California - Northern

[Happy Chooks]

Flies have been horrible this year. Never have I had so many flies. I need to get some fly traps, but I need to make sure they don't attract my honey bees.

 

[Nikon]

good job scooping her up! and this necessitates that i tell the story of my sister's pet chicken:

as backstory, you must understand that my dad is a biologist who does field work every summer at a field station high in the Rocky Mountains -- my parents actually met there -- and we spent all of my childhood summers there. the lab is at about 9,500 feet in elevation, just on the western side of the Continental Divide -- it's actually an old silver mining town from the 1880s that went bust after 4 years of existence, and is incredibly remote. when i was a kid, there was no telephone, no radio/tv reception, many of the cabins used as housing for researchers and students didn't have any indoor plumbing, etc. very wild place. here's a photo to give you the idea:



so back in the summer of 1976 (i think, maybe '75?), my mom & sister had been out on a hike with some of our neighbors, and driving back, past a place called Emerald Lake (at about 11,000 feet, on a jeep road), they came across a chicken. she was an RIR, walking along the road in the middle of absolutely nowhere, from a chicken's perspective. they managed to catch her in a paper Safeway bag, and brought her back to the lab, and she became my sister's pet chicken -- and quite a fabulous one! she learned to come when you called her name, would eat wasps, chase cows -- and most fascinating to us (who knew nothing about chickens), she appeared to be a jewish chicken, as she laid an egg every day of the week except saturday, without fail, all summer long.

we couldn't bring her back to the Bay Area with us at the end of the summer, so we left her with the lab's caretakers -- who kept her through most of the winter, i think, letting her live inside their cabin once it started snowing (this valley is often snowed in from October to May) -- and they reported that she often caught mice for them. I think she was eventually given to a friend who lived in the nearest town.

so hang on to that chicken! she could be a special one!

Beautiful story! That place is breathtaking!

 

[ronott1]

Hi all! I've been gone for a while getting a job and such but now I need your help! I have a broody hen (buff orphington-Wyandotte cross) who I would love to give some fertile eggs to. I was thinking a half dozen eggs of some sort of LF laying / dual purpose breed. Anyone have something like that near Woodland or Davis?

Congrats on the Job!

If you can't find eggs that you want, Trader Joes sells Fertile eggs that will hatch. They are Leghorns and not Dual purpose but they are great egg layers.

 

[OR4-hmom]

The kitten is having a great time chasing a fly around the house. She keeps forgetting she can't turn around on the sills anymore though, or maybe she plans on hanging by one foot.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I have a broody hen (buff orphington-Wyandotte cross) who I would love to give some fertile eggs to. I was thinking a half dozen eggs of some sort of LF laying / dual purpose breed.

Were you planning to keep the chicks or do you just want something for your hen to hatch?

 

[Alli Lea]

Were you planning to keep the chicks or do you just want something for your hen to hatch?

I would probably keep the chicks. We have six hens now and there are never enough eggs! Roosters would have to go to a farm or to freezer camp though. What were you thinking? I could bring some chicks back if you want them hatched for you?

 

[debs_flock]

Flies have been horrible this year. Never have I had so many flies. I need to get some fly traps, but I need to make sure they don't attract my honey bees.

Funny, I was just thinking about your bees last night and wondering how it was going this time.

good job scooping her up! and this necessitates that i tell the story of my sister's pet chicken:

as backstory, you must understand that my dad is a biologist who does field work every summer at a field station high in the Rocky Mountains -- my parents actually met there -- and we spent all of my childhood summers there. the lab is at about 9,500 feet in elevation, just on the western side of the Continental Divide -- it's actually an old silver mining town from the 1880s that went bust after 4 years of existence, and is incredibly remote. when i was a kid, there was no telephone, no radio/tv reception, many of the cabins used as housing for researchers and students didn't have any indoor plumbing, etc. very wild place. here's a photo to give you the idea:



so back in the summer of 1976 (i think, maybe '75?), my mom & sister had been out on a hike with some of our neighbors, and driving back, past a place called Emerald Lake (at about 11,000 feet, on a jeep road), they came across a chicken. she was an RIR, walking along the road in the middle of absolutely nowhere, from a chicken's perspective. they managed to catch her in a paper Safeway bag, and brought her back to the lab, and she became my sister's pet chicken -- and quite a fabulous one! she learned to come when you called her name, would eat wasps, chase cows -- and most fascinating to us (who knew nothing about chickens), she appeared to be a jewish chicken, as she laid an egg every day of the week except saturday, without fail, all summer long.

we couldn't bring her back to the Bay Area with us at the end of the summer, so we left her with the lab's caretakers -- who kept her through most of the winter, i think, letting her live inside their cabin once it started snowing (this valley is often snowed in from October to May) -- and they reported that she often caught mice for them. I think she was eventually given to a friend who lived in the nearest town.

so hang on to that chicken! she could be a special one!

That's a wonderful story and sounds like it was a lovely childhood! Our only country experience was going every summer to visit my Finnish relatives in Washington. We would spend two weeks tromping through the fields, picking blackberries, catching crawfish and eating wonderful things created by my aunts!

 

[lawatt]

A Black and White would show conformation.

If you can find one please post it. It would be great to see a picture of a Foundling RIR

i know my mom has a b&w photo somewhere (i don't have a copy here) of my sister holding her chicken -- but i don't know that it's close-up enough of the chicken to really tell anything? plus, i suspect my parents (or whoever it was!) were guessing when they assigned her a breed -- she was definitely a red chicken, but that's all the specifics i remember.

i'll ask my mother if she has more photos, though!

 

[capayvalleychick]

I would probably keep the chicks. We have six hens now and there are never enough eggs! Roosters would have to go to a farm or to freezer camp though. What were you thinking? I could bring some chicks back if you want them hatched for you?

I'm having some eggs incubated in Woodland and I was thinking it sure would be nice to have a broody to raise them. I would want the chicks back, though. Maybe you can find someone who doesn't want the chicks or you can do Trader Joe's eggs, like Ron said.

 

[lawatt]

Funny, I was just thinking about your bees last night and wondering how it was going this time.


That's a wonderful story and sounds like it was a lovely childhood! Our only country experience was going every summer to visit my Finnish relatives in Washington. We would spend two weeks tromping through the fields, picking blackberries, catching crawfish and eating wonderful things created by my aunts!

it was actually an odd childhood, in that all our friends back in the suburbs (i grew up in palo alto) went to camp, which was somewhat similar to what we were doing (actually far less "roughing it," i suspect), but it was only for a couple of weeks, and they all learned the same songs and games that we didn't know -- and they spent the rest of their summers swimming at the nearby pool and going to AYSO soccer practice, none of which we had any experience of -- so we felt like perpetual outsiders in a way.

but i greatly appreciate it now -- especially having spent whole summers with complete freedom yet nothing programed, we HAD to rely on our own creativity and imaginations to keep ourselves busy & entertained. lots of reading books, going on hikes, fishing, playing in the willows, etc.

in case anyone is interested, some of my parents' photos (scanned by me) are posted on-line here (in the pictures where there are two little girls, i am the smaller one -- and there's a photo with lots of snow in the background, and me holding a lump of snow -- that's where they found the chicken, although not that year):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lawatt/sets/72157604470385518/