Winter is on the way...

Winter is very quickly coming to Northern NY. In just 3 days the trees are various shades of red, brown, yellow and orange. In my opinion, the prettiest time of the year in our region. According to an online almanac this is supposed to be a "horrible" winter for us this year. We are really a month ahead of where we usually are with our rainy season taking most of the leaves off the trees. This time of year when most people are taking stock of their harvest, it is a great time to ponder the things we love and don't love so much. Also, I've noticed that this season brings out the worst in many folks.

My hens are doing well so far. Eric has (mostly) fixed the bottom of the cemetary livestock fence so the chickens cannot slip underneath it. So, we've been letting them out for a few hours a day. The last two days have been rainy and quite dreary. Watching them preening under our Mulberry and Norfolk Spruces when it rains is my form of exciting entertainment. Phoebe and Scroungy hang very close together. Everytime I go outside to check on them Phoebe puts her head down and runs straight for me. It's the cutest thing to watch! Scroungy while flapping her wings following suit. The other flock of 10 loves to dust bathe underneath the Sassafrass trees. It's a beautiful site to see all of them grazing by our backyard fence. They will also spend hours foraging for black oil sunflower seeds underneath our bird feeders. It's Phoebe's favorite place. Ole Meanie loves to run the length of the yard, flapping her wings. She just loves to be outside.

Oh..almost forgot... Ole' Bitty, after 6 weeks of broodiness, has finally decided to quit....at least part time! At times she will retreat back to the nest and her plastic egg. I wanted to get her a few chicks, but Mypetchicken.com and Meyer's were the only hatcheries that 3 was the minimum order and they were out of the breeds I wanted. Hopefully, she'll go broody again this spring.

Successful Impacted Crop

This is Ole' Meanie. She was the hen we'd been treating for an impacted crop. She is officially back in the coop with the general population! Yeahhh!! Thank God! I was so very worried that we were going to lose her. Her crop is back down to normal and she has slowly but, surely worked her way back into the pecking order. Girl, one of the hens she used to pick on quite a bit is having fun now that Ole' Meanie is below her in the pecking order. Seems like turn about is fair play even in the chicken world.

One funny thing is that Ole' Meanie started to crow while she was being kept inside the house. Every morning when I'd take the blanket off her cage, she'd puff up and try crow. She'd only get out a very bad imitation- imagine Roseanne Barr singing the "Star Spangled Banner". My husband now calls her affectionately, "Bob"!

I filled out a questionaire today for a lady named Ashley Adams. I think her pen name is Ashley English. Supposedly, she's writing a book about New Domesticalities, due out in 2010. Hopefully, I'll get chosen for a profile in the book about my chickens. I'd love to score a free book! Plus you KNOW that my chickens are beautiful and each one is a star. Especially, Weezy and Phoebe, they are my chicken divas...

Breaking Ole' Bitty

Chicks this late in the season??? If Ole' Bitty has her say... she won't stop being broody. We're going on 5 weeks! I guess I'll have to get a few hatching eggs and hope I don't get any roosters--eck!

Impacted crop

My poor Ole'Meanie has an impacted crop. Eric and I have been tring to break it up for a few days. Tomorrow, she goes back to our excellent vet Dr. Dewey of the North Country Animal Health Center. We've been running a tube down into her crop and injecting warm water with a syringe that attaches to the top of the tube and massaging the crop.

This will help to break up the mass of blockage. Then we use the syringe to suck back up the water after we massage her crop. Usually, this will bring up some of the yucky stuff in the blockage. We do this 2-3 times.

Then we mix up some baby bird hand feeding formula very thinly and inject a syringe full of this into her crop, along with her medicine .4 ml of Baytril and 1/2 tsp of ProBios to prevent sour crop (thrush). I also added some mineral oil to help lubricate her insides.

In the last 2 days she seems to have more energy and her droppings are thicker and are looking more normal.

Tho, her crop is still impacted as it's huge. I've been feeding her watered down layer crumbles and mashed scrambled eggs. Also free choice water with some vitamin/electrolyte mix in it.

She's got another vet appointment Monday at 2:30PM. She will probably have to have surgery. I hope to see it done, as many expert poultrymen do this simple operation at home with some Ambesol to numb the crop. As there are no nerve endings in the crop, my vet said that it can be done at home in an emergency.

I have been asking the Lord to save my Ole'Meanie. She has lost so much weight, so I pray she will survive the surgery if they do have to do it tomorrow. We're going to give her one more crop washing and food injection tonight so she'll have some more strength.

Wish us luck and your prayers are appreciated.

My fine feathered friends...

I just got through reading an excellent little book that any chicken lover would like. It's called "My Fine Feathered Friend" by William Grimes. In 85 charming pages William Grimes weaves an entertaining, soul-touching and witty chicken story. It all starts when Mr. Grimes found a little black chicken in his tiny backyard in the middle of Queens. He has no idea where "The Chicken" came from. The Chicken ends up hanging out and eating with the stray cats that Mr. Grimes feeds. The Chicken ends up being a very tough girl. She survives ice, snow, low flying police helicoptors and roosting in a pine tree. It doesn't take long for the author to become a chicken fan. Mr. Grimes is soon on a mission to learn as much as he can about his new chicken. He fixes The Chicken a make shift roost and nest box where The Chicken rewards him with delicious fresh eggs. The Chicken also provides entertainment as she chases one of the cats daily for fun. Then as quickly as The chicken appears, he disappears. This book has a charming cover and very cute illustrations throughout. Any one who loves birds, has chickens or is considering getting them would love this great book. Another thing I love is that this book doesn't have any cursing or foul language. It would be a good gift for a preteen up to an adult. "My Fine Feathered Friend" is one that I will keep in my library for years to come.

So cluckin' crazy

This summer has been soo wet and humid and the perfect weather for snails and mushrooms, as you can see in the photo! Since this weather is forcing us to stay inside, I've been doing way too much Ebay shopping for chicken collectibles. So far I've bought chicken quilting fabric, chicken china, chicken jewelry, chicken socks, chicken pajamas, chicken paper.... and the list goes on and on and on.

I've got to put some of my treasures on Ebay to raise money to visit my grandma in Arkansas come September. We've been tring to sell our house to move down with her and help her out, but to no avail.

Well, I'm tired out tonight, the chickens are all tucked in and I'm headed to bed.

Chickens are restless

The chickens are restless today, it was very rainy and windy last night so their yard is a muddy mess today. Weezy is in the coop declaring her unhappiness with the weather. I can hear her on the baby monitor clucking with distain. Weezy very much likes to be out in the sun.

As I am starting this blogging experience, I'm looking forward to posting the rest of the photos of my girls. Unfortunately, the laptop with all my chicken photo's has had to visit the computer Doc. So... you'll meet the rest of the gals later on!

To make matters worse today, Ole' Bitty has gone BROODY!! She wants to be a mommy sooo badly. If only we had more room and lived on a farm, I'd have some fertile eggs under here already. This is the second time that Ole' Bitty has gone broody. At first I thought Ole' Bitty was egg bound. I when out to the coop armed with Vaseline, rubber gloves, mineral oil and my chicken 1st Aid Kit. All prepared to do battle with the offending egg, so I could save my Ole' Bitty. I couldn't feel an egg with my fingers in the vent and I couldn't feel any when checking her abdomen area. So, I hoped and prayed that it was only her broodiness coming on. Thank God it was!