Triumph (and sometimes trouble) at the henhouse
When I wrote about caring for chickens in winter weather, I mentioned the struggles of sweet Snoopy, a California White hen who has combs and wattles to match many roosters and the stiffer feathers that tend not to pack quite as much padding under the primary layers. These physical traits are indicative of breeds more…
Sure, right now we’re savoring autumn in east Tennessee (and many other places), but the balmy temps will soon drop. Maybe your first chicks are big girls now and you’re thinking What do we do when it gets really cold? Maybe, like our first brood, it hasn’t crossed your mind just yet. In either case,…
The amazing technicolour egg palette that can be part of a backyard flock is, at the very least, enchanting. When you pick out your babies or pullets or hens, part of what you might consider is the egg colour they will offer. And—happy news!—hens that lay beautiful coloured eggs can be just as prolific (or…
It’s been a very challenging few weeks. We’ve definitely had some trouble at the hen house. There’s lots of tricky stuff to process and write about, but it needs time to settle. Right now I’d rather share some happiness and joy. Which means, it’s time to share the story of bringing home and getting to…
The first thing you’ll probably notice after a predator threatens your chickens—they all disappear. I mean absolutely all of them and I mean absolutely disappeared. Still and silent—not a cluck, feather, or a shadow to be seen. This was what we found on an afternoon in October 2021. Where the girls had all just been…
Chickens are tiny rototillers. Chickens are lightly domesticated velociraptors. Chickens are annihilators of insecta and annelida—annihilators with hyper-focused intensity. Chickens are not gardeners. Gardening with chickens? Before you read more, may I suggest Metallica’s Seek and Destroy. A chicken’s mission is to gobble up every bug, worm, grub, leaf, fruit, and whatever other nourishment it…
Like humans, if you spend time getting to know your chicken girls, you’ll likely find they each have their own unexplainable and entirely lovable special needs. I don’t say this to make light of any being living with challenging disability. I say this because we are each unique and perfectly damaged in some small way…
Update: my first post was a “beginning” post, because at that time I was going to write chicken stories along the linear progress and unfolding of everything we have enjoyed, endured, and overcome as backyard chickeners. Then I remembered, I am writing these posts to enjoy, unwind, and reflect. I am writing for a break…
We all love all of our chickens. And, sometimes there’s one chickie girl in the flock who is just a little bit tighter a buddy than the others. Edie is my number one chicken friend in our flock. She is a busy, clucky, busty Barred Rock. Edie and her sister Dierdre (more often Deedee) were…
It was April 11, 2020. Maybe there was a plan, but like so many things that happened to all of us in early 2020, there wasn’t quite as much prep as might have been made in a non-global-pandemic type setting. A quick trip to Tractor Supply, presumably for seeds and garden stuff, quickly became the…