Arizona Chickens

This was the excitement at my house when I was supervising the girls. More pictures to show you all. This hawk decided to land on our outdoor BBQ counter. Hubby scared it off. The girls sounded the alarm before hubby saw it. The girls closest to the patio ran in their run and under their cover. Everyone else was out by the silkie coop and I locked whoever was there. LF girls and silkies.

Here is what I took.


on neighbor's roof


roof again


tree branch above the main coop


if you look straight up (12:00) from the roof peak, you can see the hawk on the black branch. Pretty close to the girls for sure.


on the black branch


flying from the neighbor's roof to the silkie coop. I got close and it flew away... for now.
 
Wow! Those are amazing photos! I just got chicks about 10 days ago (they are between 3-4 weeks now). But I've seen those big hawks sitting on our block wall before (even without chickens in the yard). Very neat, thanks for sharing. And glad all your girls are ok.
 
Wow! Those are amazing photos! I just got chicks about 10 days ago (they are between 3-4 weeks now). But I've seen those big hawks sitting on our block wall before (even without chickens in the yard). Very neat, thanks for sharing. And glad all your girls are ok.
Thank you. It was looking over my crew closely. I have silkies and they are the right size for the catching. We also have pigeons that hang out in the neighbor's tree and it can usually get one for dinner. I make sure to supervise as you never know what lurks in the sky.

Congrats on your chicks. They are fun and very addicting!
 
Well, this is the end of a very long, stressful day. It all started out ok when I let the girls out to forage at about 0800 Hours. They are all getting along quite well despite being introduced at different times and having four new members this weekend. We ended up with one egg this morning, but that isn't terribly unusual at the moment. We only have two laying hens so far and the third wouldn't be laying for a few days since the move. In the meantime, I had to take my wife's truck in for the technician to figure out why her alarm was acting all wonky. Shortly after we dropped it off, she called me saying she was locked out of my truck and the remote wouldn't work. After failing to bypass it with the technician's instructions, I had to drive all the way to the other side of two to try and fix it. Two hours later, we were up and running. Between the two stupid alarms, it wasted half my day.

I got home eventually, to stumble across a stray egg from Batman, the new Birchen Maran, that had been laid on the opposite end of the coop from the nesting boxes. I relocated it hoping she would realize where to lay next time. After doing some yardwork, I went back out only to find that egg had been broken and taken out to the middle of the yard. When I picked it up, it had an extremely soft, thin shell. That doesn't surprise or concern me considering the stress of moving to a new coop, having new flock mates, changing food and dealing with pecking order issues. I wasn't expecting an egg for four days or more, so not big deal. And then my chickens throw me curve-ball number two. Christine, the larger of my two Barred Rocks, stayed in the nesting box for over an hour before I started researching how soon they can go broody. While this is going on, she keeps making a better nest and making sure the "eggs" or golf balls are tucked nicely under her. As it turns out, there are ample stories of various breeds going broody at her age. She's about 25 weeks right now, but that introduces new problems of isolating her to a new temporary coop and getting some fertile eggs from Trader Joe's. I decided to add some more straw to her nesting box, though, because she burrowed down to the flooring. As soon as I disturbed her, she up and left the coop, leaving behind a nice little egg. Apparently, she wasn't broody. Is this a sign of her going that way though?




After some more yardwork and errands, I finally went out and just sat on the back porch. My youngest and eldest daughter were playing in the yard and we invited two of our neighbors' kids over. I was watching two of my Mom's foster kids, too, so we had six little ones playing in the backyard. Well, my Baby Kaylee was foraging while the others played. See the photos below... The chickens seemed completely unfazed by the kids running around and the balls whizzing by, which is a huge blessing! There were moments of flight, of course, but nobody ended up cowering in the corner under the coop or anything. The weather was great and I had my latest purchase, a pottery water fountain, running in the background. That was an excellent end to the day.

But enough gossip. On the photos. I've added some captions to make it more interesting...

What do you mean that wasn't chocolate candy, Daddy?



Well, then I'm gonna smear the chicken poop all over you, too!!!



"We're hear at the Lazy D's Chicken Festival today. Coming
around the corner to take the lead is Baby Kaylee. It's her
first year in the competition, but she's a fierce talent.."




Well come on, girls! I can't make this look too easy. Yeah,
yeah, slow and steady and all that... But really, do you have
to stop and peck at every grain of sand there is? We are in
a desert, you know...




Why are you interrupting my tanning, man? No, I don't need
a hair cut, even if the mullet did go out of style like, fifty years
ago...




Look Sleepy, the red hat looks great on you, but I think you're
butt is just too big for the purple dress. No, you don't have to
be a model to be in the Red Hat Society, but have you looked
in the mirror lately? Yeesh, it's like you're keeping a carton of
eggs in there.




Follow the leader, the leader, the leader... Follow the leader,
to where ever he may go...




Chick 01: Ring around the rosey, pockets full of...
Chick 02: No, no, no. That's the wrong game...
Chick 03: It's Duck, Duck, Goose!!!




I'm the wrong color for this desert. Gotta find some camouflage...



"You no see no chicken... It is a mirage. The heat, it's
gettin' to ya', man..."



Where there's a slide, there's the need for a BOBSLED!!!
"More power, AR AR AR!!!" - Tim Taylor




Night everyone! Pressure canning my spaghetti sauce just finished and the foster boys just left for home. A shower and the bed is calling my name!
 
Does anyone have a problem with their dogs eating the chicken feed? I was buying the dogs gluten free food because one of them has allergys. That doesn't do much good when they are eating chicken feed at every opportunity. I'm open to suggestions!

I thought our dog was the only wacko. She is in the chicken tractor every chance she gets
eating the chicken crumble.
 
goodpost.gif
What a great day, all in all.


Oops someone beat me to my post - this is for Demosthine!
 
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