Happy Talk...

2011 is off to a rough start, but I really can't complain because I've still got it pretty good. My backyard chicken flock is doing quite well. All three ladies are now laying. Shirley was the last one to begin laying. I think if Shirley were human, she would be an old spinster. She's ugly, for one, and cranky as heck. Chickens do this squatting thing if you move up on them suddenly. From what I've read, it's a submissive posture and a sign of sexual maturity meaning they are ready to breed and/or lay eggs. Nickie and Esther squat quite happily and let you scratch their back and right above their tail. Nickie gets really into it. About a week before Shirley laid her first egg I noticed that she was squatting too, only she was not so into it. It's like she has the instinct to do it, an instinct so strong that she can't help but squat, but she hates it. She'll squat, begrudgingly, but if you try to scratch her back, she bites you. I think she has intimacy issues.

the landscaping crew

My chickens have brought so much joy into my life. It's really hard being unemployed after a lifetime of successful employment. Applying for job after job and getting no positive response takes its toll on your self esteem. It is just delightful to be able to step out into my big beautiful backyard and be greeted by a happy flock. I know that they rush over to me to see if I am bringing them a treat, but even after they discover I've come empty handed, they don't bail on me. They hang out and scratch around for buggies while I keep watch over them. They know I am protecting them and that feels good. Another thing I am so grateful to my chickens for, and some people may not think this is a plus,  they have finally killed off the clover that takes over my yard every year. My husband doesn't understand what I have against the clover, but I just can't stand it. It takes over every year, smothers out all the other plants, then after a short life, dies down, leaving brown strings strewn everywhere. It looks good for about a week and then looks terrible. So, good job flock! Hopefully they've killed off the grass too, because that's another nightmare. Our backyard, or "Wild Kingdom" as my sister likes to call it, is rolling terraces, trees, shrubs, rock walls, basically random chaos. It looks cool and natural, but when the grass starts to grow in the spring, it is impossible to mow. We have to weed-whack and it's about a third of an acre back there. Patches of grass are able to grow tall and sprout foxtails. So far we've had to have foxtails removed from Lola's' nose, twice, and Gladys' ear. And it's dang expensive. But so far, my dutiful birds are keeping the grass in check. Way to go, Ladies!

Silkie Palace

 Busy busy busy!! We're all cleaned up after the flood and I finally have my sewing room back. Too bad I've been tied up with another project and haven't been able to enjoy it yet, but today is the day. I've been poring over my books looking for the next fantastic sewing project to tackle and I think it's going to be a messenger bag. I made a kid-sized one for my 5 year old nephew for Christmas and he really loved it. He won a wallet in a "white elephant" raffle at a Christmas party, unfortunately it was a ladies wallet. Fortunately he didn't know or care. He was so excited, he started carrying the wallet around with him everywhere he went. Being a ladies' wallet, it didn't exactly fit in his pocket, so I crafted a custom "man's bag" for him so he could tote his giant wallet in style.

Yes, I've been busy remodeling the duck pen into a Silkie Palace.  As you may recall, construction is not my forte'. But I did it, all by myself and I am very proud. It doesn't look half bad. It doesn't look great, mind you, but it is completely functional and secure, which is the most important thing, and the baby Silkies like it.

I am fairly new to raising chickens, so everything is unfamiliar. I can only go by what I've read (which can be quite contradictory), instinct and observation. The chicken flock has been pretty textbook so far, the ducks were vastly different from the chickens and my expectations, and the Silkies were different still. Different from the ducks and different from our first batch of chicks. The Silkies are Bantams, which means they are much smaller than regular chickens. You could tell right away that the day old chicks were very small. They ate and drank so politely, no flinging feed everywhere, no splashing in their water. Much neater that baby ducks, and even baby chicks. They peeped nonstop, even when nothing was wrong. I had doubts that they would ever be the docile lap-chickens that they were made out to be. It didn't help that one of the chicks arrived with a crippling injury. That poor baby was always crying, but sadly there was nothing I could do for her. I had to make a choice to either put Baby out of her misery or allow her to tough it out. I went with toughing it out. She has struggled and she's much smaller than the others, but she manages well enough.

Day old chicks willingly allow you to hold them and even seem to enjoy the warmth and closeness, but with each passing day they like it less and less. After just a few days on this Earth, they are less than thrilled with being picked up and make sad pitiful noises when you catch them. These Silkies were terrified of me. When I would try to hold them, they would freak out and trample the Baby, so after a while I stopped trying. It wasn't until they decided they liked spinach that they began to like my again. Now they have no problem being picked up, even Baby is cool with it. Actually, there is still one, Penelope, who hates to be held. Her nickname is the Screamer because of the awful sound she makes when you pick her up.

And now, some Silkie pictures to get you through the day.

Search Amazon.com for chickens in your backyard

And a Happy New Year!

Let's hope! So far it's been pretty much the same. I made it through the holidays without getting sick, and that was awesome, but it finally caught up to me. I woke up this morning feeling like a truck must have run me over. I overslept and was awakened by the sound of a boasting chicken proudly telling the whole neighborhood about what she'd done. Farm girls don't get sick days, so I  dragged my behind out of my warm bed and into my chore clothes. It wasn't so bad.

Southern California was hit by storms the week of Christmas, and as a result, our house got a little flooded. It rained practically non-stop for 3 days. It was a very surreal experience to see the water coming up into the patio and just keep coming and know there is very little you can do to keep it from coming into your house. We've had problems with flash floods before because of the way our house is situated, but they come and go very quickly, hence the name. But this was different. So much rain and nowhere for it to go. Our backyard was a lake. It hasn't rained in days and the yard is still soggy. We spent Christmas Eve tearing carpet and pad out of the downstairs bedrooms and hall, but at least we were all together.