More Chickens

I swear, the chicken postings will die down soon enough, if only because I've pretty much finished figuring out how the asbestos abatement will be done. But until then, I give you some photos from today's Chicken Exercise Hour.

Chicken Exercise Hour is a nice little trip outside to peck and scratch and explore the larger world. Today there was much interest in the Dianthus 'Rose de Mai.'

This kind of looks like Liza. I'm still figuring out how to recognize the two Ameraucanas as separate animals.

Joan taking a little sit-down moment. You may be able to tell from this photo that her beak, which had been trimmed by the hatchery, has almost entirely grown back. This is a good thing, because trimmed beaks make hunting harder. Also, they look kind of stupid.

They all spent a lot of time just sort of trying to cram themselves into the dianthus. With mixed results.

Here's Carole, squatting on my miniature polygala (I don't remember quite which one) while Liza looks on.

They mostly stayed together, which was nice to see. I also made some movies but they are really too large to serve in the volume we get here, so they'll wait until I can reduce the size somewhat.

One thing you can see now: the girls are getting their tail feathers. Every day they seem to have more regular feathers and less chick fluff. Joan is behind the others so I think she might be a whole day younger.

Despite common sense telling me to be careful, I let the dogs watch the exercise from a decently safe distance. Goldie was very stressed out by the situation and yet, intrigued.

While Rosie ooched herself up close, licked Carole, then snapped at Debbie and got sent away. These are two of the mellowest dogs ever, dogs who allow cats to totally walk all over them, so if you think you can let dogs and chickens coexist unsupervised you are insane.

One thing you can't see is that Joan has had a case of pasting up lately, which is when her poos dry on her butt and then she can't poo naturally. The treatment is to soak the dried poo off with a warm, wet cloth. Here I am applying this treatment, with Joan feeling not so entirely happy with the idea. After getting her wet I patted her dry, then put her right back in the habitat under the heat lamp to dry off.

Having livestock is all about humiliating veterinary procedures.

Technorati Tags: chickens, dogs, urban farming

posted by ayse on 04/02/08