Illinois...

[Faraday40]

DD wanted to be a werewolf this year for Halloween. (Normally we just do silly, but she wanted to try out scary this time.) We found a shirt & mask at a Goodwill store. On Sat, she wore the costume for our town's Trick-or-Treat trail. (Poor girl was scaring all the little kids away.) So we decided to tone it down by not using the mask, & I made some wolf ears with cardboard & fake fur.



DD was invited along to a friend's tap class tonight. It was also their Halloween party, so she got to try out her adjusted costume. I did her make up. Surprisingly, the chickens were OK with it. (Guess it is only water melon they're afraid of.)



It was cute when she danced as her tail flopped around.

 

[Faraday40]

We have a party tomorrow, so I must bring a Halloween-themed appetizer or dessert. We're having Cheddar ale soup & home made pretzels for dinner tonight, so I decided to see if I could make some spooky shapes. (When kids were in preschool I used this recipe to help them learn their ABCs.) Here's what I made:

Witches' fingers


Spiders





Of course these will all be eaten tonight, but I can make fresh ones for tomorrow.
Option #2:
I make yummy cinnamon buns from scratch. If I find some of those plastic spider rings, I could put one on each bun after they cool.



Also when I downloaded the pics onto my computer, I found that the kids had borrowed it for some fun. I found this:

I guess they felt Marshmallow needed a costume. That's part of my Crazy Chicken Lady outfit.

I also saw a good pic of our CCL (from @MeepBeep )

 

[Faraday40]

I just got a fun email from one of DS's former teachers. Her class was having a discussion about a picture in a book. Some students were calling it a chicken, others a rooster. She requested that he (the school poultry expert) come visit her classroom and solve their dilemma.

DS explained how the picture was indeed a rooster - which is a boy chicken- so both were right. Then he went on to explain that it was not a hen & would never lay eggs. Thankfully he stopped long before getting to anything about fertilization. The class asked him all sorts of questions about the comb & types of feathers. She was so impressed that she sent me an email about it.

It was just one of those feel good moments, so I thought I'd share.

 

[Junibutt]

Today around 1:00 PM I found Hope (my Legbar) dead in the run. She was laying upside down and her body was stiff because of rigor setting in. So it must have been a few hours already. She was only 2 and a half years old. She was fine yesterday when I fed everyone treats so not sure what could be wrong with her. Needless to say my son and I were very upset because she was one of our favorites and the first ever chick we hatched in an incubator. That's why she was our "Hope". There was nothing wrong with her except that she was going through a soft molt and had stopped laying about 3 weeks ago. I am wondering if there was something in the treats that killed her. Apart from regular left overs, there was some persimmon fruit in the treats. Could that have caused it?

Also, oddly enough all the other chicken were afraid to come in to the run (even after I removed her). Could there have been a predator that just killed her and the rest of the chicken were scared because of that? Maybe a small snake? I did not find any obvious wounds on her (I did not explore too deep).

Here are a few of her pics growing up. RIP Hope!

 

[RADjr]

North west central illinois, . anyone else ....bloomington, peoria,LaSalle,ottowa,

 

[Faraday40]

Today around 1:00 PM I found Hope (my Legbar) dead in the run. She was laying upside down and her body was stiff because of rigor setting in. So it must have been a few hours already. She was only 2 and a half years old. She was fine yesterday when I fed everyone treats so not sure what could be wrong with her. Needless to say my son and I were very upset because she was one of our favorites and the first ever chick we hatched in an incubator. That's why she was our "Hope". There was nothing wrong with her except that she was going through a soft molt and had stopped laying about 3 weeks ago. I am wondering if there was something in the treats that killed her. Apart from regular left overs, there was some persimmon fruit in the treats. Could that have caused it?

Also, oddly enough all the other chicken were afraid to come in to the run (even after I removed her). Could there have been a predator that just killed her and the rest of the chicken were scared because of that? Maybe a small snake? I did not find any obvious wounds on her (I did not explore too deep).

Here are a few of her pics growing up. RIP Hope!

So sorry for your loss.

Could there have been a predator scare (Or big noise/stress) that caused a heart attack? I've also heard of chickens jumping up & breaking their neck on something.

 

[Junibutt]

So sorry for your loss.

Could there have been a predator scare (Or big noise/stress) that caused a heart attack? I've also heard of chickens jumping up & breaking their neck on something.

I hope thats all it was. They sometimes get scared by the neighbors dogs coming out all of a sudden but whats strange is that she was lying by the outer door of the run. The adults mostly stayed away from the run today as well except when I called them for some treats.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I hope thats all it was. They sometimes get scared by the neighbors dogs coming out all of a sudden but whats strange is that she was lying by the outer door of the run. The adults mostly stayed away from the run today as well except when I called them for some treats.

So sorry Junibutt, she was a beautiful girl.

 

[NotAFarm]

North west central illinois, . anyone else ....bloomington, peoria,LaSalle,ottowa,

Amboy...north of I-80, west of I-39 and south of I-88.
What did of chickens do you have?

 

[Faraday40]

We had a crazy fun Halloween party on Sat. Before leaving, DD had to close up the coop for the night. I found it funny that none of the chickens were afraid of her. Especially dressed as a WOLF! Love the expression Oppsie's face!



DS was a penguin.

I went as a crazy chicken lady, of course. I used a puppet during the party, since it went well past chicken bedtime.

DH said he was the Grim Processor.





The Hosts were fellow chicken people. However, I had no idea how much they enjoyed Halloween.
Every area of the huge house, yard, pond, & forest was decorated. Even the chicken coop & run!



The guests enjoyed a live band, great food, bon fire, & hayrides through the "haunted" forest. (One guy even had a pretend chainsaw to liven things up)