Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Veera plopped out an egg again, eighth day in a row now. About half an hour after she had finally settled in the nest, I went and opened the lid. She left the nest without protest, leaving behind and egg. Seems like she had been sitting on it for a few minutes though. Hopefully I managed to catch this broodiness at an early stage and will get her to reconsider still, now that the golf balls are gone. How much success have you had with breaking the broodiness? I really would't need a broody on our hands.

 

[Bens-Hens]

An update on Veera's possible broodiness status. I wasn't really expecting her to lay today, as she's gone 7 days straight, her longest run yet, but all morning she has been going in and out of the nest boxes. She also kept pacing along the fence in the yard for a good 10 minutes, but then it started raining so she went back into the run. Before that, she was going through all kinds of secluded spots in the yard, apparently looking for a place to make a nest. I keep hearing a bit of an egg song every once in a while too. Now she's back to checking the nests in the coop, so I closed the run door so that we don't get any accidents. Taking the golf balls out has really messed with her, but hopefully she'll manage to lay in there without them too. I'm considering putting one ball back in each nest, if this doesn't work. Viiru will be interesting to follow, she should be laying in a few hours, since she took a break again yesterday.

Also, I saw Topi mate his sister, Töyhtis for the first time today (she did not seem to appreciate incest). Wilma has still been left alone, even though her comb and wattles are much more developed, but Töyhtis does have half Araucana in her, combined with the BCM, so some differences in appearance are to be expected. Anyway, it seems our 17 weekers are starting to mature too. Strange how the boys mature earlier than the girls.

I will hopefully report another egg from Veera soon.

Some points that struck me as big differences with Sal when she 'turned' was how fluffy she got, the weird sounds she made and somewhat frantic movement when she was away from the nest. These were not obvious until she made the decision to sit, then it was like a switch.

I am not sure if taking the golf balls has just caused a change for her she was not ready for or if she is considering being a mum. There are a few threads on how people break broodies, most seem to use the 'shoo' method, some are a bit more drastic by locking them off the nests, others will put the bird into a wire floored cage to cool off their belly.

One of the fun things about living in Los Angeles is that you recognize locations in movies and TV shows.

Criminal Minds is almost exclusively shot in Culver city - the real home of movie land with Sony mgm and Culver studios.

I worked their for twenty years and had many close brushes with fame including a belly push during a full blown argument with Marlon Brando and having Lucy lui sit firmly on my hand. The hand incident was more shocking than taking on the godfather

I worked as an extra on a couple of productions.

Its a bucket list thing I checked off

Sounds exciting, I have met a few big names, mostly pollies. Got my head on TV a few times but never had a lady sit on my hand or rubbed a big stars tummy with any part of my body hahahaha. Closest I got was a peck on the cheeky from Isla Fisher back when she was a local starlet.

You have lived well my friend!

Veera plopped out an egg again, eighth day in a row now. About half an hour after she had finally settled in the nest, I went and opened the lid. She left the nest without protest, leaving behind and egg. Seems like she had been sitting on it for a few minutes though. Hopefully I managed to catch this broodiness at an early stage and will get her to reconsider still, now that the golf balls are gone. How much success have you had with breaking the broodiness? I really would't need a broody on our hands.

Thats a good sign in some ways. I am not experienced enough to know if such a long run is a sign of a great early layer...or a bird building a clutch!

 

[vehve]

I think I will just go with the removal of her extra "eggs" and a bit of kindhearted shooing. If she has her heart set on going broody, she can sit on some golf balls until she's done with it. No more chicks for us though, we really don't have the space. I really hope she's just a good layer, the broodiness would dramatically cut down on our egg accumulation, as Viiru only has laid four eggs so far and the others none.

 

[ozexpat]

That sound's like a lot of fun, Oz. Seems like you're a bit intimidated by powerful women, I bet Mrs. Oz has you wrapped around her finger   But I must admit, Lucy does seem like a force to be reckoned with. Marlon just mainly mumbles incoherently. I would love to be a extra too, not really interested in appearing on camera, but I have a bit of an fascination with the US entertainment industry, so getting to see the inner workings of a movie set would be sort of cool. Not many movies get filmed in Finland though. Sometimes Helsinki is used as a substitute for Russian locations, but not so much after the downfall of the USSR. The Gere/Willis remake of The Day of the Jackal was shot partly in Porvoo and Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Us Finns go crazy when Finland is featured on US shows or in movies somehow. One of the highlights so far was when one of our more successful actors appeared as a body on CSI   Renny Harlin has actually had some sort of success in the nineties, Die Hard 2 and Deerhunter being the most noteworthy movies that he's directed, but not much else to speak of. A Finnish short was up for an Oscar this year though, so that's something.

Brando was a pig. Lucy is awesome. Such a confident women. When I worked as a nurse I had many movie/tv stars as patients but I can't talk about them.

When I am moved to the Philippines for 18 months at the start of the adoption process we rented out our little house on short term contracts to movie people. Liane Balaban, a very cute petite Canadian actress has slept in my bed. Just not on the same night Lol.

 

[vehve]

Those confidentiality papers they force you to sign are a bit pesky. Perhaps one day Liane will tell the story of when she slept in the crazy chicken mans bed, just not the same night

 

[vehve]

Today is finally the first day in ages that doesn't start with rain, so I'm going to try to advance my utility cabinet/shed project today, just as soon as I've had my morning coffee.

Ben, how are you getting along with your Mondeo?

 

[vehve]

My cabinet shed is starting to take shape, and I'm starting to realize I might have made it a bit big. Some people would house a couple of chickens in this thing.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Today is finally the first day in ages that doesn't start with rain, so I'm going to try to advance my utility cabinet/shed project today, just as soon as I've had my morning coffee.

Ben, how are you getting along with your Mondeo?

Mmmmm morning coffee, I love my morning coffee!

The Mondeo is going great. I am normally given most driving duties when the family go places, but lately there has been a lot of sharing

My cabinet shed is starting to take shape, and I'm starting to realize I might have made it a bit big. Some people would house a couple of chickens in this thing.

It's coming along nicely mate, will go great with your coop.

 

[vehve]

Done for the day, time to make food and walk the dogs.

Still need to put on some bitumen roofing, make and paint doors, and put in some shelves.

 

[cwrite]

I admit I'm very envious of the building/carpentry skills I see. That is a nice looking circular saw too Vehve. When I finally got out the hand held circular saw I bought to make my nest boxes I discovered one problem - I jump every time I switch it on. Even when I know & brace myself for the noise I still jump. Oh well. After no one had laid an egg in my beautiful hand made nest boxes for a week & after finding two eggs on the floor of the run, I gave in yesterday & bought a litter box for the pullets to lay in. I seem to be following a theme here, seeing as they like laying in the small dog kennel in the run, they have a small dog litter box in the coop now. My cats thought that I'd finally bought them something new when I brought the litter box inside. Lol.
We are having wind gusts of up to 50km/h here today so no free-ranging today.