Hypnotizing Chickens

What?  You heard me.  You didn't know you could hypnotize a chicken?  This is my new stupid human trick.  I should go on David Letterman.  Someone sign me up!  Fine, I'll tell you the secret.  There are several different ways to hypnotize a chicken:

1. The Finger Twirl - Lay the chicken on its back and twirl your finger around its nose. (My chickens are too smart for this.)
2. The Finger Strike - Lay the chicken on its side or back, put its head to the ground and draw a line in the dirt from the tip of their nose straight out. (Probably your best bet)
3. Go to Sleep - Flip them on their back and see if they relax and go into a trance (If you can get them to stop squirming)
4. Rock-A-Bye Baby - Hold the chicken right side up, place its head under its wing and rock it back and forth about 20 times. (This is according to an 8 year old boy who I watched do this on youtube - it looked cruel so I didn't try it.)
5. The Chin Stroke - Lay the chicken on its side and stroke its chin until it stops moving.  (This takes a little longer.)
6. Pet it to Sleep - Lay the chicken on its side, hold its head to the ground and pet it to sleep. (This does not work, I tried it)

I performed the Finger Strike on Littlefoot.  She laid there for about 10 seconds and acted confused... like "what am I doing here?" I would put the video up, but Blogspot won't let me.   Ever since the attempted hypnosis she's been acting like a crazed chicken.  She runs back and forth, side to side, over chickens, under chickens, inside the coop, outside the coop.  I think I have caused this bird some serious mental distress.  I am distraught about it.  On the other hand, I tried the Chin Stroke on Scramble and she seems to be doing just fine.  She also seemed to wonder what the heck I was doing, but it hasn't seemed to have affected her.   I will let you know if Littlefoot calms down.  So much for my dreams of her being a show chicken at the fair.  No one wants a crazy hen. 

Crack Feathers

Well, Ginger's at it again... she has butt problems.   For those of you who have been following this blog, Ginger has always had butt problems. Well now, she's pulling feathers out of her butt! A whole patch of feathers... gone.  It doesn't look like much in the picture, but that is a lot of feather plucking.
 

As always, I went to my (un)reliable chicken website sources and learned that there could be several reasons for butt feather plucking:

1. Stress. (Duh.  I think the websites just say the birds are stressed when they don't know the answer to my questions.)
2. Lice or Mites.  (GASP! This was not an option for MY clean chickens.   This site was very helpful:  http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8162.pdf  and gross.  Nope, Ginger is a very clean, very beautiful chicken - she has no mites or lice.)
3. She's molting.  (Nope, this starts at the head and they start to look like baby dinosaurs again.)
4. She needs more protein.  This could actually be a viable option in this situation.  The chicken people say if they pluck their feathers and eat them, they are in need of protein.  Apparently the quills have protein in them.  These days whenever one of the girls looses a feather you would think it was crack cocaine.  They all chase after the feather like crack-fiend.  "BAAACALK!!  Gimmie that feather!!!"  It's gobbled down before it even hits the ground.   I guess I have crack-head chickens.  Great.  So, Coop De Ville is currently a rehab facility for crack-head poultry.  If you know any other chickens with the same problem send them over. Our program is guaranteed to work and the fees are reasonable.   We add greek yogurt to their diet and are currently investigating the protein content in cat food.  (Eeew)  It will be hard to ween them off the crack (I know because I was a prosecutor and talked to a LOT of crack-heads), but I have high hopes for these girls.  

Hidden Camera

Caught ya!!  I did it, I caught three girls laying eggs.   I felt like I was violating their privacy taking these pictures.  It's like walking in on someone in the ladies restroom.  "Excuse me!"  Oh well, they will forgive me.

Miss Bunny climbing in

Settling down

Dottie

Ginger

Chicken Lady

It's official (and very redneck). I am known as the chicken lady...

Locked Up

Interesting week on the chicken farm.  Travis got locked in the chicken coop.  I have to say it.... "Travis, I told you so."  I JUST asked him if he would fix the coop so we could get out from the inside because I was afraid I would get locked in.   The girls' water turned over during the day and apparently they were getting dehydrated.  Travis, being the good chicken father he is, was trying to hurry to fill up the water so the girls wouldn't pass out when "WHAM" the wind blew the coop door shut.   Ooops.  At least the girls had water, but Travis had other problems.  Equipped with absolutely nothing Travis searched the coop... "surely there is something in here I can use to get out" he thought.  After climbing through the tiny door the chickens walk through to get inside the coop to sleep, and crawling around inside the tight space he realized "oh, that door is locked too."  He wiggled his skinny butt back out of the tiny door into the "run" and searched for, in his words, "MacGyver tools" to maneuver his way out.  He tried to use a piece of rope poke through the wire, to swing around to the latch, to catch the hitch to open the coop.  That didn't work.  (Shocker.)  He thought about yelling out to the neighbor across the street, but that was too embarrassing.   He the found what he describes as a "chicken toy" (the chickens don't have toys by the way, it's this wire contraption that I put lettuce in for the girls to eat out of) and ripped it apart piece by piece, twisting each wire piece together end on end to push through the chicken wire on the door, to catch on the latch, to raise it and lead him to freedom.  It actually worked.   The girls were happy to get him out of their space and Travis delightfully sent me a text that stated, "Got locked in the coop, MacGuyvered my way out."  Oh Travis, I would happily be locked up with you. 

Heat

It is so hot outside I'm afraid I might find a fried egg in the nesting box soon. It was 112 degrees today which is ridiculous! I've been giving the girls ice water for the day and cold cottage cheese when I get home.  They must not be too stressed out because everyone is producing eggs. Everyone. 5 eggs a day. I must stay though, I am a little disappointed. Miss Bunny finally started laying and her eggs are NOT colored. That's the whole reason I got her and NAMED her after the Easter bunny.   However, I am very proud of her for producing an egg in this heat.  Her eggs are a light cream color.  Spot it in the pic? Maybe it just takes a while to work up some color.  We'll see.