Snow Storms 2 & 3

The girls waiting the storm out inside their coop

While we had a pretty mild winter this January and February, the weekly snow storms of 8" and more in March and April have made up for it.  After shoveling out the chicken yard and coop, I had a little thought to myself...  why am I doing this?  I love the chickens and they are part of the family, but I'd rather be inside the warm house playing with the kids.  I also know the chickens don't like the deep snow and end up spending the days in the coop waiting for the snow to melt.  

Coming out for a walk after the snow

The coop during the storm

With a little notice for the next storms, I started covering the roof of the chicken run with some old carpet.  It worked nicely and actually kept the snow completely off the floor of the run.  The chickens came out during the snow and ate a bit of food and nibbled on the snow.

A nice dry chicken run

Bumblefoot - NSFW

The patient in recovering room

Another chicken buddy, SeaBass, sent me these gross pictures (don't say I didn't warn you) of this chicken who had a bad case of bumblefoot.   It pretty much is an infection on the chickens foot and can be caused by a number of things.  I am sure that the dirt and feces the chickens walk in can take a small thing like a thorn or splinter and make it much worse.  His chicken was lethargic and not acting normal.  Dr. SeaBass bought a scalpel online and did some home surgery.  

I would check your chickens for bumble foot. I found that 3 of my 6 had it. We performed surgery on them and they are better now.

I ordered a scalpel just to have it handy if I ever have to perform other surgery as well. I had one chicken die a while ago because she had an impacted crop. If you have any chickens that are lethargic this is a symptom of impacted crop. Amazing what you learn!

He ended up finding a thorn in the wound.  He cleaned it and wrapped it up and the chicken was better a few days later. 

So, just keep this in mind and check your chickens feet every now and then, or if they act a bit more weird then normal chickens do.  :)

Successful surgery

The thorn that caused the bumblefoot

Monster Egg

I came across this "news" story of an lady in China who found her chicken had laid an egg with two yokes + another egg!  I'd love to come across this one day, but like the lady said, she thought the chicken was dying!  Ha!  Poor chicken...  Anyways, here is the video...

A chicken in China's Guizhou province laid a huge egg. Inside this large egg there was another egg. The 87-year-old owner of the chicken says she thought the hen was dying it was trying to lay the big egg. Take a look: 

Rocky the Raccoon

I have named this scoundrel Rocky

One night, a couple hours after sunset, I went out to close up the chicken run, and saw something dark running across the yard.  The next evening, I was heading out for a night bike ride and parked my car in the back by the coop to load up my bike and caught the "something" in the act.  While he wasn't going for the chickens, he was going for the chicken feed.  I've heard stories of raccoons only going for the eggs, but I have also heard of the raccoons slaughtering a whole coop.  :(  I've started shutting the coop down before sunset and hope that Rocky doesn't get too hungry... I am guessing Rocky is related to these little ones from last summer... I wonder where his sibling is?