Part III of How.......

So 17 chicks. Then I started thinking about how many eggs I would get. If I had 17 layers then I conservatively would get 9 or 10 per day. Well that is more than we needed yet really not enough to sell. Our coop was big 7 1/2 by 9 with a 71/2 ceiling. Would hens generate enough heat to keep themselves warm? Maybe I should not have agreed to give any away. I should have kept them all! Can't go back on my deal. What to do? Back to the web.
Turns out that Ideal does not have a minimum order of 25. Perfect. "I will just order another 12 to replace the ones I am giving away." This time 5 Golden Lace Wyandottes, 4 Australorps, and 4 more Easter Eggers. Oh, thats 13. 12, 13, what's an extra chick at this point?
I placed my order. They would arrive 1 month after the first batch. Okay.
So while I was waiting for the newbies I went back to Ideal's website to check on a few things and noticed something that I had missed. You can order fewer than 25, but they will put as many male chicks in as they think necessary to keep the others warm. This is not good. I decided that I would just add more pullets to the order instead of the roosters.
"Hello, this is Lucy. How can I help you?"
"Hi Lucy. I have an order coming in a couple of weeks and I was wondering if you could tell me how many roos you would be adding for warmth?"
"Let me see. Going to Vermont in September....probably about 10."
"TEN? Ten roosters?(OMG 10 roosters) I don't want ten roosters. Can I order some pullets instead?"
" Well, let me see what we have. Well, the only thing I have are ducks or a bantam assortment."
"I don't want ducks, so it looks like bantams. They are straight run, aren't they?"
"Yes Mam. Just the way nature makes them."
"Well at least some of them will be pullets so I am better off. So please add 10 bantams to my order."
So now I am up to 30 standards and 10 bantams. Maybe I'll get 20 eggs a day that I can sell and we'll keep the bantam eggs for us. And 40 total will keep the coop warm. All is well.

Video:Taking you on a snowshoe.

I thought you might like to come along on our morning walk. This was about a month ago now, just after a fresh 6 inches of powder.

Video March 15, 2009 Thumby's Complaint

Part II of how I acqired 49 chickens...

Minimum order 25. At this point the practical me is saying "Turn back now Dorothy!"
Unfortunately or fortunately, the practical me has never had much luck. Not a chance. All I had to do was find a couple of people who wanted to share the order. I could keep ten and they could have the rest. In a short while I found my enablers and was back on McMurray's web site.
Now the dilemma of what to chose. They had an offering that seemed to solve this problem. It was called the Rainbow layer assortment. The mix would be made up of 5 breeds of 5 chicks each. They would be chosen from the brown, white , and tinted egg varieties. Hence the name, Rainbow Layers. Lovely. But wait. What if they don't give me any that lay blue eggs. And I really like the Barred Rocks, oh and the Ancona and the Black Minorca, and I have to have Silver Laced Wyandottes. I ordered 31 pullet chicks. (Hens under 1 year)
Now I am commited to 2 chicks from Ellen and 15 that I ordered. 17 chickens.

Egg count March 13, 2009

I lost track on a daily basis so here it is for the week. I sold 6 dozen eggs to neighbors and 7 dozen to the Upper Valley Coop. I used a dozen and have 18 in the fridge one of which is over 3 ounces. Just to give you a reference point, a jumbo egg is 2 1/2 ounces. This is one big egg. I'm not sure but I think maybe it is Bad Betty's. That would explain a lot.
15 1/2 dozen eggs for the week.

Part I of how I aquired 49 chickens and where they sleep

Back in the halcyon days of early summer 2008 for some reason I thought about the chickens we had years and years ago. Fond memories. At the time we had a front yard fence that our kitchen window perfectly framed. The girls, no roosters, assembled on the fence and watched us eat our breakfast as they waited for theirs. Very sociable creatures, they followed me around, allowed me to pick them up and chat and they gave us eggs! That was all I remembered.
So I began visiting my neighbor who has 6 or 7 chickens and asking her questions. I admitted that I was thinking about getting a few. The door opened a crack.
A few weeks later..........
Ring, ring "Hello."
"Tina, it's Ellen. 5 eggs hatched. I only want to keep 3. Want the other 2?"
Just sort of sticking my toe in that water. "Sure."
Two chickens. Two chickens, maybe an egg a day. Two chickens that I must feed and water and house and protect and maybe an egg a day. How many did we have before? 12. I think we had 12.
"Ellen, where did you get your chickens?"
"Ideal. Ideal Poultry on line."
Ideal.
Ideal has over 100 breeds of standard chickens, Barred Rocks to Silver Spangled Spitzhaubens. That does not include Bantams or meat birds. Just to see, I googled other hatcheries and found Mac Murray's. Oh the pictures and descriptions, and they are only 2.50 each.
Minimum order: 25

March 11, 2009 weather and egg count

Yuck! Yesterday 22 eggs.

Video March 9, 2009 Lulu Speaks

Video weather report March 9, 2009

Just when we thought...............

March 8 weather and general egg count

Yesterday and today the temps have been in the 50's. Fabulous except for the mud bog on the killer-diller. Up to about 24 eggs/day. Lots of new layers on board.

Video March 5 Good Morning Big Girls

March 5 weather

Yesterday was another chilling day, but today is sunny and in the 20's. Just heading out for a walk.

Yesterday's egg count

Two days in a row 22 eggs.

Good morning Video

Every day and night I sing to the girls to reduce their stress. I move slowly and talk softly. You can see how calm they are as a result.

March 2 and 3 weather

Yesterday was brutal. Only in the teens, but with the wind and snow it felt like zero. Today the snow has stopped and the sun is out, but the temp is still in the single digits. Had a lovely snowshoe though through the woods and across the field.

March 2, 2009 Egg Count

Wow! 23 eggs today.

Preparation H Part II

So back to Thumby's butt.
Thumby was making all the pre-laying egg noises and searching out dark corners and all sorts of private places. She came to me for assurance as did the others and I picked her up, calmed her, and put her in a nesting box. After a few days of this I was getting worried. Newbies can have all kinds of problems, such as tumors, internal laying, Salpingitis, and finally, a prolapsed oviduct AKA blowout or pickout. Here I quote from Gail Damerow in"The Chicken Health Handbook".
"...pickout is a condition in which the lower part of a hen's oviduct turns inside out and protrudes through the vent. Prolapse occurs most often when a hen starts laying at too young an age, is too fat, or lays unusually large eggs. Caught in time, the prolapse can sometimes be reversed by applying a hemorrhoidal cream(such as Preparation H) and isolating the hen until she improves. Otherwise, the other chickens will pick at her vent, eventually pulling out her oviduct and intestines and causing the hen to die from hemorrhage and shock." Oh no, poor Thumby. We had noticed that her bare butt was bigger and redder than usual not unlike that of the unfortunate baboon.
I flew out out the door to save her and arrived at the barn just as she bent over and sure enough, someone pecked her butt. I scooped her up and put her in sick bay until I could get everything ready. I gathered a small tub, Epsom salts, mineral oil, towels, hair dryer, and went in search of Preparation H. I checked all the likely places in the house and came up empty. What to do? The nearest place to buy it would mean an hour round trip of traveling in the car. Neighbors? Only for the love of Thumby.
"Hello, Barb? This is a little strange, but do you have any hemorrhoidal cream? I need it for my chicken etc...."
"You mean like Preparation H?"
"Yes."
"No, but you should call Carol."
" I can't call Carol. I'll just go buy some."
" Don't be silly. Call her. She's a doctor and she has llamas."
"Okay, I'll call Carol."
No answer at Carol's house. Thumby waiting in sick bay is getting cranky. I decided to proceed with the warm soak and delay the procurement of Preparation H.
After her Epsom salts soak, rinse in glycerin, towel and blow dry, and application of mineral oil to her posterior, thumby was quite mellow and more than willing to nap in sick bay. I tried Carol again.
"Hello," oh crap "David?...This is Tina. Is Carol there?"
"No, she was called to an emergency. She should be back soon. Shall I have her call you?"
All right, I told my self, grow up, buck up.
" No, here's the thing. Do you have any Preparation H? You see I have this chicken....."
"Hold on a minute and I'll go look......................Tina, I found an unopened tube."
I made the 10 minute round trip to Carol and David's to exchange the PH for a dozen eggs. Gallant David met me straight faced at the door with PH in hand and an air of understanding concern. Thank you David. We have lovely neighbors.
Thumby was so relaxed at this point that nothing fazed her. I dosed her inside and out and put her back in sick bay again. After a few hours I decided that I had to release her and monitor the situation. She stretched and did her best to fluff. She looked at me as if to say, "Are we done here?" then marched back to her peeps. Nobody pecked her. As a matter of fact, nobody came near her. I think PH must be a chick repellent because Thumby's butt was still bright red. A couple more hours passed and her butt looked better and still no pecking so I decided that she was safe.
I dosed her again the next day. The next day she laid her egg and I gave a hallelujah amen.
Thumby is doing just fine and I don't really know if she was ever in serious trouble. However I now have the tube of Preparation H in the medicine box just in case.

Picture of Yesterday's eggs

March 1 Egg count

21 eggs today