Chicken Fight

Chicken hormones--not the kind that you get when you buy chicken from your average grocery store--but the ones that make one want to reproduce have invaded the quiet of our girls little house in the city.

Bel is broody again.

The combination of her change in attitude and being contained in small quarters till the snow melts has created much tension between the two girls.

Now, when I feed them, I have to take Bel out of the nesting box (or she won't eat or drink) and bring her down to the food. Apparently, she bothers Cleo. Cleo can't handle Bel's weird clucks and skittishness. Bel can't handle the sudden change from the security of a dark, warm, cozy nesting box to the larger coop.

Cleo is the aggressor. She lunges (and I mean lunges, she bit me the last time) at poor Bel who doesn't understand the nature of her hormonal changes.

How do you teach a chicken that she can't beat up her housemate?

So my only option is to put Cleo out while Bel gets some food and water before she heads back to her nest. It's below zero here so I hope this doesn't last long.

The chicken food experiment and the eggs

A while back, when I first began this adventure, I discovered a forum called Backyard Chickens. I learned many things from the experience of avid chicken owners. I learned that a 100 watt bulb will keep the coop warm enough to keep their water from freezing. But one suggestion was especially pertinent to raising egg layers in the Minnesota winter. Putting cayenne in their food. This seasoned chicken owner suggested that if you put a tablespoon of cayenne in about five days worth of feed your chickens will keep laying eggs all winter.

Hypothesis: If the chickens have cayenne mixed into the feed they will continue to lay eggs in the winter.

Pre-experiment conditions: They had been laying about 4-6 eggs a week before it got cold (below freezing) but Bel had been broody so she wasn't laying eggs regularly.

Step #1:  I started as soon as it began getting cold. I put the cayenne into their feed as directed for two weeks.
Results: For those two weeks they laid about 6 eggs per week.

Step #2:  Then I stopped. I went for a week with their usual food, same temps out side, no change in environment.
Results: They stopped laying any eggs. For the full week we had no eggs.

Step #3: I began adding the cayenne to their feed in approximately the same proportions as the first two weeks I increased the cayenne slightly because now it was sub-zero temps and a blizzard. The other change I had to make was I had to put another light for additional heat but the light was angled so that it would not eliminate their dark areas--important for keeping the chickens sane! The temp in the coop was still just warm enough to keep the water from freezing. 
Results: They have been laying 1-2 eggs every day (11 eggs per week for 2 weeks).

Hypothesis: Correct!!!!
I have been able to begin to share some eggs I have so many. This is way more eggs than I was getting in the fall.

My girls are Minnesota troopers. They may not like the snow, but they continue to amaze me in their ability to coop! And omelets are becoming mandatory.

Seven Reasons to Raise Chickens in the City

"Seven Reasons?"--I am really not copying this theme from others who may blog and read this. Actually, I am copying God. It is a theologically sound number to make a list--7 is the number of completion so I guess I could just call it the "Complete List." But in terms of lists, maybe there are 10 reasons --so it may not be the complete list. Ten could be theologically correct also, the 10 commandments and all; although it depends on which list of commandments you follow--pre- golden calf or post,in that case there are about 14 and that once again is 7 twice. And I am not about to make a list of 613 as in the Levitical Laws; or 99 as in the Qur'an's names of Allah (of which there are really 100, but Allah hasn't revealed the last one yet); or 40, which seems to just mean a lot; or 330,000, as in number the Hindu deities --although no one really wants to commit to a specific number, because you just never know who has a deity in there home that we don't know about and surprise! the Hindu religion really only has one God--that is Vishnu, Krishna, and Shiva. Three in one...hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar to this Catholic.

So 
Seven (or the complete list) of reasons to raise chickens in the city:

1) Chickens are so personable. They even greet me when they see me, unlike some of my other roommates.

2) They are a great party topic.

3) They are relatively low maintenance. They even survive the cold winter days and nights.

4) They have introduced me to my more curious neighbors.

5) They fertilize my garden (and the neighbors which gives me brownie points in the neighborhood).

6) They give Beyonce (the Guardian Dog) a sense of importance--imaginary maybe--but she is the alpha dog to the chickens anyway, or so she thinks. I don't think the chickens necessarily believe that, but they do humor her.

7)  And the EGGS of course!

Wintering Chickens or the Collective Chicken Consciousness

    So the girls do not seem to mind the cold, but they do not trust snow. I wonder what they think about it? Chickens obviously see at least some color because they always go after the red nail polish I wear on my toes (in the summer). They can pick out the corn feed from the chicken meal--that's another phenomena, a topic for later. They can pick out bugs in the dirt before I can see them.
    Maybe they think snow has no substance since it is all the same. Does it look like clouds to them--although I don't think many chickens have flown high enough to experience clouds. The real question is: How do they think???
    Maybe there is a collective chicken consciousness. Going back to the corn feed--the first day I brought them corn feed, it was in a clear bag. They began pecking at the corn in the bag, chasing me for it, in fact. They had never experienced corn before so this was not a learned behavior. There are other things, like oyster shell or pine shavings, that I have brought out to them in a clear bag and they have never pecked at that.
   I have come to the conclusion that there must be a collective chicken consciousness. The aversion to snow must be part of it. If there is a collective chicken consciousness, are there also chicken archetypes?  Like Chicken Little, or the Chicken that Crossed the Road, or Chicken Soup (probably not a favorite), or Playing Chicken . . . We will have to ask Chicjung for a consult, til next time...

chicktoons

Chicken cartoon link

First Snow!

This morning I went out to feed the girls and Cleo, who generally jumps out the door, got halfway out and turned around. "What ever that white stuff is, I don't want to go there."

I can relate.

Bel is Broody and I have been away too long

Life has changed among the chickens. Bel and Cleo have grown up and produce eggs regularly. Bel is a bit broody and likes to sit in the nesting box as much as possible. I even have to pull her out so she will get some exercise. I am told this is normal and it's good to have at least one broody hen. Cleo and her will lay eggs and Bel sits on them. It's like she is in heat. She wants the eggs to hatch so she can take care of babies.

They say snow is on the way, so we move into a new stage of life with chickens.

Our first family meal ala chickens and garden greens!