Our plans to bury the recently deceased Nocty were thwarted by the deep freeze we are in. The ground is rock hard. The bird too. I put Nocty in an empty feed bag and rolled it up. I’m keeping her on the porch so no big animals can get at her. As for the little ones, …
Category Archives: chickens
RIP Nocty ii
Amie took the news of Nocty’s demise very well, much better than I thought she would. She was shocked, then cried a little. After absorbing the news, we went to see the body on the porch. It was dark so I brought a flash light. I lifted the cardboard to uncover the body and Amie …
RIP Nocty
This morning I found Nocty, one of our younger Ameraucanas (she would have been a year old in April), dead in the coop. She was lying in the narrow space between the roost and the big door.  It couldn’t have happened long ago. Her blue egg was next to her, still somewhat warm. There was no blood …
Life Lessons for Birds and Clouds
On a warm and sunny day last week, Â I let the chickens out in the yard. Amie came home from school just then and she joined the flock. For an hour she herded the hens around, nattering and scolding like a mama hen, with some marvelous life lessons (for chickens). What is the difference between …
Record Cold
NOAA predicts -13 F or -25 C for tonight. I’ve been perusing the historical weather data for Massachusetts and that looks like a record cold. If we make that, we beat the low of -12 of 1957. This kind of cold was on my mind when I went out to give the hens a bowl of fresh warm …
Cold
Yesterday night it went down to 9 F (-12.7 C) and tonight they predict 5 F (-15 C), -1 F with windchill. That’s cold. The two inches of snow that remain creak and crunch under your boots. Speaking of which, I shelled out for a good set of boots: MuckBoots, with steel toes. I read …
The Day’s Gifts
This afternoon, taking advantage of the warmer weather and the abeyance of snow/rain, I spent a good three hours splitting, moving and stacking close to 1/4 cord of firewood. While I was at it I conversed with the chickens, whose coop is next to the woodpile and the chopping block (eek). Two friends happened by …
Molting Chicken
Finally I can  hit the “molting chicken” meme! Skipperdee started molting very fast and suddenly and is now a ghost of her former self. Picking her up is the weirdest sensation: ribby and bony and very light. And she doesn’t like it. Amie calls her “Turkey Chicken” A She has no tail feather left. But the …
Water Heating in the Coop
Today was a glorious day: sunny and nearly 70 F. DH and I cleared gutters, raked leaves, cleaned up the porch so it is ready for another row of firewood, and generally tidied up. The only thing I didn’t get to do was plant garlic. But I did get to install the de-icer in the …
Happy Dance
Funny how a single, tiny blue egg can render a person speechless with awe and happiness. Amie exclaimed: “Nocty and Oreo laid an egg!”