Now down to four

Pat and I were gone for about 3 weeks; a week and half at Burningman and a week in the Chicago area. Our friend Lisa was gracious enough to take the dog and 7 chickens.  She came at night and grabbed the girls from the coop and placed all 7 in a long cardboard box. Apparently on the way to the island one got out in the car!  Thankfully she had a bucket in the car and it perched itself on the edge of the bucket, with its booty facing in the bucket!  Perfect!

We returned from Chicago and Lisa had returned 4 of the girls as was the plan.  Of course we still have Mary the surrogate mama, and Lisa randomly selected three of the girls.  Now, remember back at the beginning when we first got the chicks, there was one Brahma that was a little off...not sure about accepting Mary as the mom?  Well, there has been one Brahma that has been, not totally picked on, but a little bit picked on and sometimes we'd find her on top of the coop rather than in the coop.  Well, we have that one.  And looking a bit closer she is taller than Mary and the others, and her tail feathers aren't developing like the others, they are "droopy" like.  Hmm, do we have a male?!  Only time will tell!

And ya, I still haven't named them yet.  I was going to name them after cheese, but I'm not feelin' it anymore.  I definitely want to name the Americana, "The Russian", because of her puffy black beard.  Totally reminds me of those Russian dancers. Ya, I'm weird! 

Also, Mary has decided that she will lay her eggs on top of the coop, under and old mat that has been arched to make a great chicken hideaway!  She's weird!

Secure side yard, yeah!

Pat had some time this past weekend and secured the side yard. Our fences weren't low enough in some areas so he put chicken wire along the bottom by nailing it to the fence and used yard staples to secure to the ground. He also moved the chicken tractor across the entrance to that side yard....not exactly the most efficient design. We have to go out one gate, walk down the side walk and enter the secured area via another gate. We have to figure out a better design when we build the coop, b/c we will need to be able to enter that area more efficiently.Also today we had a bit of a scare. The girls were out, in the new secure area. I had left around noon to go have lunch with a friend on the Eastside. Then I went shopping and got home around 4:30ish. I walk into the yard and I see Mary in the coop, laying in the sun with one leg extended behind her. She is panting. I look closer and see that her foot was tangled in this plastic rope that is used around the straw bale. It is really tight on her foot. I go get the scissors, and walk out along the side walk and into the secured area, and come right up to the coop and start snipping..she doesn't move or jerk her leg. I'm a little concerned that maybe the circulation is cut off and that perhaps she's not going to be able to walk on it. She let me snip the rope some more, and when it was freed she slowly moved it back under her. I put some water down near her and she sat there and drank for about 2 minutes straight. Then she stood on it, so it seems to be OK. Then she kept drinking, and then left the coop. It seems to be fine, she is not limping. Thank goodness.

The girls did fine and seem to be enjoying the freedom. They especially like resting under the flower bush (I don't know what kind it is) and drinking from the faucet.

Yes, everybody likes cheese!

We had some leftover Tillamook Swiss Cheese slices that we needed to get rid of and I knew my dog liked cheese, but what about chickens?

Even cats and kids like watching the chicks!

Miss Sable was raised with the chicks so she knows better than to catch them. And believe me, she could...she brings home lots of mice, rats, and robins. She likes to bring them into the basement to talk to them, play with them, and then eat them. But she just likes to watch the chicks...thankfully.

Last night we had our neighbors over with their 13 month old daughter, Stella. She kept calling the chicks, kitty.

Surrogate momma day two and beyond

With Mary accepting the chicks and the chicks accepting her, it made raising them relatively easy...not need for a chick cage, or a heat lamp. When they needed warmth they went under Mary. The only thing we've noticed is that the chicks are afraid of us, and since we didn't imprint on them like we did with the others, they don't respond to our whistles. With the others, they became used to us and knew that our whistles meant to come and receive a treat. Also, we haven't named them. Seems odd. I'm sure we'll name them soon, especially since they are starting to become distinguished in their looks and personalities.

A brooding hen and introducing new baby chicks!

With the passing of Molly, Mary (our Brahma) went into brooding mode about week later. She decided to sit on 8 eggs for about 3 weeks. If you've never seen a brooding chicken it's a bit sad, especially when you know those eggs aren't fertile and will never hatch. She built a nest in the back of the chicken tractor, and sat on them, not coming out for exercise or food. We tried enticing her with her favorite scratch but no, she sat there trance like. I was really starting to worry, b/c I never saw her eat or drink, but she must have when I wasn't looking. I read that hens will start getting antsy in about the third week and usually get bored and give up sitting on the eggs...we were in that time frame when Pat said he wanted to get more chicks...

After losing two chickens, and being the one that was home when both incidents went down, I wasn't exactly for it. But our friend Lisa wanted more chicks as well, and wanted us to raise them for her, like we had previously, until they can be merged into her existing brood of chickens. With Pat's mom was in town for Mother's Day, and Pat taking that Friday off, we called the Issaquah Grange. Sure enough they just received a shipment of chicks on Weds...so they were probably at least 3 days old. It was now or never if we were going to try the experiment of having Mary accept and raise them as her own. We read that a brooding hen might possibly become a surrogate mother to baby chicks, or she would eat them. We brought home six chicks: 2 americanus (brown like Lucy), 2 Buff Brahma's (like Mary), and two Black Barreds.

With the chicks in a cardboard box, we walked quickly past Mary, b/c our plan was to introduce them at night. I kept joking in the car that with our luck, we'd come home and Mary would have come up off the eggs, b/c she had gotten bored and was done brooding. Well, as Pat was putting the chick feed and scratch into the can, and rustling around with the bags of food, Mary suddenly jumped up off her eggs, and came running out of the coop! Great, now what do we do. She was acting very odd, fluffing up, making odd sounds, eating frantically...like three handfuls of scratch, then went and picked the hell out of the clover in the grass, took a huge poop and then went to the other side of the house, fluffed up and made weird sounds again. So when she wasn't looking we removed the eggs and put the chicks in the coop. She came around the corner and saw them in her coop running around, chirping like crazy. She stood tall and her neck feathers were puffed up...almost like hairs on the back of a dog...so we weren't sure what she was going to do...would she eat them?!

She went into the coop, back to her nest. Pat went into the coop as well and shoved the chicks under her...she accepted them under her when Pat put them there...but if the chicks would leave her and then come running back towards her, she would peck the crap out of them! The chicks would freeze for a couple of seconds, and then, when they felt it was safe, would run as fast as they could away from her! Pat would keep shoving them under her, and still if they ran from her, she would peck the crap out of them when they came back towards her. We think she thought she was protecting her eggs, even though we had removed them. There is one Brahma, that is, well, a bit slow. With all other chicks under her, the one Brahma would be in the coop screatching, like it was yelling for its mother...and not accepting Mary as her mother. Great, so we have 5 that are accepting Mary as the mother and one that is not. Well, after about 6 hrs of Pat continuously shoving the chicks under her and making sure Mary doesn't eat them, it was time to call it a night. Pat put them all under her and closed the coop.

I feared looking in the coop the next morning b/c what if she ate them...ick! Or what if she only ate that one Brahma...or maybe that Brahma would have died b/c it wasn't kept warm b/c it came out from under Mary in the night, and Mary didn't let her back under? All the what ifs went to the way side, once I looked in and they were all still around her, some with their little heads poking out from her wing or her big chest! It was the cutest thing ever! It took one night and they all bonded! No more pecks from Mary.

Here are a bunch of photos from the first day of introduction, May 9.