I search 'what'

What do I know? I know that I have four chickens. I know that they are Rhode Island Reds. We were told this when we got the chicks but has been confirmed by seeing pictures in one of my daughters childrens books about farm animals. They live in a coop that I built that is 4' by 10'. It has a 4' by 4' house area that has laying boxes and roosts built in and is elevated 20 inches off the ground. The rest of the coop is caged in with wire and the birds roam around it. It has access to the house area from a small door on the outside that has access to the laying boxes and a large door that makes up the caged in side of the house. I built in a window on either side of the house area with shutters to keep the weather out. There is a small opening for the birds to access the house area via a ramp going from ground level.

We have purchased a feeder and a waterer. These seem to work well and the birds will go through about 5 gallons of water in about 10 days. Some of this I believe is due to spillage because the waterer is suspended from the roof of the coop by cord to keep it off the ground. The water becomes quite dirty after a few days and I believe this is from the birds scratching dirt into it. About every other filling of the water I have started adding one teaspoon of bleach to the 5 gallons of water in order to prevent algae growth. This appears to work well because initially there was some green growth on the inside of the waterer and that has gone away. Initially, I had the feeder inside the house, suspended by cord. This had to be moved several times because the birds would get on the roost above the feeder and defaecate into the top of the feeder. I have recently moved the feeder outside the house area and I curious if this will make a difference in there feeding. They eat approximately four pounds of feed in a week. We initially used a chick food that had an antibiotic in it but have moved over to a pellet feed that is supposed to be formulated for mature, laying birds. This information was provided to us by the hardware store where we bought the feed. We also give them “scratch” which appears to be cracked corn, and we were told this will keep them from pecking each other.

What else do know? They make a lot of poop and apparently don't mind eating each others poop. I have put wood shavings in the house area of the coop and that seems to need to be cleaned every 2-3 weeks. I was told that I should paint the inside of the coop with Diatomaceous Earth mixed with water (old fashion White Wash) as well as sprinkle the shavings with the powered Diatomaceous Earth. This will keep the wood from rotting, keep bugs away and keep the smell down. We have been unable to purchase Diatomaceous Earth because of a nation wide shortage supposedly.

We let them out to roam the yard when we are outside with them and they appear to like this. They get excited when we come to the door of the coop and line up to try and get out. They will eat most anything. I have given them bugs and worms and they like them very much. I was told not to give them slugs because they can swell in their craw and choke them. They like the vegetables that have gone by from the garden but won't take anything off a plant just what has fallen on the ground. They don't make a lot of noise and don't mind human contact because they will readily allow us to pick them up without running off. They are enjoyable to watch.

We are getting on average 2 eggs in a 24 hour period. My seven year old daughters chore is to check for eggs when she gets home from school, and she loves this. Some days we only get one egg but on several occasions we have had four eggs. This is good for our family size and we have not bought eggs for a couple of months. I am confused by this.

I know that I do not know how many hens or how many roosters I have. This kind of bothers me. Of the four, two are lighter colored with a lighter brown and white feathers, and two are colored with a darker brown on the head and less white on the body feathers. Two have similar coloring and two have another.  We were told by friends who raise chickens that we wouldn't know if we had any roosters until we heard “cock-a-doodle-dew”. We have not heard any type of crowing from any of them. They were hatched in April we were told they should be mature in September or October. We started getting eggs in mid August so at least one hen was early. But common sense would tell me that because of the difference in coloring and the small egg count that I have at least one rooster. The plan is this when we find out if we have a rooster, and when the hens stop laying, they will get separated, fattened up for a couple weeks and then butchered. This may be hard because they have become more like pets than food, even though I have tried to prepare my kids for this inevitability.