Update: The Life of a Chicken Keeper

Over a year ago, we purchased six chickens off craigslist. They have been blessings to our lives ever since. Unfortunately we are down to four chickens due to illness and death. This is a sad reality of owning chickens or any animals. The loss of both of these chickens was really tough for our family. Especially the death of our dear and beloved Little Blackie. Little Blackie got her name from being a smaller, black chicken who had a ton of attitude, sass, and personality. She was very vocal and brought a smile to my face every time I went to feed the chickens, or give them a treat. When she got sick, I never would have imagined her dying. She was so full of life and was a true gift to our world. Sadly, the illness took over her and crippled her body. After a visit to the veterinarian, she was dead by the time we drove her back home. It was very sad.

However, Little Blackie was just one of our chickens. We still have four more chickens and they are thriving. Although their egg production has slowed down substantially due to their age, their personalities are as big as ever. These four are the highlights to my day and I can’t wait to let them out of their coop in the morning and let them in at night. Perhaps my favorite of these three chickens is Roberta. Although Roberta can be a bully from time to time, she is the last remaining Barred Rock Chicken we have. She stands alone within the flock and I admire her perseverance and dedication to the flock.

In my free time I like to give the chickens treats. Sometimes we have leftover lettuce and tomatoes from our garden, and sometimes I just give them store bought Mealworms. I think the mealworms are their favorite…

If you are considering purchasing chickens I highly recommend it. They demand a lot of attention, and can be time consuming, but if you have the time to truly love and care for them, they are worth it 100%.

Stay tuned for more chicken updates.

-JG

Chickens | Helpful Tip for Dealing with Heavy Snow

If you live in a cold climate that gets lots of snow during the winter then join the club! Living in Montana we get lots of snow and have very long winters. All of this snow makes it difficult to keep our chickens happy and ensure they do not get too bored or cooped up. How exactly do we do this? Well we get creative and make sure to give our chickens lots of love during the winter. ❄️

One of the things we do to help our chickens during the winter is shovel out snow. Our chickens hate walking through the snow and they don’t like to get their feathers wet. To help them, we carve out a path around the coop to give them the ability to make laps around the outside of the coop. This allows them to stay occupied during the sunny winter days, and keep them from feeling cooped inside the coop. We also bring them fresh lettuce, arugula, and apples to munch on so they have something to do.

When we do this, we see a dramatic increase in their happiness and it makes us very happy to see them enjoying their time outside. So if you live in a snowy winter climate, try this trick out and help your chickens survive those long winter months.

-JG

After lettuce…

James Gibbon - Winter Winner Chicken Dinner!

James Gibbon is officially 1 of 5 Winter Winner Chicken Dinner giveaway winners!! I seriously won, but let’s go back to where it all began. In August, we decided to get chickens for the first time. On top of this, I started “Montana Farm Life” the blog and the Instagram profile. When visiting our local animal nutrition store - https://bridgeranimalnutrition.com/ - Scratch and Peck was recommended for organic feed and supplementation - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/ .

James Gibbon

Due to this recommendation, we started supplementing our chickens with Scratch and Peck supplements, which I contribute our winter egg laying and healthy flock to. So how did I end up winning all of this stuff for my flock? Through Instagram! I follow Scratch and Peck on Instagram and they posted about a Winter Winner Giveaway. I was interested, but doubted I would win and entered the contest by liking the picture and commenting. I commented that “I had a good feeling about this one ☝️” and I sure did! A few days later they posted my picture on their instagram as the winner of the giveaway and about a week after that I received this package of goodies in the mail!

James Gibbon

My flock and I couldn’t be happier! My birds absolutely love Scratch and Peck’s products and if you’re curious what all was included in the package I received, here is a list!

1. Oyster Shell - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/shop/oyster-shell-subscription/

2. Layer Grit - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/shop/layer-grit-subscription/

3. Organic Layer - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/shop/naturally-free-organic-layer-18/

4. Grubs - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/shop/cluckin-good-grubs/

5. Organic Nesting - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/shop/organic-nesting-medley-subscription/

6. Organic Herbs - https://www.scratchandpeck.com/shop/cluckin-good-herbs/

All together these supplements and feed make for one happy flock!

James Gibbon

James Gibbon | Cleaning Out the Chicken Coop

The time comes when one must clean out his/her’s chicken coop. For us, this time has come. Chickens are beautiful and fun creatures, but they are quite dirty. Confined in the coop, they will deposit waste at an astonishing rate, and it is vital to keep their space clean. In order to clean our coop, there are a number of steps that need to be taken.

First, you need to pull out all of the shavings/straw from within the coop, and remove it. This can take some time and is pretty laborious.

James B. Gibbon II

After the existing straw and shavings have been fully removed from the coop, you can begin loading the coop with fresh materials. Start by taking at least one bag of soft pine shavings and spreading the shavings throughout the inside of the coop. Next, take 5 flakes of straw and spread evenly on top fo the layer of shavings. Finally, put back the feeder and waterer or anything else you had inside the coop before you started.

Boom! You just cleaned out the chicken coop and your flock will be forever grateful for you.

James Gibbon

Shavings - https://www.murdochs.com/

Straw - https://bridgeranimalnutrition.com/

Poultry Feeder - https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/157146-little-giant-galvanized-hanging-poultry-feeder-with-feeder-pan.html?feedsource=3&utm_medium=pla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1cX8-6eu5gIVdRh9Ch1usAFKEAkYAiABEgJUEvD_BwE

Poultry Fount - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Little-Giant-2-gal-Metal-Double-Wall-Poultry-Fount-22616239/206208242

Horse Stall Fork - https://www.sstack.com/little-giant-durafork/p/23937/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIscm5wqiu5gIVoB6tBh2qhAV1EAkYCiABEgIyMPD_BwE

Sweatshirt - https://www.thenorthface.com/?utm_content=ecomm&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=Brand+Core+Terms+-+Exact&utm_term=north+face&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItdre4Kiu5gIV0Rx9Ch2kyQcGEAAYASAAEgJTxfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Coat - https://www.carhartt.com/

James Gibbon - Winter in Montana with Hens

James Gibbon as a first time chicken owner in Montana, it has been interesting to learn how best to care for the chickens during the cold winter months. In Montana, we have already had significant sub zero temperatures and it’s only October. This is really early for us and it has caught us by complete surprise. We were not prepared for the low temperatures and have had to rush to provide comfort, warmth, and water to our chickens. Although there is plenty of information online about how best to do this, we have taken a more trailblazing like approach. This is our experience.

James Gibbon

Our first step towards securing the hens for the winter was purchasing a water heater for the coop. We purchased a standard water heater built to work with galvanized waterers. A link to the water 💦 heater we bought - https://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-HP-125-Poultry-125-Watt/dp/B000HHQDPM/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=hen+water+heater&qid=1572373243&sr=8-7

We bought this water heater back in September and unfortunately have had to use it many days and nights since; especially in October. The water heater itself works great; however, if it is not cold, the water tends to heat up too much and can begin to evaporate. Furthermore, when the water is this hot, the chickens 🐓 prefer not to drink it. A solution to this problem was putting a metal dog 🐕 bowl 🍲 between the galvanized waterer and the heater which helps keep the water warm, but not hot to where it begins to be too hot for the chickens. It probably isn’t the best solution out there, but it works for us and our hens are happy 😃 .

James Gibbon

Once our water situation was under control, we began to worry about the warmth of our hens. Everything we read online said not to worry about heating up the coop, but as the temperatures got lower we began to get more and more concerned 😟 😳. Heat lamps are a big fire concern, but when there is snow everywhere, it is kind of hard to take this fire concern seriously 😐 - so we bought a heat lamp. We bought our heat lamp at our local farm and ranch supply store, but here is a link to the exact model we bought - https://www.amazon.com/Woods-Clamp-Lamp-Reflector-Guard/dp/B003XV8QOU/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=chicken+heat+lamp&qid=1572374147&sr=8-4.

Once we had the heat lamp we needed to install it in the coop. The only problem was we only had one electrical cord going from the house to the coop and ultimately had to make a decision as to which warming device was more valuable. We installed the heat lamp and decided the water heater was more valuable since it prevents the water from freezing. The nice thing about us installing the heat lamp though, is that we can easily switch the electricity from the waterer to the heat lamp.

James Gibbon

Finally, we lined the coop with a mixture of both soft shavings and straw. This gives the hens plenty to move around and nestle into when it gets cold. This coop has been a huge work in progress and I’m sure we will make some more adjustments as the winter progresses. Please feel free to leave a comment below and suggest what we should do next!

Until next time…

-JG