Weekly Obligatory Chicken Post
Dinner Time!
This week I experimented by giving the chickens yogurt. They loved it. Ate it right up. Did it help with egg production? Nope. Not one egg. Last week we gave them a chicken mineral and protein block. They've been tearing into it. Still...no eggs.
Loretta didn't lay any eggs either, even though she enjoyed the yogurt too.
Pigeon, and in front of her is the chicken mineral and protein block we gave them last week.
Above is Loudmouth. Would someone like to give some guesses as to her breed? I don't remember what we were told when she was a chick. Help would be greatly appreciated! She used to lay large, brown eggs. She was very reliable for two years until the day we brought the rooster, Foghorn, home. None of our younger chickens are from her because she literally stopped.
Another shot of Loudmouth.
We also let the chickens out of their pen for the afternoon one day. Where did they go when roosting time came? The older chickens all happily slept in their coop. The younger ones? Into the stinking trees!!! We had to shake them down and carry them to the coop. They've been sleeping in their coops for over two weeks. You'd think they'd be used to it by now! Ugh!!! So now the husband doesn't want to let them out. I think if they want to sleep in the trees, let them. They're safe from predators as high as they go. As long as they lay in the nest boxes (which they aren't old enough yet), let them roost wherever they want.
The chickens also got to enjoy some overripe tomatoes I kept on the counter too long. They go nuts over tomatoes. At first, the younger ones were scared of me tossing things to them. Now they eagerly come running to inspect what I've pitched out next!
Tomatoes!
That's Lady in the lower left corner.
I hope you enjoyed this chicken update. Tomorrow is Chicken Shit Sunday! Get your chicken shit photos to me ASAP! You can post them here in the comments, make your own post tagging chickenshitsunday, or DM me on the Steemit Homesteading group on Slack.
Your chickens are so undividualy unique and beautiful! I love the one that is colored like a tiger and has puffy cheeks! So cool! I am currently working on getting a batch of my quail laying too. I miss the eggs! I would have never thought to give them yogurt! lol
Thank you, @lifemovedbysteem! They're pretty easy to tell apart, as apparently we have many different breeds. Haha! I miss having eggs, too. The yogurt didn't work so don't get your hopes too high. The tiger striped one was supposed to be an Easter Egger. Now that I have found the hatchery's site, I believe she is a Olive Egger. We also got a Lavender Ameraucana. I'm so excited to be finding out their breeds!
Loudmouth looks like a brown hybrid layer.In the UK, often known by the hatchery they came from i.e Lohmann brown, Warren, Isa brown etc. They are mostly used here by the larger egg producers as the are very reliable prolific layers in their first year. After which they are often rehomed by organisations such as the Hen Welfare Trust. I keep a small laying flock of Lohmanns.They are super friendly
You're probably right. She was a chick that had been dyed for Easter. A horrible practice. She came with three others. She was orange, there was a green one, blue one, and a pink one. The other three ended up being roosters and were eventually culled. I wish I could remember the name of the hatchery the lady brought them from. Thank you so much for your help! I'm going to search around for which hatchery she originally came from and see if that's what she should be called. Thanks again!
Sure hope they start laying for you soon! Such a pretty flock!
If they haven't begun laying again after winter comes and goes, they'll probably be culled. I'd rather just keep them as pets but I don't see the husband being happy with buying chicken feed for freeloaders. Haha! At least maybe they could serve as dinner. Maybe. We'll see. Thanks, @melinda010100!
Yeah...I butchered some of mine...then gave them away because I couldn't bring myself to eat them. I was then unable to eat chicken for about the next 10 years without smelling the wet feathers smell and getting nauseous. I hope yours start laying again!
Yikes! I don't want that! I'm hoping to just skin and save the breast meat of the first ones we do. I don't want to mess with scalding and plucking. I know that seems wasteful, but for our first time, I'd like to take the easier route.
That sounds like a better plan! It was the scalding smell that did me in!
Do you have a nearby shop that processes them? That would probably be the way I would go these days.
Sadly, no. We have already looked into it. There is a nearby processor but they don't do poultry.
What I miss about having chickens is when I would have fruit or vegetable scraps we always had the 'chicken bowl' on the kitchen counter and daily we would take the bowl out and give the guys and gals a treat. They sure loved watermelon rind, bread scraps and tater peels!