And The Rain Came Down

Had one heck of a rain storm yesterday!

It rained and rained and rained!

We needed it!

Giant puddles formed everywhere!

 

 The coop flooded!

The chickens were not impressed!

 The equipment yard became a soupy mess!

The farm is quiet this time of year, so no worries about anything getting stuck!

 I had to venture out into the rain storm to secure the chicken coop and deal with the flooding issue!

When I came in, I looked like a drowned rat!

Had a little holiday cheer to help warm me up!

Today the wind blew and blew!

The puddles are all dried up and the wind fluffed the chickens right up!



Guess What

Chickens butt...that's what!

 

This was a favorite saying of my husbands grandmother.

I couldn't resist taking this photo of a very fluffy butt as those words popped into my head the other day!

 

 Also, fluffy butts produce lovely eggs!

These flowers are the last of the summer flowers that are sitting on the porch steps.

They have made it through one hard frost, but still have a pop of color left in them!

Phil Figures It Out

Phil is my Australorp rooster.

He has been separated from the "girls" for several months now.

Over the weekend, he figured out how to get in with them.

I managed to wrangle him out of the coop once, but within a day, he was right back with them!

 

 

 

He wins for now!

He seems rather pleased with himself! 

Net Walker

 

Meet Phil.

Phil is an Australorp Cockerel.

He is also a net walker!

He loves to show off his new talent!

 

And he refuses to get down when I tell him too!

"Talk to the fluffy butt, cause I'm not getting down!"

My Basket Runneth Over

Fresh from the Coop in the Valley!

The girls have been busy!

Eggs in a Basket

The girls have been busy!

Most of the new pullets have started laying.

Each day is a surprise when I go to collect eggs in the houses.

 

 I have Dominique, Deleware, Ameracauna and  Australorp pullets in the new group of layers.

 Opal is a Delaware pullet and she is a very talkative bird!

I would rather spend time with my "girls" then sit behind a desk all day long and deal with other people's issues! 

Ring Bling

The new "girls" seem to have a thing for Bling!

 

 

They were fascinated with my ring and moved ever closer for an inspection of it.

 

Then they had a discussion about how pretty it was and tried to grab it off my hand and run.

 



I guess even chickens think "Diamonds are a girls best friend!"

A Little Work and A Little Wine

Hubby installed some portable fencing around the coop so the chickens can free range a bit.

They don't get the run of the place due to predators like hawks, coyote, fox, an occasional eagle and other critters that might do them harm.

But a little fenced in area is just perfect for them right now.

 

 The day we worked outside was chilly, with a bit of a wind, but the view while working was beautiful!

The hay fields are getting taller by the day!

 Now I can enjoy a little wine time with my girls while they explore their new area!

Yes, I enjoy sitting in the coop, with a glass of wine and watching my babies and my older hens fuss around!

Told ya I was the crazy chicken lady! 

An Early Christmas Gift, a Covered Coop

These cute little birds, perched atop this tree were becoming a menace to our little flock of chickens.

Earlier this fall, Hayman built new feeders that really helped to keep the wild birds at bay.

But then the snow came and with it I swear every wild bird within a hundred miles showed up!

We had chickadees, starlings and dove!

They would swoop in and and clean out the feeders in a jiffy!

Those little suckers worked in groups and pairs to get the cleaning out job done!

Smart little suckers! 

So Hayman came up with a new covered coop plan.

We bought the supplies last week and spent two days working on it in very cold temps!

The coop is now covered with a more bird friendly top so they can't get hung up in the netting when they try to get in. And try they do, but they don't usually succeed!

The gate is now covered with a "net door" which has really helped a lot!

No more wilds tormenting and eating all of the chicken food!

This covered coop project was my Christmas present from Hayman.

Even though I was out there helping him, he did all of the hard work and I was just more like moral support. 

I love this man to the moon and back!

And this project is the perfect present because it will keep on giving all year long!

There's a Chicken in My Bathroom

Yes, there is a chicken in my bathroom.

Meet J.J.or Little J as we like to call her.

J.J. is one of our original show birds that our daughter used when she was showing poultry.

J.J. is retired now and has been living a comfortable life in the chicken coop retirement home.

That is until the sub zero temps took hold this past week and plunged us into a deep freeze!

J.J. developed a cold!

Yes, a chicken with a cold!

Well it's more like an upper respiratory infection, but cold sounds better.

J.J. is almost ten years old, so she wasn't handling the sub zero temps very well.

So I moved her into the bathroom a few days ago.

Started her on a round of antibiotics yesterday.

She seemed to be sneezing less today and showed other signs of improvement.

She is eating well and seems to really like her posh surroundings. 

She is really a fan of the extra little treats she has been getting.

J.J. will mostly likely be in the house for awhile or at least until our temps warm back up some.

By the way, J.J. is a silky hen, just in case you were wondering.

The cats and dog all think she is fascinating.

She could care less about them!

She's much too busy enjoying her new digs! 

I may or may not be known as the crazy chicken lady around here! 

HA! 

Sub Zero

Woke up to snow on Saturday morning.

Lots of snow!

Over 6 inches of snow!

We knew it was coming, just didn't know how much we would get for sure.

Snow is pretty, if you can stay home, indoors, where it's warm and enjoy it.

Not the case here!

I had to work on Saturday!

Chores first though!

Had to take the token boot shot!

 Had to shovel out the chicken coops.

Made paths inside the coops just in case the chickens wanted to come out.

 Mr. Frizzle came out to help and complain about the white stuff on the ground.

I shared in his misery!

He didn't stay out for long and none of the other chickens ventured out at all.

 A layer of white as far as the eye can see!

 Road reports were not good.

Hubby decided he had better drive Meg and I to town for work.

Good thing he did as the roads were an icy mess! 

After a day in town, we left early to head back home. 

The roads were still terrible! Icy, slick, frozen!

People were driving like idiots!

As we turned off the hwy onto the dirt road that leads into our valley, I told hubby to slow down so I could snap the photo below.

The scene looking north was beautiful and I'm glad I was able to capture just a bit of it!

It was -15 below when we woke up this morning!

Yes, I said -15 below!

Wild Birds or Bust

We have had chickens for about ten years now.

Daughter raised them as a 4-H project and showed them.

They have provided us with eggs galore over the years!

Now, they are getting up there in years.

Our oldest hens are ten years old.

 

The wild birds have always been a problem!

They love to fly into the coop and eat all of the hen scratch in one fell swoop!

They can clean out a feeder faster than a speeding bullet!

 

We use to have bird netting over the coop, but I got fed up with it and tore it down!

It was not bird "friendly" at all!

I got tired of running out to untangle a bird that had gotten caught in the net.

 

Now that I have taken over the care of the chickens since daughter is all grown up and done showing them, I decided that something finally had to be done about the wild bird situation!

Seriously, we were going to go bust feeding those damn wild things!

 

So I started talking about the problem and doing some research.

I made some suggestions about what I could buy to help with the problem.

Next thing I know, hubby has built new feeders for me!

He did lots and lots of research on his own without my asking him too and came up with something that he thought might work.

 

And work it has!

The wilds still come to check out the food situation, but leave mostly empty handed now.

 

It didn't take long for the chickens to figure out the new feeders either.

They seem to like the new arrangement as much as I do!

 

 

New covered feeder that my handy, dandy hubby built!

He built two of them as we have two coops.

 

 

Happy hens enjoying their breakfast, sans wild birds!

 

 

I still toss out a bit of grain for them to scratch around at.

They clean it up quickly and the wild birds don't stand a chance now!



 

Keeping the wild birds at bay for now!

 



A Pinch and A Peck

This was the cutest birthday gift ever!

My friend Randi gave me this cute little "chick" feeder filled with jelly beans as a gift.

She knows me well!

I love anything "chicken" related!

After the jelly beans are gone...I'm going to fill it with Skittles!

(did you know that Skittles are gluten free...yes they are...happy dance)

Yum!

Attached to the side of the feeder was the cutest set of measuring spoons.

Not your usual set mind you, but a pinch, a peck and a dab.

(1/8, 1/16, 1/32)

They will be used and used often!

Love them!

The lemon basil in the kitchen window has gone wild!

And it smells so good!

The County Chick and I, along with my mom are currently on a little road trip.

The country mice have gone to the big city....to visit the city mouse relatives.

Tight Rope Walker

Meet Cricket!

Cricket is our Golden Sebright bantam hen.

She likes to escape from the chicken coop on a regular basis.

She is sneaky about her escape and chooses a different point of exit each time.

Once she is on top of the coop, she walks the top of the coop like a tight rope walker!

Sometimes we loose our balance, but we never fall!

She will pace the top of the coop several times checking to make sure the cost is clear and safe before she descends to the ground.

She will spend hours pecking at the ground around the coop, chasing bugs and having a good ol' time.

She is a clever little hen...she will put herself back in the coop before evening falls and tuck herself away with the other chickens for the night.

Country Chic has been known to go out several times during the day to put her back in the coop, only to find that Cricket is out again before she gets back in the house.

Chickens are funny, entertaining creatures!

New Hens on the Block

No, it's not the name of some new female musical group...lol. The title refers to the hens we got in February.

I walked out to the chicken coop this morning with the intent to take photos of the new hens in our flock. The new hens joined our flock back in early February. A neighbor was moving away and she didn't want to move her chickens so she called to ask us if we wanted them. We added eight Barred Rock hens to the variety of birds we already have. The new girls had been picking at each other in their previous home and many of them were missing most of their back and tail feathers! They didn't look very pretty at all!

About the middle of February, I was reading blogs and came across Mandy's Rabbit Ranch. She had written a post about "chicken saddles." I had no clue what a chicken saddle was and was very intrigued by what I read. You should check out her blog to learn more on "chicken saddles." I could try to describe them, but would get it all wrong. They are basically a sturdy fabric "saddle" that fits over the back and under the wings of a hen to protect her from the rooster. Roosters tend to have "favorite" girls and this can lead to them pulling out the feathers of the hens they favor and leaving exposed areas on the backs of the hens which can get worse over time and look very unsightly. (Mandy makes and sells chicken saddles and wing protectors through her Etsy shop).

Anyhoo, my journey out to the coop this morning with camera in hand was to capture a few shots of the new girls as Mandy is hosting a contest and the prize is a "chicken saddle." As soon as I stepped into the pen this morning the new girls split! They hid under the houses and wouldn't come out. Our birds are very friendly and curious about the humans that come to their pen daily. The new girls...not so much. They tend to hide. A few of them are really in need of some saddles. In their previous home they picked at each other and pulled out not only back feathers, but tail and butt feathers too. I noticed today that most of them have new pin-feathers starting to come in, so hopefully their feathers will fill in and they will look as good as the rest of our birds.



This is Azul. She is a bantam Blue Cochin...and a very bossy hen!

She loves to bite people!

 Peanut is a Columbian Old English Game Bird cross.

He is a funny little guy with a unique personality. You can see the back half of Cricket our bantam Sebright hen. She wouldn't hold still so I could take her photo. She too is very unique and has a cute personality.

 These two beautiful Black Australorps are from our first batch of chickens that we got eight years ago.

Daisy and Pearl still provide us with eggs on a regular basis when they are laying.

If you look behind them, under the house you will see one of the new girls...her red featherless butt glaring at the camera!

 Two of the new girls in the flock. I had to be sneaky just to get this photo of these two.

You can see the bald spot on the one closest to the feeder.

 Another sneaky shot of a newbie. The wind was blowing and it blew her feathers over her bald area, but it is bigger than what you see in the photo. One of the newbies had no tail feathers at all when we got her. I noticed today that she has new tail feathers coming in.

I tried to get a few more shots...better ones, but the wind was getting gusty and the hens kept hiding under the houses. Every time I got on my knees to snap some shots Azul would sneak up behind me and peck at my back...well pinch my back is more like it. She is one sneaky hen!

Pig Wrestling Anyone!

We survived fair week! I met myself coming and going many times over the course of last week and weekend and at one point I think I even passed myself and said, HI! It was a busy week and a fun week as well. Countrychick and friends entered a pig wrestling event last Friday night. They represented our county 4-H program. Did they catch their pig....you will have to watch the video to find out. The rest of the photos below are of Countrychick showing her birds. She did very well...scored 100 on her showmanship and received a blue ribbon and three of her roosters placed very high; 1 grand champion and 2 reserves in their classes. The little chick that we raised this spring won Reserve Champion Heavy Breed in the show. My friend Oregontribal1 and her husband Dodgeman were here for our crazy fair week. They were hoping for a vacation, but I put them to work. They were troopers and a huge help as well. I think they had a great time, but next year they might plan their vacation a little differently so as not to have to work so hard on their time off....he, he. Thanks guys for all of your help! Okay, so Hayman has surprised me with a trip for our 20th wedding anniversary. The big day is not until the 23rd of this month, but Hayman will be putting up 4th crop of hay at that time, so he planned a little trip for us and we leave tomorrow. I will be sure to post photos when we return. I'm told there is no internet where we are going, so you will have to wait until next week for an update. Happy Weekend to all and you all really should try pig wrestling sometime...........