Monday, February 22, 2010

Sharing a Nesting Box

I wonder if two of our nesting boxes are too big, uncomfortable or close to the door to our chickens liking. When our chickens first started laying, they mostly used nesting box #3, but still used #1 and 2 a good amount. Now they practically never use #1 or 2, we probably only find one egg there every two days. Sometimes we we find twochickens in the same nesting box (always #3). Some of our chickens don't fill up all the room in one nesting box, but I think it must be pretty squishy when they share. They must really not like the other nesting boxes if they share so often. One reason why they like nesting box #3 more than the others may be because it is the farthest away from the door so no cold air comes in, and it not too big. Nesting box #2 is a bit bigger than the other too, and #1 is right next to the door, so neither of them are good. I sure hope that sharing nesting boxes isn't bad!
P.S. fuzzy chicks in 14 days!


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Snow, Eggs, Chicks and perching

About a week ago when it was supposed to snow a lot I tied up a tarp to the aviary so the snow wouldn't go in. It didn't snow and a couple days later took down the tarp. Today it snowed but since we hadn't put the tarp back up I was afraid all the snow would go through and the chickens wouldn't have any unsnowcovered ground. Luckily, the snow didn't cover all the ground so the chickens were fine.

Today, we also got a huge egg. I know we've gotten very big eggs before, but this one makes those look small. And it actually is twice the size of some of our eggs and it doesn't fit in the carton.(when we put it in the carton top can't close all the way.)

It used to be that Revena (our older chicken) would perch on one side of the roost and squeeze the other four onto the other half. Then we added another roost and she moved to that one,sleeping all alone. We hoped another chicken would join her so she wouldn't be cold in the winter. Finally Serene (one of the Black Sex Links) did.But now they seemed to have switched places again - Revena on the old roost and the other four (two Rhode Island Reds and two Black Sex Links) on the newer roost.

I am so exited because we are getting 5 Fuzzy Chicks in only 20 days!!!!