What a Difference a Day Makes!

We only got two eggs today but, on the bright side, there were no vandals near the coop.  After the morning chores, I stopped by the coop again just before 11am and the water was frozen.  I was able to chip the layer of ice off the one on the 'deck' but the other waterer was frozen solid.  I brought it home and thawed it out.  I returned around 2:30pm with the thawed and refilled waterer and changed that out for the now almost frozen one on the 'deck'.  I took that one home with me and returned again at 5pm with a refilled waterer for the chickens to have a drink before going into the coop for the night.  I imagine the Tuesday family might want to do the same sort of thing tomorrow.

The chickens seemed to handle the cold pretty well and ate a lot today.  We put out some extra straw this evening in the coop and the run.

The door is pretty cantankerous with the bent latch at the top.

Susan Gamble

7 eggs and a bunch of little $@#%s!

Well, the wonderful news is 7 eggs collected on Sunday!

This was a welcome discovery after getting to the coop at dusk yesterday only to be told by a good Samaritan that a group of kids had been vandalizing the coop. Apparently, they had gotten the snow shovel and were using it to pound on the door to the coop. They bent the top lock pretty bad, to the point that I had to pound the locking device on the door with a rock to get the door to close properly. The blue caribiner was missing from the front door yesterday and this made the damage even worse. I was eventually able to get the chickens all locked up. I think with a new caribiner we should be OK and I will try to get that today.

Thanks goodness for the good Samaritan who said he scared off the group of ne'er-do-wells pretty well just minutes before I arrived. I sure wish I could have been there to read the riot act, but, with any luck, I will never have the need again!

I stowed the tools--shovel, hoe, etc--behind the hay to keep them out of idle hands.

Otherwise a beautiful chickeny day.

Hey all! I'm a little worried about the below zero temps coming up this week. Is there anything extra we can do to keep the chickens warm? Maybe a tarp over the hen house? -Amy Anderson

Check out the auction item my aunt-in-law sent...She and her husband have a yarn company and they sent a kit for hard-boiled egg covers. I think a little "bird" must have let them know about our ladies!

Chicken Karma?

It was a lovely warm day with three eggs. Brown, beige and white. It was the first day on my rotation that neither the water nor my fingers froze over. Wonderful! The hens loved the apple peels and cauliflower greens I gave them. And I notice that a fairy god chicken came by and gave them even more veggie scraps today. So they were in heaven! Thank you Fairy God Chicken!

Susan, I asked Not-Fiona why the eggs are always found on the right side. She told me that it's not because of any republican leanings. They prefer to be bipartisan and love Sen. Udall's IDEA of sitting on both sides of the aisle. It's just that the box on the right is always still warm from the previous hen nesting in it. It's much more cozy that way. ; )

As an anecdote, this chicken coop has sparked some very interesting conversations. A friend of mine was talking to her favorite barista about the deplorable conditions of commercially raised egg laying hens. He told her that it was because they had bad karma caused by their ancestor, the T-Rex. She then gave me the postcard shown above with the following message on the back. "A team of chicken scientists doing field research concerning their ancient ancestor. The focus of their research is to determine: Did T-Rex roar or sing? Possible crow?"

So Not Fiona in charge

Turns out if you wait until twilight, all the chickens are nicely in the coop with Not Fiona standing on the deck, tapping her foot, as she waits for the people to come and close the drafty door.

Four eggs, same colors as usual.  Three were in the far right nesting box, one in the box next door.  What is it that makes that side of the coop so attractive for egg laying?  Is it warmer?  Does it get more sun?  Are our chickens Republican?  There could be a science fair project here.

Susan Gamble

pretty pink eggs

If only I could paint some room the same color as these pretty pink eggs. We had two and two lovely brown ones as well. The ladies seemed eager to be out in the warm weather and really enjoyed some time in the run.

Fox Prints

A fresh layer of snow revealed fox prints inside the fence this morning. It was interesting because we could see exactly where he went and what he did. He obviously was looking for a way to get in. We could see three or four places where he poked around and dug very slightly, but nothing or any real note. Must be driving him crazy being so close to those delicious hens.

We collected one egg this morning - which was our first "morning egg" - and four this afternoon. Killian insists we eat them for dinner as soon as we get home, so we had huevos rancheros. Absolutely delicious!

Urban predators - 0 urban eggs

Either that, or the ladies are all tuckered out after laying a record 6 yesterday. As of 11:00 this am there were no eggs. And so far no eggs have been laid after 11:00 on my watch. I'll comment if I find any tonight. I did find a cat lurking about in the run this morning. I'm going to empty the trash can this evening to see if that gives the urban wildlife less reason to visit. What is the purpose of this trash can anyway? Maybe we should get a lid that latches for it. I searched the perimeter of the coop for any visible points of entry for predators. The chicken wire on both the north and south side seem pushed in a bit, but have not pulled away from the sides. I'm a little worried about cats eventually prying their way into the hen house through the ventilation screen, but it appears pretty sturdy right now.
We're out of oyster shells. I e-mailed Michele Horn, as I don't have Dave's e-mail address. The ladies devoured the apple slices I gave them this morning. And I needed to re-fill the waterer by 11:00. Man, they're thirsty chicks! I'll give the straw an extra fluffing tonight to help with the chilly temperatures we're supposed to get tonight and tomorrow.

Unremarkable Monday

We got four eggs before 11am yesterday.  The hens seem to be enjoying the warmer weather.  A lady on the playground mentioned that she had seen a fox in the run as well.

Susan Gamble

And the Blue Ribbon goes to....

Just saw this information about the Denver County Fair -- which is going to focus on urban homesteading, backyard farming, and healthy cooking -- and thought many of you might find it interesting. Check out the competitions page. Some of our birds are pretty awesome....

Fox

I was coming up Elm from 17th this morning about 8am.  I saw a fox trot across Elm and head, in business like fashion, up the steps and down the garden path to the coop.  When he elegantly leapt over the fence into the run, I sprinted up the steps, heard the chickens, and saw the fox already halfway across the field looking at me.

So, good for us, the coop itself is safe.  But, be aware that it is certainly on the map for our neighborhood wildlife.  Locks and regular 'integrity' checks are important.

Susan Gamble

Did you know that there are 250 million egg producing chickens in the US?

I got that little tid bit off of "The Natural History of The Chicken" which I watched on Netflix recently. There was little in that documentary which could be called natural, and even less that could be called historical. But it was anecdotal and showed the extremes of chicken care in the US. It made me appreciate this little Chicken coop Co-Op all the more.
On to real news. Four eggs today, 1 white and 3 brown. I think the little red hen (Not Fiona? - I really like her!) was trying to get into the nesting boxes as I was adding hay to them this morning. She kept peaking in and giving me that "Gotta go!" look along with a "bu buk?" I found 1 egg this morning and the other 3 around 10:30. Gave them apple slices which they seemed to enjoy. The water had an icy crust on it when I came at 10:30am and the hens did some complaining about it. I removed the ice and gave them fresh warm water. When I checked back at 5:00 the water dish on the pavers was crusted over again. I gave them a little bit more warm water. The water by the hen house was fine. I added more straw to the house, as it seemed a little thin. I didn't see any snow in the hen house today, but can see how easily it could blow into that large ventilation screen on the east side. I'm too short to cover it at night without a ladder. Could we build an overhang out of sheet metal to keep the wind from blowing snow in?

Straw, ventilation and tour

For now we are going with the "deep litter" method, which only requires cleaning out the coop every few months. If we rake the straw, the poop falls to the bottom, mixes with straw and naturally starts to compost. It is actually a less-smelly option than no straw on the bottom. So all continue to keep raking and adding straw as needed. We still need to scrape off the ladder, deck and if possible, the perches inside the coop, that is where they actually sleep.

Vents with doors would be a good addition to the next coop, add it to the list. For now we could cover the west facing triangle in these sub-zero and windy nights. It would need to be removed in the morning however.

I led a tour of the coop and answered questions for the group of 6th graders from the Denver Green School today. They were high energy, and had good questions. Their school actually has money set aside for a coop, what a wonderful opportunity for these urban dwelling kiddos. Advocacy and teaching is part of what Urban Hens is all about, it was great to be a part of it today.

Snow in the Coop

We got four eggs today.  The chickens all seemed well and ate the carrot scraps we brought for them.    The water on the deck was not frozen through but had a crust on it at about 4pm.  The other water was half full but frozen.  I gave them fresh warm water on the deck and took the other waterer home to thaw, wash, and dry.  When we returned 45 minutes later, about half of the water had been drunk.  So, if you have the option to give the chickens a late day water like this, it might be a good idea.  (The second waterer was returned to the storage bin.)

There was snow in the coop this morning.  I cleaned out a lot of straw trying to get it all out.  I know we need ventilation but we might want to have covered ventilation in our next coop.

A suggestion for the straw issue - we could change it on a 8 day rotation so that a different day of the week would be due for the "changing" each week.  Doesn't help with the expense but would spread the workload.

The Gambles

Straw Consensus

For now we will keep a good amount of straw in the bottom, for insulation and cushioning. When it is your day, "stir" the straw around. Take out any large clumps, but unless it gets overwhelmingly gross in there, we are going to leave it and clean at the end of each rotation. At that time we will clean the outside straw out as well. For now we are going to just throw away in the dumpsters, large amounts of straw. If you have a compost pile at home, feel free to take it with you.

Any eggs this weekend?

Sara

More hay trouble

As all of you have probably noticed, now that we have hay at the bottom of the coop, we have a bit of a poop problem. I emailed Wynn for advice, and her opinion is that we have to have something down there -- in the winter for insulation and in other times of year for cushioning when the hens jump off their little poles. This wasn't such an issue when they were younger, but as they get bigger and older, they can develop leg and foot trouble if they are jumping on a hard surface. When we build the next coop, let's keep those poles pretty close to the surface.

With hay, we need to change it out at least once a week. This isn't great news for a number of reasons. The hay costs money. We're having trouble finding a place to compost it all. And if we do it just once a week, then just one person gets stuck with the task.

Wynn says we can consider other substances. She suggested sand or sawdust or rubber mats. Here is where our coop design is problematic. It is hard to scrape the poop off the surface of whatever is down on that floor because we have to bend over and reach in (another thing to keep in mind when designing the next coop -- those pull-out drawers that Peter mentioned seem pretty nice at this point).

Anyway, decisions must be made. If you have thoughts on this issue, please comment to this post. I'll email Sara and the other board members directly so that we can get moving on solving this problem.

Stay tuned.

Amy

Can you say frittata?

The Johnson/McMahons finally have some eggs. Three beautiful eggs in the roost today and one broken one. We'll be enjoying a nice frittata tonight, thanks to our lovely ladies (and indirectly the rest of you, as well). Gave the hens some carrot and apple peelings this morning, which they enjoyed. We also put out about 5 romaine lettuce leaves, which they ate in about 60 seconds! It's a good way to see if they're all healthy...throw down some lettuce leaves and see if any of the hens doesn't show interest.

Denver Green School Tour next Tuesday

Hello all,
Next week I am giving a "tour" to some 6th graders from the Denver Green School. For those of you unfamiliar with them, here is the website: www.denvergreenschool.org
They are interested in getting a coop at their school.

Anyone who is available at 1pm on Tuesday, the 11th, please contact me if you are interested in helping.

Sara

I'm having so much fun on my first day of this rotation! I found one egg this morning waiting for me. (brown) The locks all worked, although the lock to the coop was a little sticky. I did buy de-icer for myself and bought an extra if anybody wants it. I put it in the supply box. Auto Zone on Colfax had a good supply of them. I was unable to find them at King Soopers or Walgreens. I stopped by to check water and the ladies when I picked up my daughter at 10:30 this am. They'd all but emptied the water dish on the flagstone! So I refilled that one, and then found 3 more eggs in the hen box. (1 brown, 1 light brown and 1 pinkish white) So exciting. We'll see if there are any more when we put them in for the night tonight. I showed the eggs to Mrs. Levy's kindergarton class. They were thrilled! What a fun day! - Amy Anderson

5 eggs on Monday

Susan Gamble, with no help from her husband, tended to the birds today. Five total eggs were harvested.

Of note is the bottom lock on the door - which was not cooperating (sticking) at twilight time - it was eventually persuaded but not without some whispered swearing...

Susan was a little surprised to see hay in the coop this AM - question: are we keeping straw on the ground in the coop - and how best to keep this clean?

Park (on behalf of Susan)