No Boys Allowed

Le coq,  el gallo, cockerel, Foghorn Leghorn or rooster.  Whatever you want to call them, roosters are not allowed in the City of Boulder.  Contrary to popular beliefs, you do NOT need a rooster in order to have cackle fresh eggs! When you buy chicks that are not sexed or hatch your own like we did, you take a gamble as to wether or not you will have a rooster on your hands.  All you can do is wait until they either crow or lay an egg, this usually happens around 5 months.

Lucky for me, the woman who we bought the classroom eggs from was willing to take back any of the chickens we didn't want, so we had a plan in case one of them turned out to be a rooster.  This summer I found myself spending lots of time just watching the chickens do their thing, I find it sort of hypnotic and very relaxing.  I watched all of their behaviors for tell tale signs of roosters.  Roosters tend to be dominate and aggressive.  Well, most of the classroom chickens seemed a little aggressive, I just figured they were sorting out the pecking order within the flock or dealing with PTSD from being born into a classroom with 23 not so quiet first graders.  Our flock was at 9 and we were really happy with this number figuring we would have plenty of eggs for the family and then some to give away to friends.

The crew of 9 on the roosting bars before bed

As the chickens grew I noticed Autumn seemed a lot bigger than the rest and he started getting a bushier tail and looked like a classic rooster with a huge red comb and cheek pouches; he looked a lot like Cornelius you know, the one on the Cornflakes box! Sure enough, he went from Autumn to Adam.  I figured I would wait until he started crowing just incase my assumption was wrong.  I had seen hens with combs and bushy tails so I was staying positive and not sending him to the farm quite yet. Chicken Little, Peep and Maybelle were starting to develop combs and cheek pouches and feather out much like Adam and I noticed them fighting with each other more often.  The OGs just seemed to steer clear and poor midnight was at the bottom of the pecking order hiding under the coop most of the time.

The boys, UGH!

Then, early one morning, I heard it; our first official rooster crow and wow is it loud and annoying! I jumped out of bed and ran to the coop as if I could tell him to shut his beak or something.  Sure Autumn ahem, Adam was crowing his little heart out.  Little did I know, roosters crow all day, this isn't like some cute farm movie where the rooster hops up on the top rail of the fence and crows a few times to wake the farmer as the sun is rising. No, this was constant crowing! So much so that we felt a bit sheepish making eye contact with the neighbors or even really anyone in the 'hood; who knew how far this crowing could travel! Time to go! While I was at it, I figured I may as well take the other 3 too.

This is Maybelle; gorgeous, for a rooster!

 I texted the farmer a picture and she confirmed that the 4 of them were, in fact, all boys.  Three days later, our flock went from 9 to 5. It was a scene from a movie watching us try and corral these skittish roosters into our dog crate so that I could transport them to the farm in Berthoud, Colorado.  Lots of squawking, flying feathers and assaults with beaks and wings.  Slightly bruised, I set out to return the boys to the farm.

The next morning, what did we hear?! More crowing! Shocked, I ran to the coop to see who it was this time and sure enough, there was Daisy crowing like a pro!  She was not on our original rooster suspect list because she did not have the telltale cheek pouches, comb or tail feathers, what was going on?! What now?! School was starting and neither of us had 3 hours to spare with another run to the farm.  Enter our good friend Craigslist.  We listed Daisy as a "free rooster, perfect for your flock or stew pot but needs a home immediately." That afternoon the quintessential backwoods farmer, complete with rubber wellies, straw hat and shirtless under his Carhartt overalls, came to get him.  There was no struggle as he entered the coop, grabbed Daisy, tucked him under his arm, introduced him to his dog, threw him into the back of his truck and drove away.Problem solved!

The flock is now down to a peaceful 4 and I think we are all OK with it for now.  They should start laying any day now....

Still Building

Baby chicks are supposed to live in their brooder for 5 weeks until they are fully feathered.  While they are in the brooder, you are supplying a heat source since they can't regulate their own temperatures without all of their feathers. The temperature needs to start at 100 degrees right out of incubation.  You decrease the temperature by 5 degrees each week. After about 5 weeks it should be between 70-75 in your brooder as well as outside so your chickens are ready to move to the coop!

I know I worried about them being too cold or too hot.  You can tell if your chicks are too cold because they will huddle together right under the lamp.  If they are too hot, they are spread out away from each other and the lamp.One night, I read that chickens can't sweat but they can pant, like a dog.  I actually saw Coco panting, her breath fogging up the farthest corner of the brooder! I quickly turned down the heat.  While I was doing this I did a quick calculation of my chicks' age and realized they were six weeks  old! It was time for the coop!  My guest room was full of dust and dander and they were getting huge, I was out of ideas for the next level of larger brooder.  Any longer and we were going to have a hen fight on our hands. We needed this coop finished ASAP!

The weather had cleared and we were recruiting helpers left and right. Everyone seemed to like the idea of a backyard chicken coop so they were more than willing to contribute a few hours of their time.  We supplied cold beer and promised fresh eggs as soon as the ladies started laying.

This project supervisor is quite a stickler!

In terms of finding a design for your coop, you can really just go with what works for you. A little sleuthing on the Web and you will find all sorts of ideas.  Converted out buildings, movable chicken tractors and shanty towns.  All of these coops have a few things in common:
Nesting boxes - you need one box for 2-3 hens.  They just need a little space to sneak off and lay their eggs in private.  The boxes should have some sort of bedding in them - straw or pine shavings work well. We decided to have our boxes accessible from the outside for easier egg gathering.   Our coop actually has 5 nesting boxes which means we could potentially have 15 chickens - YIKES! The boxes we used were already pre-made in Jenn and Lance's garage so rather than making more work, we just used them all.  Our coop does not have enough square footage for 15 chickens so we will just stick to 5 or 7 for a modest flock.

Space - each chicken needs at least 2 square feet of indoor space and 3-6 square feet in an outdoor run.  If your chickens will be free ranging around in the yard like ours, the outdoor space will not be a problem  Just make sure they have a safe place to go if they need to escape predators.
Roosting Bars -  chickens need to roost at night. They just need a bar, off the ground but not too high, for them to wrap their toes around and sleep.  We have 2, well 3 if you count the highest rafter in the roof which wasn't intended for a  roosting bar but works just fine for a certain suspect rooster. the roosting bars should be different heights.  When you go to tuck your chickens in at night, peek in to see who is where on your roosting bars.  This gives you an excellent glimpse into flock hierarchy   The hen who is at the bottom of the pecking order is usually on the lowest bar. The head of the flock gets the highest roost.
Ventilation-  A chicken coop needs to be well ventilated but not drafty.  Ventilation is necessary to keep the stink factor at a minimum and to decrease respiratory illnesses from wet and/or composting poops. We have 2 windows that can close to give the coop cross ventilation and lots of fresh.  Be sure to put in a screen (we stapled chicken wire) of some sort to keep the predators out.
Shelter -  chickens need to stay warm and dry and be protected from too much sun, wind and weather.  Our chickens can go in and out as they please and they can go under the coop for shade and dust baths.
Cleaning -  It is up to you to decide the best way to clean your coop.  Some people install a tray as the floor that can be pulled out, hosed off and slid back in.  We decided to install a door big enough for us to reach in with a long broom and sweep everything out into the compost bin.  Again, the design is up to you.

The roof !

Welcome The Savvy Hen!

I am going to take a break from getting you all up to speed on chicken life here in Boulder and talk about something exciting, a new store! I know, I know, how do I have time to shop with 9 chickens in the coop and a 2 year old?! It's not exactly shopping, more like quick browsing while the 2 year old is entertained by her father outside the shop. This does not happen often at all.  Many restaurants will open up, be on my radar and then shut their doors before we have even had a chance to pop in.  This was not going to be the case with the new chicken store in town.  I had to see it, right away!

The Savvy Hen opened about 2 weeks ago at 1908 Pearl on the east end of the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. I was hoping to find a weather vane or "fresh eggs" sign for our coop but I struck out. Perhaps I should give them a chance to build their inventory, after all, they haven't even been open 2 weeks! Or I could check Jenn and Lance's garage again.

Inside the store

My favorite thing in this adorable shop is the stainless steel buckets containing the "build your own chicken feed buffet bar!" Wow! what an awesome idea! This is the place to tailor your feed to your chickens' likes and needs. They even have grit, scratch and oyster shells. Since they haven't started laying, our chickens are not quite ready for oyster shells; but I was already stressing about having to leave the "Boulder bubble" and drive to Longmont to pick some up.  Boulderites, you know what I mean.

In addition to this buffet bar, they have heaps of books about everything from container gardening, cooking, homesteading, heirlooms, and making your own cheese! They sell organic potting soil, garden tools and heirloom seeds as well as potted succulents and some cute "gifty" chickens, ducks and home decor. This is also the place to find local, handmade candles and artisan body care items.  They also have bee keeping products, bird houses and custom made chicken coops. It looks like they may also offer classes in the store.

The Savvy Hen is stocked with everything an urban farmer in Boulder will need!  I am so excited they are here and that I can throw my baby in the bike trailer and hit the chicken feed buffet bar! Maybe, while I am at it, I can peruse the bee keeping section; hmmm, our own honey from the back yard, tempting, very tempting!

A roof over their heads

My husband and I planned to make an "eco" chicken coop out of completely salvaged or recycled materials we found at our local resource yard, so easy, no problem.  We wanted to keep costs low and the environmental impact to a minimum.

We searched in a few books and on the Web for the perfect coop plan for us. Turns out we would have to create our own, a few ideas from here, a few from here and voila! Home sweet home! If you are planning on building your own coop be sure to read these tips before you get started.  We really had to keep tip #1 in mind!

        Most of our materials actually came from cleaning out our friend's garage.  This garage was the Jackpot! Where else could you find heaps of power tools, a roll of chicken wire,multiple 4x6s, a plethora of 2x4s, tar paper, wooden pallets, and a metal rooster? We also found an eager helper, full of ideas, who made house calls! We were on our way, this will just take a weekend, we can work while the baby naps.....

Lance and his ideas on a house call!

City slickers. Ears covered for nail gun!

My sister and her kids were coming to town for their spring break.  I was excited for the opportunity to expose these city slickers to power tools, fresh air and baby chicks. Little did I know, a classic Colorado, freak, 2 foot, spring snow storm was also in store for them! Chicken coop completion set back #1.  What progress we had made with Lance the weekend before, came to a screeching halt when the snow rolled in! 

Meanwhile, in room 105.....

I am a first grade teacher. WAIT! before you mouse over and hit the unsubscribe button ,let me assure you that this is NOT a teaching blog.  You will not be wowed by my clip art skills and use of fancy fonts, nor will you find 1,000 uses for paper towel tubes and glitter to help kids read at grade level. Not my thing.

I thought the first grade students (4 sections) would enjoy incubating some eggs.  It was a nice tie-in with our life cycles unit and hopefully I would end up with some chickens for our coop and my students would have a real-life hands on experience. I found a woman on craigslist.com who had eggs for sale and was willing to take the chickens back if I was going to have too many in my coop.

This is where the eggs came from

The incubator was an antique I tell ya but at least it had an automatic turner so this teacher could stay home on the weekends with her baby and not worry about regulating temperature and rotating eggs every few hours. School on the weekends, not my thing.

The temperature inside an incubator needs to stay at a steady 100 degrees and the humidity needs to stay at 98 degrees.  The incubator has a wet and dry thermometer which our students were very diligent in checking every hour. I was made aware of even the slightest variance in temperature. Here in very dry Colorado the humidity was the biggest worry, with this class of 23 mama hens constantly doting on this incubator I knew we were not going to have any problems.
The incubator was in my classroom but the other 3 classes came over to spend time with the eggs and write in their chicken journals.

There are many life lessons to be learned from incubating and hopefully hatching eggs.  I was learning right along with my class and this was totally my thing. First off, the old saying "don't count your chickens before they hatch," wow, is this ever important! My class was already coming up with a list of 12 names for our new borns. They were discussing paint colors and picking out curtains for the nursery and the eggs hadn't even been with us a whole day! I didn't want them to get their hopes up so I told the class to pretend we were not going to be successful at all so that we would be pleasantly surprised if we had one hatch.  One of my students raises her hand and says "Mrs. J, what about staying positive? My mom always tells me to be positive, so let's pretend only one is going to hatch, that better than none." Wow! talk about learning from your students. Alright there you have it, class, we will hope that one will hatch and be thankful if we get more than that.

Everyday my students wrote in their egg journals documenting changes in the growing embryos inside the egg through candling and posters I found online with a "peek inside." We discussed chicken facts and chicken lingo such as pecking order, ruffle your feathers, and calling someone a chicken.  This was a fantastic, community building experience with the grade level. It's amazing to see behavior issues fall by the wayside when your entire class is engaged. This was easily the highlight of everyone's day and so far, it was just  a bunch of eggs in a bubble.

Fast forward 21 days and you have a classroom full of 23 expectant mothers. "Mrs. J, today is our due date, where are our chicks?" Another lesson about things growing at their own pace and babies coming when they are ready.  Go ask your mothers if you were an on time baby. That night our first chick hatched! We arrived the next morning to see a black little fuzz ball in the incubator.  How exciting! Then we noticed a chip in another egg and there went my plans for the day! We set up the document camera so everyone could watch the miracle of birth on the big screen.  The other first grade sections piled into the classroom and we just watch and cheered this little lady (hopefully) on as she chipped and wiggled her way out of the shell.  WOW!
After all was said and done, we ended up with 6 chicks and it took 3 days for them all to hatch.
Turns out first graders aren't any better at naming chicks than 2 year olds. Each section got to name a chick and the other 2 were named by our literacy specialists. While we were voting, I had to discreetly throw out Blackie, Baby, Little Lady and Honky. You can't make this stuff up, I swear!  One child told me "I have chickens at home and my favorite one is Pecker." Seriously parents, Pecker?! Not in my classroom or coop. We came up with Autumn, Chicken Little, Peeps, Maybell, Daisy and Midnight.

A Few Baby Pictures

The crew

fresh hatch

Proud Parents

It was going to be a wild last 2 months of school with 6 baby chickens in the room.  I'll let you know how it turned out!

What's in a name?

Now that we had our 4 little fuzz balls, it was time to name them.  I asked R which one was her favorite, she responded "yellow." I figured we would start there.  Asking an almost 2 year old to name something is a pretty comical event.  "R, what would you like to name her?" I asked.  "Daddy!" she eagerly responds.  I just couldn't bear to have to possibly tell her "Daddy was killed by a fox last night." The next name on her list was,  Mommy, not shocking! Finally, I asked her who she loved at school and she said "Abby." This is a person at R's school who she is always talking about yet we have never seen or met and her teachers act confused when we ask about Abby - possible imaginary friend? Abby it is! Our first chick has a name.

Abby now has green eyes and is the namesake for this Blog

My niece and nephew were coming to town in a few days so I left the other 3 for them to name. They named the other 3 in 5 minutes flat.  "This one is Coco because she is brown!" One chimed in.  The other said " how 'bout Happy 'cause of the feathers on her feet?" OK, great! the last chick was the bravest one who was already trying to fly so they named her Amelia after Amelia Earhart. So, now we have it, our first four chickens have names, they are officially pets! From here on out they are referred to as the "OGs" or Original Gals since we will be getting more chicks soon.

Chicken namers building the chicken ramp for the coop

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a chicken?!

Rules, Rules, Rules

G and I decided we wanted to try our hand at raising backyard chickens.  We love the idea of cackle fresh eggs right from the coop and we are always  open to trying new things. Plus, chickens are cute and it would be fun for R to grow up with them.  We had heard that chickens were OK in the City of Boulder but we decided to follow the rules and check the City of Boulder laws and ordinances.                                    

 According to backyard chickens, the first rule of raising chickens is " be sure you have a place for them to live" before you get your chicks.  Well, we broke that rule. We were so excited to get started on our chick raising adventure that the first day of my spring break, my daughter and I headed to Murdoch's, our local feed store, to pick up some day old chicks.



Another rule is to get more chicks than you think you need because something always happens. My plan was to get 2 and we left with 4 - how could I resist those little peeps and all that fuzz! The idea was to have a colorful egg basket so we got a Buff Orphington, a Cuckoo Maran, an Easter Egger and a Light Brahama.  These chicks were textbook - fuzzy, tiny and oh, so adorable! also, homeless. Their first home was a fish tank with a heat lamp and pine shavings which is fine for the first 2 weeks.  We were unaware that they grew so fast! This perfectly cozy fish tank became close quarters much sooner than we expected. Still no coop!