My Chicks and Chickens

 Cute Pip getting his adult feathers!

(Silkie on the left)

 My cute wyandottes 

 My funny road island reds

And my beautiful sussex that follows you 

around like a dog!

Why raise chickens?

Here are a few of the most frequently expressed reasons people raise chickens:

• Easy and inexpensive to maintain (when compared to most other pets)
• Eggs that are fresh, great-tasting & nutritious
• Chemical-free bug and weed control
• Manufacture the worlds best fertilizer
• Fun & friendly pets with personality (yes, you read that right)

Pros and Cons for Rosters.... Pros

              If you are considering having a rooster. Here is some food for thought! Roosters are great they are true protectors over the flock. If you don't have a big flock they always try to keep them, for the most part, together. He will keep a really protective eye on his girls. If he thinks you are a threat he will put himself in between you and his girls and always watch were you are. He will chase off any predators like a cat or a small dog. He will worn the others if there is some thing going on. What I think is amazing he will chase a hawk away when it swoops low to save his flock. He will basically sacrifice himself for the flock. (It's really sweet)  He will also make the girls eggs firtal for re-production. The hens will lay more when they have a rooster in sight. The reason for that is because they think they are laying for that reason.

What do I do when the hens stop laying?

This is similar to the unplanned rooster problem. Hens live up to 12 years, but only really produce eggs between six months old and two years old. Then their egg production usually drops significantly. If you want to keep the eggs coming you'll need new hens — and a plan for the old hens. We don't have the space or money for hens that aren't producing so ours go into the stew pot, though old laying hens are tough and must be cooked for a long time to be edible. This isn't something everyone is willing to do. You can also keep old hens and live with less eggs or find someone that will take them. It's a bad plan, however, to take them to shelters that have limited resources. Doing so gives chicken owners a bad rap.

Which chicken breed is right for you?

If you are having a hard time desiding which chicken breed is right for you just take the short quiz at this link and it can help you narrow down the many breeds in a mater of minutes!!! http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx

How do I know all the chicks I buy are hens?

When ordering chicks, you'll want to get pullets instead of straight run. Sexing of chicks is 90% accurate, so there is a chance that you may end up with a rooster. With the newfound popularity of backyard flocks, local animal shelters are now seeing an influx of roosters. As a responsible chicken owner you need to plan ahead: instead of dropping off unplanned roosters at the shelter or setting them free, find a farmer who is willing to take it or put it in a soup pot when it just begins to crow.

:)

Update!

I have been posting a lot on Facebook!!! The littlest chick died the black one super sad it was my favorite! I went to the chicken coop this morning to find a new chicken was there! Meet our newest addition!

The Health Benefits of Free-range Eggs [Part 2]

More Vitamin E

Vitamin E also protects cells by acting as an antioxidant, in addition to promoting healthy blood and circulatory system function. Free-range eggs contain more vitamin E than their conventional counterparts. The "Mother Earth News" survey found triple the vitamin E in the eggs they tested, and Pennsylvania State University research found double the vitamin E in the eggs of grass-fed hens.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are a form of polyunsaturated fat known as "essential" fatty acids because the body cannot manufacture them on its own; you must consume them from food. Omega-3s are connected to heart health, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, and other potential health benefits such as decreased risk of diabetes, stroke, digestive disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, some cancers and dementia. All three studies found higher amounts of omega-3s in free-range eggs versus conventional eggs. "Mother Earth News" reported the most modest differences, with the free-range eggs they tested containing only twice the omega-3s as conventional eggs, while the Penn State study found 2 1/2 times more. Free-range hens in the SARE study, however, produced eggs with four times the omega-3s as their 

Facebook!

Hey guys I am going to put several videos of the chicks on the clucks Facebook page check them out!!!!!!!! https://www.facebook.com/TheCluck?ref=hl

New Additions!

                         She is the youngest and falls asleep as soon as you pick her up!

These are the new babies I have 3 Silkies and 4 Whyandotts!

The Health Benefits of Free-range Eggs [Part 1]

Less Fat and Cholesterol

The American Heart Association recommends reducing intake of both saturated fat and cholesterol in order to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. Testing by "Mother Earth News" found that eggs from pasture-fed free-range hens, on average, contained one-third of the cholesterol and one-fourth of the saturated fat as conventional eggs. A Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education study yielded similar results, with pastured hens producing eggs with 10 percent less fat and 34 percent less cholesterol.

More Vitamin A

Vitamin A promotes the healthy development of teeth, bones, soft tissue and tissues in the eyes needed for good vision; it also acts as an antioxidant and protects cells from damage. The "Mother Earth News" and SARE studies found that free-range eggs contained 67 percent and 40 percent more vitamin A, respectively, than conventional eggs.

:) chick names :)

hey guys I am going to get chicks soon start thinking of some cute names!!!! :) I will post pics please no food involved just nice sweet names! :)

Chicken Care After First 60 Days

Chicken Coops - Once feathered out you'll want to move your chickens into a chicken coop! Rule of thumb is about 2-3 square feet per chicken inside the henhouse and 4-5 sq/ft per chicken in an outside run. Keep local predators in mind and make a safe home for your flock!

Flooring - Pine shavings work best. You can even try the deep litter method for even less maintenance.

Food & water - Most people go with chicken layer feed / pellets. You can even make a homemade chicken feeder / waterer

Treats - Vegetables, bread, bugs, chicken scratch (cracked corn, milo, wheat)

How To Care For A Chick - First 60 Days

Young Chick Brooder - Can be as simple as a sturdy cardboard box or a small animal cage like one you'd use for rabbits.

Flooring - Pine shavings work best. You can also use corn cob bedding. Try to stay clear of newspaper since it doesn't absorb well and can be slippery.

Temperature - 90 to 100 deg. for the first week, decrease 5 deg. per week. A 100 watt bulb pointing in one corner (not the whole brooder) works well.

Food & water - chick crumbles / starter & a chick waterer

Play time - Play with your chicks when young to get the use to being around people.

Outside time - Section off an area in your yard where the chicks can explore, scratch, etc. Make sure you can catch them when it's time to come in.

Need to Knows About Raising Backyard Chickens... Where do you get chickens?

There are several places you can find chicks. The best places are feed stores that get their chicks from reputable hatcheries and online hatcheries. Adult hens are often on Craigslist and sometimes in animal shelters. Adults are more expensive, so I usually go with chicks — though they take more work. When purchasing your chicks, make sure that they have been vaccinated for Marek's disease.

Need to Knows About Raising Backyard Chickens... Is it legal?

Many cities allow people to have small backyard flocks of hens. However, there are just as many communities that don't abide chickens. If you belong to a Home Owners Association, chances are your bylaws state you cannot have chickens. Always check. If you want chickens and live in an area they're not zoned for, you can work on changing the rules. Find like minds in your community and take the subject before the city council or homeowners association. Get it on their agenda. Educate them about the benefits of raising chickens at home.

Pros and Cons for Rosters......... Cons

If you are planning on having more then one rooster that normally will be fine if you are just planning on a rooster farm. If you wan't hens the roosters will fight till death if they can get a hold of each other. If a rooster can hear another rooster crow they will have crowing contest with each other. So it would be noisier! (If you can tell they are very proud!) They can be very mean and attack humans. (I had gotten into many fights with my rooster when I had one. I won every time :) but not without some injuries. :/ )

Testing Incubated Eggs for Embryo Development

Sometimes it is necessary to test the incubated eggs for fertility. If large numbers of infertile eggs are incubated, they can be found and discarded, and the extra space used for additional eggs. This test will not injure the young embryos and is reliable for eliminating eggs that will not hatch.

The eggs are normally tested after 4 to 7 days of incubation. Eggs with white shells are easier to test and can be tested earlier than dark shelled eggs. Two classes of eggs can be removed on the basis of this early test, "infertiles" and "dead germs." "Infertile" refers to an unfertilized egg or an egg that started developing but died before growth could be detected. "Dead germs" refers to embryos that died after growing large enough to be seen when candled.

An "infertile" appears as a clear egg except for a slight shadow cast by the yolk. A live embryo is spider-like in appearance, with the embryo representing a spider's body and the large blood vessels spreading out much like a spider's legs. A "dead germ" can be distinguished by the presence of a blood ring around the embryo. This is caused by the movement of blood away from the embryo after death.

If you are not sure whether the embryo is alive, place the egg back in the incubator and retest later. A second test can be made after 14 to 16 days of incubation. If the embryo is living, only one or two small light spaces filled with blood vessels can be seen, and the chick may be observed moving.

 

Facebook!

I am going to post the tour to my pink chicken coop soon on Facebook be looking for it!!!!!!! :D I apologize for not posting very often life has been busy! It doesn't mean I am going to stop posting and stop blogging I will continue blogging and Facebooking!!! If you have any ideas or questions you can always email them to me or message me or post it on Facebook! Please leave comments and votes I LOVE Feedback!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL!

Fun!!!

Hey guys!!!!!!!!!! :)

I need your help!!!!!!! I need ideas for new posts!!!! Your guys impute would be greatly appreciated !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So send me a email at thelittlechickenblog@gmail.com or comment on here your ideas!!!!!! OR you can go onto Facebook to our page and comment there!!!! It would be great for you to like the page its new so it doesn't have a whole lot on it but we are getting there! Thank You So much for reading my blog!! It makes my day to see how many views I get each day!  Love and Need you guys feedback! Dont forget to vote its on the right hand side just scroll down a little bit. :) thank you! Have a wonderful day!

When You Recive Your Chicks

Your birds could have been in transit up to 48 hours depending where you live. They will be thirsty. We recommend that the drinking water is cooler than the air temp., for the following reasons: If the water is very warm the birds do not realize that they will get wet and cold so they stand in it and get soaked this can lead to a disastrous pile up. Monitor the birds closely. It takes 2-3 hours for the birds to adjust to the brooder house temperature. How they appear when you first set them out may change drastically in this time period. Again monitor closely. If your birds appear chilled don't put them directly in the brooder house warm them in their box in your home under a heat lamp until they appear comfortable. Ensure that they have anti-biotics or an electrolyte/multi-vitamin in their water for the first 5 days. Meat birds will particularly benefit, from this. In addition you may chose to use clean 2.5 dozen fibre egg flats for the chicks to drink from for the first 12-24 hours. These small cups provide the chicks a large water area without getting soaked.

http://www.rochesterhatchery.com/pre.htm

News of whats happening!

I am not going to post till Tuesday September 4 to catch up! I now have a Facebook Page that is going to have my chickens and what is going on with them. I will also put posts up about what is happening with the blog as well!!!! Check it out! It has the same name as the blog " The Cluck " . Hope you enjoy it!!!!!!!! :)

https://www.facebook.com/TheCluck

Preparing Your Coop for Chicks

Your chicken coop must be thoroughly cleaned and washed. The entire area must be disinfected from floor to ceiling. Leave yourself enough time for the area to dry before putting down fresh bedding. A thin layer of hydrated lime is advisable on dirt floors at this time to maintain dryness. Ensure that all feeders, drinkers and brooders have been washed and disinfected; and are all in proper working order. Check for, and seal off, all draughts, windows, doors, and do general building repairs, etc. Sealing off draughts does not mean cutting off all ventilation. A dry hen house greatly reduces the risk of coccidiosis. You may achieve this by good ventilation and stirring of litter. Do not use creosote - based products for disinfecting!

http://www.rochesterhatchery.com/pre.htm

Cute Pics!!!

Vote!!!

Hey guys I put a new poll on here!!! Don't forget to vote!!!! Thank you have a wonderful day!!!!!

Funny Pics!!

How Much and When to Feed Chickens [Part 2]

If you are unsure how much to feed your chickens (and don’t want to accidentally deprive them), fill the chickens’ feed dishes so food is available much of the day, or use feeders that hold several day’s worth of feed. You can use this feeding method for all types of chickens. It’s the way chickens would eat in nature; they eat small amounts frequently.
You can continue that method if you like, or you can feed your chickens at certain times of the day. (Most people who use this method choose morning and evening.) This allows you to control the amount of feed that may attract pests. And if the chickens are too heavy, it restricts the amount they can eat. With free-range birds, it encourages them to lay and to sleep in the coop. Usually, however, it’s just a matter of preference; some people like to observe and tend to their chickens more often than others. This method works well for all but meat birds.
Because of their heavy rate of growth, the meat-type broiler chickens need to have food available to them at all times, day and night. Remember, chickens don’t eat in the dark, so the lights must be on for these birds all night. For the Rock-Cornish crosses, the lights should be on 24 hours a day, and feed should be in the feed pans at least 23 of those hours. Some people recommend an hour of no feed, but most home chicken-keepers find that difficult to regulate. Just make sure they always have feed. Laying hens, pets, and show birds are fine with restricted times of feeding and don’t need feed at night.

Be very careful not to feed moldy food, which can kill or harm your chickens, and make sure food is stored so it won’t attract rats, coons, and other pests. If you’re using a lot more feed than you think you should, pests like rats may be eating it at night. You may want to empty feeders at night or put them inside a pest-proof container for all birds other than the broiler-type meat birds.

If you need to add grit to your chickens’ diet, you can supply it in a small dish from about the fifth day of life. Chicks should be eating their regular feed well before you add grit, or they may fill up on it. Make sure the dish is covered or narrow so the birds don’t dust-bathe in it. Discard it and add clean grit if it becomes contaminated with chicken droppings.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-much-and-when-to-feed-chickens.html

How Much and When to Feed Chickens [Part 1]

Feeding backyard chickens is an imprecise science. It’s difficult to tell someone how much to feed their chickens, or even when to feed them. So many variables are involved: the type of chickens, whether they’re growing or laying, how active they are, how neat you are, the type of feeders you have, the number of free-loading pests you support, and the weather.
Use these guidelines for feeding your chickens, but alter them for your own flock.
Our modern, high-production egg breeds convert feed to eggs very efficiently, especially if they’re fed a ration formulated for laying hens. After they’re laying well, it takes about 4 pounds of a quality feed of 16 to 18 percent protein to produce a dozen eggs. The breeds kept for dual purposes (eggs and meat) generally have heavier body masses to support and need more feed to produce a dozen eggs than a lighter production breed.
It takes about 2 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of body weight on a growing meat-type bird. So if a broiler weighs about 6 pounds at 10 weeks, it will have eaten about 12 pounds of feed. Remember that it ate less when it was small, and the amount of feed consumed increased each week. A medium-weight laying hen will eat about 1/4 pound of feed per day when she begins producing. These are rough estimates, but they give you some idea of what to expect.

Chickens eat more in cold weather and less in hot weather.

Chicks and bunnies!!!!

How to Tell Gender Early On

Look at the chicken's feathers once it is at least a week old. Females have longer primary feathers. The covert and primary feathers of a male are typically the same length, with the covert feathers sometimes extending further.

 

Examine the chick's coloring. When a chicken has been cross-bred, the coloring should be known ahead of time. Males and females have color variations that are distinctive based upon gender. An expert can usually correctly identify chicken gender this way.

Clipping Chicken Wings (Flight Feathers)

When to Clip
If you decide it has to be done, then it’s important to wait until the bird can fly pretty well (I know, that’s why you want to clip in the first place). Brief flights develop young bird’s muscles, coordination, and balance; so it’s best to wait until a bird can fly short distances. If you want to maintain the clipped wings, then it needs to be done annually, after the bird molts and the new feathers have grown back. 
 
What to Clip
Some guides recommend clipping only one wing thereby leaving the bird unbalanced and unable to fly straight. This seems harsh to me, and I clip both wings so the chicken can’t fly but is still balanced. What you really do when “clipping the wings” is trim about a third off the tips of the primary flight feathers. To help identify the primary flight feathers, I should have taken pictures before and after trimming our rooster, but I didn’t think that far. So here is a picture of a hen with her primary flight feathers intact:



The long flight feathers on the trailing edge of the wing are what’s trimmed. You remove more length from the longer feathers at the tip of the wing and less where the wing attaches to the body, but you do trim the entire edge of feathers. Cut these to just under the next layer of feathers on the wing. This prevents the cut edges of the flight feathers from irritating the bird’s skin. The trimming can be done in stages or one cut.

How to Clip
To clip the feathers, you need a sturdy pair of scissors or sheers with rounded tips (you don’t want to accidentally puncture something). Also, I wouldn’t do this without help. You need one person to hold the chicken, while the other person extends the bird’s wing and trims. Just extend the wing out fully from the bird, and trim that first row of feathers. It’s better to take too little than too much, and you should never be cutting a feather shaft that has blood in it (it will appear pinkish). 
 
Here’s a picture of a hen with her primary flight feathers trimmed:


That’s it for clipping a chicken’s wings, your chicken is now grounded!

http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/03/24/clipping-chicken-wings-flight-feathers/

Funny Pics!!!

Random Facts!!! [Part 2]

A headless chicken can run the length of a football field before dropping dead.

The longest recorded chicken flight was 13 seconds and a total distance of 301. 5 feet.

A Chicken can run about 9 miles per hour, a human can usually manage 12-15 miles per hour.

Chickens have a different alarm cluck for different predators

A chicken's heart beats 300 times a minute (about 4-5 times more than a human).

In 2007, researchers were able to extract small amounts of collagen protein from a 68 million year old Tyrannosaoures Rex leg bone. Further analysis confirmed that the chicken is the closest living relative to the T. Rex.

There are more chickens on earth than humans.

The U.S. leads the world in chicken production with 16 million metric tons in 2006. China and Brazil round out the top three producing nations.

Random Facts!!!

The average hen lays 300 eggs a year.

The record for multiple egg yolks in one egg is nine.

A chicken needs to eat approximately four pounds of feed to make a dozen eggs (about 86 cents worth of food at retail).

If a chicken has red ear lobes, it will lay brown eggs if it has white earlobes it will lay white eggs.

Chickens will lay fewer and fewer but larger and larger eggs as they grow older.

The largest recorded chicken egg weighed 12 ounces and had two yolks.

The record for egglaying belongs to a white leghorn that laid 371 eggs in 364 days.

The world record for the most eggs laid in one day is seven.

A "Cornish Game Hen" is actually a 5-6 week old chicken.

Caption this!!!!

Chickens and Kittens!!!!!!!

sweet!!!!!!

cute!!!

My Chickens First Eggs

The First Eggs out of the chickens they start out small but will get bigger!!!!!!!! :) YAY!

Whats coming up!

This week we are going to do some chicken pics!!!!!!!! School is starting back up so sorry if I post slow!!!!!!!! Have a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bath time

I got this from the book Raising Chickens for Dummies.

Another interesting behavior of chickens is their bathing habits. They hate getting wet, but they sure do love a dust bath. Wherever there is loose soil - or even loose litter - on the floor of the coop, you will find chickens bathing.

Chickens scratch out a body-sized depression in the soil and lie in it, throwing the soil from the hole into their fluffed-out feathers and then shaking to remove it. They seem very happy when doing this, so it must feel good. In nature, this habit helps to control parasites.

In the garden or lawn, these dust-baths bowls can be quite damaging, but there is little to do about it except put up a fence. If your chickens are confined all the time , they'll really appreciate a box of sand to bath in.

Silkies in The Garden .... Part 4

This came from the magazine Backyard Poultry by Gail Damerow.

This spring, when we bought them back to the garden, the Silkies didn't take long to find their way into the blueberry patch, 95 feet from their coop. They spend most of their days scratching and dust bathing in the blueberry mulch, which posed no problem until we seeded melons and squash between the blueberry bushes. The Silkies destroyed the seedlings by covering them with mulch, so we reseeded and protected the seedlings until they were big enough to survive on their own. Our hope is that the Silkies will keep squash bugs from devastating the vines, as has happened in previous years,and to date (knock on my wooden head) we haven't seen any sign of bugs.
                                   So far the Silkies haven't made it into the main part of the garden, consisting of a series of permanent foot-tall raised beds with gravel paths between them. Even if, or when, they can't do much damage once the vegetables are established. Protected new transplants or seedlings, should that become necessary, would be a simple matter of running a low fence around the top edge of each bed. The Silkies can hop about 12 inches high, but since they don't fly, they can't get over anything higher than they can hop.
                       Today we keep four Silkies in the garden - three hens and a rooster. Even though their little coop is near the bedroom, we don't here the cock crow until we are ready to get up and let them out. Then Papa Silkie is so happy to be let out in the garden he lets the whole world know about it.

             Gail Damerow keeps Silkies in her garden in the Upper Cumberland of Tennessee. 

Silkies in the Garden... Part 3

This came from the magazine Backyard Poultry by Gail Damerow.

By  the end of summer they had ventured as far as to a small bed of Asiatic lilies, some 55 feet away, where they found the loose soil more congenial for dust bathing. Soon they were stirring up flower bulbs, which is not a serious problem for Asiatic lilies because they reproduce like weeds.
                      The forsythia and the lilies are both tall enough to make good hiding places for the little black Silkies. Unless they are cooing each other or flinging dirt over themselves you wouldnt know they were there. That is, until fall time when the forsythia lost its leaves and the lilies died back. The day we spotted a red-tailed hawk sitting on the fence above the Silkie coop we decided to move them back to the barn for the winter.

    To be continued again.........
               

Silkies in the Garden... Part 2

This came from the magazine Backyard Poultry by Gail Damerow.

Now I needed a coop to keep them in. The site of the former garden coop has long since been converted into a log-cabin tool shed. And besides, I didn't need anything that big to house a few small bantams. Something the size of a doghouse should be quite adepuate. While wandering through a local farm store we saw just such a doghouse. Retrofitting it for the bantams seemed like a simple job, so we brought it home. The The task turned out to be more involved than we had anticipated, but the result is just what we had in mind, as described in "Doghouse to Bantam Coop Conversion" on page 28.
                      By early summer the Silkies had grown enough to be moved from the barn brooder into the garden. We positioned their coop against the house, on a patch of lawn just inside the garden gate, where we can handily close it up at night, open it in the morning, and tend to the feeding, watering, and egg collecting.
                      Initially the Silkies were quite conservative, never traveling farther from their little coop than to a forsythia bush some 30 feet across the grass. Thanks to their pecking, scratching, and dust bathing I no longer have to bother weeding under and around the forsythia.

To be continued.

Silkies in the Garden... Part 1

This came from the magazine Backyard Poultry by Gail Damerow.

Many years ago when my huband and I came to our present farm we initially incorporated chickens into our garden. Eventuly we got tired of hanging roosters crow in the wee hours, and because we keep a sustainable flock (by hatching our own chicks), removing the roosters was not an option. So we moved the chickens to a distant barn.
                      Recently we have been renovating the garden and I got it into my head to keep chickens there again. But instead of moving our utility egg-and-meat flock back near the house, I wanted some just-for-fun bantams. I wanted a small breed that treads lightly on the kand and is not inclined to fly. I wanted a friendly, non-aggressive breed. I started with a long list of "my favorite bantams" and - through a long and tough process of elimination - eventually pared it down to Silkies. But which variety? In previous years I had white Silkies. Where I live now, white chickens dont stand much chance against eagles, hawks, and owls. After considering all the color options, as well as briefly contemplating the possibility of getting some each, I settled on black bearded Silkies. So Last spring I ordered a batch of chickes.

To be continued......
                 

Fun!!!!