With about 40 pullets all coming to age out in our big barn, it was apparent by the stray egg or two from overachievers, that we needed some training nest boxes for all the girls.  The earliest they might start to lay is about now, the second week in January.  Being that it is cold and short days of sunlight, I expect it will probably be a few stragglers here and there and then by early spring, we should have many eggs!!!  We are looking forward to that because Maggie’s Egg Empire is always short on eggs!  Hence the reason that we bought all those girl chicks in the late summer to raise up.

 

Being a little short on funds lately and big on plans and make-dos, we devised a plan.  We had seen some of these neat nest box arrangements using kitty litter boxes and five gallon pails.  And since our friend Genna just gave us five more pickle buckets…  we were off and running!  I gave Maggie the basic idea and let her run with it.  She made a great little three pail starter nest box complex for the teenagers to start practicing with!

It’s super simple!   She drilled a couple holes into the sides of the three buckets and tie-wrapped them together in a row.  Then she took a couple scrap boards, from pallets I believe, and screwed them into the front part of the buckets.  This was to tip them back just slightly, so create a nice nesting area in the back of the bucket.  Then she took a few more scraps and made little perches right at the front of the bucket so the ladies had to sort of hop in and down into the nesting area.  We were going to cut the lids and use a partial lid but it made for too thin of a piece of material and we didn’t think that would work out very nicely for the gals.  The half inch thick wood is much nicer for them to perch on.

 

It took her about an hour, at the max and I think it turned out splendidly!  We took it out to the big barn and tucked it into a corner where Maggie can peek in and see if there are eggs without having to always go into their enclosure.  It was so funny to watch them explore and investigate this NEW THING in their part of the barn.  They all flocked around it right away, just softly clucking and talking among themselves.  You would swear they were discussing the pros and cons of the thing and probably trying to figure out JUST WHAT IT WAS…   After all, they are bird brains and teenagers, to boot!

Pretty quickly, one of the bolder white hens jumped up on top and then proclaimed to the others…  “It’s a new night perch!!!!”  Agh!  Hahaha….  of course, the others had to check it out and agreed.  Silly birds.   One of the pair of roo brothers came over and checked it out, poking his head inside and giving it his approval.  Then of course, the ladies had to get in and out and in and out and in and out…  it was funny to watch.

 

I’m sure they will get the hang of it eventually.  And Maggie might add two more to the top to make it sort of a double decker arrangement, but for now, they have something new to puzzle over and hopefully those nesting urges they have been feeling will have a nice place to take shape, even if they do smell a wee bit pickle-ish!

 

When we were watching this episode of Chicken TV, I had a chance to admire the two handsome roo boys that are masters of this flock.  Both are sons of Bucka Roo… this is FOR SURE….  One is a spitting image of him, just gorgeous and in his lovely prime.  The other is very similar, yet just a bit darker, showing a bit of perhaps his mother, Amanda, a black copper Marans.  The look alike we call Buckatoo….  and the other is Darth Bucka, for his dark coloring.  There are two other boys that came from our friend Kelly’s hen’s hatching of our eggs from this spring, and they are taking up residence in the poultry barn in my Marans coop.   Right now the two boys have a pair of pullets to keep them company but I hope to add some more Marans to that flock in the spring.  One of the bird boys in there is named Dammartin and the other Cunalt, nice French names!  Dammartin is actually the spitting image of his father, Dammartin the 1st, a lovely feather shanked black copper Marans that I had gotten but unfortunately, choaked on some pine shavings.  (Chickens are not really the smartest thing on the farm… let me tell you!)  I hope that his son is just a wee bit smarter and will carry on his handsome genes and not his intellectual prowess!  Cunalt looks like a half brother to Silver, with the barre rock/Marans breeding…   very pretty boy for sure!

I sure do love my roosters.  They are just such beautiful and stunning birds!  I wish we could keep a bunch more, but as it is, we have a dozen and they are all spread out nicely, each in pairs for different groups.  (Well, the free range flock has four roosters, with Bucka Roo and his first son, Copper, as the main roos…  and Blue Louie and Thing One, as second lieutenants who know to stay outta the way.  It seems to work out pretty well.  I know that Bucka Roo will not be with us forever, he’s already a mature bird and we’ve had him for two years now.  I’ve heard that some chickens can live to 10 years old!  That would be wonderful to see him strutting around the place for another 5 or 6 years!  He’s in good health and smart, I wouldn’t be surprised if he can do it.  In the meanwhile, it’s so splendid to have wonderful sons of his to keep the bloodlines going.

 

A nice day despite the whole internet mess.  Which is slowly resolving… we found our new dream provider today and have been checking them out throughly.  Nothing but good referrals and they are a local company…   Meta-link.net   Serving this area of Ohio and a little into Michigan.  Unlimited service, great prices, good customer service so far.  I’d love to just rush and sign up, but we have to get to some sort of finality and plan with Hughes.net first.  I was just too upset to continue with the whole experience after two hours of diagnostic mess and then they disconnected me when transferring me to their billing/account department.  I think I just needed a little time to cool down, think it all though, do some research on how to get out of this mess and come up with a game plan.  Thank you for all your suggestions, comments and emails.  It means a lot to me!!!

 

 

 

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