Duck Duck Goose

Now that Duckie the Goose is all grown up he is free to fly away. We don't know if Duckie is a boy or girl but he sure has taken up residence with the Chicken Lady. She has other domesticated geese but they don't want to have anything to do with him, so they ignore each other. He's free to do what he wishes but, I guess he figures that he doesn't need to wander far. He makes it a point to honk really loud if she is late opening the coop in the morning and at dusk, he waits for her half way up the path to the coop to walk her the rest of the way to close the door.

Not having any idea if Duckie the goose is a boy or girl I'm going to call it a he.

Afterall, Duckie was raised with the two hens, Custer and Brownie are all that he knows. Now that he's all grown up he's taken it upon himself to act more like a big brother. He makes sure they eat first, get the treats first and acts like a bouncer if any roosters get too close.

Custer, one of the hens jumped up on the porch swing and moved all the blankets around to make a nest. We had not seen any eggs from Custer or Brownie and were beginning to wonder if there were going to begin laying. She was making such a fuss, cackling, noises as she adjusted her nest. Duckie was all concerned with the noise and decided to stay on the porch close. Quite the comic relief to see a goose lose its cool with a squawking chicken looking for a place to lay an egg.

The reason the hen was even on the porch is because Michigan can have some cold weather. The chicken lady gets soft on her feathered friends and a couple chickens usually end up taking residence on the porch. They even have their own heated water dish plus it makes it easy to get eggs off the porch instead of the coop.

Chicken Population

With all the roaming (free Range) chickens hanging around the porch it was clear that they needed a home.  Living in the country you also have to be smart. You might need something later, like 30 years later but, later. Growing up I could not believe all the stuff that my mom held on to, I figured she was just a pack rat. Now I get it and I'm guilty.
She pulled all the materials needed to make a chicken coop and next thingI know BOOM a new apartment complex.

I was wondering when I tried to call and she did not answer. I had thoughts in my head of all her chickens eating her if she fell down.

She put it in a spot that is close to the porch but yet off into the wood line just a bit. Hopefully, it gives them a place to stay warm and lay eggs instead of laying in strange places like the recycle bin, flowerbeds, couch, table, or in a bucket.

We walk around a lot looking at flowers on the property and you never know when you might run across a nest of eggs.

The problem with having free range is the roaming critters that come out of the woods for a dinner snack. The beautiful part of country living is also hardships of the landscape and its wild life.  She has visits of fox, coyote owls, hawks,and bobcats. She has bears too, but haven't seen them (so far.)

Drives her a bit crazy when the chickens start screaming and running frantic. It's like a scene from the Chicken little movie  and the sky is falling. She runs out with her 22 looking for something to shoot. Most of the time, she too late but she has caught glimpses of predators, and we see them on the trail cameras.

Reminds me, I will have to share the story of me pulling a Tom Beringer in the movie Sniper.
 

Dumpster Diving and Baking

I head up to the chicken ladies house every 3 or weeks to help her with chores and things. I love to get her out of the house for some human conversation.

It's become a thing for us to run up the grocery on a weekend for food to make dinner. Her fridge is usually pretty simple. A few over ripe vegetables that need to be eaten, Margarine bowls of comfort foods like chicken and rice, or goulash and 10 or 12 dozen eggs.  Sometimes spoiled milk. I have been known to drink out of the milk carton only to realize that is on its way to spoiling.

Just after the cold snap last winter, she decided that she wanted to see if we could find some greens and fruits for the chickens and geese. It was a cold winter and she wanted to give them a treat.

Dumpster diving is not new for me. My brother and I learned this art when we were kids.  He has better stories than I do, but you can  find some gems if you are persistent. Most of my college furniture digs were found items behind stores. It's pretty standard practice to carry a milk crate and tongs for the long reaches. I also carry bags too.

Not to mention the food waste in this country is crazy. My mom tells me stories that as a child she would get the old food scraps from grocery stores to feed  her mom's chickens. But, like anything else behaviors and laws change.  Each year, the United States throws away one - third of all food it produces. 133 billion pounds of food.  This is a problem.  http://www.businessinsider.com/why-grocery-stores-throw-out-so-much-food-2014-10 
Anyway, we typically find a broken watermelon, melons or greens that the everyone love to eat. Everyone's happy.  

Not only do we find  tasty foods, look at these bad boys, I found two sets of glass casserole dish sets complete with lids tossed in a box sitting next to the dumpster. One was broke but the other three were fine. I just needed to dig them out.
It was a rainy and cold day anyway and we really didn't what do any work outside. So, we decided to have a baking day.

She pulled out a cookbook that had been my grandmothers. The Settlement cookbook. 1944, 26th edition.What does that even mean?
Anyway, we had the oven on for hours and the house was very warm so no need to build a fire. We made jelly rolls, sponge cakes, bundt cakes. Anything that took a lot of eggs. After all, we did have 53 dozen eggs. Clearly, happy chickens lay eggs.
Not only was the cookbook vintage, I found some cream of tartar in a little metal container dated 1972. Believe it or not, it worked and we used it. The rust around the can was a pretty good sign that maybe it was time to pick up more.

Needless to say, me and the Chicken Lady had a grand old time drinking way too much coffee talking about the past and eating cake. Good visit.

It's no FEET for a Chicken

Weather in Michigan can flip on a dime. It was a warmish winter day up with The Chicken Lady and she encountered a strange situation.  She has a couple of coops for her broods to call home. She has her big girls in the main coop and the smaller Bantam chickens in their coop.

But, she also has a few chickens that were either born on the porch or close by that have decided to move in and perch in random places

She has made little dwellings for them to call home. She uses old cat cages or crates, old little boxes in hopes they would use. Some use the recycle bin or even a bucket.

A few of them also perch on the back of the couch. Looking in at us watching TV. I can't but feel weird with that one.

She used to take the time to pick them up and carry them to the coop when it got dark, but it was cold and she felt sorry for them. Plus it keeps them out of harms way when wild critters are wondering around.
Good luck sneaking by a chicken to get in the house.They're not very quiet. Just like any other night, everyone went to bed in their perspective homes. She shuts the door to the hen house and calls it a night.

Each morning routinely, my mother gets up to open the coop doors. She bundles up runs out opens the little door and then usually goes back to bed. This particular winter day she got up, put on her flannel over her nightgown, lit a cigarette, poured a cup of coffee into a large mug that looks like a pair of denim jeans, puts on her boots and wanders outside to begin the process. Fills the cat dish sitting on top of the grill. A few chickens are huddled around the cat food container knowing that she'll fill it up and maybe get lucky with some droppings. A few scramble off the couch  towards her but one little brown hen seemed to jump but squawked and never got down. Flapping her wings, noisy and confused.  At first, mom thought that she was caught on the blanket but, soon realized that she was froze to the couch in a mountain of ice.  Her little chicken legs were stuck.  The day had been warm enough but at night the temps dropped causing the drip to harden throughout the night.

How to thaw a live chicken. The concern was to not break toes or her little chicken legs.
The Chicken Lady took a drink of her lukewarm coffee, took a drag off her cigarette and headed back into the house for a moment.
She came back with a blow dryer and an extension cord and proceeded to melt the ice around the chicken legs.
She was able to free the chicken but wasn't sure if the toes would make it. Later they did turn black and fall off but she survived. Going on her second winter with peg legs she lives on the porch chair that's nice and soft. And when she does wonder around she stays on the carpet, rugs or grass as much as possible. Maybe I will get her a little pirate costume for Halloween.

Chickens at Random

A few of the tiny velociraptors or chickens like to hang out on the couch.   The chicken lady has several different breeds chickens. She has laying hens, which are the ladies that are breeds like Leg horns, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtons and the list goes on. They are in a lovely gated community complete with pond, trees, and plenty of bugs. She also has free range Bantam chickens that run all over the yard.  They are just like regular chickens but much smaller in size.

It's really cool to see all the different sizes, shapes and shapes of eggs. The shell color is pretty cool when you can make a dozen with brown, blue, green, speckled and white eggs. We call them a rainbow pack. Makes you wonder about the commercial industry. How many eggs get thrown away because we are looking for the perfect egg.
Anyway, those little guys are not fenced in and can pretty much go where ever they feel like it. Some wander up by the road and do get run over occasionally. they head back to the woods and then a fox might see a snack. Population control.

They do have a coop, but quite a few of them would rather hang out around the house and lay eggs under the porch, under the bushes, in the flower garden, on a table, in the recycle bin, or j
randomly on the floor. Every spring  she is bound to see babies that just appear out of the fields and under the porch with half a dozen babies. At night the ones that don't go into the coop roost in trees instead. That does make them vulnerable to night time critters. She told me about an owl once or two that picked off a few. When an owl hits tree branches its sounds like a tree crashing into a million pieces.  Very scary.

My mom has a perfect full length porch facing the woods  so she can sit back an enjoy what nature has to offer.  flowers bloom, birds sing, see a deer or two. Its breezy and calming to stretch out on the couch... until the chickens found the couch. Usually the ones that come onto the porch are ones that were born on it.  This is Smudge, she happens to be one of the bantam hens that my son was around when she came out of the egg and he named her.

We go through this ever year. In the winter she buttons up the porch, and puts up framed plastic to protect from the wind. A handful of her chickens end up hanging out to stay out of the snow. Its keeps them from being lunch on most cases. Every spring she has to go through and pull off all the furniture and scrub down the porch to reclaim it for human use again.

The really creepy part that always gets me is when they turn around on the couch or chair and stare at us through the window. The TV is right next to the window and you can't help but get distracted. Chickens staring you down is really unnerving. Good luck sleeping after that visual.