A Day With My Flock

[Hannahs Hollow]

The media and other sources out there have always told us never to put anything about ourselves out there on the Internet. So I am going to live vicariously here through my Flock! That and my friends are tired of hearing about chickens

Today, I am Giselle. I am a Light Sussex and there is nothing light about me but my feathers. I weigh in at about 7lbs. I am the head of the coop and always get first pickins. My mom speaks French to me. I am not sure why but I understand her when she calls me her petite jolie poulet.


This is me and Matilda.

My best friend is Matilda who is only a slight size smaller them my regal self. We share most things and point out the good food only to each other.

Mom raised all of us from 1 day old in the house for the first 10 weeks. She'd spend hours with us as she worked on her lap top and we would sleep, poop, play and eat in the brooder she made. Sometimes Matilda, who use to be called Peepshow, and I would hop up on the box edge and stare at her. Matilda told stories to her about how I was the one getting out of the box and pooping on the floor but it was really her!


Soon the man who has his own names for us, Stir fry, Crock pot, Stew.... , built us our own house. Mom would rearrange it constantly with our growing needs. They built it to house 6 chickens "Queen's". Anyway I don't know how they figured a house 6x9 with a 6 ft ceiling would be anywhere near big enough for the 6 of us. I tried to tell them that they didn't take into account the spaces needed for Miss Broody aka That Growling Monster in the corner sitting on her rump half her life or the waterer and feeder.


Mom started out with cute wicker baskets on the floor with a checkered red and white privacy curtain. A roost she was quite proud of building herself until we all got on it and the X legs on either end collapsed. I think she might have wanted to put in lace curtains over the window and pictures of each of us on the walls. The man told her he should have added on more room for her to sleep since she was always out here with us!

Anyway, my life is good. I have a best friend, I have the best food, fresh water and my own slave to meet all my needs. A warm home, a garden for bugs and a green house to go in for rainy days and great sand baths. What more could a hen need?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

LOL. I know I post more on BYC than on Facebook! Unlike your other human friends, we, the members of BYC will not tire of reading about your chickens.

Giselle est tres jolie. She is a lucky hen.

By the way, I have a rooster named Pierre who has a comb that reminds me of a French beret. I call him Mon Petit chou chou.

 

[TwoCrows]

I know the feeling! No one will talk chicken with me around this place, so I have to come to BYC to get it out of my system!!

Very nice flock!!

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

Today, I am Matilda. I am a gorgeous Barred Rock hen. I love to sit on Mom's lap for cuddles and to warm my toes. Mom doesn't seem to mind poop and mud on her clothes.

This is a baby pic of me. There are many pics of me sitting on mom's lap or shoe. All she has to say is "com'on Matilda" in her silly voice that I love, and pat her lap. I come running! Then she sings, "Waltzing Matilda" to me. Mom can't sing.....

This is me and my brother. He doesn't live with us anymore because he was a killer attack rooster! Mom says he went to live on a big farm with his own harem. I like to believe her.



This is me now! I weigh about 6.5lbs

I lay an egg almost everyday and for my size mom shakes her head and says they should be bigger. I am a pretty easy going hen and have the ability of telepathy. I can get mom to open the doors in the green house to go into the garden and anything else I want. Giselle and I are good at watching the skies for bad flying things and telling everyone about it!

Here is the green house we get to go into.


Of course it doesn't look so pretty now after a long season with chickens in and out and now we are outta ants, bugs and worms. It's warmer and drier then the outside was when it snowed. We don't like the snow.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Yesterday, Mom closed the green house to us as the two younger chicks, Josie and Sophie were in there. Giselle took a long run and swept up and over the fence (She looked so graceful!) and declared freedom for all! All we had to do was follow her.... Mom found out and came running. Giselle admitted defeat and crouched down so mom could pick her up and toss her back in with us! She said it was fun while it lasted and is currently planning another jail break.

Last week mom brought us 30 wheel barrow loads of one time used soil with remnants of herbs from the organic herb farm here on the island. She filled everything up in the green house, the garden and the coop area. It was like laying down turf. Took care of a lot of puddles and the stuff is still growing for good eats for us!

We love salad and miss her bringing it home every night from work. Now mom is worried that the stuff she put in the green house along with some straw, someone may have tracked in, and feed seed might just grow and she will have to remove all and start over. Or she has to close up the green house and cover everything to cook and compost but then where will we go???? Maybe next time I'll go with Giselle and live on the wild side in the horse field until scooped up by mom. Mom is going to have to put that netting back up that she had until the snow came and took it down.

Mom has a lot of things to do around here and now Harmony is going to make things tougher on all of us as she has 4 eggs about to hatch. I heard the man is suppose to add on a wing to the coop just for Harmony and her ever lovin broodiness! I want my and Giselle's own roost while he is at it!

So my life is good. My mom loves me, my best friend came back alive from her over the fence adventure, I'm not going bald like Ruby and those chicks are quieter lately! Life of a hen is the life for me!

 

[Quack House]

I love your chicken stories Here's me and Lindsay. She had a butt bath the other day and sat with me by the fire to dry off telling me stories.

"You don't say, Linsday?!"

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

Sweet! They do love to chat don't they!

 

[TwoCrows]

Very cute stories of your babies! They are adorable.

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

Today, I am Bo. I am a Brahma/Icelandic. I am very fluffy and pretty but I only weigh in at 4lbs something. I lay the biggest eggs Mom has ever seen! Mom cringes at the thought. My color is grey or silver and my feathers are each edged with black. My head is black too.


They called me Little Bo Beep to start with because I use to be so quiet until I wanted in somewhere. Then I would Beep Beep Beep my way in like a semi backing up. I didn’t and still don’t care who’s space I invade!

Today we had some excitement around the homestead. Giselle made her second jail break gracefully hopping over the garden fence and into the back yard. That darn JRT Hannah

was on the way in the house with Mom and the eggs until she heard wings flapping. Mom tried to change her mind about going for a free fun filled meal to find out that Hannah’s recall really needs some serious work. Not that you can stop a Jack in full chase mode…. Mom doesn’t cut our feathers for just this reason. It gives us a fighting chance but after 4 flights and much running Hannah caught her prize and mom had wet her pants running for all she was worth to save Giselle! Mom managed to catch the dog just as she was going for the neck to shake death into Giselle.

Feathers have to be a girl’s best friend! Hannah had so many fluff feathers from Giselle’s rump that she was getting poked and choking and could not close her mouth. Mom, we and Giselle are so relieved. Giselle still plans future prison breaks the silly chick!

So, this afternoon after mom changed her pants, calmed the neighbor down and got the dog back in the house, she checked Giselle over and she was fine. Then she reinstalled the netting over our coop area. Now the garden and green house are off limits for us until next fall. She gave us the extra room so that we would not need to escape but that is over now. And IT’S ALL GISELLE’S FAULT!

After all that, Mom found the 4 eggs she bought yesterday ($15) for that lazy Harmony to continue to brood over, in the middle of the coop floor! She thinks I stole them as I have a habit of going broody too. One egg was cracked…. I didn’t do that! Harmony was still on the nest so mom brought in yet another wire dog crate and set her up in her own place. She has stayed on those eggs all day and mom hopes they weren’t out in the cold to long.

So now the 2 littles are not caged and I feel I must attack the bigger one. She was Harmony’s last chick and is 11 weeks old. I don’t feel like attacking the younger 7 week old Sophie maybe because until a month ago she was my baby???? Mom says I gave up parenting. I was telling her we needed more space! Mom is still learning about us hens.

And now after having given us room so we had personal space, mom is worried about going back to just the coop and run. The little ones are in the coop where Harmony is also in her crate, after a day of us chasing them about. We have to stay outside until after dark when Mom will put us on our roosts. Mom will pray tonight that the man will open booth the chickie door and the mom door in the morning before sunrise and we will not kill Josie and Sophie before she gets out of bed.

So back to me! My closest relative is Harmony.

She and I came from the same breeder at the same time as mom got the rest of the flock. We are very nonchalant. But I will let Harmony tell you about our Heritage as she knows it better. Mom claims now that she should have called me Broom Hilda (sp) as I am intent on making Josie’s life a living hell. I am a nonstop complainer and I am loud about it! I have no attachments and my only need is warmth at night. Oh, and right now I am trying to talk mom into getting us a rooster! I really need one for some reason…. Mom thinks I am about to go broody again.

Despite the hell that is my life, (I should have been an only chicken) I am happy to see Mom with food, have the others to cuddle with at night and the fact that it is not I getting chased by THAT dog!

 

[b.hromada]

Such cute stories!

You don't love your girls, now do you?

Aren't chickens the best? Enjoy!!

 

[Chic_girl]

Oh man, these are adorable!
Chickens!!!