Winterizing: No Chicken Sweaters Needed Here.

As a novice keeper of chickens, I rely heavily on the large community of chicken owners to figure out how to best care for my ladies. There are a lot of different opinions on how to keep chickens healthy and comfortable through the winter. After reading a lot of info online, talking to other chicken owners and trial and error, I think I’ve figured out what works for my ladies.

To start, I was fortunate enough to build a very solid chicken coop the summer of 2017 with my Uncle Jerry who is a fantastic builder. I went through a lot of graph paper designing it and once the structure was built, my Dad and I built out the interior. As Pluckingham Palace came together, we had air flow, light, and security top of mind. In the Pacific Northwest, it doesn’t get that cold. This morning it was 28 degrees F, but most days it’s above freezing. Last year, temperatures dipped into the teens a few times, but the coop never dropped below freezing. The coop is not heated and there is no insulation. In the summer we open both chicken doors (as well as two windows), but in the winter we only open the one chicken door that opens up to their covered run. In addition we put plexiglass on both chicken doors to keep the drafts out.

Last winter when we knew the temperatures were going to dip pretty low, I’d drape a moving blanket over their nesting boxes at night. They are spoiled… I let them sleep in their boxes because they like that better than the roost.

We call their old coop (my starter coop) the Chicken Club House. The ladies like to hang out in there during the day when they are not foraging in the grass and garden. This year we made some major “weatherizing” improvements to the Club House. First of all, we raised it up about 8 inches with rock and a wooden platform; it used to be on the ground. Then to keep the rain and wind out we did a few things. We put plexiglas over the wire to keep out the rain and drafts. The plexiglas is not so fitted as to prevent some airflow. We also cut open a new little access under the nesting boxes so we could keep the large door in front closed. Lastly we added a piece of plywood and a homemade gutter to divert the rain away from the inside of the Club House.

This fall has been pretty dry. Next week it’s supposed to start raining so we’ll get to see how all our improvements work, then fine tune what doesn’t.

The End of an Era

In late August, Noodles started moulting and with that moult came all the strange behaviors… becoming a loner, less interest in food, etc. Then one day she didn’t want to leave the coop. Like Stella, I tried canned corn, yogurt, treats, but nothing interested her. She seemed depressed. Two days later she passed away.

Noodles was around 7 years old. We don’t know her exact age because she was part of the original four chickens that we took in after their owners decided to cull them because they weren’t laying. Noodles, a Buff Orpington, was the largest but not always the leader. At first, Plucky, a small silkie (and inspiration for Pluckingham Palace) was the flock leader. It wasn’t until Plucky’s death that Noodles took over as Queen.

Noodles death is a big loss. She exuded quiet confidence among the other chickens but to us humans she was very sweet. A beautiful bird, I wrote about her in a previous post called The Standard of Perfection. I will miss the quiet conversations we would have while I worked in the garden and her sweet little voice.

Noodles was the last of the four original chickens at Pluckingham and losing her marks an end of an era. The three remaining chickens, Claudette, Hedy and Gabby, are all young and seemingly rudderless. None of them have stepped up to the leadership position yet. None have the grace and confidence of Noodles.

RIP, Noodles. You are missed.

Landscaping for The Ladies

Last summer when we built the new coop, Pluckingham Palace, the ladies spent most of their time foraging in a small temporary fenced area under an apple tree. What was a weedy, patchy grass lawn ended up a clay dirt biological desert... they absolutely destroyed everything except the apple tree. In the winter, it gets puddles of standing water and in the summer it's a dry barren waste land.

And I don't blame the chickens... it was too small an area for four curious chickens. And they deserve better. So this last week I set out to landscape their yard. My husband and I built a porch frame for the club house (the old coop) and placed it on top of 6 inches of rock. Then my Dad and I brought in a couple loads of dirt and sod. Never mind it's going to be 90+ degrees all week! I'm told if I keep the new sod wet, it should establish fine... I guess we'll see. 

I also read many online forums and "Free-Range Chicken Gardens" by Jessi Bloom to learn about what plants I can plant in the chicken yard (I should really call it something more special or regal, like the Royal Courtyard). I transplanted a rose and lavender that weren't doing so well in their current locations and bought a few "scratch and dent" plants from the sale table at Fred Meyer. JoAnne gave me a hollowed out log complete with a conk, so I planted that with a lemon verbena which will likely outgrow the log container, but it looks good for now. 

 I'm pretty happy with the results, as are the ladies.

My plans going forward... I found a solar fountain pump for $11 on Amazon. I'm going to order that and put it in the bird bath. I also need to find something to hang from a cool garden hook I found in my shed that is now in the Royal Courtyard. Lastly, on the other side of the fence is the garden. My plan is to overhaul the garden before next spring to make a nice sitting area to enjoy the garden and watch the ladies. The work is never done here, but I'm really enjoying it and I hope bringing some joy to my chickens and others that think I'm nuts for spoiling them. 

Noodles - The Standard of Perfection

Noodles is a big beautiful Buff Orpington. She really is a very pretty chicken, to my eye at least. It seems her golden feathers always lay just right and her bum feathers always fluffy and clean. Her comb is bright red. When I first picked Noodles up after I took her in (soup pot rescue), I was amazed at how heavy she was. I guess I assumed she'd be light because of all the feathers. But there's a lot of bird under those feathers!

My husband and I watched a funny documentary last year called "Chicken People." I highly recommend it. The film follows a handful of people as they prepare and compete in the chicken show of all chicken shows! What I learned in the film is that there are very specific characteristics of each chicken breed/variety that define "The Standard of Perfection" - what each of these hobby competitors is after. So my husband I joke that Noodles our Standard of Perfection. 

I've always loved animals, but never did I think I'd be a nutty "chicken person." But here I am. No, I'll never be a breeder of show chickens, but I have grown my awareness and appreciation of chickens as pets. Like dogs and cats, each one has their own personality and quirks. Each one is loved and part of our family.

My relationship with Noodles has evolved in the last couple years. She's like a trustworthy girlfriend. As I weed the flowerbeds, she follows me and gets very close to my head and says, "Bur, bur, burp... burp, bur." And I answer back, telling her whatever is on my mind and she kindly acts interested and carries on our conversation, "Bur, bur..."

Noodles is a benevolent Queen, she generously shares treats with the princess chickies, but will put them in their place if they get out of line. At 6 or 7 years old, her laying days are long gone, hence the reason the previous owners were getting rid of her. Knowing Noodles like I do now, the thought of giving her up is inconceivable - she's amazing in her own right and we love her.

Miss Stella, 2012-2018

Today we said good-bye to Stella who passed away peacefully in her condo at around 1:00 pm. She was a good chicken and will be missed.

Miss Stella came to us in March 2016, one of four hens that we took in to spare them from getting the ax - the previous owner said they had stopped laying. Since we took over guardianship of Stella, she walked less and less. Last May the vet examined her and concluded that Stella had something neurological going on, maybe a tumor that was affecting her ability to walk and balance herself. The vet said it didn't look like she was suffering, but that Stella would not be long for this world. At that time, Stella would scoot around using her wings to balance. 

We started feeding Stella separately, making sure she had fresh water, food and treats all within her limited reach. We built her a condo on top of the nesting boxes so she could stay inside during cold or rainy weather but still see outside. We moved her down to the lower bunk every night so she could sleep with her longtime buddy, Noodles. We put her outside to soak up the warm rays of the sun when the weather was nice. When her mobility worsened, I learned how to bath her in warm water to clean her little chicken bum and to trim her beak and toenails as they grew long without a way to wear them down naturally.

Stella was a fighter. The vet didn't think she'd last a month, but she survived almost a year. She'd even lay eggs on occasion - brown and very oblong. She had the cutest little coo and would talk to us often - maybe she was thanking us for trying to make her as comfortable as possible. During the last several days as my Dad held water to her beak and I tried to coax her to eat corn, yogurt and cat food, her eyes would shut - we knew she was getting tired, maybe she was ready to pass on.

Stella, we love you and will miss you. I hope you are scratching around in a huge garden with your sisters, Plucky and Puff.

Sheep Maintenance

Yesterday was a good day, unless you were a sheep in our neighborhood. Because yesterday was the annual shearing at our wonderful neighbor's place a half mile up the road. We bring our three sheep, Knuckles, Spot and Wooly, up to be sheared and have their hooves trimmed along with Georgia and Patty's 24 sheep and another neighbor's two. 

I've been to this annual Sheep "Spa" Day three times now and it's unlike any other experience I've had. It's a little like what I imagine a barn raising to be... a large gathering of people, friends and family, from near and far brought together to get a job done, then a lot of eating (potluck style) and visiting. It's a fun day, but not for the sheep who are clearly not happy about being man-handled and striped of their wool. Speaking of man handling, the Australian-trained shearer, Elizabeth, is the most able sheep wrangler I've ever met! She handles the littlest to the largest as if she is a sheep whisperer.

After the annual shearing, it's always funny to see how our three sheep respond. They seem to not recognize each other without their heavy winter coats. They approach each other with caution or sometimes a bit of aggressive head butting. In a few days, they seem to remember each other again. 

Wooly is our one sheep that does not get sheared because he is a hair sheep - his wool sheds naturally as the weather warms. The birds love it for nests and during the spring we often see little birds perched on his butt, thieving his wool... but Wooly doesn't seem to mind at all.

The Royal Watchers

When my husband and I started thinking about building a new chicken coop, we visited our friends who were in the middle of having a new coop and run built. When we saw it, my husband said, "That's the Taj Mahal of chicken coops!" And he was pretty accurate... what they were having built was nothing like I had ever seen - a huge and beautifully artistic structure just for their chickens.

So then we had to come up with a name and "Pluckingham Palace" came almost instantly as we thought about famous grand homes and our dear little Plucky. Since then, our tongue-in-cheek royals theme has been embraced by our neighbors and friends. Just as Buckingham Palace and its residents have inspired "Royal Watchers" around the world, our chicken princesses have inspired their own fans.

At our chicken coop "house warming" two of our neighbors presented us with an egg collecting bag custom designed with four chickens wearing tiaras! We've also been gifted with cookies shaped like chickens, a book about the building of Pluckingham and just last week a new sign, "Pluckingham Lane."  Our neighbor, Joanne, is the main instigator of this fun which keeps us giggling. Joanne is one of my favorite people on Earth - she is a role model in every way, is just amazingly capable with an ax (for firewood, not chickens!) and a gardener extraordinaire - her veggie garden in full production should be in Sunset magazine.

I know she conspires with her brother, John, who lives clear across the country. The two siblings feed off each other in terms of silly Pluckingham ideas and I love it! I think there might even be a song in the making... 

"High on the mountain and tell me what do you see
Hen tracks, hen tracks looking back at me."

I'm blessed to have wonderful neighbors, like Joanne who sees the good in people and the fun in Pluckingham, and shares the joy she finds in daily life. 

Beautiful and smart!

This is Miss Hedy, named for the one and only Hedy Lamarr. If you've never heard of Hedy Lamarr, Google her name and be ready to be amazed - I won't do her justice here in this chicken blog. Hedy Lamarr was an talented actress in the 40's AND a brilliant inventor who is credited with developing the technology that is currently used in Bluetooth. 

Hedy the chicken is an Easter-egger who lays green eggs. She came to us as a pullet with Claudette in May 2017. Like Hedy Lamarr, my Hedy is pretty clever... she is always a step ahead of the other chickens in figuring out how to find the treats. In the morning after I've let them out of the coop to forage, Hedy will often come right back in to the coop while I'm cleaning. She knows there is a bowl of treats located up high above the nesting boxes that I keep for Stella, my chicken that can't walk very well (that's a whole other blog post yet to be written). In this photo, she is craning her neck up trying to figure out a way to get to that bowl. I think the other chickens think it's too much work and don't even bother.

Hedy is low in the pecking order, but that seems to have only motivated her to be more crafty. I like that about her, beauty and brains all in one chicken! 

Claudette... no shrinking violet!

When we added two hens to our flock last spring, we went round and round about what to name them. My husband, Rob, wanted to name them Makita and DeWalt after power tools. I wanted to name them after badass women. I won... imagine that! So, Claudette is named after Claudette Colvin, an African American woman who was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat up in Montgomery, Alabama nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested for the same act of "civil disobedience."  

In naming my chicken after a badass woman like Claudette Colvin, I was intending to pay homage to this courageous woman. While the civil rights era was before my time, I like to think that my Claudette taps into the same vein of courageous spirit that Ms. Colvin did all those years ago. Claudette, the hen, is afraid of nothing! She's the first one in front of the camera and she will NOT be ignored. The loudest in my flock, Claudette will peck anyone within her reach until she is acknowledged. 

I thoroughly enjoy all the different personalities in the flock. Claudette is definitely a big personality, and ready to take over as Queen when Noodles is ready to relinquish the crown.

Snowfall at The Palace...

A couple days ago, I told the ladies that I was afraid the weather was going to get worse before it gets better. Sure enough, the nighttime temperatures in Olympia have fallen to the mid-20s, but the girls are doing well. Claudette, Heddy and Gabby sleep together on the top bunk, while the old matriarchs, Noodles and Stella, share the bottom bunk. 

The bunks are actually their nesting boxes. They have a roost, but they all prefer to sleep in their nesting boxes. I've read on many websites and forums that this is a "no-no" but I don't have the heart to close off the nesting boxes at night. I just clean the boxes up every morning. Easy-peasy. 

Pluckingham Palace was completed in October 2017, so this is the ladies first winter in deluxe accomodations. While temps have been in the 20s, I've never seen the thermometer in the coop dip below 36 degrees. Still, the last couple cold nights I've covered the opening of their nesting boxes with a moving blanket so they stay warmer. During the day, they don't seem to mind the cold... they "free range" in the fenced garden scratching through the dirt, grass and today the snow.