Sticky Beak

Here's Brown Bitch coming over for a sticky beak yesterday when I was taking photos of her adopted kids.

Speedy got off her eggs this morning for some food, it was good to see her walking around. I'm beginning to think her eggs should have hatched by now.

Orphan love

I was watching crazy hen last night and noted that she let brown bitches reject kids sleep with her. It seems that is just what she needed - a little chicken love. She's now their surrogate mother hanging out with them. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my wrap up, but I will do so now. You see crazy hen really wants kids of her own, but I think she may be too old too lay - I'm really not sure. She was sitting on one of the brown hens eggs. When we got home from Japan I found a hen nesting outside of the pen on the ground, the nest was really not hidden or anything. So one day when she was off eating Papa and I moved the eggs inside the pen thinking she's either going to forget about the eggs or go and sit on them. She forgot about them and crazy hen came along after about 3 days and started sitting on them. I knew they wouldn't work out as there was that space of a few days before they were incubated again.
I'm very pleased with this new development as crazy hen really needed to stop sitting on those eggs as they were really rank.

Its official

Well its official - Brown Bitch is the worst mother hen ever. Maternal instinct isn't really a thing you'd associate with chickens but after watching my brood over the years I've now realised it is.

We've had three really good mothers over the years - the current mother that has 8 chicks, she started with 8 and I'm sure all eight will grow up. Speedy's real mum, she was a good layer and always brought up a lot of kids, she even died protecting her kids. And lastly me - Speedy is still alive, she's two now.

Brown bitch on the other hand has just rejected her two latest kids and they are only about 2 months old. She's already pecking them to leave her alone. Its hard, because although she's a bad mother and rejects her kids it means now she'll start laying again and we get eggs again. I'm sure her latest rejects will grow up as long as they stick together. One of them is this cute light grey colour so hopefully it will mature.

I didn't want to take a photos of Brown Bitch so here's a mildly in focus picture of my backdoor bandit Miss Muffet. I now put water at the back door, do you think this encourages them? How green is the grass? I'm lovin it at the moment with all the rain we've had.

Monthly wrap up

Well here I was proclaiming I was back from holidays (which I was) but then I've been trying to get on top of all of the works since returning.. boring stuff really. Not much has really been happening but I've made a few mental notes and report them now.

• I've noticed that not only does Tommy know his name he also knows when I say "Go for a swim". I was watching him one day have a drink of water and then start bathing in it, when I said "Go for a swim Tommy" at that point he looked up and walked off hurriedly to the pool for a swim. This has happened on a few occasions now.


• Speedy is nesting, she was nesting in the shed but as I removed her from her nest at night I told her that this is a "bery bad place Speedy". As Leon can concur from my grasp of the Japanese language every thing was bery.


• I ended up moving Speedy into the shed with a few eggs and now shes happily sitting in there. I've never known another chicken to sit on eggs even though the nest has been disrupted.


• Lady has lost all of her black on her head, I can still Miss Muffet and Lady apart as Miss Muffet is far friendlier.


• We've pulled two ticks from Miss Muffet and she still comes to the back door for some food.


• Last lot of Speedy's babies died when we were overseas, as did the other rooster as the neighbours curried him up as he was attacking a hen.
• Golden child is no longer going after the ducks and I even saw Tommy chase him to claim his territory.

And I think that's about it, oh my photography is still just as crap. I will blog more now that I've brought you up to speed. Speedy should be hatching sometime soon.

Post holiday results

While I tried to keep my fears hidden from my loved ones while I was on holiday, I was secretly worried about the animals while I was in Japan.

"Would they still be alive when I get home?" "Would they remember me when I got home?"

I was only concerned about Speedy and the ducks, mainly Speedy though as she's so tiny and I thought would be total snake food. Much to my relief when I got home yesterday - everyone was fine, and they all still remembered me.

Miss Muffet was straight down to the back door, Ralphy flew down from the tree and Speedy let me pat her under her wing - I was home and talk about a whole world away from the Shinjuku.

My trip to Japan was amazing, it was the best holiday a girl could have. While I wont go into it too much here, above is a photo from when we went and saw the snow monkeys.

Back door duck

Miss Muffet is my new best friend. I got busted by Papa this week as my new best friend has been constantly hanging out by the back door for me. So I may have fed her a few times, doesn't mean I did it all the time.

Speedy has found the best place to hang out (she and another hen discovered it the other day) - The worm farm. Papa left the top off it the other day, only for me to find out about two days later when I saw a hen laying an egg in there. Now everyone is in there, its a chicken/worm party. Papa makes it worse buy throwing worms to Speedy, but who could resist her?

Nothing really exciting has been happening here, aside from me going to Japan that is!!! So the ducks and chickens are being looked after by the neighbour. I ran through it with her today, fingers crossed everyone survives while I'm gone.

RFKAGC

In case your wondering RFKAGC is the new name for the 'Rooster Formally Known As Golden Child'. This rooster has it in for some duck lovin. He was chasing Miss Muffet around yesterday and then he wanted some Lady action as well. The other day he even went up to Tommy and looked like he was going to pounce on him. Tommy realised this and had a little word to him.
Its been quite at the farm of late, my love for taking photos of Old Boy has gone, I've got a rooster that wants to have sex with my ducks and Speedy well shes just the Princess that she is.
I watched Miss Muffet and Lady munch on some dog shit the other day, they loved it. All I could think about is the crack fox from The Mighty Boosh.
I'll try and get a photo of RFKAGC for you.