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.