July 31, 2013: Hens and PMS or Broody Chickens.

W got back from our trip to the mountains to find Barbara not behaving like herself.  Our chicken sitter Jim and my sister, who checked in on the girls, said Barbara had not left the nest much.  So out we went to see the girls, first thing.

Mabel came running to greet us, but Barbara was not in sight.  We found her looking weird sitting on one of Mabel's eggs.  She looked dazed and had a scratch on here forehead.  WTH was going on.  I tried to pick her up and she pecked at me, hard!  I was afraid she was sick so we brought her water feeder and she drank a lot.  We brought her raisins and she ate them all.  We brought her yogurt and she ate it up.  So I figured she was probably not sick, but she still looked crazy.  When Cal tried to move her to clean the nest of some poop, she tried to peck the crap out of him.  Was she hurt?

Mabel was no help as she just stayed out of her sister's way.

Cal was finally able to pick her up so we could carefully look to see if she was injured.  She was not, but she puffed her feathers up so she was about three times her normal size..  A frightening sight I'll tell ya.  Cal said, do you think she might be broody, whatever that means.

To the Internet I ran.  And sure enough Barbara had all the symptoms listed.  Turns out they are much like PMS symptoms, and I know of where I speak. 
She is cranky, listless, snarky and even mean, wants to be left alone, or to pick a fight, whatever, and is bloated.  God bless the little thing she is hormonal, in spades!

It is a natural thing with most hens and there are several ways of helping her cope.  We can leave her alone and let her get over it, which can take weeks, and deprive Mabel of a nest as Barbara does not want to leave the nest AT ALL!  So that won't work.

We can get some fertile egg or baby chicks for her to sit on.......NO!!

Or we can put her in time out away from the nest, in a Taj Mahal of dog carriers with water and food and supposedly she will recover in a few days. 

So she has been sequestered since morning.  I let her our having closed the chicken yard door and she paced up and down in front of the door frantically.  I recognized the feeling and knew it was back in the carrier after a brief foray into the yard.  Mabel is confused and looks in at Barbara as if to say "what did you do?"  In solidarity with her sister Mabel has not laid an egg yet today. 

If this goes on I may have to resort to the only cure I know of......say it with me ladies....Chocolate!!!

July 17, 2013: Alert!!! Chickens Can Die When it is Too Hot!

I now I seem to be harping on this subject, but we love our little hens and would hate to lose one of them through not being aware of the things that can happen when it get so damn hot.

This past month has been a real challenge as it has been horribly hot, I mean well over 100F degrees and staying in the 90's at night.  Chickens do OK in the cold, but very hot weather can kill them.  One of our friends lost a hen from the heat. 

The backyard chickens are pets and need to be taken care of just like we do our more traditional pets.  Here is what I have learned about keeping chickens safe when it is very hot.

Of course, access to lots of cold water, and shade and damp ground.  I fill their waterers with half ice then add the water so the water stays cool.  We keep the yard watered
especially the area where they like to go and hunker down.  We wet down the floor in the chicken yard, and make sure it is fully shaded by using a cover. 

The chickens are enclosed in a chicken yard at night, so I feel safe leaving the main door into their coop open.  I crack the roof where we collect the eggs so tat air can circulate and have open the nest door and placed a stand up fan right in the open door to their nests.  The fan is on a timer and comes n automatically.  One side benefit I that this keep the coop well aerated and dry, but it also provides some relief from the terrible heat. 

We also learned that chickens like to stand in water to cool off so have a shallow baking pan full of water out in the yard in the shade.  On several afternoons when it was 111 degrees I actually squirted the girls with the hose.  They did not like it, but it helped them cool down.

We have also loaded the girls into our big dog carrier and brought them into the house.  I just lined the bottom with newspapers and threw some pine shavings, put their small waterer in their and they stayed in all day with us.  I cold not stand to see them panting with their little mouths open and lifting their wings to try to get cool, staring at us at the back glass door.  They chortled and cococoed with delight.

These efforts have kept our two girls happy, healthy and still laying 1 egg a day each.  We are also giving them cold yogurt and cold fruit which they love, and of course the ubiquitous raisins.

It has cooled of for the last week, but soaring temperatures are coming again starting tomorrow so we need to keep the girls safe and cool.

The girls like it so much inside they have even started venturing into the dining room from the patio door.  They both just stand on the throw run we have there to keep the carpet clean.  Haven't ventured any further into the house......yet.

Cool chickens are healthy chickens.  Our girls are way cool chicks.

June 15, 2013: House Cat, House Chicken: What's the Diff?

I haven't posted for a while so I've got a lot to say.  Most of you know we live in a place in northern California that gets very hot in the Summer.  Not Mojave Desert hot, but very hot nonetheless.  Miserably hot, and if anyone says's "yes, but it is a dry heat: I will smack them, cause 115 is damn hot, and dry heat feels like a blast furnace. 

Well last Friday and Saturday is was hellishly hot, and I was so worried about the girls.  We did get a fan that goes on automatically in their chicken yard, and they have ample shade and water when out in the yard, but we close them in the chicken yard at night which is shady, but still hot when it's a scorcher.  I decided last weekend that I would bring them in if they seemed to be suffering. Then I thought, hey, I can't stand to go out of the air conditioned house, so they must be suffering.

So first I wetted down the floor of the chicken yard and the patio. The lawn had already been watered.  That produced negligible relief.  I then got a great idea for these kinds of emergency situations.  I brought our large dog cage in the house.  It is on wheels and is designed to transport dogs on planes etc.  I place newspapers on the bottom, and Cal brought in the girls one at a time.  We put them in the dog carrier, in the entry way to the living room on the cool tile.  I put their water in with them and waited for any reaction. 

The only reaction we got was blissful cooing and cococcoing as the girls enjoyed the joy that is air conditioning.  We are so fortunate to be able to have and use A/C.  We kept them with us through the hottest part of the day and/or until they pooped twice.  Then I moved their fan so that it blew right into their coop.  It wasn't as cool as the A/C, but a whole lot cooler than the ambient air outside.  I put ice cubes in their water containers, and they did fine. 


The only difference between having a house cat, and a house chicken is pooping issue.  And lets face it, those of us who have had cats know they don't always use the litter box.  And I am sure with enough time and effort I could teach the girls to use a litter box.  But I digress.

Since then Carl, my brother in law and fellow chicken wrangler, told me about setting out a large shallow pan of water in the shade that the chickens can stand in.  Apparently cooling off their feet by standing in the water helps them tolerate high heat.  Come to think of it, it does the same thing for me. 

So now I have a plan for the future very hot Summer days. 

Next.
Several months ago, in fact right after we got Mabel and Barbara,  I read that chickens liked yogurt and that it was a good source of protein for them.  So I bought a big container of non-fat strawberry yogurt.  I carefully set out a bowl for them to try.  They walked in it.  They did not even try it.  So Cal and I ate strawberry yogurt for several weeks.  Oh well I thought, they eat raisins, cherry tomatoes, and mandarin oranges.  Can't have everything.

Let jump forward to last week.  I am sitting happily on the patio in the morning, drinking coffee and reading the paper, while the chickens cruise around the lawn.  I have a lovely bowl of nonfat Greek blueberry yogurt ( fruit on the bottom) over diced fresh cantaloupe.  Mabel comes running. jumps up on the chaise lounge, walks up my legs right up to my bowl and stairs over the rim of it at me.  I get nervous.  Is she turning Veloceraptor on me?  Gingerly I took some on my spoon and offered it to her.
She went nuts and as the picture shows she literally got it all over her beak in her eagerness to eat the yogurt.  Clearly this was the end of my meal for the day as she an Annie finished off my breakfast.

Why did she eschew it when I bought the girls their own yogurt?  What changed?  Here is my theory.  As with pets in general, anything you are eating they want.  And, now that the girls have learned to be social and to trust us, she was no longer afraid to barge into my breakfast by lying up and walking on my legs.  What ever caused the change, it was hilarious. 

Also found a chicken sitter to the girls for when we go on vacation.  That is a load off my mind.
I think that is all the pertinent facts for now. plus dinner is ready, so off I go.  Ciao
amici. 

June, 4, 2013: Chickens Eat Spaghetti

Did you know that if you feed spaghetti to chickens, they eat it one strand at a time, and they treat it just like a worm.....and they wipe their beaks after every strand.  So fastidious, from birds that poop right next to their food. (Check out Chickens Eating Spaghetti videos on YouTube.)

This week, after reading the latest edition of "Chickens" , we decided to try giving the girls some different treats.  They loved blueberries, really liked yogurt, and went goofy over cherry tomatoes.  They I thought I'd see if they would like bruschetta spread.  YES!!! They even ate the garlic bits.

Clearly my girls are of Italian decent just like their Mama.  Bambinas Mia.

In my last post I mentioned that  it is very hot here, and this is their first summer  ( they are just barely 1 year old).  Well they seem to be doing pretty good,  however, I inadvertently moved one of their water sources out onto the lawn from the chicken yard, and place in the shade of a tree.  They ran to  it and drank like crazy. 

Apparently they do not want to walk all the way back to the chicken yard to get a drink.  We also have been putting ice cubes into their water reservoirs to keep the water as cool as possible.  We are also changing the water daily and adding apple cider vinegar to help keep it fresh. 

News flash:  Mabel climbed from Cal's arm onto my shoulder and sat there with her little head right next to mine and we walked around the yard.  So sweet.

May 31, 2013: Summer Is Here: Our Chickens are Way Cool

While chickens tolerate the cold pretty well, they don't do so well in very hot weather.  We live in the hottest dang part of the Sacramento Valley and will be hitting 100 degrees F on Sunday. 

Our girls already have a covered chicken yard, on the shady side of our house, enclosed with chicken wire to ensure good ventilation, and they have plenty of water, but.... will that be enough?  When we are at home, they are free to run around our shady yard, but when we aren't here they are locked in the chicken yard.   Their coop is in the chicken yard.  What to do?

Our neighbor, who also has chickens uses a" mister" that sends a fine spray of water over the top of his chicken yard, but I'm not keen on all that moisture in the chicken yard, messy and maybe giving them foot rot.  Plus that means turning water off and on, and using lots of water, plus how do you do that when you are away?

I came up with a clever and I think very functional and easy answer.  We bought a cheap standing fan, put it in the corner of the chicken yard facing the coop for maximum ventilation and cooling.  We use a timer, and an outdoor extension cord and programed it to come on at 11:00am when it starts to get hot, and off at 11:00pm when it generally starts to cool off.   So far it is working great!  We can leave for the day or several days and know that the girls will be cool enough. ( we always have someone check on them if we are gone over 3 days and have a big feeder and two waterers).

Meanwhile the girls are doing great, still giving us two eggs a day like clock work.   We had a dish tonight using their eggs.  It's an Italian version of poached eggs.  Put 1 tbs. of olive oil in a non stick frying pan, set on medium heat, add garlic and 1/2 cup sliced onion, and saute' onions until transparent.  Add a pinch each of oregano, basil and herb de Provence.  Add one can of diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup of chicken broth and one tsp of sugar.  Bring to a simmer letting it reduce just a little bit.  Break 4 eggs into the tomato mixture, cover pan and simmer until eggs are like you like them.  Sprinkle with fresh grated parmesano reggiano.  Serve in two bowls, with a slice or two of grilled Italian bread rubbed with garlic, and a small green salad.  Thank you Barbara and Mabel for
a healthy delicious and easy Friday night meal.  Ciao Amici.

May 15, 2013: More than just eggs:The Benefits of Having Back Yard Chickens

Some folks keep back yard chickens strictly for the eggs.  Nothing wrong with that.  Eventually you will get a return on your original investment, 7-10 years down the line, depending on whether the chickens become pets and live like little queens in palatial coops with air conditioning and heating, or, you see them as simple egg laying machines who live in a drafty box under the house ( in which case you should not have backyard chickens).

The eggs are delicious, unadulterated by whatever egg factories feed their chickens.  Just natural delicious protein.  But there is so much more to having back yard chickens.  Those of you who do not have backyard chickens will perhaps have a hard time relating to this, but trust me, they bring so much to the table, in addition to the eggs.

Here is an example:  On Mother''s Day I made dinner for my Mom, her boyfriend, my sister Karen and her husband.  After dinner Karen's Stepson John dropped by with a lovely plant for her.  John is a hard working business man, who like his Dad is a "hard room" when you tell a joke.  That means they are largely stoic.  They are both funny guys, but it takes alot to make them laugh.  Cal and I had to do the Harlem Shake, complete with masks and music just to get a chuckle out of our brother in law.  Anyway I digress.

I asked John if he would like to see our chickens, thinking he would not be interested.  After a bit he said," let's see those chickens".  So out we went into the backyard.  I corralled the girls who were kicking rocks in the corner of the yard, and herded them around the hedge.  Here they came in all their feathered glory, trotting along side by side, making their sweet little chicken sounds.  John asked me what kind they were, etc. Then just stood as if transfixed watching them cruise around the yard.  The sun was shining, the grass was so green, the trees kept the yard shady and cool, and the hens just were  being hens.  After a minute or so he said, " they are so peaceful to watch".  It was such a bucolic scene.  Right in the middle of the city.

I told him how the chickens bring a sense of peace, quiet, and tranquility to our yard.  How we often sit outside and watch them hang out. 

I asked Cal to bring out some raisins, and he showed John how they love raisins and jump up for them.  He wanted to feed some to them, and did, letting Barbara and Mabel eat raisins out of his hand.   I could not have been more surprised if he had sprouted wings and flown over the fence.

See what I mean.
These two little Chickens give us eggs, and tranquility.  I highly recommend it, but only if you discover that you love chickens, otherwise buy your eggs from the market and call it good.

May 10, 2013: When is a chicken like a pigeon?

 

Pigeons are known to have certain annoying behaviors.  Typically chickens do not share these behaviors, but.......yesterday I glimpsed Cal our back holding Mabel.  I wanted to hold her too, so quickly ran outside to take a turn. 

Placing my arm along side Cal's Mabel quickly hopped over onto my arm.

That was when I learned how chickens are like pigeons,

If you take a close look at the picture above you will see a picture of a bird perched on a my arm, like a statue.

Now, think about what pigeons do while sitting on statues.

Yes that is right. 

A small amount of chicken poop somehow landed on my arm.

 

Oh yeah, her she is on Cal's arm.  She did not poop on him.

I still love her.