Say hello to the two newest girls in my family-- Snow White and Nelly. Snow and Nelly came to live with me last Friday night and both are getting along well with the other hens and tolerating my rooster, Gus.
Nelly is a Turken, also known as a naked neck chicken and Snow's heritage is unknown. That's my oldest hen, Elizabeth, behind them eating the apple core.They're still very timid and usually keep to themselves constantly peeping at each other in order to remain close together. I arranged the bicycles in such a way as to allow them to hide from Gus.

Both are about 3 months old, much smaller than my adult birds and about 3 months away from laying their first eggs.

Earlier this week, Elizabeth found her way into my garden and picked my largest tomato. It took me several days but I finally caught her in the act of breaking through the garden fence and closed the hole-- a slit in the plastic fence that I had previously never seen.

We have a bit of an understanding, he and I, seems no matter how hard we flap our wings we're both not good at flying.

Also, I added two very young hens (pullets) to the flock Friday night. One, a Turken (Naked Neck Chicken) named Nelly and the other a soft white bird of unknown breeding who I've yet to name. Both are doing just fine in their new home. 

Or Time To Clip Some Wings?

When I arrived home at about 5:30 today one of my neighbors came running up to me to tell me, "Your oldest child is on the loose and has been playing in the street all day."

As someone whose oldest and only known child is now 30 years old and stands about a foot taller than me it would concern me that my child spent the day playing in the street but considering his size and age I doubt I could do anything about it. "Huh?" I asked.

"Your rooster," she replied. "Your rooster has been outside all day. He flew over the fence."

I quickly walked around the outside of the fence only to find Gus in a neighbor's yard nervously pacing back and forth along the fence while Elizabeth paced back and forth matching his every move from inside the fence. It was then I realized that Elizabeth was in the garden and also out of bounds. Usually it's BB who goes where she's not allowed to go while Gus and Elizabeth call anxiously for her return. "Gus, what are you doing out here and Elizabeth, you know you're not supposed to be in the garden."

"We tried to open the gate but it's locked." my neighbor said.

"We thought about trying to catch him and put him back in," another neighbor added, "but we were afraid he might attack us."

"Believe me," I replied, "you'd never catch him in a million years but wait right here and I'll be right back.

I came back with a handful of cracked corn, allowed Gus to eat a few bites from my hands and then started walking backwards towards my gate. In a couple of minutes Gus was safe and I was able to turn my attention to the hen in the garden. I opened the garden gate and Elizabeth ran straight to where Gus and BB were already reunited.

The neighbors explained that Gus had spent the entire day pacing two sides of the fence searching for a way back inside and had never ventured away except for that one near miss with a car that came flying down the street far too quickly.

All is well now with the three of them sleeping side by side on what was once the roost Elizabeth kept to herself. I guess after a frightful day Elizabeth wants to keep her big stud rooster close by her side.

And just so you'll know, BB took a 3rd day off today. That, or she's found a new place to hide her eggs.

Or a chicken's day off.

Finally, after laying her very first egg 21 days ago and laying continuous for 20 days in a row, my little banty hen, BB, finally took today off. She's earned it as 20 eggs a month is common among free range chickens-- 20 eggs in 20 days is stellar.

Yes, commercial chicken farmers sometimes get production figures of almost an egg a day but their birds are artificially stimulated to lay more eggs and are usually laid out in just 2 years whereas backyard chicken farmers can expect a hen to lay for 5-8 years.

Fact is: it's simply not healthy for hens to lay too often as the making of egg shells requires calcium which is sometimes depleted from the hen's already fragile bones. I give my birds poultry lime to supplement their calcium needs but I don't try to stimulate egg production via any other means than simply making sure they have lots of protein in their foods.

I hope BB takes tomorrow off as well.

Speaking of fowl, did you hear about the Greensboro politician who...

Gus awoke me at about 6:00 this morning. He doesn't usually begin crowing until about 6:30 when the nice lady immediately behind my house starts her car to go to work but maybe that was Gus's way of warning me that things would be different today. It's also probably a good thing that I gave away a few eggs yesterday,

Elizabeth didn't lay today as she never works more than 6 days before taking a day off but BB laid an egg for the 19th day in a row. Her eggs may be smaller but she makes up for the smaller size with higher production.

I spent about an hour in the garden this morning tilling for the corn rows before leaving for most of the day so I don't know exactly when it started but when I went out tonight to close the door on the chicken ark it appeared that one hen was missing. As BB is solid black and always hard to see I almost didn't check but something told me I'd do well to squat down and crawl close enough to put my hand on all three birds. "Let's see, one chicken, two chickens and thr... Wait, there really are only two chickens... BB, where are you at?"

I'd been suspecting something like this for several days since I started training BB to use Elizabeth's nest by leaving one of BB's eggs in the nest along side one of Elizabeth's eggs but being new to raising chickens tonight was my first experience with a broody hen. You see, BB has decided that laying eggs isn't enough-- she wants to be a momma. "But BB, you're still a teenager!"

I walked over to the nest, squatted down and felt inside where I found a warm and wet mound of black feathers setting atop of 3 eggs-- two little brown eggs of her own and one of Elizabeth's blue-green eggs.

It was with squawking vocal protest that I picked BB up from the nest and set her inside the chicken tractor where the disgruntled little Bantam hen promptly sat flat on the ground and sulked. It's my guess she'll be in that same spot come morning.

I wonder if this means I'll have to give up on training her to nest with Elizabeth?

You know, I think I'm going to add a 3rd hen to Gus's concubines. 

Earlier today I noticed an unopened half gallon of ice cream setting on top of the freezer and thought it rather strange that it was on top and not inside. It was also completely thawed so not knowing how long it had been there I decided to see if ice cream was enjoyed by chickens.


click on picture to enlarge BB was the first to taste the ice cream going straight for the pecans, Elizabeth (the brown bird) decided to taste the melted cream and Gus watched from a foot or so away. Moments later as Gus plunged his entire head into the box of ice cream I went running for my camera. By the time I got back he was rubbing his face and beak on the ground but as you can tell by the white liquid all over his head, waddles, comb and beak he wasted no time diving back in.

In minutes they consumed half the box.

 Hopefully this will be the last time Gus, Elizabeth and BB are treated to ice cream but if by chance I give it to them again I'll be sure to have my camera at the ready.

First the bad news: Those of you who live in the United States will not be able to see Billy's chickens on The Discovery Channel. The good news is Canadians will get to see them on Canada's Discovery Channel. When, I don't yet know but life on Billy's farm goes on.

I've already got tomatoes setting on the vines-- see. The white powder is garden lime and not some toxic chemical.

This is Gus. He seemed to want to hog the camera while BB tried to avoid it and Elizabeth really wasn't concerned one way or the other.

Here's the three of them next to the garden fence. BB is the little black Bantam and Elizabeth is the brown Auracana who lays the blue-green eggs. If you live in or near Greensboro and need a cheap fence to contain your chickens you can buy used construction fence from Salvage America.

This is the nest Elizabeth and BB share. I leave one of BB's eggs in the nest as she tends to search for new places to lay if I don't remind her of where the nest is located. I draw little Xs and Os on one end of the egg so that I can keep from confusing today's egg and yesterday's egg. Eggs can easily remain in the nest for two or three days-- longer in winter-- before they must be harvested. Hopefully, soon I can wean BB of the need to remind her where to lay.

Below is my homemade chicken tractor, aka, chicken ark. It never gets very messy because I move it about the yard and rake up the chicken poop so that I can use it in the garden. I open it every morning when the sun comes up to allow them free range and close it at night to keep them safe from the scary things that only come out at night. The yard is well fenced but that won't stop hungry owls, opossums and raccoons. Having chickens provides me with better eggs than I can buy in the grocery store, organic fertilizer for my vegetables, a reason to get up early in the morning and countless hours of therapy.

 

On Monday, while Lisa Belanger of The Discovery Channel Canada was visiting she noticed the rainwater harvesting system I built for the garden, my chickens and someday hope to supply water to my planned backyard fish farm. I went on to explain to her how my grandparents depended on rainwater harvesting for all their water needs 50 years ago as none of the wells where they lived had water that wasn't polluted by the mining of coal and its runoff that existed where they then lived in Wise County, Virginia. Later, when Grandpa built a new house high on the hill above the coal mines he used a mountain spring for water.

Most homes in the Bahamas have rainwater harvesting systems. So do many desert homes around the world.

Today I find the rainwater harvesting system Ole Ersson installed on his home in Portland, Oregon.

Now granted, Ole's 1500 gallon system would be too small for a home in an Arizona desert or drought stricken, Greensboro, North Carolina but when properly sized a rainwater harvesting system is a viable option almost anywhere in the world. My grandparents had nothing but rainwater.

As I expand my own rainwater collection system I'm also considering a solar distillation system to purify drinking water without the use of any outside energy sources. Who knows, maybe I'll disconnect from Greensboro City water someday.

Shake a tail feather, Baby!

No, this isn't another of my rants about the mayor and city council. If you're looking for my latest local political rants... Well, that was the link.

With the upcoming visit of The Discovery Channel to my northeast Greensboro home, my 3 chickens, BB. Elizabeth and Gus, the rooster formerly known as Gloria, will become Greensboro's most widely known chickens. I'm not sure if the three of them are ready for fortune and fame-- okay, just fame-- but ready or not Monday the camera rolls.

I wonder if they'll need a signed release form as well?

Happily, after speaking with all my nearby neighbors, I've learned that none are bothered by Gus's crowing. They all like the fact that their children are able to come over and learn about chickens and Elizabeth's blue-green eggs are the hit of neighborhood breakfast tables. Some of the neighbor's children actually managed to take their eggs to school for show and tell and make it back home eggs intact until breakfast the next morning.

Gus is really no louder than the dogs across the street, the car stereos that rattle my windows at 3 AM. or the big old owl who comes to visit every night and no one sleeps closer to Gus than I do with the exception of BB and Elizabeth.

Of course, I'm not going to be the one to explain to the neighborhood kids why Gus keeps jumping on top of Elizabeth and BB but if their parents don't know I'll gladly explain it to the parents so they can explain it to their kids. There are some jobs Santa Claus should not have to do.

I wonder, would they still think me Santa if I didn't have chickens, give away bicycles and drive an airplane down the street?

Gus's behavior has changed remarkably since he discovered himself a rooster about 2 weeks ago. Prior to that day he had never crowed, jumped the others or acted the least bit aggressive except when hogging the food. Now Gus crows throughout the daytime, attempts mating 2 or 3 times an hour, watches over the other two as if they were his children, waits to allow the girls to eat first and just today he twice attacked me from behind-- something he's never done before. It seems to bother him greatly that Elizabeth will sometimes allow me to pet her but so far has denied him a successful mating attempt as both attacks were just seconds after I stopped rubbing her back.

I responded by asking him if he realized he was still young enough to fry and then called him a chicken.

One thing that Gus simply cannot stand is for Elizabeth or BB to be anywhere he isn't. Let one of them get out of his sight or on the other side of the garden fence (I thought I'd solved that problem.) and Gus immediately throws a tantrum until both of his girls return. The only time Gus allows his girls to remain unattended for more than a minute or so is when they lay their eggs. And it troubles him to no end for me or anyone else to walk between him and them.

As I write this all three are safely inside their chicken tractor perched on their roosts. (No, they're not allowed the keys.) Elizabeth is still commanding the higher perch while Gus and BB snuggle on the lower perch. I wonder what might happen if I added a 3rd. perch to their tractor?

And the worms are getting along well too.

,

Back when I was about 10 years old I used to have pet pigeons. When the family would go on trips to the mountains or the beach I would turn my pigeons loose once we reached our destination sometimes as much as 500 miles away and when we returned home the pigeons would be waiting in the same back yard my chickens live in today.

One day when I went to mow the lawn the old lawn mower that usually required 100 pulls of the starter cord, the mower cranked on the first pull. What was even more surprising was the blood, guts and feathers that came flying out from underneath. Luckily that wasn't the case for Gus and his hens but all three quickly found places to hide as soon as the mower roared to life. 

When I finished I took a break in my favorite lawn chair-- one I rescued from the garbage of a home on Cornwallis Drive in Greensboro's most exclusive upper crust neighborhood. This is the sort of lawn chair that if it could be bought today would probably cost $500.oo or more. The cost to repair it-- some salvaged lumber from an old shipping crate and she sits better than any lawn chair money can buy. It even rocks on its spring steel frame. One of these days I'll spend $5.oo on paint and a steel brush.

While seated there I saw Gus fly to the top of the fence next to the street. I'm used to seeing BB on fences and buildings but Gus rarely leaves the ground. To date none of the three have ever left the yard but I quickly called for Gus to get back on the ground. He didn't, at least not right away and when he did he started pacing back and forth and clucking as if he were nervous or upset. It was at that point I discovered BB was missing.

I quickly began my search all around the yard, outside the yard, in the street and everywhere else I could think to look and when I went back inside my yard Gus had also gone AWOL.

I've been collecting old glass and window panes for a couple of years now and I store them against the ivy covered fence behind my tool shed so they're out of site and protected from lawn mower rocks. I decided to look behind the stacks of glass.

After moving every one of the dozens of panes and sashes I've collected I found one very confused rooster and one patient little bantam hen trapped behind the glass. BB had gone inside with no problems but when Gus went in behind her he soon learned he was too big to turn around and going backwards was impossible as the ivy vines tangled in his feathers each time he shifted to reverse.

A few minutes later Elizabeth and BB laid two of the 5 eggs you see above. The bigger white egg is a grocery store Grade A Extra Large just for comparison. And just so you'll know, the bowl is placed on my kitchen floor covered in fake stone I made from salvaged materials about 6 years ago.