Although everyone celebrates Christmas in their own special way, a recurring theme I see amongst many families is the giving of gifts to the pets on Christmas.  I think it is a fun and creative way to involve the pets in family celebrations.  At my Dad’s house this Christmas, we gave our dog several toys as Christmas presents, and my uncle gave his dog some presents too.  Sadly, at my mom’s house, neither the chickens nor Gonzo got Christmas presents.  So, I was thinking about whether or not it is actually worth getting your pet a present.

1. It really depends on the species of pet you have.  I’m pretty sure that every time the chickens get human food, they consider it a holiday.  Gonzo is in a similar situation.  Every time he is fed, he is probably happy, and adding a new fixture to his tank may freak him out just as much as it could make him happy.  On the other hand, smarter animals like cats and dogs are excited to get new things and may actually make a connection with the festivities and gifts.
2. It also depends on what they are getting.  If you decide you want to give your dog a sweater, he may not be overly pleased with the gift du jour.  At the same time, my dog was very excited to get new chew toys and a blanket (he piles the blankets in his bed and sleeps in them).
3. Be careful with the festivities.  I know many people who have dogs who can unwrap presents and get the gift out.  This is all fun and games, but be careful to make sure that Fido doesn’t ingest any of the wrapping paper or ribbon.  This could make him one very un-jolly pooch.

With this in mind, have some Happy Holidays!

With all of the human-chicken harmony, we were a little surprised recently when one of our girls changed from being a protective mother to being aggressive.  As noted last August, one of our Black Wyandottes has had a tendency to defend her eggs.  However, last year all you had to do was give her a gentle push, and she’d leave the coop.  This year, it is a whole different situation.

This chicken is almost always in the coop, sitting in one of the nesting boxes.  Only the dominant Silver Laced Wyandottes can get her to move out of the box; all of the other girls have to share the nesting box with her.  After my first encounter with this newly angry chicken, I understand why the other were willing to share.

When I opened the coop door, there was Ms. Black Wyandotte nesting in a box.  As I leaned my head in, she began to squawk.  After two years of having chickens, I am used to their noisiness, however, this was an all new squawk.  Not only did she issue a warning to me with her squawk, but she also fluffed up her feathers, ready to fight.

Being many times her size and used to the occasional freshness of my darling teens, I decided I was not letting a little chicken determine that I could not gather eggs.  So, I reached a hand toward her.  Unlike my teens, this chicken puts physicality behind her squawk, and thus, she lunged at my hand with an open beak.  Yikes!

With temperatures near 90, I didn’t want to leave eggs in the coop for long, so it was time for a new plan.  Using the egg collecting bowl as a shield with one hand, I covered her beak and quickly grabbed the eggs under her with the other hand.  She wasn’t happy about this situtation, but she also wasn’t harmed in the process, so egg gathering was a success.

Almost any time of day, if someone goes to collect eggs, she still is sitting in the box.  Whether she  has become increasingly maternal or an angry older chicken, we aren’t sure, but we do know that each day we’ll need to do battle to gather eggs.

Although we like having chickens, our decision to get a flock of eighteen was for eggs.  We didn’t want eighteen new pets, we wanted chickens that would provide us with eggs.  So, in late November when our girls’ egg production dropped from six or seven eggs per day to one or two eggs per days, we thought their laying days might be over.

We knew that lack of sunlight would lessen their egg production, as it did last year, but this year, their production of eggs simply ceased about mid-December.  We began to contemplate our options.

1.  Butcher the chickens and make soup for us.

2.  Continue to feed the chickens, making them pets instead of “farm” animals.

3.  Donate them to a friend who would butcher them and use them in her restaurant.

We had become comfortable with choice #3.  In fact, I was going to call her at the end of this week to arrange a date for the chickens to be delivered.  However, when I went to their coop on Monday night, I discovered three eggs, and then on Tuesday, I discovered four eggs.  Did they know about our plan?

Obviously, the amount of sunlight has improved egg production, and for this we are very glad.  We had been disappointed that they laid eggs for only slightly more than a year, as we had hoped to get closer to two years of laying from them.  We also weren’t enjoying buying eggs at the store.  Most of all, we weren’t excited about having to tell the kids about the chickens’ demise.

So, for now, our girls are back to doing what they do best.  Laying eggs.  And trying to avoid all of the snow.

Entering the chicken pen, I found at least six inches of snow covering the ground.  As I opened the coop door, I was greeted in the typical manner with the girls crowding the entry, ready to jump out.  However, seeing the white coating on the ground, they stopped short.

Thankfully the chickens reacted quickly, and no one fell out of the coop and into the snow.  That would have produced an angry chicken.  Seeing that their food was filled, and they had plenty of water (and snow) for drinking, I returned to the house.

About a half hour later, I decided to see how many chickens had braved the snow.  The answer? Zero.  I am sure they were quite thirsty, as their water is on a platform outside of the coop, and most mornings they fight over a drinking spot.  However, today, the desire to stay out of the snow outweighed their desire to quench their thirst.

By midday some of our girls finally had braved the snow, although they tended to hide under the coop and peck at the snow around the edges.  Taking pity on the girls, I shoveled a path in their pen while I was outside shoveling our walkways.  Providing a glimpse of bare ground, the remaining water deprived chickens left their coop for a drink.

As we learned last year, snow is not their thing.

In the cities, the skunks are definitely worse.  My dad lives in one of the cities of New Hampshire, and at his house, the skunks are more obvious and populous than anywhere else I’ve been.  They just wander into yards, eating grubs and trash, while occasionally spraying things.

Our biggest problem is the fact that they love to live under our shed.  The skunks would build a nest under it, so in order to block or trap them, we used chicken wire to block off all but one way out, and placed a Havahart Skunk Trap there.  The skunk woke that night and stumbled into the trap, so the next day we just carried him off to a new home.  The next year, a mother moved in but was hit by a car two days later.  So, we assumed all was fine, but the yard still smelled every night.  We looked around and learned she had babies under our shed.  So, using the same technique we trapped all four babies, one at a time.

In the smaller town in which my mom lives, we have similar problems.  Often, I can look outside at night and see a skunk sitting in the middle of our yard.  They tend to burrow for grubs or, occasionally, nose around our chicken coop.  One afternoon a skunk ambled into our yard. This was very odd, because skunks are nocturnal, so we thought it was rabid, and we couldn’t see it well enough to tell.  The skunk went over and managed to slip into the coop.  The chickens began to freak out, thinking, ‘Who are you and what  do you want?!’  Fearing it would hurt them, my step-dad grabbed a .22 caliber small game hunting rifle and leveled it at the skunk but couldn’t fire because the girls were jumping in the line of fire.  Fortunately, the skunk left.

Skunks will harass you, but by taking some measures, you can fend them off.

As all of our kids thoroughly enjoy having chickens, they frequently go to the chickens’ pen to give them apple cores, bread crusts, etc.  While we were away the children began visiting more often, checking inside the coop for the arrival of the first egg.  One early October day produced exactly that.  As we were 6,000 miles from home, we received a picture message displaying this most exciting of eggs!

In the month that has since passed, many more of our hens have become layers.  Although not all of them are “big girls” yet, we are collecting an average of 5 eggs a day.  With such excitement, there are multiple visits each day (adults included), seeking an egg or two in the nesting boxes.