RIP Sally

So weeks ago (May 10), in my postpartum haze, I noticed that Sally the mean brown chicken was acting out of it. She was just standing listless in the chicken coop which is always a bad sign. Mochi was still plenty scared of her even in her sick state. Luckily this was an evening where the baby was passed out napping (the good old days) so we were able to setup a sick chicken cage in the garage for Sally but first we tried to wash her really nasty poopy butt in case she was egg bound. That was gross. Then we put her in the cage but she wasn't looking so good. I told C that she probably wouldn't make it through the night and the next day, I was right.

C took her to the humane society in milpitas to get cremated. Good bye sally - you were a prolific egg layer which is probably partly why these rhode island red chickens seem to have short lifespans...

the current pecking order

Self explanatory

mochi

So we picked up a new hen a month ago (I've been a little lazy about posting). Her name is mochi. Yes she has feathers on her legs (She's a cochin). I'll blog more on the story of how we got her and how her integration is going in a later post (basically it's not going well).

An egg and a bird

Two things happened today while I was working from home. First was that buffy the big fat yellow chicken finally laid her first egg in 5 months. I though she was too fat to ever lay again but looks like we'll be flush with eggs again. Second, I heard a big commotion from the backyard of "BOK BOK BOK" which you either hear only if an egg was being laid or there was a predator. Since I had collected both eggs today already, I figured it was a situation to be investigated so I headed outside to discover that a bird had gotten trapped in the chicken coop. The door was open to let the girls free range but I guess a bird flew in and was now panicking trying to get out. It just kept throwing itself against the wire wall in desperation. Poor thing. The chickens were cowering away from the bird in fear. I would be scared too. I opened the main door and after a few more frantic flights, the bird finally got out. Even Sally the mean chicken seemed frightened and eagerly ran back into shelter after that.

Lesson learned: Your chickens will let you know when there is danger.

Eggs again!

We came back from vacation to discover that there are eggs again in the nestbox! Looks like they are from Sally who is not dying as I thought but instead was just going through a molt. I guess they can act funny when they molt.

In other news, I made an appointment at Tru North farm in Walnut Creek to buy 2 more chickens. They will be 8 week old and probably really traumatized by the move. I still need to figure out how to integrate to make sure they don't get bullied by Sally. As it is, sally has been terrorizing me lately and chasing my legs when I enter her area. Clearly I'm at the bottom of the pecking order.

Keeping sally alive

Ever since we lost Sunny, I've been hyper vigilant about checking on the girls every day. I suddenly noticed in this last week that Sally the other RIR hen was acting a little off. She was laying down in the run with her eyes closed which in the chicken world could mean she is about to die. I of course started freaking out and started internet diagnosing her (with the help of backyardchickens.com). I started out thinking she had sour crop and dosed her with apple cider vinegar in the water (turned out I had the wrong type of vinegar tho. oops). then I started thinking she has worms so gave her worm medicine. And now my thinking is maybe she is in a molt and that is making her lose her appetite.

Well for now, she is still alive just not eating much but maybe it's just a phase... one can hope.

Now there are two

Yesterday morning, as I was doing my morning round of the chickens, I found Sunny huddled in a corner of the coop laying down. My attempts to coax her to eat and stand came to no avail. I quarantined her in a small cage in the garage in the hopes that the warmer environment would help her recover. Unfortunately when I came home from work later that day, I came home to discover that she didn't make it. We've taken her body to Davis for a necropsy to discover what she died of (and to make sure it's not something infectious). The other girls seem okay but now I find myself checking on them obsessively because I wonder if Sunny got sick over the last week but I didn't notice b/c I don't always check on them at night. Anyhow, we'll just have to wait for the results from the lab.

Sunny was at the bottom of the pecking order but the sweetest and nicest chicken as a result. She was the least afraid of us oddly enough and was the first to lay. She was a very good chicken and will be missed.

RIP sunny

Chickens hiding from storm

It's been a while since I've last posted but the girls are still alive and well. Buffy the big yellow one has stopped laying and is now officially a squatter.

The recent big storms scared them and drove them to hide in their house. I caught this picture on the webcam.

great chicken escape

I went out this morning to get the newspaper and heard this "bok bok bok" sound. I thought, "that's weird, it almost sounds like she's out here." I had let them out in the backyard that morning so I thought maybe they were just close to the fence. I walked over to the other front lawn and lo and behold, Sally was out there roaming outside the fence. I opened the gate again and led her back into the backyard.

Time to get this fence fixed.

strange roosting spot

We came home from shopping today to discover that Sunny was roosting on top of the coop door which was odd since we couldn't figure out how she would have gotten up there.

Picture of her in the background through the wire.

Closer up