Changes

Hello Egg Lovers. I wanted to tell you about some changes around the Painted Hen. 

This summer we had a family of foxes move into the surrounding woods and they've unfortunately killed 10+ of our chickens.  We've had to limit their free-ranging time to the point that they now spend most of their time in their large, fenced run. 
Because the chickens are spending so much time in their run, I had to sell half of my laying hens to have plenty of space in the run.

So, instead of collecting 3 dozen eggs a day, we're down to 1 dozen a day.   As we head into molting season, we know that number will get even lower. 

I'm sorry that we may have to stop selling eggs temporarily or permanently depending on how this fall goes.  Please give me as much notice as possible before you need eggs so I can save them for you and I may have to limit the number of eggs each customer can have. 

Thanks for your understanding. 

Our Flock - Spring 2018

Today the weather is so beautiful that I thought it was a good day for a flock update.  Here is a rather long video of the flock and coop.  Pollo, the chicken kitten, is almost an adult now and still loves spending the day with the chickens. 

Rod Steward, the buff laced polish rooster

 White leghorn girls

 Blue Splash Cochin hen

 Pollo enjoying some fresh straw.

 Phillip, the Bielefelder rooster, is huge.  He's so tall that he towers over the hens.  Luckily he's a very sweet boy, as you can see.

 The nesting boxes are very busy these days.

Phillip with tiny Babette.

Stay tuned because next week I'll have an update involving chicks. My Biology class is hatching bantam and standard chicks. We're all waiting with baited breath.

The New Kids In The Flock

 With it being molting season, egg laying has been very slow. Some days we're only getting 6 eggs!  I decided to plan ahead for an abundance of eggs this spring.  I ordered 29 chicks from Ideal Hatchery and a Wake Forest student hatched 20 of our chicks as school project.  The 49 chicks are super cute.

In other baby news.....   One of our Cuckoo Marans hens hatched 4 Ancona ducklings (I ordered the fertilized eggs from ebay) and they're doing well and growing quickly.  Oh, and ducks are VERY messy! The momma hen has no idea that her babies aren't chickens. 

Time For Your Close-Up

 Dark cornish cross

 Easter Egger

 Cuckoo Marans

 White Polish

 Easter Egger cross

 Black Australorp cross

Easter Egger cross

Pollo, The Chicken Kitten

About 6 weeks ago, a tiny kitten joined our flock.  I found her walking with the flock, trying to snuggle with the hens.  They didn't want her to snuggle but they didn't mind her hanging out with them.  

She sleeps in the coop and stays with the flock all day.  She's quite a wild little kitten and I can only touch her when she's eating. 

I've named her Pollo, which means "chicken" in Spanish, since she seems to think she's a chicken.  She has her own little pen in the coop where she eats and sleeps at night.  She shares their water and explores during the day but always stays close to the flock.  When the rooster sound their alarm (warning of danger... real or imagined) she runs for cover along with the rest of the flock.  

 The chickens have trained her (with pecks on the head) to respect them.  She knows they're not toys or playmates.

She's such a pretty girl and we've put her in charge of pest control. 

Autumn

Yesterday evening I spent some time with the flock as they foraged.  They love kicking the leaves aside and looking for the bugs underneath.  There is still plenty of grass to eat but they've eaten almost all of the figs off of the tree at this point. 

 "Rod Stewart" the rooster we hatched this spring.  He's 1/4 Polish and definitely Sterling's son (silver leghorn).

 Two Splash Cochin 4 month old roosters with a Barnevelder hen.

 One of the Easter Egger X hens we hatched this spring.

 3 month old Bielefelder rooster and blue laced red wyandottes.

I think the chickens enjoyed their serenade.

 Phyllis Diller.  She's one of my favorite hens. She's completely goofy and hilarious.

 Black cochin pullet.

 Our toy poodle puppy is so curious about the chickens.

Bella, the light brahma.