Really, they are. We enjoy watching them, from afar, do their little chicken things. You wonder what the heck is going through their little bird brains. They make us laugh. It is quite relaxing – like watching a fish tank. You never know what they’re going to do. Yesterday, Sue went out in the afternoon and saw the Delawares’ rooster lying flat out on the ground by the escape hatch. She thought he was dead and beheaded. He was simply lying in the shade with his head through the bars trying to get at the food on the ground. Silly thing, at least it was in the shade! Sue made the escape hatch for the little Specks as we knew they would be the lowest in the pecking order and would need to be able to get to their own food and water. The Delawares try really hard to get in there, but only one has ever made it. That one has been picked on by the ducks for some time, quite badly actually – and we recently put it in isolation so it’s wounds could heal and may be not so picked on when it gets back into the flock. Continue reading
Chickens are Funny
17 Saturday Jun 2017
Posted in Co-workers
Tomorrow is the big day. Not always something one looks forward to, but we have been working towards it for some time. We are physically read for processing. We have isolated the Rangers from the other chickens, they had all day to eat and run around; now they are at the no food portion of the evening. We have also placed Lily’s Cornish Cross Rooster in the kennel to keep him safe and also keep him from eating. We also gave him a frozen water bottle, because he was just so incredibly hot. When I left him, he was sitting on it and starting to feel a bit better. Our Rangers have an oscillating fan that they enjoy laying in front of during the day – it helps keep them cool – they were pretty relaxed when I was in there stealing their food this afternoon.
Dustin and Sue set up the processing area today. This time we’re going to do it under cover of the car port. We’re using a huge tarp on loan from Lily to keep everyone on. We think cleanup will be a lot easier this way; we are still picking up feathers from the last time and that was almost 6 months ago! It sounds like Dustin is planning on helping us out – so that may make things easier. We have two cones now; I had explained last time that this was a more humane way to dispatch the chickens. For a great explanation of the killing cone – and detailed instructions on how to make one, in case you’re in need of them – check out this blog post by 
This title refers to the addition of the Specks to the general population (and credit goes to Dustin for coming up with it). One night, as the chickens, ducks, and goose were being put up for the evening, the Specks tried to line the top of the screen that separates them for the others… and it crumpled. Came down right on top of everyone. Silly chicks. So, Sue decided that it was time for them to join the others as part of the flock now. This caused a bit of drama; new kids on the block you know! Everyone picks on them, even the Rangers. I think the Rangers are now happy to move up a notch in the pecking order. 
Lining Stonehenge. Here is the Circle Garden… the lining is almost complete, we just need to add a little bit around the edges where the wire didn’t go up high enough. The bad thing is, by the time we’re done with this… it’s going to be too windy to do the following steps until maybe Sunday. Saturday might be calm enough… we have to pick up manure from Mr. Kelly before we can lay down the cardboard, so that the manure goes right on top of it. Moving manure in winds upwards of 36 mph is not a fun job! Neither is trying to work with cardboard that wants to be free to fly! We’ll just have to gauge the severity of the winds and see. We might be on hold for a few days.
Let us out! This is showing how we’ve had to resort to multiple barriers to keep the Specks in their appointed area at night. The just want to be OUT! We’re a little hesitant to allow them access to the general population because they are still so small, comparatively. They are a pretty small breed anyway (see 
Speaking of the top 10. Here’s a shot of a day in the life of the Delawares. It’s been hot, so everyone finds some shade during the afternoon. This guy is on watch. I think he might be the rooster… some of the others are peeking out from under the chickshaw. They stay like this for a long time. It’s a cool place to rest during the heat of the day, but the rooster is en garde! By about 4:30/5:00 p.m. the temps start dropping and they again are out in the grass, chasing bugs and scratching up the ground. They’ve got it pretty good. Last night, around 7:30 p.m., they were still out and about; we had to chase everybody in.
And then, there’s Roman. One of the different watering options we’ve tried lately is the bucket with the 
to him 🙂 He thinks he’s outgrown the cuddling thing; he’ll follow us around, or come over to talk to us, but don’t even think about holding him. Yet, he still tries to get into his baby tub. Actually, he does get into his baby tub, he just spills out of it! But he can sit inside the tub and then drill around the ground outside of it. I guess he’s happy. Silly big goose.
Broody Much? We still have two hens that think they’d really like to sit. Here are the two culprits. Imen, the black hen, finds a nesting box where another hen has laid and claims it as her own – we take it. The Buff in the corner gets periodically chased out by the others, they lay their eggs and she sneaks back in to claim them – we take them. Today I just picked her up off the nest and set her down outside of it, have you ever heard of the term “ruffled feathers”? I think her photo was used to illustrate the term in the Dictionary of American Slang. Just sayin’.
The Ducks have been thoroughly enjoying the little swimming pools – who wouldn’t with the weather we’ve been having. They do have a tendency to make the water dirty really quickly, though. Today we were changing it in the lower pool and they were patiently waiting for it to be filled. Pretty darn cute, those ducks. They really don’t seem to mind any of the weather we’ve been having; heat, cold, wind, rain (ok, not much rain) – they love it all!
Are they Ranging? I’m not exactly sure how our Gray Rangers got their name – ours don’t really tend to range a whole lot. It is true that they seem to run hotter than the other breeds so, during the day, they find a spot very close to water and/or food and just plop there for the afternoon. Happy as clams. Then once it gets cooler, towards evening, they have actually ranged quite farm from the coop. We have had to make sure we check everywhere for them – they hide in the most interesting areas.
Wing and a Prayer 