Well the last week was lots of fun. All the snow and then the rain. First the snow took out my bird feeder and I had large drifts of snow in the first pen of the chickens. Mean while something scared the chickens, because when I went out to check on them I found around 6 of them on the floor not knowing what to do in the dark. So I put them one by one back up on the roost. I then noticed that the window was broken The glass was broken from the inside because of how the glass fell, and with all the snow out side there were no tracks in the snow and my looking around I could not find the reason. but I did notice that the chickens all had moved to one side of the roost, I could only conclude that what scared them was from that side of the coop. I have very strong wire on all of the windows so they were scared but safe. I replaced the glass window and put in plastic windows. if it should happen again they can't break the plastic, to thick. It took them several days to spread out across the roost again. things are getting back to normal. I have thought about the incident for several days, and I have taken one of two changes the first one is to put a very small Xmas lite pink in color so that they will not be completely in the dark and will be able to find their way back up the roost. The next thing I am going to do is something that I have been thinking about for some time now, I am going to put a very small radio in the coop and play it on their favorite station, chicken country. I think it might take away most of the outside noises and tend to keep them calm. these things I don't know if they will work or not but it won't hurt to try. The little light has caused some confusion, because the chickens seem to know about when the lights might come on so they get a little restless and because the nite light is on they will start to head down off the roost and outside. I found them in the outside pen walking around along the fence line looking lost trying to find their way into the second pen to eat the goodies I set out for them each night. To night when the chickens went to roost I removed all of the saw dust and wood chips and put new in, I was not sure how wet it was in the pen I was surprised to find it quite dry . that's it for now .

xmas eve at Rita's and Bob's 2008

Heres a short note if you go to my link on videos you can see a few videos on our xmas eve present opening thak you

xmas eve 2008 snowing. cleaning coop

Well ain't life fun! The weather here is quite a challenge not what we are accustom to , we have had approx. 13 inches. I was concerned about the build up on the trees and roof of the buildings but so far everything is fine . yesterday when the temp. was above freezing I went out and cleaned the inside of the coop out below the roosting area it went very easy. I don't remember if I have spoken about things inside of the coop or not but here goes. when Ibuilt the coop I gave a lot of thought on time saving. I did look and read a lot about what other people were doing and their pit falls. I wanted to prevent these things. So #1 I insulated the floor, walls and roof. I put vent at the top about 16 of them and by putting in a false roof on with a trap door that I could open and close at will I could control the air movement, and heat. The chicken waste can get pretty strong and cause breathing problems for the pullets, I also clean and remove the waste as much as i can approx. once a week. Everything in the coop area can be removed and cleaned outside. the floor and roost area have linoleum on to make it easy to clean, I do not hose the inside down, I only use rags and muscle power to clean. soap and bleach. so far the coop has been cleaned for a year and it still looks like it's new. the back wall is what catches a lot of waste so it is made of washable material and has worked excellent. coop area stays at approx 47 degrees. I use a organic natural spry to control bugs and stuff like that so far no bugs yet. keep it clean and the bugs won't come. the chickens are only inside to lay eggs and roost that is their choice and not mine. very little maintenance goes on inside the coop, except keeping the roosting area clean. the next blog i will try and speak on the outside in the yard and feeding.

new video link bobschickens65 in youtube.com

THe

news for the day I have set up a site on YouTube.com for you to view any videos that I have made. In my blog I have linked you to YouTube.com by using the bobschickens65 link once in,look up at the top for bobschickens65 and highlight it to view my video's. Thanks for visiting. this new link is my way to use my blog more effectively, now I can provide video's to all, enjoy. the picture of the flag and snow are from Stacia's house in Marysville. Soon I will have a link for pictures also.

wow what a difference a day makes 12-17-08

a little snow in back of coop a little inside from the north

chickens looking for the scratch i just gave them

some pictures of snow from the outside looking in

well here is the years first snow we don't see it very often even though we have a lot of close calls enjoy the pictures. I will use these pictures to improve my weather control. we had the storm come from the north which is different because it mostly comes in from the south. The weather temp. is around 32 degrees but the coop inside is almost 50 degrees a little heater is all that's used a little warmer than I wanted, but a little adjustment will take it down a little.

HERE ARE A FEW PICTURES OF THINGS AROUND AND IN THE COOP.

DEC. 08 DAY 15 COLD 26 DEGREES, A COUPLE OF EGGS CRACKED OPEN TO SHOW THEIR COLOR DOUBLE YOKE IS BECAUSE THE PULLETS ARE STILL TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT.

TWO PCTURES OF THE OVER HANG OF PEN i JUST PUT UP A TEMP. TO SEE WHAT WILL WORK.

Today I had an unusual incident at approx. 4am when I went to their coop to check on them like I always do when I heard a noise in the coop like chickens moving around which was a surprise to me because I always believed that as long as it was dark the chickens would not come off of the roost but I was wrong out into the yard came two of my pullets to get to the mash first and so I checked the nesting box and they had laid two eggs I took them out and they were very warm still Like I always say the minute you think you know everything they will surprise you.

November 2008 update

some of my ladies checking things out

my ladies wanting to know what is going on

should I go up or stay down on the floor

VIEW OF BOTTOM OF ROOST CLEANED

SECOND VIEW OF ROOST FLOOR

VIEW OF OTHER SIDE OF ROOST CLEANED

VIEW OF FLOOR OF ROOST CLEANED

HALF CLEANED

OTHER SIDE DIRTY

ONE SIDE CLEANED OTHER SIDE DIRTY

DIRTY SIDE

SECOND SiDE DIRTY

well hello everyone sorry that I have not blogged for all of Nov. no excuses. my ladies have been busy out of the 31 days in this month my hens have laid eggs as follows 12 eggs twice, 14 eggs eighteen times and 13 eggs eleven times that equals 419 eggs for the month. that's approx. 35 dozen, my customers buy them up faster than they can lay them some have even paid ahead of time. The cold weather has not slowed them down, even though my neighbors chickens have quit laying. If the conditions are right I will be surprised if mine stop. year to date totals 1,801. eggs, and 151 doz. all from just 14 chickens. I will be adding some pictures of my cleaning of the coop roosting area. so far the coop has not been cold even if temperatures have reached 32 and below with snow on the ground. the other day I was speaking to this nice lady at the store and I stated to her that I gave my chickens raisins some times in their mash and she was amazed she did not think that they could eat them. As we spoke on the subject of how to get rid of mites and bugs, she swear that the best thing that she was doing was putting diesel oil on the chickens roost. I for the life of me was surprised to hear that she thought that raisins were bad. All that I could think about is diesel oil? fires , chemicals Yikes! she was surprised that there were other natural things that she could use. I have read of these fixes before and they were in old books. Not for me. now don't get me wrong it's well known that there is more than one way to raise chickens. I have put my winter plan into effect and I am just keeping things dry,clean and keeping lots of food and water available at all times. these pictures show how the coop area looks when it is dirty and when it is cleaned. The chicken stuff has been removed and it cleans after one year like it is brand new. I do this approx. every week.

END OF OCTOBER REPORT

Well Oct. is done and that means it is time to reflect on last month. Today I was going over my paper work to see how well my 14 pullets were doing on egg production, June 29, 2008 the first egg was laid , so in June 1 egg, July 207 eggs, Aug. 380 eggs, Sept. 381 eggs, and in Oct. 413 eggs, That totals 1,382 eggs, 116 doz. . For the month of Oct. I got 14 eggs ,16 times, 13 eggs 10 times, 12 eggs 4 times and 11 eggs 1 time. just think only 14 pullets, for only 4 full months? Laying machines you bet! So what I am doing must be working. cut down on stress, be consistent with feeding, keep them dry and in a clean environment, free from bugs and predators, keep the rodents away, keep the roosting area and egg laying areas clean, which I do at least once a week. This is where they lay the eggs and sleep. I like to make it a pleasant experience. With Winter fast approaching I have put the windows back on, I have a little fan on to keep the air from getting to stale. I have been thinking about the cold and just because everyone says that chickens can do OK in the cold weather doesn't mean that they like it, plus all of the stories frost bite, that doesn't set to well with me. I don't think that I want to deal with that , so I am going to keep a small heater in the coop area just to keep it from freezing in there. If you can make them comfortable why not? The progress on my portable brooder is going well, I am working on the roof I have it designed and half completed. I expect to have pictures of it perhaps this month, if the rain would only stop. Well that's it for now.

As I discovered while trying to decide what kind of chickens to get, I learned that having all the chickens the same breed, lowers the stress level . As chicks get older and learn their pecking order in the group. There is less fighting. The other night when I was working near the pen, one of the pullets made a noise and the race was on, because each chicken knew their position in the group, they went to roost in a line each chicken knew when to enter the roosting area the last one took what was left. The chicken that was last always sat on the end on the roost one down, since I have all the chickens banded and numbered I can see that it was the same chicken. This chicken is always away from the others . So to keep the stress down I have two feeders each on opposite sides, less stress
When the pullets wake up at 4am when the lights come on , they are out off the roost in under a minute all 14 of them and in order. The cockeral that I had put a lot of stress on the pullets always showing the other chickens who is the boss. That is why I had to remove him, plus he had started to crow not good for the neighbors. but could not eat him so I gave him to my stepson Sean. note: on my progress with the new portable brooder that I am building everything is done except the roof . I want to get this stuff done before winter dips down to freezing today I covered the saw dust and wood chips to keep them dry and I also covered the top soil that I use for the dusting boxes, I need to keep it dry also.

14 chickens 14 eggs, nice clean eggs. very large, I did not clean these eggs this is the way I got them from the hen house.

chicks at about 1 1/2 months old just moved from in the house to the new coop it was toasty warm.

pullets grown up

this a picture of the new expansion of the outside chicken yard .

After working on building the coop all winter and getting the area in the house ready to receive my new pullets. I ordered them on the internet from Cackle Hatchery in Lebanon, Missouri. The type of chickens I wanted were pullets and would lay big brown eggs and were bred to lay. when the chicks are born the pullets are brown and the cockerels are yellow, pullets (female), cockerels (male). When they are one year old they become hens and roosters. The breed of my chickens are called Cinnamon Queens., brown with streaks of white. My chicks arrived at the post office on March 5Th 08 I ordered 15 pullets because I wanted to see how much room that they would take up. After picking them up and I had arrived home one of the pullets had expired, but the hatchery had put in a extra one for that reason, but the extra one was a cockerel and so I now I had 14 pullets and one cockerel. The chicks travel pretty well about all that they really need is heat, the chicks live off themselves for food and moisture for about 4 0r 5 days so the best time to to ship are right when they are first born.
I got them home as quick as I could , so, that I could get them warm and give them some water, as you put them in you dip their little becks in the water to show them what it is. put some paper towels on the floor so that they won't slip, throw a little chick feed on the floor to let them peck for food no litter because they would fill up on the saw dust and they could die. water at around 98 degrees so that when they drink the water won't lower the body heat, heat at around 95 to 103 and water at around 98. as the weeks go bye lower temps around 5 degrees each week.

MY VERY FIRST EGG FROM MY LADIES

my very first coop before i doubled the outside yard.

10-20-08 Winterizing at this time of year is on my mind 24/7. Winterizing is a thing that you plan for all year long. When I built the chicken coop I had all seasons of the year in mind Just recently I put the windows on the coop, plugged in the water thermostat holder. I have removed all the litter and replaced it with new, cleaned the inside laying and roosting area. I put yellow numbered bands on the pullets feet. Gave each pullet a health checkup, front to back , sprayed them with Poultry Protector. I use only organic materials, on or around them. Of course I spray the coop and yard area once a week to kill bugs ,flies, mites etcetera.. so far none yet. The pullets eat all the bugs that they see and believe me they look 24/7, always on the search. Things are almost ready for winter. my next post will be on the history of my ladies.

DATE 10-20-08 WELL NOW LET'S GET STARTED. I AM STILL TRYING TO FIND MY WAY AROUND THIS BLOG AND SO I MUST TEST TO GET THINGS RIGHT. I HAVE DECIDED TO BEGIN BY TALKING ABOUT THE SEASONS, BEGINING WITH WINTER , MEANING THAT ABOUT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR I NEED TO WINTERIZE, THUS MY FIRST WORDS OF WISDOM WILL BE THAT. SO STAND BY WHILE I GET THE ARTICLE READY. IN A DAY OR SO.