A Rainy Day

This is the third day of rain. For the last two days there’s been an intermittent mild drizzle. I was able to pick tomatoes, the chickens were in and out and in and out, and Lily chased squirrels.

But today it is dark and pouring. The pond is near to over-flowing. The fish don’t mind a bit, in fact they seem to enjoy exploring new areas.

Candy is not so happy. Getting her furry feet wet annoys her to no end. By the way, note the toy with the bell hanging on her door. Candy knows how to use it and will ring it to get attention and tell us that her food bowl is empty. Also, note Twinkydink under the hutch. She did have to walk through the rain to get there, but it’s a dry spot out of the hubbub of the coop.

Inside the HenCam coop, the hens are eating and milling about. Often the Polish don’t have the sense to get in out of the rain, but today it’s bad enough that both Siouxsie and Tina are indoors. Siouxsie looks like a poster child for the expression, “mad as a wet hen”, but that’s how she always looks.

 

The Gems are dry and have plenty of room indoors. Perhaps boredom will induce one to lay an egg today?

Goats hate to get wet. Absolutely loathe it. So, I didn’t open their door this morning, and I gave them some extra hay. It’ll be gone soon, and I can’t keep giving them more. Goats do overeat. I’ll go out later and give them a few green beans, which is a good use of the big and starchy haricot vert that hide in the garden and can only be found when they are inedible for human consumption.

Of all of the animals, one knows best what to do on a rainy day.

Scooter refuses to get out of bed.

 

Comments:

  1. i hate rainy days i feel so cooped up inside the house but its so good for the flowers and gardens but a little drizzle not bad

  2. Candy does looked ticked.

    Scooter is just so loveable, Lilly too but Scooter is the type you just want to squeeze!!!!!

    I wish you could send some of that rain here, I seriously have concerns for my Lulu and Skippy in their chasing squirrels and generally running and playing. I have cracks in my ground that I can stick my fingers in all the way to the hand with room to spare. I fear them getting a foot caught and breaking something. Water seems to do no good. I guess I could run sprinkler 24/7 but $$$

    Terry, also, I wonder do the Gems have a roosting hierachy on your ladder roosts? In other words, do certain hens always get the top rung and on down the line?

  3. Right now the Gems all crowd the top two rungs of the ladder and it is impossible to see a hierarchy. I’ll try to get a photo. Also interesting is that although it’s clear when one hen wants something that another has, that this flock has no one dominant pullet. It is all very peaceful. Any aggression is more body language than actual pecking. I’ve read that if you give your chicks clumps of sod from day one, that they learn to peck things other than each other perhaps that’s true. The Gems also have an ideal environment – it’s large and varied with food accessible to all. Probably the group dynamics have to do with a combination of all of that.

    • Several times I saw LittleBlue plop down and one of the other Gems would come and sit with her, you have a very considerate flock.

  4. We finally got some really warm temperatures and my poor girls and roo are locked up in their pen because of a fox. (Got Miss Alpha and her friend last weekend) They are mad at me and aren’t afraid of telling me so when I walk by. I love your site and frequent it often for insight!

  5. Oh we want some rain, but it doesn’t start here for about another month. All the soil is pulverized and silt-like. AND we’ve had another heat wave this week. A light drizzle for a couple days would be loverly.

  6. terry, will my silkie hen lay eggs when she gets older and if soo what do i feed her?? any answers would be great i am a little new to the chicken world.

    • Silkies do lay eggs just like any other chicken. Like other hens, she should be eating laying hen feed that has the right percentage of protein and minerals. Be careful about giving her too many fatty treats!

      • do i start to feed them to her while she is still little like she is or wait until she gets bigger?and do i feed them to her with with scratch or just the laying hen feed?? thanks for all the answers!

        • Chickens get fed chick feed until they are ready to lay eggs, at about 22 weeks of age. At that point they get laying hen pellets. Scratch feed is unnecessary if they have access to the outdoors and dirt to scratch in – important for all chickens, I think! Scratch is like candy. A tiny amount for a treat, but don’t overdo it. With little silkies you have to be very careful to feed them a good diet. For a treat you can feed her leafy greens or pumpkin or a melon. You might want to read my FAQs on my chickenkeeping.com page.

  7. Siouxsie is definitely giving you the stinkeye. Poor thing her and Tina, having to deal with the rain and mud. Having theirs feathers look that bad must also be so uncomfortable. All feathers and no brains, but as I said before Polish chickens must have the luck of God as much trouble as they get into to live so long. Acourse if they don’t get themselves killed in the process acourse.
    As for the Gems, no having a leader yet, well that probably went away with Opie the fake Opal rooster. Acourse he was bully, and not much of a leader.
    I was wondering how is he doing at his farm with 30 hens ? Has he blossomed in the the two months since he has left your farm, or has he ended up going to freezer camp for attacking humans and the hens ?

  8. Don’t confuse no obvious top of the pecking order with no leader! In nature it is not the aggressor who is paid attention to. In wild horse herds, it’s the wise mare that leads, not the stallion. I’m sure there’s a hen or two there that the others know have more sense.

    • Your right, I forget about that. A rooster is like a stallion, and just as bloody. It’s the lead mare that endures, not the stallion over the years. Agtha might end up becoming the leader like Buffy was before you merged the two flocks together. A gentle leader who isn’t too harsh on the others. I am surprised they didn’t pick on Little Blue, acourse you said she seemed to hold up until the end.
      Well I hope Opie will have enough brains to out last his testerone phrase and become a good protector. Otherwise I see him as lunch, though if doesn’t end up getting himself killed by his new owners or by a predator protecting his hens. He might outlive them all. I have heard of few roosters who outlive the hens they protect. Favorites of the family that live to be ten or so, without the risks a hen goes through with so many egg laying problems. Especially with the game fowl type rooster, the ones who are smart enough to do out smart predators. And they will hate other roosters to death, but will love their hens and be mostly okay with humans. One lady I was reading about has a ten year old game rooster who she caught as a chick with his mother and hand tamed.

  9. There is an obvious love for your animals and that’s great! Mine are ridiculously spoiled. I really want to get a small rabbit to live indoors and train to be go to the bathroom in a litterbox; hearing that your rabbit can ring a bell for food makes me feel more sure I will be able to train mine.

    • Bunnies are easy to train, you just have to find the right treat. Some adore bananas. Others like cheerios… I’ve had indoor rabbits, too, and litter box training doesn’t really take any training. If you keep the rabbit in a crate with a hard floor for a week, and give them a litter box in the corner, they’ll go in the box. They hate peeing on a solid surface. Then, when you let them out, they’ll still go in the litter box.

  10. Hi Terry!
    I’ve made an interesting discovery. If I delete all the surveymonkey cookies out of my security file I can vote as many times as I want! I voted 4 times yesterday and 5 times already today. I know it might not be sporting but I’m afraid all the other voters are doing it as well for their favorite blogs. I can’t speak for PC’s but on my Mac I do “Safari,” then “preferences,” then go to the “Security” header where I have enabled “accept cookies only from the sites I visit.” Under there is the option to “show cookies.” I click on that and then type in “surveymonkey” to bring up only those cookies, highlight all of them, delete and done. Then I can vote again from the henblog link to vote. I have to go through this whole process before each vote. Since I have to do it anyway just to vote the first time each day, I feel a few more votes are only fair. Maybe it will get Surveymonkey’s attention and they’ll fix the glitch!

    • Thanks for the info- I’m using Mozilla on a Mac and wasn’t allowed to vote more than once. Time to make up for that!

  11. On a completely different subject- what about changing “ChickCam” to “GemCam”?

    • Genius! BTW, I’ve hired my web designer to redesign my pages. My sights will have better navigation, new content (I’m going to surprise you, you’ll just have to wait and see) and the ability for me add content without an IT guy’s help.

  12. Back to the monkeysurvey problem. Could your IT guy figure out how to delete the cookies from a PC and tell us? In a simple, easy to follow way? (If I asked my ‘ex’ for something like that I would get an hours long explanation!! I want the one or two minute version.)
    Thanks, Steve.

    • I probably should have said. I have a Dell desk top with Windows Internet Explorer 8.

  13. Hi All- I wish I had an easy cookie fix. I think when this voting is over I shall do a post on real cookie baking, as a way to reward all of you who are persevering in voting for me (for which I am very grateful -recognition of what I do in a national magazine would be such a big boost.) Meanwhile, vote if you can, and don’t worry if you can’t.