Olly Astro and Janet are always excited to come out of the aviary when I get home from work, because I have corn treats waiting for them in the yard. O’Malley of course helps me do everything. He thinks he is very helpful.
Flapper had his treats in the pool.
Then I told him a bedtime story and tucked him into his nest.
“Once upon a time there was a sweeeeet duckling named Flapper.”
Good night everyone.
“From Chicago to Houston to South Portland, Maine, the urban chicken movement has taken hold. More and more city folks are raising the birds right in their own backyards. Some love the idea of fresh eggs; others appreciate the back-to-the-land aspect of tending to a flock.
There are animal rights advocates, however, who worry about the long-term welfare of the feathered fowl. As the number of city dwellers with chickens has risen, so has the number of birds being abused and abandoned. And local animal control departments are finding stray chickens everywhere from neighborhood alleys to downtown parking ramps.” – MRP.org
Meet Mary Britton Clouse, the founder of Chicken Run Rescue.
This is a story well told by Minnesota Public Radio. In our short time of having chickens here at Flapper’s house, we have seen the many problems with urban chickens first hand. People who view chickens as food or egg machines often times view them as disposable, or balk at the idea of taking one to a veterinarian if she gets sick. It’s cheaper to just throw one away and get another one, right?
Chickens are not egg machines. Chickens are not stupid. Chickens need more space and care and consideration than most urban farmers realize (do not follow the guidelines for space requirements set up by factory farms!)
Chickens and ducks deserve to live free from suffering and cruelty, just as every other animal (including humans) does. Just because chickens are cheap and disposable does not make their suffering any less real.
Chickens are not a fad.
Olly Astro and Olivia are still both pretending that they don’t like each other. They’re very good actresses, but I think they’re starting to come around. Olly Astro has the upper hand now, and has become the alpha chicken, which has also calmed Olivia down a bit. Olly apparently decided she has been here long enough that she doesn’t have to take Olivia’s crap any longer. So now… the mutual standoff is as friendly as they get.
Olly Astro gets to eat first. That’s how she and Janet have worked it out.
Then Janet asks if it’s her turn yet.
Olly Astro thinks about it for awhile, and eventually lets Janet eat.
Janet would love to eat in peace.
But Olly Astro keeps a close eye on the food at all times.
So Janet takes BIG bites, in case her turn ends too soon.
Here they are settling in for the night and eating dinner.
They are both sweet, good chickens and we’re happy to have them here at Flapper’s house.
We even think Olivia might secretly like them… a little bit.
We’ve been quiet here at Flapper’s house, but just because we’ve been busy. All is well. Flapper’s beak is peeling a bit, but that’s normal. Doesn’t hurt him. Happens once a year. Chewy is around, but he hasn’t posed for any photos this week. Olivia too.
It’s been kind of hot in Seattle, so Janet the chicken has been trying to stay cool by fanning out her feathers. She insists it is very civilized, but I think it looks goofy.
Olly Astro thinks it looks a little goofy, too. But it’s pretty hot in Seattle.
So eventually she decided to join in the fun. A nice dust bath didn’t cool her down, but it cleaned her up.
I have been staying cool with fruit icees made from fresh fruit from the local farmer’s market. Olivia shares them with me but the other chickens don’t care for them.
Olivia and Olly Astro still don’t get along too well, but they mostly avoid each other. As you can see, most everyone gets along okay as long as I keep an eye on them.
The hot weather has caused Petunia to start molting. She leaves a pile of feathers everywhere she goes.
She’s still pretty though, even if she’s missing a few feathers.
Simon is doing well. He loves hanging in the yard in the warm weather, and he prefers the heat to the rain.
That’s just about all the updates from here at Flapper’s house. We’re doing a lot of maintenance work on the yard, so we haven’t had much time for the interwebs. We’re having a tree taken out, trimming up the ivy, keeping everything watered and hoping it cools down soon.
We hope you have a good week. Chewy and Olivia send their best. They promise to pose for more photos this week.
And Flapper says, “stay cool.”
Janet & Olly Astro are learning the ropes and getting into the groove here at Flapper’s house. They still have a little trouble knowing when to go to the aviary and when to go to the night pen, but they are fast learners.
They love their new high perch in their night pen, and they hop right up on it when they are done eating dinner. It seems a little high to me, but they like it.
Olivia likes her new perch, too. It lets her lord over Flapper & Chewy’s area.
And it also doubles as her nesting house.
I am learning a whole new set of chicken vocalizations with the new girls here, too. Racquel and Olivia had a lot of vocalizations, but they tended to get along, so I never heard them argue. Plus I think Racquel spoke a special muppet dialect of chicken language.
But Olivia has taught me a whole new set of terms now that Olly Astro & Janet are here. Olivia and Olly Astro argue a lot. It sounds pretty serious. I’m fairly confident that it contains both obscenities and threats. As near as I can translate, Olivia seems to be saying…
“I will cut you!”
and…
“If I see you near here again, I will knock you into next week!”
I think I also heard…
“Wipe that smirk off your beak or I will wipe it off for you.”
In response, Olly Astro seems to be saying…
“Why don’t you stand up and say that to my face. Oh you ARE standing, shorty.”
And also…
“Stuff a treat in it, Olivia.”
At least they’re talking. Janet is content to let them work it out while she eats blueberries and cherries and peas and romaine lettuces. And also grass. She loves to eat grass.
So far the arguments are all talk, but I do keep Olivia separated from Olly Astro & Janet. While I was hoping they would all get along, I think it is still good that Olivia has some entertainment. She was a little bored with Racquel gone, and she seems to enjoy being the mean old crotchety lady who yells at the neighbor kids.
She is definitely not bored.
This morning, Olly Astro was all ready to start the day.
She surveyed her new aviary space and settled right in. Nest? Dirt bath area? Grass? Weeds? Shade? Check. That was all she needed.
Then she and Janet settled in for some morning treats. Today’s treats included romaine lettuces, peas and blueberries. They were all satisfactory to the chickens.
Did you notice Janet the chicken picked her name? I swear she told me that’s what she wanted to be called, and it isn’t my favorite name so I made her wait for a day to decide if she wanted to keep it. Apparently she would like to be called Janet, so Janet it is.
Olly Astro and Janet seemed to enjoy the day in their aviary space. When I got home, they came out into the yard for a while, but then they went right back to their little corner of the aviary, just like it was home.
They also met the nice neighbor lady tonight and listened to Olivia bicker at them for a bit. Then it was time for dinner and bed. With a little reminder on where to find the night pen, Olly Astro and Janet went right in and ate, and are now roosting on their perch.
Olivia likes her new spot as well, because it’s near her friend Chewy, and it’s far, far away from the new girls.
Day 2 and all is well.
Tonight after work we went to pick up Olivia’s new friend at the vet’s office. The vet said that they have received quite a few dumped hens and roosters this year. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the increase in “urban farming.” People get chickens but then aren’t prepared to help them when they get sick and need medical care. Some try to get help for the hens, but just can’t afford long-term care. Others wait too long to get medical treatment for their animals, and then they face a long recovery. That was the black chicken’s problem. She had severe pneumonia but has now recovered, once she was surrendered to the veterinarian for long-term care.
Anyway, we went to pick up the beautiful black chicken named Olly Astro, and this is what we found.
Wait a minute. One… two chickens? It turns out that Olly Astro has a friend. They have spent weeks together and are pretty good buddies.
The friend has recurring prolapse problems, and that’s too much trouble for her other home to deal with. So Olly Astro asked if she could bring her friend with her. It’s not like we’re adopting two chickens. We’re just adopting Olly Astro, and Olly Astro brought a friend with her. Got it?
Olly Astro’s friend was boxed up to go and joined us on the way home. She looks pretty ready to me.
Once home, the beautiful Miss Olly Astro began hunting for bugs and taking dust baths.
Her pretty friend thought that was a great idea, and the two of them enjoyed hours of bug hunting and dust bathing while I got their new aviary space and night pen ready for them.
Olivia voiced her opinion about the new girls while they played in the aviary for a bit. Olivia is not too sure about these new friends yet.
She stood outside their area and gave them the business.
After a while, I decided to just move Olivia’s night pen over by her duck buddies Chewy & Flapper so the new girls could have their own night pen. Olivia seemed to accept those terms… for now. But she reserves the right to protest more in the future.
Olly Astro and her friend settled in to a little more dust bathing and some eating, and then got ready for bed.
Bedtime was hilarious, as Olly Astro and friend were not so sure about their new routine. I tried to get them to settle down and nest, but they wanted to roost. So they flew up to my shoulders and sat on my shoulders and told me to hold still. That wasn’t going to work all night, so I repositioned a perch for them and placed them on it. They reluctantly accepted those terms and are now roosting in their night pen comfortably.
Tomorrow they will have their own section of the aviary and their own breakfast treats of peas and romaine lettuce. We haven’t settled on a forever name for Olly Astro’s friend yet, but as soon as she tells us what she wants to be called, we’ll share it with everyone.
Good night chickens. Good night ducks. Good night moon. Good night people.
Chewy took a bath in the tree trunk pool today, and then showed off his feathers as he preened them.
First he got some oil from his oil gland on top of his tail.
Then he spread the oil onto his long wing feathers.
Some feathers were hard to reach, but he managed to preen them all.
He even scratched his chin feathers, which gave me a close-up view of his fuzzy butt.
Finally it was time to flap off the last of the water droplets.
Chewy even flapped to show off his buff chest feathers. He has been working out.
The bright sunlight showed off Chewy’s colorful feather details once he was all clean and preened.
Lookin’ good, Choo Choo. Right down to the last freckle.
“Thanks.”
After preening, Chewy laid down next to his wingman Flapper for a nice Saturday afternoon nap.
I was laying down on the other side of Flapper, so we all took a nap together.
On the other side of me, even O’Malley settled down for a nap with Petunia and Olivia the chicken.
Simon gave us the stink eye from across the yard, because he doesn’t like to nap near flapping birds. Too bad, Simon.
We hope everyone had as nice of a Saturday afternoon as we did.
Happy summer weekend, from Chewy and the whole crew.
Late this afternoon, Racquel L’Oreal Chicken lost her battle with congestive heart failure.
She was in the aviary and sleeping much of the day. I saw Flapper go over and lay down next to her, and Olivia went over to her other side. Then O’Malley and Petunia looked through the aviary divider at her, and somehow I knew she had passed. I waited a little longer and then went out to the aviary to see if I was right.
Racquel passed surrounded by her feathered friends, who seemed to say goodbye to her and wish her well. She will be cremated.
I’m sorry to see you go, sweet lil muppet with a slight attitude problem. I thank you for all the fun and wonderful times you brought to the yard, and I will miss you dearly.
Don’t worry about your friend Olivia. Chewy has taken a liking to her, even though she is a chicken and he is a duck. I think she will do okay, though I know she will miss you.
XOXOX and love,
Your people
Racquel unfortunately mostly likely has congestive heart failure. This isn’t curable. She isn’t in pain or discomfort though, so today we brought her home to spend her remaining time with her feathered friends.
When I went to pick her up at the vet, I opened my wallet and turned around. When I turned back, Billy the cockatiel was trying to sneak a little extra, and he also ate the edges off my invoice. Nice try, Billy.
Racquel ate some corn and grass and looked for bugs. She is more tired than normal, so she has bursts of energy interspersed with naps. But she seems content and calm, and she has medications to keep her comfortable.
She’s a good muppet.
