Queens of the Castle

This is Connie and Bonnie, The Cinnamon Queens,  reporting to you from our new home, Cluckingham Palace.  We have had a time fitting in with the ladies here. It is getting better though. We like the farmers and we like our new digs. Connie and I are the low girls on the pecking order. The jesters of the palace, if you will. The Farmers are extra sweet to us and make sure when they throw meal worms, they toss us some separately or we wouldn't get any! The Barred rock girls make sure of that. The first couple of days we butted heads with the Easter Egger ( EE's) girls, literally. There was mild blood shed through the fence and the Farmers had to render first aid to their girls cause we plucked their heads. We may be sweet, but we are not to be toyed with. We can take care of business if need be.  Recently, the EEs have warmed up to us and don't bother us anymore. The Barred Rock (BR) girls still don't share well. They make sure if we find something to take it away. They are mean girls!

The Earl loves us and seems takes good care of us. It does come with a price though...

The BR girls wont let us roost with them yet, so the farmers built us a roosting bar so now we can roost when we want. They also built us more nesting boxes. The other girls take up the nesting boxes- all day- and we couldn't lay our eggs. They are such stinkers!


We really like to recess on the range. This makes Connie and I sing like canaries- but prettier.  We have learned when it is time to come in from recess and when it is OK to eat from the buffet. The Farmers also hid a feeder in the Palace so we can eat when we want. Those BR girls -again- have a hard time sharing. Farmer B thinks the BR girls are enjoying not being at the bottom of the pecking order anymore and the power has gone to their heads!

We are learning how things work at the palace. Before you know it, we will take our rightful place as Queens of the Castle. For now, we will play along... :)    

Hen Party

This is Trisha, reporting to you live from the lovely Cluckingham Palace. The weather is beautiful and we are singing and enjoying the warm days and cool nights. We, The Easter Eggers, love Easter. Our eggs look especially beautiful this time of year. We are certainly proud of the beautiful colors we lay. 

 

The nursery is busy and noisy with the toddler chicks. They are Blue Laced Red Wyandotts. They are cute, trying to imitate us. They scratch the ground like big girls, but they don't know what they are looking for. They play fight too. Its funny to watch them establish a toddler pecking order. The little girls get into a big, heated fight complete with flaring hackles then, something shiny catches their eye and off they go! They forget they are fighting.  We remember when the barred rock girls were babies. They were so cute and would sit on the Farmers heads and practice roosting. Then... they grew up. (insert eye roll here) 

The other night, a big rain came and flooded the courtyard. We were a muddy mess. The Farmers showed up to bring us our buffet of veggies. They took one look at us and just shook their heads. We were playing and scratching in the mud like little pigs. The thought of catching and bathing 17 chickens must have been more than the Farmers could take.  We didn't get baths. 

Little Farmer R plays ball every evening. He is on two different teams. Lately, the farmers have been flying in and out of the palace with our food and water like their pants are on fire.  We miss their long visits in the evening when we can recess on the range. We get a little frantic when we see them approach the gate and then won't let us out! Cranky is an understatement. We are like a hoard of flapping feathers. We look forward to weekends when the Farmers let us out.We like to take our sweet time to inspect every blade of grass for delicious bugs. The grasshoppers will be coming soon. Those are our ultimate favorite. There have been serious knock-down-drag-out fights over those tasty morsels. There is no allegiance and all bets are off when one of us is lucky enough to catch one. We turn on each other. The grasshoppers have some kind of hold on us. Those tasty nuggets make us crazy cluckers for sure. 

Nizzy seems to be doing much better. The Farmers think she must have passed the egg at some point. Personally, I think she  played sick to get special treatment and /or to get away from the Earl. At our hen party, we discussed at length and agreed she had way too much fun with the Farmers while we fended off the advances of the Earl. We are still a little miffed with her about that.

The Earl, aka"Soup", has been a little more aggressive with the help lately. The Farmers are on high alert around him. He is one moody dude. One thing is for sure, he can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' then heads back for more. We tell him all the time he is pushing his luck by chasing the Farmers. Most of the time, Farmer B carries a foam sword for protection. The Earl loves a good sword fight.  There is a duel that usually ends with the Earl tucking his tail feathers and running for cover. Farmer B said to the Earl,  "Soup sounds good tonight". (The girls and I got a good chuckle out of that one.) The Earl better watch it or he will find himself in a bachelor pad all alone.

This is Trisha, signing off for now! I heard the meal worm bag rustle. 

On A Wing And A Prayer

This is Michelle reporting to you live from the Palace.  We were a little worried for our Easter Egger sister Nizzy. She has been walking funny, like a penguin and making funny noises. We knew something was really wrong when Farmer B was able to pick her up with out a fuss. She is not one you can pick up very easily. The Farmers suspected she was egg bound. That is where the egg may be too big to pass and can create a blockage.

Farmer B had this idea in her head of what it would be like to be a chicken farmer before we arrived. It looked something like this...

However, recent events with Nizzy have re-framed how Farmer B thinks of chicken farming. The Farmers had to research what to do with an egg bound chicken. The "how to" videos were horrifying. Giving Nizzy a spa bath to soak was one thing, but if that didn't work... Farmer B would have a new title: Dr. Farmer B, Chicken Gynecologist. (Insert farmer B's face with giant eyes here)

Farmer B had no idea that was part of the deal or even a possibility. She sat at her computer in disbelief trying to find the courage to do what need to be done for Nizzy if the unfortunate occurred and she was not able to pass the egg. She called a few vets to see if there was a way to get out of the impending duty of assisting Nizzy if she couldn't pass the egg.  There wasn't.    
On a wing and a prayer, Farmer B dawned her gloves, put on her best face (which looked like the face she would make if she were being chased by a clown with a machete) and enlisted the help of Little Farmer R. They learned a lot about chicken anatomy that day. A lot they wished they could forget I am sure. Farmer B had to answer many questions by Little Farmer R. It was an uncomfortable day for all involved. Little Farmer R was a trooper though. He gave Nizzy liquid calcium and pedialyte with a syringe. He was very patient and very kind to Nizzy. Farmer B was very proud of Little Farmer R. After a couple of days of modified SPA Treatments, Nizzy seems to be feeling better. The girls and I are getting a little tired of reports that she is getting all the blue berries she wants, special water and getting to sit in the Farmer's lap receiving special love and attention. We also hear that she has her own room and most of all is getting to avoid the Earl!  There are even a few rumors she and the babies have been talking.. oh, and the selfies.  We heard there were selfies. We are not very happy with Nizzy at the moment.