December 14, 2012 Blondie is Killed

Wednesday Steve walked by the uncovered playground and saw a huge hawk eating Blondie. We knew the hawks had been scoping out this area from a distant fir tree and I got lax about letting them out unattended.

So he threw a rock at the hawk so that he could get in and cover up the body; then count to make sure the other 4 were safe [they were spooked and inside the coop] and then he buried her by Dolly, in the chicken cemetery.  He came up to the house to tell me, with tears in his eyes.

Blondie enjoying a little sunshine 12-10-12

Today he is out taking down part of his plant shade house to use the wood to post up around the playground so that we can cover over all sides and tops  to make it safe from any other flying predator.

Dang..dang..dang....It is so hard to loose an animal when you only have 5 and they are all pets! Especially sad since Blondie had the broken beak accident back in July: her beak was all healed tho' and she was at the end of her annual molt of feathers and looking really pretty.

It is interesting in that she was always a very vigilant chicken, keeping a good lookout for what was going on around her. Maybe her light color made her a stand-out target to the hawk.

It is the circle of life.....albeit a sad one.

November 19, 2012 Quick Update

Blondie, Fearless and Gabby are molting!  Feathers everywhere and they are so sad looking, partly "leafed out" and part skimpy. Curious molted in October and she and Amelia are the only 2 laying eggs right now.

I have feather photos to post later, but it has been a busy month converting the summer garden into the winter garden. We also picked 1,400 pounds of our Italian olive trees on November 9 and 10th.  The Spanish variety, Arbequina, isn't ready yet.  Took a couple of days to recover from this project: at least we had the help of Steve's sister and 2 brothers!

Veggie photos coming too...

Have a great Thanksgiving to all!!!

October 10, 2012 Baby's First Egg

Today Baby Amelia graduated to Young Chicken [also called pullet] because she laid her first egg!!

Notice that it is small compared with her (evil) step-sisters. This variety does lay small eggs...but it's darned cute and several would make a darling plate of little deviled eggs!

Amelia's first egg, lower center

Here she is braving the outside to scratch in the pasture with the 4 others. Curious, naturally, has to come over and make sure Amelia doesn't have something she wants! Every day Amelia is getting braver on integrating herself into the flock....yea!

October 9, 2012 And The New Name Is....

Amelia .... for the famous female flyer .... you guessed it .... this little girl can fly!  I was standing outside the playground area after feeding a batch of worms from the compost pile to the girls. Miss Buttercup was avoiding her mean older sisters and running back and forth inside the fence. All of a sudden, flutter flutter...she has flown over the 36" high fence and landed by
my feet. Uh Oh!!!  Luckily,  I was able to pick her up, say no no no and take her inside.

After hearing the story, my sister suggested Amelia [ Amelia Earhart ].....So I call her Baby Amelia...

Steve was really nice to do ANOTHER chicken project and raise all the fencing up. We had a roll of left-over 48" tall chicken wire, which he used in place of the shorter green plastic 'poultry' fencing...hahaha, they must mean fat chicks that can't fly hahaha.  We'll see if this keeps her in. So far it has.

If you read about the Sicilian Buttercup breed they don't like confinement and they are good fliers. DUH for this one.   Just hoping she would rather forage than fly. But, I have a feeling that the older she gets and more confident in living here, she will be flying around.  She can already fly into the side of the pasture that is newly growing from being re-seeded. This has got to tick off the others who are larger breeds and not good fliers - she can get in there to nibble and they can't. She seems to be able to get back out, too. 

All the others are making progress at not always chasing her, so she is getting more confident about coming out of the coop to explore, forage and scratch. They are all not running around together, but at least being more tolerant! She still runs away if Fearless comes near; I try to head off Fearless and Blondie if they look like they are going to peck or chase her. I'm pretty confident that they will all be flocking together soon.

Yesterday, the 8th., was the one year anniversary of the first egg, laid by Gabby.  Still no heavy molting signs, except for Curious. But, I know they have to molt and shed feathers - just sorry it has to be going into colder weather...okay, cold for Santa Rosa - which isn't North Dakota at least!

Cluck On!

September 22, 2012 The New Chick on the Block

Friday, September 21st.,  Chicken Mentor Barb called and said she had a chicken for my husband Steve;  a Sicilian Buttercup...which is funny because his paternal grandparents came from Sicily...SO, naturally I had to adopt her.

She is 4 months old and I brought her home Saturday; made an isolation pen to separate her from the other Girls; and I hope to integrate her tonight while they are roosting and sleeping. All the chicken books say this is a good way to introduce a 'newbie': when they wake up in the morning with her in the flock, they are more accepting. I did re-introduce both Fearless and Blondie this way after they were in hospital isolation, so it does work.  I do expect some pecking as they fit her into the hierarchy. Fearless is gonna love moving up from her lowest status. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Miss Buttercup, as yet unnamed

UPDATE on Wednesday, 26th:
After 5 days, she is still living inside the little coop-house: occasionally being chased around or out by one of the others who wants to get in to sit on a nest or be bratty. But, thankfully, no vicious pecking  by her 'sisters'. She still pecks my fingers if I try to pick her up, but she is eating and drinking and for the most part seems to be okay and will come up to me if I "chick chick chick" call her.

She has the most beautiful olive green legs:

I think she will fit in fine with the others and it is just a matter of time before I know I will see her outside with the Girls when I go down in the mornings to open the pasture.

If you would like to toss a name suggestion in the hat, I am at the upper part of the alphabet with this first group, so her name can start with "A", "E" or 
a replacement "D" for the now-gone Dolly.

Stay tuned for name announcement and personality description.

September 8, 2012 Blondie Update

Here's a photo of Blondie 6 weeks after the gate accident, which cracked her beak.  You can see there is still a nick in both parts of the beak, but she is scratching and eating fine. The biggest news in her recovery is that she is able to peck corn on the cob again and sheer off pieces of green leaves; neither of which she could do for the first 3-4 weeks!

And she has become sweeter since her injury; always the first at the coop door in the morning and the first to run out into the playground ready to plunder worms.  Now I can even pick her up more often than before.

Here are the Girls in their newly grown pasture, which is attached to the chicken coop and protected from overhead predators with plastic chicken fencing. While this side gets destroyed and eaten, I have re-seeded the other side and it will be open for grazing at the end of October. I keep the rotation going, as well as letting them out into the bigger open aired playground - but I saw a coyote yesterday morning on the outside of the big main fence: scared him off with some clapping and I hope he/she stays away! Kind of worried about that but I guess I have to let that go and let them get outside and be 'chickens'.

I used some old leftover seeds: broccoli, corn, bok choy, sunflowers, and spinach as well as new alfalfa, oats and wheat. They seem to appreciate the variety!

Curious is STILL broody - it's been 28 days! Last time she was broody for 30 days and took another 16 until she started laying again. What a good mommy she would have made if she had been sitting on fertilized eggs.

August 13, 2012 Blondie Update and a Broody Hen

Blondie is doing so well in beak recovery!  She is back to pecking in the dirt, eating corn scratch and worms; she just has a little hard time sheering off kale or other greens. Chicken Auntie chops the greens for now, which is appreciated by all the others as well!

She still has one side of the beak uneven and the bottom shows a couple of "fracture lines", but I am hoping over time these will disappear. I guess I could get out the emory board and file down the uneven side...ha ha, like she would sit still for that!

The best part is she will allow me to pick her up sometimes, so at least I can make a close inspection of the injury. She actually does the chicken squat as I call it [they will squat down for a rooster to mount them] and let me pick her up from that position. Does that mean I am the Dominate One? Well, whatever....at least I can pick her up now and be a good nurse.

I did use my calendula-comfrey-olive  oil salve on the beak early on, believing that it and the goldenseal helped the healing.

[The salve is great on mites on their legs; as well as human dry skin conditions....if you are interested in a jar, just email me for details!].

                                                        *  *  *  * *

Dance of the Broody Hen

Exactly 6 months almost to the day, Curious starts her 'broody' dance again.

On thursday the 9th., she started growling and fluffing up her feathers, then she gets a vacant stare and stops hogging all the food. When I find her in a nest box at odd times of the day, I know her chicken hormones have kicked in and she wants to hatch a brood.  Sorry, Babe, but without a rooster to fertilize those beautiful eggs, ya ain't gonna get any youngsters.

The good news is the other 3 now get a good chance at worms and food goodies because she is just not that interested.  At least while it has been darned hot [90's +], I take her off the nest and she will drink a lot of water.

Last time she was broody for the whole month of February. I bet it will be about the same again. It takes 21 days of incubation by a momma to begin hatching eggs: of course, she would have to lay one a day first to get a 'clutch' of eggs and most ranchers let them sit on 6: and, actually they will all hatch within 48 hours of each other, usually based on the last egg laid.
Fascinating! Maybe I will have to get some fertile eggs from Chicken Mentor Barb sometime and have the experience.

It makes me chuckle to watch her strut around the coop, with feathers puffed up like a Thanksgiving turkey.  I know she is hoping that there is a whole line of little chicks following her! "They" say the Plymouth Barred Rock makes a good mother - with the way she acts, I know that would be true.

Naturally, egg production, such as it is with 4 girls, is down while Curious, my best layer, does the maternal thing.  I do have a great routine to monitor my egg production. I have one of those small calendars where I write each day who laid an egg and then I have an individual log for how many eggs each one lays in a year. That is how I know who is the lead-layer and who is the least productive [Fearless]. Curious will be bumped out of top spot because of the broodiness and Gabby, #2, will take over the honors. Will have to see if Curious catches up or not..humm...that will be interesting to log in.

It's actually really fun for me to know who lays how often and how many eggs a week they are producing...okay, maybe too over the top for most chicken owners.....

Bye for now ..... Cluck on where ever you are!

July 29, 2012 A Broken Beak

If it's not one thing, it another! And, it was a terrible accident!
I went out to the coop/pen Friday morning to feed the girls and let them into the playground. Well, it seems like when the gate door is open as I enter, there is an intriguing spider web in the space between the door and the hinge-side jamb.


I always have to shoo 1 or 2 of the girls away from there so I can close the door. Did that as usual, did the morning duties...and I opened the gate to leave, shooing Gabby away from the space. But, just as I was shutting the gate, Blondie darts in to grab a spider [I think], and I CLOSE the GATE ON HER BEAK!

Blondie's boo-boo - My Fault!

She squawks and runs away. I panic...and dart after her...She is always the one who is the least friendly, so I had to chase her into the coop, shut the little door, go in and corral her in a corner.


I pick her up and she is really bleeding! I dab it off with an alcohol wipe I keep in the supply trash can... then I have to un-panic myself and think what to do. So, I put her back inside the coop where she is safe and isolated and I run up to the house, and really run...which is hard to since I am kinda still recovering from foot surgery.  I grab some goldenseal, which Steve and I always use for bleeding wounds and the cat carrier and go back to the coop.  A little more triage with putting the powder on the cut.


What to do...what to do...So, I'm here by myself with a deaf, 16 year old cat and 4 chickens as Steve is working on a landscape job in Bend, Oregon.


Okay, I call the avian vet in Santa Rosa. His office says he is leaving this afternoon, so could I come in at 10...it's 9:30-ish now; no make up, hair barely brushed and I'm in the grungy clothes getting ready to stain the front door....whoosh, a quick change of the top and I'm off with the chicken for the 25 minute ride Santa Rosa.


Oh, and let me mention, I had 2 pork butts to cook and cookies to make for my sister's company party for Saturday....Quick, turn off the oven on the way out the door.


Dr. Thorne, a very tall and quiet-spoken gentle man, says it looks like part of her upper jaw is broken, the beak is pushed over toward the other side and the lower beak is cracked but not broken. And, at least the roof of her mouth isn't damaged which means she would be able to eat and drink - drinking water being the most important thing. He says he could wire the beak back in place and epoxy the wire. Oh boy...I have to talk with Steve about that.
But he does say there is a chance it will heal fine on it's own.


He suggests isolation until the blood dries and isn't so noticeable so the others don't peck her: and that she may not eat or drink much today. Mush up her feed anyway for a while.


Home to put her in the hospital pen inside the coop. She can see her sisters and she wants out really bad! I cordon off part of the inside of the coop so she can roost inside near her flock-mates. Since the other wanted to peck her bloody beak, it is a cautionary move to keep her separated.


I finish cooking and shredding the pork butts and making the cookies about 8 pm that night, exhausted and emotionally drained from chicken crisis....remember, Dolly has only been "gone" a month.


SUNDAY update:  Last night Blondie slept in the coop with her sisters. I got home from the company party just at dusk as the others were heading in to roost. Curious was still outside in the pen, so I let Blondie out with her. They seemed to accept each other without pecking order issues, and Blondie did a few walks around the pen and then up the ramp to the roost. Curious followed shortly after and I saw that they were all on the upper perch safe and sound.


Blondie is drinking water and trying to scratch around for food. I think she does pick up small stuff, but she is having a hard time biting into things. I don't know if it is a functional problem or a still-sore problem. And, she is definitely lighter in the weight category.  She and Fearless do squabble a bit; I think Fearless wanted to move up out of last place, but Blondie wouldn't step down. Even with her beak broken, she still commands her spot in the pecking order [altho Curious pecks them all away from food].


Monday I will check in with the vet and see what he thinks about the next steps..whether her beak will be okay or better wire back into place...


Stay tuned...

July 10, 2012 Dumpster Diving

Early on in my chicken education, I read in "Chickens in Your Backyard" that some grocery stores let you take the old produce for your farm animals. So I started checking around. Well, Whole Foods turns their old produce into compost that they then bag and sell back to us: Safeway says they compost and give/sell it to farmers. BUT, I have 2 local independent stores that will let you pick through certain trash cans at certain times of day for goodies.

Free Veggies in Here!

The guy that gets first dibs on these cans has made an arrangement with the store: we chicken-feeding scroungers have to wait until 12:30 to do our diving!


I look for corn on the cob, the Girls' favorite. Then, any melons or grapes. Also, bok choy, cauliflower and broccoli. I must have the only chickens who don't really like lettuce. Another gal that dumpster-dives says her chickens love lettuce. Go figure.


One day I had a nice conversation with a gal in her 70's that makes the rounds of the dumpsters: she wouldn't give me her other source, though. And I can understand - you don't want competition from other chicken aunties cleaning out all the produce before you get there  - ya wanna keep your spots a secret!


It's an interesting dynamic to hop out of the SUV in my nice clothes, walk up to a large plastic garbage can and start picking through the throw-aways. You can get some pretty good looking stuff, and in the back of my mind is the thought..." okay, this is almost good enough for humans not cows and chickens!" Maybe only a bruised spot, or a little damage,  and you could cut around it...who would know?   I actually have a family member who lived for a while making visits to dumpsters for food. It must be a very humbling experience.


And I remember when an episode of Top Chef Masters had the chefs using food that was going to be thrown out or disposed of. I don't remember all of it, but I do know they got some pretty amazing stuff and were, themselves, enlightened on what has to be thrown out in this country that could actually be eaten. You know if you visit a foreign country that they are less cavalier about what is thrown out.  I guess, tho, if it goes to cows, pigs and chickens at least it doesn't go to waste.


Today's haul: an over-ripe canteloupe, a couple of bunches of kale, some brussel sprouts and carrot tops.  Salad anyone?

June 24, 2012 Good-bye, Dolly

Nurse Stella

Fifteen year old Stella kept a vigilant watch over Dolly all month; never once saw her as dinner or tried to be agressive. So curious, in fact, that one day she touched nose to beak while Dolly sat in my lap!








The last couple of days Dolly had gradually lost her will to fight. I could see it in her demeanor - she wasn't trying as hard to stand up; she also was eating less and shook her head when I tried to give her an eyedropper of water.


Steve humanely put her down Sunday and cleaned up the hospital room for me while I was at the grocery store. What a great husband! I don't think I could have participated. 


I had lost my devotion to the other 4 with my foot surgery restrictions and Dolly's illness.  I saw a questioning "look" in Fearless's eyes as though she wondered where her sister is and what's going on. Since she is the low girl in the flock, I am giving her a little more attention for right now. Even though Dolly and Curious would peck Fearless away from tasty morsels, she would still surreptitiously follow Dolly around the yard! 


Saturday I cleaned the coop and changed-out all the hay. The girls have fun jumping up into the wheelbarrow to see if something good is getting thrown out. Gabby clucks and follows me in and out of the coop house, always chattering about what I'm doing. It was just what I needed to make me happy, since I knew what was going to happen Sunday. 


I have to say that the Golden Lace Wyandotte [Dolly and Fearless] is a beautiful breed. The rose comb is crinkle-y, rather than the typical chicken comb, and it gives them the look of a cute little 'hat' positioned on top of their head. The feathers, carmel and dark brown/black, are beautiful and so far my favorite pattern of all the feathers in my coop!

June 19, 2012 Update on Dolly

Well, it has been a tearful month worrying about Dolly and hoping she gets better.


It is almost certainly a nasty chicken disease called Marek's Disease. Most flock owners cull a chicken who contracts it because it is contagious; even though new chicks are vaccinated against the disease, sometimes it doesn't take. And by now they should have a fairly good natural immunity.


So, last week, Steve and I agreed to send Dolly to the Happy Coop in Heaven. Friday, amid more tears, I dug a grave on a nice part of the property in back of the barn and below a group of olive trees.  Darned if Friday afternoon she looked like she was getting stronger and really trying to stand.  So, we had a "stay" and decided to give her more time to recover.


I have been treating her with Astragalus [a good general immune booster even for humans!], echinacea, baby vitamins, and a homeopathic remedy called Causticum. As well as the foods she wants to eat right now which are red grapes, oatmeal, mealworms and some of her chicken pellets softened with water.
This web site has wonderful homeopathic and natural treatments for chickens: it is out of the U.K., but ... hey ... any help from any source is appreciated!       Homeopathic Treatments for Chickens


It is Tuesday and I can say that she is in good spirits, has a very good appetite, and keeps trying to stand up.


I dunno....I might be grasping at straws to think she will pull out of it. Although, it is possible to recover, it takes a long time and she will then always be a carrier....does this mean the others won't get sick - I don't know that either, but it is possible. Normally Marek's attacks early in their lives, like under 2 months old: if it was also what Fearless had in December, then it took 5 months for Dolly to come down with it....hummm.....


SO far the other 4 are hale and hardy, and doing the business of eat, scratch, poop and lay eggs....


As for Dolly, I am not sure how long to keep going because I hate to see her suffer, but I'm being selfish in that if I give her enough time, and she doesn't develop any possible tumors, that she will get back to her old self.
Deep down, I am prepared to let her go.


Oh sure, chickens aren't near the top of the intelligence list, but as she looks at me I can see in her a spirit not ready to give up yet, so neither will I.


Stay tuned....

June 1, 2012 Dolly Can't Walk

I am sitting around trying to be patient with my foot surgery recovery and on Wednesday, May 23rd, Steve comes back from his morning trip to the coop and says one of the chickens is sitting down and not able to get up.

So, he drives me down there in our Kawasaki “Mule”. It’s Dolly, sitting in the corner between the coop and the wood step to the human door. I gently lift her up and she has no ‘legs’ to stand on.

Steve gets the chicken hospital out of the storage area and up we go to the house.

A Healthy Dolly

Dang, dang, dang! She has many of the same symptoms as Fearless had back at Thanksgiving.

Her wattles were really warm, her toes were curled under and she kept trying to flap her wings to stand up. Poor darling! 

And she can't speak....Fearless at least could coo.

It's so discouraging to have an animal get sick: I have new local friends who never have problems with their flock, so I just don't understand with all the good care I give them...why does it happen to my girls?

I immediately make up my standard molasses, cayenne and garlic flush mixed with some food pellets and try to get her to eat. 

As of today June 1st., she’s had a pretty good appetite all along, mostly wanting ‘scratch’ [crushed corn with some mixed seeds/grains], lots of water mixed with Pedialyte and she seems to crave mealworms [at least she gobbles them up, so I am thinking she needs protein]. She is also gobbling up a fresh strawberry or two from our garden.

It’s been ten days and she isn’t worse; maybe a tad better: the fever is gone at least.

And, whatever it is makes the worst, stinky poops - at least she can ‘go’ once a day, but whoa-boy it’s nasty!

As I do more research I found a couple of web sites describe the same symptoms attributed to scorpion bites or stings; with general recovery in about 5-7 days. We do have scorpions, so this is a distinct possibility. Maybe she was trying to eat one and it stung her somehow, somewhere.  It would be hard to see a bite mark under all the feathers. But, I would think I’d see more improvement by now.

Clearly something neurological to affect motor skills of the legs, and one side being worse than the other. Could she have had a stroke?

It’s interesting to note that both Dolly and Fearless are the same breed. Makes me wonder.....

Wednesday, the 30th, I put her in the cat carrier and took her down for a visit to her sisters to see if it would cheer her up. Dolly was clearly interested and tried to stand up and visit her buddies.

After Curious’s initial peck on the comb, they basically looked at her and the “ignored” her in the way of “We know something is different, just not what it is.” We visited for about 40 minutes and came back for the afternoon rest.

And then I got to thinking that, if it was contagious, maybe I just spread it to the others. Now I am watching them for signs, too.

I am still holding out for good signs of recovery in the next few days! [chicken-wise, that is as my foot is doing great: stitches out and I can start range of motion on the big toe and walking ‘normal.]

Dolly's Hospital Suite

Here's Dolly

            in her deluxe Hospital Room

May 15, 2012 The Chicken or the Egg?

That age-old question started to haunt me while I spent the last year tending my new flock. And, the anthropologist in me also wondered about the evolution of the chicken: most people acknowledge that the chicken does look ‘prehistoric’ and dinosaur-like.

So, it made me wonder was there an Adam-and-Eve Chicken Ancestor? A chicken-god creator watching in the Garden of Eden for Chicken-Eve to take a peck of the proverbial apple?

Even Aristotle in 300 + BC pondered the first egg-first chicken idea.

Okay, so I DID major in anthropology in college and it has been an interest all my life - thank you National Geographic and Louis Leakey. Therefore, if I applied my anthropological mind to this I’d say we have an evolutionary conundrum. 

It starts like this:

Archaeopteryx, a possible fossil ancestor

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, somewhere on planet earth lived a small animal that would appear to us modern people as kind of avian-like. 

Maybe less feathers, more scales, maybe sort of wings or arms not very developed, a long neck and a beakish mouth. It probably wasn’t able to fly, so it hopped around on 2 legs with large toes and rapier nails. And, there had to be many of them, maybe traveling together as the forerunner of a herd or...okay, ‘flock’.  They had to procreate to keep the species alive.

Did they give birth to live young like a mammal or did they lay eggs. Was this the first dividing line in evolution that began the chicken? 


If Chicken-Grandparents were more reptilian-dinosaur related, and scientists have found dinosaur eggs, then I would argue that the Ancient Ancestor laid some type of egg.

Since evolution doesn’t happen overnight, many more thousands of years pass. Small changes take place, either from genetic mutation to the DNA or environmental pressures that alter physical characteristics. It’s a long wave of the Grand Magician’s wand that turns small, unusable appendages into wings, lightens the bones to allow flight, and covers them in feathers. That wand changes the feet a little, shortens a neck, and slowly adds proteins into the mix that formulates an egg. These changes get passed to the next generation, then the next, and on and on....

Modern Red Junglefowl

One day, Ancestor Almost-Chicken Adam meets Ancestor Eve...magic happens. Eve throws some leaves and moss together, sits down and lays ... an egg. Maybe the two of them mate several times and Eve is sitting on several eggs.  It takes many days for the eggs to develop and hatch. Peep peep peep...we now have something resembling the more modern-day version of a chicken! Okay, definitely not a Rhode Island Red or Buff Orpington, but scientists believe an ancestor of the red junglefowl that cross bred with an ancestral gray junglefowl. 

In our new brood of baby ancestor chickens, there are males and females which grow up, breed and continue the lineage, refining traits and characteristics over time until one day, our human ancestor follows one through the jungle to a nest of eggs. Being hungry and opportunistic, ‘she’ grabs a few eggs to carry back to the cave. Setting them by the fire, one cracks open and cooks on a hot rock. Scooping up the white and yellow mass, she pops it into her mouth...  “Oh boy,” she thinks, “If I only had bacon and toast, this would make a great breakfast!” And the rest is history....

Well, okay, it took the human going back to capture and tame the mama fowl; did she lay eggs without a male back then? That could be another esoteric question...

“Oh, I need that handsome looking male fowl, too. He’s a loudmouth, but at last I’m getting eggs and new chicks, too!”

It’s the domestication of animals by us thinking humans that give us today 60 different breeds of chickens...as well as dogs, cats, horses, parakeets, cows, sheep...etc.etc.etc.

And so, did I answer the question, “which came first...?”

Theologically, in Genesis, it would have been God creating a chicken:

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”

In Buddhism, Hinduism, Native Americans and other religions there is the belief of a cyclical wheel of time, so there would be no ‘first’ because time is eternally repetitive.

[But, didn’t it have to ‘start’ somewhere?]

In the end, and from my view on evolution, I’d say the egg came first from a pre-chicken ancestor that carried forward mutations through generations of eggs and new beings. 

I can fly if you dangle worms!

No bells and whistles...
No Nobel Prize in Science...


Just what I believe...


So, toss that question out at your next dinner party and see what you can scramble up!

May 11, 2012 Surgery

Okay...not a chicken...me!  I had foot surgery on Monday, the 7th for hammertoe and bunion. While I didn't feel deformed like a Quasimodo, the hammertoe limited the shoes I could wear and the bunion would only get worse, so I bit the bullet and had it done.

Been sitting around all week with my foot propped up, thankfully using my sister Barbara's iPad for entertainment. Hubby Steve has added chicken duties, cat duties, and feeding me to his To Do List; and he's doing a damn fine job all the way around. Now if I could only get him to wear the French maid's outfit!

I haven't been down to see the girls since Sunday: not willing to risk chicken poo bacteria invading my incisions. But, maybe Steve will drive me down in the "mule" [think golf cart] on Sunday for a quick wave.

It's is really hard to feel so impotent, definitely not feeling very creative to work on a jewelry or art project. However, Stella the cat is loving an all day lap to nap in!!

April 30, 2012 Chicken Feed

Yesterday, Sunday, there were 2 newborn mice in the boiler room in the garage. I don't know how they got there, but I suspect a nest in the wall because I periodically catch adult mice there. So for fun I took the 2 little cute varmints down to the chickens.  Quicker that I could imagine, Curious and Dolly each grabbed a mouse-ette and ran off. Interestingly, Curious smacked the little mouse agains a wood board several times...to kill it?? And then ate the little guy whole! Dolly ran away to the backside of the coop, so I didn't see how she disposed of it, but she did return without it so I am assuming she ate it too.

Later, I went to the garage to feed Stella the cat and there was a baby rattlesnake near where I found the 2 mice!

I called to Steve who came out and killed it and he said there were several 'lumps' in it's stomach so we think the snake had also found the new mice and had dinner.

The dilemma: we don't want mice in the house and we like that we have snakes to eat the mice, BUT we sure don't want rattlesnakes. Sorry snakes....

Chickens also love other meats: mealworms that I raise, earthworms from the compost pile, and any cooked meat. I don't give them a lot of meat as a general rule, but I do give them plenty of worms.  They will practically knock me over for worms, so I have to portion them out assuring that each lady gets her fair share otherwise Curious would eat them all!

Meal worms are a great experiment to watch the metamorphosis cycle: worm larvae-pupa-beetle-egg-worm. I would say if you have kids looking for a science experiment, try the meal worm thing: it takes about 4 months to get a supply of worms.  I'd be happy to share with anyone how I did it.  If you have worm eating pets, its a cheap way to get their food!

My girls also love broccoli and cauliflower stems and leaves, red cabbage, grapes, rice [they love rice!!], oatmeal cooked and raw, scrambled eggs, sprouted grains, corn is a big favorite as is watermelon. They also love plain yogurt. Once a week in order to add calcium to their diet for thicker shells, I pulverize dry egg shells and mix them with the yogurt...it works great and I don't have to buy oyster shell meal.

I was picking through the old produce at one of the markets one day with another lady who said her chickens love lettuce.  HA! I can't get mine to eat any lettuce or swiss chard either. I guess we all have our picky eaters, human or other...And yes, I have to admit that I frequent the dumpsters of 2 stores that will let you take any of the old vegetables in the bins. It's great for free stuff for the chickens and I have to say, the "veg" is not in too bad of condition either!!

April 16, 2012 Another Sick Chicken

Today's post continues the Illness Saga.

After Fearless recovered and was re-introduced into the flock in December, I started to notice that Blondie was sitting still, fleathers fluffed up and head drawn in. Her comb had shrunk and she didn’t really want to move much.  I decided to watch her a few days to see if I should take her out of the pen or not.

She did eat and even lay a few eggs in December, but continued to be very quiet and fluffed up.  I began another round of chicken illness research, but couldn’t find anything definitive for her condition.

This is an interesting observation:  Fearless would sit or be near Blondie during the time she was sick AND Blondie had been the first mean one to Fearless at her introduction back after being up at the house-hospital. Go figure: it was like - “I know what you’re going through and I’m not mad you pecked me. So I’ll be here to  watch over you.”

In the Dec2010/Jan2011 issue of Backyard Poultry, I read about a woman who treated her chickens with herbal remedies. As I had already treated Fearless rather holistically, it didn’t seem to far fetched to start Blondie on something, too.  I read about Burdock root helping to rid the body of toxins and comfrey root as being a good tonic for general health, so I brewed up a concoction of dried roots plus crushed garlic. I put it in their water bowl for everyone - couldn’t hurt to be proactive.  I also sprinkled “Astragalus” herb on a batch of meal worms and fed them to everyone several times during the month. Astragalus is used in Chinese medicine as an immune system enhancer.

And, by the way, I am not advocating anyone use herbs without consulting a medical professional first!

Gradually through January she got better, her comb began to perk up. She’s in full fledged laying again: bright and alert and the largest of my chickens.  Of course, being that Buff Orpingtons are dual breeds [eggs and meat] it would stand to reason that she’d be a big girl.

I’m keeping fingers crossed that she has made a full recovery because she is lookin' very healthy now!

And, the benefit of her illness is she is more tolerant of me.

It's hard to tell where she falls in the pecking order of flock dynamics, but she is certainly not picked on by the others in the same way as Fearless is: Blondie seems to be alert to strange noises and keeps a watchful eye when she is out in the playground, and yet she is more of a loner preferring to forage by herself a lot of the time. 

Here she is sitting with the Wyandotte sisters.

April 13, 2012 The Mountain Lion

I had to interrupt Tales from the Coop to post the photo of this very healthy-looking mountain lion that graced our property on Tuesday, April 10th.  Hubby Steve has suspended his 7 am 2 mile walk to the main road and back because the cougar is out and about early mornings. The photo was taken by our trail camera at 4:30 am! The camera is hooked on a tree between our main gate to the house and one of the gates that leads to the chicken complex, barn+water+tank+olive tree area. Since we are surrounded by state lands and large vineyards, it's no wonder we have such wildlife, but this is wayyyy to close to home.

The second photo is of a bobcat, a little scrawny....No free chicken dinners for you, bub!









We're pretty sure the chickens are safe in their coop-pen with the way it's built, now we just worry about us humans. But, I think the mountain lion has plenty of other food sources besides the Chianellos! Plenty of deer, turkeys [do they eat turkeys?], rabbits, raccoons, rats and mice, foxes [hummm?].

April 10, 2012 Illnesses

I'm continuing with the update of 2011 for all my new readers.

After reducing the flock, things were going along really well. It seemed like the 5 personalities were developing and there was less tension since the other 7 were gone.

October 8 Gabby laid the first egg and the others followed suit about 10 days later.

Thanksgiving 2011 weekend we went to Bend, Oregon to my sister-in-laws house, and met up with Steve's parents and another brother. A neighbor was looking in on the chickens in exchange for the eggs.  When we returned on Sunday afternoon, I went down to see The Girls and Fearless was acting tipsy: she couldn't stand, scratch or walk very well. It was funny-sad and very scary to see her keep falling over. My heart was racing. What was wrong?


I grabbed some bedding and feed, picked her up and went to the house. Steve got out the large cat-carrier and I made a bed for her, wrapped her in a warm towel and tried to give her some water. Then I hit the chicken resource books and the internet to figure out what was wrong.  The books all say to isolate an ill bird....well, she couldn't walk so I couldn't leave her down in the pen anyway.

I started her on a molasses-cayenne-garlic flush thinking that it might have been something she ate. Cooing to her and keeping a close watch for signs of improvement practically hour by hour.

Here she is after several days in her hospital room: Steve was great when I ask for a hospital 'cage' and took a table he'd made, wrapped it with chicken wire [cat-proof] and we put it in the garage here at the house.

After about a week, she was standing and walking pretty good: the scratch-dance was hard but she kept trying. When she could stand and scratch, I thought she was ready to go back to the group. Well, those darned sisters FORGOT who she was! Blondie rapidly attacked, pecked her and wouldn't let go!!! Back to the hospital.  Steve suggested putting her in the pasture and keeping the others locked out. It worked great; they could visually see each other, pace back and forth watching each other, and at least the Four were getting used to her again.


As they seemed more used to her, I re-introduced Fearless to them using the stick method: anyone who tried to peck her got lightly tapped with the apricot branch stick. It worked great!

The first overnight attempt didn't go so well - she fell off the rail because she couldn't grasp it. Back to the house.  I could she was clearly distressed at not being able to stay with them, antsy and clucky. My mentor, Barb, suggested building a platform for her at the roost level. It seemed to help with her stability and she was able to start spending nights in the coop. I felt successful at doctoring the night I saw her grasping on the roost and sitting next to the others!!

From all my reading I suspect a mild case of some type of botulism: it could have come from some moldy hay that I put in the coop before we left over Thanksgiving, and she was just the unlucky one to eat something from the hay - a seed perhaps. [ I had no idea moldy hay wasn't good...]

But, still no conclusive evidence of Fearless's Mysterious Illness.

She remains healthy to this day and I love coo-cooing to her and picking her up and I can look at her expression and just know that she 'knows'.  Here we are in the playground together last last week.



It was not too long after Fearless came back into the flock that Blondie came down with her Illness.


...and, drat, what was I doing wrong to have sick chickens? I thought chickens were supposed to be easy to raise!




Stay "tuned" for the blog about Blondie's Mysterious Illness, coming next.

April 3, 2012 The First

Today, April 3rd, is my first blog post writing about my 5 girls, the chickens. Last May 13th, my husband, Steve, and I went to Wilson's Feed in Napa and adopted 12 !!! 2-day old chicks. I picked 3 each of these 4 breeds: Buff Orpington, Cuckoo Marans, Golden Lace Wyandotte and Plymouth Barred Rock.

At a family wedding in July, Cousin Wendy said, "Ya know you'll be getting about a dozen eggs a day with all those chickens." !@#*@!#!!! Uh-oh! Since it is just Steve and I in the family, what were we going to do with 7 dozen eggs a week at top production? Originally Steve wanted the poo for the compost pile as much as I wanted fresh eggs.

I did some quick math in my head: 7 dozen eggs a week, selling 6 dozen even at inflated California prices of $ 5 a dozen equals $ 30...jeeze, wow, wouldn't even pay the gas to deliver the eggs.
In the practical man-fashion, Steve suggested that I find homes for some of them. So, tearfully I made up a
"For Adoption" sign and went back to Wilson's. A nice couple with 2 boys adopted 4, another gal took 1, and my new friend and chicken mentor, Barb, added the last 2 to her flock of 50.

I kept one of each of the 4 breeds, plus 1 Golden Lace Wyandotte - as they were 2 favorites all along.

Chicken TRIVIA: Did you know it takes 24 to 26 hours for an egg to form and be laid?

Early on a couple of the pullets [which is what you call a hen less than 1 year old] developed personalities that dictated their names.

Introducing the girls and you can see their photos on The Chicks page:

Curious was so-names because she was one of the first chicks to come to the door of the portable pen Steve made for me when they all outgrew their cardboard 'nursery box'. And she always wanted to know what I was doing.

She is a Plymouth Barred Rock, with the beautiful black with white barred feathers. Curious is easily the Dominate Eater, a real hog-ess for goodies.

The next one I named was the runt of the 12 original chicks, but she was always undaunted by her sisters and wanted to get to know me. She quickly became Fearless, because she was. Sometimes I call her Mademoiselle FiFi when I am feeling "French". She is a Golden Lace Wyandotte and was definitely destined not to be given away.

Breed-sister to Fearless is Dolly. She is named after the pet name my father-in-law Art calls all his favorite girls.

It seems to me that Dolly is Chick-in-Charge, pecks Fearless away from tasty morsels and is really regal in demeanor.

Okay, I am going to stereotype here and say that Blondie truly fits the blonde persona. She is a bit standoffish, loves the bling of my wedding ring or any other jewelry, daintily scratches through the straw, and always has clean, perfect feathers. Blondie is classified as a dual purpose breed - egg and meat. But NO WAY will she or her sisters become my Sunday dinner! She is actually finally warming up to me. 

Lastly, is Gabby, the Cuckoo Marans with dark charcoal gray feathers and muted white bars. Guess why she is called Gabby. Yep...she's a chatterbox ... always a dialogue of different vocals. Now, I think she is Coop Mistress because whenever I am inside the coop building, she's in there as if to say, "Whatcha doing?" "Ohhh is that new straw?" "Hey, there's an egg over there!". Gabby is my best layer and she was the FIRST to lay an egg in October, picking the first next box nearest the little chicken door and will 99% of the time always lay in that box. She's not a big hen, kinda scrappy and can eat everything without gaining an ounce [you know the type ... Cousin Stephanie!]. She's in the middle of the flock and well-tolerated by all.

My next post will catch everyone up with what's happened this past year - a couple of Mysterious Illnesses and a broody hen.

I plan to write once a week and maybe post a recipe or two on another day. You can sign up to received posting notifications, if you'd like to keep up with the Chianello Chickens!