Eggs and a Tractor

Our two adult hens are now both laying at full steam. We're getting at least an egg a day and two eggs a day about every other day. The three pullets are still too young to lay, but they are certainly growing fast. I was able to figure out who our first layer was - somewhat to my surprise it was Winnie. A few weekends back I was checking the coop every now and then to try and catch one of the birds in the nesting boxes. I noticed that Winnie wasn't scratching around the run with the other birds so I peeked inside and caught a quick glimpse of her black and white barred feathers nestled in one of the boxes. At that point we were only getting one egg a day and all the eggs we had collected looked pretty much alike, so I figured they must've all been coming from the same bird. I confirmed this a few days later when I got home from work and Mr. O and I went to look for eggs and we found not one but two eggs! One that looked like all the others we'd collected up to that point and one that was larger and darker brown. The bigger, darker eggs are Coco's. She's a pretty big hen and she lays some pretty big eggs. They're equal in size to large supermarket eggs. That's a Winnie egg on the left and a Coco egg on the right.

A recently completed project on the farm is the chicken tractor. The chicken tractor is basically a moveable pen. When we were thinking about getting chickens I had really hoped to be able to let them free range a good bit, but the reality is that's not possible with Scout around and all the other potential predators in our woods. We have lots of hawks, a barred owl, and plenty of raccoons - we've even had a fox. So using the tractor gives the hens a chance to scratch around on fresh ground while still keeping them protected during the day. I don't feel comfortable leaving them in it overnight because it's just doesn't offer the same level of predator protection as their coop does. It's called a tractor because the hens' scratching works the ground a bit and clears away vegetation while their poop adds loads of nitrogen to the soil. We hope to start a new veggie garden in the area where the tractor is now, so clearing away the existing grass and adding some fertilizer will help get this space ready. The chickens don't do this job as fast as a tiller, but they have many other advantages: they're a lot quieter, cheaper to run, add nitrogen to the area they work, and they give us something to eat. The only downside to using the tractor is that I have to catch the chickens in order to put them in it and to put them back in the coop. I'm getting better at catching them, but it does take some time to catch five of them. They sure do love being on the fresh ground. They start to scratching right away when they get in the tractor.

Building the tractor was pretty easy. I used 2x4 lumber and ripped it to make 1.5 x 1.5 pieces that I then nailed and screwed together. I covered it with normal 1" poultry wire and built a lid that I covered with a spare piece of metal roofing I had laying around. The wheels on the tractor help us move it from place to place. The 2x4 axle and wheels are in the storage position in this photo. When we're ready to move the tractor we take axle and wheel assembly out of the storage position, move it to the bottom of the tractor and we're ready to roll. If you'd like to see more tractors and other moveable coops check out this chicken tractor gallery .

I can't believe that we're almost a quarter of the way through 2008. Our frost free date is less than a month away (April 15th) so soon we'll be putting in the 2008 garden. Things are actually already starting to happen around here. Asparagus is coming up and blueberry bushes are just starting to leaf out and put on flower buds. We've ordered 25 strawberry plants that should've shipped on the 17th so we'll be putting those in our raised beds as soon as they arrive. I'll close this entry with a photo from last year's garden in mid-July.

"The Chickens Gave Us Breakfast!"

I had one of those hunches that today might be the day that we would get our first egg, so when I got home from work I changed into egg hunting attire and went to check. I opened the nest box door (aka eggdoor - greetings we come from the planet eggdoor) and there it was - our first home grown egg.


It looks very similar to a store-bought egg, but there are a few differences. Not sure if you can tell in the picture, but it's not white - it's more of a buff color. It's a decent sized egg, but not quite as large as a large store-bought egg. The shell feels nice and firm, which is good. The shell has a few places that are sort of hard to describe - maybe shell undulations? In other words the surface isn't completely uniform.


I wanted Mr. O to find it so I called to him to get his boots on and come help me. He really got quite a thrill. He spotted it right away and picked it up with a look of joyful amazement. For a while I didn't think he'd let go of the thing. He wanted to feed the chickens too and we were afraid there were too many things in those little hands. We finally convinced him he could keep the egg in his shirt pocket while he fed the chickens old noodles and grapes. When we finally went inside he said, "the chickens gave us breakfast!"

The gals really like both the old noodles and the grapes. Mr. O loves to hand feed them. I'm very proud of how brave he is to let them peck stuff out of his little hands. Yesterday he held the grapes between his thumb and index finger and the birds took them eagerly. A couple times I think he got a finger pecked in the process but he was undeterred and insisted on more grapes, more grapes. (Don't worry - we're religious about washing hands after visiting the chickens.)


Here's a shot of Mr. O feeding Winnie a grape. That's Scout in the background patroling the coop perimeter and checking for leaks.



It's nice to see the gals settling into their new home - I like to think they're really enjoying themselves. The egg laying is certainly a sign of them making the adjustment, but other things are happening too. Coco and some of the pullets have started using the roost inside the hen box at night - Winnie has been using it for a while. Initially they slept on the straw bedding. Winnie is really starting to find her voice a bit. She was so quiet and shy at first but yesterday she was clucking away. I wonder if she laid the first egg - she was just much more lively yesterday. Maybe she just couldn't contain her pride.

For those keeping score at home - our first egg officially arrived on day 10 of chicken keeping.