I do believe my chickens are vegetarians . . or just plain dumb. Yes, I know, chickens are not very smart.
I was outside with Speck and came across this fat, juicy guy in the driveway.
Don’t tell me what that wet spot is . . I may know!
This is so gross! I can’t believe I picked up a worm.
No interest at all in the worm. A bit of interest in me with the camera. There’s that goofy little anti-socal gray one back there laying down, not paying any attention to me and my camera.
Throw in some dandelion flowers and leaves and . . oh, yes! They love those.
Dandelions are exciting enough to even get the contentious little gray chicken to come grab a morsel.
It’s entertaining to watch the various personalities of each chicken. You already know that the little gray one is anti-social and a bit aggressive towards us if we corner her (I hope it’s a her!) This black one on the left if probably the funniest one. He wants to be friendly but yet stands off from us for the most part. The gold ones . . they’re so social! When I walk outside, as soon as I say anything, the six of them begin scrambling to see who can get on top of the waterer or feeder or the roost . . they want to get as close to me as they can. When I’m replacing the waterer, they’ll jump right on my arm where the Ameraucanas are way back in the corner . . with the little gray one being the fartherest away from me . . always!
And, about that turtle!
Twice I had to remove him off the concrete ledge where he was about to topple over and land 6′ below on the concrete patio. I wouldn’t want that to happen so I finally picked him up and carried him across the yard. Hopefully he’ll re-think going over that ledge!
How can I get my quilting done with all these critters demanding my attention? 🙂
CJ says
Nothing gross about worms, any I find I toss into my compost heap or garden!
The chickens and the coop look great, I’m so glad you were able to make it happen, I look forward to seeing them in their new home soon. We’ll be moving our coop to it’s temporary home in the backyard this weekend, and the chickens will be going into it to finish brooding, not even a week in the garage and I’m ready to move them out!
Vicky says
I think you need to get another one of the gray ones. Maybe he’s feeling lonely! I can’t believe how big they’ve gotten. How much longer until you have eggs?
Nancy says
Your worm reminds me of a story – A long time ago I was 9 and my dad took me fishing. We were in the boat and he said I had to put my own worm on my own hook. BUT, I wasn’t to use the whole worm. Foolishly I asked him how I do half a worm. Always the kidder, he said, “real fishermen bite the worm in half”. Um…ok…. I did…. He was SHOCKED!!
Pat says
So….do those chickens have names yet? I think the little gray one’s real problem is that you keep calling her/him “the little gray one”…..and she wants to be called by NAME. Maybe you can spend even MORE time away from quilting by doing this….have a contest. Show us ONE chicken at a time in a photo and let us help you with name suggestions. We don’t need prizes (or at least I don’t think we do). It would just be fun for me to know that I have named a chicken who lives far away from me….but in a very lovely coop with a very loving “MOM” (that’s YOU). 🙂
ruth anne shorter says
I love these stories. cluck cluck I still love the chickens.
Lynn says
I love your chicken! I’m dying to get back into the country and have some again. We also had geese, pygmy goats, pheasants, quail, ….. those were great days when our now mid-30’s daughters were little!
They used to LOVE going to school in Jr. High and telling the boys about helping their father castrate the male goats! The boys nearly fainted. Kinda kept them at a distance for dating, too! LOL
The gray one may be getting picked on since he ‘looks’ different…..watch for that. They can be heartless! They might be too little for a worm THAT big! ha
I’m making the backing for my Star BOM and using all my scraps and doing crazy things with it. I’ll show when finished!
Lynn
Trish says
I have a worm bin (vermiculture is the “proper” term – did a ton of research on YouTube before starting it) in my garage, so that I can collect the compost to use on my flowers and veggie gardens.
As for chickens, I got my first 8 the past couple weeks and DH has been diligently working on the coop every night after work this week. You may want to check out http://www.backyardchickens.com; it’s a WEALTH of information about keeping chickens, they’re various illnesses, helping identify cockerels and pullets, etc.
As for feeding them the worm, maybe they weren’t so dumb after all; worms carry “gape worm,” which is something no self respecting chicken ever wants to get (considering gape worms can kill them by suffocating them to death) – lol
Maria Stahl says
I love backyardchickens.com. :o)
I am reminded when my youngest was pretty small – maybe 3 -and Barry was working in the garden, and whenever he found a worm, he’d toss it to our chickens. My little girl watched that for a worm or two, then with the next one she asked if she could feed it to the hens. He handed her the worm, and instead of tossing it to the hens, she quickly buried it again! She wants to be a vet someday. I think she will be a good one.
Lori in SD says
chickens mostly entertain, I’m not sure they think! Did you know you can tell whether a turtle is male or female by the shape of the shell, the feet, and the tail? This turtle was 1–looking for a female turtle or 2–was a female turtle who had already met that special fellow and was looking for a place to lay her eggs. Unless you live right on a pond, I bet he was a male looking for a female. Those roving men!
CindyC says
About that grey chicken. I remember I also had one grey one and it was more agressive than the other chickens. When I sold some of my chickens to weed the 25 down to the 6 I was keeping, you can bet that one was leaving. It was agressive to everybody who got near as well as the other chickens. And I don’t think it was a rooster at all. Hope yours is not like mine.
CindyC says
About that grey chicken. I remember I also had one grey one and it was more agressive than the other chickens. When I sold some of my chickens to weed the 25 down to the 6 I was keeping, you can bet that one was leaving. It was agressive to everybody who got near as well as the other chickens. And I don’t think it was a rooster at all. Hope yours is not like mine.
Amy says
You’re so funny about your chickens!
I do love that each chicken has it’s very own personality and even if everyone you have looks exactly alike, you can identify each one by it’s personality.
Just love, love, love my chickens!