Chicken Adventures

I guess I could write a story about chicken adventures every day. Somedays there are adventures and some days tragedies and some days just fun.

Friday night we got home late. That in itself is another adventure and long story. We try to feed and water about 5 or 5:30 and then we go out about dark and close up. We have automatic doors on the two chicken houses, the Mansion and the Taj Mahal, but we have one rooster and a friend or two who has to be shut up and we always have to check to make sure no “lollygaggers” missed the shutting of the doors. I also have a late Mama, Dorothy, who just hatched 10 babies in a small coop that is no longer used and no longer safe from predators. It is a two-story coop. We did everything to keep her safe during the 21 days of sitting and now I try to keep Dorothy and her brood safe until I can move them. Dorothy hatched in that small lot and has spent her entire life in that lot so moving is going to be hard so the family is still there. Of course, Dorothy takes those sweet babies downstairs during the day and I move food and water down. Then dusk comes and Dorothy goes upstairs and calls those babies to come to bed. When we go out we usually have either 2-3 upstairs, 7-8 downstairs and Dorothy covering one group or the other. We get a net and catch babies and move them up while being flogged by Dorothy. When we got home late I knew I had cold babies somewhere but don’t you know, all babies were upstairs snuggled under Mama and happy as could be. Yesterday morning they were downstairs and got clean water and a completely filled feeder and went about their day enjoying the sunshine. Dead Eye Dickie, the resident Rooster, slept alone Friday night after we got him snuggled into his coop.

We moved on to the other lot with the Taj Mahal. The run has an automatic door set to close at 7:30 p.m. and the building has an automatic door to close at dark. The ducks are usually the late ones but they usually make it inside the run and then we have to open the door and let them inside the building. Last night the door hung on the run and didn’t drop down. Of course, the night we were late getting to them. I have one Silkie named Marble who cannot go inside. She gets up on a pallet, calls some of her friends up for a late night chat each night, a different set and number of friends. When we open the door and turn on the light, the others go inside and I carry Marble. Last night, the ducks were inside. Marble was inside the building waiting for me to pick her up and set her on the roost. We have to count the ducks to make sure all are there, 15. Then we have to put Elevator to bed. Gene named that chick. Elevator is an only child of a mother who apparently thinks she is royalty despite only being a little black bantam hen. She insists on roosting on the highest point which is not even a roost bar but part of the infrastructure for the roosts. Elevator cannot fly up to get to her. He goes up the ramp and sits on the bottom row of roosts and chirps for her. Each night, I catch him, Gene gets a rake, I put Elevator on the rake, and Gene lifts him up to his mother. Ater a few weeks of training, Elevator, jumps off the rake, snuggles under Mama’s wing and we are done for the night. Finally, back to the house knowing we had to do our usual 5 pm chores in the morning. I did promise everyone their food would be replenished and they would get double scratch grains in the morning.