Saturday Night Chicken Blogging

There was a certain luminous quality to the air today...it was probably the dangerous fog and showers that gave the lawn and the birds an otherworldly glow; the new Green Day playing and the hundred or so eggs found by the guy mowing the lawn...I knew that there was some sorta problem with the girl's output, but I couldn't find where they were laying!

Its been a hard end to a week of torture, or not, and yes they are still...and I've been feeling more and more lost out here, texting this or that to no one really, and reading the Twitters of the tech guys...just floating through it all. Meanwhile, the chickens move throughout their days as living impressionism, scratching through the leaves up the hill into the woods.

As Will and Chris took the eggs into the woods to throw them at trees, I took some pictures of the flock and stopped by Sandy's grave to spread ladybugs in the garden....



This is the Polish hen...She is very friendly and beautiful, always follows and wants to help with projects around the barn. She was hilarious trying to help me hammer nails with her beak.





This girl is a real honest-to-goodness turken. I love the way these look. They are bred with silkies to make showgirls.



This is Woostie the Roo. he is a Golden Campine. The frostbite on his comb from last winter healed up pretty well. he used to have more points on the back but now its smooth.




...and here is one of his hens.





This is insane frizzle polish. She came to me via eggbid, and is such a character....totally beautiful and seemingly in her own little world. I always find her roosting outside alone at night. I have to carry her inside because I'm too afraid to leave the door open, even to the triple screened chicken porch.




These are the new frizzles. The woman who sold them to me as youngsters had an inkling that one was a roo...and you kow what? she was right! He doesn't crow...not yet anyway...if he does then he will have to go.


This is mama broody hen and her two little babies. I dont know how she gets them up on the roost or the ladder, but she does. They get around pretty well for tiny things.




...One of the babies looking out from under her wing....pretty soon he was sleeping like that!




These are the 3 araucana miracle easter icebox chicks! They also figured out how to get up on the ladder pretty early, and they roost in a row, as they seem to do most things. They are pretty hilarious and really scrappy in a world of huge chickens.




The hope is that one will come out barred like their mom was, but I dont know when that becomes apparent. Im just happy that they are rumpless, indicating that my Coo is the dad.

Crazy chick was hatched along with the araucana miracle chicks. Its unclear what type he is exactly, but he grew very fast... and at a point last week came up totally lame...more like paralyzed. I did the vitamin thing that I do, and Crazy is now up and around and almost good as new...a little foot palsy remains. I dont know if its viral or its vitamin related, but this does respond to intensive B vitamin therapy. I hope this chick makes it...he has quite a spirit and was so funny hanging with the three little araucanas, two times their size! I can imagine that he would like to be perched with them on the ladder right now; I just moved him back to a cage in the barn (from a tank in the kitchen.)



A nestbox full o' showgirls and one silky...believe it or not there are 3 chickens in there and one is a roo!




More hay than usual on the roost shelf makes for a nice picture. They all have their spots and when they all come in at night its really nice how they lay on eachother and go to sleep. Of course they have a light that goes off at 9-ish and a radio playing all the time...tough life in chicken land...


Comfy in the nest boxes!




Some days you feel like an eagle....