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Friday Chikken Update

chikkens

The new girls in the onion bed (I can’t call them the little girls any more; they’re as big or bigger than the old girls). Pic horribly out of focus, sorry — I don’t know what my camera was focusing on, but I took a whole bunch of these today and they’re all bad.

Funny thing. I was sitting out in the garden playing the banjo this afternoon, as you do, with the chickens happily pecking around me in the grass. All six of them suddenly leapt up, tear-assed across the lawn and gathered together in one spot, someplace behind me. After a minute, they slowly dispersed. This happened three or four times before I got up and turned my chair around to face The Spot.

We’d left the casement window in the kitchen unlatched — the window I throw chicken treats from. Periodically, a gust of wind would catch the window and blow it wide and they’d dash over hopefully. With me sitting there. All praise the generous and mighty Window.

God bless them, chickens are stupid. And greedy.

Ektually, the news is that there’s no news. Chickens come in to lay between 20 and 24 months weeks, and the new ones are 21 and a bit. I stare forlornly into their nest box every day. Their faces are all red, though — that’s how biology tells roosters it’s Go Time.

Yes, the two speckledy hens (who are biological sisters) interact with each other more, often leaving the lavender Odd Chicken Out. Yes, the old girls are still picking on the new girls. Well, all except Head Chicken — such things are generally beneath the dignity of her office.

I’ll let you know when I finally get an egg from a noob. Good weekend!

ATTENTION – ATTENTION – ATTENTION: Jenny has laid her first egg! When I let the girls out this morning, she was sitting on the nest, so I waited in the garden. Glad I did – after she laid it, she was pecking at it hard. Probably a case of WTF IS THIS?, but if she’d penetrated to the delicious innards, I’d have a real problem on my hands.

Comments


Comment from tomfrompv
Time: July 29, 2016, 7:24 pm

So I happened to be watching re-runs of the 1950s show “whats my line” and they had on a guy who made “glasses” for chickens. Apparently he too was upset that chickens would peck each other (sometimes to death) and discovered that rose-colored spectacles would stop the attacks! Nobody guessed his “line” — even Dorothy Kilgallen who almost told us who killed JFK.

I see chicken glasses are available on EBAY. Perhaps you could import a dozen and save the new girls?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_eyeglasses


Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: July 29, 2016, 9:24 pm

All praise the generous and mighty window.

I giggle.

On youtube, I stumbled into a house cat that had learned the automatic cat kibble machine could be bullied into dispensing kibble if it was hit hard enough, and the video shows the cat running at, and colliding with the kibble machine repeatedly trying to produce kibble.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: July 30, 2016, 12:32 am

Do you have a set list for the chickens?


Comment from dissent555
Time: July 30, 2016, 1:13 am

Did you bump the little switch on the lens that select auto or manual focus?


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: July 30, 2016, 1:21 am

We had for many years a favorite cat who lived her life as an indoor cat but who in later years loved to come outside on our patio with us. Because we live on a pretty little canal our garden fence is just a wrought iron railing. Our cat, Coco, was cute because, as an indoor cat, she understood about Windows;* She knew she couldn’t get through them and nothing could get to her through them.

However, the difference between the bars in a window and the bars in a wrought iron fence was a distinction lost on her. So when she was allowed out on the patio with us she never ever tried to leave the patio – because she knew it was impossible. The most interesting thing was when our friends came walking down the canal with their dog. They came up to the fence and chatted with us, with their dog eyeing Coco the whole time. She totally ignored the dog -because dogs can’t get through windows, duh! However when a bird landed on top of the railing she went crazy, doing the whole chattering in excitement routine. I waited for years for her to figure out that she could go right through that railing any time… But she never did.

So magic window indeed.

*Auto-correct -refuses- to allow me to type “Windows” with a lower case “w” – and I’m on an iPad!


Comment from PatAZ
Time: July 30, 2016, 5:57 pm

Chickens eating onions likely produce onion flavored eggs, right? Or it did back in the days of yore on the old farm in GA. Not that it bothered me a bit.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 30, 2016, 6:28 pm

They aren’t the slightest bit interested in eating the onions. They’re there for the dirt bath.

Took some pictures at a fete today. We’ll see how they came out.


Comment from Nina
Time: August 1, 2016, 2:19 am

Silly Jenny! Congratulations on breakfast, though.

I’ve always thought it was good that my cats remained unaware that I’m made of mostly meat. It could be bad if that ever occurred to them…

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