If I’m ever having a bad day and need a laugh I think I’ll pull this clip up. Penny makes me laugh whenever I look at her! First off, she’s got hardly any tail or neck, so she’s shaped like a bowling ball with a head, second, she stands upright and looks like she’s wearing pantaloons right down to her ridiculous feathered feet, and third – well, you really have to see her come running when I show up with treats!
Category: chickens
Chickens in the snow (or not)
When I checked on the chickens this morning I saw Big Bird out with one of his buff hens.
I was out in the pasture watching Barclay tear up a molehill when I heard a strange crow from Big Bird which I hadn’t heard him make before. I went over to investigate and found him walking around calling for his hens. The other chicken you hear is the one buff hen answering him.
But the hens aren’t stupid, it’s cold outside! They were all in the coop nice and warm and working on laying eggs!
A chicken in every pot…
Ahem..Flowerpot, that is! Our pesky chickens refuse to be contained in their area, and they have been causing havoc all around the house, knocking on the front door (Dave almost let them in the other day when he walked by and saw something orange on the porch and assumed it was a cat!), pooping on the walkways, and now settling in for a nice dustbath in the deck planters!
Our reward for them trashing the place – well, four more eggs today! And the smaller one is blue. It’s hard to tell by the picture, but it’s not white, and it’s not brown – it’s got a blue/green tinge to it. I think that is from one of the ‘wild’ chickens, since they are mixes. One must have a little ‘easter-egger’ mixed in her family tree.Barclay’s big weekend
Here’s a funny chicken story for today – wish I had got pictures. Barclay went outside and the chickens were in the yard, so I watched him from the window, hoping he wouldn’t chase them. Instead he came up to one of the friendlier hens, got nose to nose with her, then barked and turned around and stuck his wagging tail in her face, wanting her to chase him and play with him – man that boy needs another puppy to play with!! The chicken didn’t know what to do! You should have seen the shocked look on her face!
Yesterday Barclay went to the indoor dog park in Hazel Dell. He has a great time there playing with the boston terriers, and there was a beagle/terrier mix there that he got on great with. A shepherd and a pit bull showed up just before we left, and the shepherd fussed at him a little, and he didn’t know how to take it, it kind of shut him down. But it was time to go anyway. I’m sure he’ll have forgotten it next time we go. He loves playing with the other dogs. It’s great to watch him just being a dog!
Then this morning (after the chicken incident) we went to a herding lesson. At first he kept wanting to bite the sheep on the back legs, and the teacher was joking maybe he needed to work cows! He was a white heeler, instead of a blue heeler 🙂 But then she got a little more action with the rake and he started to get it. I think he did really good for having had a month off thanks to the weather and then the holiday. And he always has so much fun doing it, and then sleeps the rest of the day!
The best part of today was when he wandered into the chicken pen and Dave called him from the backdoor, and Barclay came running! Then at herding practice I called him away from the sheep and he dropped what he was doing and came running. Then he did it again this afternoon when Dave called him into the house! We taught him to come as a puppy, then he ‘forgot how’ as an independant teenager, but now it’s finally coming back to him. Nothing in the world feels as good as calling your dog and seeing him running towards you!
Who’s that knockin’?
Tap tap tap…
Mom, there’s somebody at the door!
“Excuse me, do you have any stale bread in there?”
“Honey, did they say if they have any bread?”
I think we’d better give them what they want…
We’re outnumbered! Rooster Tales
Well, my suspected rooster turned out to be a rooster for sure, and I really don’t need two boys. They get along fine for now, but I don’t want cock-fights down the road. I decided to put him on CL for $15, figuring if anyone was willing to pay $15 for him they probably weren’t planning on eating him. Sure enough, I got emails from someone wanting to know his age and see pictures of him, and tomorrow they’re coming to pick him up.
As you can see, he is turning out to be a very handsome bird (he’s the one on the left, Big Bird is on the right), and starting to get a really nice tail. He’s probably going to turn out nicer than Big Bird, but I’m already attached to Big Bird, so I decided the new boy would be the one to go. I tell you, I just LOVE these Buff Orpington chickens, they are so pretty, and they just look right to me – they look just like a farm chicken should.
Peaceful Sunday
Sunday was a beautiful sunny day.
The sheep and goats ate their fill of hay then spent the rest of the day sunning themselves.
The llamas did the same, happy knowing there was more hay in the manger if they needed it.
The chickens were in their pen, safe from Barclay
And all the chickens were happily scratching away, including the hen who got her tail feathers pulled (she still has a tail, it’s just not as full as the other girls).
I hope your Sunday was just as nice!
The further adventures of our chickens
I enjoy my chickens a lot. They seem to always be up to things. I never know what they are going to be up to next. For example the other day I walked through the living room, glanced out at the back deck and saw this:
But as you can see they have run of the yard, and won’t be confined to the orchard – they always manage to sneak out and go exploring. Unfortunately that meant Tuesday morning I was getting hay, and the chickens were around front (or so I thought), and Barclay and Alki were in the orchard where the coop is. I went to get hay for the llamas, and was only a short distance away, when I ran back hearing squawking, and saw Barclay had one of the new hens by the tail! He got a mouthful of feathers, and she went running flapping away! Well, of course who could resist, now he started chasing, the other chickens came to see what was happening, they got chased, it was chaos – until I finally told him to sit and for some reason he did, long enough for me to grab his leash.
When it was all over the new hen had vacated the area. She was GONE!
Friends said ‘don’t worry, she’ll come home when she’s hungry’, but Wednesday and Thursday went by, still no chicken. I figured she was gone for good.
This morning I was feeding the chickens some bread, and counted and everyone I expected was there. They all had a great time, Big Bird was eating out of my hand, and when I was done I went out to work in the shop. I glanced out the window and saw a buff hen under the neighbor’s tree. Hmm? How did a hen get over there so fast, we were just all around back! So I ran back to the coop and counted, and everyone was still there, so the hen under the tree was my wayward hen!
Dave came with me and we walked over to the neighbor’s place and kind of cornered her under the tree. She climbed up in it, and put in a little effort to get away, but not much. I snagged a foot and pulled her flapping out of the tree, quickly got her safely tucked under my arm, and talked nice to her all the way home. She didn’t mind being carried at all, once she was caught she settled right down. I took her back and put her in the coop with her sister.
So tonight I’m back to my full house of ten chickens – Big Bird the rooster, New Rooster, the 2 buff sisters, Penny the Cochin, the two new hens, and the 3 wild chickens. I told Dave we need to expand the chicken coop now! At least I know they’re warm – look at them packed in there! I have been leaving the top open to make room for extra seating 🙂
Two more chickens!
This is why I shouldn’t be looking on craigslist unless it’s for something specific! I saw someone about a mile away selling two Buff Orpington hens for $14, and of course I jumped on it. My hens’ egg production has been less than stellar – I’m sure any day now they’ll all start laying at once and I’ll have more eggs than I know what to do with (actually, I doubt it, because I know a lot of cool recipes with eggs). So now I have 2 roosters (the one I wasn’t sure about is pretty certainly in the rooster column now) and 8 hens!
Here the new girls are in the pen next to the dog crate they came home in, while the rest of the flock checks them out.
This is the whole flock. Once I opened the pen to let everyone into the coop, there was a little fighting, and Big Bird ran off the biggest new hen. But I picked him up and put him in the dog crate, then went and rescued her from the bushes where she was hiding, and carried her around while I let him out and shooed everyone into the coop. Surprisingly neither one gave me any trouble with being caught or carried around! In fact she was quite calm about being held! I have Buff Orpingtons because they are supposed to be calm and easy to handle. I guess so! Once everyone was in the coop I put the new girls in there. My chicken mentor said to put them in the coop at night and when they wake up together they’ll all be one big happy flock. We’ll see!
The chickens are still my favorite part of the farm. They are friendly and fun to watch, they make a pleasant noise, they eat just about everything you offer them, they follow me around the yard, and every now and then they give us eggs – what a deal!
Chickens in the garden!
Chicken fertilizer is great, and chickens eat bugs, but I can see why you don’t want them in your garden until you’re done with it for the season – they just burrow down and make themselves at home!
Steff Does Stuff! 
