Respect the Rooster

I'm not one to buy a bunch of Rooster/Chicken themed items for my house just because we have them. I don't like to have a lot of collectibles or kitchy things around. I have enough dust catchers already.

But I am seriously in love with these bowls and plates from Sur La Table.



I don't need any more cute dessert sized plates but I saw the expressions of the Roosters and nearly broke down and bought them.



I had to leave the story immediately because I was too tempted! As it is, the fact that these are available online is making it difficult to keep away.

How cute are they??? Seriously, I love them!

Sweet Dreams

If you're visiting from Shoe Daydreams, you may be wondering why we're talking chickens here?

Well, my chickens are quite fashionable, especially my Napoleon. I mean, designers have to be using his colors as inspiration!

Just like many a fashion show, there is a pecking order here and craziness often ensues. This blog doesn't quite live up to it's "daily" designation but we try to keep up. If you want some more frequent hilarity, check out Savage Chickens over there to the left! Or keep up with the photostream on Flickr.

Welcome.

Luv
Poochie

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

As a part of having the chickens and having their food and the compost pile all be out in the yard, we get a variety of "visitors" who like to come out and snack on some of the bounty that is laid out each day.

We get tons of songbirds for starters, but we also get squirrels, deer, geese and bunnies

And groundhogs.

Yes, these two little stinkers live in our backyard. I think, under our garage. I'm sure one day the garage is going to sink into the earth becasue of them. And no, we haven't tried catching them yet. I don't mind them that much.

They do have a tendency to sneak under the chicken wire which makes up the coop yard fence. Their fat butts have previously pushed up the wire to the point that Napoleon was able to slip out. We put wood posts all along the bottom of the fence but we still need to do this in the new coop yard annex.

This morning I heard Napoleon squawking up a storm and thought something like a hawk or something was in there trying to get him. When we ran down the stairs and out the door we found that it was one of the groundhogs trapped in the coop and trying to get out!

Usually the chickens don't mind them when they get in the coop. Maybe today he was eating too much and they weren't happy about it.

We scared him so he ran into the brush and, I'm assuming, found his way out.

I'm sure he'll be back though!

You Oughta Be In Pictures

For my B-day my friend, Miss C, painted this amazing portrait of my Napoleon!

Isn't he handsome?

She did a great job and it now has a place of honor in my office.

If you are interested in commissioning a pet portrait, she works from a photo and is amazing!

Drop me an email at princesspoochie@shoedaydreams.com and I'll hook ya up!

Napoleon Recovery - Clean Bill

Just a quick note. I'll update more tonight or tomorrow.

We're taking Napoleon for a final visit with an avian specialis tonight. His feathers are really sprouting now and we hope she gives him a clean bill of health. Our goal is to have him back in the coop in the next day or so. I know he is eager to be out and we hope the girls will not have a problem with him (or should I say them not give him any problems).

If all goes well he'll be out scratching around by the weekend!

Hedgehog Butt!

As I mentioned - Mr. Napoleon is on the mend. He's even regrowing most of the feathers on his back! We're going to keep him on the porch until they fully "sprout" but he's looking like he will get most of them back.

As he is right now, he looks like a hedgehog!

He's been very good about being on the porch and in his crate. I know he's bored but he's been wonderful. And I think he and our kitten have a new bond. They love to stare at each other through the windows.

But I'm sure he can't wait to get back out in the coop to see his girls and scratch around.

Free Range Strauss

I'm in a chipper mood so here's a little something to make you smile too... I hope!

Napoleon Recovery - Day 14

It's been a while since we did an update on Napoleon. He is doing amazingly well. The biggest news is that he's started to grow feathers again. His back looks like a hedgehog! I think by next week he'll be ready to go back into the coop. He should be done with the antibiotics today but we'll keep him on the porch until his feathers really sprout and cover his back.

Then we'll have to see how he and the girls get on at their re-introduction.

Napoleon Recovery - Day 7

On Friday night we took Napoleon for a follow-up visit to the After Hours Vet. The good thing is that they are only open evenings and weekends, so we took Napoleon Friday night around 10pm, which worked out perfectly since he would be sleepy and easy to transport in the crate.

Let me just say the emergency vet late on a Friday night is a very depressing place to be.

All in all they said he was doing well, but the vet said that the green spots might be a bacterial infection. She wasn't sure so we decided to continue giving him the antibiotics. Since the vet admitted she is not an avian expert, she referred us to another vet in the town over. However, that vet is out until Wednesday. So that's where we will be taking him Wednesday night.

There was one big development yesterday. I walked out my door to do some errands. I was wearing a jeans skirt and some sandals and a black top. I looked out into my yard which goes pretty far back. About 50 yards or less out we have a pile of brush for a burn pile. Yeah, well, who was messing around in the brush probably chasing a rabbit or something???

IT WAS THE DAMN DOG! The same dog that hurt Napoleon.

I called out softly, "Hey Puppy." The dog looked up and took off at top speed back behind our property towards the woods which back up to our area. I dropped my bags and took off running down the gravel road which leads back to our neighbor's house which is up there.

Now, after I had come back from the taking Napoleon to the vet last week we had gone back to our neighbor's as he raises hunting dogs. And sometimes these dogs happen to get out. So, suffice it to say, these dogs were prime suspects to me from the start. But I couldn't prove anything and they had said the dogs had not gotten out.

Well, it just so happens they let the dogs out to run around and get exercise in their woods. But this dog happened to be going up onto our property since neither of us have any fences. When I got up to their house I had a little chat with the dog's owner about the whole situation.

Net result, we made it clear that not only do we not want their dogs on our property again, they would be paying for all the vet bill...which will probably end up being in the $700+ range.

It would be an understatement to say that I'm very happy we found and were able to prove whose dog it was.

Napoleon Recovery - Day 5

Hi there!

Napoleon continues to amaze us with his recovery. He's even tried to flap up over his barrier on the porch. He's getting restless and probably bored with being on the porch, away from his girls with nothing to scratch up or play with.

His back seems to be healing and he is walking better. He is getting an odd discoloration on the skin on this back, though. We are going to take him in for a follow-up vet visit tonight. We want them to look at his back and make sure he doesn't need more antibiotics.

We plan on taking him at night, since the vet is an after-hours vet anyways. This way, he'll be in his crate and sleepy. We hope!

More of the saga to follow.

Gruesome

So the pics are a bit graphic but you can see the level of injury Napoleon sustained. It's a bit hard to tell from this angle but his back is scraped raw and the puncture wounds are there. He's lost some of his balance too. Some of that is due to soreness probably but also because his tail feathers are missing.



The less severe puncture wound is the one you see here towards the back. The worse one is just at the edge of the feathers.



Given that he was in the dog's mouth when we saw this happening and that he was completely in shock and limp when we rushed him to the vet, it is amazing that he avoided broken bones or worse. That he is now standing, eating, drinking and crowing is even more of a miracle.

Let's hope he keeps on improving and that the antibiotics do their work!

Napoleon Recovery - Day 2

Just a brief update.

Napoleon is hanging in there. He's being very good on the porch and seems to like sleeping in the cat crate in the dog carrier.

He's even eaten some of his feed and been drinking water. We've been cutting down on the pain shots just to try and help space them out a bit but he's been getting his antibiotics regularly.

He's walking around and crowing although we are keeping an eye on his left leg because it seems a bit wonky. We're not really sure what's up - if it's just sore or if it is hurt more than we can tell.

Last night we zipped him into his crate when he had gone to sleep and left him on the porch. We probably won't do that again because the light wakes him up far too early.

His back is scabbed over, which I think is good. It helps to heel and keeps out any dirt, dust or buggies. Not that we are really getting many since the porch is screened in.

Napoleon is outside my window crowing right now. We did not give him pain meds this morning so we'll see how he does today. I'm going to go into work but may have to come home early if he starts having trouble.

Thank you for all your kind words and thoughts.

- Poochie

Please Send Good Thoughts

I can't write this all out again. Please read it at Shoe Daydreams.



Please send your good thoughts to Napoleon. He needs them right now. We all do.

Eggbound

Eggs courtesy of Gertie and Meg

A few weeks ago we noticed that the girls laying schedule had significantly reduced. It was especially noticeable in Meg who has, so far, been a very consistent layer. Nothing was happening.

The season was changing and getting warmer but we didn't think that was likely to make her slow down so much. If anything we thought she would be laying regularly every day. She also didn't seem to be getting ready for a moult, but hey, what do we know.

I tend to worry when things happen with the pets and I'm not sure why. So of course, my mind thinks that maybe Meg is egg bound. This is when, essentially, the egg gets stuck inside the hen and can be very serious, even fatal.

I tried to get to pick Meg up so I could examine her and see if I could feel anything but she was not having anything to do with that. I was going to take her to the vet (more chicken vet visits!) but ended up asking our friends who have lots of chickens and have had them for a while.

Their response was that if she was egg bound, she'd be dead by now. Alrighty then.

This has gone on for a few weeks now and she's still out there. She's been eating well and moves around fine, especially when she gets to free range. She hasn't gone back to laying but she has gone through a bit of a moult. It's not as extensive as the Fall moult but I'm assuming that is the cause of the interruption.

We're keeping a close eye on her just in case.

A Moveable Feast

I'll admit, earwigs totally skeeze me out. In spite of not being afraid of nearly any bug and also not liking to kill stuff, well... I just can't stand them!

They're harmless, I know, but still!



So this morning before I let the chickens out I was shaking out their old pan of food and putting in fresh. When I lifted the tray there were a million of these fleeing for their lives. Gross!

I immediately let them out and they were on those bugs like white on rice! They snapped them all up.

A good morning protein hit, I'm sure.

Chicken Purrs

On a warm sunny day one of the favorite activities of the girls is a nice dust bath. The girls find patch of fine loose dirt and kick it up to their hearts content. Luckily there are a few nice patches in our yard that are ideal for a relaxing "bath". Their favorite spot is at the base of one of the juniper trees which gives them shade and keeps them from having to worry about hawks.



Once they get started rolling around and kick the dirt up and all around, it's pretty hard to get them moving until they are finished. Yesterday I wanted to move Meg into the coop with the other two, who were in their feasting on bird seed, but she was not at all interested.

Typically I let them hang out until they are done. Sometimes Napoleon will get in on the action but most of the time he just stands guard. The best part is when they get tired of kicking the dirt up and they get drowsy and start to purr.

Chickens definitely have a level of communication and there is no mistaking the fact that they are happy and content.

Back in the Pink

So just a brief update to let you know that Gertie is feeling much better. The limp is mostly gone so I guess the sprain is healing. She'll be happy to get out into the yard tomorrow and over the weekend for lots of yummy bugs, worms and grass.

For all of you who thought we were crazy to take a chicken to the vet, just hope I'm not responsible for your health care in the future.

That's all I'm saying.

Trauma Center

We had a bit of trauma here today. I let the gang out to free range yesterday because it was such a lovely day... finally a Saturday without rain! Everyone was happy to get out into the sun and the grass.

But then I noticed Gertie was favoring her right leg. She was limping along, trying her best to compensate for something.



I don't usually pick the girls up because they really don't like it but I had to look at her foot. So I put Meg and Napoleon outside and cornered Gertie so I could get her. Once I picked her up I felt all around her foot and up her leg. I couldn't see anything stuck in her foot anywhere and couldn't feel anything wrong. We decided to wait to see if it cleared up by the next day.

But when I let them out this morning, she was still limping. Even though we are in a semi-rural area there do not seem to be a lot of vets who'll treat farm animals and chickens in particular. I guess chickens don't rate health care generally. Well screw that.

So we found an After Hours vet, wrapped Gertie in a towel and drove her in.

She was actually better in the car than the dogs and cats. She seemed to like looking out the window and had a funny habit of flinching when we went under and overpass. I think the shadow freaked her out a bit.

The good thing is that we got to the vet okay and she got examined by a vet who has chickens herself. She said that Gertie did not appear to have a break or mites or something in her foot. She thought it was just a sprain. She gave her an injection for the pain and we were able to bring her home. We were worried that the other two chickens might hurt her when she came back in but all was well.

I hoping that she will be feeling better in the morning.



The chickens are watching you!

Moving On Out

I did more reading on chicken yards after all of the rain made the coop yard a mess. I found out that you should rotate their yard area 2 to 3 times per year. Well, we've had them in the same yard for about eight months. It was time for some extreme measures!

So our solution to the soggy sloppy coop yard was to create a new annex to the yard. Just next to the current coop yard is a very large maple tree and a bunch of messy brush that I had been meaning to totally clear out. Instead, we decided to make a loop off of the current fence, incorporate the tree into the perimeter and attach it to the side of the other shed we have.



We were hoping that they chickens would really like this because the currently like to scratch around under our other bushes. They would also be protected from hawks and shaded from the sun. We added a door to have access to the area as needed and we just cut a "doorway" into the existing fence panel.

So far its been working out well. They've limited their time in the current yard and seem to like running around under the bushes. We need to block off the old yard area so we can sod or seed it, so it will grow back. We have yet to do that but plan on doing it soon.

Lime Away

It has been raining here for over a week straight. Because the chickens have eaten all of the vegetation within the pen yard, a normal rainfall causes the yard to turn into a muddy mess. This constant rain has created a stinky slop.

These conditions have caused a lot of angst for me. I like to maintain the best possible conditions for my pets. We always make sure they all get great care, high quality food, lots of attention and security. So, the mess of a pen yard goes against everything that I want for them. Plus, it isn't too pleasant for us either.

The rain kept them from going out last weekend, so I made sure to let them out both days this weekend. The rain was still going, but not as bad. I'm sure they were happy to get out. Luckily their coop has been keeping them warm and dry and I can put their food in there. But, by staying inside so much I had to do a full clean out this weekend. Three big contractor bags were filled with their bedding and 3 bags of fresh shavings went down. I also added some hay for them to nest in. At least their coop will be warm and clean.

But the pen yard still sucks! We're going to try sprinkling lime. Other than that I'm not sure what else to do. They'll just ruin any sod that is put down before it gets a chance to root and they'll eat any grass seed put down.

Other than totally moving the pen yard, which would be a major nightmare, I'm not sure what else to do. We'll have to hope that when the sun comes out and the temperature heats up, it dries it out some. Between that and the lime addition, I hope it will be okay.