Treadle feeder progress

Well, I haven't given an update because I haven't had one.  The problem is, my girls are such big hens that they just stand behind the platform and reach over it to get to the food.

I will say, I like the larger size feeder.  Especially, now that I have 5 hens instead of 2.  They can really chow through feed.

I've reached out to the man who made the feeder who gave me a few things to try but they didn't help.  One was to prop the feeder up on something.  Well, it's heavy and I had to go buy two cinder blocks because I wanted it to be super stable and not fall over.  But they were STILL able to reach the feed w/ out stepping on the platform.

So I put it back on the ground and just left the brick in place to keep it open.

Recently, I'm catching the Bunkies stepping on the platform (even though it doesn't move) to get to the food.  So I suppose I should try again and remove the brick and back off some of the tension to see if I can get them to get the hang of it.

In the mean time, I've read up about crumbles vs. pellets and how much less waste there is with pellets.  I had bought a bag of pellets about a year ago, but they wouldn't eat it.  Now it was a different brand which could have been the issue.  So I gave up and haven't tried since.

Fortunately for me, my local feed store sells all it's feeds, seeds, and treats in bins where you can scoop out just what I need.  Or buy it in the 50lb sack.  I'm sure you pay more that way.  But it's a great way to try a pound or two of something before committing to a big bag.

So I brought home about 5lbs of pellets, the same formula as their crumbles, and mixed it in.  And it disappeared.  But I wanted to be sure everyone was eating it so I then put the pellets in a separate feeder and have watched them all eat from both feeders.   I'll mix the two until I finish up all the crumbles I bought and then transition them over to pellets only.

The good news is, I've seen no evidence what so ever of rats in the past two months.  I finally resorted to sliding a tray of poison way underneath the Juniper bush that is closest to their run.  I'm so embarrassed to admit that.  But after trying just about everything else, snap traps, sticky traps, peanut butter balls mixed with plaster of Paris, Critter Ridder spray AND an electric rat zapper, etc., I caved.

And honestly, I drove myself nuts w/ all of those things.  I wish I had just shoved that poison in there to begin with.  It's far away and on the outside of where my girls live so they'll never get to it.  And clearly, it worked.

I also bought several pair of Solar Night Eyes and have them covering the tops and gate of my run.  They say that they will scare off rats and maybe they really do.

So things are good here these days and I'm not going to rock the boat.

We had our first 4-egg day the other day.  And I'm hoping we have our first 5-egg day in the next week or so.  I'll be sure to blog about it.

Coco knows her name

I apologize for not blogging for a bit.  I just got busy with other things.

But things are good here.  The girls are finally all beginning to get along.  Which is a very welcome change.  I feel like the past 5 months of my life has been consumed with raising chicks and flock integration.

Each of the babies now lays eggs.  Which means I need to stop calling them babies.  So we'll call them the Bunkies.

The Bunkies LOVE their new house.  Which we call the Bunk House.  I swear they know I bought that special for them.  They are just so cute when they go in there and all snuggle together.

The big girls spent some time investigating this new house, but they still go to sleep in their hen house, the Spice Cabinet.

What's weird, is they like to lay their eggs in each other's house.  Today, I came home to find one of the Bunkies egg's laid in Coco's nest.  Which is kind of scary.  Coco is VERY possessive of her nest.  Not to mention, Coco is a BIG chicken and there's really no way that two chickens can fit into one nest.

And the Bunkies are not small chickens either.  They each weigh about 5 1/2 lbs which is a whole pound more than Ginger.  Ginger still likes to peck at them but it's nowhere near as vicious as it was previously.  And I keep telling her to stop that.  Because one of these days, those BIG Bunkies are going to realize that they are much bigger than her and peck her back.  Oh my.

I did have a conversation with a co-worker who did not believe me that Coco knows her name and comes when I call her.  So I made a little video to show that Coco does INDEED know her name.  Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG-Abzhj3w8

Do you hate peeling hard boiled eggs?

If you've ever hard boiled your fresh eggs, you know what I'm talking about.  The shell is practically glued to the whites of the eggs making it next to impossible to peel them.

The reason is, fresh eggs with their firm whites, fill up most of the inside of the shell with that tasty goodness.  Many people will tell you to simply let your eggs sit in the fridge for a week or two until the whites have had a chance to evaporate just a touch and pull away from the shell.  Then hard boil them.  But doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having really fresh eggs?

When my husband and I watched the movie Bridget Jones Diary years ago and came up to the scene where Bridget's mom is selling those egg shell removing kitchen gadgets, my husband begged me to get one.  But we all know those don't exist.  So in protest, he's totally given up trying to peel our fresh eggs.  He simply cuts them in half with a sharp knife and scoops out the egg with a spoon.  That's fine for breakfast, but doesn't work when I want to make deviled eggs.

I've read about people steaming their eggs to hard boil them so I thought I'd give it a try and OMG, why did I not start doing this years ago.  The shell practically came off in one big piece from my fresh eggs.  I'll never go back to boiling them in water again.

I have an ancient Hamilton Beach rice steamer that has an egg basket.  Pop them in and set it at 19 minutes and voila.  If you don't have one of these, just do them on the stove.  I'd bring your water to a boil first and then set the steamer basket with eggs over the steam for 19 minutes.  Let them cool and you are good to go.

The babies have their own address

After trying everything I could think of to get the big girls to accept the babies into the hen house at night, I caved and ordered a second hen house.  I'm kind of embarrassed about that.  In hindsight, I should have ordered a bigger house way back when I started this adventure.  But oh well.

I ordered one of the new Snap Lock chicken coops that is made of plastic panels that you simply snap together.  It's made in America which I like.  And it does go together quite easily.  I had a hard time ordering it because it was the same price as my beautiful Amish made coop with the cute little red roof.  But there was a big price difference in the cost of shipping.  Not to mention, my Amish coop being made of solid wood, weighs about 300lbs.  The Snap Lock coop weighs just about 40lbs.

I'm not sure I'd trust it up against big critters.  It does come with some very nice D-rings to attach to each of the latches to make it more secure.  But it seems like something could chew its way through one of these panels.  Maybe not in one night.  But over time.  Fortunately, I have plenty of room in my run to just plunk it down on some cinder blocks (and one old flower pot flipped upside down) so I know it's secure.

Snap Lock Chicken Coop

Come with a roosting bar and there are slots inside the house where it fits.  They sent the roughest piece of wood I've ever seen.  Took me a while with sandpaper to get it safe for babies feet. 

And it has three separate nest boxes.  Difficult to see from this angle.  But I've got them all filled up with pine shavings and fake eggs.  Unfortunately, Ginger got in there and kicked out a bunch of shavings.  Naughty Ginger.

And a photo of my Amish built coop.  Made in America too.  Solid wood construction, this thing can endure the elements AND keep your chickens safe from things that want to eat them in the night.

And I will say, it is easy to put together.  I did it almost all by myself.  A few of the tabs wouldn't pop into place and having a second person on the opposite side of the coop to hold it tight while you snap it together is helpful.

I tucked the babies in there after dark last night so they could get used to it and wake up in their new home.  Unfortunately, when I went out this morning, Ginger was inside terrorizing them and eating pine shavings from the nest boxes.  Ginger HATES water so I spritzed her with the water bottle a few times to get her out of there.  Thought I had that solved.  But when I went out this afternoon to check up on things, she's sitting in one of the nest boxes laying an egg.  Sigh.  YOU HAVE YOUR OWN HOUSE!!!

So I'm not quite sure what to do here.  I think I'll close the door on the house during the day and go out in the evening and open it up so the babies can go to bed.  This will keep Ginger out and hopefully, her curiosity with these new digs will pass.

But I can only do this for a few days as Sugar squatted for me yesterday.  For those non-chicken rearing folks, that means she's come of age and that we're probably just a week or so away from her laying her first egg.

And the three babies.  Two were dust bathing and the third just wanted to be close.

I have about 8 feet of really soft, loamy soil mixed with sand, peat and DE but no, they've got to dust bath right next to each other.  So sweet.

Treadle Feeder Update

Take a look at the photo from my last post.  See the little thin grey strip just above the feed?  It's a piece of weather stripping installed by the man who made the feeder so the lid doesn't slam down when it closes.

The hens ate it.  It's all gone.

Sigh.  Just when I think my girls are so sweet and smart, they go and do something so utterly stupid.