Posts Tagged "Backyard Chickens"

Most of the eggs I get are perfect.  Because . . well, I have perfect chickens!    But this one!  Not sure who laid this but it was one of the red ones.

You think that looks bad?  Look at it from this view!

Pretty ugly, huh?  But that’s ok because Smokey is laying these gorgeous blueish green eggs almost every day!

And you know what else?  I need new countertop.  This brown countertop just doesn’t work for photographing those brown eggs!  I’m calling Vince right now and telling him I want new countertop.  And before he ever responds, I can tell you what his response will be!  “We need a new house!”  The translation:  We’re not doing anything to that house because we’re not staying there!

Thick, fat, wet, sloppy snow had been falling for a few hours.  We looked out and . . whoa!  The chicken run is sagging under the weight of the snow.

Ahh . . Vince to the rescue!

Swept the snow off the run ..

Swept the snow off the chicken tunnel . .

All is well but .. where are the chickens?  Sitting in the coop, in front of the heater, discussing all those chicken commercials from last night’s Superbowl.  Don’t you think my chickens should be in commercials?  They’re a heckuva lot cuter than all those chickens in the commercials last night!  Yep, that’s what Ruby thinks too!

With the snow, there are all kinds of tracks in the yard in the mornings.  It’s fun to go out and see what has been out there.  Looks like some critter was going in circles last night!

The chicken castle coop isn’t very well insulated and with the heater on, the snow melts on the roof . . and drips down . . and forms swords!

This is right where I stand to check eggs.  Do you think if this came loose and hit me on the head, would it cause serious bodily injury?

Probably not hurt at all.   I have a pretty hard head but I’m betting you already figured that out!

I know . . it’s suppose to be Rain, Rain . . Go Away!  But dang, we have a lot of snow.  I took several videos to post for my friends in Louisiana but I have a new camera and I have no idea where it put my videos.  They’re somewhere and I’ll find them but I don’t have time to do it right now.  A snow video in July or August might be nice!

These pictures were taken this morning and it has snowed non-stop since then.   I went out and shoveled a spot for Speck.  Speck went out and within 10 minutes, you couldn’t even see the spot I’d shoveled.

Isn’t it gorgeous looking out my front door?

No chickens in sight!  They’re all sitting around the heater in the coop reading their Kindles!  No!  They don’t really have Kindles but Ruby wants one!

I hope Chad is able to make it home without problems this evening.

Finally!  Chicken #9 has laid her first egg!  Chicken #7 (Smokey) started laying but after a month or so of laying, she quit.  She’s also the chicken that was most intimidated by Lynn (who doesn’t have a number . . because . . well . . you know what happened last week!).  Maybe Smokey will get over her trauma and start laying again soon.

This morning Vince let me sleep late.  Too bad Speck woke me up at 7:15!  Vince did morning chicken duty and there were no eggs.  Then I went out about 9 and there were still no eggs.  Got busy and didn’t go out again til about 4:30 and there were 8 eggs!

See the egg right in the middle on top?  That’s the first egg Chicken #9 has laid.  10 months!!  Everyone told us they would lay when they were 5 months old!  10 months it took #9.  Those Ameraucanas lay pretty eggs but they sure were slow to get started and they definitely do not lay every day.  The Red Stars . . an egg from each chicken almost every day!  The color of the eggs is kinda washed out in the picture but the new layer’s egg is a beautiful aqua!  The other colored egg is on the avocado shade of green.  Aren’t they pretty?  I’m so happy with my chickens!

And, just so you know, they do all have names.  We don’t go by numbers around here.  We’re much too creative for that!  But, in order  to protect the privacy of my chickens, and the reputation of 7 famous (or maybe infamous) politicians, I will never refer to my chickens by their real names on here.  Except .. Lynn and Ruby . . those are real names.  The other 8 . . nope, we aren’t ever going to mention them by name on here!

Over the weekend, the chicken hospital was transformed into the chicken jail!

Saturday morning Vince decided it was time to move the injured chickens back to the rest of the flock.  We knew there would be problems because they’ve been separated for about a week.  I got plenty of scratch, chopped up some of “cost me an arm and a leg tomatoes”, put plenty of alfalfa hay into the run and the coop and re-united the chickens.  We hoped all the extra treats would distract them and they wouldn’t even know two “strangers” had invaded.  They knew!  It was not a pretty sight.

The super friendly red stars welcomed the two injured chickens, which are Ameraucanas, back.  Lynn, the meanAmeraucana chicken, went into full attack, peck their eyeballs out mode.  We watched them for a few minutes and tried to control the situation and finally decided we had to take Lynn out of the mix.  We put her in jail.

Then the second non-injured Ameraucana went nuts and started attacking the two injured chickens.

Vince grabbed her.  If you enlarge the picture, you might can see that she still has in her beak a piece of a feather from one of  her sisters!  She normally isn’t a mean chicken but Lynn had them all so hyped up.

Into jail she went!

We left them there for a while.  They pouted and complained and we made them both go to the corner!

After a couple of hours, and hopefully allowing everyone to calm down, we put the nicer of the two back into the coop.  There were a few scuffles but nothing they couldn’t resolve on their own.

Then we put Lynn back into the coop.  Without even thinking, he attacked Ruby!  On her back and had her down.  I believe Ruby was just the first chicken Lynn saw.  Last week Lynn had pecked me on the ear when I stuck my head in the coop without first making sure she was not near me.  She drew blood so I was pretty fed up with her anyway.  When she attacked Ruby, the sweetest chicken ever, for no reason  .. that was the final straw.

Now there are 9!  Yes, I cried a few tears.  I had so hoped she would learn to be nice but I can’t have one chicken injuring the others.  It’s amazing how harmonious things seem to be in the coop this week.  There have been a few scuffles but pecking order has been re-established and there seems to be no real hostility without Lynn in there.  At least I’m not having to constantly watch out for where she is and all 9 of them allow me to pet them and they come to me when I go out there.

Life with animals isn’t always easy.  Heck . . life with humans isn’t always easy, is it?  And please . . no nasty comments about our having to get rid of Lynn . . it was hard enough already!