Warning! Graphic Post!

This is what greeted me in the old henhouse this morning: 

Yes, my poor old Butch is gone. 

I brought him into the house on Sunday afternoon, to show Keith... who counseled that yes, indeed, he did not look good... but we should let nature take it's course.  I don't blame Keith, it is always he who must put down hurt chickens.  Butch did not recover from his fight with one of the Elvi about 3 weeks ago. 

He had been torn across his head, and for a while, I thought his only eye was not going to function. 

I wonder now if it was.  Buffy, his companion, was staying close to him when I got out there. 

I shoo'd her over to the coop side... remember, they lived on the feed room side... so tomorrow, I'll shovel up all that straw and spilled feed, and put it on the compost heap.  I find it interesting that he made it through the week with the unbearable below zero temps, and died this week, but I think his age and the fact that he was hurt so badly contributed. 

So, our numbers continue to fall... we are down to 13 birds from 50 or so at tops in that henhouse. 

The hens are jam up and jelly tight in the henspa.  That's a VERY popular nest box. 

And the ducks are overjoyed that they are able to actually SWIM this week, and clean themselves up. 

You notice the big ice piece has barely melted. 

The goats were soaking in the sunlight when I left to go out for a while.  Delilah has settled in so very well... it makes me feel good to know that she has become part of the "herd".

The big white chicken in the middle is my next worry... she is an older girl, and is not moving around very much.  I have checked her... feet are okay... I think she is just feeling her age.  She doesn't go outside, and mostly stays under the heat lamp. 

As the little brown hen says:

"That's it for today from Calamity Acres!" 

Whew, FInished!

And on to getting ready to put the tree up!

 

Look what I saw a few minutes ago, out in the yard... I heard a sound and looked up!

 

As you can see, it is a glorious day.  This gaggle flew to the east, then looped around and came back.

 

 

I have seen them on our neighbor's pond, across the road from us.  For some reason, geese don't land on the Spehar's ponds.  I have seen a pair down there from time to time, but the bigger gaggles don't land there.

 

In the new henspa, this pair is STILL up on the nest boxes after five days.

 

 

I cannot believe that this rooster, who ruled the roost in the feed room of the big henhouse, is scared to come down and face off with Junior, who is seven months old.  However, the only place he has gone is up onto the rafters, to walk around and sleep.  I figured once everyone started going outside, he would come down.  There are exactly three teeny roosters in there, besides him, and that's how it's staying.  Instead, the big, brave Fancy is a prisoner to the top of the nest boxes, it appears.  At least I haven't been whapped in the back of the legs for a few days.  You notice there is water and feed up there, so yes, I'm an enabler,

 

 

Behold... the As-Clean-As-It's-Going-to-Get-Big Henhouse.

 

Whew.

 

See that nest box sitting on the floor on the right?  An egg is laid in it daily.

 

I lifted it up:

 

 

 

This is why I cleaned all around it and left it there.  See the pinkies?  Butch ate a whole nest of them on the other side.  I couldn't do it again.  See the delicious worms on the left?  The hens didn't.

 

 

Happiness reigned.  (I put an entire bale of straw in there, don't worry)

 

I changed out the waterers on both sides, the feed.... and did all the outside water and feed.

 

Might as well get it all done at once.

 

 

 

Butch, good eye.

 

 

Butch, bad eye side.  This is why he lives in the feed room.

 

No, THIS is why he lives in the feed room:

 

 

Stinker.

 

The partridge rooster, Handsome, lurks at the door between the feed room and the coop just for this reason. 

 

I separated them, but they actually COULD get together to fight, there is a hole in the wire where the hens go back and forth, so no... Butch isn't lonely.

 

Some more little hens are going to disappear from the little henhouse tonight, and move to the henspa.

 

 

While I was trundling the cart over to the compost pile, I decided to water the perennials for a bit.  It is so dry here, and the ground soaked it up.  We're praying for rain daily, I pray morning and evening that we get a day or two of soaking rain.  It's 51 degrees here this afternoon, and was 74 yesterday.  The temps are going to trend downwards until early next week, when they are telling us a chance of rain/snow.

 

Now to the shower, so I can clean up and start the stew!

 

 



The Battle Royal

Today, I moved Butch, Reddy, April, Folly and Fancy to the new henhouse.  My original plan was to move Butch first of all, so he could be the dominant rooster in the new house.  Then, Friday's cold night dictated that the pasture bunch were moved first.  I had hoped that the three little roosters with them were still so immature that whomever was introduced next would be able to cow them.  How I wish I could put a video on here!

 

This went on for about six minutes... I had planned to let them fight until one or the other stopped, so that the pecking order was established... Butch actually got Junior down three or four times. 

But let's face it... Butch is five, and Junior is seven months.  Butch has one eye.  I was afraid the other eye would be lost, so I finally stopped it.  I did tape them so Keith could see.

 

So, my plans are awry.  I can't put Butch in with the big flock, the other roosters tried to kill him.

He's back in the feed room, for now.  Butch is dominant over Fancy, so I really didn't anticipate too many problems.

 

Fancy, Butch, and the three hens have lived in the feed room of the big hen house for a year (at least four of them for a year, and Folly joined them after the owl killed her sister).  Fancy has a bad habit of attacking us from behind, which precipitated his move today.

 

He was totally cowed by his arrival in the new henspa.

 

He didn't quite know what to think about the bigger and more well-lit digs.

 

 

He and his girls, Folly and April, are up on top of the nest boxes for the night, and I noticed that Reddy had flown up there with them.  I don't think Keith thought about them being a good roost.

I put the water up there for a few minutes so they could get a drink, they were so stressed out.

 

I put a chair in the feed room side, because I think I am going to have to monitor tomorrow morning for a while, once Fancy is forced to come down for a drink and some food.  Junior is going to try to push him around... I think that will be a fight!

 

At the last minute tonight, as I was locking up... I grabbed Mabel, an elderly hen that has been living in the little henhouse since she came here in April.  She has a partner, Mack... and Mack ran in fright when I grabbed her buddy.  She screamed clear across the yard.  One of these two old hens is still laying a huge egg every other day.  They are bonded, so I will move Mack tomorrow.  Then I'm going to stop for a while so Keith can cut the pophole on Saturday, and we hopefully can get the netting up.  Then everyone can go outside and lose their minds for the first day, and I'll have to use the net to get them all back in, I'm sure.  (Sigh). 

Reddy, calmest of everyone and takes everything in her stride!

 

Second Post Sunday

There's a new little friend sitting with me now sometimes.

Gertie Lou has always been my little buddy.  She's such a good little girl, but I have a nice story about Abby that happened last night.  Keith was gone on an errand late in the afternoon, and it darkened outside.  Abby was laying in the doorway of the room, and jumped up and began to bark.  I kept telling her to calm down, that everything was okay, but she would run down the hall (think Lassie) and then run back and bark at me.  I finally got up to see what was wrong... and the front door had come open by at least three feet!  Abby was letting me know that something was wrong and I needed to see it!  I was so proud of her.  We have noticed since we adopted her almost three years ago now that she is very protective of us, and a very brave girl to boot.

While blog-hopping earlier today (pre-nap) I came across two new "pug" blogs... It's Tiffy Time, and Pug Possessed, with the most wonderful little pugs.  I read a number of pug blogs... I can't help myself, they ARE truly the most wonderful little dogs.

Please ignore the fact that our John Deere has been sitting out in the elements all winter. It has a tire that has been going flat for months, and has to be aired up every time it is moved... on February 27th it goes in for it's annual tuneup and by golly, that tire will be fixed for good!   What I really intended for you to see is the torque in the trunk of the huge old walnut tree.  It began last summer, and sometime in the last two weeks, a great big piece of bark just out of camera view to the left came off in a big sheet.  There is a hole on the left, also, that leads into a den inside the tree, where the trunk is hollow.  It bore very few walnuts last year. We estimate it is probably 100 years old, and one day soon this year I bet we find out (Keith!)

Cost of removal of this huge old tree is prohibitive... yes, people want walnut, but they want logs brought TO them, they no longer come get them.   Is it going down on the shop and Keith's dad's boat?  We hope not!  (Keith!)

Walnut trees are the very last around here to leaf out in the spring, and ours started dropping leaves in July last year.

While we feel better today, Keith was able to sleep in until 1 and I did not go to church, which I rarely miss.  It was not fair to the congregation to sit and listen to me cough my head off and I felt it was better to stay home as I MUST go to work tomorrow.  After all, it's my annual review day. (!) Thank heavens, it's technically the last one, though I will have to do one for this spring.  It will be a transitional one, I'll write it as I plan to turn over things to whomever my successor will be.

We did chores early, and I fixed us a decent small meal of spaghetti red... and we are waiting to see if we have the appetite for a wonderful dessert we saw yesterday morning on The Pioneer Woman Cooks on Food Network.  If I could find the link to it, I would give it to you... but it was a banana dessert (Ree Drummond hates bananas!) that she made for her mother in law and kids, who were camping out.  You took a banana, sliced it about 3/4 of the way down, open it a little, put in caramel pieces, chocolate chips, mini marshmellows, then pulled it together, wrapped it in foil, and warmed it in an oven (or over a campfire) at 350 degrees for as long as it took to melt everything.  YUMMM. 

Keith got the ingredients at the store yesterday but doggonit, we are still not up to eating it.  I think if another day passes, we should be back to feeling a little more normally.

Spring is evidently springing in the henhouse.  Rambo came across the rafters today, jumped down, and ambushed one-eyed Butch. It looks worse than it is, though.  We cleaned him up and put Neosporin all over him.  Our problem, though, is that spring IS springing.  I noticed that the big roosters are riding the tiny hens in with them terribly, and something will have to be done about it.  I am praying that once the new henhouse is finished, I can sort everyone out and get the bantam girls away from the bigger roosters.  And yes, we are facing having to thin the rooster ranks again.  I have protected Butch so far, but I can't put him back in his pasture pen and let him have the run of the pasture because it would mean keeping Rambo and the bigger flock in again.  Once the new henhouse is up and running, most of the hens still laying will be heading that way. Then we'll sort out what to do about the rooster population.  The mild winter also meant that the older roosters, whom I did not think would make it through another bad winter, all lived.  I do have one little old hen not looking well right now, but we'll see how she does over the next few days.

Have a good start to your week, everyone!

Another Sunday

And I'm grateful to have another Sunday, believe me. 

I still don't have my appetite back... I was able to eat some breakfast, a half bowl of cereal this morning, but could not get lunch down at all.  I have a potato baking in the oven right now, I think it will be bland enough, and I'll go slow.

Keith is gone now for four days, taking part in a another segment of incident management training.  He is on the far west border of Kansas, out near Colorado, and called to say he had arrived safely.  I am "batching it" with the animals until late Thursday night, when he will try to get home.  Veterans Day is Friday, and he has a holiday that day, and wants to celebrate it since he IS a veteran.  We have a wonderful parade in Leavenworth, which is, after all, a Company Town. (The Command and General Staff School is quartered at Fort Leavenworth).

After I got home from visting the craft shows, having lunch with my sister, and doing the feed store run and grocery run yesterday, I rested for a bit.  I had decided that with Keith gone, I will get the house ready (meaning clean) for the holidays.  Right now our kitchen table is so full with things to sort out, that you cannot see it!  I will be eating the potato in front of the computer!  It is dark now, though 6:11 PM, because we set the clock back to normal time last night, so I will have some light by which to do chores in the AM, and a bit of light if I come straight home tomorrow night.  Since Keith is gone, I will need to, as Hannah will need to be let out of her crate post haste.

We are expecting a LOT of rain in the next 3 days... 100% chance tomorrow, 90% on Tuesday, and 60% on Wednesday.  We need it badly, so the ponds around here can fill a little.  I worry about the bison herd abandoned on the pasture across the highway from us... they have no one watching them except a very few ladies who are with the Humane Society. They are not fed and there is one pond on the property, and the owners have moved on.  Supposedly bison are smart enough to go through fences when they are in great thirst, so I am hoping that brings things to a head and someone DOES something about them.

Yesterday, after I had caught my breath for a few minutes, I went outside to get something from the car.  As I reached the end of the porch, a hawk, either a female sharp-shinned (they are larger) or a Coopers with the brakes on and talons extended swooped down on the pasture.  I yelled as loud as I could "Hawk Hawk Hawk" so Butch and Reddy, who I had put out shortly before, had a chance to duck for cover.  I know now how we lost Eagle. 

I had the camera in my pocket, but could not get it out in time, as the hawk pulled it's talons back up and took off toward Troy's park-like back yard.

It is hard to tell the two hawks apart... Coopers and Sharp-shins look alike from a distance, but have subtle variances.  When your heart is in your throat it's hard to tell.

I love hawks, that's the crazy thing... who couldn't?

Here is my Hannah sitting on the couch enjoying the sun this afternoon

She looks pretty forlorn, but was not... she often sleeps sitting up now, her head hanging lower and lower until she lays down in a heap with a sigh.  She is stranded if I go outside and leave her on the couch, as she can no longer jump down.   I hate to have to crate her tomorrow, but the big dogs will need to stay in because of the rain.

This bantam buff cochin pullet has been on this roost for 3 weeks.  I have lifted her at least five times, and she flaps and flies down and gets all excited, and the next day, I find her just like this.  She HAS to be eating, or would have died long ago.  I have NO CLUE what is going on in her tiny little chickenbrain.  Does she think she is setting?  She watches all the other chickens with interest, and at night, they line up alongside her and go to sleep.  But THEY get down and lead their chicken lives!   I keep expecting to find her dead under the roost, but so far, nothing.  She does not have a mark on her, and I don't think there is a blocked egg or she would have died long ago.

I have been bringing in these two at night now, because the weather is getting colder and they have a shredded roof above their pen. 

You know Butch is blind in one eye, but he is my little buddy.

Our problem is that Rambo, The King of the Henhouse, does not like him.  Ram can go up to the rafters, walk across them, and drop down on the feed room side.  Once there he is not smart enough (or strong enough) to fly back up and go back over, so he is stuck.  He torments Butch.  Butch was in the window sill today, waiting to be rescued, when I went out after church.   I took Butch and Reddy out and put them in the pasture... and ushered Ram back on the other side.  Two hours later I went out for something, and One, the white rooster, was on the feed room side.  Now, these roosters are five years old... they have been around me all that time... but when I have to touch them they FREAK out.  He flew into the dividing wall... and promptly got his curved spur caught in the poultry wire and hung sideways, screaming and flapping.  I finally figured out where the wire was caught, got him loose, and he flew still screaming into the coop side as I opened the door.  The Ungrateful Thing.

By the way... we are now Lilly Three, Possums Zero.  Yes, the juvenile that was eating on our porch this week was killed and dismembered by the Huntress. There is a big pool of blood on the deck, and I'm hoping the rain of the next few days washes it away.  We intended to trap this juvenile in our Haveaheart trap and let it loose out at the county lake, but as Keith says, Lilly has blood in her mouth now, and that won't be happening to any more who venture into the yard.

We had a pow-wow yesterday and decided that next weekend, Keith and Chris will put up plywood on the roof of the new henhouse, Tyvek it, and put it to rest for the winter.  We need to accumulate some savings to finish it, as it was badly underestimated, though "built to the strength of an E5 tornado".  Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful... but it is taking far longer than estimated as well, and winter is nigh upon us.  We are going to batten down our hatches and make do with what we have for the winter, and then finish it next year.  Next year will also bring new floors and flooring in the house, it's about time the humans in this family had something!

And this greeted me when I went out to put some hay out this evening.  I threw some into the shed, as the llamas are the first to head in when it rains, we always laugh about that.  They don't like to eat soiled hay, but it is along the walls, and they can lay inside comfortably and pick at it tomorrow while it pours. 

If you look closely, you will see that Aztec has gotten herself over the bungee cord that is supposed to keep her out of the pen, and is stuck.  She tried various ways to get out when she saw me coming, and finally reconciled herself to waiting for me to help her.  I had to laugh, because she was like a naughty child getting caught.  She loves to eat the chicken feed in the bowl in the pen, hence the bungee. As Butch and Reddy will be spending the next few days inside, she can go in and out as much as she wants!  We are putting a new "roof" on the pen this weekend.

The Day after the Storm

We had a real gully-washer here last night, after 3 days of intense heat and humidity.  I was dreading today, I thought the humidity would be overpowering, but we barely reached 98 degrees.  In fact, when I got in my car, it was 20 degrees LESS than yesterday afternoon... 109 yesterday, 89 today!  Parts of the metro area received damage from high winds, and 30,000 folks suffered without their electricity on last night and most of today. 

Here is what the skies looked like as the storm came up at 7:45.  Before that, it had been mostly sunny, then boom!

Within 15 more minutes, I was asking Keith to help me get the birds in.

But it ended, as rain does.  Here's what I had this afternoon while watering:

Beautiful.

Butch, this morning, as I left for work.  As always, click to make bigger.

A Few Random Thoughts

It rained today, about a half inch, based on what was in my little grey garden cart.  Enough that I did not have to drag the hose around and water flowers tonight!

The clouds are moving out as I type this.

When I got home, I immediately did water, even though it did not get oppressively hot today.

I goofed up and left the gate open to Butch's pen, and out came his girls.  It took Rambo about two minutes to see them!

I got the gate shut before Butch could get out.  With his one eye, he is no match for ANY of the other roosters. 

Observe the damp belly and legs of Inca, who will soon lose that heavy, matted wool.

She was laying in the pool Keith got last night!  Almost all the water was sloshed out of it, so I refilled it when I got home.  Good for her, sensible llama!

The chickens won't even eat the feed I got for the llamas last week. Of course, Keith says why should they, when there is a pasture full of good bugs and grass!

I talked to a very nice clerk at Tractor Supply in Lawrence tonight, who actually answered the phone 15 minutes after they closed... and then went to find out if they had any llama feed in stock!  Her name was Cheryl, and she spoke so highly of her store and employers I am going to make sure tomorrow when I go to get a bag to try that her bosses know what a gem that they have in her.  The bag is 3/4 again as much as what we were paying, but it they will eat it, Keith says we will stock up on three or four bags in cans in the haybarn to have on hand. 

I know they can also order Mazuri, that Purina makes for exotics, if I need them to.

Here is Butch in his pen, upset, watching Angel in the llama pen with Rambo.  A few minutes later, Angel and Reddy came back to him, glad to get back in with their gentle Butch.  Eagle, the Ameracauna, had disappeared.  I walked all around the pasture looking for her, and then saw her in the llama pen.  By the time I came back around, she was gone again.  I knew if I waited a while, she would reappear near Butch, and sure enough, she did.  They are all back with their "man" for the night.  Tomorrow I'll leave Rambo and his girls in for a while in the morning and give them a chance to stretch their legs.

Tomorrow, too, I am going to share something wonderful in picture with you, that I was priveleged to discover this past week.  I think you will be as astounded as we were!

Pick a Little, Talk a Little

Here's Butch, eating a treat.  He won't get to go outside right away... he has a 4 x 4 pen with a tarp roof, but right now, that pen is solid mud underneath.  As soon as it dries out a little, he'll get to enjoy the fresh air, but for now, he's still King of the Feed Room.  He likes to eat on top of the rabbit hutch.  There was a plastic trash bag there, waiting to be used, but Libby has started laying an egg on it daily, so for now, it's staying as a nest and Butch is having his treat on it.  His bad eye has opened, after being closed for months, but appears to be dead, though he can see fine out of the other.

I thought I had posted this video last night before going to bed... but when I checked at work today, it was not posted.  I don't know if it was tired me, or Blogger, so my apologies. 

Our friend the big black rat snake is still hunting in the henhouse.  I found him today curled up by one of the buckets we use as nests.  I keep checking that I still have all my bantams in the big henhouse, and hope he doesn't get one, but goes for the mice instead. 

None of my friends can believe we have a snake awake in the henhouse this early, especially since a week ago tonight it got down to 7 below zero here. 

The snow has almost all melted here now, and we are expecting temps in the 60's tomorrow, so are going to leave windows open for the day to try to air some of this house and it's winter smells out. 

Drama in the Big Henhouse

There is something going on in the big henhouse, and it's not nice.

We think Baby Rambo, now called Rambo, is beating up the little roosters.  Those of you who keep chickens will laugh... we have far too many roosters here, but you have to understand that his daddy, Rambo, our Buff Orpington rooster, kept everyone in line peacefully.  If he saw a little rooster mounting a hen, then he would hip-check the little rooster like a hockey player, and the little one would run off squawking... no blood.  Rarely did we have any true altercations, with bleeding etc.  Every once in a while there would be trouble... we had to re-home Barney and Betty, a purebred buff brahma bantam pair, because after two years Barney started getting the brunt of everyone's ire.  Then, sadly, two years ago we lost mighty Rambo, dead of natural causes.

There are only two of his get left, as Fred, the Japanese bantam, was far more prolific until he died in the dog attack.  One is Birdy, hatched by Helen, our turkey hen, who has always been a flighty girl.  She will be four this year.  The other is Baby Rambo, from the very last hatch of big chicken eggs.  He has become a nice rooster... not golden like his daddy, but nice all the same, from one of our Wyandotte hens while they still layed, we think.

Thursday, when we got home from work, we found Butch bloodied. 

We would not have been so amazed at this, but Butch lost an eye in a fight over a year ago, and has lived since then in the feed room of the big henhouse.  He goes outside only when I put him in the dogpen in the chicken yard, where no one can hurt him.  

The only way up to him is at the very top of the dividing wall, where there is an opening that several hens cross daily to come and lay eggs on the feed room side.

The culprit who hurt him either crossed back over, or Butch had crossed to the roost side, and then came back.

You can see the dividing wall behind Keith and Butch.

We kept Butch in the rabbit hutch for 24 hours, because we thought we were going to have to put Neosporin all over his head to open up his one good eye (opposite what you see here).  However, it opened up on it's own in 24 hours. 

And on closer inspection... I found this:

Note bloody comb...

You can't tell, but these two have blood on them, too.

Rambo has gotta go.

We have never deliberately had to cull a perfectly healthy rooster before... and he is a good guardian to the hens... but I love my bantams and we just are not going to tolerate Peace by Might.  If it keeps up, Rambo is going to disappear one night.  We have a friend who butchers, and when approached yesterday, told us that if the weather let up a little, she would do the dirty for us (paid of course).  If not, and there are more injuries, Keith will take care of it.

We know we need to cut down on roosters, and that would be a start.  We are hoping to ship off any new ones to some local workmen... but that will be for this coming year.  Right now, we are just about full up on boys.

A Conundrum in the Big Hen House

Three years ago in March, we had a spate of young cockerels born. We managed to give away five to a group we met at the feedstore, and they were eaten long ago, we believe. We kept two youngsters, both appeared to be sons of Fred, the Japanese bantam rooster. One, all white, we named Butch, and one, gray and black, we named Studley, because he was...errr.... studly. Both were subservient to their dad Fred, and to big Rambo, the Buff Orpington rooster adopted from Olathe Animal Control (really!) who was our flock leader for so long until his death last year.

Butch and Studley got along fine, and both knew their places in the overall flock. Their father Fred was killed in the dog attack, and eventually, Butch began to go to the horsepen during the day with the big hens, and Rambo, their guardian. If they got too big for their britches, Rambo hip-checked them and set them straight. Two years ago, we had four roosters born who looked amazingly like Fred's grandsons... two of them, One and Two, were white with arching black tails, like their grandpa. Two were black and gray, looking amazingly like ... Studley. As we have two little gray hens (and at the time, had three), we were really not too surprised. We ended up keeping One, Two, Three and Four, and they took their place in the flock, miniatures more like their grandpa than their daddies.

After Rambo died, there was some repositioning of the pecking order, and then Baby Rambo, his last son .. grew and grew and grew. Eventually, he began taking over the flock. The hens, fickle as they are, began to follow him to the pasture as they had his daddy. Yet, every one of the smaller roosters each had a hen or two that clung to him, so the balance worked. Over in the little henyard, we were going through the same thing.... Clucky became the boss, but he has four brothers (Buddy, and three who are unnamed as yet) that MUST be given away this year (writing that down) who are "helping" him take care of their mothers and sisters.

Now, we have found Butch in the feed room of the Big Henhouse. We don't know how, but sometime in the last three weeks, the wire that forms the barrier between the feed room and the living quarters of the big flock has become loose in several places. I began to find hens in the feed room, and couldn't figure out why or how. Then, I began to find Butch. Finally, we noticed that the wire was loose in one area. Butch now stays in the feed room, and yes, he has feed and water... I'm a sap.... but we noticed that he is not going outside, not interacting except when a hen comes through to lay an egg... and is altogether subdued. Keith noticed he had taken a drubbing from Studley one day... and we think he is either injured or depressed. I made sure he was not hurt badly just an hour ago, picked him up and felt him, and made him drink a bit. He will either live or die, it will be up to him. Isolating him in the nursing cage (a rabbit hutch) is not the answer, so I will leave him alone and hope for the best.