Cute spring eggshell craft!

I've been working on my garden a lot lately of course...it is the season for it. Planning mostly, but I've started seeds for some of the smaller plants like herbs. I've been saving eggshells and using them to start seeds. They are perfect for herbs and look so much cuter on the windowsill then those nursery seed pods. 

The lavender started sprouting and the way it was growing almost made the eggshell look like...well, like it had hair! First I started laughing at it. Then I started thinking. Guess what happened next?

Yeah, I have wayyyy too much time on my hands right now! lol These are so easy I probably don't need to explain it, but I'll give you the abbreviated version anyway. When using eggs for cooking I've been cracking them close to the top and pouring them out instead of cracking midway through the egg like I normally would. I rinse the eggshell in warm water and let dry upside down. 

I used my hot glue gun to glue on plastic eyeballs. If the kids are helping then let them use Elmers glue. Draw on facial features using a Sharpie. For these guys I just threw some soaked winter wheat inside and dampened slightly. You can add potting soil and seeds though, it just takes a little longer. Let it grow and voila...egg people!

Chickens can't swim, backyard water safety

Did you know that chickens can't swim? Well, not very well at least. That's one of those things you never really have to think about though. I was looking at Summer pictures today and came across some pics of the pond in my yard. It's now just a decorative fish pond, but it didn't start that way. It started as a goose pond and sadly, over the years, a few chickens met their maker there.

About 2 years after we put it in, it became a duck pond. Another 2 years later and we were done with waterfowl completely! The original goose house, now the duck house soon became the d'Uccle house. The fence was moved to the other side of the pond to remove it from the enclosure. The banty's moved in and all was well for a long time. Or so I thought. 

I chronicled the transformation from goose pool to fish pond on my other blog.

Can chickens swim?

After awhile I learned that chickens can't swim well AT ALL. It's not like I ever thought they could, I just didn't think they absolutely couldn't! It was a very painful lesson. Let's go back to when the pond looked like this: 

That's deer netting across the top of it. It worked perfectly all spring and summer. Most of the frogs couldn't get through it which made it easy to scoop them out every day. The netting kept the frogs from eating the fish I had populated the pond with also. 

The whole time that netting was on I didn't see one wet chicken. The neighbors dog fell in, but that's another story all together!

Chicken keepers beware: the Predators are HUNGRY!

I have a sad tale to tell you. It begins in the dawn of a bright new year when everyone is looking forward to new beginnings. It has a chicken owner carefully plotting her breeding groups for the new year. Matching up pairs and trios of Silkies. Feeling satisfied with last years results in the Marans. Confident about the color changes in the Guinea flock  and watching the little d'Uccle cockerel grow into a great looking little roo. 

Then the weather in this winter got colder and colder. The snow built up deeper and deeper. The farm entered a deep freeze and chicken care took on a whole new level of difficulty. 

It was ok, farmers adapt and every chicken made it through the bitter cold snap. Unfortunately though, the wildlife didn't do as well. They went hungry when it was too cold to come out and hunt, or when nothing else was out for them to hunt. Then they found the chickens.

The first warm day dawned bright and beautiful and our flock owner let the Silkies into their run for the first time in weeks. They needed the fresh air and though the run wasn't covered, it had never been breached before. 

No one gave a thought to the several inches of snow built up around the fence that allowed a hungry fox to jump it with ease. The farm lost their oldest Silkie hen that day, an adorable Cuckoo. The rest of the flock was inconsolable for a whole day as the massacre had occurred inside the coop. The fox had waltzed right in, picked his dinner and started eating!

The phone calls started coming. "my daughters favorite chicken was killed right in the yard" and "my rooster died fighting off a predator". Everybody had a story, and most had pictures of tracks in the snow. The deep freeze started again. The wildlife hid for awhile, but soon they were back. 

Tracks in the snow, birds of prey watching chickens from the trees. Then the flock owner found a pile of feathers right outside the d'Uccle pen. No tracks in the fresh snow. Hawk. The one she had seen that morning during chores, more than likely. The only chickens small enough for a hawk to take. The cockerel was gone. That was the end of this breeding group for the year. 

That was yesterday.

Winter chicken coops: the good, bad and ugly

Do you and your chickens live in a cold weather area? We do. This winter was not just cold, it was negative degrees bone chilling cold and snow up to our knees! This was our hardest winter since we've been here and since we've started keeping chickens. I've learned a lot about chicken coops this winter....and homesteading, and hungry wildlife! 

It's been tough. 

We've also been through a power outage during a cold snap. A week long power outage! You can read more about that in Chicken Keeping in extreme weather. That situation really tells you how good or bad your chicken coop, winter equipment and methods are! 

Working with our chicken coops this winter I've figured exactly why each one does and does not perform well in cold weather. So, here's my list of coops: The good, the bad and the downright ugly!