Archive for the ‘Chickens’ Category

Full-time Spring time

Friday, April 11th, 2014

With nights being above freezing now, Boss Chicken gets to stay outside 24/7. Her rabbit hutch isn’t so well set up to deal with wind, so if it gets too cold or windy, I’ll bring her inside in the winter. I think we’re finally over winter, and so she gets to hang out in nature all the time now.

"You gonna just stand there, or are you gonna give me a treat?"

“You gonna just stand there, or are you gonna give me a treat?”

Still no word on when Garden Guys is going to be back up and running, but I’m as anxious as you are. As soon as I know, you’ll know!

Developments in broody chicken maintenance

Saturday, April 5th, 2014

Last week I mentioned that I had a broody chicken. The broodiness was really hard to shake, in spite of my having the Miracle Broody Hen Cure. She’d be in there for a while, seem better, I’d put her back in the coop, and she’d go right back into the nesting bucket. So then I’d put her back in the MBHC, and she’d act all agitated, so I’d put her back into the coop, and you probably can see where this is going. It turns out I was doing it all wrong. Observe the below photo:

Before!

Before!

What do you notice about this? That’s right, you can see everything. My mother-in-law, just out of trying to get a moment’s peace, went and covered the cage with a dropcloth. (The chicken can be quite vocal when the mood grabs her, by which I mean I now know what an unholy racket sounds like.) Well, it turns out this cage coverage was the missing link we needed. A day later, the chicken was cured!

After!

After!

We’ll see how long it takes them to get resistant to this new cure, but hopefully this works for a while.

In the meantime, I’ll keep telling you I’m not sure when Garden Guys is back on the air, because I don’t know. But I’ll be sure to make a post about it when I find out anything.

It’s that time of the year

Saturday, March 29th, 2014

Not that time of the year where Garden Guys starts back up (though I swear it will be soon – the computer issues they’re having are apparently legendary), but that time of the year where someone gets broody. They’re laying more eggs, it makes sense that someone’s gonna want to sit on them until they hatch. Of course, that will be never since we don’t have a rooster, so I put them in the “broody buster,” aka, an old bird cage. It tends to cure them of the urge to hatch the unhatchable. You can read more about it here. So, I’ve got this to deal with while Garden Guys sorts out their computer woes. Of course, it’s mostly sitting around waiting for the voices that tell the chicken to brood to go away, but hey, someone’s gotta do it.

The blurryness of this photo is meant to evoke Bigfoot photos. Bigfoot also likes to sit on eggs.

The blurryness of this photo is meant to evoke Bigfoot photos. Bigfoot also likes to sit on eggs.

Spring is here, Garden Guys is not

Friday, March 21st, 2014

coming soon

We’re still in a GG holding pattern. I’m told the end of the month is looking good. I’ve got plenty of material to go, so soon the floodgates will be open. Topics include: chicken mysteries, changes in the flock, winter molting, and chicken depression. How does that sound? Maybe we’ll even find out what the deal with the Garden Guys dead motherboard is.

Meanwhile, I got a call from our town today alerting me to the fact that the town bear is awake and prowling for bird feeders and trash cans. Be careful everyone!

Motherboards and mother lodes

Saturday, March 15th, 2014

So, you may have noticed that there was still no Garden Guys show on Friday. The motherboard issue at GG HQ is still ongoing. Meanwhile, I am sitting on a load of eggs like you wouldn’t believe. (I’m also sitting on a pile of chicken stories, but those aren’t as good for breakfast.) Egg production really slowed this winter, as it will. The cool thing was that everything totally stopped exactly one week before the solstice, and exactly one week after. Nature! In the last couple of weeks we’ve stopped having the ebb of an egg here and have moved into “Oh, we have three dozen eggs on the counter all of a sudden” territory. Tough problem to have.

chicken butt

Guess what?

I swear new episodes are coming soon!

The adventure continues . . .

Friday, March 7th, 2014

So, it looks like there are still problems at Garden Guys headquarters. I’m told what we’re looking at is a motherboard problem. I’m not actually looking at it, but I can picture what that looks like.

motherboard

 

We’ll try again next week. Should it fail, I’ll have some chicken news on deck for you. And not a picture if a chicken on a deck, unless that’s your thing. Everybody’s got a thing, man.

No talkin’, no bawkin’

Friday, February 28th, 2014

Due to some technical difficulties at Garden Guys HQ, today will NOT be the 2014 season premiere of Garden Guys Green Revolution Radio (featuring Too Many Chickens!). Give us another week or so, and everything will be up and running. Plus, we’re supposed to get another 9 feet of snow on Monday, so you’re not doing any gardening anytime soon anyway. I swear this is happening soon! I swear anyway, but I especially swear about the happening soon part.

Please stand by.

Please stand by.

 

Don’t worry, soon enough you’ll feel like this. (My posts are the chickens, obviously.)

Yay! More snow!

Friday, February 7th, 2014

Got about another foot on Wednesday. Luckily I had finally gotten around to putting the new roof section over the run. Up until now, it was protected by an old tarp that got a little leaky when wet. Now it has a clear roof that should keep them dry while letting light through . . . unless it’s covered in snow.

coop roof

Look at all that snow protection!

I still need to add one more support beam, but in the meantime, I just used a huge branch that came down in one of our earlier snowstorms.

branch

Use what tools you have available.

Don’t forget, new Garden Guys episodes (featuring Too Many Chickens!) begin February 28th!

 

Chicken Eye View

Friday, January 31st, 2014

I worry this is what people are doing waiting for new Too Many Chickens! posts. Tap tap . . . is this thing on?

It is on! More new episodes coming February 28th! Not long now!

If you’re stuck inside from the cold . . .

Friday, January 24th, 2014

Why not try teaching your chickens some tricks?

http://drsophiayin.com/videos/SophiasTrainedChickens.mp4

fromĀ Dr. Sophia Yin

(Garden Guys and Too Many Chickens! are back on the air February 28th!)

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