Last week I had a slight scare with one of the hens. I came down to the pen a little before dusk as usual to take care of them and when I opened the door several hens where pecking at this clear mucus in the mud. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was but I thought I better discourage it anyway. Then I noticed my favorite hen. The prettiest one with the orange creamsicle feathers was hunched up ominously.
This posse is never a good sign with a chicken. The other bad sign is when they are sitting down during the day in the pen, or yard if turned loose rather than moving around. Listing to the side like a leaning ship often accompanies that pose and means the hens days may be down to hours.
I felt my heart sink. Not only is this hen beautiful, but sweet. She often comes up to me for a pet and let's me pick her up. She is almost always the first to roost when I let the hens out right before dark so they can get a little range safely. I let them out for ten or fifteen minutes and stay with them the whole time.
I decided not to let the hens out and took care of them. I tossed some chicken treat around to keep them occupied as I watched the hen slowly waddle around a small area staying hunched up and not the slightest bit interested in the chicken treat. I felt a little hopeless about it and worried that an egg had broken inside her but decided to wait around and few minutes and see if anything changed and boy did it. One of the hens noticed some subtle signal I had missed and immediately began hovering around pretty hen's backside. Then began following pretty hen with her head close to the ground and was quickly rewarded by a soft shelled, translucent egg dropping from pretty hen's bottom. This "catching hen" immediately tore into the egg remnants as it plopped on the ground and splattered and the other hens quickly descended on the egg. Pretty hen slowly walked away. I quickly scuffed the broken egg yoke and white amidst the gravel to break up the contents to keep the hens from eating it. Then I chased the original hovering hen around the pen as she was trailing the noodle like egg shell from her beak. I realized what I had first seen upon entering the pen was egg white.
By the time I got the shell away from the hen, pretty hen was now standing pretty normally. The good news was she did not have a broken egg inside her but the bad news was that she had laid at least two soft shelled eggs and the hens knew they were edible.
This is still all kinds of bad. I've written about this before on the blog but I'll refresh new readers briefly. If chickens ever find out that the eggs they lay are edible, you are done. They can't unlearn it. When one hen learns it she teachers the others, or more like models to the others. Hens are greedy curious little beasts and they are always, always checking out what everyone else is eating. They can tell when one hen has gotten hold of a particular goodie and follow her to get some of their own. When I was chasing the hen to get the soft egg shell out of her beak, two other hens were also chasing her to get the same thing.
This is one of the many reasons why it's important to collect eggs every day especially if you have a lot of hens. The eggs pile up and it's easier for a hen to step on an egg, break it open with her toe and then it's hmmmm what's this...?
Once the learn their egg is food, they eat their own eggs and each other's eggs. It can't be unlearned or conditioned out. Then you have chickens and no eggs.
It's called getting peckish. I have had a peckish hen in the past as I noticed the remains of the egg in the nest box. Then Dad and I try to separate the hens to try to ascertain the peckish hen before it spreads throughout the flock.
Now all the chickens knew eggs were food...BUT my only saving grace was the eggs were IN THE PEN when pretty hen laid them. I hadn't seen any evidence of broken eggs in the nest box so the soft shell was a recent development. Chickens are so smart...and so dumb. As long as the egg wasn't discovered in the nest box they might not make the connection.
I called Dad, desperate. We had to get pretty hen out of the pen in isolation as soon as possible. I went up to the house to get a face mask since I wouldn't be able to social distance from Dad to do this. He came down and brought a cat carrier. I gave the hens more chicken treat to keep them out from underfoot and then Bless her, pretty hen roosted first as she always does making it so much easier to snatch her and bundle her off to the infirmary. I got oyster shell the next day to supplement everyone's feed. Oyster shell is a calcium source to help them keep their egg shells hard. I didn't think they needed it because their food is supplemented with extra calcium and the girls are so young. But to be fair, they have been laying all winter. Dad monitored pretty hen for a few days. No more soft shell eggs and she came back a couple nights later. The flock accepted her back just fine. But this did get me thinking. I have 6 young and healthy hens...but mishaps happen. Eggs break in bodies, sometimes they just get sick. It is hard to find full grown young laying hens in the best of times but now with eggs out at the store sometimes or 4 dollars a dozen...and the hens turning one year old this spring got me thinking that maybe we should have an egg insurance policy around here...
In other news, on last Thursday I decided to try something new, making bread from scratch. No bread machine, or even the Kitchen Aide dough hook. I used this recipe given to me from a friend.
It makes two loaves and is delicious. I don't have any pictures besides the finished product because I used this activity to make a video for the kids at the library. I hate spending my time on cooking that may not work out, which is why pie dough and roll out cookies intimidate me. I want results for my time! I can see where after getting used to making bread, a person can time it like second nature and do things in between the times that require action. I mean, I did that too, but I still felt like bread making was the centerpiece of the day. I could see after practice though getting into a rhythm of knowing just how much time could be devoted to certain chores in between time.
I did have to bake the loaves separately because the difference between a glass and metal pan requires a significant temperature change for the oven.
I would like to try this recipe again with the Kitchen aide dough hook to see if it saves some time.
This bread was delicious. Probably the 2/3 cup of sugar, har har.
Anyway readers, if I can make this, you can too. I'm serious.
Wow this has been a text heavy blog. I better throw in some pet pictures, but before I do, let me share one more thing for those who like supporting local artists.
If you like coloring books for adults, or are thinking now is the time to explore this hobby, let me recommend a truly unique book by a central Ohio artist.
Maria is a dear friend and is a quintuple threat when it comes to art. She paints, she draws, the makes jewelry and she crochets. She's also my green thumb friend who despairs in how I lack a lot of common sense when it comes to plants. But she still gives me plants anyway.
I do feel a twinge about suggesting buying a non essential item from Amazon but I think this is the only way you can get the book if you want to try it.
You can also find sample pages at the link.
And now an encore presentation of Tutu.
This posse is never a good sign with a chicken. The other bad sign is when they are sitting down during the day in the pen, or yard if turned loose rather than moving around. Listing to the side like a leaning ship often accompanies that pose and means the hens days may be down to hours.
I felt my heart sink. Not only is this hen beautiful, but sweet. She often comes up to me for a pet and let's me pick her up. She is almost always the first to roost when I let the hens out right before dark so they can get a little range safely. I let them out for ten or fifteen minutes and stay with them the whole time.
I decided not to let the hens out and took care of them. I tossed some chicken treat around to keep them occupied as I watched the hen slowly waddle around a small area staying hunched up and not the slightest bit interested in the chicken treat. I felt a little hopeless about it and worried that an egg had broken inside her but decided to wait around and few minutes and see if anything changed and boy did it. One of the hens noticed some subtle signal I had missed and immediately began hovering around pretty hen's backside. Then began following pretty hen with her head close to the ground and was quickly rewarded by a soft shelled, translucent egg dropping from pretty hen's bottom. This "catching hen" immediately tore into the egg remnants as it plopped on the ground and splattered and the other hens quickly descended on the egg. Pretty hen slowly walked away. I quickly scuffed the broken egg yoke and white amidst the gravel to break up the contents to keep the hens from eating it. Then I chased the original hovering hen around the pen as she was trailing the noodle like egg shell from her beak. I realized what I had first seen upon entering the pen was egg white.
By the time I got the shell away from the hen, pretty hen was now standing pretty normally. The good news was she did not have a broken egg inside her but the bad news was that she had laid at least two soft shelled eggs and the hens knew they were edible.
This is still all kinds of bad. I've written about this before on the blog but I'll refresh new readers briefly. If chickens ever find out that the eggs they lay are edible, you are done. They can't unlearn it. When one hen learns it she teachers the others, or more like models to the others. Hens are greedy curious little beasts and they are always, always checking out what everyone else is eating. They can tell when one hen has gotten hold of a particular goodie and follow her to get some of their own. When I was chasing the hen to get the soft egg shell out of her beak, two other hens were also chasing her to get the same thing.
This is one of the many reasons why it's important to collect eggs every day especially if you have a lot of hens. The eggs pile up and it's easier for a hen to step on an egg, break it open with her toe and then it's hmmmm what's this...?
Once the learn their egg is food, they eat their own eggs and each other's eggs. It can't be unlearned or conditioned out. Then you have chickens and no eggs.
It's called getting peckish. I have had a peckish hen in the past as I noticed the remains of the egg in the nest box. Then Dad and I try to separate the hens to try to ascertain the peckish hen before it spreads throughout the flock.
Now all the chickens knew eggs were food...BUT my only saving grace was the eggs were IN THE PEN when pretty hen laid them. I hadn't seen any evidence of broken eggs in the nest box so the soft shell was a recent development. Chickens are so smart...and so dumb. As long as the egg wasn't discovered in the nest box they might not make the connection.
I called Dad, desperate. We had to get pretty hen out of the pen in isolation as soon as possible. I went up to the house to get a face mask since I wouldn't be able to social distance from Dad to do this. He came down and brought a cat carrier. I gave the hens more chicken treat to keep them out from underfoot and then Bless her, pretty hen roosted first as she always does making it so much easier to snatch her and bundle her off to the infirmary. I got oyster shell the next day to supplement everyone's feed. Oyster shell is a calcium source to help them keep their egg shells hard. I didn't think they needed it because their food is supplemented with extra calcium and the girls are so young. But to be fair, they have been laying all winter. Dad monitored pretty hen for a few days. No more soft shell eggs and she came back a couple nights later. The flock accepted her back just fine. But this did get me thinking. I have 6 young and healthy hens...but mishaps happen. Eggs break in bodies, sometimes they just get sick. It is hard to find full grown young laying hens in the best of times but now with eggs out at the store sometimes or 4 dollars a dozen...and the hens turning one year old this spring got me thinking that maybe we should have an egg insurance policy around here...
In other news, on last Thursday I decided to try something new, making bread from scratch. No bread machine, or even the Kitchen Aide dough hook. I used this recipe given to me from a friend.
It makes two loaves and is delicious. I don't have any pictures besides the finished product because I used this activity to make a video for the kids at the library. I hate spending my time on cooking that may not work out, which is why pie dough and roll out cookies intimidate me. I want results for my time! I can see where after getting used to making bread, a person can time it like second nature and do things in between the times that require action. I mean, I did that too, but I still felt like bread making was the centerpiece of the day. I could see after practice though getting into a rhythm of knowing just how much time could be devoted to certain chores in between time.
I did have to bake the loaves separately because the difference between a glass and metal pan requires a significant temperature change for the oven.
I would like to try this recipe again with the Kitchen aide dough hook to see if it saves some time.
This bread was delicious. Probably the 2/3 cup of sugar, har har.
Anyway readers, if I can make this, you can too. I'm serious.
Wow this has been a text heavy blog. I better throw in some pet pictures, but before I do, let me share one more thing for those who like supporting local artists.
If you like coloring books for adults, or are thinking now is the time to explore this hobby, let me recommend a truly unique book by a central Ohio artist.
Maria is a dear friend and is a quintuple threat when it comes to art. She paints, she draws, the makes jewelry and she crochets. She's also my green thumb friend who despairs in how I lack a lot of common sense when it comes to plants. But she still gives me plants anyway.
I do feel a twinge about suggesting buying a non essential item from Amazon but I think this is the only way you can get the book if you want to try it.
You can also find sample pages at the link.
And now an encore presentation of Tutu.
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