The Daily Inspection and Chicken Help

These photos were taken mid-September 2008, making our girls 4-months old. At this time everyone started laying eggs, except Zahn. She waited another couple weeks; though her personality changed from ultra friendly to peckish. On the other hand, Chianna changed from very skittish to the most entertaining of them all.








Aeryn (inside the coop) and Chianna are inspecting the new hay placed inside the mini coop. Anything new, different, or simply changed becomes a chicken's focal point. This little fact makes chickens very attentive "helpers" when you are doing chores.





Zahn here is helping Jayne bring in a fresh flake of hay. Jayne is eyeing Zahn nervously because Zahn, during this time period, began feeling the urge to lay eggs; consequently, she began pecking....quite hard I have to admit! Up until her hormones kicked in, Zahn was the most friendly bird of our mini flock.

All four chickens are inspecting Jayne's handiwork and her water-changing capabilities. Moya and Chianna are inspecting the water's freshness directly.













Aeryn is making sure that I place and fluff the new hay "just right".

Chicken Coop Construction

After putting the small coop kit together, we added a floor made from 3/4" plywood and stilts cut from cleared saplings cut from our property. We thought the raising of the structure would mimic more closely a chicken's desire to be up high at night, and it would keep them safer from predators. We also added latches to all openings.

We added a ladder cut from a scrap 2x4, plywood, and 1x2's.




After we created the small coop, which we think of as their "bedroom", we put up an enclosure which is approximately 8 feet tall and began constructing another coop building. This second coop building will enclose the small coop, thereby providing added protection from the elements as well as a space in which the chickens can scratch and move about during winter months and inclement weather. The small coop is referred to as the "bedroom" because this is where our girls like to lay their eggs and sleep at night. Also, since it is now the end of February, it has helped protect our chickens from the wintery elements (20s, 30s below zero) as it is a smaller space it is more efficient at trapping body heat and heat from the ceramic heater. [The small coop is approximately 4' x 4' square]. The larger, outer coop is 8' x 14', and, yes, it is fully enclosed.

Sex Link Chickens

These are our four little girls at one-month old. The scraggly one closest to us with the white is Moya, to her left is Zahn, behind her, the other black bird is Chianna, and the red one in the background is Aeryn. Yes, they are the Farscape Foursome. Moya and Aeryn are red-sex links. In our case, they are a cross between a Rhode Island red hen and a white leghorn rooster. (I've noticed that many hatcheries sell and advertise this hybrid as simply a "hybrid" or comets....some are crosses of other breeds, such as Delawares). The black chickens are black-sex links. This is a cross between a Barred Rock hen and a Rhode Island red rooster. Apparently, the black-sex link is very popular in Scotland. If you are unsure as to what the term, "sex link" means, it is quite simple: at birth the gender of the chicks can be obtained by the color of the down. For example, with the red-sex link, the pullet (future hen) is red while the cockeral is white.

We chose the black- and red-sex links because they came highly recommended at the feed store. Our principle concerns were that we wanted friendly chickens, good layers, and birds that were cold tolerant. These birds are now nine-months old and are friendly, fantastic layers (averaging 5 eggs per bird per week), and do very well in our northern New Hampshire winter (we've been 20s and 30s below zero for days at a time).