Why not try teaching your chickens some tricks?
http://drsophiayin.com/videos/SophiasTrainedChickens.mp4
from Dr. Sophia Yin
(Garden Guys and Too Many Chickens! are back on the air February 28th!)
What is this all about?
(While you think about it, take heart! Garden Guys is back on the interair February 28th. That means more Too Many Chickens! is just around the corner.)
Is everyone keeping their chickens warm in the Polar Vortex? Mine stay outside without any source of heat but themselves, and have been fine. The key is to have ventilation to keep the moisture from hanging around. I have had to bring one inside at night, since she seems to think molting in winter during a cold snap is a sensible thing to do. She should be all re-feathered shortly, and then can have sleepovers with her friends.
Came across this video today. I agree that maybe chickens aren’t as smart as dolphins or pigs, but sheesh, lighten up, Werner.
(Garden Guys will be back on the air late January/early February, and then you’ll get more new Too Many Chickens! posts. Hang tight!)
Well, not really. We got maybe 8 inches, way less than other parts of the state. It also drifted a lot, so it didn’t even build up on the coop roof that much.
Let the wind do your work for you!
The downside of the wind is that it blew snow directly into Boss Chicken’s hutch. Luckily, she wasn’t in there, since she comes in at night in the winter. The hutch doesn’t give enough protection for the cold temperatures.
Like a ski slope in your house!
(Garden Guys will return late January/early February, and that will bring more full length Too Many Chickens! posts. In the meantime, why not browse the archives?)
Soon, my pretties. January is just around the corner.
My audience awaits!
In other news, someone found this website by searching for “the dude is flying out of the coop and there’s something in my pants.” In the new year, I hope to address this pressing topic. Until then, my fellow chickenismos.
Boss Chicken decided to molt right when it got really cold, so I brought her inside. She’s out there by herself with no other chickens to keep her warm.
She lost a few feathers.
The bad cold snap has now passed, and she seems done molting, so I decided to put her back outside today. She was psyched.
She lives in here, since the other chickens will attack her due to her disability.
The red eye is actually a gleam of joy to be back outside.
(Garden Guys and Too Many Chickens! will be back in full in January.)
We got a reasonable snowfall last night. I had to dig out the run a little, and still they are very freaked out that it looks different. Luckily, they were finally lured out by the morning’s offering of yogurt.
That white stuff is “snow.”
Do you call it “snogurt” or “sno-yo?”
(Garden Guys returns to the air after New Year’s, so there will be new Too Many Chickens! episodes then).
Well, sometimes they are! Here’s one that someone left in the coop the other day.
That’s an egg alright. Doesn’t look so big to me.
Oh, well, when you put it that way, maybe.
It should maybe go out for basketball.
Makes my cloaca hurt just thinking about it.
(Reminder: Regular Too Many Chickens! installments will be back after the first of the year, when Garden Guys Green Revolution Radio returns from holiday hiatus.)
Garden Guys won’t be broadcasting again until the new year, but don’t worry, I have stuff to fill those Fridays. For now, here’s a podcast my friend Even does called Necessary & Sufficient, in which he mails you two words, and then you have to talk about those words with him. I did this recently, and you’ll be shocked to know that I got two words relating to chickens, and off we went.
Also, here’s a chicken in a bucket.
I thought the chicken was supposed to be in a basket.
(Broadcast 11/22/2013)
I know there are a lot of products out there to help people hide their gray hair. You can just dye it all, or you can leave some gray to look “distinguished,” or you can do just your beard, if you have one and it’s giving away your grayness. I have no problem with gray hair. I think it looks nice. Of course, as my wife likes to point out, I don’t have any, so I should shut up about it. If I was already going gray and I talked about how gray hair looks good, it would sound like I doth protest too much. I’m laying groundwork here for my inevitable be-graying. I just want everyone to know I thought this before I had to think it. Anyway, chickens, as far as I know, do not go gray. They look distinguished in their own ways, I suppose.
Now in the chicken aisle
You might recall that the Mandrell Sisters are my three Buff Orpingtons who are nearly identical (at least to my eye). This has caused me no end of grief, the thinking being that I am not seeing their uniqueness. Well, there have been some developments. All three sisters have now gone through their annual molts, and things are not the same.
The first difference I noticed was that one of them was much, much lighter than she had been. She’s no longer yellow, but not quite beige. I’d say she’s become a sort of Silver Fox, if a. that wasn’t creepy to say about a chicken, and b. foxes didn’t eat chickens. I don’t want to call her that which intends to eat her. This is what got me thinking about gray hair. She might look a little distinguished, for a chicken. I don’t know that I will go to her for advice or anything, but something about her seems more respectable than it used to.
Must be the glasses.
The Mandrell Sister who has had issues with vent gleet, a.k.a. Gleety Mandrell, has stood out from the other two for a while now. At first, it was because she had the nasty butt typical of nasty butt disease. Then it was because I trimmed off all the nasty feathers, and she was the only one with a featherless hind end. As if this poor chicken hadn’t been through enough, her molt was pretty rough, too. Her tail feathers looked ragged to the point that I thought she was being picked on, until I noticed that she was bald around the neck where other feathers had fallen out. She was definitely on the “mange” end of the molt spectrum. The feathers are coming back in, but what I’ve noticed is that the new ones are lighter, but there are still plenty of old ones that are the original darker color. I’d say she looks mottled, now, if that’s what mottled means. Almost a calico, in way. I like calico cats. Calico chickens? She looks like the equivalent of wearing clashing plaids. I’ll try not to judge.
Just like this, but more feathery.
Then there’s the third sister. She has molted, but everything looks exactly the same, like that little black dress that never goes out of style. Maybe she’s behind the times as far as what’s new in chicken fashions, or maybe she’s doing that whole retro thing. Or maybe she’s like that friend who never seems to get old. Don’t you just hate that person? I don’t know. What I do know, is that I can now tell them apart, and this is fraught with issues. Do I now give them individual names? I liked the idea of a group name, though if anything happened to one of them, how would I cope? There are three actual Mandrell Sisters. What if one of the chicken Mandrell Sisters died? Would I have to have one of the human ones whacked for consistency? I have been known to go a long way for a joke, but I’m not sure I’m willing to go that far. Yet. Should I give them nicknames, like, say, Gleety? Do I just roll with the changes? Or do I do like the third chicken, and just stay put? These are big questions. Perhaps in the New Year, I will have answers. For now, I will keep the chicken ship steady as she goes, and if a new name (that isn’t Gleety) should present itself, I will be ready. Who knows, maybe I’ll even have some gray hair by then.
