what goes in must come out

Early in our fowl activities (before we started discouraging the porch as a hanging out spot), husband went to the porch and said it was, um, foul.  The hens had discovered the porch and thought it a lovely place.  And left many, many, many calling cards. 

Husband wasn't quite as delicate in his verbiage.   His was more like:  [expletive, expletive] they [expletive] as much as a big [expletive] dog.  They [expletive] all over everything.


Ooops.  Now we keep the baby gate up at the entrance, and the hens have respected that, and the chicken fertilizer stays where it'll be of benefit, and not where it'll be sat in.

The 'Hen Cave'

It's summer and it's hot.  No bird brains, my girls.  They're hangin' in the shade under the stairs.  You've heard of a man cave, right?  The girls have a 'hen cave'.

Helen wanted to know:  "we have HOW many more months of this heat?"

Potted chicken

...you never know where you may find a chicken.  I didn't manage to get a picture of it, but one day while walking, I saw what looked like Dorothy's tail feathers sticking up out of a good sized, empty concrete planter that was sitting on a porch column.  So, I called out "Dorothy, is that you in there".  And she raised her head up as if to say "yeah, it's me".  It made me laugh out loud.  Chickens really are very entertaining, and very social.  And very curious.

Mayhem

I tell ya, I can't leave for even a minute before the 'kids' are misbehavin'.   Either that, or a cat came and disturbed the nice afternoon nap the hens were enjoying, and they scattered widely.  Here's June, visiting the neighbor.   Oh, don't mind me, I'm just sitting on your window sill, minding my own business (or hoping you'll buy my Avon).

I have no idea at this moment where my two other girls are.  They aren't in the usual places, but there are no signs of a struggle, so perhaps they're visiting elsewhere too?  Hmmm, hope they make it home in time for dinner.

Do you know where your children are?  Clearly, I don't.

Update:  Neighbor said a big yellow dog came marauding down my driveway and chased the chickens.  Dang, I should have closed the gate.  By choice the hens don't wander far, but I didn't do a good job of protecting them.   I may be down to two.  :-(

2nd Update:  Crisis averted---3rd 'hen' (I hope they are hens) showed back up.  She's now put herself to bed in the tree (I hope all 3 of them start doing that--it's just safer for them), and the other two are wandering back and forth deciding where they'd like to sleep.  Whew.  No lost hens today.

And then there were 3

Sadly, one of my 'hens' started crowing.  Since this is life in the center of a big city, I can't keep a him.  Fortunately, Wabash Feed carries livestock and is willing to take my little buddy Frosty, and find him a good home.   Here he is, pert and alert, and also showing you his best side as he dives into the feedbag.

Have a good life, little buddy.  We'll miss you here at chicken central.

Where do sleeping chickens lie?

Well, my chicken farming days have begun, ready or not.  The girls (we hope they're all girls--too soon to really tell) have been trying out different roosts.  They've rotated around several...will be interesting to see what their final choice is.  I noticed Dorothy has a place on a fence several yards down, where she sleeps each and every night.  And when Blanche was still around, there was a tree branch she headed to every night as the sun went down.  So, I think these girls will pick a place when they find just the right spot, and make that "it".  They're still trying out the choices.

I don't have any pictures of them sleeping on the banana stumps, but a couple of nights each picked a stump and fell promptly to sleep.  My husband put a ladder up in the bananas to see if they like that, and they've spent a couple of nights there.  They like to huddle up together, so 3 were on the top rung, and the one that didn't fit had to descend one level.  A couple of other nights they have chosen the fence post and railing, and they cram themselves very close together, and I guess the 2 most dominant get the post.  Last night, I noticed two of them trying to fit on top of the post, and one sliding off.  When I woke up in the middle of the night, I couldn't resist looking out the window to see how that finally played out.  Chicken 2 was asleep atop chicken 1.  Voila.

A big rain

Dorothy is generally pretty happy-go-clucky, but we had a gully washer one weekend morning, and Dorothy (being the coopless chick she is) didn't quite make it to cover soon enough.   It appears she took cover in a bush, which didn't keep her dry and did cover her wet feathers with small leaves.  I saw her soon after it quit raining, and this is how I found her.  Dejected, embarassed, soaking wet, and in NO mood to talk.   It's funny all the old cliches regarding chickens.  She truly was mad as a wet hen.

Re-gifted

I've thought about getting my own hens---someday.  But hadn't even considered doing it now.

I arrived home Tuesday after my nightly walk, to find neighbor Scott sitting on the front porch with my husband.  As I ascended the front stairs, I saw a box with a sticky note that said "Merry Christmas".  Scott had brought 4 chickens.   I laughed and said "where are you going to put these?", to which he replied "they're for you."   I guess he'd heard me lament one day that another of the 'neighborhood chickens' had disappeared, and thought I'd like some of my own.

 Oh goodness.  Now what? He told my husband some of the back story...something about a company that got Easter chicks for it's employees--I guess not all the employees were pleased with the gift.  We hope this is all pullets (girls), but it's hard to tell until they get old enough to either crow or lay eggs.

 I live downtown in a big city.  We have no coop.  Wasn't expecting this gift.  Hmmm, now what?  Well, here they are, so I'm an instant chicken farmer.   I decided to name them June, Frosty, Helen and Peg after some longtime friends.  And we do have a fenced yard (not that a chicken can't just fly over the fence), so we're going to see how it goes.  Husband created some roost choices for them, I had at least some scratch on hand (that I keep for Dorothy), and I can make a quick water bowl for them.  Turned them loose in the yard, sprinkled some scratch in the flower bed, and there they are.

Where do I begin?

I'd originally had a different direction I thought I'd take with a blog. Then the neighborhood chickens came into my downtown big city life, and their antics are so entertaining, I decided blog about them.

Maybe a year or so ago, the neighbor on the corner got some free range chickens. Looks like he might have had them penned when they were very young, but they've roamed at will since becoming pullets. When I met them, there were 3, and I called them Dorothy (black with yellow markings), Blanche (yellow with black markings) and Rose (a white Leghorn). Since I walk almost daily, I would see them and visit them, and since they live across from a little store in the middle of the neighborhood, people are just part of their landscape, and they're really quite tame.

All 3 were around for awhile, and then I saw Rose about 5 blocks away, living a "spa life" at the home of one of the neighbors. They enjoyed her antics, tolerated her scratching up their mulch, and fed her until she disappeared. I think someone nabbed her :-(. So, then we were down to 2 hens. I have no idea where they lay their eggs, but I do know their favorite sleeping spots. And the two of them were around for months, until Blanche disappeared. Bummer again. I think someone nabbed her as well. No sign of trauma, they just come up missing. Shortly thereafter, one I called Sophia showed up, and was the same size as the original hens. Not sure where she'd been before because she was new on the scene here, but appeared to be the same breed, except reddish. So, Dorothy was happy to be one of 2 until Sophia disappeared. Now it's just Dorothy. I think I'm her best pal....her owner doesn't seem to pay too much attention to the hens, and I've been quite fond of them. Dorothy is the tamest of the bunch, so it's a little bit ironic that she's the only one of that flock left.

Dorothy comes down pretty much daily to see if I have any scratch for her, offers herself up for petting, and looks to see if I've freshened her water bowl.

Unless and until her owner gets more chickens, I guess Dorothy will be the only of those pals left. She's always been my favorite and I hope she sticks around.