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!