Chicken Idiocies, continued...

2.27.13

It continues.... goofy chicken things around our farm. Now, my husband didn't WANT me to get chickens in the first place. ( see former blog entries) But I did any how- and figured out a good way for the Girls to support themselves. Being a Chicken Sponsor will get a person two dozen "Farm Fresh, Cage Free brown chicken eggs".  For a small fee of just $6.00 / month ! These girls are More than supporting themselves by now. My guess is that we can handle 6 Chicken Sponsors- and all of the slots are now filled. A Win- Win situation- I don't have to be concerned with getting rid of eggs, nor using a 'Kabungle' of eggs daily, so they won't be wasted, and friends get to enjoy wonderful Fresh brown eggs each month.  ( yes, that is a new word for eggs.... a kabungle of them !

The young hens I got last summer are now laying. Small, dainty brown eggs- of all shades... from a deep deep brown, to a lavender tinted brown egg, all the way to the very soft light brown. By now, I'm getting an average of 4-6 eggs daily just from those girls, and some of them who are a little slower to mature have not even started yet. Then the good ol' gals who are year olds by now, are getting back into steady laying too.

I've not come up with names for ALL of the young hens. Slowly but surely they will all have names.

This evening, some of the working students were here helping out with feeding and turnouts. One of them walked up to the hens' house outside in an attempt to call those hens for dinner, and they would be locked in , safe and sound. She had gathered the eggs in there from today, and felt something smack into the back of her leg. For those who "know" chickens most likely guessed it was a rooster. Sure enough, Rooster Cogburn- our Lavender Orpington Rooster- had decided that she was no hen of his and needed to remove herself from the hens' house. What I tell everyone who comes here is that Rooster Cogburn is NOT allowed to jump at humans- Everrrrrrr. Usually it takes a person acting nasty and scary- and he gives up his bluff. Lately, however, he doesn't bluff- but attacks. He's a BIG rooster too, and eventually will do some damage, should he be allowed to continue .  Anyway, what one is to do is to 'egg' ( pardon the pun) him on enough so they can reach down, and pick his bossy self up. Then, carry him around for a while- it WORKS !  This is the first rooster I've tried it with and it does work fine. Providing one can Catch the beast.

So, here's my working student- who is Already in a very bad mood because she's getting sick again- being picked on by R.C. Bad choice of humans to try to boss around. She shoved him with her foot, and he came back, then she stomped her feet at him, and he turned to run out of the hens' house. Right then, she reached down, and grabbed his fancy tail feathers, scooping him up into her arms. Well !  RC was confused as to what had just happened, and being a little befuddled, just sort of sat there. No struggles, just " What the Heck ???" 

See ? She's got an armful of Rooster Cogburn !

Even from the back, he's still confused. I sure hope he learns who he better not jump at from behind fast. Can't you just see the hens laughing and pointing at Mr Macho ? 

I need to mention also about this gal. One time, we had a bunch of new Working Students, and this gal just about knows how to run the barn by herself. She is THAT good. That morning a few weeks ago, I told the new-bees that if I wasn't around, that they could ask Shanna about anything because she knew it all about WoodFinn.

Well- I have never lived that down and the teasing continues towards me. Its alright- I didn't mean it as Shanna was a 'know it all' but simply someone to ask if one was confused.

 A few days ago, I met another chicken person ! Her name is Harley, and she's , ohhhhhhhhhhh, around 7-8 years old. Cute as can be with curly brown hair and a sweet smile.  Harley loves chickens. Its' not the horses nor the goats, but my hens. There was an egg in one of the nests and while visiting with The Girls and Harley saw it. I picked it up and asked her if she would like to have it. Oh my- she did ! As they were all getting ready to leave, she found Two More under the mounting block, so she got to take those home as well. I hope she realizes that these eggs are for making scrambled eggs for breakfast, and that they will not become baby chickens !

My husband is getting better each day that passes. NOW he is joking with folks, telling them that because the doctors and nurses refer to his scar as a 'zipper' that he wants to have a small zipper tab tattooed on the bottom of it.

And so it goes at the farm.......

Chicken Things

2.10.13

Tomorrow is Glenn's birthday. He's still recovering from his surgery and while we have been accumulating a TON of hospital bills, I think I'm still going to surprise him with a nice birthday dinner here instead of dragging him out somewhere....  Stay tuned !

Today, a good friend n' I were outside at the barn discussing her photography class she's been taking. She is doing SO well in learning more about her camera and how to use it other than hitting the 'automatic' button and snapping away. She's learning about apertures and different settings and I'm learning a lot just listening to what she says.

ALL of the chickens were outside today, enjoying the warmer weather ( A whopping 38 degrees !). They were busily scratching about the manure mountain and taking dirt baths due to the earth being a little bit softer. What a grand life hens here have! Just about all they need to do is stay up at the barn and not get run over by cars or trucks that travel the little road near our house. ( interesting sentence, that)  The pullets do come down to check out our house,but they're learning to mostly remain at the barn , thank goodness.

So- here are some of the shots I took of The Girls, plus one endearing shot of our POA, Holly. She was sound asleep in the warm sun.

Uhohhhhhhhhhhhh

2.15.2013

Yes, I have been thinking ..... while I'm doing menial labor at the barn like cleaning stalls, I was pondering about 'the wanna-be horse people.' Wanna-be horse people meaning those who say "I love horses" and really have no clue about what it is like to actually be owned by a horse. They wanna-be around other horse people, chat with them about horses or their views on training, horse care or the millions of things true horse folks chat about. BUT....Not many true horse people want to take the time to sit and discuss things with the wanna-be's .....

I find that a little sad.

At horse shows, on a drive, or where ever we may be with our horses, chatting with different people is fun. For both of us. We enjoy showing off our horses, and learning what these people have experienced or answer their questions. ( no matter How many times I've already answered the same one.)   To me, I find it interesting to hopefully teach a 'wanna-be' about horses or the vehicles we are using, or Anything horse oriented. There are subjects I shy away from, but generally, if asked, I'll give them an answer.

So- why is it that someone dying to meet a horse, or a horse person, that these new folks

 do not feel welcome to ask questions, or talk horses ?

Might it be that we 'pros' get so busy we haven't got the time to talk horses to someone who 'might ask dumb questions' ? Or is it because we simply have no patience with them ? Perhaps because we see ourselves so much more educated , wise, experienced or what ever that we can not sit and discuss things with these beginners ?  Answers to those questions need to come from within us.

Personally ?  Sometimes when showing, I Am to busy to stop what I'm doing and chat. That's when I ask the person to please excuse me - and to come back after I'm done showing my horse. I try to never ignore or snub possible new horse people-or those who have loved horses all their lives, and never have had a chance to be Around them ?  To me, I remember how I, too, was once a newbie to the world of horses. I remember how I felt when ignored after seeing a group of true horse people... I might have been just a mere child, but I remember.

I can only speak for myself, but after having dealt with horses and humans all of my life, I shall Always have time to help another learn more about these wonderful equines that bless my life.

The "Small Snow Storm"

2/9/13

It seems that we were supposed to get some snow yesterday, into this morning. It seems that we didn't !  Turns out all we got was about 30 minutes of a very heavy, wet snow and then ? It simply stopped. Mist, a little bit of ice in some areas is all we ended up with.

Now, up in New England life is Much different. Those folks got dumped on by Mother Nature.... a friend in Vermont told me it was still snowing with a good two feet of it already this morning. Some areas will see up to three feet . I am sooooooooooooooooo glad we were not in this storms' direct path.

Today is the first time in a long while that we have been at freezing. All last week it was terribly cold and the winds made it harder to move about. You know it's cold when the draft horses would rather just stay in the barn....

Here's a photo or two I took from our "big snow " : 

 this is our lane....

and our ring - after it stopped snowing.

Alli waiting for me to come let her inside the barn.

Ahhh, eraser brains !

2.2.13- "ground hog day"  Phil didn't see his shadow, so according to fable, we'll have an early spring. 

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As you probably know by now , I have chickens.

 I am not obsessed with having chickens, but from "chicken watching" I sure as heck have learned a Lot about them. ( 'Chicken Watching' being when I take a break or am doing things outside the barn )

Ok- so I have chickens..... one in particular is a pretty neat hen. That would be Lilly, one of my Lavender Orpington hens. Lilly almost died when she was just a baby, so she lived for a Long time in the tack room, with a heat lamp and in a box. I fed her by hand for quite a while, making sure she DID live and had enough food. She began sitting up, then walking and now, is a year old, and laying delicious "lavender" shaded eggs. ( All of the free range eggs are SO much better than those washed out ones purchased at a grocery store.)  Lilly seems to believe that she is not REALLY a chicken, but a really short person. She finds what we do in the barn fascinating, following along with us as we mix feed, sweep, clean stalls and all the items associated with a horse farm... She will fly up Into our wheelbarrows, pecking thru the manure and misc. things in there as we clean stalls. Sometimes if we're really careful when we move from stall to stall, Lilly gets to go for a wheelbarrow ride.

Lately the weather has been Very cold - making chickens search out 'warm' places. They enjoy roosting in the hay, sitting in it, and scratching about in the 'manure mountain' during the day. At night- everyone heads to their chosen spot to sleep.

Lilly, however, figures she has the run of the whole barn and sometimes wants to be in with the young hens or is happy to be in a stall. One day this week, I filled the goat's hay bag ( it is one of those nylon ones with a top to add hay and a hole at the bottom for them to pull hay out- little waste that way & much safer for goatie girls) full of fresh hay for them to nibble on during the day. Forgetting about where Lilly was, I walked up the aisle to get another empty stall cleaned . All of a sudden, I heard this god-awful squawking ! I jogged down the barn to where the big ruckus was and looked into the goats' stall.  Lilly had decided that SHE was going to sit in the haybag on that wonderful cozy new hay. The only trouble was that she is a Big hen, and the hay bag ?   Yeah- little.
 MUCH smaller than Lilly's big ol grey behind...  So she was stuck, with her feathered behind hanging out of the hay bag and her face peeking out the other side of it.  All I could do was laugh at her !  She was Most embarrassed, and once she saw I'd come to 'rescue' her, her squawking died down to pathetic clucks directed towards me.

I helped her get free from the hay bag which surely was going to eat her, and after ruffling her beautiful feathers back into place, wandered off down the barn aisle once more.  I have discovered that chickens
 "cuss"; not so WE hear them, but to themselves .....  after they are safe.