The 4 Reasons Why Otto Isn't a Good Guard Dog

This is what we do Sunday evenings, torture chickens with leftover supper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbMUcMTiZig

Otto is a wonderful picture buddy.  But, he's still in the "doghouse" for eating one of my chickens recently.

I'm tired.

What on earth are you doing?

Look! Chickens!

Shucks! They're inside the fence.

Pecking Order

This morning I had the "great chicken escape".  I wasn't too careful closing the coop door when I came in, so all the hens ran out in seconds. I was gone all day to church and then to see my aunt in Sioux Center.  When my family came home the coop door was closed.  Dad told me to put my chickens in so our dog, Otto, could go outside.  I opened the garage door and some hens came running to me.  I called out to the hens and bunches of chickens came popping out from under trees.  Opening the door, they all marched in looking skimpy  because their feathers were soaked. Checking the baby chicks I noticed one of the broilers was bloody in the tail and wings and the other broilers were bloody too, but not as bad.  I immediately put the broiler in another box and called Grandma (I had orders to call her immediately if the chicks started pecking on each other).  Grandma inspected the chicks for awhile trying to find the culprit responsible for the pecking.  None of the chicks did anything so she started putting some Vicks on 3 of the 4 broilers.  It smelled awful ~ poop and Vicks do not go well together through the nose!  She stood there, and every time one of the Rhode Island Reds pecked at a broiler, she said excitedly, "Mmmm, did that taste good chicky?" It was funny!  We ended up putting the 2 badly beat up broilers in the house.  They'll stay there until their feathers grow out.  Beatrice calls them the "Blood Brothers".  I don't even know if they're both boys or not.

Grandma inspecting chicks.

 

My aunt is getting rid of stuff, my brother picked out an old hat, I wore it because it was raining.

Grandma and I pointing out which broiler should be put in the house.

The broilers are pooped out!

New Recruits

Grandma picked up my chicks from Bomgaars Wednesday morning.  My sister and I picked them up after school, receiving critical instruction to keep the chicks exactly at 80 degrees, to not put sugar in their water, if the chicks start to pick each tell her so that she can put salve on them so it tastes really bad when they bite each other again, and she asked if I had a chick waterer ( Grandma has given me 5 already!).  Saturday morning I took pictures of them after my brother's friends came and played with them.  The chicks were pooped!

Again this year we had some bee keepers drop off there bee hives in our field.  So bees are going to be all over the place this summer.

The chickens love to roam the outdoors, and torture the dog.

Death Bells of Another Chicken

This weekend I cleaned out the chicken coop for chicks coming on Thursday.  I unloaded all the junk in the coop, washed the feeders and water jugs, threw stuff away, killed a wasp, and tossed Dad's Mountain Dew bottles. 

All done!

Saturday morning I found chicken feathers on the front porch.  Otto killed another chicken, only one.  

Dad put Otto in his cage.  Whenever I walk by and yell at him he goes in his house of shame.

Shy Roosters

I have 3 roosters.  My Black Rock rooster loves pictures, but the 2 Rhode Island Red roosters hate it, they run as quick as they can when they see the camera facing them.  I barely got him, he was in the position though.

 

 

 

 

They think I'm going to pick some grass for them.

 

Mourning dove watching me do my chores on top of the chicken roof.

 

 

 

I found a tiny egg.

 

 

So, I cooked it and ate it in one bite.

Jelly Making Time

Yesterday was jam making day.  Right after lunch  Bea and I drove over to Grandma's.  We found Grandma in the garage finding boxes and scissors.  I took the boxes and set it in the wagon.  We walked over to the vines and started snipping off grapes like crazy.

 

Then we hauled them to the garage.  It took awhile to get there because on the way Grandma was bending over ripping crab grass and dandelions out of the ground.

 

 

Then Grandma and I washed and picked off the grapes.

 

 

Grandma dumped the washed grapes into a pot and Bea mashed them up.

Grandma cooked the grapes and then I strained the juice out.



 

Grandma cooked it again and added the good stuff- sugar, and other ingrediants.  Then Grandma got her jars ready and dumped the jam in them.

 

Grandma found a baby robin in her yard and is now taking care of it.  She feeds it peaches, worms, and scrambled bandy eggs.

  

Cucumber Fright

This afternoon I helped Grandma pick some sweet corn.  I came home with a Big Red full of sweet corn and 4 cucumbers.  The chickens love to finish off on our corn after dinner. It took a few days for the little chickens to get over their fear of cucumbers.

And right behind my back the sneaky chickens squeeze through the fence.

 

 

 

Here's my sweet hen, Adeline.