We are getting eggs again! After a long eggless time they started showing up again. It must be the longer days.
Dolly’s feathers are back; she looked funny for a while with her skin showing through the new spindly feathers. Why she had to molt during a cold snap, I don’t know.
I put new bedding in the coop today, and the girls went wild; looking for grain in amongst the straw.
I’m in the planning stages for a pen to raise some chicks this spring. The hardest part will be making the pen Poco-proof. It will be a challenge. The pen will have wheels, so I can roll it outside on nice days and get the older hens used to the idea of interlopers in their midst.
Watching the girls patrol the backyard, I can’t imagine there is a single bug left.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Friday, October 22, 2010
Cooped up in Autumn
Lily and Dolly have stopped laying and have begun dropping their feathers everywhere they go. I believe this is called molting. Other than that, they are behaving normally.
They are tolerant of a little rain, but after a while they retreat under the deck, specifically under the deck under the eaves; they are no dummies.
I read that chickens will eat yogurt so I put out some that had gone past the expiration date; They devoured it.
They go to bed very early these days, even while the sun is still up.
Dolly still sleeps on the perch, while Lily prefers snuggling in the cedar chip bedding. I’m with Lily on this one.
Yesterday I opened the coop door well before sunup. The girls were both still in the sleeping quarters. Lily came flying down the ramp and outside the coop in under a second. I have no idea what she was thinking, but I would love to know.
Since I finished fencing the backyard, we let them run free all day. We know this means they will likely have a shorter life, but a better one too. I have to remind myself that they are not helpless and still have the self-protection desire that all living things are born with.
My spouse suggested I raise the coop off of the patio, in order to keep the straw drier. This may have been her best suggestion yet. I have done so, and I’m very pleased with the results.
Let’s see what a long NW winter brings to the coop.
They are tolerant of a little rain, but after a while they retreat under the deck, specifically under the deck under the eaves; they are no dummies.
I read that chickens will eat yogurt so I put out some that had gone past the expiration date; They devoured it.
They go to bed very early these days, even while the sun is still up.
Dolly still sleeps on the perch, while Lily prefers snuggling in the cedar chip bedding. I’m with Lily on this one.
Yesterday I opened the coop door well before sunup. The girls were both still in the sleeping quarters. Lily came flying down the ramp and outside the coop in under a second. I have no idea what she was thinking, but I would love to know.
Since I finished fencing the backyard, we let them run free all day. We know this means they will likely have a shorter life, but a better one too. I have to remind myself that they are not helpless and still have the self-protection desire that all living things are born with.
My spouse suggested I raise the coop off of the patio, in order to keep the straw drier. This may have been her best suggestion yet. I have done so, and I’m very pleased with the results.
Let’s see what a long NW winter brings to the coop.
Monday, June 21, 2010
early summer 2010
We almost always get two eggs per day now, and we got three one day! How is that even possible?
I am noticing some character traits of the hens; Lily is very adventurous. She comes up on the second story deck, she goes out the gate if it’s left open, and she always comes a runnin’ when a person comes into the backyard.
Dolly is more timid, she never goes on the deck, and stays closer to the coop.
I’ve been reading up on hens and hot weather, but now it looks like I needn’t have bothered. If summer does show up, the hens will be fine in hot weather as long as they have plenty of water and shade.
I’ve been training the girls to be petted by me. They are getting used to it, and someday maybe they will like it.
They have figured out that if they follow me while I’m mowing, the bugs will be easier to get at and will likely be stunned by the mower. They had a feast today.
I am noticing some character traits of the hens; Lily is very adventurous. She comes up on the second story deck, she goes out the gate if it’s left open, and she always comes a runnin’ when a person comes into the backyard.
Dolly is more timid, she never goes on the deck, and stays closer to the coop.
I’ve been reading up on hens and hot weather, but now it looks like I needn’t have bothered. If summer does show up, the hens will be fine in hot weather as long as they have plenty of water and shade.
I’ve been training the girls to be petted by me. They are getting used to it, and someday maybe they will like it.
They have figured out that if they follow me while I’m mowing, the bugs will be easier to get at and will likely be stunned by the mower. They had a feast today.
Monday, May 3, 2010
More eggs
As promised, with the longer days come more eggs!
I put up a small fence to keep the hens from wandering the neighborhood. They had begun to go farther and farther on their journeys. They have a large backyard to themselves, and should be content. As a result of their new boundary, they can be let out for longer periods of time. This is good and bad; the good is obvious, the bad is that I know the chances of a predator getting them are increased, and when they do not get out, they make quite a racket.
Getting them back into the pen when they don’t want to go is quite an exercise, both literally and figuratively. Two people helps, and so does a long stick to help herd them. I hope no one ever gets it on video, I’m sure it’s not complimentary.
Dolly is more amenable to going into the pen, Lily is not. If she just happens to be in the pen anyway for a drink or a bite or to lay and she’s hears me, she darts out and makes a run for it.
One more feed store story. There was a woman who worked in the retail part of the feed store who I had a major crush on. She was tall and thin and blonde and sweet, and she drove a Toyota Land Cruiser! In those days a Land Cruiser was not a luxury SUV, it was a Jeep, for the youngsters reading this it was like a Jeep Wrangler, but with more power.
One day she came out to the warehouse and said that I was supposed to help her with a project. I was ecstatic and probably showed it. Our job was to get rid of many spray cans of some kind of hazardous substance. It was a weed killer or an insect killer. The manufacturer had instructed her to spray the contents into the dirt. We went to a vacant lot and started out just spraying them a can at a time into the dirt, but it was soon obvious that it would take all day. So I devised a setup where we could spray 10 cans at once. It worked well. I probably inhaled enough of that stuff to shorten my life, but spending hours with her alone was worth every minute.
I put up a small fence to keep the hens from wandering the neighborhood. They had begun to go farther and farther on their journeys. They have a large backyard to themselves, and should be content. As a result of their new boundary, they can be let out for longer periods of time. This is good and bad; the good is obvious, the bad is that I know the chances of a predator getting them are increased, and when they do not get out, they make quite a racket.
Getting them back into the pen when they don’t want to go is quite an exercise, both literally and figuratively. Two people helps, and so does a long stick to help herd them. I hope no one ever gets it on video, I’m sure it’s not complimentary.
Dolly is more amenable to going into the pen, Lily is not. If she just happens to be in the pen anyway for a drink or a bite or to lay and she’s hears me, she darts out and makes a run for it.
One more feed store story. There was a woman who worked in the retail part of the feed store who I had a major crush on. She was tall and thin and blonde and sweet, and she drove a Toyota Land Cruiser! In those days a Land Cruiser was not a luxury SUV, it was a Jeep, for the youngsters reading this it was like a Jeep Wrangler, but with more power.
One day she came out to the warehouse and said that I was supposed to help her with a project. I was ecstatic and probably showed it. Our job was to get rid of many spray cans of some kind of hazardous substance. It was a weed killer or an insect killer. The manufacturer had instructed her to spray the contents into the dirt. We went to a vacant lot and started out just spraying them a can at a time into the dirt, but it was soon obvious that it would take all day. So I devised a setup where we could spray 10 cans at once. It worked well. I probably inhaled enough of that stuff to shorten my life, but spending hours with her alone was worth every minute.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter
It’s kinda fun to go out on Easter morning and get a warm egg. Thanks Dolly or Lily. After two days of nasty weather, today it’s relatively pleasant. The hens are out rototilling the yard.
I have been asked to write another feed store story. Here is one.
One of the geniuses had gotten a forklift hopelessly stuck in the mud. How there was ever mud in Reno, I don’t know, but there was some. The brain trust got together to figure out a solution. I just watched, because I knew from past experience that something bad but funny would surely happen. They lead guy got the biggest truck we had and tied a very long rope to the top of the cage that covers the driver of the forklift and the other end to the truck. He then got into the truck and gunned the engine. At this point I ran for my life. I finally had to turn and see the result. As the rope went taught, the cage ripped off the forklift and flew through the air at Mach 1, and coming to rest on a pallet of chicken feed and sending feed to the corners of the earth. The forklift did not budge. If only we had cell phones with video cameras in those days.
I have been asked to write another feed store story. Here is one.
One of the geniuses had gotten a forklift hopelessly stuck in the mud. How there was ever mud in Reno, I don’t know, but there was some. The brain trust got together to figure out a solution. I just watched, because I knew from past experience that something bad but funny would surely happen. They lead guy got the biggest truck we had and tied a very long rope to the top of the cage that covers the driver of the forklift and the other end to the truck. He then got into the truck and gunned the engine. At this point I ran for my life. I finally had to turn and see the result. As the rope went taught, the cage ripped off the forklift and flew through the air at Mach 1, and coming to rest on a pallet of chicken feed and sending feed to the corners of the earth. The forklift did not budge. If only we had cell phones with video cameras in those days.
Monday, March 22, 2010
A steady pattern
The hens and the people have developed a steady pattern. One egg per day, a half hour out of the coop near sundown, and clean straw in the hen house most days.
I wonder if they’ve forgotten their lost buddy Gloria. I think not. I’ve always believed animals are smarter than we give them credit for. This is due to the fact that animal intelligence and human intelligence are as different as night and day. We can’t understand them, so we think they are dumb.
My son planted new grass in an area that a backhoe had torn up. As I suspected, the girls thought I made it just for them. I put up a fence to keep them and the humans out while the grass gets a chance to grow. I used metal fence posts, but found that I did not have enough to do the job. As a boy growing up in Nevada, I remembered that fences there often have a repeating pattern of one metal post and one post made from local plants (not trees, this is Nevada). I made some fence posts from some pruning remains and the fence looks very good to me. The hens were a bit perplexed at the new state of affairs, but quickly adapted.
One activity that Dolly, the Rhode Island Red, loves to do is have a dirt bath. She wiggles around in the dirt and turns upside down and makes very contented sounds. If I was a predator, that’s when I’d make my move. Luckily, she has me and Lily to watch out for her during these periods of luxuriating inattentiveness.
I wonder if they’ve forgotten their lost buddy Gloria. I think not. I’ve always believed animals are smarter than we give them credit for. This is due to the fact that animal intelligence and human intelligence are as different as night and day. We can’t understand them, so we think they are dumb.
My son planted new grass in an area that a backhoe had torn up. As I suspected, the girls thought I made it just for them. I put up a fence to keep them and the humans out while the grass gets a chance to grow. I used metal fence posts, but found that I did not have enough to do the job. As a boy growing up in Nevada, I remembered that fences there often have a repeating pattern of one metal post and one post made from local plants (not trees, this is Nevada). I made some fence posts from some pruning remains and the fence looks very good to me. The hens were a bit perplexed at the new state of affairs, but quickly adapted.
One activity that Dolly, the Rhode Island Red, loves to do is have a dirt bath. She wiggles around in the dirt and turns upside down and makes very contented sounds. If I was a predator, that’s when I’d make my move. Luckily, she has me and Lily to watch out for her during these periods of luxuriating inattentiveness.
Friday, February 26, 2010
and then there were two
I let the girls out yesterday for a good long time. Every time I checked on them they were enjoying themselves. When it came time to put them in for the night, only two hens were visible. I looked and found Gloria sitting in the leaves behind the shed. Her eyes were open, but when I knelt down to pick her up she didn’t move and I knew something was wrong. I gently picked her up and put her in the hen house. She didn’t move. Then she flapped around and stopped suddenly. I knew she was gone. I had to go to an important meeting but returned hours later to find her in the same position, and Dolly and Lily were not themselves.
I buried Gloria in the backyard with Wendy the hamster, Sgt Pepper the mouse, Mr. Wiggles the mouse, the tawny mouse whose name I can’t remember, and the mole with no given name.
I buried Gloria in the backyard with Wendy the hamster, Sgt Pepper the mouse, Mr. Wiggles the mouse, the tawny mouse whose name I can’t remember, and the mole with no given name.
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