I Built A Bridge!

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

Well, I have a confession to make .. I cried this morning! Tears of joy while I danced around the back garden (luckily the neighbours were probably sleeping)…. Cilla’s crop completely emptied overnight! I know I am silly but I am so happy!!

While her crop had not been quite so pendulous over the last couple of mornings it had still not emptied completely. I wonder if the complete emptying was a result of the sardines in oil she had for afternoon tea. This was suggested by a breeder on the Aussie Thread … PS. They all loved them

So, of the dramas we have had of late, I think I can cross Infestation off the list and now I can also cross off Sour/Impacted Crop (of course I will still be keeping a very close eye on her). Now I just have to cross Broodzilla off the list!

Blondie is full on Broodzilla .. screaming like a Banshee and ripping my garden gloves to shreds; no bare hands with this raptor! She is currently locked up in broody jail and still trying to remove my toes through the wire.

Last night was funny. Blondie was locked out of the coop and the nest boxes had been removed. At dusk, just after everyone else had gone to bed, I popped her on the roost which was a little tricky as she had a bull terrier lock on my gloves and was twisting them. She jumped off the roost and went and parked herself on the floor where the nest boxes should be. Popped her back on the roost and she promptly returned to the nest-box-less floor; this continued until 08:00pm. We are talking full on dark now and she is still jumping down and making her way to the corner.

This is when I had an idea .. the coop is about 30cms off the ground and the floor under the nest boxes is easily removed in two sections while leaving the rest of the coop floor intact; which is precisely what I did! Popped Blondie on the roost, she jumped down, walked to the where the nest boxes floor should be and landed in the run

OK, I could not see her face but I am pretty sure I heard her mutter “what the H!”.

So, I picked her up, popped her back on the roost and she jumped down, walked to the same spot and once again, dropped into the run. She did this three more times before she worked out that, just maybe, mum is smarter than a determined broody!

After I was sure she was staying put, I popped the floor and nest boxes back in. Of course, she was sitting in the nest box when I went out this morning and greeted me with a scream. She is now locked in Broody jail with no access to nest boxes or innocent bystanders

Dear Santa .. can I please have a new pair of garden gloves for Christmas. PS. I hate to be picky, but they probably need to be reinforced

 

[Pooman]

Awesome news about the sour crop. Sardines eh

 

[MistyMountain]

Hi all! Me again. Time for my Bi-monthly check in!! I promise… January and I will be able to catch up!

Teila, Wow, those do sound like some serious itchy ickies! I am glad you were able to get rid of them. I have not had to battle (knock on wood) any creepy crawlies yet. (knock on wood) Random nightly checks so far have been clean. I don't know what I would do! I am so happy you got Cilla straightened out! I worry each time I see the girls gobble up long pieces of grass. Listing "sardines" for my first aid kit!!

IC and TG, yay for babies! Love it!!

Liz, Super happy everything worked out well for all your boys, and especially Frankie! Sounds like he's landed in a good place!

Not much going on over here. Family arrives tomorrow for Christmas, and we will have around 28+ people here Christmas day. I hope the weather is either super nice or we get a ton of snow before then so the kids can go outside and play.

I'm up to about 11 eggs a day now, which is good because I usually send a dozen home per family when we have get-togethers. I've been free ranging, but DH has been outside a lot burning down some stumps. It will have been one year on Christmas day that I had my first ever predator loss. I'm still not sure if I am going to keep them penned up that day or not...

I suppose… I have a ton of Christmas cookies to make and a bathroom to clean. Better get to it. I leave you all with a pic of a rock I painted as a Christmas gift. This is a family member's dog that had passed away a few years ago. He was pretty special. It was the first time picking up a paintbrush in a looooooong time for me. I am happy with how it turned out. If I don't make it back before the 25th, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!

 

[Teila]

Hey there everyone .. just popped in to wish you all a Merry Christmas and I hope it is all you want it to be and more

MM good to hear from you and know that all is well. I love the painting; beautiful!

Cilla is back to normal. Yep, Sardines in oil seem to have done the trick.

Started at 07:30am (6 hours later + a couple of hours last night pipping Cherries) Strawberry Trifle, Cherry Pie and Pumpkin Pie:

 

[tommysgirl]

Merry Christmas Eve all! Quick question for @Teila Two of my babies are growing in wing feathers that look sort of tubish till they get to the end. Lik the sides are curled together until the tip. The other three have flat feathers? They are 3/4 silkie do you thing those 3 will not have silkie feathering? ARe the tubie feathers future sizzles?


They are sure cute but rain is expected today so I haven't let them out of the coop. The run is partially covered but I worry. They are 1.5 weeks old and expecting friends to hatch day after tomorrow.

 

[Teila]

Good morning everyone

I guess for some of you, it is still Christmas afternoon/evening while we have progressed onto Boxing Day.

TG Hhhm, without pictures, that is a tricky question. If it helps, here are some pics of Gloria and Spot. As you know, Gloria frizzled and Spot was silkie. If you magnify, you may get some assistance from these as taken for feathering purposes:

7 Days Old:



9 Days Old:











13 Days Old:









Wow, that was a hard album to visit; I miss those little guys and Tina. On a brighter note; for Christmas the girls got a vol-au-vent each filled with yogurt and topped with meal worms:



While I was hoping to snap a picture of each of them at their pressie, in the true tradition of “I will have what she is having”:



Dusty, being the greedy gal in the flock, was smart enough to take her’s over to the lawn:



But then her party got crashed:



So she took action .. “mine I tell you! Mine! Mine! Mine!”:

 

[lizgarf]

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Those are some awesome pics, Teila! What a lovely treat they got, even if they didn't get the concept of the individual gift.
My chickens got the usual, but there was no rain for a change, so I think they were happy about that.

MM,I hope your huge family gathering went smoothly and harmoniously! That sounds like a lot of work, but maybe a lot of joy too. I hope so!

Cathartic confession time:
For a long time now, Christmas has been hard for me. I grew up celebrating Christmas with my mom's family and Hanukkah with my dad's. I lost my mom when I was 26, and then one by one, that whole side of the family either moved across the globe or passed on. It's just me and one brother left, and he has his own family's extended family he spends the day with, and anyway, is kind of oblivious. So, for a long time now, I'd stress about the holiday and whether I'd be able to share it with friends or be left alone, and feel guilty about not having my own human family to celebrate with. Once I'd find a gathering, I might stress about whatever I was going to bring to share and usually not have that much fun in the end.
Well this year, I was so busy with work, and knew I'd need to keep working through the holiday, that I didn't even think about planning. When I filed an 87-page brief yesterday, I was too tired to try to find a party last-minute or even bake something just for myself. But, I remembered I had the ingredients for Tiramisu on-hand, and I tell you, between the fresh eggs and my home-roasted coffee, I couldn't have asked for a better or easier treat! And then today, having responded to a friend's last-minute call for help with her dog, who is a good friend of Reggie's, I picked him up and took them both to the park and then later to another friend (he's a cat-chaser, so can't stay here more than a day), and that definitely made Reggie's Christmas. And I also heard from some good friends, far away . . .
So, the point of all of this is that for the first time, I finally feel not pathetic for not having a family to share the holiday with, and instead feel grateful for the animal-family and human friends I do have all over the world and for the gift of being able to really appreciate a beautiful day on our own without trying to make myself fit into someone else's idea of Christmas.

So, merry Christmas to each of you and your families, human and aviary and everyone else! Thank you for being part of my extended family of friends across the globe!

 

[Teila]

Howdy Bridge Club

Beautiful pics Liz

If it helps, I totally understand what you are saying with regards Christmas. Don’t feel guilty! I know I have Joel and Vincent to spend Christmas with but I would not stress if Christmas was just me. For 10 years it was just Vincent and I. Yep, I got lots of invitations to spend Christmas with someone else’s family but I passed. As you know, my family is dysfunctional but I spoke to my two sisters on the phone. At the risk of being brutally honest though, it was more of a “ah well, better get the Christmas phone call over and done with so I can enjoy the rest of my day”. Cold? Maybe! For those of us who have a family which makes Christmas special, that’s great but for those of us who do not, there should be no guilt and you summed it up beautifully in that no one should need to justify their Christmas or try and fit into someone else’s idea of Christmas.

It sounds like you had a great day and we did also.

We have rain today. The rain, while nice, has me cooped up inside and unable to be outside with the gals.

Still reeling from my recent mite infestation, rather than enjoy the rain, I am fretting. Blondie is still broody and as I cannot lock her in broody jail in this weather, she is camped on the nest box … I know it is irrational but I have this need to race out and spray the coop! I wonder if I will ever get over the paranoia!

She is proving very difficult to break. Even in broody jail she still flattens down to pancake size. When they are out free ranging, I ensure she gets to go also. I tried taking away or blocking off the nest boxes and she just pancakes on the coop floor. I shut the coop and run down so no-one can get in and she just runs round and over trying to find a way in; that is pretty much all she did all day yesterday. Having her on the nest today is not going to help

I can already hear the enablers saying “give in” and I am close and have room for a couple of gals but the thought of trying to rehome more roosters keeps slapping me back to reality

 

[Teila]

Howdy Bridge Club

So my plan was to get the garden done yesterday and the housework done today so that I have a nice garden and clean house ready for the New Year and also so that I can relax, mooch around and enjoy the last few days of my holiday.

Sadly, the weather has not been the best for gardening but I took a determined pill and braved the 34C (93F), extremely humid day and mowed etc. My feeling of accomplishment was topped off with a sunburn

Yeah, the paths needs sweeping but as we all know, not much point in doing that until after the featheries have turned in for the night. Note my little helpers scattered around the place?







I planted this grass down the side of the cat play house while the gals were not looking but they found it!

This one pretty much sums it up, no explanation required

"You can take the nest out of the nest box but you cannot take the broody out of the chicken!!"



Cranky, broody, nest-less chicken gives evil eye!!



HAPPY NEW YEAR Everyone!

 

[ItalyChickie]

Hi team! I really don't know where the past 10 days went... how can it be New Year's eve already??? but since it is, had to stop by and wish everyone a very happy 2015!!!
I barely skimmed the posts, but gorgeous pics Teila and Liz! Such happy dogs and chickens (except for the wannabe broody... lol!)
The usual news over here - crazy busy, as in addition to the feast preps, I have to deal with the sudden winter temps, which we usually don't really get... so frozen water + cracked waterers + chickens sprinkled with snow + very strong winds knocking down anything not nailed down, including small trees= a thousand more things to do... we are just not prepared for freezing temps! I better get back to that and the cooking now.

Talk soon and happy celebrations!

eta: it refuses to load my snowy view pic, so never mind... next time!