The Agrinautica

   "Cheep cheep"

   The eggs weren't even hatched yet. Not a crack. But they were cheeping. I didn't know they could do that.

   "Cheep cheep"

   It all started with a previous batch of chickens. Mum is a science teacher, and her class had raised up a gaggle of chickens from incubated eggs. At the end of it we ended up with a rooster named Falafel and a white hen named Tzatziki (I called her Zeze for short).

   Unfortunately, as roosters are wont to to, Falafel had this habit of crowing between 5 and 6 am. This doesn't fly in the suburbs. I really liked Falafel -- he had a lot of personality for a chicken. But he had to go. But we were able to trade him in at the feed store for a bantam hen we named The Seniorita.

   "Cheep cheep"

   Chickens, as you know, lay eggs. Normally they just forget about them and wander off. But the Seniorita would habitually sit upon her eggs until chased away, and purposefully laid them in hidden places.
   It would sometimes take us awhile to find her new place, and then we'd find an egg trove. But as soon as it was found she'd relocate. So it was Easter year round in my backyard.
   Clearly she desperately wanted to be a chickenmom. But she hadn't ever been pollinated, so to speak, by a rooster, so it wasn't going to be.
   Eventually, however, we took pity on her and bought fertilized eggs from the feed store. One by one we replaced her unfertilized eggs with fertilized ones while she wasn't looking. She didn't seem to notice that her eggs were getting a LOT bigger than they formerly/normally had been (bantam hens of course being fairly small).

   About a month later, they started to hatch. She was, I'm pretty sure, overjoyed. Her chickendreams had come true!! She sure showed "you can't have babies if you've never met a rooster" Zeze!
   Unfortunately, in her joy and enthusiasm to take care of her new chicks, she completely forgot about her three remaining eggs!
   So we took them and put them in a cardboard box with a blanket and a lamp for heat.
   "Cheep cheep" -- these eggs were cheeping! Every few minutes, one or the other would let out an adorable muffled "cheep cheep"
   If I recall correctly the first one hatched overnight. In the morning, there was a chick standing there looking damp and confused. We found the chickenmom still hunkered down with all her chicks under her wing and pushed this one under her wing as well.

   One by one the other eggs hatched over the next 24 hours (video!) and were reconciled with mother without incident. However, there was a problem.
   She wouldn't accept the runt. The last one hatched. I don't know if she just had too many babies at that point or he came too long after the rest (probably about a week after the first one?) for her to feel like he was truly part of the same family, but she wouldn't take care of him, wouldn't let him hang out with them and play in their reindeer games -- she'd actually chase him away and peck at him )=

   So back in the box he went. I made sure he stayed warm and fed and took him out and played with him whenever I had a chance because I worried he'd get lonely. I remember watching TV with him on my lap (and I don't normally watch tv!).
   I'd take him for walks in the backyard. Unfortunately I had to guard him from the other chickens, who would charge at him if they got half a chance. Rude. )=

   Eventually a student from mum's school adopted runt. I kinda missed him but hopefully in a one-chicken-home he'll get the attention and lack of pestering he deserves.

   ..at least until they have to deal with...

   "cock-a-doodle-doooooo!"

Some more pictures of the chickens


Note: for those of you not on my friends list / didn't see my immediately previous entry, I actually just experienced a 4.5 earthquake while writing this! Talk about cracking!

   Just now I was sitting here and suddenly heard the white hen that likes to perch on the outside counter by the kitchen squawking wildly. I jumped up, grabbed the flashlight and made a mad dash downstairs and outside.

   Immediately I see a coyote (looked like a medium sized lean tan dog) dash across the yard and into the bushes on the side. Moments later I see the coyote on TOP of the wall (!) heading towards the front yard.
   I then confirm the health of the chicken. She appears unscathed but very flustered, still clucking botheredly. So I coax her back to her ledge and pat her and keep her company until she calms down.
   While I'm standing there I hear rustling from around the corner where the chicken-shed is (mother hen and her chicks still spend the night in the safety of the shed). Was there a second coyote? As I shine my flashlight over there two sinister red eyes appear around the corner!! As it moves its eyes are locked unnervingly on me.
   But then I realize its the cat. She was cornere over there by the coyote as well I guess. I open the door to the house andd she eagerly scampers in. Her tail is all floofed up.

   I've got a new camera! As father-son Father's day bonding we went out camera hunting and dad got me a new Canon Powershot A710IS (with possible contributions from Dad's Dad?) !

   To celebrate, I am going to afflict you with some un-LJ-cut photos from my first day of cameraness!

Chickens roam our yard


Chicken permits me to pat her.


I am Borg!

And a few more

In more warm and fuzzy news...
   We currently have five young chickens (well plus a cat named Pelekea Cachaça, & a goldfish named Leviathan that lives in a flowerpot). Mother, who is a science teacher at a local jewish school, raised them from eggs in class. Now that they are older, however, they spend most of their time here and only make periodic fieldtrips to class.
   The chickies (four light yellow, one brown, no names yet) have more personality than I expected. The other day the escaped from corner of the yard mother had attempted to restrict them to. I didn't know whether or not mother had intended for them to be out and about but they seemed fine so I let them wander the yard. They spent the whole day roaming my yard in a little herd.
   At one point the cat was sitting in the very middle of them, I think because it made her feel sociable the same way being in the room the people are is appealing. Then the brown one charged at her and she ran away! Later the cat saw some grass rustling and started stalking.. then she ran and pounced and -- mid pounce realized it was not some lizard but an adolescent chicken, and aborted mid-air!
   Also often when I'd come out to check on them I'd stop about ten feet away, and one (I don't know if its the same one) will walk up to me, stop at my feet and look up at me, and then rejoin the others.


   Its not all fun and games though. Originally there were four. Unfortunately, when they were wee, a hawk landed on their cage and mauled one through the cage, killing it. Later, despite upgraded cage protection, the possum managed cart off one entirely and injure the remaining two. If there are two possums, which has been debated from the start, I think the other one should be consequently named Grendel. Also, Kristy is quite cross with the possum because of this. So as not to traumatize the children, mother got four new chicks of about the same age. One later died of a unknown causes (possibly dehydration/heat exhaustion, though water and shade were both available and the others were fine?) leaving the current five.


   As you may recall I'd previously announced we'd come into possession of some wee baby bunnies. Quick research revealed that at such a young age these bunnies would need very extensive care and were "unlikely to survive without professional assistance," and so after looking after them for maybe an hour and a half I found an animal shelter to take care of them.


Best Weekend Ever!
   This weekend is going to be the excellent.
   Firstly, tomorrow, Friday, is the official Krispalooza 2007. My birthday is actually on Monday, whereupon I turn 25. )= But as long as I'm still officially an early-twenty-something, we're all going out on Friday! Plan is BJ's (microbrewery) in Laguna Beach Hills at 8:30, then Hennessey's (pub), also in LB. Already it looks like a bunch of people can make it so its going to be a rollicking good time! You should come.
   Saturday Kristy & I are going to the Phi Alpha Delta of UC San Diego formal. For $30/person we get a five course meal, open bar for an hour, of course a dj, AND, its at Sea World! We're excited.
   Sunday as part of my birthday present, Kristy bought us tickets on a nature cruise to the Coronado Islands. We're excited!!
   And then on Monday I turn 25, aka life is over. )=