Another Sad Day

Pixie died today.

There was an accident with a dog.


I'm just waiting for Charlie, Carol's husband, to bring her to my house.


Then I will bury her next to Honey.

This is a video of Pixie in July

~

Well, I buried her.

I cried a lot.

She is buried between Honey and a mint plant.

My hands still smell like mint.

Bloody Wattles or How To Make New Friends

Today, when I visited my girls, Mr. Cocky, the rooster, had taken his harem into the grove.

So, for once, I didn't have to worry about a covert flogging.

He loves to hide in with the hens, sneak up on me from behind, and then do a jump and scratch attack.

*@#$!% Rooster!

I closed the gate on the run, so he couldn't sneak in.

Have I mentioned that he is very sneaky?!?

The Ladies were so happy to see me!

Two days this week I have found Lavender free ranging with Carol's chickens out on the grass.

Who knows what Lavender gets up to with those wild Ladies.

She can be a pretty bad influence on well behaved chickens.

~

I closed the gate and opened the wire fencing, that separates my girl's run from Carol's chickens run.

I did this for two reasons:

1. So I could clean the run without having to clean around my Ladies.

2. So the girls could interact with a few of Carol's hens that were in the big run.

~

And the result?

Butter made friends with one of the chunky white girls.

They checked out the dust bath area together and talked chicken.

A skinny red head tried to jump Zela.

Zela and the red chicken fought.

Zela ultimately won and the red girl ran away, but Zela ended up with a bloody wattle.

My poor baby!

She got an extra bunch of cuddles from me and I kissed her boo boo.

Lavender decided she wanted to lay an egg, so she sat in the dog crate....wait! then she ran out...then she ran back in...then she ran into the run....back in to lay an egg...

Pixie ventured out into the big run, ate some food, decided she didn't like how one of the white girls was looking at her, so she jumped the white chicken!

A chicken 3x bigger than her!

Then the white chicken, Mrs. Dirtyback, pecked her and Pixie ran underneath Mrs. Dirtyback.

She got caught underneath her and for a few seconds was hilariously caught with her head sticking underneath Mrs. Dirtyback's rump and her tail wiggling in Mrs. Dirtyback's face.

Once Pixie freed herself, Mrs. Dirtyback pecked her in the comb and I intervened.

~

My Girls were scooped back up into the small run.

Home Sweet Home.

Sort of.

Pixie's First Egg

Pixie laid her first egg!!!

Here it is-

Isn't it cute?

It looks a lot like Pippa's eggs.

In fact, for a second I

thought, "Hey! How did Pippa get here?"

My little baby is all grown up.

Now she is officially a pullet.

Isn't it amazing, in 5 months, she went from this-

To this?!?

Two Egg Happy Dance

Yay! The Ladies gave me 2 eggs today.

One from Lavender, who has been laying very regularly, and one from Zela.

Zela hasn't layed an egg since Aug. 11th, the day they were taken.

I am so happy!

I think it means they are finally settling into their new home.

Lavender's green egg.


Zela's brown egg.

Silly Little Ray!
He looks so scary in this pic, but he's actually saying,
"Can I come in there? My tummy needs rubbing!"



Lavender

Pixie

Queen of all she surveys.

Butter and Pixie

Poor Butter.

On Monday, when I visited the girls

I thought that something had attacked one of them.

There were feathers everywhere!

But I couldn't see any injuries,

so I though perhaps a neighbor chicken

had jumped the fence

and gotten the sharp end of Lavender's claws.

Tuesday there were even more feathers in the run.

It's official: Butter is molting.

And really hard too.

As of today, she has a solitary tail feather loosely hanging on.

She looks so rough - poor baby.

And she is really crabby.

She wants to be held,

but she doesn't want me to touch her.

I suppose the new feathers

growing in are strange feeling and poky.

Well, she ends up pecking

me on the head to get held

and then complaining when I hold her.

Very frustrating.

~

And Pixie is growing up into a pullet.

She squatted for me today. Twice!

It's the first time she's ever squatted.

I see silkie eggs in the future.

~

My friend, Carol, that took in my ladies, has a big barred rock rooster.

He is so gorgeous.

But he loves to chase me!

I have a cut on my ankle he gave me today.

He is so sneaky.

Bad rooster!

~

Another thing I'm worrying about right now:

Last year Carol lost more

than half of her chickens

and all of her ducks.

They disappeared

after some migrant workers were working

in the soybean fields next to her house.

They are back working in the fields right now.

Please don't take my ladies!

Isn't She Pretty?

Pixie!

She is so cute!

After I took these pics I gave her a little hair cut. It's amazing the difference that makes for her.

She can see! She looks around at everything in amazement.

"There is something beyond my fuzz!"

She really needs her fuzz trimmed every week, because Lavender -her own mother!- chases her around. Pixie needs her peripheral vision to stay out of Lavender's way.

Poor orphaned baby.

Elvis Is In The Brooder

Pixie's found a hobby - Elvis impersonator.

I told her she was a little young for that and show biz was no place for a baby.

She told me, "Hunka, hunka 'm nota baybe."

They grow up so fast.