The Catch-All Chicken Heart Thread

[Vivisectus]

53 cocktail recipes containing egg? Your suggestion, when faced with the question "what to do with a lot of eggs" is "Add alcohol and drink them?"

I like your style

[Doctor X]

--J.D.

[livius drusus]

Here's a terracotta one found in the ruins of Pompeii:



Adorable, innit? It's like a precursor to my parents' Deruta pitcher (a maiolica vessel shaped like a rooster that is a traditional good luck gift).

[Jerome]

Where are the real chicken pics?

[lisarea]

BAMP!

Werner Herzog on Chickens from Tom Streithorst on Vimeo.

[livius drusus]

My dad says all you have to do to hypnotize a chicken is flip them on their back and rub their bellies, which, I'm sure we can all agree, is fucking adorable.

[erimir]

Originally Posted by lisarea

BAMP!

Werner Herzog on Chickens from Tom Streithorst on Vimeo.

I was just coming here to post that!

[Vivisectus]

It has been a rough couple of months, chicken-wise. I am sad to say that the farm-shop that I bought my pullets from was a very disreputable one. As a result, a disease I think was CAV has decimated my little flock of Black Rocks. Of my 4 lovely hens I had only 1 left: Lucy, the Head Chicken. She was always the brightest one and our favourite, so I am very happy that she at least made it.

Life must go on, however, so I have augmented my flock with some more hybrids: one barred, one blue, and one sussex. I am letting them roam in my yard for the winter, as I have no tender little plants yet that they can hurt.

The winter has been tragedy-free, and my ladies are happy and healthy. I have taught them the traditional dutch chicken-call (yes, there is such a thing!) and I have to say they are better at coming to heel than my dogs ever where. If I stand in the back yard and say "Kiep Kiep Kiep!" (or rather Keep Keep Keep in english phonetics. You say it quite rapidly.) they come running in that humorous broken-knicker-elastic way they have. I can also easily manoeuvre them into the run whenever I want to, although Specklety the barred chicken always needs to be goaded around the entire run one extra time before she will go in.

They have turned the area right under the hedge at the front of my yard into a sort of chicken-spa. The dirt is nice and dry there, and it catches the noon sun if there is any, so they tend to spend a few hours every day sun- and dirtbathing there. After that they forage some more, and then they all roost together in the sun on top of my garden furniture. This means they are roughly level with the family-room window, which is especially funny of you have guests over as It looks remarkably like they are hanging out watching TV with us, with their own seat just outside the window.

They are still laying, even though it is winter. I am giving dozens of eggs away left right and centre just to get rid of the damn things. All in all I am happy I decided to get them, though I have learned my lesson now about being extra careful where I get my chickens from.

This is Lucy being all charateristic and such

[ceptimus]

Nice photo! And a very pretty hen too!

[godfry n. glad]

Agreed...She's got that "Yu haz bredz?" look.

Last year was a horror for my flock, too. My Marans got something lodged in her craw and could never get it out and she was starving...I had to put her down. Then, I failed to close up my hencondo one night a raccoon got two of my girls. Then, two months later, my pet-sitter missed the fact that one of my Wellies was roosting in the viburnum bush, rather than the hencondo, and a raccoon got her, too. (I subsequently cut down the viburnum, along with installing guardian lights.) I had too many birds for my space, anyway, but that was a hard way to rectify the situation....thankfully, I'd already dealt off my Black Rockstars to a decent home where they are still going gangbusters. I'm down to three birds and my boss biddy, Emma the Red, is faltering on the egg-laying scene (she's six). So...I'm looking for flock augmentation this year, having skipped the scene last year. I'm looking for Copper Black Marans. I've a confederate who is looking for Lavender Orpingtons to add to the collection for me to feather out this spring.

Pix when I have chix.

[Qingdai]

My buff orpington hens (the newer ones) are have started to lay and perhaps one of the older hens still kicks in an egg or two a week. I'm going to wait a year (or two) to augment the flock.
We haven't had any predation problems, but a rat is often found in the morning scrabbling amongst the straw, when I let the hens out of their house.

[livius drusus]

Is his name Templeton?

[Qingdai]

I so far have not asked his name. If I get a pig, I'll know be sure to ask him.

[Vivisectus]

I have a little mousey friend that comes to collect some of the spare corn each morning. I have lied bald-faced to Mrs. Sectus and told her it is a field-mouse, and that this means that it is impossible for it to invade the house in any way so there is no need to exterminate it.

[Vivisectus]

Tragedy! My beloved Lucy died in the night. Her crop was all swollen up - what can cause that to happen?

I am down to 3. And I has a saddy! Lucy was our favourite.

[Qingdai]

The crop gets blocked, it can be from quite a few different causes. One of which is not having enough gravel to grind the food up. Also various infections.

[Vivisectus]

Damn - I wish I had known about that, maybe I would have noticed something was wrong so I could have saved her. She was my favourite hen.

[SR71]

When I was kid we gave them cracked oyster shells. It was for grinding in the crops as well as a calcium supplement for egg laying, if I recall. Other than that, they got cracked corn, weeds from the garden and any vegetable scraps, and always plenty of clean water. That's about it. We gave no chemical supplements, and they stayed healthy. Sawdust makes a good bedding, if you have access.

[Vivisectus]

They have a little tray full of those. I made sure they had grit and everything!

[livius drusus]

I'm so sorry, Viv. She was a flame-chested beauty.

[SR71]

Originally Posted by Vivisectus

They have a little tray full of those. I made sure they had grit and everything!

Well, you musn't condemn yourself then, you'd done all the husbandry that should reasonably be expected. Chickens are notably easy to tend, but now and then things go awry with a bird. On the agribusiness scale, taking out the dead birds is a daily task, even among young cohorts. Best luck going forward.

[godfry n. glad]

I'm really sorry, Viv.

RIP, Lucy. It certainly does sound as though you've done what you could and should have.

On the up side, you can pick up a couple of pullets at the farm store, I'd bet. Just don't bring home just one....every bird deserves a buddy to hang out with.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Vivisectus

I have a little mousey friend that comes to collect some of the spare corn each morning. I have lied bald-faced to Mrs. Sectus and told her it is a field-mouse, and that this means that it is impossible for it to invade the house in any way so there is no need to exterminate it.

Heh...We have a li'l mousey who has decided to move indoors. He has been sighted multiple times and my tutored tom is totally useless...I think he must have a 'gentleman's agreement" with the rodent. Traps have been set, but as yet not yielded up a corpse.

[Chris Porter]

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/03/27/...p-video-games/

[Watser?]

A French village has proposed giving two chickens to each household in order to cut down on organic waste.

Officials in the village of Pince in north-western France say the chickens should each consume 150kg (330lb) of rubbish per year.

BBC News - French village Pince to hand out chickens to cut waste