Ahoy hoy listeners of chicken related tales! Again, why not start with the most exciting bit? As this is my 3rd post I figured it was about time that I treated you all to a little video of Madonna, who is still very content by the way. Yes you read correctly, A VIDEO! A rather bad one at that, and poorly filmed, but A VIDEO none the less.
So here is the little lady being given (what I can only naturally assume is her craving food), some cucumber! Like I said, really sorry about the poor filming skills, she was bashing the cucumber up and so as it fell I was picking it up and giving it back to her!
It seems Mealworm won't interest her in the slightest. It's cucumber or nothing. The video also illustrates what I said before about Coco being the loudest most fussy little lady in the crew. All that noise was just letting me know that she was about to lay an egg and I should get the hell out of there...which I did.
Other Clucking Fantastic Events:
In order to help the pirate cause I had a little go at seeing if I could persuade any of the chickens to perch on my arm! With the help of a low starting wall and A LOT of Mealworm, Big Mama and Audrey gave it a go, and seemed pretty happy to do so. To be honest though Big Mama has always wanted to be close to people and Audrey just loves being up high so the fact that those were the two girls that did it wasn't really much of a surprise.
Also note, if you will, the very stylish way that I have done the button up on my jacket. Obviously I was going for the edgy miss-matched effect you see. We're all cool kids here.
So the last thing I should mention is that this morning and this afternoon Helga and Audrey did not give up on the cat food fight. Here's my report:
Events live from the kitchen boxing ring:
In the Garden corner wearing recently re-grown feathers and weighing an astounding 'I'm a lady and therefore do not reveal my weight' lb is, you won't keep me in a cage, Heellgaa.
In the kitchen corner wearing a black fur coat and weighing in at 'I love Felix cat food' lb and a half is, I'm jealous of everything and everyone, Heeeeeeendrix. (Pause for crowd roar).
The match got off to a roaring start with a lot of head bobbing from Helga as she was ducking and weaving to find a way in.
Hendrix retaliated with some boggy looks and impeccable ignoring manoeuvres which are second to none.
After a good 30 seconds of pure, heated, on the edge of your seats kind of stuff, action....Helga got bored and left...
So the winner...I wasn't even trying, Heeendrix!!!!
Well that's about it for now, if you're just popping by I would love to know what you think.
Until next time chicken friends.
Ahoy hoy fine chicken lovers, quite a few events have unfolded today so hell, I thought, I'll jot them down for you to read at your fancy.
Naturally I'll start with Madonna, who you will be please to know is still sitting (rather sweetly) upon her 6 eggs, although already this has not always been the case. This morning we found that one of the eggs had rolled off the nest box (a Silkie) and had gone cold. BUM BUM BUM (DRAMATIC EFFECT). We're not too worried about this however. Many broody hens have had the same thing happen to them over the years or just decided to sit on different eggs and left theirs to go cold for a few hours before being placed back on their original nest. 9 times out of 10 the eggs will hatch just fine, so hopefully this will be the case with hers. The cause, we think, is that although she sits comfortably on all 6, one of the large hens has taken to laying close to her, causing her to get agitated and so knocking out the egg. It's actually the second time it has happened. Fear not though, a solution was made! Huzzah I hear you cry!
The Solution: Give her a separate space.
Faff Time: Quite a bit due to messing up first time round.
Effectiveness: So far so good!
At first we were not planning on separating her from the rest of the crew as we figured that once the chicks were born it would be easier for them to fit in with the pecking order and it would save us trying to introduce them at a later date to the rest of the ladies. However we have now separated her to make sure that she doesn't get upset with hens laying eggs near her, and it avoids her being pecked by the others while she is sitting and of course stops the risk of the newborns being killed by the bigger hens!
It was really easy for us to do due to the fact that our coop is massive and has two large runs attached! We just popped some chicken wire inside to separate them and they each can go down to their own adjoining runs! Easy as pie.
We used chicken wire instead of wood in the hope that it will make it easier when we want to join both crews together. Hopefully because they can see each other in the same space, when all have hatched and are old enough it shouldn't be a problem. After all it's how we originally introduced the younger girls to the ex-batts! And the other girls didn't mind being put in the other run, in fact the ex-batts were pleased to be in their original home!
(That coconut treat was gone within the day, they love their suet. Definitely only a once in a while treat at that rate)! As an added little thing we also built up the nest, as you can see in the top picture, in front of Madonna. This was so that if any eggs do slip again she can roll them back underneath her! Phew!
Other Chicken Clucking News!
After having a long time where the chickens were not interested, they have suddenly remembered how much they love cat food! The amount of times today I had to shoo them out of my bloody kitchen! Chicken's are omnivores so meat is fine for them and for some reason really love cat food, however we don't like them to eat it due to the fat content, it's just not made for chickens...in fact it's usually made from chickens!
Here's Helga making a mess of the kitchen trying to get the last few biscuits. Where were the cats when this was happening, that's what I would like to know!
Well that's about all for the crew and their cackle fruit! All chickens are in bed asleep and I think it's time for me to cosy down to a bubble bath.
Until the next log book, farewell.
In order to help the pirate cause I had a little go at seeing if I could persuade any of the chickens to perch on my arm! With the help of a low starting wall and A LOT of Mealworm, Big Mama and Audrey gave it a go, and seemed pretty happy to do so. To be honest though Big Mama has always wanted to be close to people and Audrey just loves being up high so the fact that those were the two girls that did it wasn't really much of a surprise.
