Monthly Archives: August 2012

How To Hold A Hen

I am not one of those people who cuddles and kisses my chickens. I love the girls, but they don’t need my affectionate embraces. What they do need is a caregiver who is attentive and calm. I get eggs from them, but I also get to be around curious, funny, busy-body animals that I find endlessly entertaining. I like to say that keeping chickens is like having the ocean in your backyard – there’s always something going on, and yet it is relaxing. The hens and I spend much companionable time together. That’s why, when I do go to pick them up they don’t make much of a flap (pun intended!) and they stay comfortably in my arms.

Although I don’t hug my hens, I do handle and pick them up. Sometimes it’s to check a chicken that’s been looking “off” for signs of illness. Sometimes it’s to move her from one place to another. I have a couple of hens that are happy to sit on my lap; they are the girls that accompany me on school visits. If you are just starting out with your flock, keep in mind that anything swooping down to grab a hen will scare her – so many animals want to catch a chicken dinner! So, be quick and confident, but make sure she knows it’s you who is reaching for her. If your mature hen sees you as a benign caregiver, she might squat in that deferential way that she would for a rooster. That makes her easy to pick up. If she always runs from you, then some quiet taming is in order.

When you do hold a hen, keep her close to your chest and gently keep her wings at her side. If she can flap, she’ll panic, but if she’s held securely she’ll settle right in.

And, remember to enjoy yourselves, like these gentlemen are.

For more about picking up hens, read my FAQ and see my YouTube video. It also helps to have hens that come when called. A few of my hens are much easier to catch when distracted by a bit of corn! See how to train them to come running here.

Vegetable Garden Surprises

I spend the winter thumbing through seed catalogs. I carefully select the varieties of plants that I nurture and care for over the summer in my vegetable garden. Although there is planning, I know enough to not expect the harvest to go as planned. The successes vary year by year. Last August the cucumbers were so abundant that I was making pickles. This year, the cucumbers have succumbed to wilt and insects. However, this year’s crops of tomatoes are the most delicious they’ve been in ages, and the carrots are sweet.

Every year I plant a pumpkin patch, and, other than watering, I ignore it. It fills with weeds. In a good year, I have enough pumpkins to set on the porch for Halloween.

This year, I put in a half-dozen butternut squash seedlings, too. The other day I went into the pumpkin garden to cut some tall grasses for the goats. I waded through weeds, and I spied some color underfoot.

I have a bumper crop of butternut squash!

But, that is not the biggest surprise in this year’s vegetable garden. The best is what I did NOT plant. Early in the spring, I spread two wheelbarrows full of compost on the goats’ pasture, where the soil is thin and nothing grows. Well, something is growing there now!

It’s my favorite winter squash, the delicata. I’m glad the boys don’t find it tasty.

This summer I finally replaced the asparagus patch (the original one Candy ate up, but that’s another story.) I planted the asparagus roots, and then I slowly filled in the trenches. I used good compost. I left it alone.

Lo and behold, the one plant I have never been able to bring to harvest, a sweet melon, is hanging off the side of the raised bed!

What have been the surprises in your garden this year?

Why Did The Chicken…?

Chickens will cross the road. They’ll also cross your yard, your driveway, and your neighbor’s lawn. Why? To get to the blueberry bushes. To see what’s under the leaves in the woods. To investigate the sparkly thing in the overgrown weeds in the gravel. Chickens are active and curious animals. Don’t expect them to stay on your property just because you think it’s a fine place for them.

Some hens cross the road simply because they like to wander. I have a very large backyard, with plenty for the girls to do, and yet once in awhile Buffy decided to walk down the driveway. She wasn’t looking for tasty things to eat. She wasn’t looking for a place to hide her eggs. Buffy walked down the middle of the driveway with the leisurely insouciance of a lady taking a stroll.

Unlike Buffy, the hen in this card looks to be going somewhere. Perhaps she was on the way back to the coop to lay her egg, but got distracted (so easy when you’re a chicken!)

Buffy no longer lays, and she no longer goes for long ambles down the driveway. I’ve installed a fence to keep her and the girls in the backyard. You can never be sure of why a hen decides to cross a road, but it’s usually a bad idea. I’m keeping the chickens close to home.

Instigator

Pip and Caper are twins. They’ve never been apart. They’re good buddies, but they’re brothers. You know how that is. Pip is as sweet as sweet can be with people. But, he’s greedy and possessive when it comes to food, and when it comes to me. If I scratch Caper, Pip squeezes between us. If Caper is eating something good, Pip butts him out of the way and claims it. Pip’s rudeness doesn’t seem to phase his brother. For the first year I though that Caper wasn’t very bright. He let Pip push him around and he often wore a “what?” sort of expression. I was wrong about his smarts. Caper is the one who figured out how to open the latches on the stall door (which are now secured with carabiners.) Caper is the one who knows how to squeeze out of a 2-inch gap in the fence. Caper does these things when no one is watching. On purpose. I once glanced over when he was finagling with a chain on the fence. He caught my eye and immediately looked all innocent and dim-witted.

You would think that Pip, being the bossy one, would control the play time. Goats do like to play. There’s the invitation with a gentle head butt.

There’s the circling around, tails wagging, hair on their backs up in a ridge.

But, Pip, like many bossy sorts is, underneath it all, lazy. Caper looks like the underachiever – he is tubbier and is often gazing off with a blank stare. Don’t be fooled. Sometimes they start the “let’s play” routine and then Pip checks out. Too much work. That’s when Caper does this: he bites Pip’s ear!

Look at the expression on Pip’s face.

Caper’s tactic works and riles Pip up.

Do you see Caper’s body language in the photo? For a goat about to be head-butted, he sure looks relaxed!

So, if all you knew was that Pip was the dominant goat, and you saw Caper being pushed around and t-boned by his brother, you might take pity on poor Caper.

Don’t.

Rooster Tea Kettle

After all of the talk about coffee on my blog this week, I thought I’d show off a tea kettle.

He looks angry, doesn’t he? No cheerful “rise and shine” from this fellow. His shrill whistle will get you going in the morning.

I’ve yet to  boil water in him. My excuse is that I’m worried that my gas range will melt his tail. But in all honesty I can’t face this rooster’s attitude.