Flock Focus Friday, 5/16/14

It doesn’t feel like spring around here until the annuals are planted and Mr. Chicken Chick worked with me to liven up the backyard. This year, we buried hardware cloth underneath mulch surrounding plants so the chickens won’t ruin the them. Kate, our Speckled Sussex hen, always stays nearby when yard work is underway as it holds the promise of wiggly snacks!

Rachel, my Bantam Cochin Frizzle and the original flower in our backyard, surveys the container garden.

Blaze, Black Copper Marans rooster with a Partridge Plymouth Rock hen to his left.

ellen deHeneres (a Marans hen) went broody this week and was given some chicks to adopt (the ones from P. Allen Smith’s flock, in fact). She rejected the two yellow chicks, but is a very good, fiercely protective mother to the others. I almost lost a limb when I tried to pick up one of her chicks! I have the two yellow chicks (breeds undetermined) in my office underneath an EcoGlow brooder.

We lost our only Bantam Welsumer hen this week due to a prolapsed oviduct as suspected. After receiving the necropsy report, the vet at the pathology lab confirmed that a pecking injury caused hemorrhaging inside the oviduct when a vessel was punctured. So, while she could have survived the prolapse, flock members’ curiosity got the better of them, to her demise.
RIP Irene. Irene became a member of our flock the day hurricane Irene hit Connecticut in August 2011. She was always the most outspoken hen in the flock. The backyard won’t be the same without her.

Bring coffee. Set it on the table. Do not speak. Do not make eye contact. Back away slowly and we all just might survive this.

You haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running.

Given enough coffee, I could totally outrun Monday.

If a woman speaks and no one is listening, her name is probably Mom.

You know you drink too much coffee when...all your children are named Joe.

Yes, I'm a stay at home mom. Go ahead and ask me what I do all day long. I dare you.

All those people who told me I would become a morning person when I had children lied to me. Now I'm grumpy in the morning AND I have tiny witnesses. Where's the coffee?

Mother. Noun. One person who does the work of twenty. For free. (see too: lunatic, saint, masochist)

I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives crossed.

Kathy Shea Mormino

Affectionately known internationally as The Chicken Chick®, Kathy Shea Mormino shares a fun-loving, informative style to raising backyard chickens. …Read on

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It doesn’t feel like spring around here until the annuals are planted and Mr. Chicken Chick worked with me to liven up the backyard. This year, we buried hardware cloth underneath mulch surrounding plants so the chickens won’t ruin the them. Kate, our Speckled Sussex hen, always stays nearby when yard work is underway as it holds the promise of wiggly snacks!

ellen deHeneres (a Marans hen) went broody this week and was given some chicks to adopt (the ones from P. Allen Smith’s flock, in fact). She rejected the two yellow chicks, but is a very good, fiercely protective mother to the others. I almost lost a limb when I tried to pick up one of her chicks! I have the two yellow chicks (breeds undetermined) in my office underneath an EcoGlow brooder.

We lost our only Bantam Welsumer hen this week due to a prolapsed oviduct as suspected. After receiving the necropsy report, the vet at the pathology lab confirmed that a pecking injury caused hemorrhaging inside the oviduct when a vessel was punctured. So, while she could have survived the prolapse, flock members’ curiosity got the better of them, to her demise.
RIP Irene. Irene became a member of our flock the day hurricane Irene hit Connecticut in August 2011. She was always the most outspoken hen in the flock. The backyard won’t be the same without her.