MJ's little flock

[MaryJanet]

All of my new little ones are always reluctant to go in and roost with the big girls and boys at first. I have also had to put them in. I even made a few Mabel's World cartoons about some new girls getting integrated with the flock...I will be posting those soon on my thread!

So glad you they chirped to you!

They're always chirping those four - so sweet. Erica was on my knee a moment ago.

Last night they roosted with the big hens of their own accord. Remarkable!

The full story is that I moved the bench into the run thinking perhaps they'd like it as a roost. However, once it was in the run it lost its appeal. When I went inside all the hens and youngsters were in the run and in various stages of roosting, except for Edie who had put herself to bed in the big coop.

The only reason I've been moving her to the big coop at night is that it's so much easier to give her her morning medication when she's confined to a small space, and the 'big coop' is vastly smaller than the run. Once her course of medication is completed, she'll be able to roost with her friends in the roosting box again.

When I went out around 10pm to give Edie her evening medication, I saw the youngsters on the branch in the roosting box across from the big hens! So there were two changes in roosting preferences in one night.

I also found I could dose Edie without using the towel to hold her wings down if she's snoozing at night. When I opened her beak to put her meds in, she didn't even bother to stand up, much less flap her wings!

For me, that's a cracker of a revelation and we'll do that again tonight.

She only has two more doses of the revolt-inducing antibiotic tablets but she'll be continuing on med-loaded bread bites for a while yet, so I should be able to get some mileage out of my new knowledge about dosing her while she's roosting.

 

[MaryJanet]

[not about chickens]

The other interesting thing that happened last night was that I interrupted a burglary (not at my place).

I was on the couch in the dark, watching something or other around 9.30pm with the door open to let the cool breeze through. It was such a quiet evening.

I heard a bike coming up the street and noticed the cyclist stopped beside the neighbour's car and try the door handles, which were unlocked. He parked his bike a little further along and went back to see what he could take from the car. I watched for a moment, then called out, "Whatcha doing over there?" He immediately ran back to his bike, so I loaded on a few jeers, "Yeh, that's right, on yer bike mate! Get going." And so on, until he was underway he yelled a rude word back at me over his shoulder and I concluded our delightful exchange with loud laughter.

I then locked up my own house and went across the street to tell the neighbours what had happened, thinking at least they need to know about locking their car's doors at night. These are not people I'd ever met before, so I was just being neighbourly The lights were on, so I knocked. The neighbour opened the door shushing me! What the ...?? As the story of unfolded she knew she needed to apologise for opening the conversation by shushing me but couldn't bring herself to do it, instead she made excuses for herself and never got around to thanking me for preventing the cyclist from stealing stuff out of her car!

All extremely odd. By far the weirdest neighbour on the street. I should've known from the excessively perfect front garden. The lawn is like a carpet and the topiary is very tight indeed.

 

[LozzyR]

[not about chickens]

The other interesting thing that happened last night was that I interrupted a burglary.

I was on the couch in the dark, watching something or other around 9.30pm with the door open to let the cool breeze through. It was such a quiet evening.

I heard a bike coming up the street and noticed the cyclist stopped beside the neighbour's car and try the door handles, which were unlocked. He parked his bike a little further along and went back to see what he could take from the car. I watched for a moment, then called out, "Whatcha doing over there?" He immediately ran back to his bike, so I loaded on a few jeers, "Yeh, that's right, on yer bike mate! Get going." And so on, until he was underway he yelled a rude word back at me over his shoulder and I concluded our delightful exchange with loud laughter.

I then locked up my own house and went across the street to tell the neighbours what had happened, thinking at least they need to know about locking their car's doors at night. These are not people I'd ever met before, so I was just being neighbourly The lights were on, so I knocked. The neighbour opened the door shushing me! What the ...?? As the story of unfolded she knew she needed to apologise for opening the conversation by shushing me but couldn't bring herself to do it, instead she made excuses for herself and never got around to thanking me for preventing the cyclist from stealing stuff out of her car!

All extremely odd. By far the weirdest neighbour on the street. I should've known from the excessively perfect front garden. The lawn is like a carpet and the topiary is very tight indeed.

My first thought was the burglary was at your place, so glad to hear it wasn’t. And how very odd of your neighbours. Was the story that unfolded shush-worthy?

 

[MaryJanet]

My first thought was the burglary was at your place, so glad to hear it wasn’t.

I'll make an edit.

And how very odd of your neighbours. Was the story that unfolded shush-worthy?

Well, she was shushing me as she opened the door and stopped when she saw me, who of course she didn't recognise. So, I don't think the story had anything to do with the shushing. I assume she was worried my knocks on the door would wake the kids. No one knocks at that time of night without a compelling reason or an invitation.

I think she simply had a default hostile demeanour. Most unpleasant. It's possible I caught her at a bad moment I guess.

Everyone else on the street is lovely. I had a chat with next doors on NYE when we both stepped outside to watch fireworks. Genuinely wonderful folks. Salt of the earth. Upset because their old dog Buddy died a couple of months ago. Poor old fella, I was wondering why I hadn't heard him barking.

 

[MaryJanet]

The view under the picnic table.

The Vulture is now bigger than Peggy and catching up on Ivy and Katie.

A minute later and it's nap time.

 

[ManueB]

[not about chickens]

The other interesting thing that happened last night was that I interrupted a burglary (not at my place).

I was on the couch in the dark, watching something or other around 9.30pm with the door open to let the cool breeze through. It was such a quiet evening.

I heard a bike coming up the street and noticed the cyclist stopped beside the neighbour's car and try the door handles, which were unlocked. He parked his bike a little further along and went back to see what he could take from the car. I watched for a moment, then called out, "Whatcha doing over there?" He immediately ran back to his bike, so I loaded on a few jeers, "Yeh, that's right, on yer bike mate! Get going." And so on, until he was underway he yelled a rude word back at me over his shoulder and I concluded our delightful exchange with loud laughter.

I then locked up my own house and went across the street to tell the neighbours what had happened, thinking at least they need to know about locking their car's doors at night. These are not people I'd ever met before, so I was just being neighbourly The lights were on, so I knocked. The neighbour opened the door shushing me! What the ...?? As the story of unfolded she knew she needed to apologise for opening the conversation by shushing me but couldn't bring herself to do it, instead she made excuses for herself and never got around to thanking me for preventing the cyclist from stealing stuff out of her car!

All extremely odd. By far the weirdest neighbour on the street. I should've known from the excessively perfect front garden. The lawn is like a carpet and the topiary is very tight indeed.

Strange indeed. Feels like a weird dream, or a bit of a movie from David Lynch!

The Vulture is now bigger than Peggy and catching up on Ivy and Katie.

Bittersweet. Time does fly. Aren't they only something like two months and a week ?
Also, it seems that the size difference between the Sussex and the Australorps isn't as big as it was (vulture apart) , or is it just the angle of the picture?

 

[MaryJanet]

Bittersweet. Time does fly. Aren't they only something like two months and a week ?

Yes, still quite young, hatched November 7. For all her rough and tumble spirit, Peggy is a bantam, so it doesn't take much to outgrow her. Katie and Ivy are small but not bantams.

He's a big boy!

Also, it seems that the size difference between the Sussex and the Australorps isn't as big as it was (vulture apart) , or is it just the angle of the picture?

That would be the angle. He's almost twice the size of his sister and the Australorps.

 

[MaryJanet]

Feels like a weird dream, or a bit of a movie from David Lynch!

Yes, that's exactly how it felt!

I once came out of a Lynch film with a few friends, I think it was Mulholland Drive and it would've been around 10pm. Within 10 metres of the cinema we walked past a bin that was on fire and the other pedestrians were standing around like it was a perfectly ordinary event. Bamboozled, we stopped in our tracks and a friend said, "The... The bin's on fire." One of the other pedestrians calmly said, "It's ok, Ben's getting an extinguisher."

In my normal frame of mind, I'd have got the extinguisher and asked, "Who the heck is Ben and why is he taking so long??" But I was still in a state of Lynchian discombobulated transcendence.

What an odd night that was.

 

[MaryJanet]

So happy to share the news that Edie has had the last of her horrid antibiotic tablets. She still has some anti-inflammatory and quite of lot vitamin K to go. These can be loaded onto bread bites, which she does not reject as fervently as she did the antibiotic tablets.

 

[MaryJanet]

A video from last night. To the best of my recollection, Mary has never skipped her evening drink.