From the life of a chicken fan

[MotherofOrpies]

So, did some digging, here were my newly acquired Orpintons in July 2012

Here is the hen which started pulling feathers and didn’t stop

Amanda, my favorite hen , her first hatch in May 2013, one of the yellow chickens became a beautiful hen which always got broody ( Hanni) a cross between the Orpington rooster and a Bresse hen

Here is my oldest hen as a youngster in July 2012

Hanni, as an adult hen

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Here is Hanni as a youngster, up to no good in the shed with her brother on the left, cross between a hybrid Marans and the Orpington rooster, he had to leave quite early

Amanda in Sept 2013 with her 2. clutch, on the right you can see young Caro, who has had a brood of chicks every year, she started laying eggs again this week

Rooster Pascha with his remaining hens Gisela and Amanda ( right)

Caro ( right) with her sister Puti ( left) I had to let her go last year, she was having trouble breathing

Young Caro as a teenager

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Here is one of my last pictures of Amanda in Nov. 2013, after she had raised her 2. chicks, she was always laying down , I took her to 3 specialists, they all gave her Metacam, which made her better, but I had to upp the dosage, time and again , now I have all that experience with chickens I can already tell she is not ok, her back is too round, anyways, she died and I was too inexperienced to tell she was dying and helping her not suffering by bringing her to the vet
She died of an ovarial tumor, Rip

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Here is my former dog, a disgraced herd guarding dog who preferred eating his charges ( goats) instead if watching over them , so he had to leave his home and we took him in , smart as a whip, he did as little as he could get away with he also mutilated one of my roosters ( I thought he had finally understood chickens were off limits ) after that there was a strict separation of chickens and dog!!!

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Finally those slackers are earning their food again my Marans/hungarian hen cross laid her first egg of the season ( she usually lays purplish eggs) the first one out of the pipe is usually a little bit uneven my Araucana /Javanese bantam also laid her first egg of the season and lovely Caro laid her 3rd egg

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Today is vaccination day for the chickens, since I am not able to drive a car, a friend who also has chickens ( I gave her some ) will pick it up and bring me some

 

[MotherofOrpies]

I am sad and mad something killed one of my Lavender Araucana, 4:45 pm, I was outside and saw the hens going into their coop, when son went to close the hatch at 5pm, one of the hens was missing, we found her at 5:10 pm , still warm, something had almost plucked her naked, ate her neck, but left her head attached to the body by the windpipe when the sun comes up I am going to check the fence, if the neighbors dogs got into our backyard again, but I am also
keeping an eye out for the neighbors cat, he’s bern chasing my chickens and pulling their feathers, whenever I see him, he gets a squirt from the water pistol, he runs whenever he sees me, I like cats, just not ones chasing my chickens.. it could have been the racoon, but within 15 minutes, and just eating the neck part?!

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Soo, next village is the border of avian flu restrictions, so, with a heavy heart, I sold 6 of my chickens , they have a wonderful new home, and I don’t have to kill them, should I have to keep them in the coop all day, it only is big enough for max. of 12 chickens, and even then, there was a lot of pecking going around, with blood flowing my chickens are used to free ranging on 800qm, and are not suited to being cooped up
finally got the k-wires removed from my toe, and can finally walk/limp much better than before, dog is a happy camper, she ( and me) gained some extra pounds, too little activity and in comparison too much food

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Time flies, somehow, the attack on the lavender Araucana started a very bad streak for my chickens, I started out 2021 with 24 and was left with 11 chickens ( including 2 new pullets I hatched) at the end of 2022…everything kind of had it out for my chickens , neighboring dogs, other neighboring dogs, hawk, fox , you name it, it wanted to kill and eat my chickens in the end, I let out the chickens later in the morning, and shut them in earlier in the evening, and have secured most of my perimeter with electric fencing, my phone also spectacularly died in June 2022, so of course I had no backup and lost almost 1 year worth of photos I got some back by begging friends to send me pictures I had sent them during the year, so at least I got a few back
Here is a picture I took today,

the crows and a marten are stealing eggs whenever they can get them ( even from the coop) but sometimes they also steal fake eggs, it had gotten so bad in summer I had to order 30 fake eggs in total to replace the ones which vanished…yesterday, a wooden egg disappeared from a small coop and was wedged behind a metal fence, it took me 30 minutes to kind of lever it up the fence back again

 

[Callender Girl]

Wow! Did you have a time of it! Let's hope all the crappy stuff is behind you.

I've only had stupid predators steal a fake egg once. Yours seem to have developed it into an art form.

Glad you were able to salvage some photos. Best wishes for a happier 2023!