Trouble at the Hen House May 4, 2009

We have had quite a Monday. I am extremely sad to report that the pigeon eggs are gone. I can’t remember if I told you that they laid another egg, but they did. They were there this morning, but now they are both gone, and there is just a little wet spot in the basket. I think maybe a squirrel got in the coop. We don’t have chicken wire around it, just dog fencing, and squirrels can get in there easily. I am very upset.

My Mom began building a new smaller coop and run out of a dresser and pallet. It is not done yet, but it’s wrapped with 1″ hex wire that is better for coops. I think we are going to put the pigeons in that coop with the bantam (mini) chickens, and that should hopefully keep the squirrel out. I hope they lay eggs again soon.

Also, we came home from picking up one of my sisters, and one of the chickens was loose. This happened yesterday, too, but today our new dog was outside when they got loose and he was messing with them. He is only a puppy, but he’s big and hurts the birds when he tries to play with them. We found an area of the chain link fence at the bottom that was torn open and unwoven. My Dad thinks maybe the raccoon came back, but it might have come apart when my parents were moving the coop. Anyway, my Mom put it back together pretty good and put rocks in all of the areas where it’s a little loose at the bottom. Hopefully that will keep everyone where they belong!

The new coop is smaller and shorter. We are going to paint it white to make it look better, and my Mom is going to landscape around it and put planters all over the roof of their house. We’re also going to rearrange some things in the big chicken run soon, and hopefully it will give the birds a little more space.

I can’t believe my pigeons eggs are gone. We didn’t even get to get a picture of them, because we still haven’t found our camera card or bought a new one.

We have robin eggs in a nest in the front yard, but no one has seen a bird sitting on them.

More Pigeon Updates May 3, 2009

We went back to Canton Friday, and I bought another pair of pigeons. One is a high flyer, and the other is half high flyer and half fantail. I don’t know much about them yet, but they are both black and white and very pretty.  We also got some new chickens, and someone gave my sister some free chicks.

When we were putting the pigeons and new chickens in the run, my Mom noticed that there was another egg in the fantail pigeon’s box.  That blog I read on pigeons (it’s in the comments somewhere) says that they will lay 2 eggs one day apart, and that’s exactly what they did.

My parents were doing a bunch of work in the backyard today, and they let the pigeons out to roam free while they worked. They left the door to the run wide open, and the new pigeons didn’t fly out. I think once they’re used to their new home and more relaxed, I might take them out to fly and see if they return home each time.

THEY LAID AN EGG!!!!!! April 30, 2009

My Mom went out to the run to feed the chickens this afternoon, and she found a small white egg in the box where the pigeons sometimes hang out. It is smaller than the bantam chicken eggs, and anyway, their eggs are always blue. Nobody was sitting on the egg when my Mom found it, but when I went out to peek, one of the pigeons was on it. The other one was walking around on the shelf above their box.

I read a lot about this, and I think they will lay another egg tomorrow or very soon. I hope they are fertile eggs, and I think we will try to candle them in a few days.

To candle an egg, you hold the egg up in a bright light to see if there is a developing chick inside. If it’s a fertile egg, you’ll see the silhouette of the embryonic chick through the shell since the shells are kind of translucent.

We are going back to Canton tomorrow. My Mom owes me money, and I might get something else while I’m there. Maybe another pair of pigeons or a cool chicken. I want a duck, but my Mom says no. I would like a pair of tumblers or rollers (pigeons), but I don’t know if I’ll have enough money for them. I will try to talk someone into selling me a pair, though.

My Mom wants me to figure out how to get the pigeons paying for themselves. We have to buy them some grain to eat, and she wants me to earn enough money with the pigeons to at least cover the cost of their food. I am going to ask my friends if they would like to have a pet pigeon. Maybe I’ll get another breeding pair of Fantails so I can match a boy with a girl and sell unrelated breeding pairs to my friends. My Mom thinks thinks not a lot of people will want to buy them, but we will see. The chickens are paying for themselves now that they are laying lots of eggs. They don’t lay many in winter, but we are selling them to a few friends for $3 per dozen now that we’re getting so many every day.

The other day my Mom scraped the poop out of the coop really well, and one of my sisters raked out the whole coop to get it cleaned up and ready for summer. There was a lot of hay in there, and mites can hide in it, so when it starts to get hot, we only want to have dirt in their run. They put a flattened cardboard box in the bottom of the chicken coop so it’ll be easier to keep clean. Every few weeks we can just throw out that box and replace it with another one.

We also want to box in the shelves where the pigeons live so they have more protection from the wind and rain and a larger area to hang out in.

We cannot find our camera card, but I will put pictures up as soon as I can.

We Moved the Coop and Run March 26, 2009

My parents moved the coop and run to the side of the backyard a few weeks ago.  We moved their box to the other side of the shelf so the north wind doesn’t hit them. When it’s cold they sleep in the box. But now that the weather is getting warmer, they like to sleep on top of the chicken coop. I never see them on the ground. When we bring the dogs inside and let the chickens roam around the whole backyard every evening, the pigeons never leave the run. They just stay on the shelf or the top of the coop and bump into each other. Remember, they can’t see in front of their big poofy chests. Whenever I pick one up or touch it, it tiptoes away or makes a weird cooing grunting sound.

When my cousins visited, I put one of the pigeons on my hand to show them, and the pigeon stayed there and was looking around but not really trying to get away. They are pretty tame and calm and seem happy in their little world.

I CAN’T WAIT FOR THEM TO HAVE BABIES!!!

I will take pictures of the different sized eggs when we get some little pigeon eggs one day. I think they will be smaller than even our smallest chicken’s eggs.

The Jupiter Dance March 5, 2009

I will try to figure out how to make a short video of Jupiter. He started cooing a lot this afternoon, and he is dancing around outside of their box, putting on a show for Aurora.

His tail is up even higher than usual, and he is really moving his neck back and forth a lot. Right now he has Aurora cornered and is staring at her like he’s madly in love.

He is also drinking a lot of water today, but it’s also very hot out today.

I think Jupiter is ready to mate with Aurora, and that’s what birds do in the spring. I have also noticed male wild pigeons dancing around lately.

There is a hole in one of our trees, and I have a way of climbing up near it. Yesterday I poked a stick into the hole, and an upset squirrel stuck its head out and really scared me. I think she might have babies inside of our tree.

A Tour of our Chicken Coop February 14, 2009

The Chicken Coop

A chicken coop is a little house where the chickens can go at night for safety and shelter. Chickens have a lot of predators. We have to keep the coop very clean, and every month we scrub it out with bleach water.

The Sandbox

Someone gave us our coop, but it didn’t look like this. It was green, and it opened from the roof. Three of the sides and the bottom were chicken wire, so the birds got cold in winter if we didn’t wrap it in plastic to keep the wind out.

We decided to put walls on each side except one and to raise the coop and build a sandbox underneath for the chickens. Chickens need sand for grit to help with digestion, and they like to roll around in it to keep their feathers clean. Mites can get in their feathers, so sand baths help keep the bugs out.

We didn’t have a chicken run, which is a fenced area where the chickens can roam outside of the coop, so we let them wander around our yard. The neighbors didn’t like that very much.

So our next step was to build a chain link dog kennel around the chicken coop. We also had to build a roof for the kennel out of wood and chicken wire. Hawks and possums and raccons cannot get in from the top now.

We also put some sheets of metal roofing over some areas of the chicken run. The house and nest boxes and feeder all stay dry, and the shelf where the pigeons live also stays dry.

There is some hay on the ground for winter. We have to rake out the run every month or so and add fresh hay. When it warms up, we will rake out the hay, and they will just have a dirt floor. We put the dirty hay into the compost heap or sometimes straight into the flower beds. It’s better to just have dirt in summer, because mites can hide in the hay.

The Feeder

You put food into the feeder from the top, and it gradually drops to the bottom where the chickens can eat it. As the chickens eat the food, more food drops down from the inside.

We feed our chickens a mix of 16% protein lay crumbles and hen scratch.

Lay crumbles are little pellets of food that have been broken into smaller pieces. One of our chickens is a bantam, which means she is a miniature-sized chicken. She cannot eat the big pellets, so we get the crumbles.

Hen scratch is a mix of grains, and the chickens love it. It doesn’t have as much nutrition as the crumbles, but when our birds roamed the backyard it didn’t really matter because they ate a lot of bugs and grass to stay healthy.

The Nest Boxes

Before we built the chicken run, the chickens had favorite spots around the yard where they would lay their eggs. We put an old picnic basket on the front of the coop, and some of them really liked to lay their eggs in there. Sometimes we couldn’t find their eggs, and weeks later we would find a whole bunch of them in a really good hiding spot. It was like Easter all the time!

Now that they are in the run, they need more places to nest because they were fighting over the picnic basket. We put the shelf up with baskets, but they don’t really like to lay their eggs there, and we have only found a few eggs on the shelves.

Our chickens are very happy now. They have plenty of places to nest, and they can stay dry and warm or get some sunshine in the open areas. The ones that really like to hop around can fly up to the perch in front of the nest boxes, get in and out of the open side of the coop, climb the ramp to the door in the front of the coop, take dust baths, and they can visit all of the shelves where the pigeons live.

The pigeons are adjusting to their new home, too. We see them on top of the chicken coop almost every day now. They have also started going to the bottom shelf to take baths in the chicken water!

They Can Fly! February 10, 2009

I have been watching the pigeons, and sometimes they fall off the shelf where they live. The chickens mess with them a little bit, and I am not always watching to put them back on the shelf. A few days ago I noticed that the chickens were pecking one of the pigeons on the ground. I went out to get it, and it flew up to the top of the chicken coop. The chicken coop is a little house inside the run where the chickens sleep at night. It’s about 5 feet tall.

I won’t worry as much about them living with the chickens now. They can’t fly like a regular bird, but they can get off the ground if necessary.

We are supposed to have strong storms tonight. I think they will be dry enough in their box under the metal roof of the chicken run. We might have to box in their shelf a little more on one side.

Keeping Aurora and Jupiter Warm February 2, 2009

You have to provide the right kind of shelter for any pet. Pigeons are no different, especially pigeons that can’t fly.

Roof over Pigeon Roost

There is a section of metal roof over the area of the chicken run where the pigeons live. That keeps rain and hail and sleet off of the shelves. We found the shelves by the trash bins behind a Lowes, and the manager said we could have them.

Pigeons cooing in their box

Last night it was cold and windy. The pigeons really didn’t have enough shelter from the wind. My Mom went out and put them in one of the chickens’ nest boxes for the night, but today we needed to make them a better shelter. We put a box on their shelf sideways, and we put a little clean hay inside. The pigeons hadn’t cooed since I brought them home, but as soon as they went into the box, they started cooing a lot. They are happy. Now they have protection from rain and the north and south winds. I hope the hen will lay her eggs in the box.

This morning we went to a feed store and asked what to feed the pigeons. We bought a 10-lb bag of pigeon food which is sort of like hen scratch, but it has more nutrition. They seemed happy when we gave them their food. Now they have food, water and shelter in their little area.

The Pigeons’ Home February 1, 2009

My pigeons live in the same coop with our chickens.

Buff Polish Hen

This is a young Buff Polish hen my Mom got in Canton yesterday. She is nice, and she is up there so the older chickens don’t peck at her. When you add new birds to a flock, the older birds have to figure out who is the boss all over again, and they peck at the newer birds for a few weeks.

Rhode Island Red Hen

We got two Rhode Island hens from a breeder at The State Fair of Texas. The breeder wanted one of our Delaware hens. These are young birds, too, but they are big, and this one has been picking on the new birds.

Pigeon Roost

The pigeons live on this shelf. They are new to the flock so we have to keep them away from the other birds. Since these are flightless birds they will live up here for the rest of their lives. If they were on the ground they could not fly away from the other birds if they started getting pecked, and if they were outside our run, they could be caught by a raccoon at night because they cannot see well or run away. They keep their heads set way back on their chests, so they really can’t even see where they are walking.

American Fantail Pigeons February 1, 2009

American Fantail Pigeons

These are my first two pigeons. They are called American Fantails. I don’t know much about them yet except that they hold their heads in weird positions, cannot see in front of them, walk on their tiptoes, and they cannot fly.

That’s right. They are flightless birds.