Category: poultry

Did you know? Chickens have an uncanny ability to keep their heads perfectly still regardless of what happens to their bodies.

A baby chicken (more like teenage chicken by now) felt a little too fearless and strayed way away from mama hen and the rest of the flock. To teach it a lesson (and for sport) we ran after it and caught it. It’s hard to catch these guys, they go fast and they’re small. This one hid under basil, it’s easier for us this way because you can at least get close when they think you can’t see them.

We traumatized it a little to teach it that it’s a big scary world away from the flock. First Esther petted it 6 ways to Sunday. Then we made it dance to observe its perfectly still head. That’s what happens to fearless chickens in these parts.

It’s funner to watch on a bigger chicken with a longer neck. But this still illustrates their amazing ability. That poor chicken ran back to its mom so fast when we let it :).

Sometimes life on planet Earth boils down to 2 small apes rolling on the floor laughing at poultry being made to dance by a big ape. It’s the miracle of life.

The chicks got their first dirt bath and the whole scene effused with well being. Between the little chick by itself who doesn’t know how to do it, the one who can’t not fall asleep, and the extreme contentment of the mom.

We had another broody hen this year. Only 1 of the fertilized eggs we gave her made it, so quick thinking Nicole went to the store and got a few more chicks. The hen adopted them all and has been a great mom. We gave them separate quarters so the rest of the flock can get used to them without being able to attack them. It is absolutely brutal what mother hens have to go through, beyond the deprivation of not leaving her eggs for almost a month. Separate quarters is a must or I’d personally murder the rest of the flock. Friends of our told us that their broody hens leave the flock. It’s literally safer for them to sleep in the woods with coyote, fox, mink, hawk, bears, racoon, fisher, skunk, …., than it is to stay within their flock.

Esther is enamored with the baby chickens, but mom won’t let her get too close.