Some More Pictures

Here are some pictures of my buffs as they grew up

 

and here below are the Speckled Sussex as they grew up...

 

The Good Little Chickens

  This is a story about five little chickens and their owner, a nice woman, that thought she had a gift for communicating with animals. Little did she know, these particular chickens she had purchased from a simple Mom and Pop feed store would turn out to be much more than plain old chickens.

After she bought them, she snuggled them in a homemade brooder, and spent many days in her cozy rocking chair, cuddling and cooing, talking away to them, every one precious to her. One in particular seemed to have some trouble, Misty the woman called her. She couldn't seem to stay on her feet, so the woman was very attentive to this one. She made sure she had the water and food and love she needed.

Time went by, and the chicks grew and grew. As they got older they seemed to have an intelligence about them. The woman dismissed this, thinking she was just imagining things. After all, she had grown quite fond of them all, each and every one was special in her own way.

As spring came, and warm weather with it, the woman decided it was time for the chicks to venture out into the green grasses and spend the sunny days wandering the yard, doing the things that chickens do. She kept the brooder on the green picnic table by the back door so she could round them up at night and put them to bed in there, because they were still much too young to go into the chicken house with the other chickens.

Days went by, sometimes the woman would go out into the yard and sit and watch them, bring them little treats of cracked corn and sunflower seeds, and things of that nature. In the evening, the woman would call out her border collie, a humble and faithful companion, to put the older chickens in the chicken house, and then to push the younger ones up the back steps, and under the carport, where the woman waited for them to pluck them up and put them in the brooder for the night. Nothing particularly strange about these events of the day.

One evening, she was running behind on her chores for the day, and was late getting out to the gate to get them all in their respected places for the night. As she opened the screen door, she heard a peeping. Looking around to the gate, there she saw those five little chickens at the top of the stairs. So, she opened the gate, and one by one here they came walking into the carport. The woman thought, well, this is very convenient, and took advantage of this, putting them in the brooder and settling them in for the night with their fresh water and food, and nice clean pine shavings.

The next day, same as every day, she went out in the morning, opened the brooder, set the chickens at the top of the stairs and scooted them on their way, always being mindful to remember to shut the gate behind her. Didn't want to run the risk of a stray dog wandering into the yard and doing harm to them, that wouldn't do.

The day grew late, and the woman headed for the door right after supper to get the chickens in. She opened the door, pushed open the screen door to step outside, and in walks a chicken! Then another hops up into the house. They are peeping and looking around as if they belong there. Now the woman is clearly baffled by this, knowing she shut the gate, and grinning softly she says, "Well, come on in ladies!" The border collie didn't think much of chickens in the house, and came a running. The border collie immediately began her steely stare that these dogs are so famous for, letting these girls know they needed to get on out. With a little nudging, they were back out the door, and the woman picked them all up and put them to bed as usual.

One evening, the woman and her family had decided to go and visit her parents, and got back after dark. She was a little concerned on the way home that her chickens may have jumped the gate and ran away, growing ever impatient to be put to bed.

As they crested the hill and began driving down to the house, she fully expected to find her chickens in the middle of the road, but the headlights shown on the pavement, and there was nothing there. As she pulled up the driveway, she saw her husband had left the carport light on, and was glad of that. She got out, scanning the front yard, no chickens. Walking under the carport, she was simply baffled and delighted to see all five chickens. Not only had they jumped the gate, but they had gotten into the brooder and put themselves to bed! What a wonderful bunch of girls! So the woman put the top on the brooder and told them good night.

From that day forward, she never had to get the border collie to round those particular chickens up. They seemed smart enough to do for themselves.

Every morning when the woman goes out to greet her chickens, as she opens the brooder top and they fly up and perch on the sides of the brooder, each waiting their turn to be picked up and put on the back steps...she ponders...nad wonders...how we ever came to eat such a beautiful, sweet natured animal. One that comes when called, and is happy just to be sitting next to you on the grass, as you read a good book, or sip a nice cool glass of lemonade.

Its the little things in life that make everything worth while. Everybody notice the little things in life today, and enjoy them. The smell of fresh cut grass, the startling white clouds in the blue blue sky. The busy honeybees on the clover. The warm sunshine on your face, the gentle breeze that tickles your skin. These are joys that money can't buy, and I am thankful of that fact.

I just cut and pasted this, so that is why it is in regular print. If anyone has too much trouble reading it, I will retype it, just let me know.

Hope you enjoy my silly little story...lol.

More Chicken Hobby Story

Good Wednesday morning to everyone. :) I hope today will be good to us. I am trying to start my day out right. Daylight is here and Tip has already had to go way out to the edge of the property out front and retrieve a chicken. Her nose was trying to get her into trouble this morning. There were some distracting smells that kept her from staying on task and I was not happy about that and let her know it. She did finally get the chicken back in the fence, but I had to walk way out there with her to get her to do it. Hopefully she will do better later this morning.

Looks as if we have some cloud cover this morning. I wonder if we might get a little bit of rain. It sure would be nice. I opened the window last night like I have been doing since we have been having cooler nights, but it didnt feel as cool this morning and our temperatures are creeping back up towards 90.

I think I will make another chicken hobby entry this morning. Lets see I left off at the thought of getting more chicks after the buffs were sent to the outdoors.

My next pick would be five Speckled Sussex pullet chicks. I brought them home and gave them all the attention and love the first five had been given. At about two weeks I was about to learn a new lesson in problems that can come about in raising chicks. One of the chicks was beginning to get splay leg. Splay leg is when a chicks legs begin to spread out to the sides and they can't walk. After consulting the internet I discovered this was common and it was fixable. I took a bandaid and keeping the chicks legs straight under its body I folded each sticky end of the bandaid, one around each leg. A hobble of sorts. It held the legs in place as the chick grew. This made for difficult walking...but it was not impossible for the chick to get to the food and water with some perseverence. Then another problem arose. The chick would get flipped on its back and couldnt get back up, mostly because its legs were hobbled. So we all took turns, Ian, Shelby and I, watching over the chick, turning her back over every time she was stuck upside down. It took several weeks, but finally there was improvement and she was able to stay upright, and then a couple of weeks later the bandaid was removed. She had grown out fine and was back to normal.

The enivitable happened and they grew up..grew big enough that it was time to go outside. I had to introduce the new crowd to the old crowd in adjoiningpens as the old crowd would assert a stern pecking order if the new ones were just thrown in with the older ones. After a few weeks of seeing each other through wire I let them meet without any barrier. They did pretty well, there was minimum squabling and soon they all got along together. So now I had ten chickens in the city limits. I couldnt spend enough time outside, I just loved to watch them.

They always welcomed my company, treats were always in order and when I was raking the yard they followed close behind to see what I had uncovered. The few neighbors that knew just loved to see them. The next door neighbor would often sit out back in their yard and watch them for long periods of time, enjoying them as much as I did. Thank goodness no one ever complained to the animal control. I would have been beside myself if I had had to get rid of them because of some crabby person that wanted to make trouble. My girls were quiet and kept to the back yard, they didnt ever bother anybody.

I did find my story on this computer, and I will post it, even though it is kind of silly. Not on this entry though..on another seperate one.

Here are a few pictures of the Speckled Sussex as chicks and growing up...I hope you enjoy them. Remember these pictures were taken with a regular old camera so they wont be as good as pictures we all take today.

 

My Sunday and Other Stuff

Saturday morning I got a phone call about 9:30 a.m. from Sherry. She had news. She is PREGNANT! OH me oh my...this will be her third child, and she will be 39 this month. I could say a whole lot about all of this...but it is counterproductive and doesn't matter..so I will just say that I am happy for her if she is happy. I am just not one to understand this. Main reason being, I want my life back with my husband before I have one foot in the grave. I want to raise my child into a productive happy adult and send her on her way eventually. I want Ian and I to implement our dream of retirement in Florida and be dried up raisins out there on the beach together. Do you know what I mean? There is more to life than raising children. There IS life after children with the love of your life. Anyway...that is all I am gonna say about that because that is just MY personal opinion. My main concern for her is money. They dont have the money for another child, it is hard for them now as it is.

She wanted to meet halfway on Sunday and visit. I looked up the little town of Franklin, GA...it was halfway for both of us. There was a Subway there...so we decided to meet there. The roads were all under construction and what was Highway 27 was NOT in fact 27 anymore...sigh..so we both got our wires crossed, long story, both of us finally finding each other at the Subway.

After lots of hugs and such we ordered and sat down to eat. Talking and eating, eating and talking, so much to catch up on. After we ate she said she had some stuff she had gotten for me. This girl went nuts, every chicken thing she saw she had to pick it up for me! What a sweet friend she is to me. My favorite things she brought were two chicken purses! Yes! I will take pics of them to show on here. She also found a wall clock, a serving dish, salt and pepper shakers, a spoon rest, cooking utensil holder, and a napkin holder. She has lost her mind I tell you what. She says she couldnt help it she just had to get the stuff. She promised me she didnt spend a lot, that she had found them at thrift stores...I was like, Okay then.

I brought her my homemade canned spaghetti sauce, all kinds of pickles I had canned, lots of fresh eggs of course and a spray arrangement of feathers in a white basket. I forgot to take a picture of that before I gave it to her, but it had many of the feathers from my birds. She thought that was just too neat.

So, after all that we asked the lady working the counter if the town had a park we could go to. Matter of fact yes she said, it was right across the street. At first glance you just saw a rec center and a couple of ball fields. There was a paved trail that led around the park to walk around so we struck out and walked along until we discovered on the backside of the last field another trail. Well goodness there was an iron bridge and everything. It led back into the woods. We had to go down there and see what was back there. As we walked we talked more about this and that. The trail ended in a two story tree house, sitting right on the Chattahoochee Riverside. We sat down on a steep embankment in the cool green grass and shook our shoes off. Talking more about life and stuff...we took in the sight of it all. I am sorry to say I didnt remember to bring my camera, what a shame too. We saw a white heron on a sandbar, and it took flight, was beautiful. Saw a Kingfisher bird, lots of vultures over in the distance circling. The water was flowing along and it was just so beautiful. You could smell the fresh air, the grass..the leaves were rustling in the breeze that was blowing briskly. I told Sherry this was our special place now...that we would have to come here with a picnic lunch and meet here for the day to sit and spend time together.

I realized that when I go to her house, or she comes to mine, there is always something that needs to be done, someone wants something, you know what I mean. Here, meeting halfway in the middle of nowhere...we were free of laundry buzzers, squawking birds wanting to be fed, seven year old little girls wanting their mamas attention constantly interrupting, no provisions for spend the night, just there and then. We are getting older and are both homebodies...and it is hard for either of us to spend the night off...so really this was perfect.

We have plans to go back to our spot in a few weeks...I really like this idea.

Ian is working over today, and tomorrow, and for a while. It always happens this way near the end of the year. We get a little short on money and he has to work extra. It is nothing to be extremely concerned about, but we do need to watch every dollar for a while. So no more trips too and fro for a while. Going anywhere in that truck is expensive. Costs me seventy dollars just to fill up. Usually that tank will last a long time when I dont go gallavanting...so I have to make it last now. I will save my egg moneyand use it for gas next time I take a trip to meet with Sherry, that way there is no burden on Ian. I really hate that he is going to have to do this for a while...but it will in fact give me more time to do things that need doing around here. When he works over I get four extra hours to do work around here. Like today...I am finally going to get the front area of the house weedwhacked and cut back...so with that in mind, I am going to close for now.

Hope today was good to you all...see you tomorrow. :)

Meet Thelma and Louise

Finally I got some pictures of my two silkies I was able to hatch from Kays eggs she sent me in the mail. It was still a challenge as they wouldn't be still for a moment! Bobbing heads and strutting around exploring. I set them up on the table so they couldnt run off and what did they do? They stared out the window at the outdoors the whole time! It took forever to get them to LOOK at ME!!! LOL They are like live stuffed animals. I pick them up and snuggle them and they love it. You can't have one without the other though. They grew up together and one will cry if she doesnt see her sister.

Kay, if your reading this...both are girls, and I am just in love with them. They will be show prospects for this coming February for sure. They look so good already, and they are still small.

Well here they are, my pretty little girls...

 

Decision Made

After reading my entry, there may have been some confusion on my garbled writing. Sorry about that..I am not always as well expressed as I would like. ;)

Hank is the sweet Araucana roo. I would NEVER ever get rid of him. He is my big ole sweet puppy dog roo. He is just a loving guy.

Alan, on the other hand, is the mean one that I cant seem to rehabilitate.

Here is a picture of sweet Hank...

 

I dont have a picture of just Alan...but here is one of him on one of his better days as a protector of my girls...He is on the far right there standing watch as some of my girls take a dust bath.

 

I appreciate everyones comments and input. I guess my decision has been made for me for now. The guy never came back.

Shelby was in tears and really mad at me when she found out what I was going to do. She reminded me that when we have a pet we agree to take care of it...even if its not convenient.

And that is all my animals out there really are. Pets. Yes, they are livestock so to speak...but they are pets.

So Alan will stay for now...seeing as the guy never came back anyway.

Yeah, ten dollars was too much...I never told him a price though...so that is not why he didnt come back.

I guess my decision was made for me huh.

Okay, enough about that. Now, I got to get moving around here and get some things done. I do have lots to tell about Sunday...so I will be back in a little while.

Thanks again, everyone have a great day today. :)

I Don't Know What To Do, Help Me

I have Hispanics coming by all the time, to buy eggs. But also asking if I have any chickens for sale. You know what they want them for. To eat. I usually will adamantly say no. I don't eat my chickens. They are pets. Well...most of them. I have one that is a very difficult rooster.

I raised him from a chick. His name is Alan. He is an Araucana. A pretty man. Still, he has never been trustworthy. When he was loose out in the yard I would have to carry a stick with me to defend myself if he decided I needed to be flogged.

The day came when I had had enough. Roosters can sense when old hens are not laying and they will start to pick on them, try to run them off. He was picking on some of my older girls. So, I caged him. He has been in a pen ever since. By himself.

Hank is now the king of the yard, and he is a big sweetie pie. Same breed, big old thing. Love him so much.

So, I had a guy come by a few minutes ago to get eggs. Asked me if I had any chickens for sale. I said no, no hens. He said he would take a rooster, it didnt matter.

I dont know why I did it. I said,

"Well, I have this rooster over here...I just have no use for him. He is mean to my hens, mean to me, but he is so pretty."

In reply he says,

"Okay, I will be back later then, how much?"

I say,

"I don't know, how much do you usually pay?"

He doesnt know.

I am thinking if I was selling him for breeding he would be ten dollars. So, I guess ten dollars. I dont know.

BUT...I have never ever sold a chicken to EAT.

Should I sell him? I mean, I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach...I think it is sympathy for Alan, even though he probably doesnt deserve it.

Should I do it?

Should I sell him?

It would free up a pen. I have tried to reform him, but he will not behave. I have tried holding him and petting him. He just won't have it.

I know it is the practical thing to do. I know it is. But my gut is churning and I feel sick. Should I? Somebody please tell me it is okay to do this, or that it isnt okay to do this...something. :(

I have had him for two years now, what to do, what to do.