mychickenadventure

[mychickenadventure]

Merry shitscram and a happy new year y’all!

#chicken #chickens

[mychickenadventure]

*drumroll*

Ta-da! At long last a Poppy Peck Toy for the girls!

It took about an hour for one of the Brahma's to get the hang of it. The weather's been crap here so they couldn't really all hang around it to experiment in peace.

Also here's my Norwegian Forest Cat, "as nature designed it", looking to see how much of the chicken scratch mix he could eat.

However, when there chickens went back to the run to hide from the latest shower, someone else came by...

Good news is that I love the neighborhood jackdaws. I've been super forgetful about feeding them these past months, so they can enjoy the pecky toy as well if they want to ^^

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #peking bantam #cat #jackdaw #poppy peck toy #also wow my window's dirty

[mychickenadventure]

After a barely noticeable summer we hit autumn hard, so it's time for Winter Coop 2.0. combined last year's panels into one for hopefully better coverage. Also added a stick to the top to help it stay under the protection of the roof. Fingers crossed on that one.

Bunch of things have been going down in chicken land, though the main even was definitely Gourry's Month of Broodiness.

Cluck off

For about 3 weeks she was the terror that boks in the shadows. She glared everyone out of the coop, attacked both cats for getting within a meter of her, and was overall such a misery that Galo also stopped laying eggs and at one point walked indoors to jump on my desk, out of what I can only presume was loneliness.

This led to me kicking Gourry out of the coop several times a day, which she disagreed with. Also took the opportunity to put a ring on her, but this she also disagreed with and she actually managed to get the thing off...

A few days in I repurposed an old pet carrier into a portable nest box so the Bantams at least could lay an egg without being shouted at. This went pretty even if locked-out-the-coop-Gourry decided that ANY nest will do and somehow crammed herself in there given a chance. Which all led to...

Broody Jail (TM)

Well damn.

We were three weeks on, everyone was fed up, and the local second hand store happened to have a small dog kennel for 5 euros. At night Gourry slept with the others, but in the morning I'd drag her grumpy butt of the nest and into jail.

Three days later she finally stopped being broody and became a normal chicken again.

Right in time for the annual molt, which made her look like a battery farm escapee.

We're a few weeks on now, and Gourry's feathers are starting to fill in again. Galo started laying again as well, and everyone is more or less molting as expected (though Nebs is either still starting up or some kind of stealth agent).

Colder weather means less green treats as both my garden and the parental allotment settle down for winter, but it does mean fermented grains are back on the menu!

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #chicken coop #peking bantam #coop #molting #broody

[mychickenadventure]

Time to put this on the channel and then chase the resident Super Piep out of the feeder because apparently I’m raising high-jumping champions over here >_>

*flies wildly to the other end of the style spectrum for a new ChickenCam Placeholder image*

#chicken #chickens #my art #mouse #mice #clogs

[mychickenadventure]

It took some doing, and it’ll take a little more in the future, but ChickenCam 2.0 is now live!

The indoor camera will eventually move into the actual coop, but it loses signal the moment it’s moved in so it probably wants a wifi repeater. No emergency since the inside needs repainting first anyway. For now it will keep an eye on the balcony!

#chicken #chickens #chicken coop #backyard chickens #Cochin Bantam #brahma #peking bantam #chicken cam

[mychickenadventure]

Big day to be a chicken today, we got the news that the national cluckdown was cancelled overnight!

Granted, the girls had never really been out before so they didn't miss it, but I've been itching to let them explore the garden since march or so!

As (humourously) feared one of them did end up in three pond, but as predicted by my mother the plant overgrowth in there saved her from any real embarrassment.

Meanwhile Bouble missed out on the first round of freedom because she was busy laying an egg, but she did get to come along on the second go.

So far they've only been at the back of the garden; there's more overgrowth on the path to the coop and while me and the cats will happily pass through the girls have yet to figure it out. Not a problem though, there's a lot of fish mint back there that I've been doing battle with for years. I've been giving them butts over the past few weeks and they like it so go ahead girls, om nom nom!

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #peking bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Tiny taste of the outside world for the girls today. Officially we're still in cluckdown and with another case of avian flu popping up last month I'm starting to feel like they'll never get out of it -_-

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #peking bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Big night tonight. The chickens were… very unenthousiastic about turning in, I’m very unenthousiastic about going after them, and supposedly it’s gonna stay at around 10 degrees tonight so I’m going to let them camp out :s

Not sure how much the camera will pick up after sunset since it tends to get interference from the window, but I’ll leave the stream going nontheless.

This idea’s been in teh back of my mind for a while now since the indoors area is likely to get pretty warm come summer, and in between the high perches and being a city garden there shouldn’t really be much of a threat from predators… But I’m still nervous ;-;

So as it turns out the camera can see pretty much nothing XD

#chicken #chickens #chicken coop #brahma #Cochin Bantam #peking bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Sometimes I do wonder what goes through their little heads...

"Nebs, you're lowest in the pecking order, go sit in the spacious nestbox of shame!" Something like that?

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #coop #chicken coop #peking bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Pffff, it's been a while, hasn't it? Let's do a quick update!

Nebs is still doing well, though she really did pay the price for messing with everyone else upon release from chicken jail. She looks like a little balding man right now :|

I finally build the girls an extra bit of floor in the run! The main idea behind it was that they'd have an extra spot to sunbathe, but they very quickly figured out that it provides an excellent view into the shed. Preparing snacks was never a private affair but now all of them can supervise together XD

Other than that, life goes on. The bird flu is still going around the country so the girls remain in cluckdown. They've finally given both the nest boxes a go, but the smallest remains the most popular. Meanwhile I'm trying to keep them entertained by occasionally bringing in new things, like bananas.

There was a bit of a mess with the livestream last week when OBS Studio got really twisted up with the camera feed. Switched to XSplit Studio and that seems to be working A-OK!

The weather has been all over the place lately. At one point we had 16-20 degrees for two days and then 4-10 a week later! So far the girls have been taking it in stride, but Bouble definitely knows spring is coming and is becoming more and more determined to actually roost outside. So far I've been able to lure her in with mealworms, but once it stays warmish at night I might leave the door open and just let them sleep wherever. Predators aren't much of a problem here, and she's wisely settling on the high branch.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #coop #chicken coop #egg #peking bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Well, Nebs is back in with the rest of the girls, and back to being literally hen pecked. Not fun to see, but at least she can spend her days being active again.

Also build in an extra balcony of sorts for the girls to sun on in the afternoon/evening. So far only one of the brahmas has been on by accident, but we'll see how it goes.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #coop #chicken coop #peking bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Apparently it takes about a week for a normal chicken to become a household chicken. Nebs had her last round of medication tonight, so starting tomorrow I'll be moving her back outdoors and starting reintegration with the others.

Meanwhile she's gotten mostly used to the cats (not sure about the other way around), and just spend a few minutes following me in case I had yummy snacks to share (I had).

On one hand I can't wait for her to be outside again because chickens were not bred to be indoor pets, but on the other hand I'm also a little sad because I know she has to work hard to get her fair share of anything with the others.

Indoors she's always warm and dry and gets first pick of all the snacks... But she's also lonely and bored and stuck in a tiny pen without dirt to dig and roll in.

Enjoy your last night indoor Nebs, you little poop machine.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam

[mychickenadventure]

We're two days post-op and Nebs is doing well, though clearly getting fed up with things. Can't really blame her: she's been on a liquid diet so everything she could try to eat gets removed from wherever she is and life is probably very boring in chicken jail. Pretty sure my cats don't even bother to visit.

Hang in there Nebs, tomorrow you can eat solids again.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam

[mychickenadventure]

Nebs lives to cluck another day, but she's been banned from grass for life. Exactly how she got grass in her is a bit of a mystery: my best guess is that she somehow got a hold of the tough stuff growing outside the run, which we'll be getting rid off now.

Also Bouble laid a special decorated egg.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #egg

[mychickenadventure]

Nebs is in chicken hospital. Friday night I noticed that het crop was incredibly large and hard. Saturday morning it went down but was still full.

I've been kneading her crop for the past two days but whatever's in there isn't budging, so this afternoon we're off to see a vet with bird experience.

Stuff is still moving past whatever's stuck in her crop so we're not into full panicked mode yet. Nebs herself thinks all of this is bull and has made a number of escape attempts. She got to explore the house a little bit and I can now definitely say chickens aren't good indoor pets.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam

[mychickenadventure]

WELL WELL WELL, three eggies but one of these is not like the others! Goury's been laying white speckles eggs of about 54 grams but this one has dark brown speckles and clocks in at a whopping 58 grams! I do believe Galo has joined in on paying rent \o/

Also does seem to fit into the pattern that's been developing where there's three days of laying and then a break... Except for Nebs, who continues to be super chicken and had 4-day streaks for the past two weeks.

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #brahma #egg

[mychickenadventure]

New phone, new camera, gotta test that! Poultry in motion, but considering that this was indoors and extremely poorly lit I'm so impressed!

#backyard chickens #chicken #chickens #cochin bantam #brahma #coop #chicken coop