Mellow's First Egg!

Today, after a few days of knowing that Mellow had reached maturity for laying eggs (she squatted down for me one day when I extended my arm), Mellow finally delivered her first egg! The egg was found underneath the roost, and it didn't crack because I just replaced the bedding. It was small as expected from a bantam pullet and was pale brown, or as some say, a tinted color. I also spotted a few blood stains on the pointed end of the egg, which were probably from her first struggle pushing the egg out.

Mellow's first egg was small with two blood stains.

Here's one of the stains, it looks a bit like brown egg color pigment that was wiped off.

The Chicken Coop d'état

Ever since I have moved into my new house, the chickens have been locked in the coop because there wasn't a suitable place to keep them confined in, we also didn't want them to bother the neighbors or let the chicks get caught by a predator. A talk with a next door neighbor had informed us that there were foxes, raccoons, hawks, and even coyotes in my backyard! So the best option since we were busy was to keep them in the coop for the whole day. I felt guilty for keeping them in there with no entertainment or area to run and frolic so a few weeks ago I decided to keep them in an old fenced up dog enclosure that the previous owner had left.

The dog pen, with two white "ornaments" on top.

Lemon and Spice immediately flopped onto the ground to dustbath, after being deprived of it for a week.

Of course the first few days were good, no one flew out and the chicks and Mellow quickly headed to  dust-bath and scrap up leaves. But as a week passed, Lime and Charcoal my best flyers had found the ticket to freedom. All they had to do was use their power jump and fly up onto the top of the fence, which encouraged the others to follow.This was the beginning of the long lasting war. . .

Not being content with their freedom from the coop, the chickies formed the Coop d'état, a group of young rebellious teenagers that were unsatisfied with their life.

The cold November wind blew Lime's feathers, urging her to continue and jump off the fence.

They probably think of me as the evil woman with The Stick, because when they do happen to get out of the fenced area, I will come out and herd them back in with a branch from a tree I had picked up in my old house, 3 years ago. And as always, poor little Mellow (who is now a midget, the baby chicks are starting to outgrow her!) is always left out, due to her shortness and irregular wing feathers. The war between the safety of the chicks and freedom happens everyday. and every minute it seems, a little chickie will make her escape, and again the evil woman with the stick will stalk the insolent, and shoo them back in. Until I get them in a permanent enclosure or buy some netting to cover the top of the fencing, the chickens will continue to escape and I will still have to chase them with a stick....

Here are some pictures in neutral times:

Spice being disturbed while taking her daily dustbath.

A little bit of grass for the exited chickers.

Top and bottom: The chickers are hiding in a small outdoor dog house from the cold, and basking in the sun's warmth as usual.

Lemon foraging in the oh-so interesting leaves.

This is how the pullets look at me under their veil of cuteness. Evil chickens! They watch me walk back in the house, with their shiny glinting eyes, full of mischief and trouble.

As night draws near, the sun sets and the chickens happily and swiftly make their way to the coop. They walk around and bawk their complaints (because they don't want to use the energy to jump up), and Mellow will jump using her "power" jump where she finds the perfect spot to jump, crouches down, wiggles her body close the the ground, and then..., JUMPS! The other pullets follow and in the end, they all make it to the rooster bar and sleep for the night, waiting for another rebellion the following day.

The sun sets after a long day.

Warble Garble

Lately I have been seeing these little yellow birds flying in the pine trees. At first glance you would assume that they were Goldfinches, but when I actually brought out my binoculars to view them I found out that they were warblers! It's my first time seeing them in my yard and their delicate and rich chip chirps surrounds the pine trees. I think that there are a couple of different warblers that I have been seeing and listening to. The warblers occupying my pine trees could be Pine Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers, or Prairie Warblers.

I'm pretty sure that this one is a  male Pine Warbler. I could hear them tweeting with loud clear notes that sounded very similar to a chipping sparrow's seeps and rapid series of chips.

Top and bottom: Here is what I think could be a female Black-throated Green Warbler.

Chicken Gossip of the Week - Chase around the Compost Bin

In the evening when all the other girls were eating their fill at the chicken bowl, Lemon and Mellow sparked up a fight and Mellow was determined to punish Lemon for her "sins". Lemon seeing that evil glint in Mellow's eyes ran towards the compost bin to hide. Mellow ominously following behind her tail, confidence in her stride. Once she was behind the bin Lemon looked back and saw Mellow right behind her! So she ran another lap around the compost bin pausing a few seconds to check behind her, but Mellow was still following her. The rest of the flock happily ate their grower pellets not minding the small feud that was happening beside them. Lemon then swiftly ran around the compost bin again then shot away from the compost bin to the overgrown sandbox. Mellow appeared from behind the bin and stopped, she did not see her offender reluctantly she ruffled her feathers and joined the flock to eat. A minute later Lemon gladly joined as well.

Lemon and her buddy Charcoal.

I would picture Mellow as strict teacher always around bugging students when they annoyed her.  Mellow hates little children who don't listen and follow her instructions and she lashes out on them with any given chance. Lemon on the other hand would be the role model student, going to the coop on time and eating with proper manners, though sometimes she will get in fights with Mellow.

Mellow the Great demands you to be silent while she eats her pellets!

Moving Out

Charcoal and Mellow on the roost.

Today I decided to start moving the baby chicks into the coop. They were already completely feathered and were getting too big for the indoor ferret cage.

 "Bawk-bawk-buaaaaaaw." the chickies whined, they were already filed up ready to come inside the house. I one by one carried each of them to their new coop and closed the door. They paced back and forth not knowing what to do and wanting to get out.

The baby chicks already to go inside. 

*Please note that the outside looks really late at night, but it's actually the flash that cause the color change in the background*

 I reluctantly opened the coop door again and put them on the roost, waited a few minutes to make sure that they didn't jump off, then closed it.

Top and bottom: They little flock examines the coops interesting surroundings.

Lemon and  Mellow quickly settled down to sleep while Charcoal still whining paced along the roost bar. In the end they all calmed down and were quiet except for a few "beeuups" and "bawks" announcing their existence here and there.

As they settled down, the chicks huddled together for their first night outside.

A Little Visitor

Every once in a while a flick of white will catch my eye outside, and usually as I look out a family of deer will be happily eating away at the leaves hanging outside of the garden fence. A mother and a baby visited today though only grazing in the "meadow". Here are some shots I got of them.

Top and bottom: The mother doe grazing cautiously, she would periodically lift her head up to check for predators.

On the left is the baby and the deer on the right is its mother.

Later on as I observed the mother I found that she had a deformed or hurt leg that she would lift up a lot while grazing.

As you can see her joint is in an unnatural position.

Sugar's Story

Sugar was a Red Star that I used to have, she was taken away by a fox this year but I will always remember her. I first got her in 2010 along with some other chicks at a feed store she was labeled as a Red Cross I didn't know much about chickens and their breeds and when I searched for the breed Red Cross I never found anyone else with the same breed. Later on I found out that she was a Red Sex-Link (also known as a Red Star, Golden Comet, Cinnamon Queen, there are lots of other names too), some common crosses are crossing between a Rhode Island Red or a New Hampshire Red rooster bred with either a Light Sussex, Rhode Island White, and Delaware female. Many hatcheries or breeders will mix in a little bit of other some other breeds as well. There are also specific crosses for each name, but let's not get into the specifics.

 As her name suggests, Sugar is as sweet as sugar. Her name originally came from a baby kitten I once named at a pet store "Sugar" because of its brown sugar colored coat. She laid an egg every day (except for when she took days off to rest and regenerate her color pigments for egg color) and would come running towards you when you called her name, many times she would decide to follow people instead of her flock. In her first year she got unlucky and a raccoon who passed by my yard decided to make a snack out of her toes. 

In the morning I woke up to frightened, groaning, and shocked hens who were pacing back in forth bawking their complaints in the coop; waiting anxiously to be let out. All over the roost and coop bars was blood that belonged to Sugar. I opened the coop doors to get her out while the rest of the flock not caring for their wounded comrade flew impatiently out, ruffling their feathers after landing. As soon as I set poor Sugar down on the wet grassy lawn, she collapsed (probably in pain) on the ground unable to stand up and follow the other hens who were already making their rounds to the dust-bathing tree. Quickly gathering her in my arms,  ran into the house, rinsed her wounds in water, and searched for something to wrap around her wounds. In a drawer with band-aids I found some First Aid hurt free wrap and wrapped her wounds, to secure the wrapping I also wrapped First Aid tape around her feet as well.

Changing Sugar's bandages.

Every 3 days I would check her toes and rub neosporin on her wounds then wrap new First Aid wrap on her toes. In about 1 month she could walk and would sometimes stand up in her box to stretch, once in a while she would hop out, but would always go back in the cardboard box to rest her feet and sleep. A few weeks later I decided to bring  Sugar outside to see her friends. As soon as I set her on the ground everyone (the flock) stared at her, they bawked in a long stretched voice ending in a staccato of hiccups. Then brave Pine stepped out from the group and gave her the stare, poor Sugar obediently drooped her head down and was greeted by a harsh peck on the comb. Sugar then got up and started running for her life to the Japanese spirea bush, the entire flock chased after her and cornered her so she could not get away and started beating Sugar up. Ripping her comb, pecking at her neck, whatever they could do to get rid of this stranger in their property. Horrified by the flock's reaction, I ran towards them and shooed the mean girls away, then grabbed Sugar to safety. I never thought that my hens would treat an old flock member like this; it was as if Sugar was a complete stranger to them. Some parts of her comb was cut and bleeding so I applied Vaseline on them. Next time Sugar came outside I would watch her more carefully so she could not get hurt.

Sweet little Sugar resting in her cardboard box.

After another month I decided that it was time for Sugar to return to her old flock. She could walk though had to do it very slowly sort of hobbling along the way, when she ran she would limp/run to a hiding spot or to me. This time as I introduced Sugar to the girls they only gave her a few disciplinary pecks and it was over, Sugar was back in the flock! Even though she was accepted her rank had severely dropped from middle rank to the lowest order, probably due to her disability. As the weeks passed Sugar got better at running and walking, though she could never run as fast as the other chickens, at least she could run to hide when danger emerged. Sugar slowly got more accustomed to her flock mates and in the end she fit right in.

Happily foraging in the yard.