The Chickendad Chronicles - Page 20

Love in the Afternoon

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Chickendads. With all the new babies living there, the Chickendads decided to set up some new and bigger brooder pens for the older babies so they could run and play. This necessitated moving the small ameraucana coop out of the garage and onto the green grass which the ameraucanas greeted with much joy and wing flapping. The Chickendads swept up all the wood shavings in the garage and used the leaf blower to get into all the nooks and crannies. Mrs. Chickendad is convinced that the leaf blower is one of the greatest inventions since the automatic dishwasher, although it does nothing to improve her hairstyle.

The babies moved into their larger pens and when last observed were happily digging and flopping in the clean shavings. 

Meanwhile, it was time for Chickie Lou to go on her honeymoon. After careful observation, Mrs. Chickendad selected Captain (“Cappy”) as Chickie Lou’s husband. Leroy was not particularly happy about the selection, figuring seniority should have taken precedence, so he spent a fair amount of time challenging Cappy through the fence and keeping him distracted from his husbandly duties. Chickie Lou went and hid out in the little dogloo shelter until the silly boys settled their differences. Cappy didn’t even notice she was there until Leroy went off to harass someone else.

When it came time for lockup, Chickie Lou and Cappy went in the dogloo. Mrs. Chickendad opened the pen and called for them and they came running to her like puppies. She scooped them up and put them in an inside pen where they would be warm and safe. She didn’t want anything awful to happen to them on their honeymoon!

Baby Barbara and the Broodies

Baby Barbara has graduated to the “TV Brooder”, which is a large wooden box with a window in it so the babies can see out. She has learned how to eat and drink, so it was time for more room to run and play. She is learning now how to arrange her feathers into beautiful stripes that complement her curvaceous figure. She will have many more stripes than her namesake, so there is much to learn about feather arrangement. She still has a lot of chick fuzz because beautiful feathers take their time, so she is rapidly approaching the “gawkward” stage, but no one dare say it in earshot of Barbara.

Elsewhere at the Chickendad’s, it is Broody City. Eight of the Little Cochin Girls have gone broody. Some are sitting on eggs, some are just sitting on their own feet and muttering. This is especially difficult for the Little Cochin Boys who are penned with them, as the girls are not wanting anything to do with them. All the dancing and singing they do cannot seem to break the broody spell. The Little Girls are not very interesting “dates”.

Three of the Little Rock girls are also broody. The first one, Broody Trudy, is in the broody house with her four babies and an egg. The egg seems reluctant to wake up, although Mrs. Chickendad hears a chick inside. The little babies are having fun climbing all over their mama and poking their heads out from under her. Mama Trudy appears to be gritting her teeth waiting for that last baby to get with the program.

Mrs. Chickendad went to check on the other broody Rock Girls last week and two of them were insisting on using the same nest box. Mrs. Chickendad stuck her hand under them and pulled out 29 eggs that the two little girls were trying to cover. She put the eggs on a feed bag on the ground (she was on her hands and knees due to a poorly designed coop) and was fishing for the last ones when her arm gave way and she lost her balance. It was a choice of a face plant in 29 eggs or into the mud. Mrs. Chickendad chose the mud, possibly saving many little chicken lives. She did manage to wonky up her glasses, bang up her face and get another slight black eye. Mrs. Chickendad has come to the conclusion that coordination does not improve with age.

Update: Broody Trudy is now mama to 5 babies. She said no to a little birchen cochin (maybe because he was peeping constantly and got on her nerves) who was the last in his hatch. Mrs. Chickendad thought she'd pull a fast one on Trudy, but Trudy didn't think so. After sitting on those eggs all that time, she is way past annoyed. Here is a photo of her and three of her children. The other two would not cooperate—just like their mother!