Chicken Pics

My Blue Splash Silkies.  The hen got Mereks when she was a small chick and lost one eye.  She's still pretty young, but seems to be doing okay.  Her name is Blueberry.  No name for the rooster yet.

This is Dana.  She's a White Cornish Rock.  She was being raised for Perdue, which sells chicken in the grocery market.  I have a few others, but she has a messed up foot.  One foot is bigger than the other.  She walks with a limp, but gets around just fine.  Very sweet, gentle, and loving.

One of the five little silkie chicks.  They are so fuzzy and cute.  They have huge eyes!

This is Little Chicken!  Can you believe you big he has gotten!  He's about 8 months old now and is just starting to get his pubescent, sick-sounding crow.  He's a biter, but I think he's just an eater.  He loves to eat!  He's turning out to be a beautiful rooster, though! 

More chickens later, y'all!!

Pigeons

So I finally got me some pics to post.  These are my pigeons.  They are a lot of fun.  I haven't trained them for miles, so they just fly around home.  But we let them out in the afternoons and they take off flying around home.  Sometimes they go out of sight and are gone for some time.  I have no idea where they go, but quite often they simply fly circles around the area.  When they are done flying they land on the shed or in the yard, or in the very tall pine tree at the back corner of the back yard.  They ocassionally find water to bathe in.  They when the sun begins to set they fly back into their coop, and I toss them some mixed grains to munch on before sleepy time.  But since the owl incident they won't even land in the yard.  They are staying high in the pine tree.  It may be safer for them because they have a chance to fly away, at least.  I just don't want them to feel so comfortable outside that they don't return home.  I never named them.  When I got them they were very skiddish.  They would fly to the top of the coop when I tossed grains or bread in for them.  As of late they would fly down to eat when I would feed them.  Hope they are okay. 

Got chicken pics in a third post for today!!

Eventful Weekend

Well, I promised pics last week, and I failed.  I failed you all when I said the end of the week had not yet arrived, but I would post pics by then.  I did no such thing, as I am now a failure.  But I did get some pics this weekend which will follow in the next post.  Mike and I had a scary Saturday night.  A little after 3:30 a.m. Mike woke me to tell me something was getting the chickens!  Occasionally a rooster will crow in the middle of the night, but most often the hens are sleeping or at least trying to do so, with little or no noise of their own.  But Saturday night the whole lot of them were making quite a raucous that woke Mike.  There was a huge (wing span of about 4 feet) owl claws first in the pigeon coop!  It flew off, and we wait 10 minutes or so before returning to bed.  Once again, the chickens started squawking and we raced out again to see the owl fly off!  This happened several times before the owl finally succeeded in killing one of the pigeons and maming one other one.  I was so angry!  We were sad at the loss of our only barred racer.  One of the dark racers was injured.  They next morning they flew out and about and returned Sunday evening, but refused to go back into the coop.  They still fly around, but will not go in after that incident.  I don't blame them.  The worst part is they are a protected species, maiking it illegal to hurt or kill one of these (beautiful) birds of prey.   All I can say is that my birds are well protected from that owl. 

Veterans and Ida

What a week this has turned out to be.  Work has been insane and had me quite upset yesterday.  I have been spending more time on the truck than I really care for.  I applied for this position to get away from that, but I cannot seem to shake it.  I guess I just added more work.  But I still have a good job, and that I am grateful for.  I had so intended to at the least do a post yesterday for Veterans Day, but I had so much going on that I just was unable to.  But I don't see why we should reserve just one day a year to thank our veterans.  They are serving our country 365 days a year.  Can they not be thanked 365 days a year?  If you have the freedom to blog about whatever hits your heartstrings, thank a veteran today!

As for Ida, a tropical storm that hit the gulf coast earlier this week, and did nothing....thank you Becca, over at Becca's Dirt for this mess you sent us.  She lives nearly 1300 miles away, and I am being affected by the same storm she did.  However, Ida is doing more damage here on the east coast that she did down on the gulf.  We had rain for over 36 hours straight.  And I do mean down pours.  And the wind has been just screaming through the trees.  I spoke with my mom this morning, and she had trouble getting out of her home because the road she lives on was flooded.  One of our stores in Cheseapeake, VA is closed today because of the flooding.  It's nothing like the storms that hit the Phillipines by any measure, but it has been quite unpleasant weather, nasty to say the least.  My poor chickens.  I checked on them this morning, and they were dreanched.  Mike put extra tarps around the coops yesterday to help some, but the horizontal rain did whatever it felt.  I know I promised pictures this week.  I have not forgotten.  It has been one of those weeks.  But the week is not over.  I'll get them.  Again, thank you to all our heros.  May the hand of God be with those currently deployed, bring them safety, comfort, and a speedy return home!!

Really Not Worth It

Okay, this is really fast.  I just don't have time to post, but I wanna get a word in nonetheless.  The weekend wasn't horrible.  I kinda had a little fun.  And I expended over 264 rounds of ammunition at the range...shouldn't have had to, but it wasn't my fault.  I didn't get to zero my weapon, so I had to guess at my aim at the targets.  Tents had heat and bunk beds.  Had hot showers and sinks for brushing teeth and shaving.  Hot food served to us.  Good weekend overall.  Fuzzy bottoms born today!!  Mike called me at work to tell me they were hatched.  I was about to discard the eggs because it has been 26 days!  But it was her first clutch, and she got up more than she should have.  Two silkie roosters died this week.  Don't know why.  One was the daddy.  They died the same day with no real visible symptoms of any illness.  Any body have any ideas?  Anyway, that's a small nutshell.  I'll get pics up this week.  Been reading blogs today, even if I didn't comment.  See ya's later!

Still Nothing!!

I am so extremely disappointed.  I still do not have any pics.  I haven't been able to take any!!  The sun is just rising when I leave in the morning, and it is too dark when I get home!  I absolutely cannot stand Eastern Standard Time (EST).  It's just not fair!  Why should I miss out on all the sunshine just because I have to work!  I have even put a light in the coop for the chickens.  I still have to feed them when I get home, but if it's dark the cannot see the food.  Chickens eat by sight, not smell.  If they can't see the food, they can't eat it.  So I put a light for their evening feeding.  And I can't take any pics in the dark.  And this weekend just won't work, either.  I keep thinking I'll take a bunch of pics the weekend, but I can't do that.  I have drill this weekend!  We're leaving early Friday morning to go to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC to go to the M-16 range.  I'm so dreading that.  I do just fine qualifying with my weapon.  But we will be sleeping in tents, eating meal kits and MRE's, and using make-shift showers.  Not my idea of fun.  I guess I'll have to light a fire under Mike and get him to take some pics.  "Sigh!"

A Good Weekend

I had a good weekend, considering the weather.  Saturday was supposed to be some sun and 82 degrees.  It was cloudy with occasional mist and mid-seventies.  My nephew and niece had their soccer champ games.  My nephew's team went into a kick off, and they lost by one shot.  My neice's team won!  She got two trophies!  And the kicker is that they both made the all-star teams and will be playing with and against kids from other towns and counties!  Hip-Hip-Horray!!  I then spent the afternoon and my sis and BIL's house.  They then got ready for trick-or-treating.  (my nephew was. of all things, a soccer player)  MY sister was a pirate and my neice was a cat.  My BIL was a party pooper, and did not dress up.  He was going to be a ninja (he's a black belt in karate, and my sis is a 2nd degree black belt).  After T-O-T they were going to their church for a party.  I made the one hour drive home, had dinner, and ate ice cream in bed while channel surfing.  Sunday was a cool day filled with rain the first half of the day.  Mike and I wanted to work outside, as we usually do on weekends, but the weather just wouldn't cooperate.  I discovered the buff pullets were getting water in their coop, so that will have to be fixed this week.  Mike may even move them today.  I gave away my beautiful Aracana rooster to a friend, too.  I didn't have a good use for him, but I didn't want to give such a beautiful rooster away to become a meal.  My friend Les got him and took him to his chicken farm.  Then my sis and BIL and nephew and niece came over last night.  Mike made Fetuccini Alfredo with chicken and a salad (leftovers for lunch today) and we watched Transformers 2.  And my sister brought me a gift.  She actually gave it to me Saturday, but on the way out the door I grabbed the wrong one.  She gave me a very nice digital camera.  I picked up her expensive 35 mm camera.  We made the exchange Sunday evening.  So I don't have any pics today because I haven't really had a chance to check out the new camera.  But Mike said he was going to take some today.