Mob 2, Week 5

Mob 2 has reached the five week mark and are, against all odds, still forty-three birds strong (for the moment, see below)*.

Two feeders

We are finding that forty-three chickens present unique challenges that thirty-three birds did not.  For one thing, they didn't all fit around our extra-large 30-pound poultry feeder which resulted in a MMA, winner-take-all attitude at feeding time.  It was getting seriously violent and as much as we want strong (read lots of dark meat) birds, feeding times were becoming the kind of activity from which you'd hide your children's eyes.  So we bought another feeder and for the moment, dinner in The Fortress has become a much more civilized affair.

Another issue we've encountered with the larger mob is they produce a heck of a lot more poo.  In addition, this flock has continued in their intelligent ways and graze like crazy on whatever patch of ground their chicken tractor rests upon.  As a result of the increase in au naturale fertilizer and quick denuding of the ground, we've taken to moving The Fortress twice a day.  This is probably excessive, but at least it means the chickens get more fresh "pasture" and aren't sitting in their own excrement.  Plus I'm hoping for a really green lawn come spring so we're spreading the love around, so to speak.

Chicken in a box (again!)

*Speaking of our miraculous 0% mortality rate, we're pretty sure we have one chicken who is at death's door.  We're not sure what the problem is but about two days ago she started acting off and was being "hen-pecked" by the rest of the flock.  As a result of her not feeling well, therefore not getting out of the way, she was run over by the chicken tractor on one of the twice daily moves and to add injury to insult, now has a bum leg.  She's still eating (and pooing) but honestly, she's not well.  I keep reminding myself that this is the way of chicken raising and seriously, we're waaaaay ahead of the curve right now, but it's still sad (especially since we've put 5 weeks worth of feed into her).  So we again have a chicken living in a box, just not on my kitchen counter this time.

Because he's so darn cute and really believes we pay far too much attention to the chickens