Bobby Lee is still enjoying his Reign of Terror. He really torments Duke something fierce. In all fairness, Duke used to really torment Bobby Lee though. I guess Bobby Lee figures turn about is fair play. None the less, Duke still participates in keeping the flock in line, much to Bobby Lee’s consternation. Pico regularly tries to get frisky with the older hens, and Duke just will not stand by and watch that happen. Neither will Duke allow the hens to fight. While Bobby Lee does seem to be extremely alert and watchful over the girls, he can not, quite frankly, hold a candle to Duke. Maybe he’ll grow into the role.

Bobby Lee is such a good looking boy.

And Duke still has his rugged handsomeness.

It occurs to me that it is a bit like a circus around here with all these crazy chickens. Maybe naming the tarped over chicken run The Big Top isn’t such a bad idea.

Bee Free

For each person that keeps chickens, there is probably just as many variations in chicken coop designs and management techniques. When we built our coop, we based the design on one that would be as predator proof as possible from the many predators in this area and one that would provide adequate protection from the elements that are typical for our area. Our coop sits above the ground, with about a foot or so between the floor of it and the earth underneath. The coop flooring is treated OSB, and I chose the “Deep Litter Method” (DLM from here on out) for coop poop management.

The idea behind the DLM is really quite simple. You start with a clean coop floor, cover it with about four to six inches of litter, and then about once a week or so, sprinkle litter over the top of that to cover the poop as it accumulates. I use pine chips that Bernie chips up for me from fallen pine trees around here. Once a month or so I use a garden rake and stir all that litter around in the coop, just to keep the poop from clumping. On days when we have snow or a lot of rain and the chickens hang out inside the coop, I sprinkle some scratch all through the litter on the coop floor and the chickens stir it for me.  If done correctly, there will be virtually no offensive smell in the coop, and  the litter only needs to be completely removed once a year. If the coop is kept dry, the litter remains dry, as does the flooring beneath it.

I really like using the DLM for several reasons, the least of which is not the fact that it only takes me about 10 minutes each day to clean the coop and replenish feed and water containers. The daily coop cleaning duty is referred to as the “Coop Poop Boogie” here on the homestead, and consists of scraping all poop off the top of nest boxes, nest porches, and roosts, sprinkling new litter on the coop floor as required, filling feeders and changing out water. By the way, the Coop Poop Boogie is not to be confused with the Poop Scoot Boogie, which is performed after stepping in a fresh little pile of chicken poop in the yard on the homestead. Everyday’s a party around here.

Yep, the Coop Poop Boogie is fast and easy, thanks to the DLM. The coop spring cleaning, however, is not. It’s not fast. And it’s not easy. I spent about 4 1/2 hours yesterday spring cleaning the coop, which, among other things, involved shoveling out about two feet of poop encrusted litter. But, with each shovel load, I reminded myself that this one day of pain is what makes the daily Poop Scoop Boogie so tolerable the other 364 days of the year. And I was quite pleased that once all the litter was out of the coop, the floor beneath it and the nest boxes were perfectly dry.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with a mountain of poop encrusted pine shavings which I mixed with straw and leaves and covered in Chicken Poop Tea I’ve been brewing for the past couple of months.   This colossal pile of poop is now soaking in the 3/4 inch of rain we got last night. It’s supposed to rain all day and into tomorrow, and this soaking is just what the poop pile needs. I checked it this morning, and it’s already getting hot. For the next several months I will continue to add straw, grass cuttings, kitchen scraps, chicken poop, and water to this massive pile, and by next spring, I should have a beautiful pile of compost that my garden will enjoy.

That’s the chicken poop pile on the right, and my straw pile on the left.

Composting pine shavings can take quite some time, but by regularly adding chicken poop, straw, and “green” material to it (grass, kitchen scraps, etc.)  and keeping the pile damp, you may be amazed at how much more quickly the composting process occurs. I’ve done this on a much smaller scale and it works beautifully and quickly. Every week or so, rather than wetting with water, I pour a bucket or two of Chicken Poop Tea on it to help keep this compost pile hot. I make this tea by filling a couple of buckets half full with water and then adding in the poop I scoop each day until the buckets are full. I also stir them daily, while holding my nose.  And I keep the buckets covered with a loosely fitting lid.

By the end of the year, I should have a nice, rich mountain of compost. I’ll stop adding chicken poop to the pile and let it “season” until next spring. Chicken poop is extremely strong and will kill plants if applied directly to them without allowing the poop to age and compost. The rule of thumb is: If you can recognized the shape of the poop, it’s probably too “hot” to apply to plants. Allow it to break down completely and NEVER apply Chicken Poop Tea directly on plants or the ground where they are planted. It’s just too strong - but it works great to speed composting in compost piles.

So that’s the scoop on the Coop Poop Boogie. Come to think of it, this all sums up my life beautifully - enriched with poop. Every dad gum day.

While I was out cleaning the coop, Bernie left the dogs in the house to bring me some tools for reconstructing the little chicken hospital in the coop. When I came in for a break he said “Good news! You get to do some shoe shopping!” I immediately looked at the puppies. Neither would make eye contact with me. “I left my sandals by the door when I changed into my rubber boots, didn’t I? How badly did they chew them up?” I asked. “Well, it wasn’t ‘they’, it was ‘him’ and it wasn’t ‘them’, it was ‘it’.” *sigh* “Well, how bad is IT?” Bernie said “You might be able to salvage it. I’m not sure, but I think Dolly stole it and gave it to Diesel. It was in Diesel’s mouth when I found it, but Dolly was looking kinda guilty.”

That doesn’t look very salvageable to me. I realize it looks like something I dug out of the dump, but I LOVE those sandals. I’ve had them for years. They were broken in beautifully and had become the only sandals I wear in the summer on the homestead. Darnit. But it’s my fault for leaving them on the floor and providing a temptation little Dolly and/or Diesel just could not resist. The joy of puppies…….

Bee Free,

Penny

We had quite a bit of excitement here on the homestead yesterday. As you know from my last post, we have two broody moms with five chicks between them. Well, yesterday afternoon I got to thinking that the nest boxes are up about two feet from the ground. It’s not unusual for mama hens to begin taking their babies out of the next within the first three or four days of their lives. I wasn’t concerned about the chicks getting out of the nest, I was concerned that once they did, they would not be able to get back into the nest. So I decided to move both broody moms and their chicks onto the floor of the coop, underneath the nest boxes. And move them, I did.

I sat with the broods for a while and everything went along just fine. Broody1 just sat in a corner with her two little little chicks cheeping happily beneath her. Broody2 brought her three chicks out into the middle of the coop and started teaching them to peck and eat. A couple of hens wandered in and checked out the chicks, and then moved on to the nest boxes. Everything was going better than I had hoped for. I went inside and over the next couple of hours I went back out to the coop about every 15 minutes to check on the situation. So far, so good.

After two hours, however, things changed. Swiftly and dramatically. I opened the front door to walk toward the coop and I immediately knew something was wrong. I could hear baby chicks peeping like crazy, and I could see a huge plume of dust and feathers flying out of the chicken door. I ran to the coop and opened door, and then stood there with my mouth open for a full minute. My two sweet, gentle, lovely little mama hens were in the middle of what looked like a bar room brawl. They were a screeching, screaming, clawing, pecking ball of feathers in the middle of the coop. I could not believe it. I quickly ran in and tried to separate them, and it wasn’t easy. Each time I would get them apart, they would fly back at each other and start fighting all over again. I finally managed to pick one up and as I stood, she had the other in her mouth by the neck. It was awful. I eventually got them apart and put each back in the nests they hatched their broods in. Then I looked around for the biddies. There were two. I grabbed them and put one in each nest box with a mama. I searched all over coop and there was not a sign of another biddy. I began to panic. I ran outside, laid on the ground and looked underneath the coop. The bottom of the coop is covered with chicken wire, but a one day old biddy could very easily fit between the wire. I laid there for a while, desperately searching for a sign of a biddy, but I could see nothing. And I could hear nothing. No peep, chirp, or scurrying. Nothing. I walked all through the woods by the coop searching for them. Nothing. I layed on the ground next to the garden shed and looked underneath it. Nothing.

Bernie was not home during all this. He had gone in to town to run some errands. By the time he returned, I was in the middle of a full blown nervous breakdown. I did my best to explain what had happened, but judging from the confused look on his face, I’m certain I was making no sense at all. I was standing there shaking like a leaf and mumbling something like “It’s hopeless. Hopeless! They’re gone. Gone forever.” when he said “Honey, they couldn’t have just disappeared. Let’s go outside and look together”.

We went into the coop and looked around. Nothing. We went outside and looked under the coop. Nothing. We walked through the woods searching everywhere. Nothing. And just when I began mumbling about the biddies being gone forever again, we heard a cheep. And then another. And it was coming from underneath the coop! I’m going to fore go the details on this. Suffice it to say that 15 minutes and a lot of running around chasing biddies later, we had the three escaped biddies safely tucked in with their mothers.

Two hours later I had built the pen that will house these mamas and babies for the next couple of weeks:

This is actually two pens - separated by more wire between them. Each is about 4′ X 4′. As soon as it was finished, I placed the mamas and their babies in them. And they seem very happy.

Broody1 got the worst damage during the brawl with Broody2. But in Broody1’s defense, she had been sitting on a nest for six weeks and hadn’t been eating for several days. She was very weak. Just look at her poor bruised eye and damaged comb:

Poor little thing. Today is the first day she has accepted food from me and eaten in many days. I’m really hoping she’ll start getting back to her old self soon. It was a little cool today, and she has kept the babies tucked up tightly underneath her.

Broody2 is doing just fine. She eats and drinks and calls the babies out to learn to peck and eat fairly regularly. I had a hard time getting pictures of her babies, but I managed to get this one (there’s one behind her, but you can’t see much of her):

Awwww. That is just adorable. This is one of the two White Faced Black Spanish mixes that hatched. In fact, I’m fairly certain this one is mixed with Bobby Lee, the Phoenix - notice the darker legs. The other is obviously mixed with Duke, a Silver Gray Dorking. She has orange legs and five toes - another trait of the Dorking.

I was not there when the fight between these two mamas started, but I am certain it had something to do with the babies. I have a friend that says mama hens fight like ninjas over their babies. Well, until you see it, you can’t imagine how accurate that description really is. I hope to never see it again.

I’ve written way more about this than I had planned, or probably should have. If you’re still with me at this point, please allow me to offer you some advice. If you plan to have chickens, read everything you can read about raising them and issues that can occur while you’re doing it. Talk to everyone you know that has chickens and ask them what their experiences have been. And then get your chickens and know that you will be able to write your own book when it’s all said and done. No book and no one can prepare you for everything in your future with chickens. Everyone is different. Every flock is different. They will have a lot in common but trust me, those little chickens will throw you a curve ball more than once. And at the end of the day, you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Bee Free,

Penny

Like many of you, we’ve been having unusually cold weather here on the homestead. I don’t think I can remember a November and/or December with this many days of below average cold temperatures. I am trying not to be in a bad mood over it, but these cold temperatures are testing my good nature.

Yesterday morning it was a brisk 14 degrees outside when I let the chickens out. The good news is now that the coop is insulated, it was 15 degrees warmer in there. The bad news is that 14 + 15 = still freezing. Their water was frozen solid. I dragged out the heated font I have and plugged it in for them. Today the temperature is in the mid 30s, but the wind is blowing something fierce. If I were a hen, I’d snuggle up in a nest box and pretend I was laying an egg all day long. As it is, everyone is outside in this frigid weather.

Bernie got the electric finished up and I now have electricity in both the coop and my garden shed. Yay! I know he isn’t crazy about working outside in all this cold weather, but he heads out each day and takes care of things around here. I just love that man to pieces.

I have some sad news this week. A few nights ago we lost our first chicken since they were little peeps. When I went to tuck them in the coop, I came up one short on the head count. I looked through the woods and decided to count again, just to be sure. As I was heading into the chicken run, I spotted one of the Golden Penciled Hamburgs huddled up in a corner of the run. I knew when I picked her up that she was in a bad way. I brought her in the house and Bernie wrapped a blanket around me and her, although she didn’t seem particularly cold.  She was so weak that she didn’t even fight me as I checked her over. I could find nothing wrong with her - there was no blood, her vent was clean, and she had no unusual lumps or bulges. She died within an hour and 1/2.

We were very sad about losing our little hen, but we were also concerned about why she may have died. To be safe, I sterilized all water and food dishes, and sprayed the coop and run with Ozine. Due to the fact that she died so quickly after showing symptoms of being ill, we suspect it was likely some sort of poisoning. I was in the chicken run with all of the chickens at 4PM, and no one showed any signs of being ill. I fed them some scratch and everyone was eating and pecking. I went back out around 5PM to do the head count and close up the coop, and it was shortly after that I found the sick hen. She died so suddenly that poisoning does seem very likely. We do not have any type of poison out that is accessable to the chickens, but we do have many plants around here that are poisonous to chickens. These plants grow wild all over our property. Pig Weed, for example, is listed as poisonous, and heaven knows we have enough of that around here. I think most of these plants are dormant right now, but I suppose chickens could still dig up the root system. It’s hard to know. So far, no other chicken has exhibited any symptoms of being ill.

I’ve spent the majority of this weekend making gifts for my Christmas Victims. Bernie has been keeping the wood stove going and firewood stacked up in the living room. He also brought in a small refrigerator we had in storage and plugged it up in the dining room so we can free up some space in the big refrigerator for something more than cartons of eggs.

Tomorrow Bernie’s heading to Tex’s so the two of them can hook up a snow plow to the little Trail Wagon. A few years ago we bought a second hand Arctic Cat ATV and it came with a snow plow that we never used. Since we use the Trail Wagon for everything around here, Bernie decided it would be nice to put the snow plow on it. It will take a little imagination and fabrication, but I am confident he and Tex will get it hooked right up.

That’s about it from the homestead today. We’re just trying to stay busy so we don’t think about how dad gum cold it is outside. Hope you’re staying warm!

Bee Free,

Penny

We’ve been having an unusually cold November this year. It’s been going down to the low 20’s and high teens at night for the past few weeks. I found the water in the chicken coop frozen solid many mornings, and last weekend I talked Bernie into helping me insulate the coop. We had to empty the coop completely and put all the nest boxes in the chicken yard for the day. It confused the hens something fierce. A few eventually gave in and layed their eggs in the nest boxes outside - but they were clearly not happy about that. I ended up finding a nest by Bernie’s mower under the lean-to in the back yard with seven eggs in it. I was worried that would become a bad habit for them, but once the coop was put back together, they’ve been faithfully laying in the nest boxes again.

By the way, insulating the coop has worked to keep it at least 15 degrees warmer than it is outside. I know those chickens are happy about that.

I wanted to get a few pictures of the chickens for y’all to see how big they are getting, but it’s been raining here all day. I decided to open the front door and snap a few from there. This is what we are greeted with each time we open the front door:

Doesn’t that just make you smile? Cute little buggers.

About the time I took that picture the rain really started coming down. Most of the hens headed to the chicken run. Duke and a few of the girls took off to get under Bernie’s pickup. And Bobby Lee stayed where he was - hanging out under the eave of the coop:

About half the girls are laying now. We usually get 10 eggs a day.

This is what we’ve done with a lot of them:

We’ve also given away a few dozen to friends. And, naturally, we eat eggs every single solitary day. I’m certainly not complaining. It’s about time these hens started earning their keep around here.

In the first picture I posted above, you may notice a line of mud in the yard. That’s the trench Bernie dug with the Ditch Witch . Then he buried 1 1/4″ PVC conduit to run the electric wire through. By the end of the week I should have electric in my shed and in the coop. Yay! Then he’s going to run electric to the garage. Yay again!

A friend of ours gave us a deer last week. We hung it, skinned it, and butchered it last Wednesday. We let it soak in a cooler until this morning, when we processed it. Another friend gave us 1/2 of a deer that he shot on our property Thanksgiving Day. He even processed the meat before giving it to us. No matter how it arrives, you really can’t complain about free meat - but it sure was nice to recieve that 1/2 deer ready to go into the freezer.

We’ve been cold on the homestead, and we’ve been busy. And we are still loving every minute of it.

Bee Free,
Penny

The last few days have, thankfully, been very calm. The chickens are doing great - no more tail plucking/picking. They are enjoying free ranging each day - from sun up until down. I can’t tell you how much I love watching them monkey around outside. They typically stay close to their coop and run, but I have opened the front door to find them pecking around the steps, and spied them up at the top of our fenced-in yard.

We’re still making it through the never ending amount of boxes we brought out here from our house in town. I try to spend a couple of hours each day unpacking boxes, deciding what I have room for or can’t part with, and then packing the rest back up. But now that we are completely moved out of the house in town, going through the boxes is relaxing in comparison. And it’s nothing that has to be finished immediately.

It rained all day yesterday. Our rain barrel is filled to the top. I used a little to water some plants I took inside for the winter. We haven’t had rain in several weeks, so a full day of rain was very welcomed. The chicken run got a nice wash down - and so did the chickens. They spent the entire day frolicking around in the rain. One little Phoenix went into the coop for a while, and when she came out I peeked inside and saw she had left us an egg. She was outside playing in the rain again before I could thank her.

We spent this morning cleaning the coop and raking the chicken run. Chickens mulch up leaves really well. After we had raked up all the old leaves, cut grass, and chicken poo that had been in the chicken run for a week or so, we loaded up a few wheel barrels full and covered as much of the garden with it as we could. We’re hoping it will help build up that old shale laden soil we have around here. Then we dumped freshly raked leaves into the run to keep the chickens busy scratching while in there.

We have a nice fire going in the wood stove and just finished eating some turkey chili. I’m enjoying a glass of wine and thanking the heavens that things have calmed down a bit around here. The last few weeks have been a whirl of activity and “situations”. Lordy - country living can be exciting at times.

Bee Free,
Penny

Trust me when I tell you that I can think of about a hundred things I’d rather write about than the subject of feather picking/plucking and/or cannibalism in chickens. But I’m afraid this is what we’re going through right now and, in keeping with my promise to share all the ups and downs of our journey into homestead, this is what I’m going to write about today.

Although not everyone experiences feather picking/plucking and/or cannibalism among their flock, it is not really a rare occurrence. When I noticed it within our flock, I immediately began researching the subject to learn all I could about the cause of this disturbing activity and, hopefully, find a cure. What I learned is that there are many, many factors that could possibly contribute to it, and very little hope for a cure once it begins within a flock.

I found several studies, most of which were compiled by universities, and most of which dealt with commercial chicken operations. None the less, I was able to identify a few factors that seemed to apply to my flock and particular situation. If you are interested in researching this for yourself, a simple search engine query on the subject will yield several pages of information.

First of all, we were experiencing only feather picking/plucking within our flock. Although there was no cannibalism, it is extremely common that this type of activity eventually leads to cannibalism. It’s difficult to address one without considering the other.

Interestingly enough, Duke was the only chicken that was the target of this activity. In hindsight, I believe I can pinpoint where this all began. As the alpha rooster, the hens adore Duke. They follow him around and fight to lay next to him when he decides to rest a little. I first noticed that the hens had taken to grooming Duke. They would clean any food from his beak, preen him, and pick out old feathers as he began to molt. This is not unusual activity, so I didn’t think much of it. Before long, however, they began picking out feathers in earnest. Soon they focused on his vent area and began breaking off the new feathers, causing the quills to bleed. It also grew from a few hens engaging in this activity to almost all the hens joining in. I should note that it is not painful for Duke, so he is not inclined to put an end to it.

What I’ve learned is that feather picking/plucking typically begins as chickens go into molt. Picking out the old feathers can escalate into this disturbing activity. While some breeds are prone to feather picking/plucking (and naturally, I have a few of them), it can become a learned behavior for the other chickens as they watch it happening with regularity. I’ve also learned that this behavior is typically a precursor to cannibalism. Needless to say, it should be taken very seriously.

While this behavior does not seem to be completely understood, there are a number of things that have been identified as possible contributing factors. As I said, you can query in a search engine to read all of these factors. I’m am only going to address those that I feel pertain to my particular situation.

The most commonly mentioned contributing factor I read about was boredom. Chickens experience almost everything through their beaks. Even those who have only casually viewed chickens will realize that their pecking never ceases. They peck at anything and everything.

While we provide plenty of space for our chickens, their chicken run has been decimated of anything living. There is not a blade of grass anywhere in it. They have always had toys in their coop, and I routinely sprinkle scratch and treats around the run, but that is not enough to keep them entertained the entire day.

If you’ve followed this blog at all, you know that I have resisted allowing my chickens to free range any more than a couple of hours a day in the evening, when I can be outside to supervise them. I have always been terrified a predator will get them, and I have always been extremely protective of them. After observing their behavior for the past week, I’ve determined that boredom absolutely contributes to the feather picking/plucking. As a result, I have decided to allow them to free range from first thing in the morning until they go to bed at night. And while I am still very nervous about it, I would rather lose chickens to a predator than watch them peck each other to death.

We are only on the third day of allowing them to free range, but we are already seeing positive results. So far, there has only been one incident of feather picking/plucking and it occurred the first day they were free ranging. Although they have the opportunity to go anywhere they please, they are still somewhat attached to their run and routinely return there. The first day, Duke returned to the run to take his usual afternoon nap with a group of hens. As they were laying there, one of the hamburgs pecked at his tail feathers, causing one to break off and bleed. At this point, I believe this activity has simply become a bad habit for some of the hens.

While in the coop, they are sleeping, and while free ranging they seem too busy to think about the feather picking/plucking. As a result, this activity seems to only occur in their run. We have filled their run with leaves and freshly mowed grass, and I’ve sprinkled sunflower oil seeds through out it. There has been no feather picking/plucking since.

There are some who feel feather picking/plucking is a result of the lack of protein in the flock’s diet. I routinely feed my flock snacks that are high in protein, but I also give them some snacks that are high in calories, low in fiber, and not very high in protein. I have eliminated all snacks except sunflower oil seeds, which have 16% protein. I am also withholding the scratch until we feel this situation is under control.

I purchased a couple of Flock Blocks, which are blocks of compressed grains formulated for chickens. It is made by Purina Mills and the literature claims it helps encourage healthy pecking and thereby discourages feather picking/plucking and cannibalism.

I’ve also ordered some Hot Pick to spray on Duke’s tail feathers to discourage others from pecking at him, and some Avian Guard 2000, which is supposed to contain minerals and vitamins that chickens ingest and curb their desire to peck and pick on other chickens.

At this point, we cautiously optimistic that we have gotten this unpleasant issue under control. While I am pleased with that, the best course of action is to prevent this type of thing from happening in the first place. I am certain that if I had known more on this subject, I could have prevented it. There may be many contributing factors, but the largest is most likely my flock management techniques. In my defense, I was unaware of the causes of feather picking/plucking. Hopefully, by posting this, those of you with chickens may learn what to watch for and how to address it before it becomes an issue within your flock.

So, in a nutshell, the steps we are taking to end this feather picking/plucking are increasing the protein in the flock’s diet, insuring the chicken run is filled with items to keep them busy while in there, and allowing the flock to free range during daylight hours. As I said, we are cautiously optimistic that these steps are working.

If you are interested in a day to day update, I have started a thread on BackYardChickens. I have been updating it daily and will continue to do so until we feel confident the situation is under control. There have been helpful comments on the thread as well, so if you are currently experiencing this horrible activity within your flock, or would like to learn more about how to prevent it, you may find the BackYardChickens thread useful.

If you have experienced feather picking/plucking and/or cannibalism within your flock, I would be very interested in hearing about how you addressed the issue. Please post a comment, or drop me an email.

Ending this on a lighter note, I looked out the window the other day and saw Bernie standing by his truck, with Duke at his feet staring up at him. As I walked up to them, I heard Bernie saying “Yes, I know it’s a nice truck. And I know you like it. But you can not get up on it. Do you hear me? You can not get up on this truck. Now, go over there and tell all those hens that no one is allowed up on this truck. OK?” I can’t be certain, but I am fairly sure I heard a snort erupting from the hens.

Bee Free,
Penny

As you’ve noticed, we’re going through a few changes around here. I’ve given the website a little face-lift, and I’ve decided to use WordPress as my blogging tool so I can blog on the Back to Basic Living server.

For you, the only changes should be that you need to update your bookmark to point to the new Back to Basic Living Blog, and sign up for email delivery on the right of the page if want automatic email delivery when the blog changes.

You may now leave comments without registering for an account to do so. Your first post will be moderated, but once approved you may comment freely!

Enough about all that. Let’s get to talking about the homestead…..

Well, I was really tickled to learn after my last post that I’m not the only one that has tricked herself with fake eggs in the nest box. I received emails from a few of you that admitted doing the same thing. The details varied, but the bottom line is I’m not the only one! I appreciated each “confession”, but I have to tell you, the one that meant the most to me came from my cousin, who I consider the Chicken Queen of all times. There’s no need to publish her name (Don’t worry, Julie. Your secret is safe with me for sure.) She’s been raising chickens for many years, so it really did make me feel better to learn she tricked herself in a similar fashion. Granted, this happened early on in her chicken raising career, but I chose to ignore that and simply focus on the fact that fake eggs seem to fool a lot of people more than they do chickens. Although every one that wrote me did say that the fake eggs worked in getting the hens to lay their eggs in the next boxes. My cousin did mention that doing this type of thing “runs in the family”. I guess I even found comfort in that little tidbit.

We built an 18 X 18 pole shed off of Bernie’s barn shed. And by “we”, I really do mean “we”. We worked side by side on every single bit of it, except the shingles. And I’ve got the sore muscles to prove it. Bernie put on the shingles by himself because he wanted to finish it quickly and he would have had to wait until the weekend for me to help. Take a look at this beauty:

Pole Shed from an Angle

Bernie wasted no time filling it

That is one fine pole shed there, don’t you think? After seeing Bernie’s ability to design the coop and the pole shed, I’ve requested a screened in gazebo. He rolled his eyes, but did say he would put it on “the list”. Darn that list anyway!

I finally added some recent pictures of the chickens to the Chicken Coop Deville page. Scroll down to the last few pictures on the bottom. Although I know the chickens are growing and changing, it just amazed me to compare the pictures I posted yesterday to the batch I put up just before them. They have really changed a lot in just a few short weeks!

And speaking of changes, we are heading full steam ahead into the fall season. The days are shorter and cooler, and summer is on it’s way out. I already miss it.

So, there you have it. Things have changed around here - from the website and blog to the chickens and the weather. I’m not always a fan of change - but it can be a good thing.

Bee Free,
Penny