Lesson 890 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

“Clutter is my natural habitat.“

Maggie Stiefvater

This is what we handed out for Halloween (yup, we’re the family that refuses to hand out candy.)

One of the reasons, I like handing out snacks like this is that my kids can then use the extras in their lunches (instead of sneaking candy.) It’s a win-win situation (especially when you bought 100 packets of pretzels and ended up handing out a grand total of 10.)

The other day Addy came home from school and told me that she had had a “very sad day.”

“Why? What happened?”

She went on to tell me that on her way out the door, she had grabbed a package of pretzels to eat with her lunch, but when she got to school, she realized that she had grabbed this:

“How could I eat that?” she moaned. “I had to keep it intact so that I could show people at school and everyone at home. I never got to eat any pretzels,” she told me with a dramatic frowny face.

My little grasshopper has learned well. This is what I’ve been doing my entire life, bringing home interesting things to share with the kids. It explains why we have 31 chickens with at least 10 different breeds in our flock – I’ve wanted to share what I’ve discovered with my kids.

It also explains why clutter is a continuous problem in our house. How can we get rid of things that are so different and so interesting?

Well here is me taking a stab at it – Addy, sweetheart, everyone has now seen your pretzels, feel free to eat them (and don’t forget to throw away the wrapper.)

***

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

***
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. 

Like what you read here? Consider subscribing to this blog so that you’ll never miss a post. And feel free to share with those who may need a little chicken love.

Advertisement

Lesson 888 – Chickens and more chickens

For those who are on the Storm-watch, she continues to do well. During the day she’s in a protected playpen with her 2 best buds, and at night, she still comes inside the house to roost. This weekend, I’m going to build a safe zone for all things bantam. (I’m thinking just a box, like a wire trap with an opening just sooo high to allow the littles in but keep the big girls out.)

One of my concerns is how things will be when Storm starts laying eggs (which could be any day.) I imagine there might be a bit of tearing in the area and will be keeping a close eye on that.

With regard to my little Violet who died of similar injuries this summer, Violet died when I was at a meeting so I didn’t see her (you try holding tears back at a board meeting) but I was told that she stood up, stretched her leg and then toppled over.

I don’t know about you but that sounds like a heart-attack to me (which could have been brought on by a massive infection.) In any event, I am not seeing any behavior like that from Storm, in fact, she is just as active and perky as she was before her injuries. If I were a magic 8 ball, I’d say “everything points to  YES.”

Lesson 887 – Storm tracking

For those of you on the “Storm Watch” – Storm continues to get stronger every day. Her butt is scabbed over and while there is still a lot of skin exposed, it’s on its way to healing.

She is also getting stronger and stronger, in fact on Friday she literally decided to test her wings and, as Bantams are prone to do, flew across the room attracted to a mirror that was on the other side.

No, Storm, you need to stay put.

Lesson 886 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

People have been asking me about Storm, so today, although I normally put up a quote, I’ll leave you to enter the weekend with some good news.

We named our little injured chicken Storm because she’s such a trooper. Get it? It’s a nod to my Star Wars Geeks.

Yesterday, I wasn’t sure if Storm was going to pull through. I had been feeding her bits of vegetables and grapes in an attempt to keep her poop loose but in the afternoon she stopped eating and drinking anything.

When I inspected her butt, I saw that although the wounds were healing, there was some significant damage to her vent area and the scabbing had restricted her ability to push out her poop.  What poop she did push out was drying in place creating even more of a restriction. She was so impacted that scabs were ripping open and bleeding in the effort. Poor little thing.

Lesson 884 – Chicken ICU (again)

One of our bantams is in Chick-ICU.

Although our three “this-season-new” bantams seemed to be getting along with the rest of the flock, (they’ve spent nights in the coop and then during the day free ranged with the crew along with having access to their own private food and water) yesterday I discovered something that broke my heart.

The black frizzle and the blonde one (named “Simba” by my daughter) were untouched, but our grey feathered bantam, the leader of the mini pack was viciously attacked by the others. Resulting in her butt feathers being picked clean and her bum area bloody and raw.

Just like they did with Violet.

It’s difficult not to get angry at my flock for such violence.

It’s even more difficult for me to accept that this happened under my watch.

Again.

Lesson 881 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

When I was a kid, my parent moved a lot, but I always found them.

Rodney Dangerfield

My daughters like to use an application called “Snapchat.” It allows you to take a picture that is then only seen for a few seconds by the person who receives it before it “disappears.”

Addy, who is our biggest Snapchat addict tells me that the way you are supposed to use it is to record your face as you respond to what is being sent you (of course, I pointed out that this could lead to an endless loop of “amazed” selfies, but she didn’t care.)

As a result, I get many pictures like this from my daughter throughout the day that look kind of like this:

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see my lovely daughter’s “amazed” face, over and over.

Lesson 879 – Feathers and time

Boy, are some of my girls looking a little ragged. I’m definitely looking forward to the molt season ending.

Of course, not all of it is due to molting, some of my girls are almost 5 years old. Time will do a job on anyone’s feathers.

I’m finding once glorious tail feathers that are now looking scraggly and showing their wear and age. Bums are popping out where fluffy bottoms used to be. And I’m discovering wing feathers haphazardly strewn around the pen.

Lesson 878 – The babies move into the henhouse

After a few weeks of letting our 3 babies free range with the rest of the flock (and learning that one of our brown chickens does not particularly care for them) we’ve started to put them in with the rest of the birds at night.

Our babies (they will forever be babies in our minds) are very small bantams and as such are prime targets for being picked on. After the first night I found them hiding in 3 different places. From then on, when it came time to tuck them in I put them all in a corner of one nesting box. That way, they were somewhat hidden from the rest of the flock and could keep each other warm.

Once I started doing that, all was well, until the next morning, (it’s always something) when I would discover the babies still cowering in the corner – with no access to food or water.

My morning routine has now incorporated calming the babies down enough so that I can move them to an enclosed outdoor pen (with access only large enough for a bantam to enter and exit) where they can eat and drink to their hearts’ content.

Lesson 876 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion

Dalai Lama

This past Wednesday, I taught a chicken workshop for our town’s Adult Education series.

We covered lots of information, from getting chicks to moving them out to the henhouse (the next session covers flock management, medical concerns and how to cull.)

When I was talking about taking care of baby chicks, I mentioned what I feed them. I routinely suggest that all chicks have access to medicated feed until they are 5 – 6 weeks old and then it’s no more medication for them.  The reason I do this is that baby chicks come from batches of other baby chicks, which means they can be exposed to many, many pathogens. Medicated feed gives them a leg up.

Lesson 871 – Quotable Chicks

Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_friendship.html#BBGblSgrohUclQ1Z.99

This is Pippin. He’s a tiny Maltese with a big heart. You can see a picture of him (drawn by Lauren Scheuer) in the recent issue of Backyard Poultry when he and our house chicken Charlie used to sleep together.

Pippin used to be a tribe member of 3 when, just two years ago. when we had all of our dogs. During that fall season, first one dog died unexpectedly of an (up until then) unknown liver birth defect and then our oldest dog died of tumors and old age.