And We Appear to Have A Rooster

 A couple weeks ago I showed you our new chicks. 

We bought eight Buff Orpington pullets, with the hope that perhaps one of them would turn out to be a rooster for the others. It looks like we got our wish. 

They are just a little over a month old, with only one of them showing a good start on a comb and wattles. Roosters tend to develop these before the hens, so it looks like we indeed have one rooster.

The chicks' box resides in the goat barn in the kidding stall, where I can hang a light for them. We started with a heat bulb, but after we got over our frosty nights, I switched to an incandescent bulb (can you believe I still have one?). Incandescent bulbs produce heat, which makes them un-useful in summer, but very useful in winter for warming a small space such as the chicks' box or under a reading lamp. They use a lot less energy than a heat lamp.

The hole in the box lets them get out to explore the kidding stall. 

Yesterday they were all racing around the box in a circle, jumping and flapping their little wings. On warm days I turn off the lamp, but on cooler days they nestle down under it to warm up. At night I cover the opening with a piece of cardboard.

They are almost full feathered, so we should be able to move them out into the refurbished chicken tractor in their new yard soon. 

And We Appear to Have A Rooster © May 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

New Additions of the Feathered Kind

 First up, Eastern Phoebes. They built a nest in my milking room and raised a brood of four. 

Nest of Eastern Phoebes

The parents were very shy and wouldn't come in when I was in the milking room, so I tried to be very stealth when taking pictures. I never tried to peek inside the nest, but kept my distance as best I could. At night I left one of the barn windows open for them, while the rest of the barn is closed up because of the coyotes. 

They fledged one morning when I was doing the milking and feeding the goats. They all found windows and doors to fly out of and I'm guessing the happy family is around somewhere. Phoebes are common to my state, but I don't recall seeing them much.  

Also, we have new feathered additions of the domestic kind. 

Buff Orpington chicks, hatched in late April

We bought them through our feed store because we could get the number and breed of chicks we wanted.

about 2 weeks old

These came about because our current flock is getting pretty old and have not done a good job of providing us with replacements. They sometimes go broody, but quit before incubation is done. So we decided to go with the Buffs, which have been a good breed for for us for broodiness and mothering. The batch is supposedly all pullets (female), but we'll see. Eventually we'll need a rooster.

Rather than put the new chickens in the established poultry yard, we fenced off a new yard on the side of the goat barn.

Several years ago we tried to make this a yard for new ducks, but they deserted it in favor of the chicken yard. We've tried to keep the chickens and ducks separate, but the ducks insist on being in the poultry yard and chicken coop. Since they squabble so much, we decided to start the new chicks off in a new location, as soon as they're old enough.

For a chicken coop, Dan expanded our old chicken tractor. 

It's heavier, of course, but will be more of a permanent coop for the new additions.

Once they are feathered out and able to stay warm without the light, we'll move them in. To start they'll have the coop area and the protected area underneath, but eventually they'll have the entire yard to roam in. 

We think it's best when young are raised by their mother, even chicks, even though they are able to feed themselves from the get-go. It certainly makes the job easier to have a mama hen do it, plus they learn quite a bit from their mother too. In this case, however, it couldn't be helped. 

New Additions of the Feathered Kind © May 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

More Drama in the Chicken Coop

First, some background: Several weeks ago, I told you about our Muscovy and Jersey Buff turkey hen squabbling over the eggs. Since neither one was going to budge, they finally "settled" the dispute by sharing the nest. Not long after that, one of our Speckled Sussex hens pushed her way onto the nest and refused to move. So the three of them have been continually jockeying for position. What makes matters worse is that the other hens insist on trying to lay there too, so we have an over-crowded jumble of eggs on that communal nest with no way of knowing what's going on. 

Hatching begins: We finally spotted one chick 

Readily adopted by Mama Hen for mothering

and one duckling.

1st duckling to hatch; followed Mom Muscovy
out into the chicken yard, but they didn't stay long.

Mostly, everyone was sitting tight on the nest, so there's no way to know for sure what's happening. This isn't unusual, as new babies take several days recovering from hatching before regular ventures out into the world.

Now, for the drama: Dan was in his workshop the other day, when he heard a ferocious racket in the chicken coop. He assumed it was Mama Chicken and Mom Muscovy fighting over the nest again, but he went to check it out anyway. When he got there, he saw a snake tail sticking out from the nest! He grabbed it and threw it against the wall, which stunned it. That's when he noticed the back end of a duckling sticking out of it's mouth. Dan grabbed a hoe, pinned the snake's head down, and managed to pull out a live duckling! 

The snake was promptly dispatched and we brought the duckling inside to make sure it was alright. I put it on a heating pad and we observed it for several hours, until it was alert and chirping. Then it was put back under the mamas in the nest. Talk about a close call!

The next day it was fine, and I was able to get some pictures. 

This is why we've had a problem. Instead of setting in
the nest boxes, they all want to set under the nest boxes.

It's hard to know how many are actually under there.

Duckling on the left is our snake survivor (still with dried snake siliva
on it's head.) Behind it is the baby chick. Two ducklings on the right.

Final count is four ducklings and one chick. Three of the ducklings are doing well, but the little guy who almost got eaten by a snake is lagging. Honestly, he looked a bit premature after his rescue, and we surmise that the snake went after the egg. Even though it broke, he was close enough to hatching that he can breath air, but he isn't getting around as well as the others. It may be a leg injury, hard to tell.

Our two turkey poults are doing well. They are now two weeks old.

They blend in well to their background!

They're beginning to look less like baby chicks.

Jenny B has proven to be an excellent mother.

The only broody mama with no babies is Jenny J. In looking over the remaining eggs in the nest, they all appear to be duck eggs. No turkey eggs. I find it curious that she readily adopted eggs that were already there without laying her own. Mama Hen took over the chick and Mom Muscovy took over the ducklings, so it's sad that Jenny J has no one to mother. 

I'd like to say all's well that ends well, but there are still many perils about for baby poultry. We just have to do our best to protect them and hope for the best. No more adventures would be fine with me.

More Drama in the Chicken Coop © June 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Barnyard Babies: Baby Chicks & Turkey Poults

After the feud between Mama Hen and the ducks, we decided that the best thing was to move her and her baby chicks into the old duck/new turkey yard. 

The turkey yard. Originally built to be a duck yard, but rejected by the ducks.

I reckon it's the poultry nursery yard for now. But before we moved them, we did a number of things to varmint proof it. 

We added 2-foot chicken wire on the bottom of the welded wire fence.
This will keep chicks from slipping out and varmints from slipping in.

The bottom portion of the chicken wire was folded to extend like an
apron around the edge of the yard, It's weighted with boards and rocks.

Over the top, Dan made a pole frame for bird netting to keep renegade
chickens from trying to fly in, and turkeys from trying to fly out.

Close-up of the netting. I like that it's nylon and not plastic.

For right now, Mama Hen and her three chicks are at the far end of the yard, where the old duck houses are.

Putting her and her eggs in the dog crate turned out to be a better idea than we first expected. She settles the chicks down in the crate at night, so we can close it to for an extra layer of safety.

We started them in a small enclosed area. After a few days, Dan moved the little fence and expanded their area. Eventually, we hope to put them with the other chickens, assuming they'll all accept that. For now, this is safer.

It's hard to get pictures because Mama puts herself between them and me!

Under the chicken coop overhang, Dan built a turkey roost.

The poults were about to outgrow the chicken tractor by this time, so we moved them into their section of the new yard.

They've grown a lot!

We don't know for sure (because turkey people say it's very difficult to tell), but we think we have two males and one female. Call it a hunch, but we both have the same feeling.

Of the hen and chicks, the turkeys are very inquisitive. When the chicken tractor was out in the pasture, the poults were always calmer when chickens were around.

However! Any time they get too close to the fence, Mama Hen lunges at them. They are timid, though, and immediately run off. Dan saw them hop the fence for a closer look and Mama Hen went full blown mama bear ballistic. He said they couldn't get out of her pen fast enough.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, our varmint proofing didn't work. Mama Hen switched from the dog crate to the duck house, and yesterday morning, one of the chicks had disappeared. Last night Dan covered the opening with chicken wire and put out two live animal traps. He checked on them at bedtime and had caught skunks in both traps. He found a third skunk in the yard! That one has gone to skunk heaven. I'm so glad he secured Mama hen and the remaining two chicks. Otherwise, we'd probably have lost the other two as well.

Barnyard Babies: Baby Chicks & Turkey Poults

© Aug 2022 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Poultry Squabbles: The Ongoing Saga

Earlier this month, I told you about the feud between Mrs. Broody Chicken and Mrs. Broody Duck (Poultry Squabbles). Well Mrs. Broody Duck (aka "Sister") has continued to have it in for Mrs. Chicken. She chases her around the chicken yard when they go out for a stretch, and tries to block her from going back into the hen house!

Sister. She shares the nest with Mom Duck, who was out at the moment.

On Monday, I was canning cucumber relish, when Dan came into the kitchen and said, "Two of the chicks have hatched, but Sister won't let Mrs. Chicken back into the coop." I went out to see too, and sure enough, two little peepsters were peeping from the nest, and Mama Hen was nowhere to be seen.

The entire poultry yard was in an uproar, but where was Mama Hen?  Since we have four Speckled Sussex, they all look alike and we can't tell them apart! Fortunately, the day was in the low 90sF (low 30sC), so we didn't have to worry about the chicks getting chilled. But we were concerned that she might abandon the nest. If she didn't return by evening, we'd have to put the chicks under the brooder lamp and raise them ourselves. That was not the desirable outcome.

That evening, when I went out to fill hay feeders for overnight, Dan said there was a chicken under the nest boxes, which are next to Mama Hen's dog carrier. He said she'd been there all afternoon, so we reckoned this one was Mama Hen. If she'd just been in there to lay an egg, she would have left as soon as the job was done. 

After everyone was in for the night, I carefully moved her to the dog crate. The chicks started peeping and she settled down on top of them. What a relief.

Mrs, Chicken, now Mama Hen.

Dan gave her six or seven eggs, and so far, three have hatched.

Can you see the second one?

It will be a couple of days before we know the final count. When the eggs start hatching, the broody hen usually stays on the nest for several more days. This is because she lays them over a period of days, so they hatch on different days. We gave her the eggs all at once (as long as they haven't been refrigerated, they remain viable for chicks), but by instinct, she'll stay on the nest for a couple of days. That's good because it gives us time to figure out how to keep her and the chicks safe. Too many squabbles in the poultry yard for that!

Poultry Squabbles: The Ongoing Saga © July 2022

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Chicken News

Our Dominique hens are now residing in Dan's chicken tractor. You may recall we initially moved them in as chicks. We had twelve chicks, however, so they quickly outgrew the chicken tractor and were moved into the chicken coop. Turned out nine of those twelve were roosters. We kept one and thought all was well until a hawk or owl got the rooster. Then a neighboring allowed-to-roam dog killed one of our three hens, so we're down to two. 

Our ideal number of chickens is six hens plus a rooster, so I looked around for more chicks. I finally found a breed we liked at our family-owned feedstore. 

These little gals are Speckled Sussex, one of Dan's favorite breeds. I was hoping for another batch of straight run (unsexed), but all that was offered was pullets. These come with a 90% guarantee of correct sexing, so I'm hoping we got at least one cockerel in the bunch! We need a rooster! I've got them in the house for now, and will move them to a brooder box in the chicken coop when they get a little bigger.

The other chicken news involves our neighbor. The other night I went out onto the kitchen porch and heard loud crackling and popping. I looked outside toward the noise and saw a humongous ball of fire next door. One of our neighbor's chicken coops was on fire. 

Dan and I ran over as fast as we could to help. The little building was made of plywood and pallets, and had created a ferocious blaze. My neighbor was hysterical and crying "They're in there! They're in there!" Someone had the garden hose going, but the water pressure was so low it wasn't making much of an effect. Fortunately, these neighbors have an above ground swimming pool, so I grabbed the nearest container to dump water on the adjacent chicken houses, while Dan started shoveling dirt to smother the spread of the fire. Miraculously, we were able to keep the fire from spreading to the other two little wooden chicken coops and the trees overhead. 

Turns out she had just moved 30 new chicks from the house into the coop. The extension cord for the heat lamp was apparently faulty and started the fire. The cord itself was burned about halfway to the house. The adult chickens survived because they were out in the yard, but all the chicks were lost. My neighbor was devastated. All I could do was give her a big hug. We don't plan for bad things to happen, but they do anyway, and we always feel responsible. Unfortunately, bad things happening are a fact of life.

As you can imagine, I was extremely careful to check our heat lamp and extension cord when I set up for our new chicks. They're about a week old now, so they'll stay in the house until they outgrow their tote. Then we'll set them up in a brooder box in the chicken coop. We can anticipate them starting to lay in September. In the meantime, I'll have to adjust our diet to what two hens can produce. 

Chicken News © May 2021 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Moving Day for Little Chickens

The day quickly came when the chicks outgrew their brooder box. Time to move them to the chicken tractor. 

We left them in the tractor coop for a couple of days and then opened the door to the great outdoors.

Some of them seem to really like it outside, others prefer to stay in the coop. None of them is having  trouble negotiating the ladder.

It looks like of the twelve, we have about 7 or 8 roos. That's about what we expected (sigh).

Moving Day for Little Chickens © Oct 2020 
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

What Sam Was Guarding

If you missed my ?????????????? post the other day, then you missed the exciting build-up (and fun comments) for Dan's latest homestead project. 😉 Here it is!

Dan's chicken tractor.

Chicken entrance open.

Human access to run.

Side and back.

A peek inside the little side door.

Egg collecting hatch.

View from the egg collecting hatch.

Nest boxes

Dan's plan is to set up a small yard with portable fencing off the run's front chicken door.

Gateway to future chicken happiness.

Here are its future occupants.

Our new chicks.

They are Dominiques, also known as Dominikers. I bought them at Tractor Supply Co. This is the first year I recall TSC selling chicks in the fall, and the timing was perfect. I had already ruled out mail-order chicks from a hatchery, so we hoped to find something on Craigslist. This was even better. The chicks were selling fast, however, so it took a couple of weeks to get a breed that was suitable.

By suitable, I mean a breed that has a tendency to go broody and has good mothering instincts. While our Black Australorps have been excellent layers and have good personalities, they haven't been very good at perpetuating themselves. Our best brooders were Buff Orpingtons, so that's what we were looking for again. But the varieties at TSC vary week by week, and they don't know beforehand what they're getting. Often it's hybrids or the agricultural standards (White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, and Plymouth Rocks) but these aren't bred for broodiness, so self-sustaining chickens is iffy.

One day last week, I called TSC at lunchtime, just as they were unpacking a new delivery of chicks. I checked their four breeds on Henderson's Handy Dandy Chicken Chart and learned that of those four, Dominiques are considered good brooders and good mothers. This is just a breed tendency, of course, and there are individuals amongst every species that are uniquely themselves, but I have higher hopes we can raise our own chicks again with a breed that's inclined that way.

Our ideal number of chickens is six hens and one rooster. This batch is straight-run, which means they haven't been sexed so it's theoretically a 50/50 mix. Anyone who's purchased straight-run chicks, however, will likely agree that they often tend toward the cockerel side. We'll just have to wait and see.

It will be awhile before they're ready for the chicken tractor.

What Sam Was Guarding © September 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com