Baby Chooks

Spring time is coming!  Which means BABY CHICKS!  We went a little overboard and got sixteen. 

 

Sweet Jessie loves baby animals.



How you doin?

Eight Buff Orpington's, six Chicken Littles (Barred Rocks), and two Americana's.



Our friend built an outdoor cage for our Flemish Giant bunny and it's working out to be the perfect little chook home. Much better than having them in our living room like last year!

The Tail-less Chook

That's weird, we thought...where is her tail?

Oh there it is, just down in the pasture.  Thank goodness now we can glue it back on. No, but really I remembered earlier in the day hearing a skirmish in the lower pasture and the dogs tear down off the porch.  I figured they were going after ducks in the pond.  So when I went out in search of her tail feathers the first place I searched was in the direction that the dogs had run.  And I had to search no further.  I realized with the long trail of feathers that the dogs had saved her life.  And that most likely a coyote had her in his mouth when the dogs chased him down and dropped her.  Poor scared little KFC.  She's been hunkered down in the barn for the last three days.  Probably scared and definitely hurt.  I've been giving her medicine and  bringing her water and food so she doesn't have to leave her favorite roosting spot.  With spring and chick season coming up, I've come to the realization that to give my chooks the best life, they cannot have the lay of the land anymore.  They love it, but it's not worth the price they will have to pay.  Won't my husband be so happy when I ask him to help me build a huge six foot tall coyote-proof chicken run.  :)

 

 

Sad Day for Chicken Little

I've been avoiding the blog lately...my most favorite little chookie was killed by a coyote on January 15th.  I never thought in a hundred years that I would get attached to a CHICKEN....a CHICKEN of all things!  C'mon!  But I did...so I spent a few days moping around and feeling sorry for myself.  Maybe I'll feel better when I get another Chicken Little in the spring.  Like when Trenton lost Tiger, he named his next one New Tiger, and the next one, Brand New Tiger...and so on. I think that's what I'll have to do to keep Chicken Little's legacy going.

Here's the sad story ~
Tay was walking the pasture near the compost pile (the chookies favorite spot, besides the kitchen door where they love to wait for scraps) and came upon a pile of black and white feathers.  :(  When he came inside and told me, I secretly hoped it was KFC and not my Chicken Little.  But when I checked in on the girls, she was the one missing.  We tracked the feathers to the tree line and then it was like she vanished.  So sad.  I hate coyotes.  We needed to do something.

My husband being the weapon loving man that he is decided we needed a different rifle for the job.  His were too big and would blow the thing to pieces.  So he went out and bought one that night.  Came home with a shiny new 17 HMR,  just my size he said.  He'd been wanting to buy something smaller for me so this was his perfect excuse.  He names all of his guns ladies, so I thought mine could be a man.  So I named him Batboy (Battalion slang for Rangers).

We waited for the Coyote to come back and yesterday was the day.  I was upstairs playing wordsbypost with my mom on our iPhones when I learned the sound of a chicken about to be eaten.  So sad!  I ran to the window and saw the coyote right outside the pigs fence, slowly creeping up to the chickens, who had run for cover under the trampoline.  Batboy wasn't by the window and I didn't want to scream for Taylor and scare the coyote away so I kind of screamed for him under my breath if that's possible.  He grabbed the gun and told me to slowly open the window because that's how I scared the darn thing off last time.  But the coyote heard us and ran off behind the trees, up into the pasture.  Still in clear sight but paused right near my horses (which were terrified)!  I yelled and told him not to take the shot so close to them, and he gave me this look like, "woman, do you know me at all?"  Then took aim and BOOM!  He got him dead center but the bullet isn't big enough to drop him dead, so he ran off into the trees.  We tracked him and found where he enters through the upper pasture because there were a bunch of - black and white feathers - right on his trail.  Hopefully he died quickly because even though he killed my favorite chicken, I don't want any animal to suffer.

Don't worry Chicken Little, we got the big bad wolf for you.

Chicken Little Love

Bye Bye Buttercup

Buttercup was missing when I checked in on the animals Saturday evening.  We took our flashlights and checked everywhere, but it was too dark to be thorough.  Hopefully she was up in a tree somewhere, or hiding with a nest of eggs.  But Sunday morning I climbed up into the hay loft to get a better look of the upper pastures, and there she was.  Tay thinks it was a hawk because she was out in the middle of the pasture, in plain view.  He said a coyote would have dragged her into the safety of the trees or bushes.  We buried her underneath the tree next to the baby chicks that didn't make it last spring.  Poor sweet little Buttercup. She was so beautiful.

Buttercup (4-8-12 to 12-8-12)

We Have Eggs!

We got a nice little surprise this month! Chicken Little layed her first egg. Her sister, KFC, followed shortly a few days later. And I just discovered that Hawk Eye is the mysterious little girl laying her eggs in the hay stall. We couldn't figure out who it was until one morning I was in the barn feeding and found her squatting in the hay. I even got it on video! Now the boys run into the barn every day after school to check for eggs. :)

Bry-guy & Chicken Little

My sweet little boy likes to pick split tomatoes for the Chookies. <3