My Chickens-and Cat: Woah!! Sorry guys!!!

Well here I am!!   

My goodness!! I am behind!!    So anyway  Total updates........

I moved, Bluey got prolapse and died, someone dumped a cat-(who stayed), Cranky looks like a turkey with a bad hair-cut, Half'N'half nearly got lost in the neighbors cornfield, and I AM SO CHICK CRAZY!!!!

I really want to hatch chicks again!! Like, really badly!! I dream about them, I imagine them running around the yard, and i don't know who sells fertilized eggs around here!!

ARRRGG!  CHICKIES OUT OF REACH!!!!!

My Chickens: Little Lady IS BROODY!!!!!!

Broody Rhode red.

When I went to collect the eggs  I saw that!!  Little Lady has gone broody!  I found her sitting on all the eggs!  Sooo I got down and pulled one, two, three, four eggs out from under her.

But she still lay there, refusing to budge!  I'll just have to let her brood herself out.



"I want my eggs!"

My Chickens: Sad happening.

The new Phoebe nesting in Caps nest has been murdered.

I arrived to find all her eggs on the ground, smashed, and her dead in the yard.
I don't know what had happened, she didn't have a mark on her and wasn't mangled at all.
Maybe Cap killed her for some reason, if she didn't want a stranger in her nest.

Like before:
'The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end.'

My Chickens:Cap's Chicks Have Hatched!!!!

Hi everyone!! I'm back!! And guess what!!!! Cap, the Phoebe, has hatched her chicks!!! Or chick.
I heard peeping that was NOT my chicks and went to investigate.  Then I realized the noise was coming from the shed! 
I climbed the terrifyingly tall ladder and ducked as Cap whirred out of there. She landed a short distance away and watched my warily, but I've done this every year for awhile so she wasn't too frightened. I had to use a mirror, but finally I saw what I'd been waiting for: A tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny chick!!! It must of hatched this morning, for the other chicks still weren't out of their eggs.  It was so cute-quta even!!! Regardless of the fact that it had no feathers or down, it was still adorable!!
Oh! And the chickens now lay seven eggs a day!! WOW!!

My Chickens: How a hen lays an egg. An eyewitness account.

Well, today I have a challenge. I have to complete two dozen eggs. Then I my friend will buy them. I can start a good business with this! But first things first. My girls must lay four more eggs today to complete the 2nd dozen.   
I got up real early this morning and was able to witness both Bluey and what's-her-name lay an egg! It was fascinating!
I'm sure all my chicken-lover friends know all about how they lay eggs, but just for my other pals, I'll describe what it was like.  

1. The hen goes and walks around in the nesting box, carefully shaping the nesting material to fit snugly around her.
2. She lays in the box fox a while(in my case, an hour)and warns the other hens that this is her box. Sometimes she gets pecked.
3. When she is ready, she squats and stays very still. The other hens usually do not bother her now.
4. And the egg is out!
5. Then she may sit on it, if she's broody, but Bluey does this: She slowly walks out, throwing bits of saw dust over  her shoulder. It's really cute.

Well, there you are! Oh! Chestnut has just layed an egg! Gotta go! I may get another dozen yet!

My Chickens: Cap and Tarpie.

Of the late, I've been getting three eggs a day.  But this post is mostly about my wild bird friends, Cap and Tarpie.
Tarpie is a robin. He always comes around to eat any spilt seed.
Cap is a phoebe. She's been around for years and always nests in the shed.
 A couple days ago, there was an uproar amongst the robins. Tarpie was trailing a long piece of tarp fiber from his leg!(That's why I call him Tarpie.) I tried unsuccessfully to catch him and get it off, but it's nearly impossible to catch a wild robin who is frighted by a strange snake clinging to its leg. So I gave up and a day later, it was gone. I still don't know how he got it off.  And about Cap. Today she layed her eggs and is snuggled on them as we speak!  I now will peek at her every day 'til the hatch. It is most interesting.   And highly educational.