The Front Porch Swing

[TexasLisa]

I'm not sure how to get them to use the nipple waterers either, but after the week I've had I can tell you that when the ones I ordered get here these chickens will either learn or they'll thirst to death! Aw, you know I'd never do anything to deliberately hurt my chicks, but I figure if they are going to peck at everything they see, and one of those things squirts the water that they're craving right into their mouths, it probably won't take long for them to get the hang of it.

I'm not big on hurting critters, but I gotta tell ya that sending Jane the Evil flying yesterday morning flat out felt good! Little brat! I had all the others into the temporary box so it was just Jane, Charlie, and Rose left. Jane came at me again and I nailed her. Flicked her right under the beak with my fingers! She backed up and made a second run and she got another dose of "I don't think so." Prince Charlie was standing on the roost like a bookie watching a prize fight. Rose tried an end run while I was distracted with Jane. Surprised the chicken poop out of her when I just grabbed her up and held her with her feet suspended in mid-air. She was squawking and trying to flap her wings but they were clamped tight against her body by my hand. I lifted her out of the brooder and dumped her unceremoniously into the holding box, where she hunkered down and tried to make sense out of what had just happened.

Then it was back to Jane the Evil and Prince Charlie. By now Jane was backed into the furthest corner of the brooder giving me the chicken glare, with her wings held back and her head extended, and Charlie was back in the front row waiting for round two. He didn't have to wait long. Jane came darting out of her corner and met the flicking finger of fate under her beak again, a little harder this time. She didn't back up this time, just kept coming like a machine gun, wings flapping madly the whole time. This time when I flicked her, I did it right on top of her head with my other hand instead of the one she was focusing on. (Does it make me a terrible person that I was actually enjoying this?) You know, Bee, what was really weird was that after the second time I nailed her she rarely made another sound - it was like watching a snake eyeing it's prey - the stare and the silence and then the strike. One more strike at me, one more flick from me, and it was exactly as you described - she was trying so hard to avoid the giant Superchicken that she literally ran up and down the length of that brooder looking for way out.

Funny, at some point in the battle Charlie decide that the fun of watching the fight was over. He went back to the feeder and started munching. Guess he figured, "See, I'm being good. I'm the good chicken. You love me, right?" He got the Rose treatment. A grab and a dump and for him the show was over. Jane was next. A grab, a few squawks, and she was in the holding cell too. I DID it! No gloves, no blood, no kidding! Now, of course all of this took longer to describe than it did to actually happen, but when I took them all back out of the box to put them into the clean brooder Jane the Evil looked like the playground bully who'd been bested - she would see my hand and she actually looked like a worm squirming under all the other chicks to hide.

Have I licked her? Heck, I dunno. Charlie and Rose seemed to have learned by watching, but Jane may be one of those critters who holds a grudge, so we'll see. All I know is that the next time I ever have to put my hands in there, except for changing out their waterer, I'll be ready. The last time I'll need to handle her will be to move her out to the coop so I guess we'll find out then.

O Blooie, you are the craziest bird-brained (said in a good way) lady I know!!!! Don't ever change!

Lisa

 

[Triple Willow]

Thank you for your concern

Very mild Spring like day here today. Temps in the low 50's with a little fog, but otherwise just like Spring. Chickens are out in full foraging force and I'm getting 11 eggs per day from 11 girls !

That sounds great. About time huh? I always love it when spring rolls in!

 

[Beekissed]

<taking a bow> I got more than chicken skills - I got CHICKEN BRAINS!! Um, wait a minute.......I have to go and rethink this one........

 

[enola]

.........me too!.........

 

[Beekissed]

Anybody got vacation plans this spring? We've got a mini vaca for trout fishing planned in May with my boys, their others and the Bat and that's about as wild as we get. I know Blooie is going on a cruise~without US

~so what about the rest of youin's?

 

[enola]

Trying to go north in early may to check out moving back to VA....... not set in stone yet.

 

[lindz8504]

GOOD MORNING!!!!!!!!

 

[Triple Willow]

Anybody got vacation plans this spring?  We've got a mini vaca for trout fishing planned in May with my boys, their others and the Bat and that's about as wild as we get.  I know Blooie is going on a cruise~without US  ~so what about the rest of youin's? 

I believe Congress is too busy to arrange me a vacation. lol I just hope to be able to maybe get away for an hour or two here and there and go fishing...maaaaybe.

 

[Blooie]

Anybody got vacation plans this spring? We've got a mini vaca for trout fishing planned in May with my boys, their others and the Bat and that's about as wild as we get. I know Blooie is going on a cruise~without US

~so what about the rest of youin's?

Blooie is gonna be a busy girl! Got the cruise, but summers around here belong to Katie. Evan goes back to South Dakota to spend all summer with his dad, and Kendra is too little yet to care about road trips...she gets quite enough of traveling when she has to go to the Spina Bifida clinic in Denver 3 times a year, (they drive that one) and then every three months she and mom fly to Salt Lake to the Shriner's Hospital. We take Katie on our annual trips to Yellowstone - been doing it since she was three years old, every year, twice a year, spring and fall. And I look forward to our week back in South Dakota with my sisters and brother and their families, so Katie always goes then as well. Katie's other gramma lives there, and so do Jenny's sisters' families, so she gets to spend time with them too. I may try to talk Jenny into letting us take Kendra back with us this time. None of my family has ever met her, and only one of Jenny's sisters and her mom have ever seen her - and that was just the week we brought her home from Denver for the first time. Jen's mom has MS, so she doesn't travel anymore. And I think Jenny could use the break, even if she doesn't admit her exhaustion.

Gotta show you this...when Katie was about 4, Jenny was trying to get a ton of stuff done so she sat Katie at the table with her water colors. Katie got busy. Jenny peeked over Katie's shoulder and said, "Boy, you used a lot of that purple - don't you want to use a different color?" Katie said, "I'm not done with purple yet. Then I need blue." Katie finished her picture and then told Jenny they had to come over to show me what she'd painted. Bear in mind that it was the dead of winter and Katie did this painting entirely from her summer memory - no photographs or anything to go by. She knew what she was painting. As soon as she showed it to me I knew exactly what it was but just to be sure I asked her about it. (Didn't want to tell her she'd made a pretty butterfly if it was actually supposed to be a horse, you know?) She grinned at me...."You guess, Gramma." I just hugged her and said, "It's Artist Point, right?" Check this out:


Katie's painting - and yes, it's framed and hanging in my living room.


And this is exactly why we include our grandkids in almost everything we do.

And I ain't going on my cruise without you - you'll all be in my prayers, on my mind, and in my iPhone!

 

[Blooie]

GOOD MORNING!!!!!!!!

Good morning right back to you! Hope your day is a great one! Now, I gotta get off this machine and out to the coop! Been on here wayyy too long this morning.