Fun Chickens!

First, let me answer S.'s question about the chickens... we thought 27 were purchased and we got 20 of them, and 2 other families took 3 or 4 chickens home, respectively.  So we don't have to divide any eggs with anyone else.  We're just enjoying a boatload of eggs.  More of that later, though...

Second, Kevin had a funny experience last night.    He was in the coop and was wondering if all the chickens were in from the yard.  So he decided to count them up.  1..2...3......20...21.

Um, what?  21?  We have 20 chickens.

So he counted again. And again.  And came up with 21 each time.

So somehow there was an extra chicken!  The other families definitely got their 3 and 4, so the seller must have thrown in an extra chicken.

That wouldn't be so odd except that apparently "our" chickens were all set aside in their own pen.  When Kevin's coworker arrived, the seller said that the pen was short one chicken so he ran off and got another one from a different pen.  So someone miscounted somewhere...we didn't really need that extra chicken, though we'll take her.

As usual, the chickens are a lot of fun.  This batch has been laying eggs like crazy!

The chickens have laid at least 15 eggs a day since we got them.  Unfortunately, some are getting broken, probably because of traffic jams in the nesting boxes.

We used to have 6 nesting boxes but usually only 2 or 3 were in use.  So Kevin made only 3 for the new batch.  Well, there have been some major squashing going on when a bunch of chickens decided they needed to lay an egg RIGHT NOW.  Naomi saw 3 stuck in one box once.  In the picture above, one of the dividers is missing so there are 2 boxes, one big and one small.  Kevin says we probably need another nesting box or 2.  I'm sure he'll take care of it when he has some time.

Some chickens aren't completely sure about the whole "nesting box" thing so we have found a few in the coop and even some in the chicken yard.

Speaking of the yard, it is obvious these chickens have never HAD a yard before. They were confined to a pen for the first 20 weeks of life. 

Kevin has a fancy little sliding door that lets the chickens come out of the pen as long as the door is open.  They are getting quite familiar with it, but sometimes some comical pile-ups occur.  Last night, there were a host of chickens in the chicken yard.  As the sun set, they realized it was time to go inside. BUT, time after time, a chicken would jump up on the block and then just stand there.  A line of indignant hens was behind each sitting chicken, but they didn't push and shove too much. Kevin was in the yard retrieving an egg, so he "helped" each hen along by shoving her through the door.  We'll see what happens tonight.

They also aren't used to roosting but several jumped up on the roosts last night, and then Kevin went in and "helped" the rest of them up -- whether they liked it or not.  He was helping them a lot last night :-).

All in all, we are very pleased so far.  They are laying eggs, which is most imporant. They are getting along well, probably because all but 1 were in the same pen for 20 weeks so they have a pecking order that is mostly established.  They are learning to go out in the yard and peck bugs and grass.  They are learning to roost. 

The last thing on the agenda is that they need to learn to eat slops.  They obviously didn't eat slops at their old place, and so have been largely disdainful of our nice "people slops".  Part of their job is eating our extra food, so we hope they get with the program soon.