No egg.
Egg Watch 2008- Day 3
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Egg Watch 2008 – Day 2
No eggs.
New Additions
We picked up three Speckeled Sussex chicks from Pistils Nursery today. Good thing we finished up the brooder last night because we didn’t expect them to arrive until tomorrow.
Egg Watch 2008 – Day 1
The Fajita and Torta are 21 weeks old today(ish). 21 weeks is the soonest they should/could be laying eggs.
We have been regularly checking for eggs for about a week even though we knew they weren’t old enough to lay eggs. Now we begin the waiting in earnest.
No eggs today.
Lesson Learned
I got up to let the girls out this morning and left the door to on the run open a bit while I futzed w/ the timer for the brooder lamp. I didn’t think the girls would be bold enough to make a break for it. I was wong. Fajita, our boldest hen, took advantage of my stupidity. I have to say I was a little paniced since it was 7am on a Sunday and I was in my jammies. I didn’t want to yell for the Boy to come help me, don’t want to wake the neighborhood, and I didn’t feel like chasing a rogue hen all over the neighborhood in my jammies either. What to do? How do you catch a chicken by yourself? Apparently you chase the hen around the perimeter of the coop several times before luring her in to the run with a great deal of scratch.
Greens
Fresh grass and greens are an important part of a hens diet. Greens are what give the eggs the important Omega3. Since our girls don’t get to free range much we supplement their commercial feed with fresh greens. The girls love love to nibble on lettuce, spinach, kale and swiss chard. We put several leaves in a small suet cage and hang it from the hen house. Not only are the greens good for them but batting around the suet cage like a tether ball gives them something to do.
On the List
I called Pistils Nursery today and added our name on the chick wish list for 3 Speckled Sussex. Pistils said we could expect chicks mid to late February. Perfect. That is plenty of time to get the brooder ready.
Inspected
We passed our insepction with flying colors. The Boy was home for the inpsection and said the inspector was super impressed with our construction skills. HA! If only he knew.
On Notice
I distributed our notice of intent to keep more than 3 hens to our neighbors on Saturday. We were a little apprehensive about letting the neighbors know. We were afraid someone would get upset about our venture and prevent us from keeping any hens, I have heard that can happen, but the exact opposite was true. I wasn’t home five minutes before a neighbor called with congratulations and best wishes on the adventure. We also got a positive email from neighbors who had been sneaking peeks at the girls and are interested in an official visit. I am glad that the girls will be a tool to get to know our community better rather than a wedge. (knock on wood)
Permit Required
According to Portland City Code Title 13 you can keep 3 hens, no roosters, on your property with out a permit. We want 5 hens so we will need a permit. If you apply for a permit you also have to follow their rules about the location of your facility aka coop. We knew before we built the coop that we wanted more than 3 hens so we tried to keep the rules in mind. Even if you don’t want more than 3 hens it is a good idea to take the rules in to consideration. Things such as:
- citing your coop at least 25 feet away from any inhabitable structure, ie your neighbors house;
- following zoning, building permit and setback rules applicable to your area;
are common sense and will make your neighbors and utimately you happier with your hens.
We also have to notify all property owners with in 200 feet of the coop that we are applying for the permitt. Since it is unliekly that everyone will be home on a Saturday afternoon and unlikely anyone will want to listen to us rattle on about chickens, we wrote a letter as our notice. I am a little apprehensive about the notificatoin. What if someone doesn’t want us to keep chickens?
The last part of the permit application is a coop inspection. I am not concerned about the inspection. Our coop is spacious, predator proof, bio-secure, well-sited, and most importantly very pretty.