Retired Chicken Auntie

April 6, 2019   Well, it's been almost a year since we moved from Santa Rosa to Ashland, Oregon and I gave up my chickens.  The neighbors who brought the property have one of the vineyard workers in charge of my girls now. And I occasionally hear what's going on.

Last July, Fearless went to the Big Coop in the Sky.  Just her time, and being 7, she had a good life even though she rarely laid an egg.  Fearless took over being Queen of the Coop after Curious had to be put to sleep and she did a good job as dowager queen.

I'm not sure who is running the group now. Gabby was still alive at last I checked and she is the last one of my original group from 2011, but I think Lilly is my pick for head mistress now. She just always kind of had that regal, bossy air. Kiwi would be a close 2nd, but she is a little Buttercup and I think size matters when you establish a pecking order.

I'll have to check in and see how they all are doing.  It always chokes me up to think of my girls and the fun times I had learning how to wrangle chickens!!

Virtual Garage Sale

Ladies, 

You probably know by now that we sold our house to our western neighbor who has vineyards and we are moving. As of now, we are hoping to move to Ashland, Oregon sometime in April or May.

So, I'm doing a garage sale on Saturday March 3rd, from 10 to 2.

Ahead of that and not wanting you to trek up here [and be disappointed that its not wonderful furniture] I am posting photos of everything.

You can email me >>  kchianello@gmail.com << with 'dibs' and what you want to pay. Or, if you want further information.
No reasonable offer refused.
I will set aside item for you to pick up on Saturday......OR, we can make other rendezvous arrangements. 

Please share with any friends and bring them with you Saturday !!

 Dark brown leather chair + Ottoman

would like $ 75

















             Assorted Books  $ 2 each

 3 Pillows: 1 regular down and 2 TempurPedic

10'10" x 8 ft rug - needs cleaning but in good shape. I've vacuumed it...

 Double bed sheets, fleece blanket and a down blanket all in sage-green.

NOT SHOWN: queen size down comforter

 21 wine glasses, generic, pan press,platter, tart pans, chip and dip/Mexican plates
aluminium lasagna pans pkg'd









All Clad pasta pot with steamer insert. This thing is at least 16: tall


Misc. bowls and pie plates, All Clad sauce pan, iron skillet, chip and dip/ceramic, little dish with lid, assorted ramekins, silver plated serving tray [top right of photo, barely visible] Yellow LeCruset sauce pan.

White dessert plates [8], 2 black bowls and plates [one plate is chipped], mini muffin tins, [8] 3-section dishes for entertaining [sauces or what not], loaf pan, [8 or 10] plastic appetizer plates 6" sq. Generic lid for skillet 10" [?]

Assorted table cloths, chaffing dishes [2], bowls, misc. glasses, various colors Milk Paint, battery operated votives, drawer knobs, hook, assorted  old linen napkins











 [6] Gold charger plates, electric carving knife, various mixing bowls, pyrex 8x8, mini muffin tins, umbrellas, [2] bbq tongs 

Cookie jar, assorted vases and small outdoor pots, 3 nice wine decanters, small green lamp,  poster "winged angel in blue" done by a friend of mine, star chart, battery operated kitchen scale, bronze candlesticks [for taper candle]

Various vases and bowls, red napkins, red tomato napkins, little crystal pitchers, glass gravy boat, decorated wine 'tube' carriers 

Bowls, assorted rubber stamps, colorful table runner, wine Vinuri decanter

Great for parties - [50] oval melamine plates, 13" long
and [12] plates about 10" long

Large ice chest

Books on Cassettes

L/XL bathrobe, never worn

This is a Queen size sleigh bed that was once white-washed 

and I painted brown. Mattress is med-firm and in great condition.  Headboard sticks out from the wall on the bottom about 12".

Bed breaks down into several pieces

This is a black leather side table, some of the leather is coming loose but I think it could be fixed. Pretty cool piece in the right house!

[8] stackable, green plastic chairs

From Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley, the Total Gym. Slightly used and has some accessories. Folds up more/less flat.

That's it .... for now, at least.  

 

February 16, 2018 Jasmine Dies

Fondly called "Orange Chicken"

Jasmine was in triage for couple of days and quietly died on Friday night.

Here's what happened.  She was my best layer, 28 out of 30 days a month!!! She started a late molt in December, and then in January just seemed kind of 'off'. Usually she jumps up for the food cup when I enter the coop, she will jump up on my back if I bend over, and she will sit on one of the human 'perches' with me when I'm down there.

But, none of that. I chalked it up to the molt. The girls just don't like to be touched when their 8,000 feathers are falling out because new little pin feathers are poking through.

She was hunched over for a couple of days and not interested in much and was taking herself to bed at 4 pm, way earlier than normal and ahed of the others.  I thought she just wanted a preferred spot, which everyone did want - the end of the perch by a window.

I made an appointment with one of the vets in town that handles chickens. 
And, on the very morning I was going to take her in, she laid this!*#%!*#!@!!! 
The middle 'thing', photo on left.
A bad fingerling potato - ha ha ha!

Scooped it up to take with me, along with some poop incase she was suffering from tapeworm and they could analyze the droppings.

Vet said no worms and thought the egg-y thing was yolk collection.

She seemed better for a few days. I treated her with my favorite 1-2 punch, goldenseal and echinacea in a tea and eye-dropper in her mouth for a couple of days but didn't continue.

Several days later, the same withdrawn behavior repeated. And, she had diarrhea. Brought her up to the house when we came back from looking in Ashland, Oregon, for our new home on Wednesday.

Did lots of googling and ran across the info on the 'egg' she laid, which is nicknamed "lash egg" and isn't an egg at all !!!!!!

It's a collection of [usually] pus from an infection that gets into the oviduct and excreted like an egg. Oh no...a sign of a larger problem and the term for the condition is salpingitis.  A viral or bacterial infection which can maybe be handled by antibiotics if it is bacterial and caught in time. But, I didn't know in time: my antibiotic tea of oregano, goldenseal, cinnamon, with electrolytes just too little too late and I couldn't save her.

She ate well on Friday morning and drank my herb tea, but then didn't want anything else the rest of the day and she was ok sitting and sleeping in my lap. But, I think her organs were just slowing shutting down. Yes, I have tears in my eyes now because I hate to see how fast she went downhill and how powerless I am to help.

I don't know if, had the vet known this, that antibiotics would have worked 3 weeks ago. He didn't even know this condition. Dare I say that I wonder how chicken-knowledgable he is??

Chickens are really good at hiding a lot of problems and, drat if they could only talk and tell us what was going on, they'd get medical treatment from their flock owners right away!!!

I haven't observed any major shifts in power yet. Fearless has kinda stepped into the top spot when Curious died. Jasmine was leader of the New Girls and challenged by Kiwi, one of the small Buttercups.

It remains to play out what the new pecking order will be.

Bye, Jasmine! I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

Jasmine wanted Camelia's hat !!! And she flew up there !!!

October 29, 2017: I lost the leader of the Flock

I had to put Curious into eternal sleep on Tuesday 10-24.

Everyone is molting. It was always nice to see Curious's dirty butt feathers get replaced with new ones.  Sunday October 22, I went down to the coop and washed her butt off. It was looking more poopy than normal so I thought cleaning it would be a good idea.

Monday she seemed pretty fine but at dinner time, 5 pm, she was already on the perch inside the coop.  I thought that was strange but chalked it up to molting behavior. So, I brought her down and out to eat some treats. She kinda of ate, but then just stood around.
Had I known what was to happen, I would have looked at her butt.

I've been fermenting chicken crumble/powder and feeding them some at night. Mostly in the hopes that it would help Curious eliminate her always dirty butt.

Tuesday morning I go to the coop to give them their morning "salad"
and open the gate to the pastures.

Curious is sitting inside the coop, on the floor. I pick her up.
Oh My God. She's bleeding pretty heavily around the anus and there are lots of [what I thought] worms crawling around and maybe in and out of the anus.

Oh God Oh God. What to do?!  I grabbed a rag to hold over the bleeding because I couldn't tell exactly where it was.  Walked fast up to the house and took another look. Bad. And I know she didn't feel good because she didn't fight me.

Called the vet with the avian doc and drove the 25 minutes in to town.
A long wait at the vet, fitting me in between other patients.
And for some dang reason it was 'dog' day at the vets, the waiting room was full of seniors and their dogs.

I thought she might die before we got to see the vet.

Dr. Lankes took one look at the butt and then looked up at me.
I kinda knew this wasn't good news.

Those weren't worms - they were MAGGOTS !!! !!! !!!
So probably what happened is somehow there was dead or dying tissue that flies laid eggs on. The maggots were about 18 hours old. Did I made a raw spot on Sunday? I feel awful if it was my fault.

And, because they were getting inside her, she probably had some other secondary infection. Basically a septic chicken.

I could take her to the vet hospital at U.C. Davis for expensive treatment, but no guarantees for a complete cure.

.....Or, I could say good-bye and put her out of her misery.

I asked the vet if I could just take her home for the last remaining time and she kindly looked at me and said that would be a cruel way to let her die.

So, I said my good-byes to my Leader, the grand-dame of the coop and one of my best egg layers.

I was able to bring her home and bury her in the chicken cemetery next to Dolly, Evie, Blondie and Amelia.

Here she is on the right with her two original sisters, Gabby and Fearless.

I think Fearless might take over the Flock leader spot, but Jasmine is a good second choice.  After the molt, it will be interesting to see how the power structure shifts and who wins out.

We just go through all the Santa Rosa fires, with our mountain being spared! And, then this.....

Bye Curious. I sure will miss you!