Eggs for last of March (3/27 - 3/31): 33I'm happy to report that the incidents of missing and half-eaten chicks has stopped with the dispatching of the second possum. Last weekend I added another measure to frustrate would-be predators, but mostly I did it to control chicken movement: I surrounded the tack room with a five foot high length of chicken wire.
Eggs for March, 2005: 181
Eggs for first of April (4/1 - 4/2): 18
Eggs (year to date): 572
You see, the White Rock has become absolutely psychotic, being on the bottom of the pecking order as it is, and being constantly put-upon by the roosters. It had taken to hanging out in the tack room all day with one of the older reds. Besides their unpleasant little messes, they managed to scatter most of a bale of straw that was to go into the coop, and they had taken to laying eggs in the tack room doorway.
Naturally, putting up the wire took care of that problem. Now apparently these two chooks were also inviting their friends to tea parties in the tack room, because no sooner had I gotten the wire up across one stretch of fence than a couple of the Wyandottes showed up and clucked their disapproval at what had happened to keep them out of their little chicken paradise. I half-expected the chickens to try to run into the tack room and hit the fence, but when they walked up and saw the new wire strung up, they understood right away what the implications were. At least, as much as a chicken is capable of understanding, anyway.
Another nice thing about this fence is that it has cut down on the consumption of cat food. Besides Cleo, the chickens were helping themselves to it... as was the remaining volunteer cat... as were the possums before they decided that chicks were fresher and more appetizing.
In other news, while installing the chicken wire, I learned a few interesting things about chicken reproduction. It is officially spring, after all, and love... well, lust... was in the air, and I had all sorts of reproductive activity going on around me on Saturday - but I'll spare the details in the interests of keeping this a family friendly venue.
Also, the while Silkie/Cochin cross - which my wife named Handsome because of his obvious good looks - also became a rooster in the last week or so. No, he hasn't crowed since he made that scraping noise back in the nursery (that I've heard anyway), but he has taken a definite interest in the Silkie/Cochin hens that share the yard with him. And yesterday he was squaring off against one of the Silver Laced Wyandottes, which makes me wonder if she was fending off his affections.
I have been talking about building a chicken tractor for my summer project, but now I'm thinking about building a broody house instead. It would give me a haven to take broody hens and their eggs, as well as a place to raise purchased chicks without losing any space in the chicken coop. I think I have a plan for it. There is a lot of appropriate scrap lumber around. All I need is a good location.
Finally, the professor who teaches the HTML class I'm taking announced the requirements for our final web page projects. Mine is definitely going to be a re-design of this site - and I already know what it's going to look like graphic-wise. There will be a handful of new content pages added, the existing ones will get the new look, and... I will probably move this page from Blogspot hosting onto my current web host. I'll keep you, uh, posted.
