So it looks like we’ve got three new full-time gulchers here at the Secret Lair. I’d name them, if I could tell them apart. And if I weren’t going to, you know, betray their confidence, murder them at the end of their usefulness, and stew the marrow from their very bones. But I’m sentimental, so let’s just call them “the chickens.”
Yes, Landlady has heartlessly abandoned them to my foul clutches. She says it’s because it’s time to field-test the experiment. Personally I think she just decided that a life of not waiting for the homeowner’s association to lower the boom on her chicken enterprise was a life more worth living. They can be a bit noisy.
But she is still planning to raise the chicks for the next, greatly expanded, phase. They’ll be a different, more cold-hearty breed.
The truth is, though, these three Rhode Island Red hens are doing just fine with the cold so far. It’s gotten into the teens a couple of times, and if the chickens are suffering they’re keeping it to themselves. There are a few things I have to do, though, since it looks like their stay in the “temporary” fenced area has been extended. I’ve got to go to the feed store and get them a better waterer. The current plastic one won’t survive many more freezings – plus the water keeps freezing, which is no good in itself. I’ve got to get some straw bales and make a windbreak, and I’ll sacrifice a blanket to cover the coop at night. That last thing might finally have an effect on their egg production, which so far has remained undiminished. If it does, maybe I’ll try a lamp on a timer.
There’s been no sign at all that their presence is luring predators any closer. Once in a while they’re even marginally useful – did you know chickens can claw the wood right out of a 2X12 to get to the termites? Because I didn’t know that. I should be more polite.
Either way, it’s cool. I haven’t bought an egg in two months.
When my folks lived in your area, they had chickens. No problems with predators. The German shepherd might of helped. They did have a mountain lion that would sit on top of the coop some nights. It never tried to get the chickens. It avoided the roosters that Dad let run loose.
I’ve raised Rhode Island Reds without problems related to the cold. Egg production is affected more by the amount of daylight than the temperature. They need a minimum of 14 hours a day of daylight or they will stop laying.
A mountain lion on top of the coop? Wow. That would have flattened my last coop. 🙂 And I think all my chickens would have been dead of heart attacks smelling that much CAT. And I don’t ever want to meet a rooster that a mountain lion won’t go after.
Dunno Matt… I get just a whiff of tall tale here… You got pictures? LOL
… you meant fowl clutches, I am sure.
LOL
feralfae
Feral, man, I was just about to rail on him for that double pun, “foul clutch.”
“fowl clutches”…argh. You know what they say about the pun being the lowest form of humor, right, Ilo?
And a mountain lion harmlessly on top of the coop? Yeah, photographic evidence is called for here. :^)
I’ve had Rhode Island Reds here on the WA/ID border and sometimes in can get down to below 10 degrees and they do fine. I’ve found if I stick with the old time breeds that used to populate America’s farmsteads and ranches, they are really hearty. Congratulations are in order Joel, welcome to Chickendom. 😉
I never saw the mountain lion on the coop myself, and I am sure my father would never embellish the plain truth, except maybe to the grandkids. The coop was over built though, started out as a small tool shed from Mr. Shed, good 2×4 construction.
We started with chickens this year, and found once you pick your own fresh eggs, store boughts just never taste the same again.
Waiting to compare the meat to store bought. If the difference is as noticeable as it is in eggs, next Spring I start a seperate meat flock.