Guest Post: The Culprit!!

This will probably look a bit different than the normal post, as Mom is in bed nursing what remains of her brain after three migraines struck inside a 24 hours period. Lovely is it not? So, I was asked to step in and do a post.

You may be asking what could have set off three migraines in a row, and others are possibly wondering what "The Culprit" means. Hopefully I'll answer both questions.

Mom hasn't been getting very many migraines lately, which is good. I'm afraid that its my fault she's got the migraine. You see, I paid good money to have my wisdom teeth removed (... i ask again, "I PAID FOR THIS???"), which consequently fell to not being able to eat much besides pudding, jello, yogurt and other extremely squishy food. Then I got a throat infection that keeps me on the afore mentioned squishy food, but it must be cold, as in ice cream, sherbet, popsicles, ice cream bars... etc. Thus we have many foods in the house we normally don't have available. Mom, I'm afraid has no will power when it comes to her sweet tooth. She fell afoul of the siren calls of said pudding, and ice cream. The pudding seemed not to bother her, but... well the ice cream is another story. We now know that it gives her migraines. I suspect the salt content is just a tad higher than she's able to handle.

So, I give you, The Culprit (along with me keeping her up for 3 days in a row... gee how I love guilt):

There you have it. Ice cream. Sherbet. Now watch me get sued for bad mouthing these brand names. Which technically I'm not doing by the way. They just tend to have lots of salt in them, and some people with certain conditions aren't able to deal with it. Personally I really like these products.

In case you're wondering, here is a mug shot of Mom's friendly foods that she eats all the time without any problems whatsoever.

In other news, there was a battle of the chickens this afternoon, which was very quiet, and we have no idea what started it. It was Light Brahma vs Buff Orpington and it was quite the smack down going on under a small pine tree. The proceedings went on for about a minute before HenRoo appeared on the scene and gave them both what-for. Both hens ran away from HenRoo in quick order, and HenRoo went and stood on one of many small boulder we've got laying around, puffed up her chest and I swear gave everyone within eye-shot a smarmy romance cover sneer. That chicken has issues.

I'd give an egg count, but Dad was the one who got the eggs today, and I have no idea if he counted as he wrestled the eggs away from the indignant hens.

:)

Smirkles.

Collecting Eggs

When collecting eggs lately I find hens in the nest boxes who are all fluffed up and who don't have eggs under them. So, I'm trying to remember the fluffy feather business from last year and can't come up with any mental pictures of setting hens with fluffed feathers. They can't be cold as it is warm out. Tom brought in 10 eggs today! I guess the hens were saving them up?

I had already checked under the hens for eggs before I took this video. I just wanted to show how the girls usually arrange themselves. Sometimes there are two or three all sitting together.

Tom has been up on the roof working on the new antenna he installed. Kristine is still under the weather and I'm fighting off a cold. Thus not much in the way of blogging today. I can add ice cream to the list of stuff not to eat, because I got fortress lights twice now after eating it. Phooey!

Buff Brahma in the top and middle nest boxes and a Wyandotte, Orpington and another Wyandotte in the bottom.

[10 eggs today]

Smiles

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Slow Saturday

It was a slow day for the chickens too. There were only 5 eggs today and the chickens had to stay in their coop for most of the day, so I know they didn't sneak off and lay their eggs in the woods. Tom had some people over looking at cars he wanted to sell and the people had their dog running around the property, which meant we had to keep Morgan in and the chickens locked up. Tom brought these eggs in this afternoon after the people left. We are out of lay and are feeding raiser and corn so that may account for the decline in egg production. Jean gave me the pretty blue and white dishcloth. Latest I heard is that Jean is up and walking around using a walker! I keep meaning to call her every day and then forget. Bad me.

Here are a couple of invisible things. The wall decorations are from Dolores. I always liked them and this is a good place for them. They are out of the way as far as getting bumped and damaged and yet easily seen.

And these string game books have been around since the girls were young. They are fun to pick up and read or to play a string game. I can't believe we still have one of the strings that came with the books.

Kristine says she feels like she has razor blades in her throat. I'm still catching up on sleep, so we had a slow sleepy day. We both kept our computers busy. Kristine watched shows and I played games and listened to old time radio. Mostly Gildersleeve podcasts that I downloaded from iTunes. The computer games I like are pretty low key, games like: Games For The Brain, 6 Differences, puzzles and Mahjong.

[5 eggs today]

Smiles

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Henny Penny and Hen/Roo

Henny Penny and Hen/Roo scratching around today under the shade of some Madrone shoots off of an old Madrone trunk. I should cut them all off and I suppose I will someday when I get to clearing out this area. I remember that my brother raked this whole area clear. I have never been able to do that and have just managed to clear some paths from the chicken coop to the back fence and along the back fence. A mosquito tried to bite me as I was taking this video so I gave up and retreated to the house. I would love to have some wind to blow the mosquitos away, but then I would have to worry about forest fires. I'd rather have the mosquitos.

Things didn't go the way I thought they would today. Kristine got sick and had to go to her doctor. She is going to have to stay home for some extra days and get over the sore throat she has developed. She ended up spending time at the doctors and I ended up sleeping. I wish I could send her to Australia again for a vacation. She will have to pretend she is on vacation around here instead.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Henny Penny's Saddle

Since Henny Penny's duct tape has been working out so well, I decided to look around on the internet and see what I could find about chickens and duct tape. I came up with these three sites that have some good information. First is a site here that lists an even better tape (Nashua Tape R 357, max temp. 200) than duct tape and has some good photos. Second is this site that has chicken saddles that you can purchase. And third here are instructions on a sew or no-sew your own chicken saddle. Personally, I think I will stick to the duct tape method. Pun intended. hee, hee.

The Old Grey Egg said that roosters will cause the hens to lose feathers because of mounting. Kristine said that these two hens had feather loss when we had roosters and never molted properly. We don't have roosters anymore, but our hens mount each other, so I guess that accounts for the feather loss. Silly hens.

Kristine took the next four photos for me because I was complaining that I didn't have anything to post. So, she went out to my little tiny overgrown neglected garden and took these pictures. I slept late today, so tomorrow I should be rested and I will make a start on my green garden.

I like this little welcome sign that Kristine got for me.

I think Tom and Kristine got this rooster .

This poor little bird bath needs water.

It needs filling every day.

These flowers are volunteers from last year.

Kristine is doing better today, except she had a bloody nose last night. She thinks that happened as a result of the fifteen minutes of retching yesterday at work. She went back too soon. Since then she has followed the dentists instructions and stopped all the medication and she is feeling better, except for the pain, and is eating foods like mashed potatoes, noodle soup, and ice cream. She plans on going back to work on Saturday. I plan on more sleep time.

[6 eggs today]

+1 = 7

Smiles

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Henny Penny

I took the camera with me when I went out to collect eggs this morning and was lucky enough to catch Henny Penny. She took advantage of her photo op and slowed down and did some chicken poses and a cluck or two. She seems to be doing well and is back to running around with the other hens. How neat is that! I was really worried about her, but she is fine.

The duct tape doesn't seem to bother her and maybe it is a fix for whatever? Or maybe she ate a bad bug or plant or? Well, at least the duct tape will keep the mosquitos away and keep her from getting sunburned.

Happy Birthday, Kristine!

I must say that having your wisdom teeth pulled is not my idea of a birthday present. I'm sorry you got sick at work today and had to come home, but I'm glad you will be home for a few more days. Hope it all heals up quickly and you are back to yourself very soon.

I'm going to go back to bed. I need sleep.

[6 eggs today]

Smiles

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Duct Tape and Chickens

I didn't see Henny Penny this morning because Tom let the chickens out before I got up. Henny Penny showed up with her duct taped sister when I went out to look for eggs. The duct tape on the Orpington looks like it is coming loose, or maybe it got messed up when the other hens jump on her. Henny Penny looks and acts fine. These two hens are smaller than the others. Maybe they get picked on? They seem happy to come back into the pen when the other hens are out in the woods. Duct tape is pretty neat stuff. I read that the duct tape will come off when they molt, but I think I will check and see what's happening under there before that.

The duct tape will keep the hens from getting sunburned for sure and should keep the mosquitos from a free lunch. I really don't know if that was what made Henny Penny sick, but I hope the duct tape is a fix for whatever was the problem.

Eggs! Tom found all these eggs, when he was counting the chickens last night. Yep, there are still 18 chickens. And all these eggs under the area where the chickens roost. I caught a Wyandotte sitting on them this morning. But from the different sizes and colors of eggs you can tell lots of other hens are laying eggs here. I picked up all the eggs and got rid of them and then got a bucket and filled it several times with dirt and covered up the area. I will have to check tomorrow and if there is an egg here I will find a branch with lots of twigs to put in the corner.

I'm going to go back to bed and see if I can catch up on some sleep.

[2 eggs so far]

The weather changed and the chickens started laying eggs

in strange places.

Can I blame the weather?

Smiles

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Chickens In The Morning

The hens are very noisy in the morning especially when they see me coming to let them out. Except this morning! I think the camera caught their attention and for awhile they were very quiet. This is the third video I took and it has only about half of the girls yelling at me.

Sometimes I think that most of the hens are turning into roosters! I see so many of them with large combs and some who are developing the strangest cackles. Maybe that is why I only found five eggs today?

I have a theory about why Henny Penny got sick. I think she might have got sunburned and/or suffered a lot of mosquito bites which caused a bad sunburn and/or too much blood lose. She is one of two hens that didn't ever finish their molt. They have bare patches on their backs. So, I decided to cover the bare spot with duct tape. I hope the duct tape stays on and I will try to get a photo of her tomorrow.

Kristine is doing better, but one side of her jaw is still very swollen because the dentist had to cut into the bone. brrrrr...

[5 eggs today]

Smiles

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Up and About!

Wow! I opened the carrier this morning and Henny Penny waited for a few moments and then walked out into the chicken pen. She scratched around a bit, ate some, laid down for a sun bath and then went about doing chicken stuff. I'm keeping a watch on her to see how she is doing, but so far so good. This is way better than the way I found her laying in the corner totally limp.

I'm making chicken soup so Kristine can have some broth if she wants. Then I can go to sleep for the day. Maybe I can post some more later.

[4 eggs so far]

Smiles

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Nite, Nite, Henny Penny

Henny Penny looked pretty chipper when I went out tonight to put her back in the coop for the night. She moved up to the front of the carrier and looked me in the eye and said something in chickens that I didn't quite catch. I do think she is feeling much better. Messy girl. Look what she did to her feed bowl. I was asleep all day because I was up all night changing out the cold packs on Kristine's jaws every 15 minutes with a rest period of 5 minutes in between. What did me in was the trips up and down the stairs. Tom took over for the day pills and cold pack shift.

Here is Henny Penny all tucked in for the night. Tomorrow, I will try letting her out in the chicken pen for awhile after the other hens have left for the woods. I hope I will be surprised and she will not be injured. I looked back at the 1st photo here of her I posted and she really looked bad. I still don't know what is wrong with her, but she is eating, drinking and moving. Well, I'll find out more tomorrow.

[4 eggs today]

Where have all the eggs gone?

Smiles

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Friends

Here is Curly the Cochin in the middle with her feathery feet, hanging out with two Buff Brahmas. Friends? They are moving around pretty fast scratching away, so it's fairly hard to catch them on camera.

This is a shot of Tom on the roof putting up a new antenna because the old one got clobbered by a branch. Gee, really? Most everything around here gets hit by a branch of one size or another sooner or later.

We cancelled our DTV. They kept raising the price! Phooey! Kristine and I watch tv on our computer screens using DSL and Tom is happy with the local channels that come free through the air, so, bye, bye DTV!

When the acorns are falling or the wind is blowing, Tom wears a hard hat when he takes his dog Lucky out for their walk. That stuff hurts since it is falling so far.

This is a pretty fast post because Kristine got her wisdom teeth pulled this morning and I'm playing nurse. I was so surprised when I got faint after she got home from the extraction. Maybe it was the medical odors or just seeing my daughter totally out of it? The sick chicken, Henney Penny, is doing much the same as yesterday. I have to check on her again and look for eggs. Have a great weekend!

[4 eggs today so far]

...where're my eggs?

Smiles

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Look'n Better!

Henny Penny is looking better today! She looks bright and alert. She ate a lot of her feed and all her lettuce. The feed was a combination of raiser and corn and it was filled up to the top.

Today the other hens were coming up to the cage and visiting. Or maybe they were just trying to get to the feed? But she does look better. Hope she recovers!

I dumped out the four hens that were sitting in the nest boxes for most of the day. It was like they were in a daze. Once they were out and about they clucked happily over the corn and went and did chickens stuff like scratching around for edibles. I guess I will have to get them out of the nests earlier every day.

[4 eggs today]

Smiles

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Ahhhh...

This is Rapunzel. She is such a lovely doll that I thought I would finally break down and put a photo of her on my blog. This doll belonged to Donna and Jean gave her to Kristine. I kept waiting for Kristine to post on her blog again. I thought she would want to put photos of the dolls on her blog, but she doesn't want to blog for awhile. And I don't want to nag at her again.

So, I posted the doll and these figures that she keeps near her laptop. They always bring a smile to my face and make me feel happy. Cute, huh? I think so. Sometimes we need fun stuff around us to lift our spirits. These little guys are always around to lift my spirits. 

The sick chicken is still the same. She is eating and drinking and clucking, but not moving around much. But, she does seem much more alert today, so I would like to think she is getting better. Hope so.

[8 eggs today]

Smiles

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Just Sit'n

This is what I see during the day when I check the nest boxes for eggs. I think some of the hens are getting broody because I catch them just sitting in the straw. I hope they don't go broody because then I will have to go through breaking them of that cycle.

Here is another one! This is a Buff Brahma. Maybe I should borrow a rooster from someone, but we don't really want anymore chickens and I don't like bringing new chickens into the flock because I worry about introducing sickness. 

The sick hen is still the same except now she is clucking. I suppose that is a good sign? She ate and drank and moved around a bit more. I kept her in the carrier again today and tonight. Hope she is better tomorrow.

[7 eggs today]

+ plus one in the driveway

Smiles

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