Well, of course I’ve heard of chickens!

A herd of chickens, complete with chicken-herding cat.

The pigeon we brought home recovered nicely, as previously noted.  He’s integrating nicely with the six lovely ladies in my back yard.

Ok, he’s actually kind of annoying them, but he’s trying and they’ve stopped being actively aggressive towards him.  He started molting around the same time as Sprinkles, and looks pretty goofy (as does Sprinkles, as you can see – she’s the one in the front right there).

Cool thing though – today, I heard him do that funky gurgly-coo that adult pigeons do. Up til now, it’s been nothing but awkward “eeeep”ing. It was pretty cool. He came flying over when I went out to give the ladies their evening scratch, and sat on his ledge cooing.

As you can also see in the picture, he’s terrified of the pug. Ok, no. He actually likes to tease the hell out of the pug. He flies from low perch to low perch, just out of reach of poor Oscar, just enough to keep him running and barking.

I’m sad that winter is coming, if only because my time with the ladies (and gentleman) is going to be so limited from now on, and more so as the season progresses. I’ll be lucky to see them three days a week, come November.

Oh well. The cats are in more now that the wet weather is here, and they’ll keep me company.
(and for those who don’t know Goodfeathers, click.)

The pigeon has decided that it doesn’t care for being shut up in an enclosure.  It would prefer to be flying free – if not far.  So we decided to let him (I’m guessing “him” because of the coloration) try staying out one night – and he did just fine.  He went to the top of the hen house, about a foot away from Henery, and went to sleep.  It’s been two nights now, and so far so good.

I’m not sure what he’ll do when it starts getting colder, since Henery will eventually start sleeping inside.  I may try making a nesting type arrangement for him over there.   Something like this, maybe. I’ve got the supplies, so I may as well try it.

In other news, I’ve been collecting pieces and parts to make a new hen house, or at least upgrade this one.  It’s very sturdy, structurally, but not very pretty.  I got some vinyl shutters for ventilation, a glass pane window that I think will replace the nesting box door, and lots of Ideas.

It probably won’t start coming together until mid-September, so I’m hoping the weather cooperates with me somewhat.  I don’t seem to be very awesome at making things like this look pretty, unfortunately.  I find myself really wishing that my more artsy friends lived nearer, so I could bribe them with fresh eggs and baked goods in exchange for their skills.

I mean, I could barter.  That’s what it’s called, right?  Non-monetary exchange of goods and services.

It’s a pigeon.

Last week, my daughter found a mostly-grown pigeon on the ground beneath an overpass.  It didn’t try to get away when she walked close, so she was a little concerned.  She pulled a piece of fabric out of her Bag of Holding and wrapped it up, then brought it to me.

We took it home, poked and prodded until we were sure there were no broken bits, but realized that it couldn’t move it’s legs. They just dangled there.  So, no way we could set it back out in the “wild” of the underpass.  We dusted it with DE, fed it, watered it, put it in a clean pet carrier…and named him “Flipper” *

After several days of taking it out for exercise, it seems to be getting its land legs a bit.  I enclosed a shelf on the potting rack outside for it to live in, but we take him to the yard as well to hop in the grass.  At first, its feet just dangled there.  But I think it’s getting better.  I am pretty sure I saw it push up to sort of walk, indicating that the legs are at least partially functional.  The feet are still flopping there at the end, but it’s progress.

The hope is that at some point it will be able to push off enough to catch air, maybe fly around the yard.  I don’t know if it will ever be able to live “out there”, but at least get a little adventure in.

* Not my choice of names. My daughter found it, so she got to name it. I was suggesting Johnny (as in Eck) but she didn’t like it.

The new chicks finally have names – the larger (black sex-linked) has been named Inkblot, the bantam non-frizzled frizzle is Hermes, named for her winged feet.

I decided that they were getting too big for their small cage, even though they use it for sleeping. I set up the dog house I’d used for the older ladies when I first brought them home, and put the exercise yard around it. As soon as I took the cover off of the smaller cage, the ladies threw a hissy fit. Guess I won’t be integrating the flock any time soon.

Twinks, on the other hand, thinks that the new setup for the chicks is fantastic. She has a much better view now, and a more comfy spot to watch from.

I went to the local Wilco the other day…shouldna. Chick Days are DANGER. I came home with not only cat food and foxglove seeds, but two more chicks.

Cute, huh? I’m not even sure what kind the larger one is. He had “Pecked Hieny Syndrome”. It’s sadly common in the big stock tanks they keep the chicks in, and they are careful to keep an eye out for it so they can separate the wounded. I happened to be there on a day, at a time, when there was a little black chick with a red, bleeding butt. I pointed it out to the lovely lady working that area, and seeing as we know each other, struck up a deal. Something like, “You want it?”, “Sure!”. Of course, she knows that I can’t get just one, and she knows that I already get my feed and everything there…so her $2.50 loss will probably end up making her a bundle off of me. Starting with a frizzle bantam as a buddy, and a bag of baby chicken feed.

She had me spray the wounded area of the chick with Blu-Kote, and off I went. I think the roommate was a bit miffed, and I haven’t exactly told the landlord…but since I don’t even know if I can keep them yet, I’ll worry about that later. Since I don’t remember which bin I plucked the hurt one from, I don’t know if that batch was straight-run or what. If it’s a boy, I’ll end up finding new homes for them both. I’m pretty sure, judging by wing shape, that the banty is female, but not the larger one there. It was already getting “real” feathers in when I got it, so…no telling.

Until next time…

I got some help in the yard today, in the form of 6 happy hens.  There were other animals in the vicinity, but considering them “help” would have been a gross misconception.

I was trying to find the edges of the small round “clearing” in the back yard, which is really just a maybe 6ft across circle of not-as-much-grass.  There is a stump in the middle, where the apple tree was before we moved in.  Like, it was there until days before we moved in.  It apparently fell over.

It’s also where we buried the kittens, when Twink’s first litter got mauled by Lola-dog (not out of viciousness, but out of some strange mothering instinct).  They are buried between the catnip and catmint plants, so they get lots of visitors throughout the day.

Last year, before I lost my job, I had planted all sorts of ground-cover as well, hoping it would grow over the low stump and make sort of a fairy-circle there.  They did really well, until the weather changed and they stopped growing.  The grass and weeds did not stop growing, so it got messy.

So today, I started pulling up handfuls of weeds, throwing them into the chicken enclosure.  Eventually the chickens got brave enough to come help, scratching and tossing, eating bugs and slugs.  Oscar-pug didn’t care for it, tried to charge them a few times, but eventually decided to pee on the last patch of weeds instead, which effectively stopped my weeding project for the day.

Then I decided to go ahead and rearrange the chicken run, since a couple of the girls have decided to continue to lay eggs in the bottom of the coop.  Stoopid chikins.

The ladies are pretty mellow right now, getting up later and going to bed by 5pm.  Lazy, I tell ya.   Also their egg-laying has diminished – I’m lucky to get 3 a day now, and none from the Araucanas at all. The smallest, Buttercup, has been the most faithful producer that I can tell, because I have one small white egg every day.

I’ve started feeding them scratch grains along with ther pellets, to help them keep bulked up.  I put out a motion-sensor light and a heat lamp, thinking that maybe it would help them decide to stay up later, but no.  The motion sensor usually only catches cats, and the heat lamp…well, take a look:

That’s not a chicken.  That’s a Toaster cat, coming to see why I disturbed his nap in the sun.

The cats have been happy with chickens, they have fun chasing them and the chickens don’t seem to mind.  Twinkles has started liking bread lately, so she joins the ladies at the treat dish.  I had a picture of them sharing a bagel, but I’m not sure where it went.

I was given the idea of strapping a camera onto a chicken, and seeing what comes back.  When I search, I find cameras watching chickens, but none from the chicken point of view.  And after reading this article, I think it would be a great idea.  I just need a camera now.  *Christmas present hint*

Guess that’s it for today, the ladies just aren’t that exciting right now unless they think they are getting treats.  Pfft, just like a woman.

Now I want a miniature dairy cow.

I don’t see why not, really – we have a good sized back yard.  The ones I’ve seen are sometimes less than 40 inches high – like a good-sized dog.  Only the cow wouldn’t expect to be allowed to sleep on the bed.   I hope.

Although, maybe a dairy goat is a better idea.  I’ve been informed that they are less trouble, and I’ve heard great things about goats milk.  And super cute – yes indeed. See here: Oberhasli dairy goats.

I’m going to have to start figuring out a way to buy the Old Uncle’s place up the river.  It’s the only way I’m going to be able to contain all the things I want to do.

Property lines are completely guesswork.

That, and I’ll need about a million bucks to make all the improvements I’d want.  I’d better start saving.