Meet My Chickens
Hi Nosey!
This is Nosey.
Nosey is a funny little chicken. She was hatched this summer so is around six months old, and she has been unusually friendly and a bit odd from the beginning.
You can guess how she got her name (my chickens only get named when they exhibit plumage or behaviour that distinguishes them, but then, quite a few of them do).
She runs up to me, routinely stands on my boots when I'm standing still, tugs on my buttons and zipper toggles and shoelaces, and gets all up in my way while the other chickens are getting out of my way. She also likes to perch at head level and supervise what I'm up to, whenever she can.
In other words, adorable. She's excessively curious. I've observed that curiosity is a prominent chicken trait - it must have been an adaptive trait for birds and many other creatures to survive, because it drives them to investigate and perhaps find new food sources. In my flock of chickens it seems to drive them mostly to find new dirt bath locations.
Nosey's beak is a tiny bit crossed. This is a genetic trait, and crossed beak can become so extreme that the chicken has trouble eating and drinking. I don't think it will become too extreme for her because she's already half grown.
I made the mistake of trying to make a shoulder chicken out of her when she was nosing around sticking her beak entirely in my business once. I put her on my shoulder, where she was happy enough to stay. Less pleasantly, she promptly indulged the curiosity my eyelashes stimulated in her little chicken brain. Peck! I had a minor black eye for days.
I've been daily blogging about my flock of chickens, my bees, and my other farm-ette activities at my Happy Harvest farm blog (est. 2008) and I'm transitioning that blogging habit to Steemit now. Wordpress has become disappointing. I'm looking forward to finding my stride and voice with the new platform, yay!
Hi and welcome here! Not too sure that I can handle another Kind though ;) #justteasing
Guess I'm only one of a Kind now. :D
for someone that has been able to come up with Kind jokes his whole life, I find yours a little disappointing ;)
Thank you! I thought I was going to sneak into Steemit while I figure it out for a little bit, but I guess there's no subtle entrance:)
I think you'll prefer all the help you can get ;)
Welcome it is great to have another Kind on Steem. I remember Derek's chicken post well and would love to see that calendar! Looking forward to your fun stories!
Oh boy, he might have to cough up that calendar now:) It is actually out there already- you might notice HERE one thing is not like the other. The updated Chickens for 2019 calendar has both his and my poultry photographs.
And thank you!
I don't know if I can ever get over this discovery :D
Fun. I didn't know that @derekind had landscape calendars too. Thanks for the links, so fun.
What is it with you people and your chickens? My daughter @andiekins is the same way. She just loves her chickens. I guess if I were living on a farm, I might feel the same way. They are pretty cute.
Ren
They grow on you. I didn't out start this way.
Thats what my daughter @andiekins says. She adores her chickens.
I love these photos! Nosey is very beautiful :) thanks for sharing!
Thank you:) She's a funny little bird.
Welcome to Steemit! I followed your website to your narrating website. How cool! Are you kept pretty busy with that?
Oh, you're a rare breadcrumb follower! Yes, that's my job and income, and it's full steady. I could give it even more time, but I'm just not willing to give it 100% of my life. I absolutely love it, but I want to keep other things on the go too.
My parents had chickens for many years. I badly sliced a finger while cutting a roll of insulation to size when the coop was built. We had a couple shoulder chickens, and a few named hens, but most were nameless egg factories.
Our first rooster was a mean one. He would attack anyone who entered the coop or the yard, and eventually we got tired of his aggression and the need to boot him away repeatedly. I don't think he even had the decency to taste especially good after being baked though.
I have several nameless egg factories too, since I haven't bothered to memorize them by their combs:)
Lol:
Haha love the part about not tasting good...
When we started out, we ate a few roosters before we finally had one that was not aggressive. Now I suppose we have weeded out the 'mean' gene, since all our roosters are pretty laid back. They protect their girls, but not from us. ;)
Awesome chicken story! I like that you name your chickens not before they've showen their character. I will have to remember that for when we get them!
Well otherwise there's no intuitive way to remember them:)
Lol, very good point. I wish this world would ler us do that to our children too... we would probably have better fitting names 😁.
Yes, I've heard that was was a practice of some Native North American tribes (can't remember who), and children could reach the age of four without having a name land on them. But that came into conflict with colonizers and their birth certificate traditions. And I agree!
Chickens can be such goofy critters! When you think about it, they really look awkward, especially when they run. I am impressed that you have one with great personality. Most of ours have been averagely-stupid birds. We haven't had chickens for the past year, since my husband has been in poor health and unable to care for them. The chicken yard looks so lonely when it's empty! And I miss feeding all the good scraps to them. I never felt like I was wasting anything when we had chickens.
Aww, no chickens. You could keep worms to eat your scraps.
They are dinosaurs! And so funny when they run (lumber), with their wings airplaned out for balance. I've found just a huge difference (intelligence and chickenality) between the commodity chickens I bought from the store and the chickens that were raised from the egg here, and even crazier, compared to the chickens that grew up here raised by a mother that grew up here! It's like they remember to be birds.
I find that extremely interesting!
Congratulations @selka!
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Welcome! I have always thought about having chickens, as pets though because I'm vegan, lol, but we live in too cold a climate and I wouldn't want to be heating a chicken coop in our cold weather which can hit -35 before windchill... btw, I'm in Canada too!
Fun first post :)
Thank you! Chickens are birds, and their wild kin spend winters outside, but chickens will get frostbitten combs and feet in that kind of cold. There are ways. Also there are hardier breeds. I move mine into the poly tunnel for the winter - no artificial heating. It's not that cold here so mine are very comfortable, laying and even brooding in all seasons, but a passive greenhouse would make a huge difference if you did get chickens.
Yes, doable for sure... but we are trying to downsize our "brood" in preparation for retirement, ... so, I am trying to cut down on all new additions, lol, but thank you for the suggestion!
Ah yes, less can be more:)