Fencing Finished

NIGEL:
The farm fencing is complete!
It only took 4 stitches!! ;)
We have 3, yes 3 fields for the chooks (& hopefully the goats) to rotate between, keep mowed & healthy. We also have a goat barn. I finished building it a week or so back. Had some friendly advice from our neighbors Gene & Pete, who had enjoyed the afternoon watching the chooks from Gene's barn.

Broody?

NIGEL:
We have a broody hen & 3 eggs under her.
We are excited & hoping to be grandparents (metaphorically) soon!!!

Oh, did I mention that we have no idea what we are doing in regard to this! Should we be talking to the hen? We try to get her to take water (moved some into the laying box with her). She is quiet, unlike the others.

We will see!??!

Fencin' Injury

SUSAN:
Well, it's been nearly a year since the last major injury (DOG ATTACK, 5/24/10) was posted on our blog. I'm still unsure what the Dog Attack had to do with our chicken raising; but, apparently this is the place to post photos of Nigel's most recent injuries. He does claim that the most recent was a relevant injury, because he is installing a fence for the chooks. I'll buy that ...

So, Sunday morning around 10:30 am Nigel is hard at work installing the metal star poles for the fencing on the lower part of our yard. The dream is to have a full acre for our chooks to roam! In waving at one of our neighbors (who, no doubt was going to church on Sunday and not doing chores), Nigel got himself misaligned, and instead of using the large metal "fence hammer" on the star post, he used it on his HEAD! Luckily he was able to walk up to the house, and yell for me. Blood was everywhere! Because I have never taken the first aid course that Nigel has encouraged me to take on numerous occasions, I was unable to comment upon whether he needed stitches, or to really help in any significant way (actually, I was more than a bit freaked out, but he remained remarkably calm after 2 beers). So, I drove him to the West Jefferson Emergency Room. We were the only patients and were able to be seen by Rose & Chris (nurses) and Mark (physicians assistant) very quickly. At least 10 needle injections for pain???? & four stitches, a trip to the grocery store, and a lunch later ... Nigel was back out fencing! He is amazing and hasn't complained at all! He'll do anything for those chooks! Or maybe he just has a numb head after all of those years playing rugby! Who cares... as long as the fence gets done!

She GROWLED!

SUSAN:
Many of you have heard by now that we had a "broody" hen (well, two actually!). This is a hen that would like to hatch a few chicks. Basically she just remains in the laying box, sitting on her egg, hoping that you'll leave her alone so that she can warm it up enough so that it turns into a little chick. The "broody" hen does not like to leave the laying box, and she certainly does not like you sticking your hand underneath her to steal her egg.

If fact, when I do stick my hand underneath, she definitely GROWLS! After being pecked a couple of times, I'm wearing a glove for this activity!

Some facts about "Broodiness" from the Chicken Bible: "Depending upon how serious the hen is about setting, you can discourage her from laying, or 'break her up' by trying one of several techniques:
- Don't let eggs accumulate in her nest (Add: Wear Glove!)
- Repeatedly remove the hen from her nest (CHECK!)
- Move or cover the nest so she can't get in (haven't tried this yet)
- Move the hen to different housing (um ... No, we have ENOUGH housing already)
- Put the hen in a broody coop"

We're waiting until it gets a bit warmer before we allow the hens to "set" and produce little chicks. Hopefully we'll have another "broody" hen soon (well, after we let the boys back into the coop of course), and then some chicks in the summertime. Stay tuned for updates on "Broodiness"!

Hen Stuck in Chicken Wire!

SUSAN:
Well, it's been quite some time since I posted anything, but I truly haven't had any eventful experiences until last night. I came home from work and Nigel suggested that I put the girls to bed. I was still wearing my clothes from work, but I thought that would be okay because putting the girls to bed has been pretty easy & uneventful lately.

I was wrong.

When I entered the coop I heard one of my girls (hens) cry out and then I saw her .... an Australorp had fallen off of the roost and somehow had her middle toe caught in the plastic chicken wire. She was dangling from the wire with her head/body going down the ramp (AKA "down-spout") of the coop! I thought that she had broken her leg!! I quickly rushed to her side and cradled her in my arms so that I could remove her middle toe from the wire. This took quite some time. I had to get in a good position, putting my nice work pants on the floor of the coop. After about 10 minutes I thought, well, surely Nigel will come looking for me soon. Then after about 15 minutes I thought, I'm going to have to bite this plastic wire with my teeth, because I cannot get her toe out. After about 20 minutes, I'm about as mad at Nigel as I was when he went out for a boys night and I was crawling in chicken poop (see earlier post).

Finally, I was able to slowly and very carefully release her toe from the plastic chicken wire. Luckily, her leg is not broken, and she just returned back to eating.

Nigel, on the other hand ....