Chicken on TV

The Carless Brit, aka River Laker, is a chap living here in Roanoke who gave up his car 4 months ago and has been documenting his life since then.
He's hosting a Carless Roanoke Party and wanted a farm animal that he could hold and pet during the commercial for the party. I offered up one of our biddies, and he chose LadyBird, our Buff Orpington.

Shooting the commercial happened early last Friday morning. Unfortunately, we'd been having steady rain all of last week it seemed. Personally, I like the rain - good for gardens. But, when you've got a chicken who's been out in the rain all week, well ... a bedraggled chicken isn't the prettiest thing for the commercial, is it??
So, we brought her inside. We went out there after dark, in the misting rain, and scooped her out of the nest box. Even though it was dark LadyBird is our lightest bird, so it wasn't too difficult to spot her. We grabbed some straw and put it in Jomo's old puppy crate and put LadyBird to bed for the night. In Our Bedroom!
We were worried what the dogs might think of a chicken spending the night inside, and so felt it was just easier to leave the crate where it had been, in our room. We've since come to the conclusion that LadyBird has spared herself ever being put in the stock-pot. I just don't know that I could eat a chicken that I shared a room with one night.

101 Ways Not to Build a Chicken Tractor ...

Well, the predator issue came to a head. We can't be certain which dog actually broke into the tractor, but we're guessing it was Jomo since he's been the one most curious about the gals.
Sunday morning I went out to check on something, and to my surprise saw some of the chickens very much enjoying their free-ranging in our yard, between an apple tree and the lilac bush. I hollered for Justin, and he, Shannon, and I began trying to catch the girls.
Apparently the brilliant idea I had of using a rubbermaid tote for a nest box was flawed. It had a latch-able lid, and we cut the bottom out, with the bottom facing into the tractor. This allowed us to latch and un-latch the top to check for eggs. We attached it to the frame with screws. The corner of the lid was gnawed on and then unlatched. Birds got out. We found one of our Buff Orpingtons dead within. One of our Dark Brahmas, also inside the tractor, who I thought was just terribly shaken up, apparently was very injured and Justin had to put her down. Apparently the dogs figured out the chickens aren't toys, since the only ones wounded or killed were in the tractor, the ones in the yard were allowed to hang out.
We ran out to Lowe's and picked up some lumbar. Justin built a nice wooden nest box, similar to the one on the coop. We put a nice lock on it so that no curious little pups, racoons, or even biddies can open it to see what is on the other side. They're safe now and back to laying eggs, though we still need to redo the sides to further Jomo-proof the tractor.
To say Sunday was disappointing would be an understatement. We lost two layers, we couldn't even eat the meat. We had to spend money and an afternoon trying to hastily fix the problem. It was disappointing, but all I could think about was a quote from 'National Treasure'. Nicholas Cage says how Edison failed 101 ways before making a working lightbulb. When asked about his invention he said he found 101 ways NOT to make a lightbulb.
This is what true learning is. Learning from your mistakes, learning from your failures. Not letting them get you down too much, to the point where you don't try again, and try something new.

A Wild Day

The chickens have been outgrowing their home in the dining room, so today they moved outside. Justin fixed up the tractor for them, hung their waterer in there, and there they went. So far, they seem to really be loving their new digs. They were quiet and content, flapping about a little bit playing. The only time they started squawking was when they were tired of looking for their own food and wanted to be fed.
They've been calling for rain though, so we put their "nesting box" in there: an old doghouse claimed from the side of the road. They wouldn't go in there on their own, so last night as they were sleeping I had to crawl in through the front & toss them into it. Not the sweetest moment of their night I'm sure, but they needed to know where shelter was.
This first photo is one of our Buff Orpington pullets. A pullet is a hen who is less than a year old. Our chicks were hatched on 4/4/08. The Buff Orpingtons are quickly becoming favorites: their feathers are remaining silky to the touch, they are extremely gentle (they never seem to mind being picked up, and will even relax while being held), and are very quiet.
This next photo is one of our Partridge Cochin pullets. We got the two of them because friends of ours had a much loved Buff Cochin, and we were hoping to breed. Sadly, we just got the news that their Buff Cochin has "taken off" into the woods, never to return home. That was the sweetest damn bird and this news truly is saddening.
Justin has also been working like a mad-man this weekend to build the chickens their coop. He is making fantastic progress, and has two walls now completed. It is turning out to be much tinier than I had anticipated it to be, but in all honesty, we really don't need a huge coop since we don't plan to keep more than 6 or 7 chickens permanantely. I have several photos of it, and several more photos of the chickens in their tractor. I will work on uploading a slideshow of the photos taken this weekend of the progress on the coop, as well as of the chicks in the tractor.