Don't Look For Happiness - Create It

Christmas 2013, being the first holiday of the year for me without my mom and dad to celebrate with, was very painful. I missed them both tremendously and efforts were taken to create new traditions. In looking back at the sadness that prevailed during that period I was able to take special delight from a particular gift bestowed upon me by my Cuz Chris of which I surrendered to humor.

Welcome Chicken Who?.

Golden yellow of color with beautiful pink-colored roses adorned on lucious green stems, Chicken Who? masters the art of balance with the long, strong feet of a Ninja warrior, displays a physically powerful neck in resemblance of a WWW wrestler and is supported by a back that can be compared to the strength of a lumberjack.

A beautiful bird (through the eyes of the beholder) none-the-less, Chicken Who? must establish its (pecking) order and need in its new surroundings called home.

A grand welcome would have been appreciated but a nose-to-nose meeting with Libby Lu the Puggle proved not to be above and beyond. Libby Lu, being raised to extend a warm welcome to all the guests who enter our home, left me somewhat disappointed. Not sure but maybe Chicken Who? had bad breath from eating too many worms.

Unlikely to develop a strong relationship with Libby Lu, Chicken Who? considered a friendship with Peter Rabbit (another gift bestowed to me from Cuz Chris.) Hmmm, looked good at first but when Peter realized that Chicken Who? wasn't able to reproduce he quickly removed himself from the picture.

I was kind of glad this relationship fizzled because it was starting to look a little kinky when Libby Lu decided to make it a three-way (if you know what I mean.)

Being a natural instinct for chickens, Chicken Who? took flight and perched on the highest landing in the room (a wall clock almost as high as the ceiling) to assess the situation. Feeling sorry for the tough transition into our home I thought maybe I would perform an introduction to some of the other members of our 'fowl' family.

Enter the ducks. Well first meeting was terrific but these darn little creatures began taking advantage of Chicken Who?'s strong massive back by using it as their primary mode of transportation. The line of ducks kept forming so I had to put them back in their place on the windowsill to eliminate the constant activity taking place on the kitchen counter. NO CHICKEN ABUSE ALLOWED!

I need to put my thinking cap on and help poor Chicken Who? to immediately find its niche! Please, please Chicken Who?, don't turn to the bottle, give me one more chance to make this right!! It looks like my Kahlua may be in jeopardy - I must move quick!

OK! OK! It's official!!

Chicken Who? is now Chickquita Chicken! Yes, she's a girl and the keeper of the bananas. Her attributes are being used to the max and I can tell by the contented look on her face this new responsibility gives her a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I am so pleased that Chickquita Chicken likes her new role because I soooo needed a place to store my bananas.

I can only hope that Chickquita Chicken

put a smile on your face and

happiness in your heart.







My Chicken Laid a Big One

the picture didn't come out very good

One of the girls in the hen house gave me a welcoming surprise this morning. She put forth great effort and produced a ginormous egg. Now I'm not bragging, but our chicks lay Xtra large eggs on a regular basis; it's not unusual that the egg carton won't close. I can only categorize the egg laid today as XXtra large - a whopper. Too excited to overlook it I decided to take it to the kitchen for a fresh-as-can-be breakfast treat.

 I was once again surprised when I cracked the egg into the frying pan only to find out it didn't have a double yolk.  That darn egg hit that hot frying pan and swelled up like small balloons; never saw anything like it. The husband ate it and loved it as he likes the white more than the yolk. It would have been mine if it had a double yoke as I like the yolk more than the white. There wouldn't have been a fight - there's more where this came from.

But the real surprise was on the chickens. Thinking that they may be chilled from the freezing temperatures of the night, (instead of taking them a bowl of warm milk) I made them a bowl of hot instant oatmeal to nibble on for their breakfast along with their chicken feed. They all ever so gently gathered around that stainless steel bowl and picked at it like sophisticated ladies until it was clean as a whistle. As I gathered the eggs and left their coop they were all still picking it. I didn't have the heart to tell them it was empty.

This chick mom most graciously appreciates their fine egg-laying efforts and will continue to reward them as she sees fit. If a happy chick means a ginormous egg, you can bet I'll do my best to keep them happy (and healthy)!

Free Ranging Chickens and Millipedes

Upon their arrival to our home late summer 2010 the chickens lived in a portable chicken tractor. Portable means it had wheels so we were able to lift it up and move it around the yard periodically to give the chicks access to fresh grass and bugs. While they lived in this we got busy working on updating a section of the so-called old chicken coop and at the same time tried to figure out how we were going to build an outdoor run. This chicken tractor also was a good way to get them used to their new home and view visitors without becoming too excited. Our intention was to eventually let them loose to free range once they became acclimated to their new surroundings. 

Chickens and Millipedes

One of the reasons we gladly accepted these chickens was because of a serious millipede infestation we suffered through during the summer of 2010. Our house, driveway and stone patio pavers were covered with thousands of millipedes (if not millions) and these strange looking creatures (yuk) eventually worked their way into the basement of our house and then they gradually made it up to the main floor. It was necessary to vacuum these little buggers every day and then some! I tried everything to rid us of this problem. The man-of-the house isn't as skittish as I am and so he didn't see this as big a problem as I did so I was on my own figuring out what the heck I could do. I became obsessed. My ritual every morning was to roll out of bed at the crack of dawn to fight these creepy crawling creatures with my fly swatter. Wearing my nightie, robe and rubber boots I would circle the house with fly swatter in hand hitting every live millipede I could put my eyes on. After breakfast I would check them again only to find thousands more arrived. I did this several times a day to no avail. My mission became aggressive after I read somewhere that 300 babies came out of every egg they laid. This grossed me out so badly that I came up with the brilliant idea to try and kill them off with boiling hot water. So starting the next morning, using two electric tea kettles, I knocked off all those crawling on the house to the ground and poured hot water over them. I did this up and down the retaining wall along the driveway and on the patio pavers in the back yard and anywhere else they popped up. Yup, this did the job of killing them on the spot but the odor was so horrendous I can't even describe it without getting sick. It didn't make any difference because the next day they were back in droves again! On my next attempt to rid this infestation I filled a 5 gallon bucked with Clorox water and knocked or scooped live specimens into the bucket and happily watched them swim in vain and die but it was too time consuming. I know this sounds cruel and inhumane but by this time I was at my wits end and just shy of a having a nervous breakdown. After two applications of toxic insect spray from the hardware store I thought we had the problem licked. Nope. Two applications and these little buggers were still hanging around. Then the light bulb went off! Hello! PROFESSIONAL EXTERMINATOR!! Duh! Why this never came to my mind I'll never know. Bottom line...it took two professional sprayings of the whole house, patio, driveway and everywhere else the millipedes may have inhabited.  This knocked down the problem but not completely as a few stragglers continued to show up and I knew what they could produce. Hence, the chickens!

By the fall of 2010 the chicken coop was complete and a fabulous run was awaiting the ladies. After a couple weeks of being cooped up they were let out to free range for extended periods of times accompanied, of course, by an adult (human) until they became familiar with the surroundings. Foraging on all living bugs, worms, etc.  became a favorite pastime for the chicks. They eventually learned the property boundaries and free ranged under the watchful eye of their chick mom from the living room window.

To pretty up the surroundings of the coop, in the spring of 2011, I put in a sweet flower bed where the girls could casually scratch and pick bugs at leisure. No weeding here for me - they do a fine job! A nest of bees showed up in this bed but they soon disappeared - not sure if the chickens had anything to do with this or not. Who cares as long as they are gone!

From one flower bed to another they feasted on bugs, bugs, and more bugs weeding their way around the whole yard. After they're done scratching and digging in the manicured beds I sometimes follow behind with a rake to pull the wood chips back into place. As I've gotten older and more laid back (maybe wiser) I'm more accepting of flower beds that are less than perfect. Finally!

Scratch and dig, scratch and dig, scratch and weed, scratch and eat bugs. These girls are required to work for their room and board.

As you can see this is a joint effort. It's a game of follow the leader.

Did you notice they don't like to have their pictures taken? They always manage to put their backsides to the camera. Come on girls, all work and no play is backbreaking!

More scratching and weeding and eating bugs.

....and if that's not enough, they find their way to the compost pile churning up the chicken fertilizer that will be used to enhance our vegetable garden next year. 

Bottom line....I'm so appreciative of their fine efforts and am happy to report NO MILLIPEDES DURING THE SUMMER OF 2011.

MANY THANKS TO YOU LADIES!!!!!

Hanging Outdoors with the Chicks

Today was dedicated to the hens who have been holed up in their coop until their outdoor run could be made more predator proof.

The hub did a fine job placing galvanized sheet metal across the area where we think the mink entered and took the life of two of our chickens. The digging was tough because the ground was still sort of frozen but it had to be done in order to bury the metal deep enough to prevent other predators from visiting. The height of the run is less than 5' tall so the job had to be done either sitting down or on your knees. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. Tomorrow we'll be heading to the farm & tractor store to get tighter fencing that will also provide better protection for the chics.

Wearing my cutesy powder blue knee-high farmette boots and cutesy powder blue leather-palmed work gloves I raked out the inside of the outdoor chicken run that was filled with lots of old hay/straw, leaves, chick manure and tell-tale signs of the chicken massacre. Another bale and 1/2 of straw was torn apart and spread evenly inside the run for the chicks to get comfy once again. Not only does this provide them with lots of seeds to pick at, their momma likes them to have clean feet. The run is 8'  wide x 16' long and less than 5' tall so I would honestly describe it as a back-breaking job. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. Three wheelbarrow fills were dumped onto our garden plot and spread in anticipation of good compost for our future garden.

The chickens were let loose to free-range to their hearts content. For the most part they stayed together in one area so it wasn't hard to keep an eye on them. They scratched and pecked like there was no tomorrow.

I took the opportunity to clean out the indoor coop also while the girls were busy doing their thing outdoors. With flat bottom shovel and wheelbarrow I got two loads to dump into my newly-started compost pile that would be used next year on the vegetable garden. The chickens followed me to the new dumping grounds and had a field day scratching in this pile. As you probably have guessed by now, the boots and gloves are no longer cutesy!

By this time I was dead tired and I might add starving as it was way past lunch time. The hub wasn't quite finished with his project yet but I recruited him to assist me in getting the chicks back inside. As I corralled one he would lift up the door to the coop and I would gently push her inside. One down, three to go. Two down, two to go. Three down, one to go. The last bird was determined that she wasn't going in and ran in circles for me to catch her. Who needs a gym??? After getting cornered she squatted for me to pick her up and inside she went with the others.

As I entered the coop to make sure it was locked up tight they were all sitting on the roost letting me know how much they appreciated their scratch and dig outing. Just another day as a chicken momma.

RIP Lucky

Lucky, our wannabe rooster and the only hen identifiable by a specific marking, along with one of her sister chicks is no longer with us.


When a flock of hens is without a rooster a dominant hen will step up to the plate to oversee her 'sister girlfriends' as a rooster normally would do. Lucky, our dominant female, stepped up to the plate. She would always come back into the hen house to check out who was there and what was going on. She always guarded the nest boxes and cackled at us for taking the daily egg production. She walked around the outdoor chicken run being the first one to cackle at anyone within distance. She was #1 in the pecking order and proved it in many ways.

On Tuesday, 3/22/11, Lucky fought fiercely with a chicken predator that tunneled under the hen house right up into the enclosed (with fencing) outdoor chicken run. Less than 2 hours after I fed the chicks, collected their eggs and let them outdoors for some fresh air a muscular female mink with razor sharp teeth and a killer-instinct made a sneak attack on our six chickens. Even though the chicks are fenced in (top and sides) I periodically look out the window just to make sure they're OK. On this particular day it looked like it had snowed in the run. Confused, I looked and stared. From here in the house I couldn't see any chickens wandering about. It quickly dawned on me that these could be chicken feathers. My heart sank and I started shaking. I screamed for my husband to quick run down to the coop and check out what had happened. He called up to me that there were two chickens that were brutally killed. Without getting descriptive it was apparent that Lucky gave her life in protecting her flock.

The remaining four chickens were traumatized. We had to physically force them indoors where they would be safe. The noises they were making were sounds of fear. They refused to eat or drink anything that night. One of the remaining chicks received an injury to her leg, was shaking and developed diarrhea. I was in fear for them and worried sick myself but I knew as long as they were inside the chicken coop they were safe for the time being. These four chickens amazed me the following morning. They never skipped a beat in their egg production. Following such a horrendous attack they somehow found the strength to produce four beautiful brown eggs the very next morning and they continued to do so every day since. They have made a miraculous recovery and I'm happy to report they are now all in good health and enjoying their routine snacks and feed.

Thanks to a local trapper the mink was caught the very next morning as he tried once again to enter into the outdoor chicken run through the same tunnel. As soon as the weather cooperates there will be metal fencing/sheeting buried deep enough into the ground along the barn side of the run where this creature tunneled from to make sure this can never happen again. At the same time the remaining feathers will be cleaned out and fresh new straw will be made available for the chicks return to the outdoors.

Most chicken farmers have faced losing some of their flock to predators at one time or another. Sometimes, no matter how much you watch over them, it's inevitable that something is lurking somewhere. We thought we had done everything possible to protect our flock. Through this experience we learned another valuable lesson to enable us to provide more protection to our 'girls.'

The four 'sister' hens will now have to decide a new pecking order. The strongest of the four will hopefully step forward to fill Lucky's shoes (even though they're not too lucky). There's also a good possibility we might add a few more chicks to the flock after the weather breaks and everyone is settled down.

May you, Lucky, rest in peace.