A recent discovery, I really enjoy getting updates from the site in my reader and I try to visit every day I can to view the various webcams. The owner of the site is a lady who lives in a small town outside of Boston.
There's an outside cam (pictured above), where you can find the hens on most days. It's fun to watch them peck and scratch the ground and I find it as entertaining as watching an aquarium full of fish. There's also inside cameras, one in a separate barn for chickens and another for the same chickens pictured in the above screen shot. There's also a GoatCam (actually two, one for inside and another outside that will switch between them on a motion sensor) that shows the activities of the two Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats, Pip and Caper.
The hens also all have names, but I'm not familiar enough yet to recognize each of them. There's a page with photos of each with their names. If you watch long enough, you'll also see Phoebe the rabbit hopping in or out of the view.
Today's article was very interesting, about re-introducing a hen - Beulah - back into the flock. (there really IS such a thing as a "pecking order"). Check it out; if you like animals and especially chickens (and goats and rabbits!) you're sure to enjoy it as I do.
5 comments:
nice looking birds, clean and in great shape. I book marked that one.
The goats are cute, well I could see one of them , the other I could only see the back end ! made a nice scene with the snow out and the sun coming through the trees , poor things must be feeling a bit chilly.
I've read a lot about chickens over the last few yrs. Alison, and according to people that own them who live in colder climates, they handle it pretty well. Apparently they don't like walking in snow - who does? - but they do fairly well, better than you'd think. Frostbite on their combs seems to be the biggest concern.
Mine got a few specks of frost bite this winter. It was too humid in their coup because I have one hen that likes to really splash and play in their water fount. That extra water in the bedding makes i humid when I close them up for the night.
I think my little flock did better with fewer birds as well. It's a bit crowed with the 11 I have now.
Does anyone want a rooster?
I've read about excess humidity in coops, Barb. Seems contradictory, but from what I've read, having a ventilated coop is important not only during the summer but during the winter months, too. Humidity is the reason I've seen given against the deep litter method. I don't know, esp. since I've never had chickens and haven't been able to compare them. One "expert" says she doesn't keep water in her coop, but I believe I'd have some in there anyway; animals can go a while w/out food but not water.
Funny about the rooster, maybe you should make broth/stock out of him! I watched a video on caponizing the other day - if I had a BUNCH of chickens and either let the hens set some eggs or incubated them myself, I'd prob. try it, although I've heard the success rate is not all that great. Murray MacMurray hatchery has sales all the time on roosters, pretty cheap and I guess if you butcher them young, they're all right to eat.
I don't eat a lot of eggs, but I sure see a difference when I watch - for example - Martha Stewart - crack one open to use in baking and the pale yolks in my store-bought eggs. I've also seen vids on the horrible conditions in factory farms, makes me feel really sorry for the hens.
Many people posting on the chicken forums treat their hens as pets and that's fine, but I'm a little too frugal for that and would prob. butcher them at the end of their egg-laying days. I'd rather them have a good life w/ plenty of room and sunshine and have just "one bad day" than have them go ahead and eventually die in a few yrs. after they quit laying.
Thanks f/ posting!
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