Chicken Scratch, Chapter Two

       Well I think today we must address winter weather, as it is only fitting.  We are currently in the midst of a true Wyoming blizzard.  We are having gusts of 30-40mph with a sustained wind of at least 25mph.  Oh and did I mention the snow that is also falling...er blowing sideways?  So you get the picture it is not the best of conditions out there.  It should also be noted that chickens can tolerate the cold much easier than the heat.  However, a cold wet chicken is altogether another story.  First, have you ever smelled wet feathers?  Trust me, it is gross!  Second, think about a nice down coat or comforter...nice and toasty when it is dry and the air can circulate between the feathers. But when it is wet, not so great at insulating anything.  Well my girls all have a nice layer of down that keeps them toasty warm, but they do need help staying dry. 

        As we were (yes, Kevin helped me this morning) hauling down a fresh watering fount and breakfast this morning I noticed that about five of the girls had made their way out of  Cluckingham Palace, through their yard and under the Coop DeVille coop (CDC).  I must note that the CDC is elevated and has walls on three sides.  The girls no longer use this coop for sleeping and laying since the digs in the Palace are so much nicer and roomier, but they do spend a lot of time under this coop because it provides great shelter from the wind, snow and sun.  So the five girls who had ventured out were quickly becoming snowed/drifted in under the CDC.  So after feeding and watering the smart girls who were still cozy and dry in the Palace we went to rescue the others.  After tromping through drifts we made it around the Palace and inside their yard.  Upon further inspection we can see that some of them are covered with snow, they are wet and cold.  You see, they do not really like walking in the snow and their yard was drifting in and they were basically stuck under the CDC.  Well we were able to lure them out a way with some breakfast.  I have to say, that watching a chicken get blown backwards in a blizzard is quite a sight. Those poor girls didn't know which way was which.  They were trying to go after the feed, but the ground blizzard that was pelting them from every direction was making it rather difficult.  It only took me a few minutes to get them all rounded up, picked up and deposited back into the warm, cozy and dry Palace.  Kevin promptly went back inside and closed their automatic door, locking them in for the rest of the day and night. 

     I know that they are just chickens, but they are my girls, and I love them dearly.  I know that those five are inside the coop now telling the others about getting caught in the blizzard and not being able to make it back to the Palace. I just know there will come a day when they are all lazing about in the heat of the summer talking about the blizzard on New Year's Eve of 2011, and how Momma Hen came to their rescue.  
   
     So I will go collect eggs later and take them some kind of New Year's Eve treat.  I will remember the camera and snap a few shots of them partying it up, chicken style!



  

Chicken Scratch, Chapter One

       So this is something I have been thinking about doing for a while now and after some encouragement from my family I have decided to go for it!  So here it is, the birth of the Coop DeVille Chronicles.  If you are here, you are aware that in July of 2011, my life changed.  I became the true Momma Hen.  I bought my first flock and coop of domestic chickens.  Little did I know how those first 18 girls would be life changing.

This is me holding one of the red hens in Cheyenne the day we went to see about buying the coop and flock.  This is the first time I have ever held a chicken. 

Here is Alex, also holding his first chicken.

 

       I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would love a chicken as much as a cat or dog (and if you know me, you know that I LOVE cats) and at times it could be debatable about loving them more than some humans! 

        So to understand my flock I must first introduce you to chicken math.  I started out with 18, but of those 18, only a handful were still laying eggs.  Because I was so uneducated about chickens I didn't realize that the flock we bought were mostly freeloaders (I refer to the non-laying hens quite lovingly as "freeloaders").  So within a month I was on the hunt for more girls.  I found 11 more young pullets (a female chicken under one year of age) in Loveland, CO through a Craigslist ad.  Late one night at the end of July we drove to Loveland  and I bought 11 more girls.  They were beautiful, a whole range of colors and breeds.  I was instantly in love with their fuzzy little butts.  They were so young, that many of them still chirped and had not developed full combs or wattles.  What followed was a few days of some pecking order challenges, but the new girls became part of the flock quite easily.  Also in the first few months we had to send one original girl to the chopping block because she was quite naughty and would not stop eating eggs, we also had one become quite ill and another just die in her sleep.  As the word began to spread that I had fresh eggs, the desire to fill the demand for farm fresh eggs began to grow and I quickly decided that I needed more hens. 

This is a picture I took of the flock in Cheyenne the day we went to meet them for the first time.

And here they are back at my place, sorry for the picture quality, it is not easy to take pictures in the coop.

This old girl is not with us now, but she was from the original flock and was quite old.

These girls came from Loveland, that is Thelma in the back and Lacy in the front.

This is Shoe (because she has "red wings") she is also a Loveland girl.  She is called a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, and that is her pal Lacy in the back ground, a Silver Laced Wyandotte.

This girls are from the original flock and the white girl is a Plymouth Rock and the blond girl in the back is a Buff Orpington, she is a freeloader and is living out her days quite nicely at Coop DeVille Farm.

These girls are also  from Loveland, the black and white one is called a Barred Rock and her name is Speedy, she was super fast and very hard to catch as a young girl.  The blond girl is another Buff Orpington  and she has a twin, I call them the Blond Babies, as I can't tell her and her sister apart. 

     

Here are some of the Loveland girls settling in the coop.  On the roost from left to right is Rosa, Louise, the two Easter Egger sisters and then the green legged white baby.  The three to the right all now lay green eggs.

Craigslist became my friend and I soon found a fella in Greeley, CO who had organic pullets for sale.  This story warrants a whole chronicle in and of itself!  So the long story in the short version is that we came home from there with ten more girls, including Naked Neck Nancy!

Here are some of the girls we bought in Greeley.

They are loaded up and headed home...that is Naked Neck Nancy right in front.

Here they are enjoying some free range time.

The girls are integrating and getting along nicely.

This is Cruella, she is a Splash Austrolorp and is a Greeley girl.

Here is Naked Neck Nancy.  She is a sweetheart. 

       So fast forward to today, December 30, 2011. There are currently 32 girls living a wonderful, spoiled life at the Coop DeVille Farm.  They have a camper converted into a coop that we call Cluckingham Palace and the original coop that my dad painted a mural on for the girls, a Cadillac Coup DeVille tail fin in a field of sunflowers.  More to come regarding their coops...

Here is the mural Bill Anderson (my dad) painted for the girls on the backside of the original coop.