~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[gryeyes]

Had myself a good cry last night, sniffling and snorfling through tears for a while. No chocolate in the house except some Hershey's syrup and was considering pouring that directly into my mouth from the container, but my good friends HH and FL came to my rescue with some chocolate "donettes" they picked up at Gray's Market on their way over.

Various observations about the day, in no particular order:

The old fella taking George, Alex, Cardigan and three hens had AMAZING eyebrows. It was hard not to study them more than actually look into his eyes. You gotta be really old to grow an impressive pair o' brows like that. I privately asked his companion if he was going to be able to care for the birds because he seemed quite .... as well worn as I would hope to be at about two hundred years old. He reassured me the old guy would be perfectly able to care for the chickens. I am concerned about what he'll feed his new flock - he said he had cracked corn for them and asked if the hens needed layer feed. Auuugh! I showed him a bag of Nutrena All Flock I feed everybody, adding the need for crushed oyster shell on the side. No, don't mix it with the feed. He's had chickens before, but it was in the loooong past. He was very taken with George and Alex, equally "excited" to have Cardigan with his feathered legs and feet. I gave him one of the Josies, the last Cinnamon Queen, and a Buckeye hen, telling him the Buckeye is a mouser. So George isn't the only rooster; he's got his brother Alex, plus Cardigan, which could easily be one of their sons through Little Bit, my bantam dark Brahma.

Alex was the hardest of that group to give up. He was so calm and trusting in my arms when I gathered him off the roost to put in a box. He's been a very good rooster. However, he's just as loud as his obnoxious brother. Alex has occasionally bowled George right over when George got into his stealth mode, planning to flog my ankles when I wasn't paying attention. Alex don't truck with George being stupid with The Treat Lady. I only had to walk Alex backwards ONCE more than a year ago - George got that treatment every few weeks.

Wilbur, who went with the nice lady who's got her own copy of Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry all marked up with flags and highlighted bits, deserves his own harem. He's a gentleman rooster, very diligent - and loud! - as a look-out for danger, really quite handsome in a dorky way (he was hilariously odd-looking until his head and comb grew into a size more suitable to his big chunky body). His new owner wanted layers for an instantly productive flock. Hence the Cinnamon Queens. When she asked for a third hen of a different "look" for variety, I settled on the Delawegger for her green eggs. She paid me for her, and a deposit on a BO pullet from the Chicken Kindergarten in future weeks.

I'll be visiting Gray's Market, the Mt. Aukum "General Store," and the Pokerville Market in Plymouth to remove the fliers. I'm done giving up roosters - and ANY hens - for a while.

Carl, Charlie, Nugget, Frick, Hitchcock and Bernard are the permanent roo residents. Any little cockerels growing up from the NYD Hatch will go to the Freezer Camp over at HH and FL's place before I get too attached to them. Because I am participating in Mahonri's Third Annual Easter Hatch, the same plan goes for any putative cockerels. As well as any from the clutch under the current broody in the coop.

This morning the Olmstead Homestead is quite less noisy. Good thing, too, as I have a red wine headache.

But the 2008 Bella Piazza Divini was very good with chocolate donettes.

I did have a panic moment when I couldn't find Carl this morning, luckily he was just dust-bathing with his favorite ladies in a sunny spot. Whew!

Blaze, the little Escapee Bunny, has been amusing me with her wanderings on the property. She goes into the coop quite a bit - this morning she was noshing on some chicken feed right out of a feeder. I've put alfalfa cubes in two places she also frequents, once of which is behind the rabbit hutch on the porch where her sister is still incarcerated. I have not seen hide nor hair of the momma bunny or the three other "baby" bunnies which the geese released a few weeks ago. Blaze frequents the porch a great deal but is still eluding capture. At this point, I think I'll just leave her be. She's surviving quite comfortably and does sleep behind the hutch at night. She putters around the yard, drinking from the poultry waterers and duck kiddie pools, suns herself here and there, and seems content. None of the poultry bother her, although occasionally a goose will stretch out its neck at her. She changes direction when that happens and hops somewhere else. Clever bunny, that Blaze.

I opened the French door onto the deck today, to drink my first cup of coffee out there. It's the South side of the house, so it gets most of the sun from about 10 AM on. Got the kitchen stool upon which to sit in that sun. Lizbeth came out, cautiously, but then mewed and rubbed up against my legs. After going back inside and coming out a couple of times, she's gone a' wandring in the yard. I am hoping she will come back into the house on her own.

Zorro came out and sat dreamily in the sun, too.

Last night, I wished I had given up the chickens on Monday, so I could go to work Tuesday and be busy there, rather than thinking about "my loss" all weekend long. I'd also have had a couple more days with 'em, but that really wasn't a desire formed on a foundation of common sense. It was just feeling sorry for myself. Oh, woe is me, I had to give up some roosters and some hens. Life is horrible, I hate my neighbors. Bleaaahhh.

Today, I have a quieter, calmer flock I can appreciate. I was lucky to get good homes for the boys and a few hens I hadn't even named yet. I let my pets name themselves, by discovering their personalities, and goodness, but I've only been able to interact with 'em on my weekends, with the winter daylight hours so short. I never saw them during the week except when I was disturbing them in the coop after dark to fill their feeders and check on 'em when I got home from work. I didn't know those particular pullets that well, as they were only seven months old or less. (I was careful to NOT select Queenie, the one Buckeye who has made her name known to me.)

Joey, the remaining bantam cockerel hatched by Little Bit, is not well, so I didn't give him to the old guy. He's been sequestering himself in the coop, hiding in a secret place I know. I give him his food and water separately but there's something going on with him that doesn't bode well. The old guy had asked about Joey, as he'd been mentioned but not pictured in the flyer. No, not giving away a probable sick bird, sorry. The guy has a lake on his property and he offered to let me visit with my geese to let them swim there sometimes - what an ODD idea! Like I'm gonna transport a huge pair of Toulouse geese and leave 'em there for a few days for a lake spa weekend or something? Then come pick 'em up again? I kindly refused that offer. Besides, John's gonna build a 10 x 15 pond for the waterfowl right here.

Just one little question if you don't mind. It looks like the lower half of your house has been painted, but not up top. Is John doing that, or was it done prior to your move-in? I can see where he caulked the tops of some of the boards, and now they will be under a roof, which is good.

None of the house has been painted - that wall is the one that gets the sun all day long and is the most weathered. John said, "Once I'm done with the deck, we'll power-wash this side of the house and I'll do some repairs to that siding so it can be painted. Then you'll just have three sides of the house left to paint later." I know it's bugging him every day he's out there working on the deck.

There hasn't been a single crow-fest since the early morning chorus inside the coop at 5 AM. Carl is tending to the flock - and getting in that extended dust bath this morning - instead of standing on the porch railing crowing to announce he's The Boss of This Flock.

So, yes, it's been a Good Thing. And there goes Blaze again, across the yard and up onto the porch to nibble on some alfafa cubes.


Edited to add: Lizbeth just came back into the house to mew at me and wind around my legs. It's gonna be a great Sunday.

 

[dsqard]

Linda tons of HUGS your way. I know each and every one of those chickens are pets and it is hard to let them go. I know you know that you are doing the right thing and that you won't wallow in self-pity for too long but you do deserve to have a little cry like you did. I hope you feel a little bit better as each day passes.

 

[Casey3043]

Well, it certainly was rough on you, but you had to do it, and now it's done and you can move on. Enjoy the peaceful flock.

I thought you said at one point that Cardigan went with HHandbasket. Hard to keep all this straight! I love the names you have given some of your chickens. None of my hens have names--all the Speckled Sussex are called "Speckle" because I can't tell them apart. The two buff orps are called "Buffy". Two RI Reds are called "Red". Five black Australorps are called (you knew this was coming) Blackie. Same stuff goes for the Silver Laced and Gold Laced Wyandottes, and the Golden Comets. Original, huh? My rooster is called Peter, a name he chose for himself.

So glad Lizbeth knows where home is now and is not about to take off again into the great wilderness beyond.

Looking forward to more news and pictures as the deck is completed.

 

[gryeyes]

Cardigan and Ross are "the two Cardigans" because they were twins, wearing those little preppy cardigan-look feather patterns.

www.backyardchickens.com/image/id/5710302

I could tell them apart when they were together, but when one went to live with HHandbasket and Farmer Lew's flock, I didn't have him to compare with the remaining twin. Hence referring to BOTH of them as "Cardigan." So I could have given Ross to the old fella. Or Cardigan. Sorry for the confusion. HH and FL have renamed their Cardigan as "Hoodie."

 

[HEChicken]

Yours have great names Linda - I'll have to let you name mine in the future LOL. My kids named some from our first batch. Hence my lead hen is the very original "Henrietta", and her sister, next in the pecking order, is "Scramble". Don't ask me how that came about - the kids were pretty young at the time. After that they kind of lost interest so none of the rest actually has a name. I don't find that the lack of names makes me any less fond of them and when telling DH what is going on with the flock, I refer to them by their breeds or color. There is "the Sultan", "the grey pullet", "the BCM", "the Cuckoo Marans", and so on. The only ones that named themselves are the two we collectively refer to as "the idiot pullets" due to their total inability to figure out stuff the rest of the flock has no trouble figuring out. They're not even pullets any more, but the name has stuck.

 

[1muttsfan]

Every fall I give away most of my hens - 1 year olds - to replaced them with the summer's hatchlings. while I like the hens and love their eggs, my favorite thing is hatching chicks, so I have to clear out the coop to fit the young ones in. I have found that it is easy to re-home year old layers. Still miss then when they go, though. And I always keep a few favorites that will someday retire here.

 

[HHandbasket]

I like the idea of rehoming year-old hens I haven't gotten attached to yet! Alas, however, I tend to get attached to them & don't do that much hatching anymore. I think there's something wrong with our incubator cuz it used to do great hatches & I haven't been able to hatch out anything in almost a year with it.

My hens all have names, too. Some of the white faced black Spanish hens have yet to be named, but I've put colored bands on their legs so I can tell them apart. Of 9 hens, only 3 are named--Irene, Agnes, and Beulah. Agnes and Beulah are particularly interesting-looking. Oh, and then there's Kriss Kross--she has a crossed beak and is missing her left eye, which her flockmates plucked out of her head a couple of days after the chicks arrived from the hatchery. Didn't slow her down, though, having a crossed beak and being blind on one side.

Now, along with the Cardigans and Joey, I got some eggs from Linda last year when one of my hens went broody & hatched out three chicks that were obviously the Cardigans' siblings. One died early on (can't remember what happened but I think he's the one that drowned), and there were two pullets left. We sold one pullet & still have the other, and even though she only hatched in early August, she went broody less than 2 weeks after laying her first egg & we let her hatch out two. One got separated from her in the cold the other night inside their little coop & he couldn't find his way back to her & we found him dead in the morning. Pretty sure it was a boy, even though it was only 5 days old when it died. It had some THICK legs and was already showing early comb growth... you know how SOMETIMES you can tell early on when they're boys? He was like that. I believe the remaining chick is a pullet.

Two other broodies are sitting on a variety of eggs, but this is day 24 on some of those & the shipped eggs are not showing any signs of hatching. Between them, they had 17 eggs, and all but 3 were shipped eggs. Well, 4 hatched--the 3 eggs that came from this yard and 1 of the shipped silkie eggs. I really, really want more silkies this year. The silkie that hatched looks like a splash or paint. Very pretty little bugger. Five toes, too. Yay! I hatched out 4 silkies last year, sold one, still have the other three. One is a rooster, one is a hen, and one is so sexually ambiguous that we are calling him RooPaul. His real name is Sascha, a name given when we thought he was a hen, but we are not so sure--he is 11 months old but doesn't crow, doesn't wing dance the girls, shows no rooster-ish behavior, sits on eggs, gets raped by the other roosters in the yard & then cries about it, but he doesn't lay eggs and has a big red comb and some nice hackle feathers and has physical characteristics that denote him as a male but acts totally like a girl. Anyway, we need more girl silkies.

How funny that so many of the siblings, children, and grandchildren from the chooks in Linda's yard end up in my pens. LOL.

 

[Buugette]

Oh... I feel so bad for that little he/she roo.

 

[turney31]

I have one of those he/shes. Was supposed to be a red sex link, it is red. We named it Pat!

 

[Buugette]

I have one of those he/shes. Was supposed to be a red sex link, it is red. We named it Pat!

funny