Fun With Chickens — Janet Szabo

The husband reminds me periodically that chickens have brains the size of peas. Some days, I think that is a generous assessment.

The chicken coop has 14 nesting boxes. Fourteen very large, comfortable, and filled-with-pine-shavings nesting boxes. Chickens do not all lay eggs at the same time, so 14 nesting boxes should be more than adequate, which is why this happens:

Every so often, one of the nesting boxes will be designated as special, and all the chickens will want to lay their eggs in that box. I have no idea what criteria determines which box is special, and it changes from day to day and week to week. If more than one chicken wants to use the special box at the same time, though, arguing and jockeying for space ensues. Believe me, these chickens did not look so amiable 30 seconds before I took this picture.

This Buff Orpington has not left this box for over a week now. Will she hatch out some chicks? Let’s hope. She likes to sit with her butt facing out, though. I find that odd:

I haven’t been able to see how many eggs she has under her, because she gets annoyed if I get too close.

The husband watches a YouTube channel where the host just finished building a chicken coop. This guy’s wife sews, and she made cute little curtains for all of the nesting boxes. (They only have half a dozen hens.) I will not be doing that.

The baby velociraptors are getting their big chicken feathers.

They have just about doubled in size in two weeks and won’t be able to stay in the brooder box much longer. We’ll move them to the fenced-off area in the coop where they can see the big chickens but the big chickens can’t get to them.

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The black bear is still wandering around. One of our friends down the road saw it passing through her yard last night. I hope this bear does not end up having to be euthanized, but that’s usually what happens to bears that become habituated to being around people. We haven’t seen it in our yard (yet). Lila would let us know if it were anywhere close with the special bear version of her “Danger, Will Robinson!” bark.

I went out to check on the garden yesterday afternoon. I have a lot of work to do out there this week thanks to all this rain. It is supposed to dry out and warm up into the 70s by the middle of the week, though, and I should be able to plant everything that is left in the greenhouse.

I have two sides of the border left to quilt on the neutral diamonds quilt and then I can trim and bind it. I am still leaning toward adding more quilting to the center, especially after quilting loops in the border. The denser quilting pattern really does help to stabilize that batting. I also have to bind the inside seams of the Get Out of Town Bag and make the carrying strap. And I stopped at the church yesterday on my way to town and picked up my knitting bag with the prayer shawl.

I’ve developed a bumpy, itchy rash on my arms. It’s only on my arms and it has been there for about a week. The husband thought maybe it was poison ivy, but I haven’t been working outside with my arms uncovered. I use only unscented, dye-free laundry detergent. I haven’t changed soaps. I had a terrible problem with allergies this spring, which was odd because I haven’t had spring allergies since I stopped eating wheat. The itchy, watery eyes and sneezing went away a few weeks ago, but then this rash broke out. It’s either a different manifestation of seasonal allergies or some kind of food intolerance. I don’t feel particularly stressed out, so I doubt it’s that, and even if I were stressed, I would expect the patch of shingles on my back to flare up. So far, calamine lotion is providing some relief. I thought about taking Benadryl last night before bed, but apparently I have developed an aversion to being sedated since my week in the ICU. (Imagine that.) Even a small dose of Benadryl is going to knock me out and I don’t want that. I’ll look at what I am eating and see if I can figure out if there is a trigger.