Another Marker In The Chicken Cemetary

Plaaced another marker today.

Emmy comes home tonight with this story...she told her 'Nanny kids' that Susie had died.  They were sad and made sure to tell PJ all about it.  He was sad too.  He was just glad that it wasn't Sunny the one that he picked up and held.  They were having a conversation and they wondered if Susie had a best friend.  So they asked Emmy and she said sure.  They wanted to know who it was.  Wammy she said.  No Emmy, a chicken friend.  Emmy really didn't have an answer for them.  Instead they figured out that it was really probably Keithetta.  Now they are just sure that in the spring there will be a red fern growing between their markers. (If you haven't ever read 'Where The Red Fern Grows' you won't understand the meaning of the red fern...go read it...it is a great book...one of our favorites!)

So we are going to be on the lookout for a red fern to plant this spring.

I Hate This

I have an alarm set on my phone to make sure that The Girls are all accounted for and I lock them in for the night.  I always talk to them and they answer back.  Tonight I tucked all the Little Girls in and then went to the Big Girls.  Head count and I find Susie laying all spread out in between the nesting box and the roost floor.  Her eyes are still open but she is not breathing.  Just this afternoon I saw her sitting in the sun and I even pet her.  She seemed fine.  Another chicken mystery.  I will be looking thru all my chicken books for an answer.  She was eating well.  She was being bossy.  She was in the middle of a molt.  None one the Big Girls have laid for days.  I thought it was due to the molt.  Could she have be egg bound?  It was cold the other night could that be it?  She wasn't over weight.  So now she is resting beside Keithetta in our little chicken cemetery.

If anyone has any ideas please leave a comment.

This is waht I have found so far...from Mother Earth News

Causes of Sudden Chicken Death

 Apparently, it’s not entirely uncommon for this sort of thing to happen.

Heart attack: Sudden death is a pretty well known syndrome among fast-growing broiler chickens. The birds die with a “short, terminal, wing-beating convulsion” and often flip on their back. The cause is a heart attack. Recent research suggests the heart attack is triggered by stress; the chickens seem predisposed to heart attacks because of microscopic lesions in the muscle of their hearts.

Egg-bound: Layer chickens can die if a fully-formed egg gets stuck somewhere between their shell gland and vent. Possible causes: the egg is too big, there is injury to the reproductive tract that blocks the egg, or the chicken has hypocalcemia (calcium deficiency). Overweight chickens are prone to getting egg-bound. So are young hens that are pushed to lay before they’re fully mature. Egg-bound death isn't sudden; there are signs that a hen is egg-bound and a few steps you can take to move the egg. However, the blockage often isn’t discovered until after the chicken is dead and owners can be caught by surprise.

“We all got to go sometime”: Accidents happen. A chicken could ingest something poisonous. One bird could jump down from a high roost on to another bird. Heck, a chicken could just run into a wall too hard. Once I had a chicken get a single toe stuck in the edge of the coop loft and hang upside down for a couple hours before I found her. The bird was fine once I got her unstuck but the point is: weird accidents happen.

How important is it to find an answer when a chicken suddenly dies? That’s completely up to you. Like with all things chicken-related, it comes down to paying careful attention to all your birds. If you have reason to suspect contagion or disease, or notice abnormal behavior in other chickens in the flock, get the dead bird examined immediately. If the rest of your chickens keep doing their happy chicken things as normal, maybe it’s not a high priority. As one chicken owner put it: “Where there’s livestock, there’s deadstock.”

The only unsettling thing about having no obvious reason for the death is there’s nothing concrete you can change or improve as a matter of prevention and protection for the rest of your birds.

CAUGHT!

We now have no tomatoes....red or green!  Thanks to these two.  I did find one little tiny green one way up on the top of the tomato plant that I hope they can't reach.  The good thing is that our Tower Garden in on the complete other side where the chickens never go.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Evidently there is a new dusting place...in the pea gravel around the campfire.

And then I find Susie in the flowerbed where she knows she is not allowed to go.

She's Broody Again

This is what Ethel looks like when she thinks she has eggs to hatch. 

I've tried to break it to her gently...they are wooden you goof!

She just sits there on them hissing and growling and me.   She even has the audacity to even puff up at me.

You better watch it sister.

For her own sake I have to take her off the nest so she will eat and drink.  In her mind those are her eggs and little baby chicks are going to hatch from them.  Nope.  And I'm telling you that I will not be finding fertilized eggs for her to sit on.  I will just enjoy the hatching on God's Lil' Acre down the street.

I remove her from the nest and have to close the door so she doesn't sneak back in.  And she tells me about it under her breath the entire time she is trying to figure a way to get it.

Susie figured if she jumped up to the open doors where I clean out the coop she can get on the nest.  I am hoping that doesn't mean that I have two that have gone broody at the same time.  Heaven forbid!

Oh my, my sweet Ethel had turned into a wicked chicken.  She figured out how to get in and fluffed up her feathers and made herself look twice as tall and was telling Susie that those were her eggs and that she had better be getting off them ASAP.

 Just look at those neck feathers!

 

I mean she was furious!

Finally all things returned to right in her broody world.  Susie gave up and got off the eggs.

She just moved down two empty nesting boxes and puffed herself up.  One problem Susie...you got no eggs to sit on!

 

I am telling you right now there is always entertainment on NottaLotta.  You all should come and visit!

Spa Day For Some Of The Girls

You are going to think I am even crazier than before....if that is possible. 

It was brought to my attention that a few of the girls personal hygiene practices aren't as good as they should be.  I've been watching their backsides to see if maybe they would take care of the embarrassing situation.  Nope, the girls don't care one bit.

 

Today was the day to clean those dirty chicken butts.

 

Everyone was given a chore.  Alaire was the rinse/towel wrapper/drier.

Emmy was in charge of drying.

Michael was the chicken wrangler while Ellis was the catcher.  Susie was the first customer at the chicken spa.

Alaire doing a bag up job!

Emmy was cracking me up.  She was pulling one of my acts...gaging all over the place.

A little bit of B&W ointment on the frostbitten combs.  Alaire asked when we were going to paint their toenails.

EffieGrace was second for her treatment.

I thought Emmy was actually going to hurl!  Tears in her eyes and everything.

We saved Keithetta Renetta for last because she was way worse than the other two combined.

 

We covered the couch and chair with towels just in case we had an escapee.  We even blocked off the hallway and closed the bathroom door.  In the end the girls were very well behaved.  And we checked on Susie's bumblefoot and it is healing up on its own...no surgery needed that heavens.  Don't think Emmy would have been up for that one.

While I am cleaning up our mess, Ellis comes to me to ask if I have ever been able to catch a chicken with one hand.  Nope, I don't think so.  Well, just so you know, he can!

 

Susie, A Real Spitfire

Her beak still is split and she is still doing fine.

She's developing a real pecking attitude.  But she will share a little bit of corn with Ella.

She's Doing Well

Her split beak doesn't seem to be bothering her at all.  Yesterday I caught her on the nest!

I think I am doing a pretty good job helping them get that little extra layer of fat to keep them warm in the winter.

Pretty Little Chicken

Almost everyone thinks that Susie is the prettiest chicken.  And I can tell you she is the funniest and the most likely to jump up in the chair beside you.

Just a little stretching.

Checking out the new plant she discovered.  Not a good thing.

Chicken Feathers

 Susie looks like a zebra.

 

Dory has tan and gray.

RayJeana has several different colors.

 

If I can ever catch the others standing still I'll get shots of them.  Each of the girls look so different.  Good thing, that way I an tell them apart.

Emmy's Eagle Eye

A few nights ago Emmy noticed something wrong with Susie's beak.  It is split right down the center.

Never even heard of anything like that.

 

I quickly went to the Internet to research it.  What I found was good and bad.  Somesay trim it off.  Some say put used tea leaves in it and glue it back together.  Some saw just glue it with super glue.  Some say she will be fine.  And then other say she will die.  I was in a mess.  She is one of our favorite chickens,  if you can have a favorite.

Then I reached out to all my chicken people on FB. Carneys Feed Mill Inc, where we buy all our chicken needs, said not to worry about it too much.  As long as she is eating and drinking she should be fine.  William Holden, my chicken coop maker, sent out a plea for help.  Got lots of suggestions.  Got a note from one friend saying I should give her some India ink and have her write calligraphy.  Got lots of suggestions from Little Miami Farmers Market. Backyard Chickens and My Pet Chicken say to watch her and if she is doing all the normal chicken things she should be okay. Lester Peyton, my go to birdman, also said to watch her.  If it should get worse or bleed then I should worry.  So just in case, I check to see how close the nearest chicken vet is.  Low and behold, we have one in our little town!

 

So now we all are on Susie Watch.  .

 

This morning when I checked her she was fine.  Happy as ever.  Eating and drinking and doing all those things that chickens do.  I think she will be okay.  But just in case I am going to get some super glue.  Then to figure out how to glue it together...hmmmm?

Peep And Stitch Visit

I got a call from my dad a little before noon today saying that he was on his way to see the chickens.  I was in the middle of cutting the grass and the poison ivy.

 

First things first...a little soak in the hot tub to relax all his muscles.

  (That's why he has no shirt on in the pictures below)

And then he got to meet the girls.

 

He and Susie are best buds!

Tricks with the blueberries.

He had then jumping all over the place.

Susie and Stitch don't like each other.  Stitch is scared to death of them.

A little peck on the nose was all it took to for Stitch to learn that you don't bother chickens.

And look who found an egg!

 

And then we took him to The SchoolHouse Restaurant for dinner.