She Was Hiding Something

Can you spy the oddity in this picture? How about the chicken egg behind the bush?Which, upon looking closer, turned out to be a whole nest of eggs. It seems our chicken Austra has been laying for quite some time.

We had our suspicions when her feathers grew back in completely and comb turned characteristically bright red, a sign of egg production.

Then last week, we came home from a short walk and the dogs were at odds with each other. We stopped big hound Devie from barking and uncovered the desired object from little hound Hawise: a pale pinkish brown chicken egg. On the couch. Inside the house. Could they have brought an Austra egg in from the yard? But she hadn't left any in the nest box in months! When I uncovered the eggs on Saturday, we knew we had to reacquaint Austra with her nest box. She was going broody - sitting on the eggs and trying to hatch them - but we couldn't have her laying eggs on the ground where they might freeze or be crushed or snatched by a dog.

We moved several of the ill-lain eggs to our designated nest box. Shut inside for a bit, Austra settled the bedding into a nest and laid an egg in the proper spot.

Later, to the tune of her anxious clucks, I removed all the other eggs and raked up the leaves. I even pulled up the cover evergreen, a plant that doesn't quite belong in that place. Yesterday, we could find no egg in the nest box or Austra's ground nesting place. We all wonder where the next egg will be hiding.

Backyard December 3, 2011 {What's Growing}

Who says a late autumn garden is dull and brown?

Ours is hanging on to some color with rainbow swiss chard and greens, some of which self seeded when I neglected to pull the flowering mustard green plants. Austra the Australorp chicken regrew her jet-black feathers after molting and her comb is starting to redden up. On yesterday's unseasonably warm evening, the sunset was full of bright hues too.

Surely the color will fade or be covered with white snow soon. In the meantime, I am enjoying every bit of intensity.

What's growing in your neck of the woods?

Mothering A Molting Hen

This is the face of our molting Australorp hen, Austra. Her pin-like feathers look prickly and uncomfortable. Austra is a generally affable character but molting makes her seem frenzied. I say comforting things to her and only joke about the awkwardness of her feather loss behind closed doors like every good chicken mom.Her roost in the morning appears as though a pillow exploded overnight. The nest box hasn't held an egg for over a week. I added excess bedding to be sure our chicken stays warm despite feather loss.

As Austra helps to put the garden beds to rest, one witnesses the full molt. Her downy feathers are showing beneath the missing top feathers. She is eating constantly to fuel growing new clothes. I am feeding her scraps from the kitchen as always and tossing bird seed into her run for extra fun and nutrition.

On the upside, when the molt is complete in a few weeks, her singed tail feathers will be replaced. Our Austra will be returned to her former iridescent black glory, not to molt again for another year.

Have you ever watched a hen molt? I still find everything about chicken rearing fascinating.

Added to Simple Lives Thursday.

Update on the Girls

The girls, aka. birds of very little brain, are our four heritage breed laying hens adopted two weeks ago.  They have become quite the center of the homestead since arriving.

The two buff orange Orpingtons are most friendly and accept being picked up and petted.  The spotted Sussex least likes human attention.  The black Australorp is clearly the dumbest, which is really saying something because no chicken is an IQ prize winner.  She doesn't find food, roosts last, and is generally unaware.  Good thing we're around!

The coop has required two modifications.  First, we (meaning Alex) built a feeder that mounts on the side of the run from PVC.  The girls were knocking over their feeder four or more times a day which wasted food and frustrated us.  The new feeder was quick and cheap to build and hasn't been spilled yet.

Alex is also adding a rain proof roof.  During last week's rain we covered the run with a blue sheet of plastic that was less than classy.  We searched all over the city for clear fiberglass corrugated sheeting to no avail yesterday.  I finally found out that Sutherlands carries it and Alex picked some up on his way home from work today.  He'll install the roofing tomorrow.

Our backyard chickens have been visited by family, friends, and local bloggers.   Lil loves to tell kids about taking care of chickens and reminds everyone they have to wash their hands after petting birds.  Our chickens have inspired at least one family to make plans to raise their own hens.

Some have asked questions about the legality of raising chickens in the city.  In Columbus, the Health department regulates keeping livestock through a permitting process per this document issued by the city veterinarian.

Even with a wonderful coop and lots of attention, our chickens have not yet started laying.  We added a bit of cayenne pepper to their feed to stimulate production at the suggestion of Denise from 2Silos farm. They are young (23 weeks) and daylight is still minimal so it might take a little more time before we collect that first precious egg.

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I am not sure how much you all want to know about backyard chickens, so please leave a comment with questions or encouragement if you want to read more about city chickens.  Better yet, take our blog survey and help shape the future of Hounds in the Kitchen.