A few days ago I posted about Little Helen, our blind chicken, who survived the latest hawk attack, but her eyesight didn't, how she's doing well, laying eggs again and how a barrier has been put in place to keep her and/or her eggs from falling out of the coop.
Seems the barrier should have been a bit higher because sometime on Tuesday, Helen managed to fall out, again, and no one noticed till that night when Bob the Builder went to lock everyone up for the night and discovered she was missing. An hour and a half of searching the woods for her with a flashlight............and no Helen.
The next day, I went out and searched again, but all in vain. Not even a feather to be found. Neither of the dogs seemed to understand the term "FIND MY CHICKEN....DAMMIT" so they were of no help whatsoever, but totally enjoyed a prolonged walk through the woods. I was actually hoping that some predator, maybe even the damn hawk, had found her and ended it for her quickly. Thinking that she was just out there, with no way to find food or water, was not sitting well with me at all.
By the end of the day, the Builder and I had to sit down and rework the numbers for the next chicken order, something that we were already working on, and up the amount of fencing that we need to purchase to keep them safe and yet still have them be able to free range.
We came up with the idea to get 5 more already laying birds ASAP, since the farm fresh egg supply was rapidly dwindling, and then order another 10 day old chicks.
..............apparently this is called chicken math. You start out wanting 4, and somehow you end up with around 24, and it's something that is quite common with new chicken owners from what I read. A couple of months ago I had just finished reading someones comment on BackYardChickens.com " you will get more, it's just a matter of time" and no sooner had I read that, when the Builder says " you know, I think we should get more chickens" !!
A quick search of Kijiji and we found someone who was wanting to sell trios, and low and behold, it just happened to be the same guy that gave us Ruckus the Rooster a few weeks ago. We already had a bottle of Maple Syrup set aside for him as a thank-you for that. So there we are, the chicken math has gone up by one again........6 instead of 5, and still order 10 chicks. As it turns out we went out there and he had already had lots of interest in the ad, with people coming on the weekend and could only spare 3 ( chicken math = original # minus 2 )
Three chickens rounded up and in the truck on the way home.
The plan is to put the 3 new girls in the coop, close off the run from the others so that the new ones can figure out where home is. Then tonight, have the new ones in the coop, leave the old ones in the run like they have been doing anyways since we locked them out that first night that Helen was injured.
And that's what we did. Three new chickens in the coop.
On the left we have Salt, an Australorp that went straight to work and laid us a green egg just minutes after getting here. In the middle we have Pepper, a Barred Rock. And the girl on the right is Ruckus' half sister, so I think the name Bobby-Jo fits for her. I just need to figure out how to tell her apart from Elvira......... not like it matters if I do or don't ;)
All is well in chicken land, the Builder is unloading lumber and fencing, I'm looking into placing the order for the chicks, when the Builder runs in and announces
....HELENS HOME!!!
As IF ?!?!?!!? we've had a bind chicken wandering the property for 48 hours and she's safe, has found home ( tell me that rooster is not doing his job calling her back...........better than the dogs, that's for sure !! ) and we just gave away her room!!!
Chicken math = original # minus 2 plus 1
So the new girls are pushed out into the run by the Builder, which means he has to get in the coop, while I hold Helen and close the door, so that they don't take the wrong exit. Meanwhile, I guess out of habit, I latch the coop door, and while I'm waiting, I start wandering about talking to Helen, when all of a sudden I hear "LET ME OUT"
So I now have the 3 old chickens happily doing their thing, one rooster watching over them, three new chickens waiting for us to just make up our minds about where it is we really want them, three ducks just being ducks and eating everything and pooping everywhere, two very jealous dogs whining and watching me cuddle a blind chicken.....and I've just locked the person that is supposed to be my better half in the chicken coop.
.............and THAT'S why it's called Wingnut Acres!!
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