My Brother's Chickens
3/19/09 - Well, he's at it again. He's tripling his "herd" (I know, flock. But I'd like to call him a chicken herder. LOL). Today he's going somewhere down in PA to get another 20 chickens. Don't know if they're the same breed as what he has now, but he's getting more. He has the demand for eggs, and he has plenty of property to put them on, so he might as well increase his population.
Good for him!
And here's a picture of his chicken coop in action, with chickelfinks attached. He couldn't decide which to put on the 'back' of the coop, so both went on the 'front'.
The spring of 2008 had a neighbor of my brother bring him some chicks and proclaimed him a chicken farmer.
Naturally, my brother kept them and, has indeed, begun his chicken farming stage of life.
These chickens are Plymouth Rock - barred variety. Who knew there are 7 varieties of Plymouth Rocks out there?
Naturally, once fall came, he had to build them a coop. Being the over-engineering sort, and plenty of wood to harvest as lumber, he made them a COOP. Those chickens have no clue how good they have it. As you can see, it's a 2-story coop. And it's portable! He can move it with his tractor to new foraging whenever he wants. The chickens apparently love it when they move and come out to watch the tractor whenever he starts it up. The second floor has roosts and nesting boxes that you can access from the outside with a hinged portion of the roof. Easier egg gathering and cleaning - no bending!
Once I saw the design, I was driven to make him some distelfinks. Only - distelfink for a chicken just doesn't sound right - so, I totally bastardized the concept and called them chickelfinks. I've not gotten any pictures of them on the coop, but I'm sure I'll get one someday. Obviously, I took great liberties with the second one. However, for chickens, it just seemed incredibly appropriate! The first is far more traditional, using standard symbols and colors. The only non-standard part is the rooster instead of a finch. 
The amazing part is, these chickens are already laying eggs! I figured early spring would be the soonest, but they're doing quite well - especially for pullets (hens less than a year old. The rooster is a cockerel until he's a year old - then he's a cock).
A little tidbit I found while doing my turkey farming research is that chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs and chickens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs - with a few exceptions.
First - WHO knew chickens had earlobes and WHO looked?
And if they lay speckled eggs, is it because they have freckles on their earlobes or what?
Ah well, that little bit of pondering will have to wait for another day. So do they have varying shades of red earlobes? And the 2 eggs on the far right are speckled - freckled earlobes? If they lay consistently the same shade/tone, we have eggs from 4 different hens. But, I don't know if they do lay consistently or not. Such research to do!
I honestly don't know what my brother will do with all of his eggs. I've offered up different people within my circle who would love to buy them, but I've not hear. He may already have them all spoken for. But considering he'll be getting an average of 2 per day from each hen, that's 20/day to get rid of. LOL Just a few.
Good for him!
And here's a picture of his chicken coop in action, with chickelfinks attached. He couldn't decide which to put on the 'back' of the coop, so both went on the 'front'.
The spring of 2008 had a neighbor of my brother bring him some chicks and proclaimed him a chicken farmer.
Naturally, my brother kept them and, has indeed, begun his chicken farming stage of life.
These chickens are Plymouth Rock - barred variety. Who knew there are 7 varieties of Plymouth Rocks out there?
Naturally, once fall came, he had to build them a coop. Being the over-engineering sort, and plenty of wood to harvest as lumber, he made them a COOP. Those chickens have no clue how good they have it. As you can see, it's a 2-story coop. And it's portable! He can move it with his tractor to new foraging whenever he wants. The chickens apparently love it when they move and come out to watch the tractor whenever he starts it up. The second floor has roosts and nesting boxes that you can access from the outside with a hinged portion of the roof. Easier egg gathering and cleaning - no bending!
Once I saw the design, I was driven to make him some distelfinks. Only - distelfink for a chicken just doesn't sound right - so, I totally bastardized the concept and called them chickelfinks. I've not gotten any pictures of them on the coop, but I'm sure I'll get one someday. Obviously, I took great liberties with the second one. However, for chickens, it just seemed incredibly appropriate! The first is far more traditional, using standard symbols and colors. The only non-standard part is the rooster instead of a finch. 
The amazing part is, these chickens are already laying eggs! I figured early spring would be the soonest, but they're doing quite well - especially for pullets (hens less than a year old. The rooster is a cockerel until he's a year old - then he's a cock).A little tidbit I found while doing my turkey farming research is that chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs and chickens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs - with a few exceptions.
First - WHO knew chickens had earlobes and WHO looked?
And if they lay speckled eggs, is it because they have freckles on their earlobes or what?
Ah well, that little bit of pondering will have to wait for another day. So do they have varying shades of red earlobes? And the 2 eggs on the far right are speckled - freckled earlobes? If they lay consistently the same shade/tone, we have eggs from 4 different hens. But, I don't know if they do lay consistently or not. Such research to do!
I honestly don't know what my brother will do with all of his eggs. I've offered up different people within my circle who would love to buy them, but I've not hear. He may already have them all spoken for. But considering he'll be getting an average of 2 per day from each hen, that's 20/day to get rid of. LOL Just a few.
Labels: farming, homesteading, organic
posted by Leslie at
2:40 PM
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