During the summer, there were lots of fresh grass and weeds in the chicken pen and they sometimes just ignored any greens that we threw in there other than to inspect them for bugs and caterpillars. However, times have changed. Winter is here and the grass is dorment. We have a few greens in our hoop house. But, after we harvest enough for the market and eat some of them ourselves, there is not much left to feed the chickens.
When we do have some extras, we give them to the chickens. They love them and are all over them in no time.
I have some sad news to report about the chickens. We lost one this past week. We don't know what caused it to die. Tom just found it in the pen dead. It was odd because it was alive and appeared to be fine that morning when Tom let them out of the coop. This chicken was the same one that molted a couple of months ago. I recall being worried about her not having enough feathers to keep warm. However, she had grown her feathers back and apparently had been laying right up to the end because we collected 5 eggs on several days the past 2 to 3 weeks.
If you recall, we started out with 6 chicks in the spring and lost one to a snake. See the following entry to read about that.
http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/and-now-there-are-five.html
So, that left us with 5 and this death leaves us with 4. That is still plenty for us to have enough eggs for ourselves and still give some away. I guess we'll eventually have to get more chickens because they are not long-lived. But, Tom and I have both gotten somewhat attached to them and enjoy them immensely. So, it is kind of sad to have one die.
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