Crooked Creek Farm

EGG!

After not having eggs for the last couple of months, we were shocked when D found an egg tonight! What a nice surprise. We all clapped and looked at it like it was a golden egg when D brought it in.  lol

Yes, we could have put lights in the chicken house to try and force the chickens to lay. I just felt that if God made chickens to stop laying when the days are shorter, then the chickens must need a break from laying.

But I surely will be happy when we can stop buying eggs!

Chickens Hatched

Our First Egg Sale!!

We sold our first dozen eggs today! So exciting! lol We are charging $2.00 a dozen. I checked the grocery stores for prices of cage free eggs, and they were all more that .  Before we put the sign up, we did have someone stop and ask if were had any for sale, but he refused to pay $2.00. He said he usually bought them from our neighbor down the road for $1. a dozen. I want to be able to buy the chicken food and the egg cartons out of the egg money, and can't do that for $1 a dozen.

I got information from the extension office about selling eggs, and it stated that the cartons had to be new. I bought the cartons from www.eggcartons.com Hopefully we'll sell many, many more eggs!

Chicken House Remodel and the Clipping of Wings

When we first put the 31 new chicks in with the adult chicks, there was plenty of room. Since the little ones weren't roosting at night, the tree that D had inside for the chickens to roost on was plenty big enough. But last month, they all wanted to start roosting. So a chicken house remodel was in order. Go here to see before pictures  

The entry way, viewed from the front porch. You can see the nesting boxes on the lower left, then the door, then the right side of the perches with the window and chicken door to the outside.

The left side of the perches.

The waterer, surrounded by chickens. These are some of the babies we got this year. They are getting sooo big! The nesting boxes are to the left. We only have 2 now, as we only have 3 hens laying. But will have to add several more boxes in the next month or so.

In this picture, you can see the string that we use to close the little chicken door. It works great!

Today, D had to clip the wings of the new chickens. They keep flying to the top of fence, looking around, and flying out to see what they can find. It sure kept the kids busy, catching chickens and putting them back in their pen. Our adult chickens don't try and fly out. So hopefully, these teenagers will settle down soon, and stop trying to escape!

Chicken Pen

Since the 31 new chicks were ready to go outside, we had to make the pen larger. Here we are all working on it. Well, except for Mel who was at work, and D taking the picture. That's me with the long braid. :)

We had to cut down all the vines growing on the pen so we could take the top off. The brown part in the pic below was the size of the pen before enlarging it.

Below you can see the old part, and how pic the new part is. It is actually larger in person. Because the pic was taken looking downhill, it looks lots smaller.

The dirt to the left of the fence is the chicken garden. Nope, don't grow chickens there. lol Just veggies. The kids named it the chicken garden, because it's next to the chickens. Not all of the little chickens went out. D and the kids had to go in the house and push these out. The others refused to go. lol They weren't very happy with being outside for the first time. lol

Chicks and the Chicken House

The chicks finally moved out of the house today. Last year, the baby chicks stayed in the house, until they were ready to be in the chicken house without a light. Thankfully, this year, D ran an extension cord out to the chicken house for the light. Here they are in the living room, with the the piano light. Hey, it works!

The chickies in the chicken house. They are seperated from the chickens by the lattice wall you see on the right. The box over on the right is the outside of the nesting box. We just lift the lid to check for eggs.

The chicken house entry way. Where we store the food, and wood chips. You can see the other half of the nesting box, and to it's right, there is a door going into where the chickens are. It's hard to see, though. You can also see the chickens little door to the outside on the bottom (with a chicken in it, lol), and the window above that.

The front of the chicken house, with D in the doorway.

The back of the chicken house, and their pen.

A close up of the chickens ramp to go into the house. To the right of this pic, is a door were we can go into their pen.

The chicken house was built by dfil. They don't have chickens anymore, and let us use it.

Chicks

Chick Order

Chicken Predator

Last Thursday, the 9th, we found a dead chicken in the closed up chicken house. How did something get inside the closed house and kill a chicken? We think it must have pushed up the sliding door, which lets the chickens out into the pen. It must have also opened it up to let itself out afterwards, too.  Thursday night, DH set two traps outside the sliding door. In the morning, the food was gone from both, and nothing trapped. sigh. Friday night, DH TIED the food down with string. Saturday morning, the food was gone from one, and it wasn't set off. The second trap was set off, the food gone, but no critter in it! sigh guess I'm going to have to go to Tractor Supply and get one of those cages that traps animals when they go inside to get the food. The predator obviously keeps coming back for more chicken. Can't have that! In the meantime, when DH closes the chickens up at night, he's putting a big rock inside the chicken house on the sliding door, so the critters can't open it.

For my records:

We cleaned out the chicken house, and spread new chips on Sunday the 12th.