The Stars of the Show

We're involved in a local production called the Passion Play that is based on the Passion movie. It's the story of Jesus Christ's life, with shows every Friday and Saturday evenings. We play the townspeople. Sometimes I get to play an angel or a servant to Pilot. It's incredibly fun and has a great message, but guess who really are the stars? Our chickens! We bring at least two chickens to every show. The kids will hold them on stage, and then we take them to meet the audience at the end of the show. What hams!

Garden

Here is our garden!! ...Hope you can read that, it's only half, but has the basic plants/veggies.

A different angle.
And the corn! This garden is the same size as the other.
Our lovely scare crow. We used a T-shirt, garden gloves, yarn for hair, streamers and a pie pan (for extra scaring!) She- or him?? It doesn't really have much of a face, though. I bet the crows won't care!

~chickengirl~

Veggies, Chickens, and Summer; Oh My!

Today we worked almost all day on our garden. We pulled up weeds and spread old bedding/straw from a brooder around tomatoes. The chickens definitely enjoyed having the weeds tossed into their cage!! One garden consists of lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, and onions. In a second square of dirt is our corn. Everything is looking wonderful, and the lettuce is fabulous! A scarecrow was put up, then decorated with a T-shirt, red yarn for hair, streamers from a kite, gardening gloves, and tin pans hanging from 'her' arms.

We now actually have two or three setting hens: the heritage RIR that has hatched 5 chicks, a Silkie hen, and the white Cornish (which, if you don't mind me being self-expressive, I think that Cornish are a pretty ugly and weird looking breed...oh well, she was free!). We moved the RIR from the rabbit cage that she's been staying in to the watering trough, so that her two chickies would have room to stretch if they wanted. Then we put the Cornish into the rabbit cage with her eggs. After some persistent begging and pleading and pushing and shoving, she settled down on the nest finally! The Silkie chicks are doing fine, and I haven't seen any pips in the other eggs. I wish we had a candler so that I could check fertility! The closest I've got is a flashlight in the laundry room....

I'm glad that it's finally almost summer. I can go outside in shorts! No more sweaters or jackets, sweats or long pants. And the best part, I can walk barefoot around the yard. Not so much in the chicks coop, or the chicken coop, but around the yard. We've been letting the chickens (not Silkies/OEGB) out into the yard, and they love that as much as I love them. The two golden laced Polish are the funniest things (other than the ducks), as they run like mad women when anything like the door slams or a motorcycle goes by happens!

Not much else is planned for a while. I have a couple weeks free, till something big. Tomorrow we may go strawberry picking. Yuuummmy! I wanna make some jam!

~chickengirl~

Kittens

Sophia moved her kittens. We were afraid that she had moved them outside, but this morning we found them up in our loft. The poor things were pretty hungry, so I got Sophia and practically drug her up there. I'm serious, she thinks mothering is a 'part-time job'!! They sure are getting bigger...Just like the chicks.
I have a white Cochin in my lap, and she looks like a mini-chicken! Most of them have all of their feathers, and really need a coop, ASAP!! They're stinking up the garage and need feeding/watering about twice a day, for each batch.
*sigh* And guess who gets to do it? Me. Of course.

~chickengirl~

The Saddest Thing

Okay, I'm about to tell you about the saddest thing that I think has happened to me this year, so if you don't like sad stuff, do not continue:

Just a few minutes ago, I walked out to our garage. I fed and watered the chicks, as usual. And they were even bigger than the last time I saw them (yesterday), as usual. After I finished that, I went over and talked to Butterscotch, the setting hen. I gave her some food and soothing words. Then I walked around her cage and my heart stopped; lying there was a tiny, motionless chick on the floor. It had blue skin and white feathers, and was still slick. A little spot of blood was on it's head. It's body was cold, but the blood was not dry yet. I couldn't beleive it. That was our first nearly successful hatching. I mean, it at least got out of the egg. I feel like crying, but I won't. The weird thing is, we couldn't find any eggshells around the cage, but there was one less egg under Butterscotch. Isn't that odd?

Sadly signing out,
~chickengirl~

Kittens

These are Sophia's kittens! They are soooo cute. The black one and the b&w one both have at least one eye open!!



When I took these pics, Sophia had gone outside for a snack, and the babies were all cuddled up together. It won't be long until they're exploring all over the place!

Coon Huntin'

Last night, we packed up extra pairs of clothes, PJs, and our toothbrushes, and headed off to the Coons' Den, a wildlife reserve where you can train your dogs to hunt coons. We met my grandpa there; he had his four dogs with him- a Treeing Walker Coondog named Harry, two Blueticks named Blufus and Brumley, and a squirrel dog named Jake. (By the way, we raised Harry and Blufus from puppies.) Grandpa had a coon in a barrel, and let it loose. The dogs had it up the nearest tree before you could say "Get 'em!" That night, we walked around the 15 acres by the moonlight. I was walking slightly ahead of everybody, and saw what Blufus had found first. There was a possom (I know that's not how you spell it!) stuck between the elctric fence and a epice of sheet metal that was pinned to the fence. My grandpa and my mom both pulled the metal back, and Grandpa eased the possom out with a stick. Blufus gently took the playing-dead possom in her jaws and carried it off to who knows where. We went back to the lodge, telling stories and playing the guitar for a while, then curled up in our sleepingbags and went to bed. Once before we were asleep, we heard the dogs barking and tracked the noise, only to find that they'd treed another possom. Whether it was the same one, I'll never know. We went back to bed. I stayed awake for a while, listening to the barking of dogs and chirping of crickets, then fell sound asleep. I woke the next morning to the sound of a rooster crowing in the distance (a comforting sound). We packed up our stuff and took one last trip around the area. The dogs found one coon that was curled up in a tree and wouldn't give us the time of day. Also, Jake and Blufus found the possom again (playing dead), and finally they left him alone and he scampered off, trying to find a way out. It was a very fun time, but I'm really tired after the whole thing!!

Chicks and Kittens....Spring Is In the Air!!

Kittens

Our cat, Sophia, had her kittens last night! There are three; one that looks like Sophia and her "boyfriend" (black and white), one that is grey and white, with a little white-tipped tail, and one that is all black with a tiny white bib. Guess where she had them? On the swing on our back porch, right our in the open! It was cold and rainy this morning, so we moved her and her kittnes into a box, in the closet. They're so cute!...and tiny!!

Chicks...Well, Not Yet

My Heritage Rhode Island Red has been sitting on eggs for a while. We know there are Ameraucana/White Rock eggs, and there may be Silkie, Old English bantam, or Polish eggs. I...tried to candle an Ameraucana/Rock egg, and I think I saw something!! We moved her out to the garage in a basket with her eggs, and gave her food and water. I can't wait till they hatch! Uh, well, I really hope they hatch!!!!

Meanwhile...

Our other chicks are getting HUGE, and growing LOTS OF FEATHERS!!! I love the way my Polish looks, because she's getting a crest and t's too cute!

~chickengirl~

Chicken and Egg Festival

This weekend we've traveled to Alabama for the annual Chicken and Egg Festival. My sister and I will be competing in the "Catch a Falling Egg" contest. We will have 30 minutes to build a device that can catch an egg dropped from four different heights, each greater than the last. There will be materials supplied, such as straws, cups, newspaper, pipe cleaners, etc., but we won't know what they actually are until we get there. We found this event on the internet (I love the web) and signed up for the contest! There are supposed to be 100 bantams, 25 breeds, brought by the same guy. Talk about a lot of chickens!! It sounds pretty fun, and I'll take lots of pics and get them on the computer.

Thanks,
~chickengirl~

(PS- I brought our laptop, so that's how I can post and put pics. Don't you love wireless?)

Happenings in My Life

Bruiser the Old English Game bantam rooster

Well, we still have a duck in our laundry room, and we still have to put the rest of them out in the garage. Today we put nearly half of the chicks in a different cage. They wee getting way too big to be all together. Also, we recently bought two new Silkie hens from a man who raises and shows Silkies, Old English bantams, heritage RIRs, Brahmas, and Ameraucanas. He has nearly 100 chickens!! Anyways, they're really pretty, but get pecked on by our other Silkie. I think she's jealous!

Not a totally up-to-date picture, but this is the ducklings in their trough bed.

Fabio the White Silkie Rooster

Our cat, Sophia, who is nearly one year old, is pregnant. Her 'mate' is a tom cat who has nearly the exact same markings as Sophia: black patches on white, and a black 'mask'. Yikes. We should have some kittens in several weeks. Anyone need a kitten? Just kidding.

We bought some flower seeds at the Co-op yesterday, including Foxglove and Bachelor Buttons. My sister is very excited and cannot wait to get them planted! Our vegetable garden isn't growing to well... But I hope it starts growing better.

~chickengirl~