Glen Hill Farm: October 2014

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Broody Mayzie & Egg Production

BROODY MAYZIE

One of our hens went a bit broody. "Broody" means that the hen (in this case our sweet Mayzie, one of our Plymouth Barred Rocks) decided that it was time for her to hatch the eggs she's been laying. Unfortunately for Mayzie, even if she sits on her eggs for 21 days (the incubation period for chickens), there will never be any chicks arriving because our eggs are not fertilized. (No rooster = no baby chicks. See my "Seven Hens-A-Laying" post for more details if you need it.)

Our broody Mayzie-Moo.

I first suspected that Mayzie was going broody when I noticed that one of our nesting boxes had more feathers than normal accumulating in it. At first I thought that she may have started to molt. Molting is when the birds lose their old feathers, and grow new feathers. For chickens this usually happens this time of year, in the fall, but I thought my hens are too young to molt this year. (Next fall they will definitely be molting though, stay tuned for some funny looking hens, I'm sure.) Upon further investigation, I noticed that Mayzie had a pretty big bald spot on her underside. She wasn't molting. She was literally feathering her nest. She was pulling out her feathers on purpose so that she could put her warm skin directly on the eggs she wanted to hatch. (What a good momma she would have been!) And then she started spending way too much time in the nesting box.

See the bald spot Mayzie created while feathering her nest?
And can I just say, how cute is it that she lets Ryan hold her like a baby?
This hen is such a love.

So since our eggs will never hatch, being totally broody is not a good thing for our hens. It's actually a little unhealthy for them because they stop eating, stop drinking, stop exercising, stop socializing, stop laying eggs. They only leave the nest quickly once a day to get a small bite to eat, drink and poop. Sometimes they can also become aggressive when the other chickens or people come near their nesting box. Luckily, I can say that Mayzie went just a bit broody because she never became aggressive, and while she never totally stopped laying eggs, she definitely laid less. But she was always in that nesting box when I went to check on the hens no matter what time of day, even if there were no eggs in her box (because I kept removing them if there were). I even found her in her nesting box at night, when all the other hens were sleeping on the roosts. I had to take her out of the box at night, place her on the roosts and then block the entrance of the boxes so she couldn't get back in.

To try to break her of her broodiness, I would take her out of her box, and bring her outside with her friends and give them some treats to encourage her to stay out. Some days, she stayed out for a little while, and other days she would run back into her nesting box. The funny thing was that whenever I took her out of her box and placed her down on the floor, she would never stand up! It was kind of like picking up a sleeping toddler and placing them on the floor. Just mush. No legs. But she was always sweet Mayzie, always cooing softly to me, never showing any anger towards me trying to ruin her momma-to-be plans.

For a bit, Reese (one of our Easter Eggers) tried to join Mayzie's broody club, but she didn't last as long as Mayzie did. And when the two hens were being broody together, Minerva Louise (our white leghorn) would come in and yell at them both. I swear that Minerva was giving them a talking to about the birds and the bees (or the hens and the roosters in this case) and telling them how ridiculous they were being thinking that there could ever be chicks coming out of those eggs. Minerva definitely went on some rants to set Mayzie and Reese straight!

Oh, Reese, just because Mayzie has gone broody doesn't mean that you should, too.
Live your own life. No copy cats... er, chickens.

One trick to breaking their broodiness is to bring their temperature down a bit. Their body temperature actually rises when they go broody (to incubate the eggs better), so if you can cool them down, it helps them snap out of it. Some people give them cool baths or literally put them on ice--instead of eggs! I didn't have to do either of those things with Mayzie. I just kept removing her from the box. After about two weeks of broodiness, she snapped out of it. One morning, she was out with with all the other hens like nothing had ever happened.

Although, if she goes broody again in the spring, I heard that there is a handsome Barred Rock rooster on a farm just one street away from us. Hmmm.... Maybe we'll have to set up a date for our Ms. Mayzie. :) Totally kidding. I think.

EGG PRODUCTION

Egg production has slowed down some here at Glen Hill Farm. With the onset of Fall, and the decrease of daylight hours, we've noticed that our egg production is definitely dwindling. At our peak in September, there were many days that all the hens laid an egg (7 eggs a day). As the days are getting shorter now, we're down to usually 4 eggs a day. This will probably become even less as we enter winter.

Some farms put their coop lights on a timer providing 14 hours of light, to encourage the hens to continue to lay through the winter. (Electric lights can encourage laying the same way that sunlight does.) When farmers do leave the lights on to encourage egg laying through the winter, their hens will actually stop laying eggs altogether at an earlier age. To clarify: Let's say a hen will lay 600 eggs in her lifetime. (They are actually born with all the eggs they will lay stored up in their ovaries, just like humans). Generally speaking, they usually lay eggs for about 3-4 years, with a break (or reduction) in the winter. But if the farmers leave the lights on in the coop for 14 hours a day during the winter, then the hens who continue to lay during the winter will probably stop laying eggs altogether around 2-3 years old. Once the 600 eggs are laid- whether it's everyday for 2 years, or winters-off for 4 years- that hen will be done laying eggs.

We are not planning to leave the lights on in the coop with our hens. I think that we'll let them live naturally, taking a break from laying during the winter if that's what their bodies are telling them to do. (I say that now with a dozen eggs in my fridge. Remind me mid-February when we have no eggs at all and I have to buy them in the supermarket. I may change my tune then!) Since a chicken can live to about 10 years, I want them laying eggs as many of those years as possible. Loved this cartoon sent to me by my cousin...

On another note, the dogs are still searching for our missing ponies. (Who are doing great back at their home in Vermont, by the way.) And today, Cooper barked to come back inside. Through the kitchen window. Sorry, bud. You have to use the door like the rest of us.

And I will leave you with this:

Everyday that I write a blog post, my laundry piles grow larger and larger. LOL! But it's worth it, right? At least these are piles of clean laundry. It's the folding part that I can't get done. Someday... And I did get a home-cooked dinner on the table tonight, so there's that. :)

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Ponies, We'll Love You Long After You're Gone, Gone, Gone

So. The first week after the ponies left. And you'd think that I'd have had a ton of free time, but nope. This week was crazy-busy. The weather was terrible-- Cold, nor'easter rain storms. Add to that a flat tire and a ton of activities, and my laundry still didn't get done. (Hmmm, maybe the horses weren't my problem. Maybe I just hate laundry?) But I finally pulled together something to help us remember our wonderful time with Meghan & Aisling. We loved having those ponies and we miss them a ton.
Click on the link below to see our video "Ponies". (I'm hoping YouTube doesn't shut it down too fast because of the copyrighted music.) Enjoy it while it lasts...

Click here for Ponies video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QDVaf1x3zo&feature=youtu.be

Monday, October 20, 2014

Guest Blogger! A Day In The Life of Cooper

A Day in the Life of Cooper

*(Written by Guest Blogger, Ben Kaplan, Age 13)*

Hello! Cooper here! Mom said I could write a blog so right now, I am licking the keyboard hoping it make those weird squiggly things on the screen! I think they’re called “words.”

Anyway, let me tell you a day in the life of me!

6:20: Wake up to the sound of noisy humans! Annoying, right? Then go back to sleep.

6:35: Get up to the smell of breakfast then suck up the tiny amount of food I get (nudge nudge wink wink!)

Then go outside to “get busy!’ After that, me and my sis, Jessie, go bark at SQUIRRELS!

7:00: Ben and Ryan grab their bags and walk far beyond my zap-boundaries.

7:30: Jessie and I go play hide and seek with the dinosaurs. (They are good at hiding! We haven’t seen them in days! We’ll find them though. I wonder where they went.)

7:45: We give up and eat dinosaur poop!

8:15: Jessie and I chase more squirrels into trees then sit next to the trees so squirrels can’t get down. (I know, we’re geniuses!)

8:45:Time to nap! I dream of peanut butter, and bacon and squirrels, and dinosaurs, and squirrels! Oh yeah, and Jessie!

10:00: Jessie turns into a dinosaur and we are the kings of the squirrels.

10:05: I realize I’m still asleep.

2:30: I wake up and my brothers come back. I missed them. Where do they go all day? Maybe they’re superheroes (Ben, your comic books are interesting!) No they couldn’t be superheroes, unless their super powers are being short and jumping on the trampoline!

3:00: Ben and Ryan play with me and Jessie outside and do something stupid.

4:00: Another quick nap time!

5:30: More fooood!! Glorious food!

5:45: Family sometimes watches people through the magic box.

6:45: Brothers go up and howl in the cleaning waterfall. I climb into Mommy and Daddy’s bed and sleep. I dream about all my adventures today, oh yeah, and squirrels!

Well, I hoped you liked my blog! I had fun writing it! On behalf of Jessie, I’m Cooper, good-bye and SQUIRRELS!

Friday, October 17, 2014

Farmer Strong

We stopped by the farm supply store on the way home from dinner tonight to pick up one last bale of hay for the ponies. When we got home, I said to my husband, "Honey, will you take my purse in the house while I bring the hay into the barn?" I didn't even realize how silly that sounded until he started laughing at me. "Okay, I'll take your purse in while you stack the hay."

And he did bring in my purse. And I did bring in the hay. Damn straight. 'Cause guess what? Turns out I'm strong.
I just noticed that two months into the horse adventure my arms are strrronggg.
Farmer strong.
I'm a petite kind of girl, so while they don't exactly look strong, I have developed a pretty decent set of biceps.
For me, that is.
Remember, I am little.
I still shop at Gap Kids.

I actually just googled "Farmer Strong" and this is what Urban Dictionary said:

Farmer Strong

1. A person who doesn't look strong, but is actually extremely strong.
2. Claiming you're strong without being noticeably strong.

Boom! That's totally me right now! Definitely #1 and, okay, maybe #2. (Or actually, is it maybe #1 and definitely #2?)

Doing farm chores for three hours every morning (every. single. morning.) for two months straight has definitely made an impact. Lifting 50 pound bales of hay. Carrying 40 pound bags of shavings. Sweeping. Pushing wheelbarrows. Carrying buckets of water. Shoveling poop, and lots of it. And that horse poop is heavy, shoveling it every morning in the stalls and every evening in the pasture. And it feels good. It feels good to have earned muscles by doing something that matters.

I got this, Babe, you hold my purse.

(I can say this because my husband is very muscle-y in his own right.)

But sadly, these muscles are not going to last. I'm at my peak for a while because....

The ponies are leaving on Saturday.

Ugh.

So, so sad. And yet I knew it was coming. We had a two month agreement. And then to add to it, our home insurance sent us a notice of cancellation when they heard that we were boarding horses. And how did they hear that we had horses? Because, way back when we first were looking into boarding these horses, I called our insurance broker to look into buying additional insurance to cover any incidences involving the horses. See how responsible I was being? Pro-active? Well, my pro-active intentions got us in trouble with our regular home insurance company. (Ya try to do the right thing and look where it it gets you. Sheesh.) Anyway, we were given a 30 day cancellation notice from the current home insurance company, and "luckily" the horses will be back in Vermont before those 30 days are up. So we've dodged that bullet for now. But obviously, we're looking into different home insurance coverage for the future that will fit our needs better.

So, yes, like it or not, the ponies will be heading back to their beautiful home in Vermont. It was such a great experience for my whole family. My kids are going to miss them so much. I am going to miss them so much it hurts. Even Jonathan is going to miss them. But you know who I think is going to miss those ponies more than any of us? My dogs.

My dogs freaked out when the horses arrived. Freaked out like we had released two dinosaurs in our backyard and it was the dogs' responsibility to keep us safe from them. The barking was constant. The chasing was dangerous. And Cooper. Poor Cooper got kicked at least four times. Well, I saw him get kicked four times, so who knows how many more times it happened! But Cooper pretty much deserved it every time. And even though the ponies kicked him, they clearly did it just to deliver a message, not with the intent to hurt, because Cooper was never injured by it.
My heart stopped every time, but Cooper was fine. :)
I never saw Jessie get kicked. I did see Jessie get the tiniest nip from Meghan once. Jessie jumped a mile high and ran for cover through the fence. Again, it was just a message with no real intent to hurt her.

The first few days the horses were here the dogs had to be on leashes at all times.

Yes, those leashes are keeping you from getting yourselves killed. You're welcome.

After a week the barking became less. And within 14 days you would have thought these four creatures were... well, not best buddies, but more like siblings. They irritated each other on purpose, but they also hung out together on purpose. They might not ever admit it, but they all seemed to be happy to have each other around.

Chillin' together in the back pasture.

Scheming together on how to get in
that forbidden poop area behind them.

The dogs loved to eat any pellets
that Aisling dropped.

Interspecies Peace

Cooper and Jessie totally think that I absolutely need their help getting the horses in and out of the barn, when truthfully they are the opposite of helpful. But the look on their faces is so cute because they're all like "I got this! I will make sure this dinosaur walks nicely with you! And I'll do that by irritating the crap out of them." They also think they need to alert me whenever the ponies change locations. "Attention humans: The dinosaurs are moving!" Or if they run. Running horses always brings out the big barking from Jessie. No matter how many times I explain to her that the ponies are allowed to run. Jessie does not appreciate a running horse in her yard. And when the horses run, Cooper thinks it's his job to stop them in their tracks. With his body. Heart attack for me. Again. In other words, the ponies have given my dogs a job, a real job. In their minds anyway. And the ponies have been very patient with these dogs, letting them role play their best efforts of working farm dogs.

I even caught a sweet moment of affection.
Just a little smooch between Aisling and Cooper.

So, even though Meghan and Aisling are actually leaving Glen Hill Farm on Saturday, they will always be a part of our Glen Hill Farm family. Maybe they will even return next year? In the meantime, I will continue to blog about them, because I will actually have more time to write once they are gone. And I still have a few videos and stories about the ponies that I just haven't had time to share...because of the ponies! :)

And that brings up what I have learned.... that yes, horses are a lot of work. It's true what everyone says. I loved every second of it, but that doesn't mean it's easy. And in a previous blog I said that having horses wasn't hard. I didn't really phrase that correctly. What I meant was that it's not like rocket science hard. But it most certainly is HARD WORK. As in a constant, physical, long hours, many details, no weekends kind of hard. I really enjoyed the work, the time flew by, but I'm not so sure I could swing it full-time year-round at this stage of my life as a mother of two young boys. I certainly found it challenging to have ponies and also do all the things I used to do (mom, wife, cooking, cleaning, laundry, helping at school, kids' activities, book club, freelancing, blah, blah, blah...) Everything else got put on the back burner. Which for two months was fine. Not so sure that would fly very well all year long, for many years ahead.

It's going to be very strange next week with a part of our family missing. First thing I'm going to do? Sleep in. Second thing... I'll wake up and immediately wonder what my sweet Meghan and my sweet Aisling are up to back in Vermont. Sigh. My poor chickens and dogs are about to get a lot more attention to fill this void. Oh yeah, and maybe my kids and husband, too.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Pine Trees and Poison Ivy

We are drowning in pine needles over here.
While I love the giant pine tree in front of our barn, I am not loving the down-pouring of pine needles all over our yard. (I also was not loving the pinesap that it dropped down on everything, especially my dogs, this past spring.) The chicken run used to have green grass everywhere. Now it has a carpet of needles. And the hawk-netting that hangs over the run is now covered in needles, too. Sigh. It makes picking up the chicken poop much more challenging. So challenging in fact, that I've kind of stopped trying. Beware if you come visit our chickens, you will almost definitely leave with chicken poop on the bottom of your shoes these days. But the pine tree is truly magnificent. Giant. Can't imagine how old it is. And if it ever falls, well, at least it's leaning away from the barn.

Beautiful, giant pine tree next to the barn

Carpet of pine needles

ceiling of pine needles

Speaking of the chicken run... We noticed this giant hole the other day.

Clearly *someone* was trying to dig their way into the run.

Luckily, we had buried the mesh wire around the run to deter such behavior.

Thank goodness it worked this time.

That's a pretty big hole that someone dug trying to get in the chicken run.

My guess is that this is the work of a groundhog (we have many in our yard),

instead a chicken predator (please be true.)

But it does make me worry.

Especially because we saw a coyote in our neighbor's yard recently.

Can you see the coyote in the middle of the picture?
That little brown spot on the edge of the grass along the bushes?

With our property 90% fenced in, we've been lucky that many larger animals don't come through our yard. Our neighbors get deer often and a few coyotes, but not so much for us.

It could also be that our dogs help to deter the wild animals from coming close. Cooper is quite the hunter (he's already killed a few snakes, a groundhog and a racoon) and Jessie, while she's not much of a hunter, is a renowned barker. She can bark with the best of them.

Although, I have to say, when Jessie saw Cooper kill that racoon, I swear she was like "Dude, this is the suburbs. I don't know where you came from, but here in the suburbs we just bark and chase. What the heck did you just do to that animal?!"

Yup, Jessie's all bark. But Cooper means it.

The dogs chased a squirrel up a tree this morning.
They stood guard for *hours* waiting for their chance to catch that poor animal.
Today the squirrel won.

We also have been very lucky that because the deer don't come up through our yard,
we have not had a major problem with ticks. I thought we'd have it much worse.
With that being said, guess what I pulled off the back of my neck today?

Yup, a deer tick.

First time in a year of living here, so I really can't complain. But blech.

And while we're on the topic of dangers in the chicken run,
here is the biggest monster in my yard, and the run:

Yes, I'm not even the tiniest bit afraid of snakes, mice, bugs, coyotes, etc.

But I am now terrified of POISON IVY.

And it's everywhere on our property.

Everywhere.

Growing up trees as vines.

In the woods as bushes.

It's even growing in our chicken run.

And when we moved in last year, I somehow got *covered* in poison ivy.

All over my arms, my legs, my back, my neck, and my face.

I felt like I was fighting an invisible monster because I knew that I hadn't actually touched the plant.

My guess was that the dogs must have had it on their fur, and every time I touched them, I would get it in a new spot. It almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown.
I finally had my dream property...
and I was scared to leave the house because of the damn poison ivy.

Happy to say that it has been much better this year. I sort of always have a patch of it on me somewhere, but nothing as bad as it was that first time.

And guess who EATS poison ivy?
Goats.
Just might be a good reason to adopt a goat?

Emily riding Aisling.

Jessie in the fall.

Yes, my videos where the animals are going crazy are fun to watch,
but most of the time everyone has a nice time just hanging out together.
Not sure Cooper could be any more relaxed than this.

Love these ponies.

Most of my day is spent dealing with poop.
Horse poop, chicken poop, dog poop.
So glamorous!
Good thing my kids are done with diapers. :)

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Short & Sweet and A Torn Beak

The same husband who said "You should really start a blog" just said to me "Your blog takes up too much of your time." Love that! (He was trying to be helpful.) And of course, he's right, which makes it that much more annoying. Since every time I post a blog, you can pretty much guarantee that my family is getting pizza for dinner that night. (Feel free to send over nutritious vitamin-packed meals on those days.)

ANYWAY, today I'm going to try to make this short and sweet. Which is very hard for me because I'm a details girl. But let's see if I can do it.

(Alright, I can already feel myself wanting to give waaay too much background information, but I'm going to resist.) Here we go...

Did you know that chickens' beaks are very similar to our fingernails in that they continue to grow throughout their lives? It's true and I'm very relieved that is the case.

Back in August, (August 31st to be exact...Ooops, too much detail, must be quicker) we noticed that our white leghorn hen, Minerva Louise, had injured her beak. We don't know how it happened, but my best guess is that she may have tried to peck at something through the mesh wiring of the chicken run and caught her beak in it and it tore.

Minerva Louise BEFORE the beak incident.
Beautiful, healthy beak.

Minerva Louise the day of the injury.
See the tear at her upper beak?
And the discoloration?

The day after the injury.
The beak looked a little worse to me.
It seemed to have shrunk a bit. Yikes.

Ben thought Minerva Louise looked like a burrito
all wrapped up in her towel.

Doctor Ryan holding Minerva while I cleaned her beak.

I was hoping for the best, knowing that over time most injured beaks will grow out the part that got damaged and eventually the beaks will grow back to normal. Some chicken experts recommended using a little super glue to reattach a torn beak, and I considered it, but then decided against it. Since I had seen her successfully eating and drinking with this injury, I thought I'd just let nature takes its course. I was too worried that the super glue fumes would bother her, and that too many things could go wrong using super glue on a live animal, right? So, we cleaned up Minerva Louise's beak as best we could, disinfected it with Vetericyn spray and kept our fingers crossed that she would be okay. I was worried about her because I had read that if the tear was really high up (which Minerva Louise's seemed to be) there was a chance that it could be permanently damaged.

Well, a little over a month later, I'm happy to report that Minerva Louise's beak has been growing out nicely. While I'm guessing it'll take another month or two to completely heal, her beak looks much better.

Minerva Louise's beak today.

An interesting side note... We noticed that Minerva Louise's egg yolks were a little less orange than the other hens' yolks and wondered if this might be due to her beak injury stopping her from eating as well as the other hens. Good news is that even her yolks have been a little darker recently, so I think she's doing just fine these days. Phew! And, of course, just as Minerva Louise's injury is almost better, I noticed that Reese's beak is missing its very tip. Oy vey. But luckily, it's a much smaller break and should heal quickly.

Also, if you're interested in how Minerva Louise got her name? There is a children's book series about an adorable little white hen named Minerva Louise by author Janet Morgan Stoeke. I highly recommend these picture books. So cute and funny!