Tag Archives: chickens

The Tale of the Perfect Little Chicken Coop

Once upon a time a wonderful family built a girl the Perfect Little Chicken Coop for her birthday.

And the girl loved it.

Then the EVIL DOT swooped in leaving a trail of chaos and stress in it’s wake and the girl was forced to move away from her Perfect Little Chicken Coop.

Fortunately, the girl’s family was so wonderful and generous that they offered to move it to her new home for her.

So, they came and they blocked it up high enough to drive a trailer under it.

And the girl looked at it and thought it was a bit bigger than she remembered.

Then the wonderful, generous family put the coop on the trailer and drove it to her new home and there was no doubt about it.

It had grown.DSCN4244-(sm)

As they drove through the neighbors orchard it continued to grow…DSCN4245-(sm)

… and grow!DSCN4250-(sm)

The Little Chicken Coop grew so big that by the time they reached the pine trees a little trimming had to happen…DSCN4261-(sm)

… and then a bit more trimming.DSCN4246-(sm)

But the Quite Large Chicken Coop kept growing until the wonderful, generous, hardworking family was forced to hook it up to the tractor to navigate the tight turn through the trees.DSCN4257-(sm)

And  it was still a very…DSCN4262-(sm0

…tight squeeze!DSCN4263-(sm)

When they were through the pine trees the wonderful, generous, hardworking family rejoiced – but it was too soon.DSCN4264-(sm)

The Little Chicken Coop had become a Giant Enormous Chicken Coop and the wonderful, generous, hardworking and intelligent family had to come up with new ideas to squeeeze the Giant Enormous Chicken Coop down the trail to it’s new home.DSCN4268-(sm)

Finally the The Giant Enormous Chicken Coop reached it’s resting place and began to shrink back to it’s normal size.DSCN4274-(sm)

But it was still a Quite Large Chicken Coop!DSCN4282-(sm)

Inch by inch the wonderful, generous, hardworking, intelligent and patient family lowered the Quite Large Chicken Coop down to the ground.DSCN4283-(sm)

As the coop was slowly lowered to the ground the girl had to leave and take her children to swim lessons. When they returned home, and all ate dinner, and said goodbye and all the little ones were tucked in bed, the girl went out in the dark to look at her chicken coop.

And there at her new house, just where she wanted it was her Perfect Little Chicken Coop.

The End.

While you may be inclined to believe that the above was a fantastical fairy tell let me assure you that it was all true. Except that if you read this to Clara she would point out that it is actually the brooder house. And, while the ducks are going to be temporary tenants, true chickens rarely grace it’s hallowed walls, they have their own perfect coop.

Sweet, Nice and Cute

Taking my children out in public transforms them.

It transforms them into kids that people make lovely comments about.

Comments that involve words like sweet, nice, and cute.

Now, mind you, I’m not complaining. Clara

Having demons in private and angels in public is far better than the inverse.

HOWEVER…

I wonder what those same people would think if they heard what happens in the truck when we say goodbye.

Tired girls loose their angelic qualities quickly when left with just Mom for an audience and even my well behaved children have conversations that might stun that nice little old lady in the checkout line….Ivy

Ivy: “Mom, You know what I love, love LOVE? Dead Racoons! Because-”

Clara: ” -‘Cause you can STEP on them!”

Ivy: “NO Clara! Because then they don’t kill our ducks and chickens!”

(I would like to state for the record that while I’m in full agreement with Ivy I have no idea why Clara wants to stomp on the roadkill.)

Teaching Children

As a parent there are so many, many things we want to teach our children.

There are many more things that we should teach them.

And then there are all the tidbits that we accidentally (and often unfortunately) teach our kids.

Sitting down and putting to much thought into this parental responsibility can become overwhelming.

Personally, I find it helps to remember that so long as you hit upon the basics:

how to care for animals…Jane and chicken

…how to get along with others…Ivy and Clara in crick

…and how to build a good dam…sandles by dam … that they are likely to turn out just fine!

An Unusual Egg

For most of my life I have been around chickens and their eggs. Therefore I am no stranger to odd eggs; the double yolkers, the “wrinkled” shells, the eggs with no yolks, the shell-less eggs… But today Clara found a duck egg that was a first for me.

As she handed it over, she told me that it was bad and we should get rid of it. At first I thought it was just a shell-less egg. Which, I must say, never fail to give me the hibijibies when I’m not expecting them. Just imagine. Reaching into a darkened nest box to pull out an egg, expecting a hard, smooth, warm, shape that fits just perfectly into your hand – and touching instead a cold, squishy, leathery feeling, blob. Uuughh, it makes me shudder just to think of it. After I recover from my split second of panic, when I think I’ve actually found a small alien in my chicken coop, I think they are fascinating – all wiggle and squish! Fascinating or horrifying they are nothing more than a regular egg that didn’t “cook” long enough to get a shell. I see these shell-less eggs most often in the young, the old and the severely startled birds.

In any case -this duck egg went beyond shell-less, it was shell-less with a tail.egg with tail

The tail is a tube, about three inches long, that is open on the end and leaking out a bit of egg white.

Weird.

Fascinating.

I took picturesegg with tail 2

I’m so glad I have a blog so I can justify(?) my pictures of weird eggs.

It makes me feel less crazy.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal

Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal

During the process of renewal things often gets worse before they get better.

To demonstrate this effect I give you..

Drum roll please!

…a molting chicken!

Earlier in the week she looked awful, today she looks ridiculous and by next week her molt will be complete, her feathers will be renewed and she will be back to normal.

I have included a picture of one of her flock mates below so that:

A) In case you aren’t familiar with chickens you can see what she is supposed to look like (yes they have tails, wing feathers, no bald spots and a general fluffy bottomed look that the above chicken is missing) and that

B) PETA won’t try to come confiscate my animals because they think I’m abusing them.

She’s just molting, it’s a renewal thing.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Big

Weekly Photo Challenge: Big

Our rooster (who goes by the name of “Roosty” ) is the big man of our chicken flock.

Roosty is a White Chantecler who didn’t quite cut it to continue in a friends breeding flock but he’s been a well behaved asset to our laying hens. He finds treats for his ladies, warns them of danger, and walks around looking about as regal as a chicken can look.

I find chickens to be much trickier to photograph than it seems like they should be. They move in quick jerks, have a third eyelid that you don’t notice until you up your shutter speed enough to compensate for their quick movements and then you end up with crazy looking eyes and they either run at me looking for treats or wander off.  Photographing chickens is not for the easily discouraged! This photo was the best of Roosty’s photo shoot. I like the color and how he is posing (it was a photo shoot after all) with the hens mostly minding their own business around them. I was disappointed about the strand of electric fence and would have liked a few of his ladies to present a different side to the camera but my suggestions that they all move a few feet to the left were completely ignored.

Chickens.

You can’t take them anywhere.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I have driven with a chicken in the passenger seat but that’s a different story…

Fantastic News

“I have fantastic news!”

That’s Ivy’s new announcement that precedes everything from information about what she’s been doing, what her imaginary friend is planning on doing or just letting me know that she said “excuse me” to a chicken and it moved out of her way.

In other fantastic news the sheep have arrived for the summer,

and we have two baby chicks.

They have been named Seed (the boy on the left) and princess  (the girl on the right) Ivy and Clara haven’t loved them enough to wear their feathers off yet but I think they are getting there!

If You Give A Kid A Tape Measure…

If you give a kid a tape measure she’ll want to measure the chickens.

When the chickens won’t hold still she’ll decide to measure her boot instead.

When she is measuring her boot by the flowers you might ask her to pose in front of them.

Being asked to hold still will remind her that there are flowers to be picked.

After she picks a flower she’ll need to swing it around crazily hitting herself in the face.

When she is done mangling the flower she’ll want to give it to you.

It’s possible that then her older sister will come home and when she finds the tape measure again it’ll be all fighting and tears between the two of them until you take it away.

The End