My Chirpy Chicken Coop

Choosing Chicken Breeds August 29, 2021 (A pic of our breeds of chickens!) Choosing chickens breeds for your flock can be pretty tough, seeing as how there are more than 100 breeds out there! We have two Buff Orpingtons, a Rhode Island Red, and a French Copper Maran! Do you want chickens based on your weather climate? Do you want good layers? Friendly hens? Or different colored eggs? Luckily, I can help guide you through the best breeds. Let's get started! While there is no “right” or “wrong” breed, and all the breeds generally will get along with each other, one of the more important considerations is the climate where you reside. Although most chickens are generally okay in cold climates, there are many breeds that struggle in hot climates. So if you live in an area where it's mostly hot during the year, then choosing heat-tolerant breeds will be important. The Mediterranean/British breeds are good choices if you need heat-tolerant chickens. Breeds such as Leghorns, Penedesen...

   So Just How Loud Is A Rooster's Crow? August 22, 2021 (A shot of Lafayette letting loose a crow in the morning!) More and more suburban and urban areas are starting to allow a small flock of backyard chickens, but many are still banning roosters- claiming around-the-clock crowing as an annoyance to neighbors. So I decided to do a bit of research to find out just how loud a rooster's crow actually is. First of all, you need to understand how sound is measured. All sounds are measured in decibels.  So what is a decibel? A decibel is a unit used to measure the intensity of a sound by comparing it with a given level on a logarithmic scale- a unit of measurement that indicates how loud a sound is. The human ear can hear sounds within the 0-140 decibel range. Less than zero, the sound still exists, but we can't hear it. Above 140 decibels can cause immediate pain and permanent damage to the ears, while exposure to a noise above 180 decibels will kill hearing tissue. Prolonge...

Buff Orpington Portrait August 15, 2021 (My Buff Orpington portrait of Eliza! I bet she thinks I can never catch all of her beauty in a painting. :) This summer, I took an acrylic painting intensive for 5 weeks. For the first 4 weeks, the teacher would do already-chosen paintings with me. On the last day, I could choose what I wanted to paint, and so I chose to paint a Buff Orpington portrait! I had so much fun with this cool painting, and so I decided I would share this how-to with y'all: Get your supplies together! You'll need- A canvas, pencil, container of water, paper towel, various sizes of paintbrushes, various yellow acrylic paints, red acrylic paint, & black acrylic paint. Do a sketch transfer of your chosen Buff Orpington. (For those who don't know what that is, then here is a quick tutorial- Simply print out a photo of a Buff Orpington, then turn over the paper and use a pencil to smudge the back in graphite. Next, place the paper face up on your canvas, and ...

Come One, Come All! 2 Chicken Feeders For Sale!!! August 8, 2021 (Our two "like new" PVC bucket feeders for sale!) For all y'all who need a chicken feeder or two- Come and get it! What- 2 chicken feeders, PVC bucket type, complete with 3 openings, lids, and swinging handles. Perfect for a flock of 2-6 and will last a month if filled completely. Where- I'm located in Southern California in the San Bernardino area. I am not shipping these. Please come pick them up. Price- $15 per feeder, so $30 for both. Note- Our chickens had some difficulty eating from these feeders (as mentioned in my last post) so I just wanted to throw that out there. If you would like to view this at the Backyard Chickens forum, here is the link:  https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/come-one-come-all-2-chicken-feeders-for-sale.1484097/#post-24737302 Please contact me if you would like any information or would like to purchase these!  Thanks!

Changes August 1, 2021   (One of our latest changes: Home sweet home!) As you can probably tell by the name of the post, the chickens have been undergoing some...changes.  Firstly, ever since dear Washington passed, they chickens have been losing feathers. We had many suspicions as to what it could be- depression (due to Washington's death), bullying, mating, mites, free ranging, etc. Finally, we figured out the problem: The PVC bucket feeder we got for the chickens just after Washington's death (their small dispenser feeder was needed for the incoming chicks) were a bit restraining to their appetite. Basically, the chickens weren't so used to eating out of PVC pipes connected to a bucket. So they limited their food intake, which caused them to lose their feathers. We fixed this problem by getting rid of the old feeders (more on this coming soon!) and getting a bigger dispenser feeder. And so, their feathers have been growing back in!  Secondly, our old coop completely br...

       Chickens In The Suburban Backyard June 25, 2021 (A shot of Eliza sneaking through the patio!) Backyard chickens have sort of become a "thing" inside the last decade or so in lots of backyards across the country. They have always been a thing on farms, of course, and now are even invading many suburban and urban communities. But simply how realistic is it to raise chickens within the suburban backyard? Well, as it turns out, it's very sensible. In light of new events, being as self-enough as viable is even more essential than ever. And having the ability to acquire fresh eggs from your flock of backyard chickens is about as self-enough as it gets! Eggs are a complete protein, and are versatile enough that they can be made into so many extraordinary meals. They pair well with all styles of meats, cheeses, veggies and herbs. They store nicely, and can be pickled, frozen or salt cured to last even longer. however a fresh egg, left unwashed, will last for several w...

      What Makes Egg Yolks Orange? June 18, 2021 (A pic of one of Angelica's orange egg yolks!) There is nothing more stunning on a breakfast plate than a vibrant orange egg yolk, shimmering like a miniature sun. but does a shiny orange yolk suggest that the egg is greater nutritious or tastier? Not always. A vivid orange yolk would not suggest the egg is clean, it doesn't suggest that the bird who laid it become handled or fed properly, and it does not even imply that the egg came from a free-range hen. A common false impression is that the greater orange the yolk, the extra nutritious the egg or that it had to come from a free-ranging hen. The eggs from the free range chickens are in all likelihood more nutritious due to their natural, various diet, however a commercially raised hen can be fed feed that has components inclusive of corn and marigolds in it that will boost the yolk coloration as well. Even as it is genuine that chickens who free-range normally do lay eggs...

      5 Ways To Encourage A Hen To Go Broody June 11, 2021 (A shot of the never-broody Hamilton!) Letting a hen sit on a nest of eggs to hatch them is far easier than using an incubator. The broody hen IS the incubator, turning the eggs and keeping them warm and at the correct humidity level. After the eggs hatch, she acts as the brooder box as well, needing no electricity to keep the chicks warm and safe. No more messy, dusty brooder in your laundry room or garage, no worries about heat lamps. The mother hen also shows the chicks how to find bugs and which weeds are safe to eat, and she will introduce them to the rest of the flock when she feels it's time. But for this you need  broody hen. So how do you know when a hen is broody and how do you 'make' a hen go broody? The short answer is- you can't "force" a chicken to sit on eggs. Sadly, the broodiness gene has been bred out of most modern breeds.  Since the advent of incubators and shipped chicks, broody he...

      Copycat Free Range Technique July 4, 2021 (Score! Dandelion greens!) Studies have shown that the eggs of free ranging chickens contain more nutrition and are lower in cholesterol. Our chickens are just as healthy and happy and our eggs are just as beautiful with vibrant orange yolks as the eggs from any free ranging flock, without the risk of losing any of our chickens to predators. Grasses, weeds, herbs and flowers not only provide wonderful nutrients and health benefits, they can be fed in unlimited amounts unlike other 'treats', since they are considered 'green' and mimic what a chicken would eat in a free range environment. In addition to their nutritional content, they also can help cut down on your feed bill if your chickens fill up on them instead of eating a diet comprised only of commercial feed. Depending on the season, different weeds and flowers are plentiful, so you can feed your chickens and ducks a varied, seasonal mix of whatever you can find. Thei...

       5 Tips For Safer Free Ranging June 27, 2021 (A snap of Eliza roaming the garden!) The sad fact of the matter is that free ranging your chickens and ducks always carries risks with it and eventually is probably going to end badly (more than likely very badly) if you raise them long enough. As someone once said, "you only have to lose once... and the predator only has to win once". The odds are definitely stacked against the chickens and ducks. So, here are my 5 tips for safer free ranging: 1. Supervise, Supervise, Supervise Obviously one of the easiest things you can do is stay outside with your chickens and watch them while they free range. Having a dog outside with you is a huge benefit also. Not only is even a pet dog's scent a big deterrent to predators, dogs senses are so much more attuned to potential threats than ours are and even our corgi could be at the treeline chasing off a fox before I likely even realized it was there. Raising other livestock on y...