Lesson 774 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

Graffiti from my daughter’s overnight camp.

It’s the eve of a long weekend. All the chicks have returned to the nest from college and it’s the official start of summer. Rain is in the forecast but that’s never stopped us from celebrating the beginning of the “lemonade and outdoor swimming” season. And have I told you that there is a Budweiser facility (complete with a full Clydesdale hitch) located in our town?

Doesn’t get much better than that.

Next week is going to be exciting. I’ll have a book review on Forrest Prichard’s “Gaining Ground.” Forrest a young farmer who is determined to change how farms work. He’s written a terrific and funny book on his experiences in saving the family farm. I contacted him and he’s graciously answered a few questions for an interview and he’s even sent a picture of him posing with a chicken.

Now that’s my kind of farmer.

There will be a few more Chicken Shaming photos and I’ve gotten some good feather sexing photos.  Next week, based on a compilation of young chick neck feather photos, you’ll see whether the sexing by an index card method really works.

Also, I have a big, BIG surprise that will be arriving this weekend. Not going to count the proverbial chicks before they hatch (hint, hint) but let’s just say that I think the readers of this blog are going to be very, very happy to see what this surprise is.

I know I will be.

Happy Memorial Day and a big, sincere “thank you” to all who have served for our country.

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As always, peaceful weekend everyone, health and happiness (and safety) to your flock.

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even  a recipe or two. 

Lesson 773 – Sexing a chicken with an index card

The day before Violet died, I had planned to take a photo of her neck feathers (stay with me for this one.) Although I was almost positive she was a girl, I still had some nagging doubts. It was her feet, they just seemed so large. I had read, however, that by the time chicks were feathered there was a very easy way to tell if you had yourself a male or a female.

Simply slip a white index card under the upper neck feathers to see the tips. If the tips are pointed, it is most likely a male, if the tips are rounded, you have yourself a female.(But please don’t go destroying any birds based on this “test.”)

I did this with Violet, and her tips were most definitely rounded at about 6+ weeks. We had ourselves a little girl. (who I still miss.)

You can sort of see her rounded feathers here.

This is the time of year when chicken owners are starting to wonder about the sex of their spring chicks. If they’ve gotten a straight run or hatched the chicks from eggs, chances are, they are going to have a rooster or two in the batch. For some people, the sooner they know the better it is with regard to finding the chick a new home (I’ve made it very clear over the years that a rooster does not belong in a flock where you have close neighbors.)

I’ve only seen this technique posted in one place, and I haven’t heard anyone else talk about it.  Could you chicken owners with older chicks (fully feathered apx. 5-7 weeks) take a look at those neck feathers using this technique and let us all know how it turns out?

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two. 

Lesson 772 – More Chicken Shaming

Looks like I’m not the only one with misbehaving chickens. Take a look at these “bad boys” whose photos have been sent by readers.

Bad Hen

My usually angry BO starting to really abuse the other BO who went broody.  I was leaving for a long weekend and couldn’t risk she’d kill the other hen before I returned and couldn’t separate the broody so I put a set of peepers on Ginger to get her to chill till I returned.

And I wasn’t happy with her behavior and wanted the other hens to know it.

Tricky Chick

Lesson 771 – Chicken Shaming

There is an internet trend called “pet shaming” where owners of cats and dogs have their pets confess their bad behavior to the rest of the world using placards – examples of the bad behavior being reported are things like, “I peed on my mom’s favorite slippers” and “I locked my mom and dada out of the truck.”

I thought to myself, why is it that only cats and dogs get to admit their past indiscretions? There are so many other pets that occasionally deserve credit for their spectacular misbehavior.

And so, I submit to you, the first ever (and probably not the last) “Chicken Shaming.”

And you want to know the sad thing? When Marc replaced the keyboard, Charlie went and did it again.

Lesson 770 – Winter bedding

Marc brought our last chick back to the nest this weekend and while it’s wonderful to see him in the home again, interacting with all of his flock mates, his return raises the age-old question asked by all mama hens whose chicks have left and then returned home again from college.

Lesson 769 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.“

John Wayne

What a week. If ever there was a true statement, it is this: Thank God it’s Friday.

We slide into our weekend with the flock all over the place. Marc and two of the boys are out picking up our last college student to bring him home for the summer, Addy is going to a FIRST competition, Emma has soccer games, and Trevor, as always, is doing his thing.

Which leaves me home to man the fort.

Absolutely fine by me. The weather is supposed to be perfect and I hear the yard calling my name.

Lesson 768 – Lessons learned

This is the beauty, strength, and power of a community. In the hundreds and hundreds of replies I got about our Violet’s experience (and I’ve read every single one several times) I received some tremendous gifts.

 

There was a comment from another chicken owner who had had a similar experience with cinder blocks.

 

“Shoot, yeah, we never get to quit learning and improving in this life. Even after 50+ years of chickens, I just found out about the cinder block thing. I flood irrigate so my coop is on blocks, and recently some of my girls decided that laying eggs underneath it was better than the nests. I had boarded it up, but they knocked one down and for several days we kept wondering where all the eggs were. By the time we figured it out and re-secured the boards solidly, they were so fixated on that being the place to lay that the next day I found one stuck in a cinder block hole! So stuck, in fact, that it took me a while to get her out…but that ain’t gonna ever happen again.”

 

Another person shared some examples of other unknown dangers in the coop that I would have never thought were a problem. Now I know.

 

“Other suggestions for coop safety:  Someone told me once that a piece of plywood leaning against a barn wall fell on one of her pullets and killed her.  Also: cracks in the roost —- toenails can get ripped.  It’s happened to my bird.”  

 

One fellow chicken owner left this fabulous suggestion to use when integrating chicks into the flock. I will be using this trick the next time we have chicks:

“Squirt bottle. It’s my training tool of choice for chickens (when it’s not freezing out of course). I have trouble accepting pecking order sometimes and other times they simply take it too far as you have learned. Armed with a good squirt bottle I can inflict a “peck” from several feet away, and it only takes a few squirts to show them who is really the boss of the yard. It works like magic. They are pretty fast learners. The instant you see a behavior you don’t want, squirt. It shouldn’t take more then a dozen squirts for even the most determined behaviors. Take care, loss is never easy, especially when you feel responsible.”

And I got a whole lot of compassion from people who understood my pain and my sharing of our story. Because of Violet, cinder blocks are either being removed or are being filled up in coops all over. Chicks lives may be saved.

Violet had a short life but just look at what she was able to do.

“Thank you for making me aware of the issue. I have blocks in the house for the waterers. When the new chicks hatch they will be removed. Our grown hens are much too large to squeeze their fat bodies into a block hole and they have settled into their order… but with new arrivals things can get interesting.”

“I am so saddened by your loss. I am just now back into keeping chickens, with my first batch of four chicks, and a deep concern about how to provide a safe environment for them, secure from predators. I will now focus on inside safety as well, and keep your lesson (and Violet’s) in my mind as I plan their coop and run. Thank you for the courage to speak the truth and help others be aware of unknown dangers. Hugs!”

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.