Month: January 2015

Some of the chickens, Lucky especially, aren’t as shy as I am. If she wants something, she doesn’t hesitate to ask. This afternoon, she wanted her supper hand carried to her. After raising a clutch of well adjusted chicks this fall, she deserves special treatment.

Each chicken’s comb is as unique as a fingerprint. If you look at Lucky’s comb, you’ll see one tooth with two points that sticks out further than the others. There is an infinite variety of combs. Some have many teeth, others just a few. Some flop to the left, some to the right, some are rigid, some are short, and some are flat. There are combs with very deep valleys, tall ones, and short ones. One of the easiest ways to tell chickens apart, is by their combs. When the chickens are in tall grass, and all you can see are their combs, you can still tell who they are by their combs.

Another way to tell them apart is by their voice. Chickens’ voices are as distinct as human voices. Did you know that?

After a short winter, Svenda is back to laying eggs. She is a hen with class. She’s the kind of hen you’d expect to find shopping at Dior. Just like the runway models, she knows how to stare without cracking a smile. Try doing it. It’s a talent you either have or you don’t.

She lays a stunning egg too. There aren’t too many eggs in this world that get their mother’s name put on them.

It’s always fun going back and looking at baby pictures. Below is a shot of Svenda with her mother and siblings when she was about a week old. I’m not positive which one she is, but I believe she is one of the two up front, the two just in front of their mother. She’s in her prime and will be two this September.

Everyone deserves a little love, even Billy, our old rooster. He’s reluctant to go to bed through the main entrance of the chicken house because the younger roosters bully him. So my kind husband let’s him sneak into the coop through the rabbit house.

Late in the afternoon, Billy hangs out near the entrance of the rabbit house. When my husband opens the door for him, he comes running. Through the rabbit house he goes, and into the old coop, without having to face the younger, stronger roosters.

Life is so much easier when you have a kind husband, even for your roosters. If you’re looking for a husband, make sure you get a kind one with a big heart.

A common practice when butchering chickens is to not let them eat any food for twelve hours to a full day before you butcher them. The reasoning is that you want their digestive system to be clear of food when you butcher them, so it’s easier to process them. But birds have a high metabolism rate and not being able to eat for so many hours is distressing.

I find it gentler to let them eat uninterrupted, and spend a little extra care and time processing them. The big bulge on this unfortunate rooster is his last meal. When chickens eat, their meal first goes into their crop, a sack at the bottom of their neck. They can stuff a large amount of food in their crop. Then, at their leisure, they will digest their meal.

On a lighter note, I took another picture today of this young chick waiting quietly as its mother lays an egg. The chick is nearly the size of its mother. Even a bird with a small brain is capable of needing love and giving love.

Also see You Never See This on a Regular Egg Farm.

This two and a half month old chick waits patiently while its mother takes time to lay an egg. Some young chicks have a hard time growing up and leaving their mother’s side. This chick is one of the lucky ones. Of the billions and billions of chickens hatched and raised each year, only a handful ever have the luxury of seeing their mother lay an egg. It’s for these special chicks that a man and a hoe® exists. In this busy, super efficient world, there have to be a few places where mother hens have all the time in the world to raise their young, and where chicks can leave their mothers’ side when they are ready.