You Can't Make This Stuff Up...

Happy New Year's Eve! Both Kyle and I look forward to this day every year. This one however, will go down in history...

It started off as a normal day. As soon as the alarm went off, I sent my Kyle out to check for a new egg (it was his turn to feel the excitement I felt yesterday, plus it was a ploy to buy me a couple extra minutes in bed)! I am not a morning person. He came in telling me that Drama Queen Jolene was hanging out in the nesting box, but no egg. Deciding we'd check back later, we ate some breakfast, and took Big D out to the dog park for an hour.

We were both eager to check on the girls when we got home. Kyle went ahead and checked... and sure enough! There was another egg. We were both so excited! As he cleaned it off and placed it in the refrigerator I gave the girls some scratch and gently stroked their soft, soft feathers.

Since Kyle was home with me, I asked if he would help me place a zip tie loosely around one of Jolene's feet (so we could tell the difference between the two Buff Brahmas). I went into the barn to find a sturdy zip tie, when a gust of wind slammed the door shut, triggering the lock latch, thus locking me in the barn (there is no door handle on the inside of the barn door). Kyle (outside the barn) had a good laugh at my expense, and warned me never to let this happen again, showing me the correct way to secure the doors so this wouldn't ever happen again. He came in the barn to help me find a pair of scissors... when another gust of wind slammed the doors shut on both of us- locking us both inside the barn.

Pointing out the irony of our predicament, we both had a good laugh at the situation. Then it dawned on me that my three hens were free-ranging outside- alone (being the over-protective hen keeper that I am, and the fact that our neighborhood dogs are also "free range," leaving my little flock unattended is very frightening). I could hear them clucking and "BaGAOKing" happily outside... so I managed to keep my thoughts on the up and up, and stay positive. We did have chicken feed, and scratch mixed with dry oatmeal in the barn if we needed sustenance... so I wasn't worried.

Kyle thankfully had his cell phone. So while he turned into the bean-counter version of "MacGyver," I gleefully helped the situation by taking cell-phone photos of us. The brief photography session ended abruptly as I heard the dreaded beep-beep of the low-battery signal. Knowing this could really turn serious... we immediately called every neighbor we knew. We started with the neighbors closest to us... then worked out way down our road. After four calls and four, "we'll explain later" conversations, everyone seemed to be away. We had one more house on our list of neighbor friends, and thank the Lord he was home. He had a good laugh at us, as we did at ourselves!

We were locked in for a good 'bout of time, which wasn't too bad. It could have been much worse. But tonight we'll be ringing in the New Year outside the barn, and fixing the lock latch to avoid future less-humorous "catastrophes."

A Hen House Miracle!

Last night while getting ready for bed I was thinking, rather debating in my mind, whether hens could be sterile (yes, this was really last night, no joke). Is it possible that our three little hens could NEVER lay eggs and just live their lives as our little poultry pets? I mean, what do I know about my three backyard hens? Let's see... they're sweet, they have feathered feet, they're quiet, low maintenance, I found them on Craigslist, I know Brahma hens are said to be... errrr, "late bloomers," but seriously, 10 months and still no eggs! Is it possible the farmer sold me barren pullets? I was told earlier this month by a fellow, chicken-owning colleague that I would probably have to wait for eggs until spring. Since the days are shorter in the winter, they probably won't lay until March or April. So with that idea, and knowing she knows a lot more about raising backyard hens than I do... I went to bed somewhat indifferent.

This morning, after running some errands in town with Big D (Duncan, our dog), I went down to feed and check on the girls. I opened their run door to let them out and play, then opened the hutch door... when "lo and behold," there was a nice brown egg in their nesting box! I immediately dropped what I had was holding and ran to the house to grab my camera. It was such a surprise. FINALLY! I first called my grandma and grandpa (who helped me make the chicken coop, and had been asking about the first egg for months...), then called my mom and dad to share the good news! It just so happened my aunt and cousins were hanging out at the house with my folks, so everyone got to hear the surprise right away. I took a picture and texted my husband at work. Wow, talk about an adrenaline rush! I am excited to go to bed tonight, just to wake up and check for more eggs in the morning!



We began raising our small backyard flock because we wanted to know where our food comes from. We wanted to know these hens were treated with love and respect, not raised in a factory farm, never seeing the light of day. But these hens became more to us than just egg producers, they are in fact part of our diverse little family. We love them eggs or no eggs. We think of these small oval shaped presents as just that... little daily "thank you" surprises.

Yuletide Poo

Filtering the Yuletide poo using a simple screen
and an empty bucket.

What would be fitting for my first Three Backyard Hens blog post? It’s Christmas Day. Let’s talk about food, family, fun and of course presents! Well, my lovely three ladies left me thousands of little presents... in the form of droppings. Due to the busyness of the holidays, and busy fundraising at work I (admittedly) neglected the state of the girls’ run. So with Christmas Day off, I decided to accept their “gifts” with a smile on my face, and do a thorough chicken coop clean-up. Their run is only 4’ x 8’. It’s easily raked up in small piles.


Now me (being Dutch and very thrifty), I don’t like to toss out the sandbox sand that I purchased for a ‘whopping’ $4/bag. I filter the droppings. Yes... I admit it. I filter the droppings, separating the compost from the clean sand. This is kinda time consuming and dirty, but dang it, I’m saving money! 

For all you chicken owners who compost their flock’s droppings, this is a great way to keep your compost “clean.” Here’s how it works, I take a small bucket, put an old, used screen over the top and pile a couple  handfuls of droppings/sand. Then it’s just a couple “shimmies” and you’re there! Put the droppings/feathers left in the screen into a different, compost-bound bucket and let the clean, fine sand filter to the bottom of first bucket. Take the second bucket, full of droppings/feathers to the compost pile. Then just empty the fine, clean sand back into the run, and “VOILA” a couple dollars saved. You now have a “clean” compost pile, and an even cleaner chicken run!

The last thing you want is a boring chicken run. This is one of the lessons I learned early on. If chickens get bored, they could take over the world... they’re a lot smarter than many think. I recruited my husband to rake up some woodland leaves, full of North Carolina bugs and grubs, and we spread them in their freshly cleaned coop. The ladies love it. They had a regular Christmas party in the pile of leaves we left for them!

This isn’t the traditional way of spending Christmas afternoon, but I couldn’t have been happier! Ah, chickens the gifts that keep on giv... if they’d finally start laying eggs. I guess for now, the only ‘presents‘ they’ll be giving me are that of a well-stocked compost pile.