Choking Chicken!

Honey just choked!

The ladies were out in the run and I brought them some nice fresh weeds to pick through. I never let them have long pieces of grass, because I worry they will choke (!!!) and get impacted crops.

These were fresh dandelions, tiny sprouts about 5 inches long.

Honey gobbled up a sprout and it got stuck in her throat somehow, so half of it was dangling out of her beak.

No big deal. This happens all the time. Usually she scratches at it with her claws or shakes her head and it falls off.

Not this time!

She started walking around with her beak open and her comb turned dark purple.

If you've ever seen this you know what I mean.

Scary dark pansy purple!

I grabbed the weed, yanked it out and patted her on the back.

She closed her beak and her comb faded back to its normal fire engine red.

Whew! Scary!

Week of Strange Eggs

Last week I had 2 strange eggs from the big girls.

In the bottom pic going clockwise: Normal egg that they lay every day, tiny, itty bitty egg, scotch tape for size comparison and in the middle: very strange soft shell egg.

I normally find only one egg in the nest box. What a bunch of slackers!

This is the soft shell egg I found.

It has a soft shell on the outside with a thick liquid inside and in the very center a hard shelled egg.

Strange!!!

Egg opened.

The yolk was strange too. Runny and mixed up with the white.

I was hoping these weird eggs ment that one of the ladies was starting to lay again, but this week we are back to 1 egg a day.

9 Weeks

Oh, I'm a bad chick momma!

These are their 9 week pics, but it's already time for their 10 week pics!

Dixie
Dixie

Dixie

Dixie

Dixie

Pepper

Pepper

Pepper

Ginger

Ginger

Ginger

Pixie

Pixie

Worry and Trouble

Uh Oh!

Somechick's started crowing!

I've only heard it twice. The first time I thought it was Lavender warning the chicks about some danger. But today I heard it and it sounds like a tiny crow.

The chicks all run around scared after hearing the crow, so I can't figure out who's crowing.

Also, Dixie is growing some BIG wattles.

Boy? Girl?

Pixie has zero wattles and Pepper and Ginger have tiny ones.

I'll try to get some pics soon.

Who Says We're Too Big?!?

Cutest video ever!

It's a little dark and hard to see, but this is a video of the chicks all trying to sleep underneath Lavender.

As you can see they are a tiny bit to big.

Also, notice how Lavender is panting. It was 80 F degrees in their pen and the chicks still wanted to cuddle!

8 Weeks

There has been an explosion of fluff in the last week!

Every chick is now sporting their own unique style.

Ginger - with a tough mohawk

Pepper- with a rock star mullet

Pixie - with a slicked back afro

Dixie - with a mad scientist fuzz top

Combs and Claws

Pixie has a lobster claw- see pic below

Strange isn't it?




Above: Dixie's single comb
Below:Pixie's comb


And..........Ginger's gigantic comb!

Who's a boy? ha,ha

7 Weeks

Dixie

Pepper

Ginger

Pixie

"Wat-choo lookin' at?"

Little Box

This is the box the chick's eggs were sent in.

Look at them now!

I don't think they'll fit in the box all together after this.

6 Week Pics

6 Week pics of the babies.

Ginger

Pepper

Pixie

Dixie

I love their little mohawks!

Happy Day

The chicks and Lavender spent the whole day outside today.

The Ladies spent the day outside too.

My run is square shaped and I had divided 1/3 for Lavender and chicks with a wire fence.

Lavender wouldn't agree to stay in her side of the run, so it was either supervise them all the time or let one flock out at a time.

I solved the problem today.

I took pieces of cardboard and wedged them between the fence and other stuff (pots, bricks, ect.).

It looks horrible, but Lavender is perfectly happy to stay on her side of the fence, now that she can't see the other side of the fence.

Good thing she's short.

Gaa! Fight!

The Ladies and Lavender are not getting along.

I knew integrating Lavender's chicks and the Ladies

would be difficult, but waaa! it's so hard to watch them fight!

The Ladies aren't really interested in the chicks.

But they hate Lavender.

I was supervising playtime today and

Butter grabbed onto Lavender's ruff.

They didn't say a thing. No squawking, just silent wrestling.

Which was scarier.

I didn't know if I should separate them.

It's part of the pecking order, getting Lavender back in line,

but it's so hard to watch!

I finally pulled them apart,

because Butter is 3x Lavender's weight and

somechicken was going to get hurt.

Lavender lost a few feathers.

Gaaaaa! What to do?!?