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Spitz and the Dog Attack
Many city dwellers go into chicken keeping only thinking of the eggs and the happy hens pecking around their yard. They prepare themselves for maintaining a clean coop, food and water but don’t think about how much trouble these ladies can get into or the hard decisions they as the caregiver will have to make. We are several years in and are still experiencing firsts. We’ve had sick birds die and we’ve had one disappear in the night. I’ve administered feeding tubes, antibiotic injections and even sewn a chicken diaper for a sick, picked on Silkie. As a chicken keeper, you to develop fortitude and tolerance for things that would…
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It’s Another New Year
I don’t really buy into the whole new year, fresh start, clean slate bit. All of me at 11:59 pm on December 31 carries across to 12:00 am January 1. Chances are high that I’m not changing. Not really. That Costco box of Cheez-its will still be on the counter the next morning, and I will still be sneaking 2-3 crackers at a time and letting their tangy goodness dissolve in my mouth. If you’ve never munched on chocolate and Cheeze-its at the same time (alternate bites, don’t cram them in together), you really should. It will blow your taste-buds. I do buy into slow, progressive improvement, reflection and re-upping…
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November Garden (Just Pictures)
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Those Fall Chicks and Treating Resperatory / Sinus Infections
In September, we picked up five new pullets of various breeds. The following Saturday morning, one began crowing, and we promptly drove down to the Selma Tractor Supply to swap him out for another pullet. Our Chicken Man (I don’t mean that as an insult, it’s just what role this kind gentleman has played in our lives), didn’t have any unusual breeds on hand like our Pavlovskaya Roo, so his buddy in the next parking spot offered us an Apenzeller Spitzhauben, whom we named “Spitz”. Quick disclaimer: I’m not a vet, and I’m still new to chicken keeping. Take this post as a recounting of how we handled sickness and…
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Fall Chicks
On Saturday we dashed over to The Urban Chicken for the September flock swap hoping to get an early pick of Mr. Campbell’s pullets. All our our ladies so far have come from his farm, and this weekend at a price $8/bird for the two-month-olds, we came away with five new chickens. He told us we would never see that price again, but he’d hatched out too many. Penny, our French Black Copper Marans, has been such a good layer and healthy looking girl, that we picked up two more Marans. We also bough a Lavender Orpington and an Ameraucana. I went back to pick up this goofy looking bird…
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What’s Growing (other than mosquitoes)
The garden is pure magic this week. It seems like we’ve moved to a completely different region as we went from dry conditions to late spring rains and plants that were only poking their heads above ground are lush. I no longer have to worry about the chickens plucking out tender seedlings and can let them out to forage for a little bit during the day. If it weren’t for the mosquitoes, I’d sit outside all hours of the day. However with all the fallen magnolia leaves creating tiny breeding pools all over the ground, I am either forced back inside or have to cover myself in bug spray. In…
