Eggs and normal stuff.

Update photos. :)

Cranky's egg.

(Three eggs under this hen.)

My buddy.

Kittens.

Attack of the ferocious puppy dog.

Spring is really here!

The boys.

Pasta....pregnant?

Some of our lovely blooms!

The eggs are still in the 'bator.

 I now have an Egg Turner.

Incubating time!

EGGS!

Temperature is adjusting...

Full 'bator!

I am all set and ready to go!

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: Zesty in the "Special" nest.

Today Zesty was really desperate to lay, but meanie Half'n'half wouldn't let her in the nesting box!

With nice chicken.

Poor hen.

So I put Zesty in Chester's old cage and put a special nesting box in for her.

She immediately started her nest.

Zesty's picked spot. Ouch!

I'm not sure if she has laid her egg yet, because I'm at the library, but I'm excited to get home and get her egg! The sweet girl:)

My Chickens: Jeannie's foot?/New Eggs!

Jeannie has recently started limping, badly.  She hops on one foot all the time.
I don't know how that happened, but Sweetie Pie is taking good care of her. He won't let her out of his sight!

Jackie. Don't you want to hug her!!!!

And a new bird is nesting in Cap's nest!  It's another Phoebe, but bigger than Cap.  It's eggs are huge, and there's only four.
I cant wait to have more chicks in there!

My Chickens: Raced today/ Poor chick!

IT. WAS. SO. HOT. TODAY!  I had to get up eeeaarly to go run the Freihofer's Run.  It was ssoo deathly hot!! I finished in 29minutes38seconds, despite an embarrassing trip to the medical tent with the help of two race officials. :)

Ah.......the chickens only laid three eggs today. Wonder why.

Something really sad happened when I went to check on Cap's chicks.  One of the chicks had fallen from the nest and was on the floor!  It was hurt badly not to mention the fact that Zesty had stepped on it while she was pestering me. 

Its neck wasn't broken, so I returned it to the nest, hoping it would be okay.  But when I came back and looked in the nest, the chick was dead.   Poor Cap now has three chicks.  Hopefully the others will be okay.  Oh, and another bird(a house wren) is nesting in my bird house in the woods! I hope she hatches her chicks soon!

Well, bye! Here's some pictures of birds and chickens.

I just love this picture!

Nice.

Some chubby chicks!

Not my chickens

Half'n'half

                               

My Chickens: The Egg Shirt!

Well, today I had this crazy idea to make an "egg shirt" for myself, because I do not have a basket at the moment. (When I collect eggs I usually put them in my shirt, or hold them--and I've broken several eggs while doing that:)  All I did was take one of my really filthy "chicken huger" tee-shirts, cut a square of the front, and folded it into a huge pocket.  Then I whipped out my sewing machine and sewed it up. Now I put the eggs in the pocket and carry them in!  It will work great.......as long as no one hugs me. ;)

My Chickens:Are CRAZY!!

One of my hens is scared of eggs! I always can tell when there's an egg, because I can hear her screaming as though there's a fox out there!! HA! She is CRAZY!!
And I checked on Cap. There are three chicks now!! One egg that didn't hatch. I told her congratulations!!  I couldn't get a decent picture of them, though. Sorry!! That nest is high!!

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: Dogs and Brave Chicks .

I'm glad to have my computer back, even though it doesn't work that well.   Anyhow, THOSE DOGS!!!!  RRRRR! They have RETURNED!!!!!  And I thought my troubles were over. Ha!   Well, I had just let my sweet little girls out(I let them out really early because they are so good about laying enough eggs)when I saw a big, ugly, black, dog galloping like a hooligan toward my hens!!  Half the hens were over near the chicks and the rest were with me. I grabbed the nearest object(a shovel)and yelled at the dog. It stopped, thinking over the situation, then it ran back up the road.  I got all the chickens in the coop, just before the second dog arrived. I jumped into the hen house with my girls until it left.  What a morning!! But, I still got a ton of eggs, ever with the dogs frightening the hens, who are still not broody.  The chicks weren't scared a bit. They just watched disdainfully as the dogs wandered past their hutch.  Brave little sillies!! I bet they were braver then I was!

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. 

My Chickens: Chicks Out!



Zesty and Cranky's eggs!

So sorry if I missed anything my dear blogger friend have posted!!
First of all, I have not seen those dogs for three whole days!!
Second, Bluey, Zesty, Cranky, Chestnut, and some one else, are all laying!!!! I now get at least an egg an day. I have a have a half a dozen now! ( Not counting the ones I used already.) Zesty and Cranky's eggs look like torpedoes!!
Bluey's look like boulders; they're so huge!!!
I'm glad they're laying, but I wouldn't really care if they didn't because I only care that they're happy and healthy.
Well, that's all the news about the older hens! So let's get to the chicks, shall we? Today I put the chicks out side in an insulated rabbit hutch because they are just too naughty!!! I also put the heat lamp in the hutch to keep them warm because they're only four weeks old. Deadbirdie just stands under the lamp all the time. I feel bad for her; she really liked to cuddle with me at night. Poor chick. --- The chicks are so smart and know how to drink from the rabbit water things!! Oh well, so long for now. By!!!


 

Bluey's massive eggs look like this!



My Chickens: Sorry Folks! The Virus Ate My Computer! / Dogs Again!



Save and sound.

To all my loyal readers,

I am sorry to report that my computer now has nine viruses. I will not be able to blog as much as I have been because I will have to use my local library's computer. At most I will blog once a week.
thank you for your understanding.

Your blogger, MADZ

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Here's the post :)

The dogs came back. They did not chase the chickens, however, because they were in the coop at the time.  BUT they certainly terrified me!!  I, once again, scared them off, but I am calling their owner!!

Then today, Bluey layed another egg! Quite a beauty! This time I left it in the nest; I want to see if she will be broody and sit on it after she has collected a clutch. Maybe she can be my incubator! Gotta love that! The chicks are escape artists. they can get out no matter what! The box they're in is taped, covered, and reinforced, but STILL they escape!!  *Groan* Crazy chicks! I brought them out side for a while. They loved it and had a lot of fun! The other chickens pretended to ignore them, but they were very curious about them and hung around trying to get a good look at them without seeming to be interested. SO funny! Well, my computer time is up, gotta go!

My Chickens: Isn't There a LEASH LAW?!

Well, first of all, my girls have been laying these HUGE eggs for me! So sweet of them!
Second of all, yesterday these two dogs, who always come around here, chased my sweet girlies!! One of the horrid animals was acting really weird and drooling strangely. Possibly rabid.  I chased them off with my trusty javelin* and kept an eye out for them the rest of the day.
*If you have seen my profile, you should know I have a javelin, which is like a spear.
If I see those dogs again, I'm calling their owner!
Anyhow, I should get another egg today. I'll go check, by!

My Chickens: Sorry to post again so soon, but...

I just needed to tell this to the world: My hens are laying again!!!!
I got one beautiful egg from Bluey!
It was huge!
Even bigger than the store bought kind!
(I held it next to a store bought egg and it's way bigger!!!) 
Hip-Hip-Hurray for Bluey!

My Chickens: Just a thought.

I couldn't resist posting this thing a friend said to me in an e-mail:
A hen is an egg's way......of making more eggs.

Although, I have to disagree with a part of it---A hen is God's way of making more eggs.


Chicks can't shoot!
Were'd this pic come from?

My Chickens: LOCKDOWN Peeps.

Sweetiepie, the first hatched.

I candled the eggs for the last time before closing Mr.Untrustfull for good. (Well, maybe not really for good, but you know what I mean.)  Day 21 came.....and went. No pips*. I was sure I had done something seriously wrong to make them not hatch. Day 22, I was siting at my desk beside the incubator thinking about the book I was reading, when PEEP!PEEP!    I nearly jumped out of my skin! It was the chicks! I dashed over and looked inside. Nothing? PEEP! They were peeping inside the eggs!  They were going to hatch!! I was so excited!
Later, there was a pip. Even later, another! I could hardly sleep with all that going on in there. 
Then, at 4:23am, I woke to the loudest peeping I'd ever heard. A chick had hatched! By 8:00am, day 23, another emerged.
By night fall, I had 5 chicks. I called them Deadbirdie, Deanie, Jackdaw, Gracie, and Sweetiepie. They were the most beautiful chicks I had ever seen.
Day 24, two more hatched. They were Sally Sussex and Clicket. Sally was a speckled Sussex.  Clicket had trouble breathing and died in the night. *moment of silence*  The rest were okay as far as I could tell. I love them all. I held them on my lap today while reading a blog about chicks. Well, I'd better go play with them. By!

*the chick's beak sticking out of the egg.

Soon I will write about....I don't know yet, but I'll think of something. :)   
I think I may start another blog, which doesn't mean I'm abondoning this one.