A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Yet another post to boost - please help out. This one is about my chickens. Copied below.

https://www.facebook.com/rachel.m.brown.182/posts/pfbid02momNV9qsTi6e573q3JEZBPpFCsjMVLGziVdedtue9tN7P2wn5BVRwvpxNgm6wNEYl

I am a resident of Crestline, CA affected by the snow disaster. I need someone who lives off the mountain to temporarily take care of my six laying hens. I can take them to you, I can pay, and you can keep the eggs. Keeping them with your own flock is fine.

I can’t leave the mountain until I can find someone who can take my hens, as I am still in the process of getting a temporary coop/run I can set up with the friends I can stay with. I have no running water or reliable phone/internet and my house is surrounded by nine feet of snow, so I need to leave. Please message me if you can help. I can take the hens anywhere in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange, or other nearby counties. You must have a predator-proof run.

Improvised chicken tractor.

I had Clarissa in the cage to break her of broodiness a while back. Apparently some grain spilled and grew, so I popped Darrell, Bill, and Mary Lou in the cage to enjoy the fresh greens. First caught, first served.

FINALLY. I rewarded her with an armload of dead leaves and tasty young weeds to scratch through and find the delicacies.

I've been dumping dead leaves, pine needles (PINE NEEBLES!), etc into the run. The chooks shred them, and the floor level gradually rises as they mix with the dirt and chicken manure. At some point this should all become extremely fertile earth I can transfer to the garden; in the interim, hopefully the run will flood less next time it rains.

I've been dumping chicken manure in various places where I don't already have anything growing but plan to plant in spring; it should be rotted enough by then that it won't have enough nitrogen to burn the plants. I have a bale of hay that I need to start dumping in similar places ASAP, so it can sit there and meld with the earth a bit over winter, and then I can plant there in spring.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow and snow on Friday.

The cage separation didn't work, as it was too cold to make her sit in a cage all night and when I let her out for the night to roost, she instead sat in her empty nest.

I have removed the cage and placed two frozen icepacks in her nest. She is stomping around the run looking very pissed off.

Or, in this case, the mealworm. Also depicted: Gwendoline Mary Lacey looking up, and Sally and Bill's fluffy butts.

First off, the chooks are OK.

It's pouring rain today. How nice, I thought. I shall bake bread and make Mayak eggs, I thought. I fed the chooks and they seemed fine, so I went back in and started everything.

The rain was really coming down so I went back out to make sure it hadn't blown over their food or anything. And that is when I discovered that the run had flooded and they were strutting around in four inches of water!

I madly rushed about laying down scrap lumber so they had something to stand on, and then tried to lure them into the coop, which is dry as it's well above the ground. Nothing doing. Not even mealworms could lure them in. It wasn't bedtime and they knew it.

I was soaked to the skin, so I went back in, took my second shower of the day, and sent an emergency text to the guys who built the run to see about installing a drain. And soon I will have to go out again to make sure those little feathered nitwits had the sense to get in out of the rain and aren't hypothermic.

Generally I love keeping chickens but NOT TODAY.

The chickens have moved into their new home, a chicken coop in the orchard. You can see video on Instagram.

The coop isn't totally finished but it's chicken-worthy; the run isn't finished at all. But they were getting way too big for the horse trough and flying out at the slightest provocation, so in they go. Enjoy your new home, not-so-little chooks!

The chickens have been an absolute delight. They are such weird and charming creatures. If you look at them closely you can absolutely see that they are dinosaurs. Their eyes especially are strange, and their feet: somewhat reptilian, but not quite...

I have named six of them. I have three of the same breed which must be Green Queens, because I ordered two of them and also got some grab bag chicks. So I'm giving away two, which I won't name, and keeping my favorite, Darrell. She is a huge gray hawk-like chick, very fluffy, who enjoys flying out of the trough the instant the lid is off and perching on my hand. The three Green Queens look extremely similar and Darrell is largely identifiable because she's the one who comes to me immediately. She should lay green eggs.

Mary-Lou is the smallest, I think lowest in the pecking order, and is a darling black and white Exchequer Leghorn. She is timid but enjoys sitting in my hand. She will lay white eggs.

Gwendoline Mary Lacey is a large white chick, quite fearless. She will jump up to grab at things. I am pretty sure she's an Austra White, a very classic-looking hen, and will lay cream or beige eggs.

Daphne is also a large white chick, lower on the pecking order than Gwendoline. I think she's a Snowy Easter Egger and will grow up to look like a white hawk. She should lay green or blue or blue-green eggs.

I have no idea what Clarissa is but she is absolutely gorgeous, dappled browns and chestnuts. She was so flighty when younger that I planned to give her away, but she's calmed down a lot and is now one of my favorites. She's very lively. She was in the blue-green layer assortment.

Bill, short for Wilhelmina, is most definitely not a rooster. She is a Gold Sex-Linked (hens and roosters look different as chicks) and is a lovely chestnut red. She'll lay a brown egg.

They're a lot of fun to watch and enjoy eating greens from my hand. Can't wait for my rainbow of eggs.

Chicks drinking water!

Chicks wobbling around!

I have one Austra White, one Golden Buff Red Star, two Green Queen Easter Egger, one Exchequer Leghorn, and three that I don't know what they are but they should lay blue or green eggs .

I'm keeping six and raising two for a friend. (She gets two from the Green Queens/mystery chicks, of my choice.)

After a slew of frustrating setbacks too tl;dr to recount, I have a date with some chicks.

Despite repeated tries, getting chicks locally didn't work out, so I've ordered chicks from My Pet Chicken, which supplied Kebi's delightful chicks that are now pretty, happy layers. Their minimum order is eight, but I got a local family friend who agreed to take two once they're coop-ready.

I'm getting one Austra White, two Blue Cuckoo Marans, one Snowy Easter Egger, and four from the mystery assortment of blue and green layers. A LOT of people are buying chicks right now, so the selection was limited. I'm thrilled to get an Austra White - Kebi's Dotty is my favorite in her flock - so I'm definitely keeping that one and one of the Marans. I will give away the other Maran and one of the other blue/green layers. When I collect my eggs, I'll get one white egg, one brown egg, and four in various shades of blue and green.

I'm so excited. This will enable me to live more off the land - the chickens will provide fertilizer for my garden, and I can feed vegetable scraps to the chickens - and I will train them to come when they're called and perch on my shoulders, completing my transformation into a cottagecore Disney princess.