Raising Maine

New feathered friends

Friends of ours decided to take a break from raising chickens and gave us the remaining part of their original flock.

About 18 chickens of various breeds ...

... and a couple of guineas.

The guineas, which I was really on the fence about taking but Fino really wanted, make a lot of racket and are pretty good at scaring away predators. And even if they don't exactly scare them away, the humans will hear the racket and investigate. Apparently the guineas have alerted our friends to attacks and ultimately saved their rooster's life. Twice.

After loosing Sassy, the girls are happy to have the guineas around and have been checking in with the flock more than usual.

We now have about 30 chickens, 2 ducks and 2 guineas now which is about the maximum number of feathered friends we've ever had at one time.

Hear the guineas

Since our friends asked us if we had the space for all of them - and were up for the care (the girls offered an enthusiastic yes) - I thought I'd post a couple of photos of Chickenland (our chicken coop).

The first phase of the coop was actually the middle chicken wire portion, which Fino built lickety-split because he bought the chickens before he had a place to put them.

Then he built the enclosed portion the following fall/winter and includes glass sliding doors he found at the dump. It's great to have a full wall of windows for a south-facing coop (more light=more eggs and happy chickens). Then he added the other end of the wired coop when our flock grew to 30 a year later so they had space to spread out.

The red string is linked to a bent nail that closes the door lock. After years of losing track of that darn nail, Fino decided to tie it to the nearby tree. He's a smart one.

After the third addition, the girls dubbed the coop Chickenland because they think it's sort of like a fun house/playland for their feathered friends.

RIP Sassy

Sadly, Sassy died last night.

Both the kids and I received a lot of emails and calls about Sassy so it wasn't for lack of trying and prayers that she didn't make it.

Now our typically free-range chickens are locked-up tight in their coop and we're deciding how to handle free-range part of their lives this weekend.

We'll keep you posted on the plans.

Sassy (the chicken) needed emergency surgery

Last night two of our chickens were attacked by what we believe was a fox (although the PITA dog next door was also seen in our yard yesterday but don't believe she was the culprit this time).

One chicken didn't survive and the other was in rough shape. Fino and the girls wanted to do everything they could to save the chicken, which required stitches to close her gaping wounds.

***WARNING - the photos below are GRAPHIC ***

They quickly set up a surgery area in the bathroom and got to work. (It was too cold outside to handle this one like Lucy's broken leg.)

Since Fino is a vet tech, he's familiar with surgical techniques (and not squeamish). But he needed a second set of hands and asked for G.'s help cleaning the wounds. She did that surprisingly well and without complaint. The chickens are after all her beloved pets that she works hard to take care of them everyday (even when the tasks aren't fun).

Fino didn't have the surgical supplies he needed so he had to improvise by using dental floss to make the stitches. And the sock was his idea too so G. and L.'s hands wouldn't be pecked mercilessly while holding the hen in place. She actually seemed calmer with the sock over her head.

The whole process took about 45 minutes and the chicken ended up with about 15 stitches. She's doing well this morning and we're hopeful she'll make a full recovery.

The girls have renamed the chicken "Sassy" after handling this ordeal so well.

During the 'surgery' the hen made some weird noise that gave us a surprise and had us laughing the rest of the night. It was definitely a YouTube moment.

Chicken surgery

Another bare chicken butt at our house

Yesterday we returned home to find the yard empty -- not a chicken in sight.
But after a walk around the coop we did find our neighbor's rottweiler prowling the area.

It seems the dog escaped her yard again (for the millionth time). We've tried for years to be patient with the rottweiler's owners and neighborly when returning the dog home.

Yesterday, after discovering a bunch of feathers (usually the sign a chicken has been killed) and facing the task of rounding up the flock (a time-consuming and not-so-fun job), I decided it was time to take a firmer hand with the situation.

G. and I caught up with the dog and guided her back home (she's a big dog with big teeth and although has never bitten us, I know she has never been trained properly so we don't get too close her). Fino on the other hand knows how to handle this dog but unfortunately he wasn't home at the time.

After ringing the bell several times the owner's girlfriend came to the door. I explained that the dog has been in our yard a lot (even more than usual lately) and was hoping she could keep the dog in their own yard.

I was told by the girlfriend that she and the owner thought the dog was staying in their yard all the time now and didn't need to wear the collar for the electric fence anymore (which was purchased less than a year ago, previous to that they didn't have anything to properly keep her in their yard).

The nonchalant delivery of that statement cinched my decision to call animal control.

A little while later we had all our cousins outside helping us round up the chickens. I assumed we'd find at least one dead chicken after discovering a bunch of feathers that definitely did not fall out naturally.

But it turned out that Napoleon was still alive; he just had a lot less tail feathers.

AFTER the dog attack.

BEFORE

So now we have two chickens with bare butts running around our yard.

I guess we'd better watch out, we could be charged with indecent exposure of poultry.

One hell of a day with chickens and bats

My day didn't really start yesterday until I pulled into the driveway after a busy morning at work and an afternoon doctor's appointment.

This is just how life is for most families ....

What greeted me in the driveway that was less than typical was one of our chickens walking funny (and no, it wasn't Lucy). After a closer look at Una, I realized the problem.

WARNING: Continue reading at your own risk. I would suggest putting down the food you're snacking on at your computer right now!

Una hadn't been taking care of herself and had so much crusted poop on her tailfeathers, she couldn't walk straight.

Bizarre but unfortunately, true.

I walked into the house, dumped my backpack and lunch box, rounded up the kids, changed into old clothes and grabbed some rubber gloves to set about giving Una a good soak in the water to clean her up.

She lost a few tail feathers in the end but she was walking more normally.

Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately the fun wasn't over at our house just yet.

Around 8 p.m. L. and I were sitting at the kitchen table reading our books and snacking on ice cream when something flew by us.

We both had a delayed reaction in coming to the realization that it wasn't an oversized moth or small bird.

Nope, it was a bat.

After she and I screamed, L. dove under the table so fast she did a number on her back.

She said she was so surprised she couldn't get under the table fast enough.

I went under the table with her (see I admitted it Fino!) while G. hid behind the counter. That's when Fino came fuming into the room yelling at me about the reason the kids are always so afraid of everything -- I overreact.

I mumbled some less-than-complementary words about husbands under the table before yelling at him to get rid of the (insert expletive here) bat.

Unfortunately the bat went MIA and the kids and I decided to take our reading material into the bedroom while Fino started looking around the house.

It turned out Toddy - the blind as a bat cat - found the bat hanging (literally) on the window in the kids' playroom and was meowing at it.

Apparently he has bionic hearing.

Our Hero!

Fino tried to catch the bat then gave that up and opened a window. With some active redirecting, the bat flew out of the house a few minutes later.

Ever had *one of those days?*

Bat in the house: Kids share the experience

Late night visitors ... and new friends

Sights around the Almeida homestead yesterday ...

An intruder in the chicken coop that was thankfully looking to eat eggs, not chickens.

The hole dug into the ground by the industrious skunk.

Turns out the fencing Fino dug into the ground when building the coop has deteriorated and needs to be replaced.

Dulce has worked her way into Toddy's good graces.

Driving, jumping and duck head feathers

The Ossipee Valley Fair opened yesterday (it runs through Sunday) and we went to check out the girls' 4-H exhibits, take Seen Team pictures and have some fun.

I had extra Seen Team helpers last night with the girls' visiting cousins from California.

See our Seen Team photos from the fair (if you go, be sure to share your pictures too!)

We stopped by an animals for sale exhibit where we've purchased our ducks in past and had a moment of realization about our own Victorian lady.

We thought our duck may have had a parent that was a cross-bred from this one.

The stray head feathers for our duck make a little more sense to us now.

We loved this one's fro.

We also had to look at the bunnies and L. took yet another opportunity to argue her case for getting her own (something she has done for several years now). She wants to incorporate it into her yearly 4-H projects but Fino keeps turning down the idea. He thinks we've got enough going on in our yard with the chickens and ducks.

L. is working on new negotiation tactics.

The kids tried out the bumper cars for the first time this year and I was a little frightened with L.'s driving.

After seeing this devilish look I started counting how many years I had to learn deep breathing techniques in anticipation of her getting her license (6 1/2 and counting now).

The kids also really enjoyed the bungee jump with their cousins.

They had a big thank you for their tio and tia for buying them tickets to try it!

Bungee Jumping at Ossipee Valley Fair

Drawing nature, creative license and staying still

Yesterday was a quiet morning for us so the girls and I decided to sit in our backyard and draw for a while.

L. likes to draw so I try to encourage her as often as I can.

G. thought the flowers were too hard to draw and she was tired of the drawing trees (after drawing one) so she took some creative license with the daisies and drew "pretty purple flowers because they are prettier." Apparently she felt the same about our white ducks too.

G. enjoys drawing too but more from her imagination that what she's looking at.

L. decided to draw the chickens but it was hard to capture much detail because they kept moving around or sitting in their holes.

So she asked her sister to help.

G. caught a hen and held her still while L. and I tried to draw her.

Next time the chickens will likely run away a little faster. L. wanted a full wing view and her sister helped the hen accomodate her.

And as I've mentioned many times, chickens are really entertaining to watch especially when they're digging their holes.

I guess the difference between dogs and chickens is that dogs don't lie around in their holes all day. The chickens use their holes to take dirt baths and sleep. Or maybe dogs do the same?

I'm thinking maybe it's a little weird that I don't know ...

Give a cheer for the chickens

There's a story in today's paper about a 10-year-old South Portland girl who wants the city council to change the law that prohibits chickens from residential areas.

It's a sad day when a kid who really wants a pet chicken is deprived of having one. I'm certain my girls will be up-in-arms with the city of South Portland when I tell them about this story.

The good news is that most commenters on the story seem to be in favor of letting the South Portland girl have her chicken. And the Fair or Foul question today is leaning towards fair as well (note the photo on the question -- the Almeida family has the site's chicken stock photos). It's nice to know the general public is rooting for her.

In my experience, chickens have a lot of entertainment value ... and they really are easy and useful pets to have around (our Top 10 list in favor of feathered friends still stands not to mention that with a little coaching, they do make pretty good movie stars).

Now if the proposal was for having ducks, THAT would be another story altogether.

Along for the ride

If you ever wondered what more was possible to do with a pet chicken, here's another gem from the Almeida girls.

Taking your pet chicken for a bike ride.

And Carl, I'm sorry about Burley the Dog's envy about riding on - rather than beside - your bike. But I think the chicken would have gladly traded places!

Oh, and my favorite bit in the video is when G. catches her dad doing a wheelie and L. lamenting that he's such "a showoff." Their commentary while recording their various videos was worth the price of their digital camera.

Half-way chickens

You know that joke, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

It's meaningless at our house. The Almeida chickens don't cross the road -- they stop in the middle of it.

They do not seem to have the desire to actually get to the other side.

And even after beeping the horn repeatedly and driving really close to them, they don't budge.

One of several fearless hens in the Almeida driveway.

It usually takes one of the kids jumping out of the car to shoo her away.

We're not sure how Lucky Lucy broke her leg last summer but recently we've speculated that maybe she was one of our half-way chickens we just didn't notice.

10 reasons to raise chickens

10. They help you build upper-body strength by hauling their feed bags

9. They keep family activities interesting with their curiosity (but it's doubtful our chickens will get near diet coke again)

8. They help dispell myths about their abilities - like the fact that they really can fly

7. They give you eggs to eat, which can be more than you can handle sometimes

6. They eat any kind of left-overs, including gingerbread houses and ice cream cake

5. They are easy pets to take care of (my daughter takes exception to that in the winter when their water freezes)

4. You can play doctor on them and they don't really mind

3. They are pretty good actors with a little coaching (the next installment of the "Magical Leaf" will likely be out this summer)

2. They pick through the compost pile, which helps aerate and speed up the decomposing process

1. They love to eat ticks! - which are in abundance this year

The disco ducks

Well, I had to agree with the girls yesterday that the duck video they made was pretty funny. They recorded it the other day while the ducks were swimming in their little pool and dubbed it the "Disco Ducks" because the ducks "shake their booties all the time."

I think it could have been called, the "Funky Moves by L. and the Disco Ducks" because she's much funnier than the ducks.

The kids like to simply sit and watch our flock of chickens and ducks walk around (or swim). They find this highly entertaining and I too think they really are funny creatures to observe.

And since poultry is one of G.'s favorite subjects to photograph (the flying chicken photo was a keeper last year) she was at it again - but with the ducks this time. I guess they are the stars of her 4-H photography project this year.

And during the duck photo session, L. got laughing so hard doing her 'disco duck' moves she fell off her chair.

Well it certainly is an interesting way to spend an afternoon in the backyard.

The evil chicken and 'Quest for Magical Leaf'

The kids and their friend E. decided to make a movie yesterday. Like thousands of kids, they love YouTube and always seem to be planning their next video contribution to our channel.

The 'Quest for the Magical Leaf' was an interesting movie to make and I was vastly entertained by not only the kids, but their animal actors as well.

Here's the basic story line: An orphan girl Marie (played by L.) escapes the evil orphanage to find the magical leaf that will destroy the evil-doers at the orphange. But while searching for the leaf she runs into the evil chicken (voice of G.). Marie is saved from the evil chicken by Wilbeena (E.) and her magic fork. Then together Wilbeena and Marie continue the quest and find the leaf but have to get past the princess protecting it (played by G.) and the "kung fu master" (played by Toddy), which they do and everyone is happy in the end.

As one would guess, there were some interesting production issues to deal with while making this movie with our pets (and I was charged with recording with my digital camera but had little say on the plot or character happenings).

Here were some of the 'learnings':

Accomodate your actors. L. is learning to ride a bike (better late than never) and insisted it be in the movie. With much reluctance on E. and G.'s part, they agreed to have the beloved bike in every scene.

Trying to film a talking chicken without getting the handler's hands and/or body in the shot is not easy. I did my best but was told I needed to work on this skill in the future.

Being flexible and substituting actors when they prove uncooperative. A hen laying an egg had to fill in for the Evil King because the girls could not get their rooster to stay in one place long enough to film the scene. And several different chickens had to be used while filming because the kids could not keep track of the one they started out with (there was a lot of "flying" away and once the chicken did that, it was hard to track her down again).

Trying to get a chicken to curtsy is nearly impossible. But spreading its wings in a gesture of evil grandeure is much easier.

'Real life' can be helpful in getting your actors to show more emotion. There were no issues with flying insects (the kids were too busy having fun to notice) but the ticks were out. During filming L. spotted one crawling up E.'s back right at the moment that E. was doing her 'injury' scene. The look on L.'s face is one of genuine concern and a really great addition to the scene.

Heros do not need magical wands to defeat evil chickens; a kitchen fork will do just fine. And to the preteen actors, hysterically funny.

When your lead chicken doesn't fly away as originally planned, you change your dialog from, "I must fly away" to "I must fly, fly ... or walk ... away."

Kids that grow up with chickens don't say "cluck" to imitate their sound. They do a much more realistic, "bahgaaw."

You can't plan everything but sometimes things work out perfectly. Toddy meowed at a key moment when the princess handed over the leaf to the orphan. It was as if he was offering his own bit of dramatic skills with his reluctance at giving up the leaf.

Getting chickens to scatter in fear of the magical leaf proved harder than planned. The Almeida chickens simply aren't scared of the kids and therefore strut - more than run - away from them.

When the cameraperson says the movie has to stay short to adhere to YouTube guidelines, some compromises have to be made. Lines like "I've been sent by someone to get you there safely..." is used in favor of a longer explanation. Or having the princess argue with the orphan and Wilbeena that they can't take the leaf but then quickly agreeing to it. The consolation for the actors was the agreement of a sequel.

Out takes can be as funny as the actual movie when your actors forget their character's name, or a tick crawls up their back (the out takes are at the end of the movie).

The Movie: Quest for the Magical Leaf

A chicken experiment

We had some half-eaten pieces of ice cream from G.'s birthday party to throw out and Fino suggested we feed it to the chickens. It didn't take much to convince me to go outside in the snow storm with him to "record" the experiment. There were 9 girls running around the house playing games that required a lot of imagination and even more jewerly, shoes and accessories not to mention the "excited chatter" (a.k.a. screaming) that was going on.

So Fino and I braved the driving snow with the heaping plate of ice cream cake to the chicken coop to test our hypothesis that chickens will eat anything.

The experiment results were clear in about 3 seconds ...

They like it and they don't care what the temperature outside is when they eat it (about 20 degrees with driving wind and wet snow).

One variable we didn't take into account was the flying mess. It seems chickens feel the need to vigirously shake their heads from side-to-side to remove the ice cream stuck to their beaks. Yeah, being in the middle of a chicken ice cream feeding frenzy with all the splatter wasn't so great. But in the name of science, I guess it was worth an additional load of laundry.

Do chickens eat ice cream cake?

And if you're looking for more action, check out our YouTube playlist of chicken videos from the past year, including our first chicken feeding frenzy that involved one of the girls' gingerbread houses.

A view from the coop

Someone asked the girls recently if our other chickens were having problems this winter (as if all our chickens were freezing like poor Flipper was).

Nope, they aren't. The Almeida poultry is quite comfortable out in the coop and don't seem to mind snow storms - like today's - at all.

And they even have a nice picture window in the coop (a glass sliding door recycled from the dump thanks to a very resourceful Fino) to watch the storm.

A chicken's view of the storm today

R.I.P. Flipper

Unfortunately Flipper the rooster died this week. We believe it was old age, more than the cold (which he was handling well with the help of his larger feathered-friends), that caused his death.

The kids were doing their morning chicken chores when they found Flipper dead in one of the nesting boxes. Unfortunately for me, this happened on a morning when Fino was at work. I couldn't leave the dead chicken in the coop all day so that left me with the task of finding a resting place for him.

I didn't want to pick up the dead rooster in my hands - I was already queazy enough just looking at his dead body - so I found a shovel to use instead (I guess the upside of losing a chicken in the winter is that the body was frozen solid so he wasn't too hard to scoop up).

But then there was the issue of what to do with the body because in all the years we've had chickens (almost 6 years), Fino has always been the one take care of this part.

So there I was walking out of the coop with the dead rooster in my shovel and two upset children still trying to figure out what to do. I had the girls say a quick prayer and then sent them into the house. I then proceeded to walk into the woods several hundred yards behind my house and put Flipper under a big pine tree. I knew the wild animals in the backyard would 'take care' of him and told the girls what I had done and said it was probably better that way so those animals would have some food.

The girls didn't want to talk much about Flipper dying but the next day L. wondered what would happen to "Chickenland" now that "the king was dead." It seems that now Napoleon, our only remaining rooster has been dubbed the new king.

I guess he was aptly named for his new role.

Napoleon the rooster is tiny, even by bantam standards (he's on the left next to his sister). He looks like a 6-week old Rhode Island Red breed chick. But he makes up for his size in other ways by making a lot of noise and intimidating the hens by pecking at them. Little did we know that he would so completely be living up to his name.

New meaning to 'dressing the bird'

After a rousing wake-up call yesterday morning (and I thought the crowing through the baby monitor was bad!) from our early bird camped out in the hallway (a.k.a. the rooster, his name is actually Flipper), he is back outside with his buddies.

But not before the girls and Fino decided to make him a fleece jacket to keep him warm.

The girls found a worthy use for that left-over Halloween fleece. Good thing there are no cats on it...

The jacket seemed to keep him toasty but then it was decided (by Fino) that it might not keep him that much warmer. Apparently chickens stay warm by fluffing out their feathers and he can't very well do that with a jacket on so it sort of defeats its purpose.

The spiffy jacket has been put away for now but might make a reappearance if the girls think the Flipper needs it again.

They certainly are putting their sewing skills to good use these days for all of their animal friends.

Frozen chicken on the mend

I got home from the office this afternoon and this is what I found inside my house.

Note the heating pad cord. At least Fino used it under a plastic bag and towel so it might be salvaged after the chicken is done with it.

Apparently the neighbor's dog ran into our yard (she really needs obedience training and spends almost as much time running wild in our yard as her own) so of course the chickens scattered. But it's mighty chilly outside and our smaller chickens have a lot less tolerance for the cold so usually stay inside the coop on days like this. But the dog scared them and one bantam ran quite a distance away from the coop. About an hour later Fino found the rooster and initially thought he was frozen to death. Turned out he was just really cold but still breathing. So he brought the little guy into the house and put him in a warm bath in the bathroom sink in hopes of warming him up quickly.

Afterward, Fino tucked him into a big box with a towel and heating pad in the hallway to keep an eye on him (and it was at that point that I walked in the house).

As we sat down to eat an early dinner, L. laughed and pointed to the hallway.

"Pop goes the weasel!" (She is the family comedian after all.)

It didn't take too long for the rooster to warm up start acting like his own feisty self again.

Then the rooster jumped out of the box and ran into the bathroom.

He sort of missed the toilet doing his business though.

Fino caught the rooster and put him back in the warm box. But then as G. was taking a quick video clip a few minutes later to put on her YouTube channel (have I mentioned how much she enjoys that website?), the chicken made another escape attempt.

The rooster is now in the box with some air holes and a closed lid. He'll hang out until tomorrow when he's completely dry and warmed up enough to join his feathered friends in the coop.

Today was yet another example of why it's a good thing I have a sense of humor. When you're the parent of a couple of animal-loving children who really do work hard taking care of their special pets, laughing at the craziness inherent with the task becomes a requirement. I really never ever planned on sharing my house with poultry...

An early Christmas present for chickens

When you've moved the family's edible gingerbread house around the kitchen a thousand times and everyone's picked off and eaten their favorite candies, it's time to give it to the chickens.

And after we uploaded our short video clip to YouTube, we came across this gem (note the swinging cookie's shape)...

A chicken feeding frenzy

Since my family all loves apples, and the kids love using our apple peeler, we've been on a pie-making kick. As it turns out, the human Almeida family members aren't the only ones who love the fruit.

Yeah, our chickens also eat egg shells. According to Fino, it actually makes the eggs they lay in the future stronger. I try really hard not to think about the whole concept though, it makes me a little queazy.

A limping, but fast-moving, Lucy

Yesterday L. tried to catch Lucky Lucy to see how her leg was doing. And as we quickly discovered, the slightly crooked leg (well, she was the first chicken leg cast Fino had ever done) is not a problem anymore. It took L. a few rounds of Walk Around the Coop before she finally caught her.

Lucy's evasive manuevers
[25 seconds]

I think Lucy's leg is doing just fine.

Lucy's cast removal

Lucy, of lucky chicken fame, had her cast removed today. Her leg is not straight and we really didn't expect it to be given we know nothing about healing chicken's bones.

She's not moving around so much right now without the cast support but she seems to be doing fine. We knew it was time to take off the cast when she enthusiastically got herself to the compost pile every afternoon this past week after I dumped table scraps there. She's sort of a one-legged, hopping, partly flying chicken who really can move fast with the right motivation.

G. took the photos below while L. held Lucy down. Fino did all the precision work and Lucy was back in the coop a short while later without a scratch.

This whole thing with Lucy simply cracks me up and provides endless entertainment for the kids, who offer Cheerios and apple incentives during their daily physical therapy sessions with her.

Fino's drammel worked like a charm to remove the cast.

The cast sans Lucy. G. plans to use it for her 4-H project about Lucy at the Cumberland Fair in a couple of weeks.

Chickenland's late night visitor

For a few weeks Fino has been repairing Chickenland (our chicken coop). There's a few places where the wire fencing has started to weaken at the dirt line (it's dug about a foot beneath the dirt) and there is a hole big enough for an animal to get through. Since we've been finding a few cracked eggs and a need to buy more chicken feed than usual, we guessed Chickenland might have a late night guest or two.

We didn't worry too much about it though since all the chickens were accounted for (every one of our 25 chickens has a name and can be identified by the girls). The visitor didn't seem interested in eating any of the chickens, just their feed and eggs.

Last night our suspicions were confirmed. Around 3 a.m. we woke to the sounds of loud chicken noises so Fino jumped out of bed, grabbed a flashlight and my camera and went to go check it out.

I saw him running towards Chickenland from our bedroom window before he came to a quick -- very quick -- stop. Then he did a very slow back-up.

It seems we have a new skunk friend regularly visiting Chickenland -- and he looks well-fed.

Now we have to find a way to encourage our friend to find another late night snack location. Any suggestions?

Toddy the Superhero and Lucky Lucy gets moving

We had an eventful Thursday. Our blind cat Toddy protected us from an intruder while Lucky Lucy the chicken figured out how to escape a hose shower, broken leg and all.

Toddy was sitting in the middle of the steps leading into the kitchen yesterday, which is nothing unusual. Pick the most inconvenient spot in the house to be and that's where Toddy will be. While I was in another room, L. started frantically yelling for me to come to the steps.

"Toddy is fighting with something furry mom!"

It seems a squirrel had somehow found his way into the house (probably through the basement door that was left open most of last weekend while Fino moved his various tools into the shed).

Although we don't think Toddy actually injured the squirrel, he certainly scared it into hiding. Fino did a quick search of the basement last night without finding it. Now Chion, our other cat who loves to hunt (he's always killing and leaving dead stuff outside the front door), has been commisioned to find the squirrel. Well, basically we locked him in the basement in hopes he'll find the intruder and take care of it for us.

As for Toddy, he's standing guard on the steps - his new favorite spot - protecting the family.

Good times at the homestead.

The latest news on the Lucky Lucy the chicken is that she's getting physical therapy twice a day for her broken leg. That means we carry her out of the coop and encourage her to stand and walk around a bit. She's standing on her own now.

But her lack of movement has made her kind of smelly (well more than usual). So the girls attempted to give her a little misting shower with the hose in hopes of cleaning her back feathers a bit.

Amazing what a little motivation to get away from a bath will do for a chicken.

Here it is in live action: Lucky Lucy on the move
[8 seconds, QuickTime video]

Sunflowers and a Lucy update

I asked L. to take some photos of the sunflowers in our yard over the weekend. They really are blooming now (thanks to all the chicken poop fertilizer) and as tall as last year. Although we liked the suggestion/comment from Nancy about making a sunflower house, we never did get our act together to plant them correctly to do it.

L. said this one was a "sunflower picture with Chion." She always finds an excuse to take another photo of one of our cats (like we don't already have about 1,000 of them). I suppose you can see that tiny flower in the background...

And we have an update on Lucy the Lucky Chicken that the girls wanted to share. Fino put a plaster cast on her leg yesterday and now she can hobble around the coop.

I'm always learning something new about my chicken friends - and my husband's many talents.

Chicken in pink

It has been a rough week on legs at the Almeida homestead, first L. and now Lucy our chicken.

Fino discovered the chicken's leg broken yesterday morning. Nurses L. and G. assisted with the splint and helped to secure it with an old sock from L.

When I got home from the office yesterday, I was told in great detail about poor Lucy's injury and how the nurses and Fino helped her. There was a lot of speculation about how the injury happened but Fino really wasn't sure.

Lucy was resting comfortably in the coop last night and the nurses have now given her a new name.

"Lucky Lucy the Chicken"

And I'm sure she's feeling lucky and the envy of her friends. She's probably the only chicken in Maine wearing a pink sock right now.

Eating chicken with chickens

I joke with anyone who eats a meal at our house that my kids have a warped perception about what to do with the remnants of their dinner. At our house they throw food scraps out the backdoor.

Chickens, like dogs, will eat anything and much to our occasional dinner guest's surprise (and mine initially), are happily cannibalistic. So when our backdoor opens, the chickens come running because more often than not, it means some kind of food is being tossed out for them.

I know it's weird -- particularly for my many city-born friends -- but my practical side appreciates the time I save on kitchen cleanup.

But last night I was reminded that there is a down-side to our table scrap practice.

Fino made chicken on the grill while I set the big table in the backyard with plates, silverware and a rice dish. When it came time for all of us to sit down to eat, a dozen chickens ran over to the table and surrounded us.

The chickens walked around - and under - the table while we ate. Within a few minutes I think our entire coop's population had surrounded us (25+). We attempted to shoo them away but that didn't work so the kids threw some rice into another part of the yard. That worked for about a minute before the chickens came back looking for more. Needless to say, it was a quickly eaten meal.

I guess the old adage applies here - you take the good with the bad.

And in case you were wondering, the chickens got the table scraps from this meal too.

Dad,kids,chicken + coke,mentos =fun

I told Fino about the diet coke and mentos combination and he and the girls were eager to try it.

Now what really cracked me up about our experiment was not the fact that it worked - or that Fino was in his glory blowing something up - but the chicken factor. Always have to count our feathered friends being part of anything we do in our backyard.

The first experiment was great and the mentos, along with the warm diet coke (we took my co-workers' advice), went shooting out of the bottle.

Being the opportunists they are, the chickens then came over to see if they could catch a bite to eat. One hen discovered a mento on the ground and started pecking at it. Then Fino started another "experiment" and the hen shot out of sight almost as fast as the diet coke did.

Fino and the girls did another experiment to see if adding mentos to the already used diet coke would explode again. It did -- with a little help.

And in case you're wondering, yes, the diet coke left in the bottle is drinkable - and tasty according to Fino.

Of course, we did catch all the live action on video.

The Chicken Escape
[10 seconds]

Success
[8 seconds]

Recycled Diet Coke explosion
[16 seconds]

The house breach

With all the rain and spending the past week sewing mermaid dance costumes for the kids' recital, I'm all set with this whole water theme going on right now.

So this morning I downloaded the photos from my camera to grab one I took for this blog entry. And I admit, it was nothing exciting.

But then I saw that there were a bunch of photos on the camera that I knew I didn't take. G. had obviously been working on her 4-H photography project yesterday.

Then I looked through the photos...

Well G.'s perspective is always interesting, including photos she chooses to take of her visiting Flat Stanleys. And I know I shouldn't complain about the fact that the girls were actually doing their chores and washing the dishes, but I didn't need to know they flooded the sink and kitchen floor to do it.

G.'s theme for her project is "action/motion" so my guess would be that she was going for dripping and/or spraying water. Still, it's an artsy-type photo and OK in my book.

Now this one, for so many reasons, is so NOT OK that it will require a serious chat when I get home.

I've told the kids a million times not to let the chickens on the porch and not to feed the chickens the cats' food even though they like to eat it.

So this is like the double-rule breaker -- without the house breach.

And what were the girls thinking when they took this picture, that I wouldn't see it?

It's a good thing they're cute...

Flying chicken redux

G. was still trying to get the "perfect" flying chicken photo yesterday. So I thought I'd post this photo, just for the record, that I didn't do anything more than hold the chicken in my hands and let it fly away. No "catapulted" chickens at our house :-).

They can fly?

Yup. It's not pretty but chickens can fly.

G. was working on her 4-H photography project yesterday and needed an "action" shot. She thought flying chickens would make the perfect subject, proving L. is not the only creative thinker in the family.

And speaking of chickens, I'm really looking forward to Fino putting in our air conditioner this weekend for cooling off as well as the white noise. The morning sounds of Chickenland - quaint as the country farm life may be - are waking me up way too early on my days off from work.

(And just for the record, that soundclip was made from inside my bedroom at 4:30 a.m. this morning.)

A dog attack

We returned home this afternoon to discover a mean and growling dog in our yard. I got out of the car to shoo it away and the dog continued to growl and look kinda scary. I wasn't sure which neighbor's dog it was (and I wasn't too keen on getting a closer to read his tag). But after a minute or so he ran off down the street and G. bounded out of the car (I told them not to get out until the dog was gone) in a panic about the chickens.

"Where are the chickens mommy!?!"

There weren't any around which I hadn't initially noticed so I wondered too.

After some scouting, we found the remnants from one chicken (very unpleasant for me let alone the kids) and only 3 clucking around the coop. We have 31 in total so there were a lot unaccounted for.

The feather trail is a tell-tale sign of a dead chicken nearby.

We did a head count about an hour later as L. fed them some pineapple (yeah, I didn't know they liked that either). All but 2 were accounted for, both very small bantams - "Napoleon" (a rooster who lived up to his name daily so we think maybe he'll turn up later) and "Napoleon's Sister, Annika." And as if it wasn't obvious, every chicken in the coop has a name and the girls insist they can tell them all apart. And to be honest, I don't doubt it. They spend a lot of time loving their pets.

As for the ducks, they're free range again and survived the dog attack.

I think I understand where that saying "Lucky Duck" came from now.

You know it is time to vacuum...

... the minivan when you leave the door open to load some groceries into the house and find this taking care of the crumbs when you return.

Peking duck - Take 2

As I have mentioned, rounding up our ducks is a real hassle. We believe in letting the chickens and ducks free-range during the day and then lock them into the safety of our chicken coop at night. The chickens are never a problem; they go right in to roost at dusk. The ducks are never that cooperative.

And now with the warm weather the ducks (we had four of them) have not found the coop a desirable place, even at night.

Ducks are not very smart.

As a result, we have been out in our large backyard herding them into the coop almost nightly. And it's not an easy, nor fast process for this city-born couple.

Fino reached the final straw last week. He closed the coop around 11 p.m. and went to bed, unable to get the ducks inside.

But that strategy didn't work out so well for us. All night long the ducks quacked and quacked, obviously trying to scare away the predators that we know lurk in the woods in our backyard. It was tough sleeping through all the noise, especially knowing that one of them might get eaten.

But it worked out for our feathered friends. All four ducks survived the night. And the next night they were all too willing to go into the coop.

Then it happened again, Thursday night the ducks went AWOL. Fino, after a few expletives, decided they could spend another night outside since they fared well previously.

We went to bed, with the window open because it was a warm night, and heard the ducks incessantly quacking. Ducks are REALLY loud, especially when they decide to put up their defenses outside your bedroom window, which unfortunately is not all that far from the coop - a design flaw I know.

Around 1 a.m. Fino went out there to coax them into the coop since it was obvious there were predators around.

Nope. They wouldn't go in.

More expletives shot from Fino's mouth before he came back in the house.

The ducks went on all night long so we maybe got an hour of sleep, even after shutting the window.

Yesterday afternoon we did a duck head count. One was missing. The kids were sad but Fino and I were less broken-up about it.

Last night the kids and Fino tried to round up the three remaining ducks into the coop. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was NOT allowed to photograph the proceedings. It was a crying shame.

Each of the kids were given a couple of branches and an area to cover to guide the ducks into Fino's 'trap.' Fino had rigged chicken wire around some trees and had some guiding branches to help as well. And STILL, those ducks managed to elude them by squeezing under the wire.

More wire was unwound and then staked with a new strategy in place. After about 10 more minutes, the ducks were inside.

The ducks were then bullied by Fino into a portion of the coop that can be closed-off from the rest of the structure.

"Those suckers aren't getting out for a long time!" Fino said along with some other colorful language.

The fate of the ducks remains undecided but I doubt, if Fino has his way, we'll ever be chasing them again.

Chickenland troubles, or not

I'm just getting back to work after our holiday vacation and sifting through our photos so more on that later.

During Easter dinner, the story of the night before we left Maine for our trip provided lots of entertainment value for family members.

Fino woke up around midnight hearing a rooster crowing. He thought a predator was trying to get into 'Chickenland' (L.'s nickname for our chicken coop) so he jumped out of bed, grabbed his gun and ran outside while unlocking the trigger lock (I don't like guns but Fino's an ex-Army guy so I cut him some slack because he really does know how to use them). He checked around Chickenland and couldn't find anything amiss.

The girls had woken up (I slept through the whole thing) and asked him what was going on when he came back into the house. He told them everything was fine and to go back to bed.

Then the rooster crowing started again.

It turned out that Fino had inadvertently set the alarm clock on his cell phone and the crowing was the alarm sound.

I really wish I had been awake when he figured that out.

Maybe it's time for Peking duck

The other night I went out to collect our chicken and duck eggs. Usually the kids do this chore but we had a busy day and didn't get home until after dark.

I went into the coop with my flashlight and poked around to find the eggs (the hens like to hide them in different places so we're never quite sure where they are). While I was doing that, one of the ducks got spooked and managed to run past me and out into the woods.

If you don't know anything about ducks, let me just tell you that they are really hard to catch in a fenced area with two people, let alone in an open space by yourself. They're quick and have a good sense of strategy.

So there I was on a freezing cold night (single digits), trying to coax this errant duck back into the coop.

I first thought that if I walked away from the coop, she'd go inside.

Nope. The duck stayed right where she was, quacking loudly, as I watched from a distance.

Then I tried to walk around the coop in hopes of forcing her to walk towards the coop door.

Nope. She just ran past the door and into the woods, still quacking.

So then I walked around in the woods to try to coax her into a different direction, all the while hoping that the duck - let alone me - wouldn't run into some wild animal.

That attempt got the duck on the edge of the door but then she suddenly jumped and ran off into the woods again.

At this point I told the duck she was "(expletive) out of luck" and I shut the coop door. The whole situation was ridiculous. But as I walked away, the kids started yelling from the kitchen door that I couldn't leave the "poor duck."

"Mommy, you have to help her!" yelled L.

"Well you come out here and help me," I said.

"It's too cold for me Mommy, I'm in my pjs."

"Me too mom!" said G.

"You can't let her get eaten (by the wild animals) Mom! That would be so sad!" said L.

I knew the duck couldn't survive the night outside the coop. And we had raised her from the time she was a duckling and well, I am a bleeding heart.

So I stayed outside for a few more rounds of Walk Around the Coop. Then FINALLY, the duck waddled back inside.

When Fino got home and I told him what had happened he said, "Man, I think it might be time for Peking duck."

Mothers and fathers, they each have their own approach to things.

G's chicken tale....

We had a little "incident" with one of the chickens today and G. wrote about it in her journal.

"Mommy, you should tell this story on your blog," she told me when she was finished.

She's 9 and she's ready for a blog of her own.

"I went outside with a broom to get the chickens off the porch today. All of the chickens got out except for one. That one got behind the grill on the porch and then before I could get to her, she went between two poles and got herself really stuck.

It took a while for me to get her out.

I had to push her wings together because she had spread them out. But one wing wouldn't get unstuck and it was tricky to help her. She kept moving away from me.

But she was so fat that it hurt her a little to get unstuck.

I got her out and I hugged her and I told her she was a good chicken. Then I let her go down the steps and then I shut the porch gate.

The chickens always poop on the porch that's why we never feed them food there. Mom always tells us to shut the gate but we forget sometimes. "

Yup, she really did go out on the porch with a straw broom to shoo the chickens away.

The hen was one of the supersize producers. She really is big.

If you're unfamiliar with chicken poop, it's nearly impossible to clean off wood surfaces.

Yes it's possible to hug and snuggle with a chicken - the kids do it all the time. They even claim they smile sometimes.

There is entertainment value in watching a chicken go up and down steps.

And I did appreciate the confirmation that she's aware that I ask her and her sister to close the porch gate. I just assumed I was wasting oxygen with that request.

Feeding chickens, not so fun

Yesterday while I was working in the office, my husband called.

"We're out of chicken feed. Can you stop and buy some on your way home from work?"

Aaargh! I really dislike these phone calls....

"But those bags are really heavy for me. How come you didn't buy it over the weekend?"

"Because we were busy."

The kids had 3 shows of the theater production they were in this past weekend. Then there was the 4-H Demonstration event they went to. OK, yeah, we were busy.

Big sigh...

"Alright, I'll go get a bag of chicken feed. But next time you have to do it. I HATE those 50 pound bags!"

OK I know, I'm complaining.... but geeze, those bags really are a drag!

And it's a good thing the kids didn't have the camera yesterday to take a photo of me carrying that bag to the coop. I would have had to delete it.

Plus, lifting and dumping the feed into the feed box isn't fun either. The top cover is just above my waist and it's mighty tricky to balance an open, 50 pound bag of feed on your hip and aim for the narrow opening....

My only saving grace yesterday was the fact that I didn't have to walk on any snow or ice to get to the coop. I guess that's one good think about the lack of snow this winter -- although I'd much rather be snow boarding than hauling chicken feed into the coop.

But the chickens were happy when their chow arrived.

And I have to say our happy chickens have been pumping out not only supersize eggs, but double yoke ones. We've had a bunch of these in the past few weeks.

Happy chickens

This snow-less Maine winter has really put a damper on skiing and boarding, but our chickens are loving it. In fact, we've never had so many eggs from our feathered friends. This picture represents about one week of egg production for the Almeida poultry.

But it's not just the quantity that's the problem; it's the size. The supersize eggs don't fit in extra large egg cartons and that presents some problems when trying to box them up to give to people.

And a person can only eat so many omelets, quiches, bread pudding, hard boiled and deviled eggs.

I'm not sure what Fino and the kids are doing to make the chickens so happy, but boy are they ever!

A basket of eggs anyone? Or if you're too far away... do you have any interesting egg recipes to share?

I'll take a scrambled Supersize

The Almeida chickens are in egg-laying overdrive right now. Not being a chicken expert (not even close), I would have thought the cold weather and shorter days would not have made our poultry friends very happy or productive.

But it turns out they are more than content. As a matter of fact, today the kids collected the biggest eggs I've ever seen. Thanks to the kids' 4-H poultry notebook, we were able to size them based on eggs people buy in the supermarket.

The egg farthest right is a Small (18 oz), the one next to it is a Large (24 oz) and the other two on the left are more than the 30oz Jumbos listed on the information sheet so we dubbed them Supersize. We're pretty sure our Comet breed hens shot those out.

Holy cow!

Or should I say ... Holy Chicken!

What a day!

It's 66 degrees and the sun is out.

It's an ideal fall day in Maine. Even our chickens are smiling.

Chickens are everywhere

Big news in the Almeida chicken coop this week - two new baby chicks hatched!

The kids are thrilled with the new additions to our flock and telling everyone they know about the hatching. And I think they have spent more time in the coop than our house for the past few days.

I had never seen a live hatching before and I have to say, it was pretty cool.

At least it's warm and the baby chicks can be out in the coop with the mother chicken. This past June, the chicks Fino and the girls ordered from the feed store took up residence in our basement bathroom for two weeks because it was too cold outside in the coop for them. Let's just say that farm animals should not live in the house. Nothing is cute about them until they move out.

Chickens galore

Sometimes we don't have to leave our backyard to have an "outdoor adventure." We have chickens. And that means that our family is never at a loss for a story about some random -- usually bizarre and funny -- incident involving our chickens.

For instance, there was the time a rooster jumped on my head and tried to peck through my skull. It felt like a scene from "The Birds" (and I couldn't wash my hair for a couple of days because of all the lacerations on my scalp). According to my husband though, I must have somehow "provoked" the rooster. But that theory was buried, along with the rooster, a week later when it tried to do the same to him.

Then there was this time that my husband put a baby monitor in the chicken coop to listen for the raccoon that was somehow getting into the coop and trying to eat the flock. Have you ever heard a rooster crow at 4 a.m. through an amplified baby monitor? Oh yeah, lots of fodder about chickens at our house.

Yesterday my husband and the kids have ensured the chicken lore will continue with the arrival of another dozen new chicks.

The chicken population at the Almeida homestead is now over 30 with plans for acquiring another couple of ducks in July. My city upbringing and sensibilities are being stretched to their limits..... and the chicken stories continue.