Freedom

As of Monday, our little flock of chickens has been free-ranging in the yard and pastures around the barn. I was a little very nervous letting them out into the open expanses in which hawks' cries are heard every day, possums patrol, and the occasional fox trots past.

But, when I pulled up in the driveway on Wednesday and saw them enthusiastically pecking and scratching through the grass looking for food, I knew they were going to be fine. There are lots of bushes and tall grass for them to hide in if a predator threatens, and letting them find their own food will save on feed costs.

My biggest fear was they would not find their way back to their coop at dusk. That fear has proven to be ungrounded as all 10 have been present for bed check every night this week.

This is Kobe's first close encounter with the chickens. He has seen them every day, but always with a fence in between. He was well behaved and very curious about these new critters roaming about his yard.

Everybody Out

The Replacements have been in the big coop with the Originals since September. However, they only began venturing outside of the coop in October. They seem to enjoy the outdoors and are spending more and more time breathing in the fresh air.

The Originals? Now we have to share with those youngsters?

Broody Bloomer

Last week, Bloomer started acting... funny. She hunkered down in the corner of the coop, didn't get up for two days, and didn't fly up to the roost at night. She seemed depressed. At first I thought she was sick, was she too weak to get up on the roost? Then I realized she wasn't depressed, she was broody!

Bloomer on her nest of imaginary eggs. She would puff up and growl when I moved her off the nest.

A hen becomes broody when she wants to hatch a clutch of eggs. Many laying hens have this trait bred out of them, and will never go broody. Bloomer is a Cochin, a breed known for broodiness. When a hen or a pullet gets struck with the urge for motherhood, they sit on their nest to hatch out their eggs. Only in Bloomer's case she had several things working against her:

1. We don't have a rooster, so there are no fertile eggs.
2. Fall weather is cold. Not ideal conditions for raising chicks even if there are broody eggs.
3. She's suppose to be earning her keep by laying eggs (and broody chickens don't lay eggs).

Having read four books about chickens last year before purchasing the current flock, and consulting websites like BackyardChickens.com and The Chicken Chick, I knew what I had to do...

Bloomer was going into solitary for a couple of days.

Every article about broody chickens I read had the same theme: the best way to break a broody is to isolate the offender in a wire bottom cage with access to food and water. The goal is to make the chicken uncomfortable so she will snap out of broodiness.

We didn't have a wire-bottom cage that would work for Bloomer, but I did have my garden cart that is constructed out of a metal mesh-like frame and has a plastic liner which is removable (it is a great tool to have around the yard). The plastic liner can also be flipped over and used as a roof for the cart, making it the perfect make-shift chicken cage.

Bloomer spent two nights in solitary in an unused horse stall next to the coop. She was returned to the flock last Tuesday night and is back to being a chicken who's happy not to be tied down with children chicks.  However, many hens will continue to go through phases of broodiness, which may be a good excuse for me to add a few more chickens to the flock. Perhaps an order of hatching eggs or finding a rooster will be on the docket for next spring...

And We're Off!

Cows