Parts of a Chicken

 

 Chickens do have ears although they are hidden by the feathers on the side of the head. But when the feathers are pushed aside, the openings that serve as ears appear. There is no outer ear, such as we humans have, but chickens do have earlobes which can be clearly seen. The color of the lobe varies with the breed of the chicken, ranging from white to almost black. Chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs exclusively while birds with dark lobes lay brown eggs. The fascinating Araucana breed of chickens can even have earlobes that are a pale green or blue color. Sure enough, they lay eggs of the corresponding hue. It appears that the same gene that determines the color of the earlobe also determines the color of the egg. The color itself is determined by the presence of porphyrins which occur once hemoglobin, the oxygen-transporting molecule found in red blood cells, is broken down. This whole process is controlled by genetics, which means the color of the eggs is under genetic control.

 

December 27, 2020 Sunday Update water line in coop

 This weekend relocated the water line in the coop. Relocated the sink into the coop, added a new water line to it. I then rerouted the water line to the automatic chicken water bowl. I added three additional water points with valves for future. Two of the new drops I placed because I can add these line into different interior cages.  I placed one valve on the outside of the coop near the storage container. 

I also relocated the position of the interior florescent light and added another LED light at the entrance of the coop. I placed three additional tables around the sink and relocated the refrigerator. I was trying to create a educational area within the coop. Outside of the coop, to the east around the tree, I removed much of the junk I had stored. I see this area as a chicken run. I also am considering making the garden part of the chicken run as well. If I can keep all of the chickens contained in the fenced area it may be better for the school. (Just a thought)

Chicken Coop Update

  Spent today demoing some early parts of the chicken coop at school.  In 2018 I had students build 3 holding areas that were to be used for chickens and other animals. I have been thinking that they take up too much room in the coop for the amount of use that they get. 

 

 

When the three cages were made and prior to the use by our goats!

 

Also, it appears I did not post that I moved the 19 chicks from room 13 out into the coop area yesterday December 17. They are getting big, have most of if not all of their feathers, and there are many of them.

    

 

 

 

Move Chicks Again!

This time the move was into a brooder I built for a large number of chicks I have and due to wanting to keep them indoors. The new brooder is four feet by eight feet. I made the walls two feet high, anticipating to add another 30-inch screen high wall. The coop has the ability to be broken up into four sections.   The cage construction was finished on Tuesday, Dec 8th. (add photo) I want to keep the chicks indoors for at least six weeks.

Move Chicks

 On Monday, Nov 24 moved the chicks to a cage outside.  The chicks are about 8 to 9 days old. The cage is larger and I have moved chicks before, but it was in August. Result, lost a chick overnight, my guess is it went down to the first floor and did not know how to get back up to where all the other chicks were. The nights are cold.  Also upon arrival to the chicks, I  found a hawk just sitting next to the cage. If a hawk has found them so have other critters, so I made an executive decision that it is too late in the year to have a cage outside with this young of chicks and moved them back inside a classroom. I used  the larger bottom half of the cage that the chicks are currently in to house them. The bottom part of the cage is six feet  x 2 feet x 20 " tall and it is on wheels.I placed the chicks in room 13 and placed a camera on them.

Egg Size and Weights

 Egg Size and Weights

Chicken Talk

 

In England

What in the world....

chickens, chicken. chicks, chick, rooster, roosters, hen, hens, birds,chicks, chicken, chickens, hen, hens, quail, quails, quail eggs, rooster, pullets, pheasant, pheasants, duckling, ducks, goose, geese, pigeons, rabbits, bunnies, silkies, fertilized eggs, game birds, brooder box, coops, custom coops, feeders, waterers, pine shavings, codorniz, codornices, gallina, gallinas, huevo, huevos, conejo, conejos, pato, patos, fertilizer

The Big Day Arrives - Our BCM's Eggs hatch!

 

 

What turned out to be a long weekend of hatching was a true joy, let me explain.  Friday, Nov 13 was the chicken hatch date. As of 12 PM, only one egg had hatched. Over the past 21 days, while the eggs were in the incubator, there have been three occasions where power was interrupted.  The weekend of Nov 8 and 9 the power was out on both days. I have some timers in the classroom for lights and they were both off by 5 hours.  Saturday morning 11/14  we had five chicks total, on Sunday morning 11/15  we had 18 total chicks.  On Monday morning 11/16 we totaled 19, and the last hatched on Tuesday morning 11/17 our last chick hatched. This chick had to be helped along. The egg liner had dried a bit and was stuck to the chick. I let it stay in the Incubator until 3 PM and moved it into the brooder with the rest of the chicks.

Of the  26 eggs placed in the incubator, 20 eggs hatched, the last being  Tuesday morning 11/17, four days after the hatch date of 11/13. The eggs were placed in the incubator on Saturday 10/24.  Today, Wednesday 11/18  I broke open the remaining eggs to see what condition they were in. The remaining BCM/OE were all feathered, but dead. The brown speckled egg was not fertile, if it was maybe it looked to be about 3 days old, The two blues were both at late stages of growth with feathers, one was partially alive, when I cracked the egg it took a couple of breaths and died, it looked to be at about 17/18 days of development, note this was day 24 in the incubator.

The breakdown.

BCM Chocolate    13/15

Olive Color             2/3

Gray Color              1/1

Blue                         2/4

Tan                         2/3

Brown speckled      0/1

Total                      20/26

At night in the Coop

 

The little white guy out front was hatched in August

Current Roosters of the HHS Family Farm

 This  Godfather Two or just  G2 - (Brahma Dad/ Leghorn mom) which would equate to a light brown egg gene

This is Red 2 or R2 ( Looks exactly like his father Easter Egger/mom RIR) which would equate to a light green egg laying gene

The unnamed rooster...

Heavy Winds in Upland on Monday Oct 26

 Damage from the wind event in Upland on Monday Oct 26. No chicken or no damage to roof sustained from the falling branch.

Here is what the wind felt like.....

Mice Infestation in Chicken Coop Officially Resolved

 Over the course of the summer beginning in March, the mice population exploded. I lost count, having caught over 45 mice through April. I can't explain how it has ended but the mice population is gone. Be it due to our resident Ferrel cat, or the number of mouse contraptions I placed in the coop, but the numbers are down near zero. 

A couple of things happened over the course of the summer. First, as I previously mentioned we now have a Ferrel cat hanging around the coop that appears to only be going after the mice. With that said, I did lose some one-week-old chicks suddenly, and to this day I do not know what happened to them. This happened back in June.  No corpses, no grouping of feathers, but one that did survive did have a wound, so something got to it.  They were in a cage, that I did find an opening under a board that could have allowed them to get out into the larger coop, or something small to get into where they were. I digress.

Second, in a shipping container located next to the coop, I did notice that the mice had got into a bag of fertilizer/chemical I use to accelerate composting. They ate the entire bag. this could have had an affect on them.

Third, through the use of the traps, most recently I began using two small rectangular galvanized metal box traps. On the first day of their use, without having placed any food inside the trap I caught 10 mice in the two traps. One other night I also caught a large number of mice in them. Since then I rarely see mice and I have caught maybe one or two over the past two weeks. The product is from Southern Homeware . 

UPdate of Eggs in Incubator

 

 On Saturday October 24 I drove to the McDonalds on Magic Mountain Parkway to purchase a dozen eggs of Marans. Later that day I placed the eggs into the incubator.  Temperature set at 99.5 50% humidity.

Upland experienced heavy winds on Monday, Oct 26 causing some power outages. As a precaution, I placed the incubator on a battery-powered device. I hooked it up to a power converter that was attached to a deep cell 12V battery. When I arrived at class on Tuesday morning, the power alarm was on meaning the battery has gone dead.  

I quickly placed the incubator back on city power. At the start, the temp of the incubator read 70 degrees and the humidity was 92 %. Within the hour I had the temperature back to 99 degrees and humidity to 65%. I will be waiting a few days and then I will candle the eggs to see if they are viable.  I am really bummed that this happened

The Godfather 2

Since the loss of Godfather, one rooster has risen to the occasion to be the new leader of the flock. I am proud to say that rooster is the Godfather 2.   There are a few roosters following in his footsteps. More on them later.

The Godfather 2 has a better temperament than G1.  He does not chase after teachers or guests like G1 did.  He is very gentle on the hens. In May 2020 at the time of The Godfather 1's death to a coyote I was a bit concerned about the lass and the succession that might take place. G2 was only 9 months old and really did not know how to be a leader. He still would take food with the hens, he would not stand up to me. But over the months he has become a gentle giant leader.  It is now the 3 underlings that I worry about. We have Red 2, the son of a former rooster we had here that went to Havers farm in Fresno. We have another Godfather relative hanging around as well.

G2 did have some competition at the start. We had The Rock, a Barred Rock Rooster that was hatched at the same time as G2. The two had come from the Aug 2019 hatching where we had 9 to 11 roosters. Two were spared going to the circus because we ran out of sunshine. G2 and The Rock.

Unfortunately, I recently found The Rock dead in the coop, It happened in the evening, the cage was locked up. I found him dead where he normally sat at night. It was a 105-degree day and a very warm evening. I could find no evidence of foul play. He passed in early October 2020.

RIP The Rock

So I can live with the three roosters we currently have, though I will say they are on a short leash. I have been studying chicken genetics and may have to pass on them to get to the place I see for this flock.

But for now, we have The Godfather 2, Red 2, and an unnamed Brahma/ rooster.

In the photo below are the roosters I just spoke about.  G2 is in the top right of the group, The unnamed rooster is in the top left, Red 2 in center/bottom right, and The Rock (RIP) is the top middle of the flock.

Chicken Breed Informational Chart

 

Egg Genetic Color Chart

 Egg Genetic Coloring Chart

New Batch of Eggs for the Incubator!

 

New Batch of Eggs in Incubator

 Today I drove to Magic Mountain and purchased from a 3rd party a dozen Copper Maran Eggs that are supposed to be fertile.  I found the seller online through Craigslist.  There are several sellers online. He was the only one that specifically had the Copper Marans that was within an hour's drive from my house. Many sellers have backyard mix breeds and have many colorful eggs.  I am specifically interested in dark chocolate eggs. I want to add color to our flock. I am hoping I made a  reasonable choice. The seller seemed very knowledgeable about chicken and breeds. This is the first time I have ever purchased eggs.

Along with the 12 eggs I purchased the seller included a few extra Maran eggs and a few olive color eggs, and a gray egg, for a total of 19 eggs.  They went into the Incubator today 10/24 expected hatch date will be Nov 14th.

The eggs on the top carton in the image below are the current range of egg colors we have on the HHS farm.

Chicken Update

The chickens that hatched on June 7 are doing fine.  I sold 5 of the chicks to Anthony late last month.

I believe this is the first month we began to see green eggs! I will check previous posts. But green eggs come from a hen/rooster with blue egg genes and brown egg genes.

We collected 555 eggs for the month of June, an HHS farm record. 

First Natural Egg Hatching on the HHS Farm Today!

11 Chicks Hatch at HHS Farm

On June 7 we had 11 chicks hatch on the farm.