I woke up at six this morning so that I could get some gardening time in before the humidity made the work unbearable.

I had had good company.

I live a few miles from where the Concord grape was developed back in 1849. They’ve become part of the wild landscape. In the fall you can smell their sweet, musky scent along the roadsides. Concord grapevines grow near the woods across the street from my house. The Girl Scouts always get to harvesting them before I think of it, which is okay, because they make jelly which they sell to raise funds, and I buy it at the Harvest Fair. Anyway, they’re welcome to traipse through the meadow and encounter poison ivy and ticks in order to collect the grapes. It’s a lot of work for a fruit with a tough skin and center pits which are large and bitter.

I decided that I should grow my own grapes. I found three hybrids through Gurney’s that are seedless, edible as table fruit, and yet grow in my northern clime.  I had a plan: grow the grapes along the Gem’s enclosure, which the plants would climb, and eventually cover. The vines would provide shade, protection from hawks, and fruit for me (and drops for the hens.) The grapes arrived last spring as small bare root plants. This spring they were reaching for the sky.

They were twining onto the strings that I’d criss-crossed the run with to deter raptors.

It was time to put in an arbor. My husband and son got to work.

You can see that the Gems have crammed themselves into the shade at the side of the Little Barn.

Just a few weeks later and there’s already new shady area under the arbor.

Grapes are forming. The hens look wistfully through the fence. Don’t worry, girls, I think that there will be plenty for you!

It has been a long time in the making, but we now have the main HenCam camera sending out high-definition, high-speed video. Now you can really see how fast Phoebe is!

If you want to have a similar set-up you will need a few things.

You’ll need a cam. It will cost you $500.

If you have a rabbit,

you will have to make sure that all of the wiring is encased in bunny-proof conduits. Speaking of electric, you will need this. You won’t be able to find an electrician who knows how to install it, so you’ll have to do it yourself.

If you know what the above photo is, and you know how to get WiFi out to the coop, then you are likely already a computer geek and are paying a hefty fee for your internet service. To be able to stream fast video worldwide, be prepared to spend about $1,000 yearly above what you’re already paying.

There’s no out-of-the-box system for you to plug in. So, you’ll likely have to spend months teaching yourself how to configure and program your website to accommodate the video.

Really, what you need is one of these:

Sorry, you can’t have my husband. He did, though, write a FAQ to share what he now knows about how to run a cam. Read here.

Although the cams are outdoor, surveillance cams, designed to withstand graffiti vandals, they are no match for goats and hens. They need replacing every two years. The other three cams are beginning to fail, and will hopefully be replaced with this new high-speed system when we can. Seven years ago, when I started this website, I thought that it would be a simple way to let readers know about my books. The books never did cover the costs of this site, even as HenCam became my full-time job. It became time to treat what I do here as my “real” work, which is why I have GoogleAds in the margins. The “coffee” money goes a long way to enable me to do what I do here (and some really does go to my coffee habit.) Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to this site! I love what I do, and I love sharing the animals in my backyard with you. Now you’ll be able to experience more as I do. What fun!

PS: There are bound to be glitches. There might be a delay before the video comes on – up to 10 seconds. There might be a lag time with the livestream. We’re not sure what will happen when there’s a lot of you watching at one time. If you can’t access it at all, please leave a comment with details, like the device that you watch on and your server. It will help ITGuy get the bugs out.

The chicken’s egg comes out an orifice called the vent. It’s the same exit that manure plops out of. But, in nature it’s essential that the shell is not covered in excrement as that would put the chick developing inside of the egg in danger of bacterial infection. So, there are layers of safeguards in place for the egg to be laid spotlessly clean.

First of all, a hen does not poop in the nesting box. A broody hen always leaves the box to leave her daily, (truly disgusting) poop. If your hens are fouling the boxes, that’s because they’re sleeping in them, which should be discouraged. If there is an occasional mess in the box, clean it up with a kitty litter scoop.

Many hens have manure on their bottoms’ feathers, but chickens lay their eggs standing up and in such a posture that the egg mostly avoids the mess. (Note that I prefer shavings in nesting boxes because it’s easy to keep clean; in these photos, Twinkydink is in Phoebe’s hutch, and it was too good a photo opportunity to pass up!)

See how she tips and squats when the egg comes out?

The round end comes out first.

But what of the manure inside the vent’s passage? The egg never touches it! As the egg is laid, the oviduct that the egg has traveled through, turns a bit inside-out and fills the vent and protrudes out a tad. So, it’s the same hole, but the egg travels down a different tube than the manure. Amazing! You can see it retracting in this photo.

When laid, the egg is wet, but dries in about ten seconds, Here it is, glistening at Twinkydink’s feet

It doesn’t look very safe there, does it? Our chickens are not exactly dainty-toed. The other hens will come into the box, with their dinosaur feet, stomping around, and finally, after much hullabaloo, will lay their own eggs. Shells are remarkably sturdy, and the first year of lay, the shells will be quite strong and able to withstand the trodding. As a hen ages, her shells thin. A good diet can help keep the eggs from cracking and breaking. In any event, if you haven’t watched your own hens lay their eggs, take a stool out to the coop and watch. It’s worth waiting for.

After a challenging week here it seemed as if things were on the upswing. By Thursday evening it was clear that the bacterial infection wasn’t going to claim the lives of any of my chickens. Even Opal was on the mend. Opal is one tough hen to come back so resoundingly well from such a serious bout with that respiratory ailment. When I closed up the barn last night, all of the hens were clear-eyed. They were breathing better and I breathed a sigh of relief.

But this morning when I opened the barn up, it looked like Pearl had had a pillow fight with herself. Soft cochin feathers were everywhere.

What was going on? There was a big bare patch on Pearl’s back.

Had she been attacked? The skin was smooth and I didn’t see a sign of injury or aggression. Hmmm…. I picked her up and a clump of feathers came off in my hand. I checked her for feather mites and lice. None. I concluded that Pearl is molting. (Read all about the molt here.)

Pearl was unaffected by the respiratory bug, at least she didn’t have the symptoms. However, stress can bring on the molt. Maybe that is why she lost about 500 feathers overnight. Then again, maybe it’s her time. The poorest layers molt first and heaven knows she doesn’t earn her keep her in eggs. I collect only one a week from her.

Oh well, about 9,000 more feathers to go.

Now that the intensive nursing is over with, I can get back into the garden. There’s a healthy population of bees and pollinators helping me out, as seen here on this sunflower. (Don’t miss the one in the bottom right flying in as I took the photo.)

This is a good note to begin a new week with, don’t you think?