Just recently my buff bantam Cochin, Daisy, decided it was time try to start another brood of chicks. Crazy moody hen! Her chicks from the last batch are only 11 weeks old this week. She had only been back to laying for about 3 weeks when she started talking broody and staked out her territory in the nest area again. Lucky for her, my son’s white Cochin, THX1138, also went broody within a day or two of her. The poor…
As many urban chicken keepers will attest, backyard chickens can be addictive. And for flock owners, like myself, who often have non chicken keeping friends’ eyes glaze over at the mere mention of chickens, there is help out there. It is in a social network at MeetUp: Los Angeles Urban Chicken Enthusiasts (although I have over heard a few members jokingly call Chicken Addiction Anonymous.) When I first joined in April of 2010, Los Angeles Urban Chicken Enthusiasts, or LAUCE…
My Buff Bantam Cochin has decided her chicks are big enough to be on their own and they don’t need her to be a mama hen anymore. I know this because as of Monday, last week, she has been pecking at them when they go near her and she is hanging out with the big girls again. Plus, two days ago she started laying again. Where did the time go? It was just Feb. 1st that they hatched. They…
I felt terrible about it, but in late January, I had to evict Penguin, our 1 1/2 year old black bantam cochin hen. As I mentioned in a prior post, she started to crow at least 3 to 4 mornings a week, and was spending most nights in the garage to avoid waking anyone in the pre dawn hours. I figured as long as she remained a “top hen,” she was probably going to keep crowing. Thanks to my…
This year my daughter, B, wanted to come up with a chicken science project. Why? Because it was a great excuse to get a whole bunch of baby chicks. She really didn’t have to twist my arm too hard. I love having chicks around, and we had a broody hen, so I agreed to let her do it. She came up with the idea to test out a bunch of the old wives tales on sexing the chicks at day old. …
I love weekends. Winter weekends especially, with the sun not coming up until 6:45. On the weekends during this time of year, when the kids are between sports, our family sometimes actually gets to sleep in as late a 7 or 8 am. Well, that is until recently… I know it sounds crazy, but around 5:30 AM, I have been woken up to crowing! About 8 or 9 times, over the last month, I have been hearing this awful “gaw—gawk–gawk–gawk—gaaaawkkkkkk–,”…
Back in July, Penguin got a very sweet gentle Easter Egger chick in a bantam assortment from Ideal Poultry. As a chick, it was kind of pale buff and grey colored. As seen in the photo below on the right, in comparison to my other bantam Cochins, it is a little larger than bantam. As it grew, it was generally lavender (pale gray) with accents of yellow and a little buff around the neck and chest. Based on temperament and…
Back at the beginning of the school year, my 13 year old son took on the responsibility of caring for his own chicken. Actually, he leased it with the option to buy. I know it sounds weird; the post can be found here. One of my conditions was he didn’t get to name it until the end of the lease period. Toward the end of the lease, my daughter and I began offering all sorts of cutesie suggestions for white…
Almost 2 years to the day, we had a red tailed hawk kill one of our free ranging chickens. Obviously perturbed at me for ruining its meal, it watched from overhead on the telephone wires as I cleaned up the carnage, with tears running down my face. After that, I became more cautious about when I let my chickens out and for how long. With supervision, I do let them enjoy at least an hour or two most days for…
There are regular sightings of opossums, squirrels, and rats in our neighborhood; and the majority of these sightings are along the Furry Freeway, as my husband calls it. It is the system of the power and utility lines that run overhead between the park and the houses. The connecting lines are a safe expressway where they are able to by-pass the dogs and cats below on the ground, confined in fenced backyards. The power poles down into the yards are…