April 7, 2016

Good morning, chickens are the funniest things. We have somewhere around 50 hens. This time of year the hens are very active scratching and eating until the egging alarm clock goes off. Then there is one thing and one thing alone that is on their minds “GOTTA LAY AN EGG”.

One would think that this could be done in any convenient nest like location. I am still studying as to what makes one location FAR superior to another. So far the only criteria that fits is “any place except where I want them to egg”.

One time when we first had chickens we thought that it would be cool to have them eat down the grass in front of the house. It was early morning, we had herded them to their foraging “station” and placed by all appearances (to me) to be a fine nest box that they could use and then get back to foraging. Well it got to be about 10 AM and it was just like some one in a movie theater screamed FIRE. The hens were leaving the front yard like so many rats jumping from a sinking ship. The race was on to get to the perfect nesting location before another hen got there first. They never even considered the nice nest box in the front yard that I so purposely located for their convenience.

Normally the hens that do not make it to the nesting location before some other hen starts to lay, really start to raise a fuss and soon the whole barnyard is in a scolding kind of rhythm. It can become quite vocal at times. 

Normally peak egging time is between 10 AM and 2 PM. But there always is an exception or two.

I usually collect eggs around 3:30 in the afternoon so that I don't disturb the ladies while they are doing their business.

I have a cold frame that I have placed a blanket on the side so that the hens can't get into the cold frame and “beautify” my seedlings. Well the blanket makes for a nifty egging cave and 12 to 15 hens use this location. I like single egging locations because it minimizes the Easter egg hunt. It was collecting time and at least 3 ladies were not done yet at this location. The Hen on the nest was taking FOR EVER. The funny thing was that all three of these hens were quiet. Very strange. The hen first in line would stand back then go up to the cave and look end to see what possibly could be the hold up. She was for sure sending daggers toward the nesting hen. While this is going on the second in line would pace in circles for a while then go catch a quick bite and then back to circles. And of course there is NOWHERE else to egg. Well eventually everyone was relieved of their payloads and it was all back to pecking and scratching.

We inherited a number of bantam hens. These hens are about 1/3 to a 1/4 in size of the full sized hens. They are relentlessly picked on by the full sized hens. They may not be big but they are FAST!!!!. When tossing out bread crumbs it is a bantam that usually gets a piece. This may tick off the full sized hens.

In the afternoon when I collect eggs I toss scratch to the hens. You think that they get silly over greens but goofy doesn't even come close to describe their reactions when I rattle the scratch cans. It is almost like a war zone with instead of artillery projectiles coming it is many of the full sized hens that have launched and I am ground zero. No place to duck or to take cover. It is usually during scratch time that the bantams get the most harassment from the big hens.

We have one bantam that we call Burnsides because she has protruding whiskers on either side of her head not to dissimilar from General Burnsides of Civil War fame. I call her “Deb's bird”or between the two of us “your bird”. Deb has gotten her trained to come up to the front door and Deb will let her in to feed her a little scratch that she can eat in private away from all the other hens. She has gotten real good at zipping into the house without being noticed.. But soon you see her demanding “the good stuff”. Her crop usually gets to be the size of a grapefruit by the time we scurry her outdoors before she explodes.

As I said bantams are fast and this particular day she made pretty good inroads with the front yard “feeding frenzy” and managed to fill her crop really quite full. Well sure enough after doing my egg and scratch duties there she was standing there after she slipped through my radar wondering where “the good stuff” was. I had seen her being lucky with the “feeding” so I picked her up and really could not see where she could fit anymore, but she was more than willing to give it a go. I laughed and put her out.

The chicken channel, never a dull moment.

With warmer weather I am seeing some male flowers starting to develop on the squash vines. In the meantime young squash could find their way into the weekly bags. Do not see any small beans yet but the beans are covered with flowers. I am keeping the peas well watered and maybe I can keep them going for most of April. Those extremely cold nights awhile back really zapped them pretty good. Those nights really caught me off guard. Maybe if I had had a couple of layers of 70 on them, this could have been prevented. Ah yess that learning curve. It does remind me of a couple years back when we had some late freezes. I diligently had everything all tucked in and did not give any thought to my garlic or bulb onions. After all they are cold hardy, right? Welll some of the older lower leaves really got zapped along with some of the newer growth. With onions each leaf is a ring ( a ring being 1/4 inch thick or 1/2 inch per bulb size) and in garlic each leaf is a clove. This freeze really impacted the harvest of these crops. Now when these crops are actively growing I have a single layer of 19 ready to cover. It is important to uncover as quickly as possible because just this one layer can cause these two crops to prematurely mature and thus not gain full size. I guess if all this was real easy everyone would be doing it. But I love a challenge. Soooo next year the 70 will be on stand by for the peas. It is exciting to see the toms starting to fill up with fruit.

This week I expect to harvest chard, kale, green onions, carrots, beets, peas, and lettuce. Please email for availibility.