Our Chicken Farm Updates

Sometimes (frequently) pullets are totally confused when it comes to “sleeping” inside their new house, outdoors. There are a couple of reasons for this, and the first reason is the fact that they have slept for almost two months, inside a brooder, with no concept of being outside, yet. Another reason is the fact that the coop/house does not “smell” right. In other words, their “stink” isn’t in there yet. Yes, hens like the familiar smell of themselves for safety reasons.

While, we want them to be doing their chicken things outside, during the day, we want them to “go to bed” at night safely tucked into their coop/house. Yet, they don’t know this routine yet. It takes them a while to figure out that they can sleep inside the coop, up on a perch, for their own safety. It can take weeks to train them to “go inside” when it is dusk.

One of the easiest methods of training involves locking them inside the coop/house for a few days… two or three days, up to a week, with fresh food and water provided daily, inside their coop/housing. After they have been confined to their house for a few days, then, let them out into the run/pen, providing the food and water outside for them during the day and take away their food in the evenings so that you don’t invite extra nocturnal guests to your chicken run.

Now, this is not a guarantee that they will roost inside that first evening, but the chances are increased greatly, that they will. Usually, there is a bossy one that will try to round them all up to go into the coop as the evening gets darker. As darkness falls, if only a few are inside, then gently pick up the stragglers from where ever they have decided they want to sleep, and place them inside the coop through the opening that you want them to enter/exit. Close it up for the night so that they have no option but to stay in all night. Let them out first thing in the morning, at dawn (preferably). Typically, within the next week, they should have the night time routine of sleeping in the coop/house mostly figured out.

Also, and this is important, close off the nesting boxes to the pullets. If they start thinking that they can “sleep” inside the nesting boxes, before they are ready to start laying their eggs, there is going to be some messy issues later on, when they do start to lay, but will also want to sleep in their nesting boxes, where they will leave a smelly deposit that will soil their eggs. So, don’t open up the nesting boxes until the pullets are about 16 to 18 weeks. Then, you can place some fake eggs inside the nesting boxes to encourage them to start laying eggs.

The chicks should be arriving between March 5th to 7th, depending on which day they hatch. We will post photos of their arrival as soon as we can. We won’t be doing any photoshoots until the chicks are about a week old, as the day old chicks are still quite vulnerable after the long trip from the Mid-West.

All of the chicks are reserved.

Since we are currently starting a smallish late winter brood this year, we have decided to do a second brood in May. Despite the chick shortage currently impacting our area, I was able to reserve a decent number of Delaware, Blue Jersey Giant, and Easter Eggers that we will raise for six weeks through the whole month of May, and into the first two weeks of June. We have not decided whether to go through the whole process of reserving chicks from that brood or to just put them up for adoption in June when they are ready to go outside. We have a few months to think about that. Feel free to comment below or contact us to let us know your feelings on it. 2025chicks(~at~)2-email.me Replace (~at~) with @

The May brood will also be raised on Eggland’s Best Chick Starter/Grower Crumbles.

We have selected six popular breeds for brooding this year. We will not be brooding any special breed orders. We have the following breeds available for people to pick up the third weekend of April, when the pullets are six weeks old:

• Gold Comet
• Rhode Island Red
• Barred Plymouth Rock
• Welsummer/Welsumer
• Easter Egger
• Lavender Orpington

We always use bio security practices to protect the health of the chicks and for organic feed this year, we will be using Eggland’s Best Organic Chick Start and Grow.

We are not raising as many chicks this year so reservations will go quickly. We might brood another batch in May. Let us know if you might be interested in our services later in the spring. You can reach out to us on Facebook or Email us - if you have questions or need to contact us. This is a temporary address 2025chicks(~at~)2-email.me

I was recently asked by a customer how to remove Blu-Kote (Blue Kote) stains from fabric, clothing, and skin.

First off, the easiest solution is to wear gloves, long sleeve shirts, clothing overalls, aprons, etc, that are dark blue, whenever you plan to use Blu-Kote. Don’t use Blu-Kote inside your home, and don’t use it on a windy day unless you are in a protected, windless area. If you wear glasses, you may want to use clear protective goggles over your glasses. Just Say’n.

Chickens have a habit of “shaking” themselves right after you apply Blu-Kote and spreading it everywhere!

Removing the Blue Dye from Skin is relatively easy. Cotton balls (or paper towels) saturated with 70% Rubbing Alcohol will usually get it off your skin. Another option is a small amount of bleach, like Clorox bleach. Allow either option to set on the skin for about a minute, then thoroughly rinse it off your skin to avoid irritations.

Fabric and clothing are a bit tougher. You can try the rubbing alcohol solution. Don’t use bleach unless the fabric is white. Test on an inconspicuous spot first to make sure it won’t damage the fabric. Be sure to dilute the bleach with water, about 1:1, water and bleach, add to a spray bottle to use for white items. Afterwards, be sure to saturate the clothing/fabric with cold water so that the bleach won’t deteriorate the fabric. On some items, you might try using an ink remover, like Carbona Stain Devils, or Goof Off. Personally, I have had luck using WD-40 spray and an old toothbrush. I let it soak into the fabric for a minute, scrub with the toothbrush, let it rest another 15 to 20 minutes, then wash with dish soap in cold water.

Best of Luck!

The summer has been pretty normal this year. Not too many excessive heat days, which were easily handled with frozen water bottles at the peak of the day, fans, and lots of shade. Reminder that on really hot days, just having “water” out in their run is not sufficient. They won’t drink enough “warm” water to help them stay hydrated. They will do much better having water that is about 50 to 60 degrees F. Water that is over 70 degrees will be less inviting to them and anything over 80 degrees just won’t be consumed. I have a new trick for keeping some cold drinking water available during really hot days.

I purchased several Little Giant Complete Plastic Poultry Founts, 1-gal size. I fill the plastic jars about half to 2/3rds with fresh water (upside down without the base attached) to freeze the water in the freezer. After frozen, attach the base to the jar, turn right side up and place in the run at an hour or two after noon. Don’t over fill the jar for freezing. The frozen water will distort the shape of the ring and not attach to the base. I keep extra jars in the freezer for consecutive days of expected heat. As the frozen water starts to warm, it fills the base with nice cool water. Prior to that, on the first day of an expected hot day, before the birds come down from roosting overnight, I will fill their main water fount with cold water and a dose of electrolytes to help them get an added boost before the hot days hit. I only do this on the first day, and if the heat lasts for more than a few days, I will do it again a couple times spread out over the week.

We have sold most of our one year old laying hens to families in the area that were wanting to raise backyard chickens, with the exception of a few hens that have had some health issues. One had a prolapse. Another was over preening herself and was being over preened by others. The third has a pendulous crop. She will gorge on fresh green grass, and considering we move them weekly, she encountered an impacted crop that turned into a drooping crop. She is healthy, but lower on the pecking order, so we will be keeping her around as one of our older girls. We have these three in their own coop environment to protect them until they heal better, or if they don’t heal, we will find ways to integrate them into one of our other flocks. These gals are molting as the daylight starts to get shorter each day, So, extra proteins, less calcium, and a few healthy treats to help them heal and molt at the same time.

We plan to brood about 50 chicks organically in February for people located in the Portland, Oregon area. Let us know if you have an interest.