I kind of hated to get rid of him, but it was time. Our neighbors have never complained about the crowing; but I never complain about all the barking dogs in the area, and that doesn’t mean they never annoy me. I’d keep the birds in the coop until 8 or so every morning to muffle his early morning crowing, but that cut down on the amount of time they got to be outside catching bugs and stuff. Also, it seemed like he was getting more aggressive with the hens when I’d first let them out. Either he didn’t have enough hens to satisfy his roosterly needs, or being cooped up too long in the morning was making him crazy. He also attacked me (my foot, actually) the last couple times he got out, which didn’t bother me, but I did worry that he might end up attacking a neighbor’s foot.

In any case, it seemed like the best thing was to give him to someone who needed him more than we did. We put an ad in the paper for a free rooster and got about 10 calls, but it wasn’t until the fifth one that we got someone who wanted him and then showed up to get him. The hens seemed like they were looking around for him this morning, but I might have just been imagining that.

In other backyard chicken news, they’re still doing great. They’ve been steady producers of 4-5 eggs per day since they picked back up in February, and they look healthy as can be. Since the yard is still recovering from last year, I’m trying something a little different that we read about in a magazine, called “composting chickens.” The idea is that you throw all the stuff you’d throw into a compost bin into your chicken pen, and let them stir through it and break it down.

So far, it seems to be working great. We’re throwing all our plant waste and some grass clippings in there, along with straw and anything else they might like, and they just keep eating what they want and digging around in it and stirring it up. It also keeps the soil moist underneath, so they can dig down through it and catch worms and grubs that come up to the surface. It’s like a compost pile that stirs itself and makes eggs on the side.

Our yard is low in that area anyway, so if they can add a couple inches of nice compost to it, that’s great. I’ll let them do that, then move them to a new spot and seed down the old spot with grass, and keep moving them to spots that could use more soil.

Two other families we know are raising their first chickens this year, so interest is growing. There’s some work and a learning curve involved; but they’re fun, and they pay for themselves pretty well too.

So, now that I’m rolling the chicken house to a new spot every day, I got to that part of the yard today, and thought I’d put their pen around it so they could play in the leaves.  They went right to work, scratching through the leaves looking for bugs and other goodies.  I think they found lots to eat, and they can stir up the leaves better than I can with a pitchfork, which should help them break down faster.  And they rewarded us with a full 7-egg day!  (Although I should probably remember that correlation does not imply causation).

Chickens on Leaves and Grass

Scratching Through the Leaves

They also got fresh bedding in their house today, but I didn’t take a picture of that.  Now that they’re fully grown and laying, and spending more time inside because they days are shorter, the house has to be cleaned out more often.  It all goes in the compost bin, so none of it goes to waste.  We’re using chopped corn cobs for bedding, and it works very well.  It doesn’t pack down as easily as straw does, so it’s easier to scoop out and get rid of.

Tomorrow morning I’ll put more air in the tires (it turns out 20-plus-year-old bike tires leak slowly) and start moving them back down the other side of the yard.

First I put 4-inch dolly wheels on one end and a handle on the other end, figuring I could roll it on those.  They’re small enough that they get stuck in ruts, though, and it’s still awfully heavy to lift most of the weight that way.  So I thought of getting some old bicycle wheels and mounting them on a rod that goes through the house, so they could take more of the weight.

I picked up one old kid-sized bike, and then discovered that the two axles weren’t the same size.  So I found another old bike the same size, so I’d have two wheels that would fit on the same size rod.  Then I picked up a threaded rod long enough to reach through the building and nuts and washers for both ends.  I drilled holes at the right height to hold the building a few inches off the ground, and attached 2x4s across those holes on the inside with glue and screws for extra strength, then drilled the holes on through the 2x4s.  I hammered a couple bushings bigger than the rod into the holes, put the rod through, and fastened the wheels on either side with nuts and lock washers.

Once I got the tires aired up (I was amazed they held air, as old as they are), it worked great.  The other end weighs about 40 pounds, so it’s pretty easy to lift and push around.   Now I’ll be able to move it every day, and get it into parts of the yard the chickens haven’t been able to work on yet.

One Wheel

I still have to cut off the extra length on the threaded rod.

The Other Wheel

The Handle

This is the handle I use to move it.  In the lower left you can see one of the first wheels I tried, that were just too small.

Mobile House and Pen

And here they are on fresh green grass, after I moved their pen this morning!

Here’s that day’s haul:

First Seven-Egg Day

You can see that the green eggs aren’t exactly green like a colored Easter egg, but they’re still pretty cool.  The brown one next to the green one was huge; it didn’t even really fit in the carton.  It turned out to be another double-yolker.  We’ve gotten several of those, but they’ll cut back on that as they mature.  We actually got seven eggs three days in a row, but since then we’ve been getting 5-6, which should be normal.  They’re getting bigger too, so I don’t need six for breakfast like I did at first.

After five months of feeding and watering them, keeping them warm at first, building their chicken house, and chasing them back in when they jump over the fence, it’s pretty cool to be putting our own eggs in the fridge every day.

On the economic side, the chicks cost us about $20, and their feed costs about $20/month.  The big cost was the chicken house, heat lamp, feeders and waterers, fence, and other equipment, which probably comes to $250 or so.  But we’ll be able to reuse that stuff, so let’s depreciate it over a fairly short period of 4 years, or $60/year.  So to buy, feed, and house 8 birds for 17 months (to get 12 months of full egg production) should cost a rough estimate of $450.

On the plus side of the ledger, each hen should lay about 270 eggs in that year (the Leghorn should be closer to 300), for a total of 1890 eggs, or 157 dozen.  The most expensive eggs in the grocery store are the brown, organic eggs, and they’re on a vegetarian diet, which isn’t ideal.  It’s okay for birds, unlike mammals, to eat grain, but they should also get bugs and worms and stuff.  So our eggs are better than those: almost definitely better in Omega-3 fatty acids and a number of other factors.  But even if we only consider our eggs worth $3/dozen, that means we should get $472 worth in the next year.

So we’ll be ahead cost-wise, without even taking into account the superior quality of the eggs, or the fact that 1/8 of our feed is going to a non-egg-laying rooster.  And if our chicken house and equipment lasts longer than four years, which it should, we’re even further ahead.  I wouldn’t mind if this was costing us a little—most hobbies do—but it’s nice to be having fun and eating well while saving money in the bargain.

Last Monday, I heard a different sort of clucking coming from the chicken house.  I went to see if they were being attacked by weasels or something, and all I found was the Leghorn walking around inside.  The weird part was that she didn’t run out as soon as I opened the door.  I thought for a second that maybe she was looking for a place to nest, but I wasn’t expecting eggs for a few weeks yet, so I shrugged it off.

A few hours later, I went and looked again, and sure enough, there was an egg lying in the bedding.  A white one, so I knew it came from the Leghorn.

It's a little dirty, but sure looks good after months of waiting!

Uh oh, I wasn’t quite ready yet.  So I hustled out to the hardware store and got a few things I needed to build their nesting boxes.  I had already pretty much figured out in my head how I would do it, so it didn’t take long.  I fastened it up against one wall, and built a door that hinges down so we can collect the eggs from the outside without disturbing them.  A roost sticks out in front, so they can jump up on that and then step into the boxes.

The nest boxes from the inside.

This door swings down to give us access to the nest boxes.

The nest boxes from the outside -- one egg waiting!

While I was at it, I built a four-section feeder from some scrap plywood.  In the picture below, it’s holding (left to right) oyster shell, which they need for calcium; kelp meal, which has a lot of nutritious stuff; and grit, which they use to chew their food in their gizzards.

Holds up to four different things for them to feed on.

Since then, the Leghorn has laid almost one egg a day, and we’ve gotten a few brown ones too.  I’m pretty sure the Buff Orpington is laying, and I think the Australorp may be too.  They’re the other two I’ve seen sitting in the boxes, anyway.   I know it’s at least two of them, because we got two brown eggs in the same day, and one was pinker than the other.  That one in the picture made it an even dozen.

The first dozen.

The eggs they lay in the first month are called “pullet eggs,” and they’re pretty small, but I figured it was time to eat some.  I started cracking some into a bowl to make an omelette.  The second one was a double-yolker!  That’s when an egg has two yolks.  Identical twins, I guess.  That can happen anytime, but it’s more common when the chickens are first laying and working out the details.

On the left are two yolks from one egg.

And here’s the completed 6-egg omelette!  (I figure that’s about equivalent to 3-4 normal-sized eggs.)  It was delicious.  Having chickens in the backyard is even cooler than I thought it’d be.

Six eggs in a two-layer omelette with some cheese.