chicken drama

last week—after a long, long day—at three in the morning, rupert began growling and shaking in my bed. in my daze i patted him and told him to go back to sleep. moments later, the puppy starts barking.

then i became vaguely aware of the horrified chicken screams outside.

and out i go! rupert and i to save the day!
except for one small chicken.

so we lost a chicken.
i am thinking to a raccoon. whatever it was was tree-able. the other chickens were scattered and hiding in their yard. i spent an hour rounding them up, finding a light, and generally battening down the hatches.

rupert was impressively helpful. he never harms the chickens, he helps round them up and was very very concerned about the backyard intruder. a good dog is a real treat some days.

small updates from a small suburban farmstead

• saturday: started my first batch of seeds: onions and brassicas, and a little spinach for good measure.
• sunday: the chicken passed away, i was content in knowing i did what i could and she was warm and calm. i am contemplating new chickens this summer, but a little tired of the additional work.

sick chicken

well, she lived through the night...
not sure what that means.

one of the buffs appears to have egg yolk peritonitis. (how do i know? first hand.)
i noticed it after coming home from vacation. so i soaked her in a warm bath, cleaned her, oiled her up and snuggled her into a towel under a heat lamp.

i have been giving her a watery cornmeal mash with lots of garlic in it.

last night i thought i might wake to a dead chicken.
but this morning she was looking a little better. so we shall see.

don't really know what kind of outcome to expect. at least she is warm and calm.

pretty ladies

ramona, margaret thatcher, abbey, rosa parks

wet hens

lots and lots of rain today!

a weak constitution

i spent twelve dollars on a whim.

a chicken whim.

i am now the proud owner of five more baby chickens.

but this year i am doing it right and boarding them with a friend. last year all the chickens were raised at my house, it seems only appropriate to pass the mantle at some point.

i had initially chosen to not buy more chickens. but then this coming winter came to mind and the lack of eggs currently probably swayed my choices. if i recall, i think the chicken generations break down as such:

first year—two buffs (iphegenia and io)

second year—two arucanas, one barred rock, two bantys, two sex links, one iowa blue

third year—three wyanadottes, one speckled sussex, one maran, two arucanas

i expect that the two oldest and at least three of the second generation aren't laying much.

so yesterday i picked up two arucanas, two sex links and a rhode island red. three excellent layers and two fancy eggers. over the summer and into the winter i may look at finding some retirement homes for some of the older chickens, we'll see how things unfold once the longer days come along.

baby chicks are pretty damn cute.

chickens!

magdelene, charlotte, emily, amelia and io

spring chickens

poor chickens.
tasty, tender, young vegetables awaiting their demise and i keep them locked up in the coop instead. funny how a chicken and a garden seem to go hand in hand, yet it takes work to keep the two peacefully coexisting.

i've inherited some wheat and have been soaking it over night for them.
they seem to like it and it helps water them to boot. have been seriously considering adding gutters and a rain barrel by the chickens. would make watering oh-so-easy. would like to seed their yard and provide them fresh growing grass to eat, but i've been hoping that for years. maybe this year? maybe.

in the meantime, they are still providing me with delicious eggs.
case in point: asparagus quiche.
asparagus, red pepper, feta, chives and caramelized onion quiche.

this was the start of my thursday night. 

i rounded it out with cheap well drinks and a movie.

if only chickens liked movies...

chicken photo of the week

charlotte bronte: dark and intense

chicken photo of the week

apparently the girls lack patience
pictured (well, in the can) anne frank, angela merkel, iphegenia, abbey, ramona and emily bronte

chick days are upon us

...and this year i will be buying zero.
because i already have these three lovely ladies, and another seventeen more.

iphegenia, io and alice. up to no good.

but if you are a bibliophile who is interested in chicken rearing, i recommend this book.

chicken report

we are now back in the egg business with ten a day!
i'm not the only one excited with similar news.

a quiet november

the cold days seem slower.
the 'lazy days of summer' are somehow action packed, the sunlight invigorating us. now it is colder, darker. when i leave work the sun has set making the three hours between work and my summer dinnertime (eight) feel like forever. i eat early, i settle in and i sleep.

so there has been little to talk about.

some applesauce made, a pumpkin baked, wines and ciders tasted, good meals eaten. the leaves are mostly gone but are still in piles for rupert to jump through on our walks, there is snow in the mountains and i've had one wonderfully toasty successful fire in my fireplace.

no bread under my belt, but one dark days meal on record.
(the dark days challenge is indeed succeeding in making the time go by faster—nothing like a deadline to make long days seem short!)

today, with the holiday looming, work was quiet and i left early.
the opportunity to go home when it was still light out was a present in and of itself, and i used it to the best possible end: tidying up the chickens and winterizing the bunnies (i.e., lots and lots of hay and water in convienent and protected areas).

the coop is now cleaned up and re-arranged, their food and water stores replenished and a light strung up to improve their laying. i've been lax on this last one and wow, you notice it real fast. two birds moulting, one injured and the rest in winter-mode leaves me high and almost dry on eggs. things should improve in the coming weeks. i also restrung the tarp along the backside to break up cold drafts. the girls should be in good shape for winter.

and so...back to that pumpkin...any ideas what i should do with it?

chicken catastrophe 2009: iphegenia

last week i found iphegenia trapped under the window well grate.
the chickens have been loose and the dog will chase them but hasn't made serious attempts at catching them or killing them, so i have let it fly (har har).

when i pulled iphegenia out, her neck was a wreck. featherless, leathery, scabby.
i don't know if the pooch was nipping at her or if her fellow flockmates were—i have been relatively negligent in my chicken duties sad to say. i placed her back in the coop with some scratch next to her and let her be.

next day, i didn't see her out in the yard. and immediately i begin to feel like she was probably dead. probably at the hands of her fellow flockmates. i did some cautious investigating and didn't find her in the window well or with the other hens. i also didn't find her body anywhere either.

but i was just not in the mood to discover and deal with a dead chicken, so i waited.

next day—still no iphegenia. so i started the canvass and after basically giving up, found her—wedged in the woodpile. really wedged in there, to the point where an excavating mission must take place.

she was alive but her neck looked atrocious, so i set into motion creating a separate area for her within the coop with lots of water and food. her neck was bleeding but she doesn't seem bothered by it in the least and when i checked on her later in the evening she had escaped from my enclosed 'recuperation' area and joined the other ladies. so i said have at it and let her be.

that was several days ago, she still looks a fright but is plugging along and not taking any crap from any of the other girls. been debating cleaning her neck and bandaging her, but have yet to do so.

perhaps tonight that will be my plan.
somehow bathing and bandaging a chicken just doesn't sound like fun.

so long sue

a boy named sue

i didn't think that i could get rid of sue, the rooster. but i could. and did.

in the dark of night tonight (which occurs now at 7pm) i snagged sue and benito.
out to the farm we went, they were quiet in the car and quiet when i placed them in the coop.

there time at the farm will be limited to a week or so—the roosters will be meeting their fate soon and the chickens will move to sarah's for the winter. would love to keep sue around, but roosters+neighbors=eh.

now our backyard will be quiet, my roommates and neighbors will be glad.

slowing down

its been a nice fall weekend.
spent a lot of it on the couch—living room window open to the sunny blue fall sku. but i did take a few breaks to clean up the backyard a little and enjoy some fresh air. now that the garden is dead i've left the gate open a few times to allow the chickens to poke through and clean up.

margaret thatcher, chillin'

the girls are doing well. with all the tomato cooking, vegetable harvesting and garden clean up they have been eating quite well. with the oncoming cold weather i'll need to clean up their coop and yard. this year i'll spread some hay-bales out, given them something to scratch around in and mitigate the mud.

charlie's angels? emily, grace and ramona

haven't spent much time watching the girls lately, too busy i suppose. today though it was enjoyable to watch them running around the backyard with the final tomatoes and other discovered treats.

new chicken names

the flock is complete!

red banty rooster is now benito puccilinni
(stemming from a trivial pursuit question)

barred rock hen is now angela merkel
(stemming from the story told today about the trivial pursuit question)

i feel very good about my choices.

the 2009 flock

i thought you might appreciate some chicken pictures this lovely sunday morning. this one seemed particularly cute, with all of the colors:


of the multitude raised in my backyard, i am only keeping six at home: two blue wyandottes, two amerucanas, a speckled sussex and a barred rock. anastasia, grace, emily, charlotte, amelia and yet un-named. (any suggestions?)

anastasia and grace. as my friend kelly described it, 'they look like two fat old ladies getting caught at the buffet.' i have to agree, grace's expression is especially priceless.

and this is sue. the boy named sue. i am hoping that he can stick around, he is quite cute and i really love the name. we'll see.

made it through another chicken season. am glad that things have settled into a routine. the young chickens are growing into full sized hens and there has yet to be any significant pecking order issues. very beautiful additions to the flock.

g.d. chicken ransom

last night i received a note taped to my front door.

apparently, my chickens have been eating my neighbors tomatoes. he mentioned this last week, as sarah and i were carting chickens out to the farm, and i thought the issue would be settled with the majority of the chickens gone. apparently not.

they claim they've eaten 50 lbs. of tomatoes.
a fact i have a hard time believing. but, how could i refute it?

i understand their frustration, but all in all, i'm irritated.

one, why didn't they tell me sooner?

two, i don't believe 50 lbs of tomatoes are gone—at most two chickens were over there.

three, they have a long history of growing 10x more than they need and then constantly badgering me to take things off their hands.

four, their children lob balls over the fence all the time—this past week they broke my olive oil jar. they also pull up my plants, step on my flowers, and verbally acost me all the time.

five, (and most importantly) they wrote "since we are feeding your chickens we think you should give us eggs" like a g.d. ransom. or threat. which i find completely un-neighborly. they could ask for eggs any time, they don't need to hold this chicken situation over my head and demand eggs.

so last night i shored up my fence and locked all the ladies up in the coop. they will stay there for the next week or two. maybe i'll get some grass planted and some wings clipped. either way, i'll keep them under lock and key and we'll see if any more terrorism ensues. if so, maybe its not my deal. or maybe my lost chickens are not lost, just feral.

and tonight i will leave them a dozen eggs and an apology, and then i will ignore them.

i understand the frustration of losing precious produce to chickens but i can't get over their methods. especially when i turn a blind eye to all manners of irritating behavior.

farm chickens

today, mid-dream, i was awoken:
"good morning, i brought you coffee...lets move the chickens"

and, i'm up.

this morning we moved approximately ten of the chickens out to the farm, one rooster in tow. tonight i'll complete the move. i'll say, its an amazing feeling to suddenly have fewer chickens at the house.

tonight i'll move the rest out, bring home the couple that were mistakenly relocated, and then play in the yard in celebration. its a nice feeling when a project is brought to completion.

especially for me, one of the greatest delayers of them all.

its wednesday. i'll leave them in the coop a couple of days in an attempt to have them imprint on it. it will give me time to create their run.

i'm looking forward to a productive weekend.
looking forward to getting back on track.