Cariboo Gals: The Great Chicken Update

Friday, 24 February 2012

The Great Chicken Update

Miss Leghorn "Peace" and "Daisy" is her sister

We thought the above Leghorn was a BB English, but she's laying a white egg, is a bit like a road runner and the pictures of the BB English look different. Guess we have 2 Leghorns ~ they are great layers!
2011 will forever be in our minds as the "Year of the Chicken" ~ it was our first try at incubating our own chickens and also my Mom surprised the girls with an order of 25 mixed bantam/heritage chicks in the mail!

Miss Daffodil ~ an Americauna hen.
Don't let the beard fool you, she's a hen!

"Brownie" the rooster that used to be brown.
Thought he was BB English, but he must be Leghorn.

The above rooster was the one with the black on his comb when he was a teenager. No concerns now. He has a great voice!

"Rocky" the Partridge Cochin Rooster. He's the runt.
He's beautiful!

"Fluffy Bum" ~ need I say more?
We hatched her ~ ISA Brown/ Buff Orpington

The ISA Brown/ Buff Orpington cross we hatched

Fun way to spend the afternoon

Silliness

We needed to prepare more nests and pens for the chickens for the winter, so we got everyone involved. Winterizing, and making one pen out of two.

Fresh hay in their nests

Fresh water is very important ~ never let them run out.

Moving nests into another pen.

Mom always says to put them up a little higher because of disease and vermin. So we did.

They like to double up. These are the Cochins.

Sawing a door between the 2 pens. This can be closed in spring
when we separate the broody hens from the others.

These 2 would jump through the window before we tightened the wires. They would get back into their comfy nests and sit there together. So cute. This was when Fluff Ball (the black Cochin) was still around to entertain us.

Rosie the Partridge Cochin ~ the mate for Rocky

Into the nest!

Nothing like a good dust bath

Come winter time, we had gathered up some 5 gallon pails of dirt and slowly add it to a bin in their pen. Then they can dust bath whenever they want in the winter!