Eggcellent

 

Egg-stravaganza, eggcellent - there's no end to the puns that came to mind when starting off this post. Anyway, Ginger and Babs do everything together - where one goes the other goes, and if separated they cry pitifully. So it makes perfect sense that they each laid their very first egg on the same day.

I had been waiting for some time. Every day as I did the chores I would peak in on the nesting box. While I was doing this, Babs, who appears to have assumed the role of rooster, would yell at me.

Hens, they told me, are quiet. The loudest they get is when they cackle after laying an egg. Not mine. I have noisy, noisy hens. They also wake up BEFORE dawn and if I don't have food out there already, they start in right away:

BAWK BAWK BAAAAAAWK!

This is annoying. I am located in a densely packed suburban neighborhood. Space limitations dictated that the chicken yard be located right outside a) the kitchen window b) the kids' bedroom window and c) the neighbor's kid's bedroom window. Luckily the neighbors are nice and they swear no one is being prematurely awakened by the bawk bawk bawwwwking.

The problem has been somewhat mitigated by an automatic feeder, but they still bawk themselves silly midday, despite ample food and water, because someone is laying, someone is thinking about laying, they want to forage in the yard, the sun is too sunny, the rain too wet etc. etc.

This gets worse when they see or hear someone who is known to bring food. Therefore, the daily conversation:

Me: "hush!"

Chicken: "BAWK BAWK!"

Me: "Well, did you make me an egg?"

"BAWWWWWK!"

"You know I'm not going to keep feeding you if you don't start laying some eggs. In fact, chicken soup is starting to sound real good right about now."

"BAWK BAWK BAWWWWWWK!"

There was a little part of me which secretly believed no matter how long I kept checking, eggs would never appear, that I was a failure as a chicken mommy and a farmer and I might as well pull out the soup pot and the hatchet now.

And then one day, they did it. We were all in the backyard, doing yard work, playing, whatever on a Wednesday evening. I glanced wearily into the coop and the nesting box, more out of habit than anything, and there they were: two perfect brown eggs.

Since that day, they have reliably produced 6-7 eggs a week each. It makes all the BAWK BAWK BAWWWWKING less annoying.

Slightly.

Water Days

Ginger and Babs enjoying their new waterer

Chickens are an excellent conversation piece: most folks, when they find out we keep chickens, are a) chicken enthusiasts/keepers themselves and want to talk alllll about it or b) curious about how we're managing. Some of these latter are interested in or dreaming of doing the same, but I think most regard me as a fascinating alien being and want to hear more about my weird customs.

What I usually tell people is that, after the initial hassles of finding a space, secure housing and adequate shelter, they're no harder (and so much more useful) than cats. I don't even spend that much on their organic layer pellets because they helpfully consume many of our food scraps (this is not condoned by the experts but part of their role in the family is to help manage our waste stream).

The one struggle that has vexed me has been keeping a fresh water supply available to them. Chickens are very, very messy creatures - even messier than my five year old, believe it or not. They kick stuff around all day in the search for little bits of food, they perch on absolutely everything, they poop constantly. An assortment of vessels have been tried and all wound up knocked over, defiled or otherwise rendered useless, necessitating the stressful (because I worry about forgetting) chore of checking their water supply at least twice daily.

There are all manner of clever devices on the market to deal with this, as well as some great DIY solutions, but most don't work with our situation and I'm cheap and lazy. However, I remembered reading about a simple setup involving an upside down bucket, and yesterday I finally looked it up.

I'm just going to briefly summarize what I did, but if you're the sort who needs detailed instructions, pictures, video etc. just google "homemade chicken waterer".

You will need:

1. A five gallon bucket with a watertight lid, easily attainable at any hardware or home improvement store for a few dollars.

2. A pan, wide enough for the bucket to sit in flat when turned upside down, with enough extra space around the edges for a chicken to dip in her beak and drink water ( not much is needed). Many recommend an oil pan, which are also cheap and easy to find, but I wound up using one of those plastic trays you set under a plant pot to catch the water that drains out the bottom. Whatever you use, it must be deep enough so that the hole(s) you made in your bucket can be below the surface of the water. With this in mind, I suggest you make your holes after you select your pan (um, personal experience there).

3. A sharp instrument capable of making or cutting a hole through the side of the bucket. I found the power drill and a 1/4" bit to be fast and simple.

4. Optional - some stable object to set your assembly on, high enough to discourage the chickens from kicking debris into the pan but low enough to allow access to the water. I had a broken piece of paver around, about 2 inches thick, that was perfect.

5. Five spare minutes.

Assembly:

Make one or more holes below the top rim of your bucket. You can cut a larger opening like a mouse hole, or you can do as I did and just drill a small hole (I made several spaced around the rim to minimize risk of clogging).

The only critical step is your hole placement. To determine this, turn your bucket upside down and place in the pan. Water will flow out of your hole(s) into the pan. The top of the hole MUST be below the rim of the pan. Otherwise, water will just keep flowing out of the reservoir until it is empty. However, the higher the top of the hole, the deeper the water will sit in the pan, so make sure it is high enough so your chickens will be able to get to the water.  Once the water is above the level of the holes, it will stop flowing into the pan until the water level goes down again:

Now that your hole(s) is/are made, set the bucket right side up and fill. Snap the lid down tightly. Turn it upside down into the pan. Water should flow from the reservoir into the pan until the top of the openings are submerged. When the water level drops below this point, more will flow into the pan.

For this to work, it must be set up level and stable. You will still need to check every day to ensure everything is in working order, but a visual check through the fence is simple enough.

Happy watering!