Lesson 479 – Another update on our Black Copper Maran’s surgery
26 Jan 2012 3 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, Charlie, chicken care, Chicks Tags: backyard chickens, Black Copper Maran, chick Charlie, releasing webbed toes, webbed toes, Wendy Thomas
Just wanted to let you know how our baby Black Copper Maran chick: Charlie is doing with some before and after photos.
Here is Charlie on the day we got her home. (note – little black chicks are notoriously difficult to take photos of.)
just a little bitty thing.
And here is Charlie now, almost 2 weeks later.
This chick has legs from here to there.
Here are her feet before I released the webbing.
You can see the webbing and deformation in this photo.
And here they are 4 days after the surgery. As you can see there is still a lot of extra tissue (that Charlie sometimes tugs at) but she is able to roost, walk upright using both feet equally, scratch, and roost. All very important chicken activities.
It does look like she has a small amount of feather growth on her feet which may or may not cause a problem because of the extra tissue and her middle toes are still a tiny bit curled but I don’t think it’s enough to justify a shoe (where the heck are the toenails on those toes?) But as far as healing is concerned, Charlie is ready to be discharged from the chick ICU and is now back to her regular antics while hanging out with the rest of the human flock.
Lesson 478 – Some of the pitfalls of owning chickens
25 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in All things chickens, Backyard Chickens, Chicken art, Chicken things Tags: backyard chickens, Chicken art, chicken figurines, chicken inspiration, Wendy Thomas
First of all Charlie is doing better and better each day. I’ll post a picture of her feet (along with some pictures of her growth) tomorrow.
But first I want to talk about some of the pitfalls of owning chickens.
The Northeastern Poultry Congress was all about fowl. It was about selling birds and judging them. No admission was charged.
So when you go to one of these things, the considerate thing to do is to at least buy tickets to the Chinese lottery (you buy 20 tickets for 5 dollars and drop your tickets into the bags hanging in front of the items you’d like to win.) It’s a way for them to raise money. You win, they win, we all win.
We have a very winning family. So much so, that my kids are actually disappointed when we don’t win something, not because we didn’t get the item but because we didn’t WIN. (Hey once, we even won 2114 jelly beans.)
One of our strategies during lotteries like this is to drop tickets into the bags with the fewest tickets. You get a better chance of winning, right? (I justify this by claiming it’s a lesson in probabilities for my kids.) It doesn’t matter what the object is, we say, it’s the odds that we are playing.
At 3:00 when they started calling out the results of the lottery, who was the first person to win something?
Me.
This is what I won.
Marc kept the mug.
I think I had the only ticket in the bag. People were actually laughing at me when I tried to pick up all that stuff (I had to make two trips to the car.) I got cookie tins (empty), a strange snowman in a flower pot, silk flowers, ornaments, and a really scary looking leprechaun, partially stuffed into a Victoria’s Secrets bag (which my 4 teen sons all called dibs on.)
Oh well, it’s the thought that counts, right? And anyway, Savers was on the way home. I’m still a winner.
I didn’t expect much for the rest of the auction (I mean what are the odds?) but low and behold, my name was called again, and this is what I won the second time.
Trust me, if you like chickens, you’ll recognize this one as the gold mine that it is. Someone obviously cleared off their shelves of chicken figurines and now I get to have them. There are little chickens, old chickens, matching chickens, white chickens, and even a little green glass chicken-like thing. Marc sighed as I happily started placing chickens all around our house.
Ain’t no way, these babies are making their way to Savers. Perhaps though, after a year of sitting on our shelves, I’ll gather them together and just might donate them back to the show so that some other lucky person can win them in next year’s lottery.
Lesson 477 – Post surgical update on Charlie’s webbed toe release
24 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, Charlie, chicken care, Chicks Tags: backyard chickens, Black Copper Maran, chick Charlie, releasing webbed toes, webbed toes, Wendy Thomas
Many people have contacted me about Charlie and are interested in following her results. It’s now been roughly 2 days since I performed a little bit of surgery on her toes to release some webbing.
If you recall before I started, her toes looked like this:
You can see the webbing and deformation in this photo.
Charlie is a sweet chick but those feet were probably not going to hold up the weight of a full grown chicken which is why I decided to try and release the toes.
Charlie is doing well, the wounds have closed and she is walking around. Last night we introduced a stick as a roosting post hoping that the use of it would get her to start moving her toes (chicken physical therapy) but she prefers the edge of the cardboard box which she came home in and which is still in her cage.
That wooden candy cane was too slippery to be used for roosting.
But here’s the good news.
This is her right foot.
And this is that one that was horribly deformed.
Her left foot is still curled, especially that middle toe, (some of that is extra tissue from the webbing) and we may be putting a shoe on it in the next few days but compared to what it was, this is nothing short of amazing. Granted Charlie is not going to win any pretty toe contests in the next few weeks but it does look like she’s going to win her adulthood.
And that’s just fine with me.
Lesson 476 – Releasing Webbed Toes in a Maran Chick (Charlie)
23 Jan 2012 8 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, Charlie, chicken care, Chicks Tags: backyard chickens, Black Copper Maran, chick Charlie, releasing webbed toes, webbed toes, Wendy Thomas
Warning – the following post contains directions with photos of how to surgically release webbed toes in a Maran chick. There is some blood (but if you can get through that there is a happy ending 
Lesson 475 – Quotable Chicks
20 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Chick Literature, Inspiration, Life Lessons, Quotable Chicks Tags: being unique, Chicken Literature, chicken quotes, quotable chicks, Wendy Thomas
Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks
We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light
~ Mary Dunbar
Have a great weekend, folks. Back on Monday with some stories about Charlie (who has become the love of our lives) including accounts of the always popular game: “Where’s Charlie?”
Lesson 474 – Diversity in the flock
19 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, Chick Photos, Poultry Shows Tags: backyard chickens, chicken photos, chickens, Northeastern Poultry Congress, Wendy Thomas
When we got our first baby chicks, they were all brown. Didn’t surprise me, as far as I knew all chickens were either brown or white (like the ones at the petting zoos I had been taken to as a child.) It wasn’t until I brought home Isabelle (our Silver Sebright) that I even knew other kinds of chickens existed.
Today I wanted to show you some of the photos I took at the Northeastern Poultry Congress just to give you an idea of the diversity there is in the chicken world.
Female Black Polish
The female Black Polish (as opposed to the photos of the male yesterday) wear Dandilion puffs on their heads.
Unfortunately I don’t have the names of the breeds for all these birds but I loved the pattern on this one, enough to take a closer look.
And then we have this stunning breed. (There’s a mama hen somewhere who loves this little guy.)
Some of the birds were big on tail bling. More
Lesson 473 – Jan Brett, stalking, and feathers
18 Jan 2012 4 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, Chicken things, Inspiration Tags: backyard chickens, Black Polish chickens, Jan Brett, Northeastern Poultry Congress, Wendy Thomas
First of all I want to say that I am not a stalker. I prefer to think of myself as a great admirer of things fine.
When I went to the Northeastern Poultry Congress this past weekend, it hadn’t occurred to me that Jan Brett would be there. And not only there but with her polish chickens, no less!!
As a mother of 6 I have read (and re-read, and re-read) many childrens’ books illustrated by Jan. She has beautiful illustrations that are as calming to adults as they are to children.
I’ve even contacted Jan (through her agent) about an article I was writing on hen houses. Here’s a little fact – Jan has noise insulated hen houses for her roosters.
After I had left the Willy Wonka of chicken salesrooms, I walked down the hall to the exhibition hall.
Gasp. The first thing I saw was a row of Black Polish show birds. After having just decided I couldn’t buy any (because they were sold in pairs) this was just cruel. Life was taunting me.
But still, I can appreciate beauty when I see it. I approached the birds, slowly working my way down the row talking and cooing to them as only a chicken lover does, telling them all how pretty they were.
And then I came upon a woman in an apron who was taking some of her birds out of the cages and spraying their feathers. Must be the owner. I went back to the birds.
Record scratch. Wait a minute.
Black Polish show birds, woman owner (in a very cute apron) = Jan Brett.
“Are you Jan?” I asked preferring not to say what I was actually thinking which was “OH. MY. GOD, YOU’RE JAN BRETT, RIGHT?”
She looked at me and smiled. “Yes,” she said, “I am.”
“I write about chickens I started telling her. “I have a flock at home and I’ve always lusted for a Black Polish. You have absolutely stunning birds.” I told her.
“Thank you.” And then she said, “Would you mind holding this one for a few minutes while I clean up?”
Would I mind?
She put one of her male birds into my arms where he docilely sat while I stroked his back.
“His name is Pasquale,” she told me.
I was talking to Jan Brett, holding one of her birds at a chicken show. Life is kind of good sometimes.
Jan Brett's Pasquale
“Such a calm bird,” I said. Jan went on to tell me a little about the breed and how lovely and gentle they were. More
Lesson 472 – Meet Charlie – the newest member of our flock
17 Jan 2012 6 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, Charlie, chicken care, Chicks Tags: backyard chickens, Black Copper Maran, chick Charlie, Northeastern Poultry Congress, Wendy Thomas
This weekend I went to the Northeastern Poultry Congress with a flock of very cool chicks (who all incidentally happen to be bloggers about chickens.) Lauren (who has a great blog and this post in particular of the show is outstanding) arranged the outing. I had never gone to one of these before but as a chicken owner, you can bet I jumped at the opportunity to go with friends. Here is a photo of us at the show, notice how happy we all are, that’s what chickens do to you, they make you happy.
L-R - Lauren Scheuer, Wendy Thomas, Terry Golson, Melissa Caughey
Before I left (it was a 2.5 hour drive so I had to leave bright and early) Marc warned me “Don’t come back with any new chickens.” (He’s always saying crazy things like that!)
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I told him. “It’s the wrong time of year to get chicks and now is not the time to introduce a new adult into our flock.” We try to do that in the spring and summer when the birds are out of the henhouse and have more room to get to know each other. “Don’t worry.” were my parting words.
It was bitter cold on Saturday and as I approached the building, I saw an open side door. Hoping to get out of the cold as quickly as I could I popped inside.
What was this????!!!!!
Like the kids when they entered the magical chocolate mixing room in Willy Wonka’s factory, I was dumbfounded and utterly amazed. There was row upon row upon row of all sorts of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and even a few rabbits.
“Wow” I thought, this is pretty cool. AND THEN I REALIZED THAT I WAS IN THE SALES BUILDING AND ALL OF THESE CREATURES WERE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! I hadn’t even entered the judging room yet.
Okay, can I just put it out there – I’m not a very strong person.
But Marc’s words were still ringing in my ears like the ghost of Marley – “dooooon’t bring home any mooooore chickens.”
I looked at the geese, they were neat but I’m not interested in geese, or ducks, or another rabbit. The chickens were okay but you know what? We have 36 chickens right now, I’m okay in that area. And then I saw the literal golden goose of chickens. I saw Jan Brett’s Black Polish birds – and they were for sale.
I took a deep intake of breath. “Wendy…,” I warned myself. “Think of the children.” – a little phrase I say to myself which can stop me from doing something bad about half of the time. More
Lesson 471 – Directions on how to ethically kill a rooster
16 Jan 2012 25 Comments
in Backyard Chickens, chicken care, Roosters Tags: backyard chickens, backyard poultry, How to kill a rooster, killing roosters, roosters, Wendy Thomas
This post is going to be about the ethical harvesting of a rooster. There are going to be photos along with detailed instructions on the process.
If you want to read about it, click on the “more…” button. If you’d rather skip it, that’s fine, tomorrow I’ll start telling some of the many stories I collected while attending the Northeastern Poultry Congress (and one of those stories is about becoming a mama hen to a new baby chick.)
For those who choose not to read the rest of this rooster killing post, I’ll leave you these parting words… it’s wasn’t as bad as we had imagined it would be. More
Lesson 470 – Quotable Chicks
13 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Chick Literature, Inspiration, Life Lessons, Quotable Chicks Tags: Chicken Literature, chicken quotes, christmas, quotable chicks, Wendy Thomas
Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks
Home (with the help of your flock) is where your story begins.
Next week we’ll return to the topic that was originally scheduled for this week and of course, back to the life lessons learned when one decides to shares one’s life with children and chickens.
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