Hi gang! Sorry for the delay in blogging, but I was on vacation, and you know how security experts scream about mentioning that you're going on vacation online.
We went out of town for 3 days, which meant we needed a chicken sitter. Yeah, tried to find one of those lately? You can always find somebody to watch the dog, and as long as the litter box is clean & there's tons of food and water, cats will be ok for a few days. Not chickens. Luckily one of the neighbor kids moved off a farm a year or so ago and they raised chickens. Score! I checked with his mom, and then Logan E became our official chicken sitter.
Getting ready for vacation means more work when you have chickens. I didn't want the neighbor kid to have to deal with chicken droppings, so I mucked out the coop before we left. I also scrubbed out all the feeders and the water jug. We had orientation sessions and my mother in law sat in, in case he had questions or she needed to do something sometimes. The feed bin was full, I refilled the little bucket of grit in the coop and told my chickie babies that I would miss them.
Oh boy, did I ever miss them. When I'm grumpy at home, I go see the chickens and after a loooong drive and a crappy attempt at sleep in a hotel bed, I wanted my chickens. It was a little better the second night and we drove back the third night. Wheee, a decent night's sleep and my chickens! I was afraid they'd be mad, since this was the longest I'd ever been away from them (the dog goes nuts when we get home, the cats ignore me for a day or 2). They missed me too! I got lots of pecks and they went crazy over my blue toenails but at least I wasn't getting the silent treatment. Logan E did a great job of taking care of them so we're set the next time we go out of town.
The only bad thing is that it's been hot lately and the coop needs mucking out again. Yuuuuuuk.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Wait a minute...
Ok, the chickens are supposed to be my babies. I'm the one who read up on them for years, talked Hubby into building a coop, tiled and painted said coop. I'm the one who schlepps out to let them out in the morning and put them back in. So how did it work out that the kids named the chickens?
The only one I got to name was the late Tweetie and honestly, what else do you call a big yellow chick (besides Big Bird, I guess)? Right now we still have 4 unnamed Orpies because I can't tell the difference by looking at them. I can tell the difference with one of them by sound - we have an Orp who sounds more like a goose. Right now she's Goosey. Granted, that's not too much of a surprise since we live by the Mississippi and there's Canada geese all over, but it's still weird and not much of a surprise to anybody who knows us.
Take the Silkies, for example. We have a coal black one and that's Buttercup. Why? I have no clue except that it was named by my 10 year old on the way home from Miss Effie's Farm, where we got the Silkies (Miss Eff and I went in on an order). The other two are Shake and Bake. I didn't want to call them that. A) You don't eat Silkies and B) even if you did, there isn't enough meat on their bones to make a decent chicken nugget, let alone need Shake & Bake seasoning. The boys came up with the name and I think my mother in law may have been in on that too so the Silkies remain Shake and Bake, although I call them Shakey and Bakey.
Then there's the one Orpie with a name. That's Forte and Logan named it. I'm really starting to wonder about Forte. She may be a he. Uh oh. On the plus side, if she's a she, she probably wouldn't be happy with a boy's name. If he's a he...well, that's a problem we didn't plan on. Especially since I ordered FEMALE chickens from the farm store! They were supposed to be 6 buff Orpie girls. Instead, I end up with 5 buff Orpies, whatever the heck Tweetie was, and now Forte might be a boy. Like there isn't enough testosterone in my house.
The only one I got to name was the late Tweetie and honestly, what else do you call a big yellow chick (besides Big Bird, I guess)? Right now we still have 4 unnamed Orpies because I can't tell the difference by looking at them. I can tell the difference with one of them by sound - we have an Orp who sounds more like a goose. Right now she's Goosey. Granted, that's not too much of a surprise since we live by the Mississippi and there's Canada geese all over, but it's still weird and not much of a surprise to anybody who knows us.
Take the Silkies, for example. We have a coal black one and that's Buttercup. Why? I have no clue except that it was named by my 10 year old on the way home from Miss Effie's Farm, where we got the Silkies (Miss Eff and I went in on an order). The other two are Shake and Bake. I didn't want to call them that. A) You don't eat Silkies and B) even if you did, there isn't enough meat on their bones to make a decent chicken nugget, let alone need Shake & Bake seasoning. The boys came up with the name and I think my mother in law may have been in on that too so the Silkies remain Shake and Bake, although I call them Shakey and Bakey.
Then there's the one Orpie with a name. That's Forte and Logan named it. I'm really starting to wonder about Forte. She may be a he. Uh oh. On the plus side, if she's a she, she probably wouldn't be happy with a boy's name. If he's a he...well, that's a problem we didn't plan on. Especially since I ordered FEMALE chickens from the farm store! They were supposed to be 6 buff Orpie girls. Instead, I end up with 5 buff Orpies, whatever the heck Tweetie was, and now Forte might be a boy. Like there isn't enough testosterone in my house.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Fried Chickens?
Right now, much of the US is suffering from a hardcore heat wave. We're talking Midwest fair week weather - hot and humid, making you want to watch "The Day After Tomorrow" a few times to feel cooler. And of course, I can't find the back issue of "Backyard Poultry" that has the article on keeping chickens cool in summer. I knew right where it was during our last ice storm but not now that I need it.
Yesterday could only be described by 2 words - swamp ass. Or "hotter than Hell" but that's 3 words. I filled the waterer with ice cubes before work and I had the kids check the babies every couple of hours. When I got home, they were panting and I flashed back to the day I found Tweetie panting under the coop. Oh crap. My mother in law wanted us to bring the kids in the house but Bud wouldn't go for it. Hershey the weenie dog would have loved it though.
So once again, I did the only think I could think to do - Google. A few minutes later a fan was in the coop. Yep, IN the coop. At first the chicks were freaked out by the noise, so we put it on low so they could get used to it. Right about then my mother in law came over, swearing that she could smell the chicks frying. Eventually they got used to the fan so we could turn it up. I checked later and they were standing in front of the fan, occasionally turning so their tail feathers could get cool. Sometimes one would flap a few times - I suppose chickens can have sweaty pits too and I'm not putting Right Guard on chickens.
We got a break in the temps today; right now it's a chilly 89 degrees with a heat index of 94 - much better than yesterday's 100 degrees and heat index of 116. But it's only the end of June. It's gonna be a loooooong summer.
Yesterday could only be described by 2 words - swamp ass. Or "hotter than Hell" but that's 3 words. I filled the waterer with ice cubes before work and I had the kids check the babies every couple of hours. When I got home, they were panting and I flashed back to the day I found Tweetie panting under the coop. Oh crap. My mother in law wanted us to bring the kids in the house but Bud wouldn't go for it. Hershey the weenie dog would have loved it though.
So once again, I did the only think I could think to do - Google. A few minutes later a fan was in the coop. Yep, IN the coop. At first the chicks were freaked out by the noise, so we put it on low so they could get used to it. Right about then my mother in law came over, swearing that she could smell the chicks frying. Eventually they got used to the fan so we could turn it up. I checked later and they were standing in front of the fan, occasionally turning so their tail feathers could get cool. Sometimes one would flap a few times - I suppose chickens can have sweaty pits too and I'm not putting Right Guard on chickens.
We got a break in the temps today; right now it's a chilly 89 degrees with a heat index of 94 - much better than yesterday's 100 degrees and heat index of 116. But it's only the end of June. It's gonna be a loooooong summer.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
What do chickens eat?
No, I'm not just now figuring that out! I know they get starter stuff until they're old enough to start laying, so it's "baby food" until this fall. Geez guys, give me a little credit, I did read more chicken books than baby books! Seriously, I only read "What To Expect When You're Expecting" when Logan was on the way. I have 2 chicken books alone on my Kindle, plus a pile by my bed.
I mean other stuff. Greens are a big hit. Dandelions, creeping Charlie, no-name weeds, it doesn't matter. They go after them like a PMS-ing woman at a chocolate store. So I decided to expand their diet. I raised a picky eater kid, I don't want picky eater chickens. I tried bananas the other day. Nope. I put it out before work and it was still there after work so it went in the compost. I tried bread this morning and nobody seemed interested. So much for chickens eating everything! At least they seem to be "morning people". I don't think I could handle having to make coffee for the chickens every morning and my luck, they'd only want Starbucks.
I mean other stuff. Greens are a big hit. Dandelions, creeping Charlie, no-name weeds, it doesn't matter. They go after them like a PMS-ing woman at a chocolate store. So I decided to expand their diet. I raised a picky eater kid, I don't want picky eater chickens. I tried bananas the other day. Nope. I put it out before work and it was still there after work so it went in the compost. I tried bread this morning and nobody seemed interested. So much for chickens eating everything! At least they seem to be "morning people". I don't think I could handle having to make coffee for the chickens every morning and my luck, they'd only want Starbucks.
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