The ducks are laying!

Much to our surprise, we started finding eggs in the duck house this week! The girls are about 5 months old now, but I sorta expected them to hold off till spring like chickens sometimes do. It is November after all! They apparently had other plans, and started laying this week which brings me to the number one reason you should raise ducks: ducks lay eggs all winter long!

Now don't get me wrong, I knew this about ducks when I got them. Especially since these are khaki campbell ducks which are known to lay an average of 300 eggs per year (or more!) I just didn't expect eggs in winter. Yes, I can do the math, it just didn't occur to me. Now that they eggs have arrived though, let's talk about why you should raise ducks for eggs, instead of chickens!

Free feed, restaurant produce

Do you have any idea how much food a restaurant throws away every day? Let me rephrase that.....do you have any idea how much "good" food a restaurant throws away every day? How about half a garbage bag full of brand new salad? That's right. 

Health code rules read something like this: (their phrasing is less easy to understand though) If food sits out for more than an hour, it cannot be refrigerated again. I'm seriously paraphrasing there, but the idea is that when they fill those huge salad hoppers in the kitchen everything that isn't sold must be pitched at the end of the day. It can't be re-refrigerated overnight for the next day. 

That is a serious waste of good food! Since I'm a frugal chicken keeper, I opened my big mouth at a local restaurant and asked if my critters could have it. This is what I came home with:

Free feed for chickens: ask for restaurant excess!

That is ONE day's salad waste. That is a 30 gallon garbage bag! Now of course, some days more salads sell and there is less left over. Other days there is more. There is not a darn thing wrong with it other then the fact that it was closing time at the restaurant.

This isn't limited to just restaurants. I know a goat farm that gets all the pre-made fruit and veggie trays that don't sell from their local grocery store. I know another person that picks up old produce from a grocery store every week. Point is, it doesn't hurt to ask. Make sure you mention 'animal feed' as there are regulations about giving this stuff out for people to eat! Just make sure to cut away any moldy spots (though bruised spots are ok) before you feed the fruit or veggies to your flock.

It's winter here now and most of the greenery has died off. It makes me feel a whole lot better about the flocks diet when I can fill their bowls with fresh greens! Plus, it really cuts down on my feed bill by adding this and other sources of free or cheap feed to their diets!

~L  

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Silkie chicks first snow

It snowed during the night, much to the surprise of the Silkie chicks in the grow-out pen. They were all hatched in summer so they've never seen the cold white fluffy stuff before. This morning when I opened their chicken coop door, the silkies all started to run down the plank like always....then they saw the snow and stopped dead! 

The silkies all stood there in silence for a few minutes. A low clucking sound started in the back of the group. I imagine they were saying 'hey, what's the hold up? Move it!'

The silkies in the front clucked quietly back. Probably something along the lines of 'what the heck is that stuff?' After a few minutes of clucking conversation a few chicks ventured off the plank into the snow.

Silkies are cold hardy

Eventually all of the chicks did cross over the snow to eat breakfast, then ran right back into their coop where they've been ever since. I tried scattering some scratch around, but the chicks couldn't be bribed to come out in the snow again. I suppose I'll go out later and shovel the run out for the picky little feather balls. *sigh* Spoiled, aren't they?

As much as this set of babies doesn't want to admit it, they'll be just fine in the snow! The only real problems I've had with silkies in winter is that ice tends to form on their crests if they get wet. I've had to cut the ice chunks off giving them quite a funky haircut, but effectively keeping their heads dry in winter.

They will get used to it though! I've raised silkies in western Pennsylvania for several years now and I've never lost one to the cold of winter....and it often drops to the single digits here!  

Think you might want to raise Silkies? Check out my post Silkie chickens, Why you should raise this adorable breed!

~L

Want information on raising chickens sent right to your email weekly? Click right here to join my list and get new posts sent directly to you the day they're published ... plus, you'll also get the free download '25 Ways to save money raising chickens'.

Winter babies

I swear this happens every winter here! The conversation always goes like this:
DH (darling hubby): You were working out there a long time. Need some help?
ME (just me lol): No. I was cleaning a cage and moving the mama and babies.
DH: Babies? I thought we weren't hatching again till spring.
ME (starting to stammer): well, ummm...a couple of the Silkies just wouldn't quit sitting in the nests and they looked so cute, and I just can't ever get them to stop being broody and they only had 2 eggs each and I forgot to check for a few days (by now I'm talking real fast) and by the time I remembered they had like 8 eggs each and they were already developing and....
This is where he goes "just place an ad and sell them" and walks away shaking his head.

When chicks hatch in Winter

So......that's the situation! We have winter babies in the coop right now. Winter has it's own set of hardships for chicks. In the Summer if they get away from mama, they cry for awhile and either she finds them or I hear them and rescue them. (or since almost every hen is broody, somebody hurries over and tries to claim the crying baby by sitting on it! lol) In the winter however, they don't have very long before they get too cold. A tiny chick can die of hypothermia in less then an hour! That means reinforced sides on cages so they can't slip out. Constantly adding shavings because mamas like to scratch and kick the shavings out. Plus hourly checks and counts to make sure everyone is where they should be. Not to mention heated water refills!

Thankfully something besides black is hatching! (just when I was getting ready to stick my black roo in solitary) We have some porcelain, partridge and a blue. We've been getting these little guys out of our porcelain hen.

They're cute, but there's a sad story to go with this one. The guy in the picture was called Chip. Our son thought he was the same color as chocolate chip ice cream, so he named him Chip. Unfortunately for Chip he got his little self tangled in mama's belly feathers and didn't make it. Now though, every chick that hatches looking like this is instantly nicknamed "Chip's brother" So the hatch looks like this. 2 partridge......

and 2 of Chip's brothers.....

Plus the blue which was still wet at picture time. Chip's brothers feather out in a few variations. Usually they either turn out buff or porcelain. Occasionally I'll get a pale partridge. (think partridge with a white base) This is of course, a project. It's probably my favorite project so far. 

I'm also working on a dark Lavender. I'll be back to show you the lav project next week!

~L

Coop maintenance, small coops

This summer we decided to finally get around to doing some coop maintenance on the goose coop. First it was hauled over to the driveway. (warning...don't try this at home! We did it with 2 people and a hand truck. Bad BAD idea! My back hurt for 3 days after!) 

Power washing and staining the coop

Once the Goose house was removed we raked up all the hay, scratch and DE that had somehow gotten underneath and put down a base of pebble gravel. Then the coop was power washed. Once it was spotless it was allowed to dry overnight before we stained it. One more night to dry and it was moved back into place. This time we lifted it with the tractor. Better idea, MUCH better idea! 

The geese were overjoyed to get their house back where it belongs since for two nights they've been sleeping in it while it was in the driveway. This was quite confusing to the little honkers! 

We do this kind of maintenance very rarely on these smaller coops because of the poultry that live in them. Geese are in this one, ducks in another....both are wet on the bottom but not very messy up top. They don't require internal power washing since the bedding is very thick (changed weekly) and they don't roost. 

Roosting birds tend to splatter poo everywhere, but that's a different post! We only power wash the outsides of coops when it's time to stain them. Stain should last a few years, so hopefully this one won't need done any time soon. I hope not....for my back's sake!

~L

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Can chickens eat scrambled eggs?

Confession time, my chickens are spoiled. It's true. I really pamper them, in fact....I cook for my chickens. No no, I don't cook my chickens, silly! I cook them breakfast! Usually it's what I call scrambled yukky eggs. Bear with me here because its not quite as gross as it sounds!

I have a few hens that like to hang out in the nest boxes longer then they should. I also have a few banty hens that like to sleep in the nest boxes. It's only makes sense that sometimes a bit of chicken poo winds up in the nest boxes. I clean them out in the mornings, but if someone already laid an egg by the time I get there....yuck! 

That one goes straight to the 'yukky egg basket'. Now, I know that many people just scrape or wipe off the eggs and use them, and for eating that is usually fine. However, I hatch most of my eggs and I have a fear of introducing bacteria into my incubators. It could ruin a whole hatch if an egg would spoil and explode during incubation.

There's a reason they're called stink bombs! Anyway, since I incubate most of our eggs, this leaves me with an often full 'yukky egg basket'. Also in winter if an egg freezes and splits it's not safe for humans to eat, so those get cooked too. 

If I get a particularly bloody eggs (as far as blood spots go) I'll cook that one for the chickens too. Basically they get everything we won't eat!