Chook Zoo

Spring is great and all, but my to-do list is growing. Trying to triage animals, yard work, house work, pasture management, tree planting, rehoming guineas(I don’t want to), sick ewes, Oakley + ticks, and dealing with our fleeces to name a few things. At least our basement is nice and cool so I’m not worried about them starting to rot (the fleeces). G comes home after work and does several hours of work outside every night and still manages to find the energy and enthusiasm to make us a great dinner.

Still have to summer-ize the winterized coops for a few of the flocks, desperately need to change out bedding for the banties and guineas in the garage—glad it’s nice out so they can almost all get out every day, means I have to spend less time providing enrichment and extra greens. Also a good thing because moving them in and out every day means I’ll have more of an excuse to be hands on, so if anything is up I’ll notice faster. They all need weight checks, since having baselines for all of them sure has helped me in the past. 

I’m thinking I really need to put things on a schedule and treat this hobby farm like a zoo job—once monthly weight checks, lice checks and I’m even considering some prophylactic lice dusting since it’s so damn hot here and we do tend to have a problem with it. So frustrating. I’ve always been proud of the great feather condition in our chooks and it sure has gone downhill here—even just the stress and diet change has had an effect. 

 I’ve got so many things on the brain that sometimes I just do opportunistic grabs, exam, check feet, check body condition and do a dusting. But I know that I’m missing grabbing the hard-to-catch beasts (like rooster Wedge—he’s so fast and he gets really stressed so I prefer to catch him at night).

I’m always careful about mixing treatments and grabs with the training I 100% need to maintain. The one thing I need to be able to maintain is good recall, so I never call them and then grab them. Chooks and sheep learn way too quickly and can be incredibly stubborn. They also have surprisingly good memories—I hadn’t grabbed Wedge using a towel for almost a year and as soon as he saw me bring one into the coop last month he stormed off, growling his funny little grumpy growl. I swear roosters just like to save face in front of the ladies so being grabbed is quite the affront to the ego.

 

So glad we could move the Lorpie crew (Pearl, Granny Rose, Pepper, Venga and Butterscotch) to their new temporary housing. They weren’t displaying all of their normal behaviours being in with Wedge and last years hens, so we knew we had to move them. And what a difference!! They were immediately back to their old selves. Lorpie was able to reestablish herself despite Venga's challenge (smackdown ensued, Venga ran screaming) though Lorpie is now second to Pearl, but that's ok. Lorpie isn't gaining weight as I'd like, so we'll have to see how it goes, but as paliative care goes I feel good that she's out in the sun eating grass and bugs and looking like the Stormin' Lorp we've known for four years now.

The flock has a chicken tractor for shelter, and a pretty large run surrounded by electronetting, and I’ll be putting a bit of aviary netting over top. They are prepping a spot that Glenn chose for the greenhouse he’ll build for the fall. Chooks love having a job!

 

 

 

Look how much they've cleared already!!

(it was partially disturbed by the tree stump so they just went at it)

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely Butterscotch, named by my Mom when she met her. We tend to call her Miss Buff, and she tends to respond to that.  I'll call her to me and she'll come over and stand between my feet, and wait to be picked up. Hard to believe that a year ago she, Pearl and Granny Rose were so terrified of people that they'd huddle in the corner of their quarantine stall trying to stay away from us. So glad we got them!! I often wonder what happened to all of the other hens we couldn't adopt from that place...Just another reminder to me that 4-H kids don't always know what they are doing, don't care, or aren't taught properly.  I'm surprised they didn't end up with permanent air sacculitis from the ammonia in their enclosure.  Anyway, lucky us, they are lovely hens.

 

 

 

Just remembered I need to start scraping the peeling paint off of the fence and gates, and paint a new stall for Winston. Maybe I need to hire a farm hand…Whoever it would be would have to put up with my music and barn dancing though : P

 

Have you hugged your chooks today? If you are chook-less, how about just deciding to switch to free range eggs (huevos contentos according to my Mom). 

 Miss Buff thinks that you should.

; )