1/31/2013: Chickens and Gorillas

I am still laughing an experience today.  The day started with the usual coffee/paper/FB/e-mail/Words With Friends.  Then shower, grocery shopping, unload and put away stuff, lunch with Mom and Sister.   Karen and I decided to run by PetCo as she needed dog biscuits.  I went looking for a toy for Annie our dog.  Karen had bought a monkey that screeched toy for her dog.  I loved it, but they were all gone.  They did have a stuffed gorilla that makes gorilla growls.  Bought it for Annie.

Of course Annie loved it...as soon as she stopped being afraid of it's screech.  Meanwhile I went out to release the chickens into the yard.  Annie dashed past me with her gorilla in her mouth.  At first the girls ignored her ....until Annie squeezed the Gorilla.  Then all hell broke loose!

The girls were over buy the grass, heard the screech and jumped 3 feet in the air, sideways, landing with a boom on the wooden deck, then ran as fast as they could to me, wild-eyed and wanting Momma to help them escape horrible beast in the yard.  I laughed until I fell down...then felt terribly guilty about laughing at my girls.  I soothed them, gave them raisins, and put the gorilla in the house.

Found that chicken's recovery period from terror is rapid, especially when raisins are involved.    10 minutes later they were cruising around the yard.

January 30, 2013: Potholders into chicken coats, my next project.

 

These look easy to knit, if you can knit, which I can't.  I think I could modify potholders though to accomplish the same thing,  If we get snow here some day, I will consider it.  Mean while Barbara and Mabel continue to lay an egg a day.  Yesterday I met 3 lady friends for lunch.  We have known each other for well over 10  years and when we get together we occasionally exchange small gifts.  Yesterday I carefully wrapped Mabel's blue eggs in 3 little packets and tied them each with a bow.  They all agreed that they had never received a lovely fresh blue chicken egg as a gift before. 

I may reconsider my future gift giving, and give pretty chicken eggs instead.  How would you feel if you got a dozen fresh eggs wrapped in pretty wrapping?

The girls are still getting used to the chicken yard.  They want to  be out having the run of the back yard, but are just too destructive.  Cutting them back to 2 hours of free ranging per day has allowed are lawn to sprout and the plants a break from pecking, rooting chickens.  They complain bitterly, but daily the complaints are shorter and not as loud. 

Meanwhile the girls are content, one on my lap, one on Cal's eating raisins out of our hands.  Yesterday Mabel even fell asleep while i was petting her little red head. 

Life is good.  I may market my potholder- slash- chicken coat idea to other chicken loving non-knitters.  Be well my friends.

January 21, 2013: Getting Used to the Chicken Yard

Cal and I completed the Chicken Yard late last week, and moved the coop and the girls into it.  We also added a dust bath, and a nice blue tarp to cover the whole yard to keep out the rain and wind.

Do the chickens like and appreciate our efforts:  Hell NO!  They want out, Right Now!  Frankly they are ingrates, but also adorable.  Kind of like children.  I will post a picture of the chicken yard here if I can or on my Facebook page.  It is so nice that we could close it in, add a recliner, TV, small fridge. and carpeting, and it could be Cal's Man Cave.

I am proud of us.  It truly is the Taj Mahal of chicken yards.  My sister walked by yesterday and said she could here the girls chortling and cocococoing happily in there.

The other reason I am so happy to have this done, is that we can now leave for more than 3 days, and they have plenty of room to run around.  It is safer and more secure than the chicken patio Cal built when we first got them.  Case in point; at 2:20am we were awakened by a cat howling right outside our bedroom slider.  Damn cat.  I love them, but I will not let them intimidate the chickens.  So Cal ran, turned off the alarm while I let Annie out to run that cat off, which she did immediately.  Not a peep was heard from the chickens.  Pardon the pun.  They were safely ensconced in their nest, inside their coop in there completely enclosed chicken yard.  Take that neighborhood predators!

The truth be told, I think Barbara could take any cat around.  She is huge, and fearless.  When she runs at you, believe me, I get a momentary feeling of anxiety, until I remember that I could drop kick her over the fence if need be. I would never ever do that, but it is good to know I could if she got hinky.
We are now getting 2 eggs a day most days.  They are beautiful.  Thanks girls.

January 17, 2013: Alert the media!

Mabel laid her first egg.  She's been with us for 3+months and was supposed to be 16 weeks old when we got her.  We wondered whether she was odd, a male in disguise, or just slow.

Turns out she is her own girl and devided when and where she would lay.  Her sweet little egg is pale blue and about the same size as Barbara's,

Thank you Mabel.  We love you even more.

January 16, 2013: Chicken S---T!!!

The Chicken Wrangler is going to get really real today.  The topic is chicken poop.  Chicken lover/owners already know this, but chicken lovers who do not yet have chickens may not. 

Here's how I decided to write about this crappy subject.  Cal and I were coming home Monday night from a Ministry Team Meeting at Church, when we sped up to get through a light and the car filled with that telltale smell.  We looked at each other and said, "not me".  Turns out it was the catalytic converter ( at least that is what Cal said).  I said " that smell is familiar to me".... from the chickens.

In the morning when I go to let the little darlings out,  Barbara will almost always have just pooped, and I mean pooped a tennis ball sized poop in the coop.  Not only is it huge, but the smell drops you to you knees and makes your eyes burn and water.  I mean you just have to jump back, as soon as you regain your feet that is.  It is a much more pungent smell then the catalytic converter, more organic, but similar.

Next topic:  Chickens poop a lot.  And yes it is a good fertilizers IF you do not put it directly on your plants.  It needs time in a compost pile or it could kills the plants, and let me tell ya the smell alone could do it. 

Now chicken poop does not continue to smell like a sulphurous gas from the bowels of Hell.  It mellows over time and dries out rapidly, so it is easy to dispose of and not stinky.  Of course we only have two chickens.  If you  have a few dozen you have a different level of issue, but for just the two hens, it is no biggie. 

What is a bigger issue is the uprooting of the lawn and plants.  The girls are walking and scratching in the lawn and flower beds all day long as we let them roam free.  They have decimated the part of the lawn right off the patio.  Between that and the rains a few weeks ago, we have a mud patch.  Going to re-seed that.  Meanwhile the building of the chicken yard is almost complete.  The girls may not like it, but there days of roaming free in the yard 10-12 hours per day are over.  We will let them out for a few hours in the morning, maybe for a bit in the afternoon, but it's back in the chicken yard for them.

It's not like it's punishment cause their coop is in there, it is completely screened in, top included, and will have a tarp covering it as well.  The ground is cement, but we will have a dust bath area for them, plus their scratch etc. and it is a 70 sq. foot area.  I'll post a picture on my facebook page when we are done.

None of these issues stops me from having chickens.  Just like you dog or cat, you love them, they love you and you have to deal with the poop, and damage that is possible.  Fortunately the trade off is well worth it.  Funny pets with benefits.

January 14, 2013: It's Cold!!!!!

Added another layer of insulation to the chicken house.  Now it looks even more like Ma and Pa Kettle have set up housekeeping in the yard.  It looks tacky, but it does the trick.  Mabel and Barbara do not seem bothered by the cold as much as I worry that they are.  They go about their chicken  business as if it were a balmy 70 degrees out there. 

It has been sunny and Cal is continuing to work on the chicken yard next to the house.  We are building them a larger area to hang out in for when we are gone for a few days, and frankly, so that our lawn has a chance to recover.  Turns out chickens are death to your lawn with their pecking and scratching, so the lawn just off our patio is pretty much mud, and our wild strawberries around the big tree have dissappeared leaving a bald mound.  Still, all that can be replaced and regrown, and meanwhile we have had the delight of having these girls, plus the eggs of course.

We got the girls o October 10th, 2012.  That is only 3 months ago! Yet I feel as if we have had them forever, and in a good way.  I woke up after Cal this morning and pulled back the curtains on the glass doors in the bedroom, and what do I see?  Two pretty chickens preening, strutting and sashaying around the patio.  As soon as they saw me they came running to the door.  "There's Mommy,  think she has some raisins?" 

We love Mabel even of she does not lay eggs.  She does not know she is kind of an anamoly. My friend Leslie recommended we find a rooster to make Mabel's acquaintence, as some times that is what chickens need to get the drift about laying eggs.  Perhaps I will look for a friend who has chickens who has a rooster.  We can't have them in the City.

January 10, 2013: Another Day for the Chicken Wrangler

I am so fortunate to be able to live in our nice little house, and rise every day to the delightful chatter of our little feathered girls, as well as the kisses and nuzzles from Annie our dog...and of course the hugs and kisses from my dear hubby.

Today the girls hit the yard with a vengeance, scattering the little birds who visit to eat what the girls spread around the feeder.  It was sunny, cold, but really pretty out.  They made for the spots, and just chattered away.

Throughout the day every time I went near the back doors, there they were.  As I walked front the dining room back to  bedroom, there they were again looking at me through the glass door.  I honestly feel that they miss us and want us to come out and say hi.  Either that or they want their raisin fix. 

Januray 9, 2013: Jumping Chickens

Cal and I are still coughing and what not, but have managed to get out and clean the girls coop, replacing their pine shavings with fresh new ones about 6 inches deep.  New year, new shavings!

And I have got to keep my phone handy to video Mabel as she continues to jump on the little table outside the bedroom glass doors and peer in at us. She looks, stares, lifts her little head up high and tries to get us to come out and play.

Day before yesterday I sauntered into my bathroom, and opened the blinds only to see a cat creeping again.  Barbara was faced off with the cat, so I banged on the window, called to Cal who then let our fearless canine companion Annie out.  She swooped around the hedges and the cat took off.  Barbara did not seemed the least bit disturbed. Idon't think the cat knows what he/she is in for.  Barbara packs a mean peck.

Meanwhile the weather has put our Chicken yard on hold.  Got the 2 by 4s glued down, but that's it so far.  Got to wait for drier weather.

My dear husband has successfully instituted a behavioral training for the girls resulting in them jumping up and down for raisins.  I posted a video on FB and will try to post it again here for my dear readers. Well, can't get the video to attach.  Will try again later.

I have forgotten if I mentioned that I am considering writing a chldren's book called : Mabel: the City Chicken Who Did Not Lay Eggs.  The message will be that laying eggs is not all it's cracked up to be. 

January 5, 2013: Happy Damn New Year!

Well hell, been sick for 6 days with a flu bug so my New Years Eve Party plans with Cal, friends and family up at the cabin went down the tubes.   Haven't felt like writing much, just laying in bed.

Meanwhile the girls are missing us as we haven't been out to play with them much beyond freeing them from the coop, throwing out some scratch twice a day and hurriedly passing out raisins to the demanding little girls.

I think they've had it.  They have taken to doing their dust baths right outside the bedroom slider peering in frequently as if to say " hey you!  Remember us?".  The today Mabel actually came to the window and hopped up on the table outside, looked at me, stretched out her little neck and said BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, in a loud tone.  I think that's chicken speak for WTH?

Hopefully after our visit to the MD this morning we are on the mend, fully loaded with mega-antibiotics and cough syrup.  Yes, Cal and I are both sick at the same time.  Odd situation.  We both look like death warmed over, and lay next to each other, just occasionally touching hands, and asking" are you still alive?    

I know the girls want to come in and help, but ah..... NO.  Hold on feathered babies, Mommy and Daddy will be back to relative normalcy soon.  Meanwhile Annie our Dog is in heaven.  She gets to lie on the bed with us all day getting frequent pets and trying to nurse us back to health with her soulful looks.

Happy 2013.