The Year in Review-from the coop of course...

2009 was  a busy year for the girls. They began with their brand new mobile chicken coop from mobilechickencoops.com. It was the best coop I could buy for my Silkies.

Highlights from 2009 included The FOX news interview on Backyard Flocks.

Easter chicks! Born over the Easter weekend were Twinkie, Farina and Nacho! They made Ducky very happy for a few weeks and then got on her nerves.  When chicks become adolescents they get to separate from their mother. Their mother wants nothing to do with them because they literally walk all over her.

Let's not forget Fuzztop's debut in Fuck You Penguin!

 

The horrid summer of 2009 here in Austin,TX brought the tragic passing of Ducky, lead hen. To this day there is no leader. I guess I am the leader, they follow me. She will always be missed as she was indeed one special lil soul. She was sweet and very smart, just all around impressive. Twinkie, her adopted daughter, is very much like her.

There were plenty of visits to see the boys, pictured to the left are Dash, Chickiebaby and baby brother Nacho. The three boys all very healthy,  well behaved and very close. I have never seen roosters get along so great.

The year ended with three healthy and happy hens. I hope I can continue to keep them this way through 2010. It's a pressure and responsibility I gladly take on.  Keeping chickens has made me very happy, I can't explain why or how just that it's a down to the soul kind of happy. How do they do that?

Twinkie

Twinkie is the smartest hen I have had so far. Smarter then Ducky was. She not only consistently responds to her name when called, she catches on to cause and effect rather quickly. Twinkie was Ducky's adopted daughter. Ducky passed away this past September and I was happy to at least have Twinkie, even though she was not of Ducky, she was touched by her.

Twinkie  had me guessing  if she was a hen or a roo until she produced an egg in October.  I knew it was hers because it stood out being more pinkish and smaller than the rest and the fact that when I spotted it she immediately flew up to the nest as if to say,"That's MINE!"

We live near a car dealership that uses a recorded bird call to scare off other birds. This call is useless, louder than any rooster and goes off every ten minutes twenty four hours a day. It's no wonder that Twinkie picked up the call and uses it to torture me. It began as a distress call. She realized that this call brought me out the door and at the coop in seconds. Once it was tipped over water, another time the food had run out and another time it was because Fuzztop did not leave the nest when Twinkie wanted to lay her egg.  I appreciated it. But then the calls became more obnoxious and for no apparent reason other than Twinkie's twisted amusement. I was being trained by a chicken.

I stopped responding to Twinkie's calls and they would only become louder and louder. Out of fear of neighbor complaints I begrudgingly went out to the coop/run. Twinkie wanted to free range at 6am on a Saturday. It was still dark and I feared raccoons or possums still about so I pleaded with her, shushhhhed her a bit and went back inside. She did it again so I went into the shed and took out a cage and put Twinkie in it with food and water then placed her in our studio. I went inside and slept another two hours. When I took Twinkie out she seemed happy to see me, very happy and relieved to see me. I discovered a time out! The next morning Twinkie attempted the exotic bird of prey call but stopped after only one call. When she would act up she was placed in time out and eventually the call ceased. Yay! 

Twinkie is rather intelligent and changed the game yet again. These past few days the call is more frequent and louder than ever. I noticed it is on the wettest and/or coldest of mornings. I rushed out there in the beginning with just a robe, practically sleep walking, picked up Twinkie and place her in time out. I'd get back into bed happy to be able to sleep until a decent hour. I figured she just she needed a reminder and this was a phase that would come to an end. Not so. Her attitude  changed, she is no longer clutching me with her little chicken feet, happy to see me and relieved to be out of the studio. She is actually very happy in the cage and squawks when removed and forced to go outside or in her coop/run. My IQ has dropped again. So now, on to better ideas.
 
Since no one has complained of her calls thus far and the car dealership opens at 7am with their honking and noise, my husband and I just clench our teeth and try to ignore Twinkie's obnoxious call. "She sounds just like a monkey in the jungle", my husband said. That is exactly what she sounds like. Every morning the call is just a little bit shorter. I am hoping she learns that nothing comes out of that call. I'm learning.

Chickhood memories

Back in 2007 when I was looking into keeping a backyard flock as a cure to my near twenty years of homesickness, I would ignore anything regarding the Silkie. Silkies are bantams, not your standard full size chicken. They originated in Japan and are pretty but nothing more than fancy birds. I wanted eggs. I had to have eggs because my husband was not too keen on the idea of keeping a flock of chickens in our backyard in the middle of Austin,TX. I thought if I really pushed the idea of saving money because of free eggs, he'd be more inclined to cooperate and let me have chickens. So I was in the market for some great egg laying breeds. Then I would think, wow, I'm going to have chickens, more work, more responsibility and I'd panic. Maybe my husband was right. Maybe I should wait for chickens,"one day" but not today. Maybe we'd move to the country,"one day". So my daydreaming would end and I'd return to the sane, urban world.

It was 2008 and I couldn't shake the idea how having my own flock of chickens would really make me feel like I was Del Rio again, help me feel closer to my Grandparents and bring all those wonderful times we shared in my childhood back to my own backyard. But being the cautious person I am, I continued to wait and research. One Monday during my lunch break I wandered off to Craigslist. I typed in chicks and up popped several posts of chicks and chickens for sale. The post read Silkies: $3 and went on to describe Silkies as great pets for first time chicken owners, great dispositions...so I dialed the number and ordered six Silkies because the seller told me this would insure at least three hens. We agreed to meet at the Dallas Night Club parking lot on Wednesday. After I hung up the phone I was filled with terror. What did I just do?

I emailed my husband and told him we were getting chicks, I quickly checked my bank account and looked at brooders but wait, they need a coop, no lets go back to brooders...I was a mess. I had nothing and I didn't have enough money to buy much. I tried to call the guy back to cancel my order but there was no answer. UGH! I called my Grandparents and told them what I did and they said, all I needed was a box. Yes, all the web sites on starting a flock said a box and a lamp was fine.

It was Wednesday afternoon and I had been anxious all day. I procured a box at the grocery store down the street. I bought a lamp on the way to the club so I was set. There I was at 6pm. There I was at 7pm. Well, okay so maybe this is a sign I thought as I started the engine. Just as I did up drove an old brown truck with the fender tied on with wire. Out popped a a tall skinny read headed, middle aged man, all smiles."Sorry, there was so much traffic. That'll be $18." But I didn't see any cages or boxes, where are my chickens. I had heard of Craigslist scams but surely, $18 was not worth it so I handed over the cash and he reached his arm through the window and brought out a Blue Bell Ice Cream container.

"There you go, handle with care."

"But I ordered six.", I said.

"They're in there.", he said .

So I walked to the car as he quickly sped off. In the car I opened the container afraid I'd find dead things but instead my heart melted and I fell in love with the cutest creatures on earth.

When I got home my husband was napping after a hard day's work. I set up the brooder in the bathroom. I set the ice cream container in the box and lifted the top. Out they popped, happy and enthusiastic and all in their own way. One tripped out, one went straight for the water and stood in it (Okay your name is Ducky), two flapped their baby wings and sort of jump-flew out the other jumped and pooped but still inside the container was what looked like a baby guinea, a keet. The five were white and Keet was a gorgeous brown.

As I watched them eat and drink and play I felt an overwhelming sense of pure joy. They were the cutest lil animals I had ever seen. They were mine and I loved them instantly. I phoned the family and to let them all know I was a mother.

Of the six three were hens: PeeWee Fuzztop and Ducky. Keet turned out to be a gorgeous roo with an outstanding disposition and leadership qualities. He went off to Wimberley and I hear from his new mom from time to time. Chickiebaby and Dash(because he had a dash of yellow) went to my Grandfather's house where they still are. These brothers go everywhere together, do not fight with each other and still remember me when I visit.

Fowl attitudes

When I pouted and complained about not having a dog and whined about wanting a dog and repeating that I was the only kid in my class without a pet my mom would say,"What about the chickens?" The chickens belonged to my Grandparents, well, actually, they were my Grandfather's pride and joy. He loved his chickens and would call and tell us when chicks hatched and of all their little adventures. When we'd visit them, just five minutes away from our home, my brother and I would immediately race to the backyard to see the chickens and maybe see what wild animal was caught in the live trap he had near the coop.

But they were not my chickens in my yard. I didn't name them, they didn't sleep with me and I couldn't hold and cuddle them as I watched tv. When it was St Francis' Day and we had the blessing of the pets at Sacred Heart Academy my Grandfather would be waiting in the school yard all smiles with a cage of chickens. My brother and I would be so embrassed to have the only chickens among dogs, crated cats, parrots, gerbils, mice, rats and fish. "CHICKENS! hahahah  (point) look it's CHIIIIIIIIIIIICKENS! Who brought the CHIIIIIIIIIIIICKENS, that's funny!" I would try to muster up the type of courage needed in this sort of juvenile situation. That sort of precocious courage one needs if one wants to be a true individual. It is hard to find when you are only eight years old. But I loved Gran-Po' and we wanted to make him happy and we did love the chickens who  needed all sorts of protection so we asked St.Francis to protect the chickens.

Just this year I found myself in the church parking lot with three Silkies. I carried them through the church and to the patio where children pointed and chuckled and yelled,"Look, CHIIIIIIIIIIIICKENS!" Their parents turned and laughed, all the adults with their dogs and cats and birds, fish, rodents...all turned and stared and smiled, laughed, pointed.  Then they approached me and started asking questions." What sort of  chicken is that?"

Honeymoon

On our honeymoon we stopped in Key West and had some Cuban food at a yummy outdoor restaurant.  That's when we noticed the roosters and the hens,in fact, that we were surrounded by a colony of feral chickens that live in the tourist area of town. Upon hearing the rooster behind me crow I immediately felt all the good things in my life up until that day. It was at that moment that I asked my husband if we could one day have chickens. He said so long as I took care of them as he knew nothing of them, sure I could have chickens.  That "one day" came faster than we thought.