The First Snow!

 The first snow was not that extreme. It was about two inches deep yesterday but it melted a lot since then. In the picture below you can see that the chickens are not cold at all from the snow. It is December fifth today as well. The snow is about 24 hours old.

The chickens are checking that snow out. (It is not in the picture but it is definitely there)

The gray Easter Egger chicken does not like the camera or me. She is nervously eying me deciding if she should run. I never did anything to her in the past to make her hate me.

 Snow outside and we are still getting eggs. Crazy! We have gotten five today. Snow is on the ground and it is unbelievable.
One of these eggs is FAKE. Can you guess which one it is? Scroll down for the answer.

Up above we told you to guess which egg was fake. The answer is the one closest to you on the right hand side. Thank you very much for participating in the game :)

Here is a close up shot of the snow. It is melting super fast even though it feels very cold when you step outside. Hopefully we can sled soon.

I let the chickens out this morning like I always do. We had some extra kitchen scraps so I brought them out to the chickens. They really like kitchen scraps and went all over them immediately. Eleven of our thirteen chickens were hanging out around them.

Right after opening the door the chickens come running out. They must hear me in the distance as I approach their dwelling because they need to jump off their roosts before going outside.

Compost eating in progress.

It rained a ton last night. The coop run got soaked. There is a plastic roof over the run but this is still the result. It must have been pretty windy.

This chicken's life goal is to MAKE THE SANDBOX GREAT AGAIN!!! And to drink up all of the water...

Compost eating still in progress. Do I need to explain?

Is it me or the camera that you are running away from?

Less Eggs And Chicken Update

These are the chickens drinking.

 

Our three white egg layers with the green egg layer.

 

Lately we have been getting about 7-9 eggs a day but now it is getting colder and we are getting less. Currently we are getting from 4-7 eggs a day. The colder it is the less eggs we get.

This is their favorite spot to lay the eggs. It is right next to the roost and sometimes you can not reach the eggs. As you see it is empty.

One of the tasty eggs in one of the boxes. YAY! That other thing is a fake egg. We need to wash it.

This is the high tech feeder that we use to keep the food from getting dirty. They stick their head into a pipe to eat the food. It is not a big stretch but it is great for keeping the food very clean and healthy.

Here are the eggs. I have three of each color.

This is one of our chickens in the nest box. We still are getting some eggs so it is not uncommon to see them in there. You can barely see the edge of a white egg underneath her. The chicken that is photobombing is named Princess.

First Eggs!

 Here are our chickens in the sandbox. They are scared of the camera.

Buff Orpington chickens in the sandbox. The close one is named Chicken Noodle Soup and the far one is named Big Buff.

These are two of our unnamed chickens. They are looking up at the camera. They do not see it very often.

We finally got eggs! The chickens first started about three weeks ago. Right now we are getting six eggs a day. The first chicken to lay was about 19 weeks old.

We moved the chickens outside finally!!! They dirtied up the bathtub so bad. We cleaned it up. The chickens have done great outside in their coop. We let them into the run just a couple days ago. At first they were timid, but now they love coming outside. Only our gray araucana doesn't.

The chickens absolutely love the deck. They like it more then the sandbox. Especially on days that it is raining.

Here are two pictures of chickens hanging out inside. A nice escape when everyone is outside.

I found out today that chickens really like beech tree leaves. They like them better than oak and maple. It is crazy.

This is the feeder. The chickens have to stick their heads inside the pvc pipe to get at the food. That makes it impossible for them to waste it. Trust me, YOU want to make this! They waste over 1/4 of their feed.

This is a good chicken website.  Here they will teach you everything you will need to know about raising chickens. From what kind of food to feed them, to chicken breeds that have feathers that stick strait out, what to do when you have no egg production, and ways to keep your chickens healthy.

 The chickens are getting larger and more curious, I will make a post soon about moving them to the finished coop.

The New Chicks

 Here are the new chicks, they are all in the bathtub. We got 3 Black Australorps, 2 Jersey Giants, 3 White Leghorns, 3 Buff Orpingtons, and 2 Araucanas.

 They love to eat and eat and eat.

 And eat some more.

 Then they go to sleep, if you see your chicks sleeping, do not be concerned. They are not sick, they are just resting.

 Our Araucanas learned how to climb on top of the feeder and drinker. They were going to learn how to escape from the bathtub, so we made a cover for the top of the bathtub. (Picture below)

They can still fly on top of the feeder and drinker. We think that is important for them because they love to do it.

Changing Bathtub To Chick Brooder

 We have this big huge bathtub in the master bathroom that we do not use at all. We need a safe place to put our baby chicks. So we are going to change this tub into a brooder.

 We need to keep it safe in the bathtub so we are going to cover up the jets.

Pine shavings make a very soft bedding for chicks. Do not use cedar though, because it causes respiratory problems.

We cover the pine shavings with paper for the first day to teach them what food is.

Me adjusting the heat lamp

Here is the finished product.