Feeding - how much is enough?

Not sure how much to feed our girls, I looked it up.  The UCDavis site (http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/feedingchickens.pdf) says 1.8 - 2.4 lbs/week for layers, which comes to about 1/4 - 3/8 lb./day.  Two of those pink cupfuls, well rounded, would come to 1 1/2 lbs, or the minimum for 6 girls for a day.  Make it 3 not-soo-full cups and it would be about the maximum.  Better check my math - I make mistakes more often than not.

That's just the formal feed, not the green treats or bugs.  Not sure how that would impact the feed, but I did read that popcorn (Orion's favorite treat) is just that:  a treat, like dessert, not intended to replace "real" food.

In addition to  noodles, rice, leftover cooked cereal, and of course greens (give 'em some of that vetch growing between the peaches!) they LOVE dairy, which is apparently OK for them:  yogurt, cheese, milk.  Soak dry stuff like bread in milk to make it even better and better for their digestion, I hear.

Other research results or informal discoveries of what they like?

West Run

As of this moment, Guenevere (the Head Chicken), Marie Antoinette, Mimi and Lulu are enjoying the bugs and salsify in the far end of the new West Run.  (Betty Bob and Martha Muffin would have nothing to do with being caught after they saw their four sisters disappear.)  Paul (and helpers?) will be finishing the rest of the run so that there's a gate and a place for the coop to be attached.  Until then, the girls have to go back to the East Run for the night.

vote for chicken dominance!

Don't forget to vote for your favorite MC chicken!  On the right sidebar.  Just for fun; no chickens will be given preferential treatment as a result of this poll.  xox

The spreadsheet documenting chicken project contributions and expenditures is here:  CHICKEN MONIES IN AND OUT.  Anyone who feels the urge to give a donation, Paul, Holly, Lis and Jane are accepting cash.  If you want to give a check, please make it out to one of us - we'll magically turn it into cash!  Thanks!

Tatum's Delivery Service

MC Eggs are now being delivered by kids! Another one of our Chicken-Team hopes and dreams, realized. Thanks to Tatum Day, Jessie & Jadon, who delivered eggs (with gentle guidance from Brie) to ten households this weekend!  That's right, there were over 30 eggs awaiting delivery on Sunday. The girls are on fire! If your child wants in on the action, please email myself, Paul, Holly or Jane, and we will help make it so.

I paid a night-visit to the girls a few days ago.  The weather is warm again, and Lulu has resumed sleeping on her outside perch (the knobby knee of that wild rose bush, close to the human door).  It never fails to amuse me how early the chickens settle in for the night.  The sky is still pale blue.

Things you might find if you visit the chickens:
- a hanging bunch of collards (chicken toy! but I think I'm more into it than the chickens)
- a crust of bread in the nesting box (not sure who did this... a chicken? or a pint-sized admirer?)
- also in the nesting box-- more eggs than you'd expect (I collected 8 in one day last week)
- jumping jehoshaphat! Mimi will leap for snacks! Hold a piece of popcorn in your hand and be brave!  Thanks to Janis & Joel for noticing this untapped reservoir of entertainment.

xox lis

Martha and Lulu, sittin' in a tree...

This weekend was strikingly warm, and I was cuted-out to find Martha Muffin and Lulu snuggled into the north-east corner together, in the dirt.  They did not want to move, even for my tasty carrot tops!  Chickens in love.  Nothing beats that.  xox

blue report

Our chickens, I swear, are the sprightliest and happiest in all of Davis.  An email from H earlier in the week:
"just took some snax to the ladies & found a blue egg right spang in the middle of the run near the water!  crazy chix."


And this morning, yet another blue egg, by the human-door and the water.  I actually love the freelance laying of eggs any old place... but I found another blue in the roost.  It was far larger in size.  Do we have two blue-laying birds? 


Egg count: 3 today, 1 blue stray
Deliveries: on hold, for Brunch on Monday
Notes: Their water still needs to be jiggled/poured out a little each day.  I've found it works best when not locked into position... man, that thing gets dir-ty.  

When I went out this morning, Guenevere was in my back yard!  She politely followed me to the coop and was pretty easy to catch; a neighborhood cat slunk away.  Clearly Gwyn had had quite a fine time and managed to avoid harm.  There was lots of poop on top of the coop roof (smart - it's too slippery for cats) and I found several dust bath-type indentations in the new mulch.  I did a better job of blocking the space under the wire, so hopefully that'll take care of it.  Hopefully no damage was done to nearby gardens - at least my peas seemed unharmed.

OK, those photos settle it!  Marie Antoinette has a bit of black in her tail feathers; Betty Bob does not.

I asked for a Muir Commons Chicken Blog, and Lis did it!  Thanks, Lis!

I was thinking of sharing MC stories - maybe not just about chickens, but they were my inspiration.  Not-quite-two-year-old grandson Orion LOVES those girls.  He has taken to chanting "Grammy, Grandpa Ray, chickens" over and over, trying to get his folks to bring him over.  He calls each chicken by name, and when he's listing people he loves, he includes "I love Lulu, I love Mimi, I love Martha Muffin, I love Betty Bob...."

The other day we went inside the chicken coop (much to his dad's dismay when he saw the bottoms of Orion's shoes).  We hugged chickens (gently).  Lulu seemed especially blase about it.  Over and over, he'd look at me with wonder and delight and say "in the chicken coop!"

Yesterday he was into looking for eggs.  We found one in the nest and he carefully with both hands carried it home to show Grandpa Ray.  Then we scrambled it and he ate it.  This was the first time he'd made the connection that you can both gather and eat those eggs!  At first he'd thought they were for the chickens to eat.  Later in the afternoon we repeated the whole routine - I guess he got his protein for the day while enjoying 2/3 of my next egg allotment.

Jane

check your doorstep

Because, sadly, I can be relied on *only* to forget to email when I've delivered eggs to your door.  Our current system of delivering eggs to MCers is thus:  we keep a list of everyone who's said they want eggs, and we do three-egg deliveries to those households whenever we have multiples of three to deliver.  We write the date of deliveries on our little list as we go, and that is what determines who gets the next delivery (whoever has a farthest-in-the-past date).  It works.

Today I found Lulu in the coop, and it was nice to have eyewitness proof that she lays.  I believe she's the one who lays (quite reliably) the blue eggs, and there she was!  The other girls don't seem to bother her quite so much these days-- I spied her and Marie Antoinette eating without quarrel from the same pile of old oatmeal, veggie scraps and rinds.

Egg count: 3
Deliveries: our house, Curtiss', Lynn & Chuck's.
Notes:  Only one five-egg day this week.  Three seems to be the new five.
BTW:  The girls!  Check their names and pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollysdays/sets/72157627881372746/with/6239434990/

frozen eggs

Lulu held her own today!  I tossed the girls some cinnamon toast leftovers (thank you, Laurensons)... Lulu grabbed a small chunk and, without looking back, trotted steadily off to the far end of the run.  Not one of the other girls followed her; they seemed content to peck on what I'd left by the water.  

Here's the Chicken Conundrum of the Day: Do eggs freeze?  There were icicles dripping from trees on Tuesday morning.  Should we worry about the eggs we move to the southeast compartment?  The deliveries I made today contained eggs that overnighted there, during the freeze. 

Egg Count: 3

Deliveries: Ann, Bill/Kate, the Bocks

Notes:  Mimi seems to be brooding.  I tried to budge her, but she kept going back to sit on those wood shavings this morning.  Holly found her that way yesterday, sitting on three eggs.

Lis

p.s. This is the inaugural post!  Let me know what you think, Chicken Committee, and please CHANGE ANYTHING YOU SEE FIT, including the header, photo, blog description, etc.  This is a group blog.