2009 chicks

OK here we go, today we received 16 pullets from Lebanon, MO, The pullets are called Cinnamon Queens, Brown in color and will begin laying in less that 20 weeks from now. all of them were shipped in good condition and we are all enjoying them a lot . at 7am the call was made to us from the post office in Lacey, WA. My grand son and myself got up and less than 15 min. later we were at the post office picking up the noisy girls. we are making video's on the trip and in a short while you can view them on youtube using the link in my blog. mean time enjoy a few of the new pictures.

BOB'S NEW LADIES 2009

WELL NEEDLESS TO SAY WE ARE EXCITED AROUND HERE FOR THE NEW PULLETS TO ARRIVE IN THE MORNING. jR. HAS COME OVER TO NIGHT SO THAT HE CAN GO TO THE POST OFFICE WITH ME IN THE MORNING, WE WILL BE TAKING VIDEOS AND PICTURES OF THE BLESSET EVENT. ONLY 15 are coming but that will bring the new total to approx. 29. and that's all folkes! here is a couple of pictures of the night before already to go. My old pullets are now Hens the ladies have grown up, it makes me proud.

Hi! here our some pictures of the new portable brooder that i have set up for the new chicks when I move them outside to the pen area. which will be in about 1 !/2 months, the new chicks will be here on 4th of March. they will stay in the house for approx. one month. the white is stuff that i can wash and keep things clean the top will have hinges so that I can open it from the top.

JANUARY REPORT ON AROUND THE FARM 2009

Well how is everyone this month? I have been busy. First let's give the egg count for Jan. had 2 days with 11 eggs, 4 days with 12 eggs, 11 days with 13 eggs, and 14 days with 14 eggs, which totals 31 days and 409 eggs, 34.09 doz. for a yearly total of 2,210.00 eggs and for a total doz. of 186. not bad for only 14 chickens. My ladies will be one year old on march 3 rd. I just ordered from cackle hatchery 15 more pullets and they will be her in March 4, 2009. I will expand to 29 and that is it. my chicken count is from June to June one year. The new ladies will be the same as what I have now, Cinnimon Queens cost from hatchery to post office is $ 46.80.I plan on moving the older chickens to half of the pen to isolate new from the old until they are old enough to be put together. how ever that won't be until a couple of months inside the house in the brooder. Things that I did last month are, earned a certificate for BIO-Security on Avian Bird Flu. to make sure I protect my ladies. I became a Septic tank inspector for my system and learned how to install the risers and bring the tanks up to ground level. Also installed my own Hot Tub and even did all the electric work I can now add those things to my resume. Went to the bark store and got some saw dust and wood chips ready for spring. I will put up some pictures soon of these activities. for now take care.

YEAR END REPORT 2008

roost area cleaned

these two pens one cleaned one with deep liter

chickens eating scratch.

nestting boxes

well another year has come and gone I hope that 2009 is good for you. with all the snow and rain and different winter weather patterns my ladies have not skipped a beat. Well I try ed putting a small light in the coop it didn't work because they were up all night partying all night they would come off the roost and line up by the door waiting for the lights to come on and some of them went out into the dark yard and because they could not see they would bump into things . So I turned out the light. The radio I left on to keep them from listening to noises out side, it seems to be working better. I find that with things closed up I needed to clean the roost area up at least every 6 or 7 days. I've had to turn a small fan on to remove the Oder's from their chicken waste. they are still laying close to the maximum. this month egg report is 4 times 12 eggs, 13 times 13 eggs, 14 times 14 eggs, for a total of 413 eggs for December. total eggs count for the 6mo. and 1 day is 2,214.00 eggs, that's 184.50 doz. from just 14 pullets. My lovely daughter Stacia gave me three new nest boxes to add my collection. I am getting excited for march to arrive so the I can receive my new chicks from cackle hatchery, type called Cinnamon Queens. new pictures and videos posted to my links. YouTube for videos and buzz net for pictures.to find them in YouTube type in BOBSCHICKENS65, In buzznet type in BOBHALLSR1, That is if you don't see it when you get there.

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