Category: chickens

Chicken pumpkin carving

On By CarynIn chickens

I saw another chicken tender helping her hens carve Halloween pumpkins and loved it, so followed suit. This time, rather than poking holes, I just skimmed off the pumpkin skin in eye and mouth positions using a sharp knife.

Photo description: Small orange pie pumpkin with the skin removed in the shape of triangle eyes and a tear drop mouth.

To hang the pumpkin, I used a gimlet to drill a hole through the stem, then split the end of a bamboo stick to push cotton twine through the hole.

Photo description: In the foreground, the bit section of a gimlet on the right, and on the left the split point of a bamboo skewer. Pumpkin with cotton loop through the stem in the background

I then hung up the pumpkin in the chicken run. By the afternoon, the pumpkin had a decidedly gory countenance.

Photo description: Same pumpkin with the flesh pecked out of the eyes and the entire bottom gone, leaving a gaping hole.

The result is definitely creepy.

Then there were six

On By CarynIn chickens

We lost another chicken this week. I say lost, but she was quite easily found, just not alive. She was laying in the run when I went out to check on them. Rigor mortis was complete, so she probably passed during the night. From a quick web search rigor mortis in chickens completes within a few hours of death, and can last 8-24 hours. She was walking around and eating the day before, so sometime late evening or early morning her ticket was punched. No signs of distress or abnormalities, I did not do a necropsy since they are four years old. The other chickens are unconcerned.

Photo Description: Six Faverolle hens in molt eating dried grubs

Hidden in Basil

On By CarynIn chickens, Wildlife

I regularly pick a stem or two of basil for my chickens. I was surprised when I snapped one off and came away with two little tree frogs. Oops! So I still have garden guardians, they are just tucked under basil leaves. I shook them back into the garden to keep guarding before taking the basil to the chickens.

Photo description: hand holding a stem of basil with two small green tree frogs nestled in the leaves.

I’ve found my best way to give the chickens the basil is to wedge it in a hole in their swing. I have drilled holes in the ends of the wooden board, and I push the fresh basil up through the bottom, and an old dried stem down through the top to lock the stems in place so the hens can pull off the leaves easily.

Photo description: Fresh green basil hanging from a wood 2×4 swing, with a brown twig sticking out of a hole on top. Seven molting Faverolle hens surround the basil.

Then there were seven

On By CarynIn chickens
Seven Faverolle hens in the chicken run

We are down to seven hens. We lost one yesterday, she died in her sleep in the coop. We noticed that she was listless and not eating that afternoon, then found her the next morning. I think it was Twilight. Most of the chickens have removed their colored leg bands, and we haven’t been able to sort out who is who. I know Seashell and Magic by sight. Schmoo still has her band. The rest have very similar coloring, and are starting their molt, so look off. I did not do a necropsy, her body was very thin, but did not look outwardly diseased. The hens are over four years old, and the average life span for laying hens is 3-7 years. They are also of questionable breeding, being hatchery birds and not from a reputable breeder of the breed. The rest of the hens will have a safe place with fresh water and food and treats until they too shuffle off this mortal coil.

Broody

On By CarynIn chickens

Another sign that Spring is progressing is that I get at least one hen that goes broody. She sits the nest and won’t give it up, hisses and yells when someone comes near, and she if there is an egg, she hunkers over it like a dragon on a hoard. I have no tolerance for the behavior and pick up the broody hen off the nest, place her feet in the cold foot bath and take the eggs. I even take the golf balls that help remind the other chickens where to lay. At night I take her out of the nest again and put her on the roost. The bummer part is that when a hen goes broody, she stops laying eggs. My methods have so far worked to break the broody streak, but even once the behavior has stopped, she won’t lay again for weeks.

Broody hen and another hen trying to lay

The hens’ preferred nesting boxes are a little large, two hens shouldn’t be able to fit together, but I rarely get broken eggs, so I let it be. The two pictured above are probably the same two that have dust bath wars over the same square foot of dirt.