Baracka Figures It Out

Posted on April 7, 2009 by jkmcintyre


After discovering the eggs under the porch last week, I feverishly read BackYardChickens for advice about how to get our chicken to lay her eggs in the nest box. First I thought: I built the boxes wrong. So I read a hundred posts on nest boxes and no two were alike (ground-level vs. raised; dim vs. bright; indoor vs. out; roost vs. ramp; from dresser drawers or milk crates lying on the ground to fancy colourful built-ins up next to a roost).

Basically, people felt that chickens will lay anywhere – that they feel like. In general they’re looking for somewhere safe and secluded. Like, say, under the front steps where you spend a lot of time with your pals. Well, we’d made that dark corner unavailable to them, but our yard is full of many dim cozy nesty spots.

Many people wrote that the only way to get your chicken to lay in the coop (if not the nest box) is to lock them in. Cruel? Perhaps. JennsPeeps wrote: “It’s soooooo hard to deny them when they’re pacing and running their beaks along the wire like little prisoners with tin cups.”

And that’s how it was. I locked the chickens in the coop/run for 1.5 days until Baracka laid another egg. They weren’t happy about it. On the second day I peeked into the coop at 11am and saw an egg deposited beside the ramp up to the nest boxes. I hoped that was enough and released my prisoners.

Next day is Saturday and when I check there is a beautiful clean egg in the middle of a nest box! Yay! Sunday we are reclined in the yard recovering from Scott’s birthday party when we realize Baracka isn’t with the other girls out in the yard. I peek in and she’s sitting in a nest! Half an hour later a triumphant crow announces the arrival, then she runs out to her flock and it’s grass, bugs, and dust baths the rest of the afternoon.

Monday I worked outside so I could keep an eye on them. I had the growing realization that eggs 6 days a week meant, not that some days she doesn’t feel like it, but that her egg cycle is longer than 24h. 11am on Saturday, 1:30pm on Sunday, I was guessing another egg would be laid later Monday afternoon. But where?? I was looking for solitary behaviour. Starting about 2:30 Baracka begins wandering off on her own. I was on to her. She poked around some bushes next to the coop, a small overhang by the house, and repeated visits to the coop and the now-blocked-off crawlspace under the front steps. Eventually she settled on the coop – disappearing for half an hour and laying an egg about 3:30. Yay!!

Now for the two late bloomers…

Posted in chickens, eggs, nest boxes | 5 Comments

The First Egg!

Posted on April 1, 2009 by jkmcintyre

Of course it should happen that on April 1st, the coldest most miserable day this spring, I discover that Baracka has been laying eggs in a remote corner under the front porch. I’d looked in there a few days ago when Mike suggested they might be checking it out as a laying spot, but it was too dark and cornery to see anything.

It was pouring rain and sleet and snow all morning so I didn’t let the birds out until 3pm today. I also kinda hoped it would encourage someone to lay an egg. After letting them out, petting Baracka and pushing on Rocky’s back (she literally asked for it), I headed back inside and noticed Baracka was not with the other two out in the yard.

I became suspicious and headed back outside. Sure enough she’s under the porch. And she won’t budge. Scott gets her out and we reach into the dark awkward corner to find a total of 3 eggs on really old dirt, random scrap metal, and cat poop. Eew. We block the access to the porch, put the eggs in the nest box, put Baracka in the coop. She checks out the eggs, but uses the open nest box door as an escape route. After I put her back in the coop I discover a fourth egg on the soft ground outside the nest box. It is warm. I’m thinking I pushed it out of her as I caught her escaping. She is not interested in the nest box and is frantic, so we let her outside. What can we do?

Rocky and Greta still squat for us (aka ‘assume the position’) so I’m thinking that means they have yet to lay eggs since Baracka stopped doing this 4-5 days ago, just about when she would have laid that first egg. So now we have an egg-laying hen, but how do we get her to lay in the nest box?!

Posted in baby chickens, eggs, nest boxes | 6 Comments

Spring in Seattle!

Posted on March 23, 2009 by jkmcintyre


It no longer freezes at night, buds are swelling on our trees, and our chicken Baracka wants to mate. Spring has arrived. For my part, I frantically plant seeds that my books tell me I could have planted last month, some outdoors, some in. Two weeks ago I planted tomato seeds from 2008 in egg cartons in the kitchen windows. I also started other longer season crops like onions, peppers, and eggplant (yes, I may be dreaming).


A week later the tomato seeds started germinating and I delight in logging the number of new sprouts to track germination rate. ‘Cause I’m like that.


Although enchanted by my tomato plantlets, the coolest result of the germination experiment was the various kinds of fungi speckling the surface of my soil after some very hot humid days under plastic.


Outdoors, Scott cut down the sad eucalyptus, which was irrevocably damaged by the unusually cold weather this winter. It reveals a startlingly unpleasant view of our neighbours’ house but we’ll plant a new tree and continue work on our composting fence (click on photo to see fence in more detail).


Finally, a chicken story. Of course. Baracka has started squatting for us. I had heard of this, but had not understood. It means she is ‘assuming the position’, as though we were roosters. When we reach down to pet her, she squats, bracing with her little feet, sticks her shoulders out, and raises her tail. We pet her and after a couple of seconds evolution tells her the deed is done. She stands up, puffing her feathers to twice her size. If her feedback circuits tell her it was particularly good, she swishes her tail back and forth as she walks away. Fascinating! And hopefully leading soon to eggs!

If I can get a photo of her doing it, I’ll post it here. Cheers!

Posted in DIY, geek, Scientific, starting seeds, tomatoes | 1 Comment

Fences that disappear

Posted on February 17, 2009 by jkmcintyre


Trim, layer, trim, layer. That’s the sound of us filling our composting fence.

It took us about 45 min to dig hole, plant post, pack gravel, then string the wire mesh. Subsequently, we fill the fence at our leisure.

Drag over the pile of branches from the Japanese maple, break them down, drop them in. Trim the pine, layer the lovely needled limbs. Cut back the hedge, drop it in. Layer on layer to the top.

Next!


Baracka sunning herself…


P.S. Our fence was recently featured on Digginfood.com, with much nicer photos I must compliment!

UPDATE 9/1/2010:

People occasionally ask ‘How fareth the composting fence?’ (well, usually in more commonspeak). A photo and some words:


The colours have obviously faded, but we still like how it looks and continue to receive compliments from passersby. We’ve added perhaps 2′ of material to the fence since it’s first filling 1.5 years ago. We do NOT have compost pouring out the bottom of the fence. For one, we used a lot of large diameter materials (i.e. branches) that will not decompose any time soon. For another, although tall, the fence is only 6″ deep, which will tend to dry out. Dryness does not lend itself well to decomposition.

In summary, it is a nice fence (visual barrier of the ugliness beyond), it continues to provide a repository for random prunings of shrubs, but does not produce copious amounts of compost. If you’re looking to built a fence and have material to fill it with, build this fence. If you’re looking for a constant supply of compost, build bins.

READ the 2011 update and more about composting fences here.

Posted in compost bins, composting fence, DIY, Sustainability, update | 9 Comments