Cloistered with my chickens

[Celticdragonfly]

I don't like to call it quarantine - because no one here is sick, and we don't have any known exposure, but we're certainly staying home and going out the absolute minimum - even groceries is only every 2-3 weeks. So I call it being cloistered.

Last night Miles cooked a turkey breast for us, and I had him bag up the carcass after carving it. This morning I took it out and let the girls out into the yard and gave it to them. Oh they LIKED that.

I wonder how many of the people just now getting into chickens because of the pandemic would be shocked to see that they're enthusiastic carnivores and will happily eat another bird.

Saw a beautiful male cardinal on the fence, so vibrantly red. Then I saw what I think was a female cardinal, repeatedly flying over to a stand of brush and taller plants, perching, yanking off a piece of plant, considering it, then flying off to the north with it in her mouth. I suspect she's building a nest, possibly in the bush-grown-into-tree-size in our NW corner.

Steggie, my favorite girl, the red one, has been taking to going and spending time in the nest box. She did it today. She didn't seem to be acting broody - she'd let me feel around under her with no complaint. She let me pick her up. No egg under her. Only the two X-marked decoy eggs in the other 2 boxes. So nothing for her to be broody over. I checked her vent, it looked okay, and sorta palpated her belly a bit and didn't feel anything to make me think she's egg-bound. So for now I'm just chalking it up under "chickens be weird sometimes".

 

[Tre3hugger]

Cool picture.

chickens be weird sometimes

Ain't that the truth!

 

[TwoCrows]

Chickens love meat! Especially Turkey and Chicken.

 

[Celticdragonfly]

So my daughter's been dealing with our EE going sorta half-broody and wanting to hang out in the nest box all the time - and I've encouraged her to take Cera *out* and make sure she gets some free range time with the others.

Just the other day she came in heartbroken and guilty - she'd gone to pick Cera up out of the nest box, thinking she was once again just staying there - and it turned out no, she'd been in the middle of laying an egg! which she then basically laid as she was being lifted out, and it fell and cracked.

When we get a cracked egg we bring it inside, break it into a bowl and whip it up, and take it back out and they all happily eat it, so it doesn't go to waste, but she still felt bad about it.

 

[Celticdragonfly]

Since my request worked out and the city of Saginaw, TX has just increased the hen limit to 6 - we're getting more babies!

... which is tricky in a time of high demand. Things didn't go so well with the local feed store last time, and they're not doing special orders anymore. The local hatchery they order from .... I'm not impressed by. And I'm *not* going to use the bigger feed stores and who knows what I end up with. I've heard good things about Meyers hatchery, so we're going to try that.

We went through much reading to make our decisions. My daughter got to pick one - she's going with a white Maran. My other picks were a speckled Sussex and I've wanted a buff Orpington for ages. Given the various availability dates, we're looking at mid September.

But that gives us plenty of time to look into expanding the run, and dust out the brooder.

 

[GhislaineDel]

I love the term cloistered. I agree that quarentine isn't the right word for most people's situation.

 

[TwoShepherds]

Congratulations on your upcoming chick order (and in getting your town to increase the number of hens you can have)! Those are some great breeds. I've had good luck with Meyer's so far. I hope you do also!

 

[3KillerBs]

I wonder how many of the people just now getting into chickens because of the pandemic would be shocked to see that they're enthusiastic carnivores and will happily eat another bird.

Yes. I have known people to be completely shocked to discover that chickens really are backyard velociraptors that not only eat anything that doesn't eat them first but will hunt down prey if given the opportunity.

The Egglands Best cartons with the phrase "Chickens fed an all-natural, vegetarian diet" always get me laughing because there is nothing natural about a vegetarian chicken.

 

[Celticdragonfly]

Yep, Cera is broody. Ice packs under her didn't fix it. So we have set up our first broody breaking.

Also the waterer is leaking, so they're temporarily back to the chick one until I can get some silicon sealant, husband Miles says he can fix it with that.

 

[Celticdragonfly]

Cera did stop being broody after a few days in the cage. Yay! We had to add a piece of coated hardware cloth to keep the spaces between bars short enough for comfortable walking for her.

She has laid some eggs since then. Today she apparently had a hiccup in the process, as we found this right under the waterer, not in a nest box at all. First wind egg we have seen!