R.I.P. Sensei

Thanks everyone for your notes of sympathy for our bird, Sensei. Since so many of you asked, I feel obliged to say that no, Sensei is not still in our beer refrigerator!

With Broody Blanca on the nest 24/7, our boisterous flock of four has dwindled down to a quiet duo of Frieda and Ruthie pecking around the yard. Fortunately, all three are healthy and we've determined that Sensei's death was a freak incident.

Here are some highlights of Sensei's life at the Compound:

Sensei's first day at her new home.

Everyone's first trip to the lawn.

You were a great layer and a great bird. We miss you, Sensei!

And Then, There Were Three....

Our lovely bird Sensei died last night. It happened so quickly and we still don't know what caused her death.

On Tuesday after work, we let the girls out of their coop for their afternoon stroll around the yard. Sensei appeared very distraught and hid herself in a dark corner near the porch and the house. She wouldn't eat or drink. She wouldn't stand up or move when we gave the other girls treats.

As you can see from the photo, her comb turned orange and looked really dried up. She just sat there with puffed-out feathers and a very sad look on her face.

To spare the rest of the flock and keep her more comfortable, we made a warm nest for her in our garage. At 10PM, we found her sprawled out on her back.

We're keeping her corpse in Ted's beer freezer in case the Health Department wants to check it for Avian Flu. If anyone has any idea what could have happened, please let us know.

Broody Blanca

Blanca's gone broody on us. Her suspicious behavior - sitting on the nest for many hours a day, puffing up her feathers to promote body heat, aimlessly wandering around the yard making the laying sound, and squaking a fierce squak when nudged off the nest - are classic signs of broodiness.

Going broody is natural and not necessarily a bad trait. If we had a rooster and thus fertilized eggs, the girls would need to go broody and incubate their unborn chicks. But, we have no such situation.

The internet offers many suggestions on how to break a broody hen - lock her in a wire dog crate alone for four days, place a handful of ice under her when she nests - but such tactics to break a female's natural mothering instincts seem wrong and cruel.

If it's okay with my Compound mates, I suggest we let Blanca do her thing and hope she works out her issues somehow.

Everything in Moderation

Turns out, Ted and I aren't the only couple in the world grappling with the dilemma of "what to feed the chickens." The internet abounds with bizarre and contrasting wisdom. Here are my favorite tidbits:

Yeah, it's amazing what disgusting things chickens can and will eat! Mine have a love of those styrofoam packing peanuts, of all things!!!

- Velvet Sparrow on Garden Web

I avoid giving them chicken....I've read that feeding chickens food with garlic, onion or peppers can give an unpleasant tast to the eggs, although I've never had a problem with that....No, sugary cereals or pizza crusts aren't ideal chicken food, just like they aren't ideal people food.

- annethcz on Ethics of Feeding Chickens Table Scraps

Mine love cooked chicken and eggs and raw eggs and I throw them all the egg shells back to them. Also, My chickens are offered raw vegies/fruits such as cucumbers, carrots, brocoli, celery, zuccini, grapes and they ignore it and don't eat it. They do love tomatoes, corn on cob, lettuce, watermelon and canteloupe....A couple of weeks ago we found a smashed mamma mouse under a board and beside her was a nest of 5 newborns that would have died a slow cruel death so my son threw them into the chickens and they also gobbled them up. I figured they were no different than eating some kind of bug. I hope they werent diseased now that I think about it, but doesnt other bugs carry diseases such as cockroaches that they eat.

- ibmoore from Garden Web

Admittedly, those are some of the more wild responses, but it does prove my point that backyard-chicken diets are as varied as people-diets. Here's the advice that rang most true for me:

Give treats as treats. Treats are not a meal. Use them just as you would use treats with children. There's nothing wrong with a bowl of ice cream after dinner. There's a lot wrong with a gallon of ice cream FOR dinner. Used in the right fashion, Treats are very beneficial for your birds. They add joy to their day and heighten their spirit. Treats are a spot of sunshine in their day. Used sparingly, you'll be doing them justice.

- The Easy Chicken

In summary, I'd say Ted and I were both kinda right. Giving the birds table scraps is even more environmentally-friendly than even composting, and the girls do go nuts for people food. But we want them to be healthy and we do after all, eat their eggs, so let's not get to generous with the rotten food.

Here's what everyone seems to agree upon:

Absolute No-No's

Chocolate (toxic for birds)

Curry (bad effects on their droppings)

Potato Peels

Lots of Salt

Chicken (obvious reasons)

Good in Moderation

Spaghetti (reminds them to eat worms)

Grapes (they love them and people love watching them bounce away from their pets)

Rice (optimal shape for pecking)

What Can Chickens Eat?

Actually, I should say - What should chickens be fed because I already know they can and will eat anything!

We've been in a debate recently about what to throw them from our refrigerator. I'm of the belief that everything once intended for people-consumption is a-okay, but Ted treats them like human toddlers! He's been caught pealing the brown parts off fruits and dicing large vegetables, etc.

Is old lunch meat okay? How about very wilted beet greens? Fritos chips? Lemon rinds?

I'm going to do some internet research on the topic and get back to you, but in the meantime, let me know if you have any advice.

Our Girl had Twins!

In case you've ever wondered if chickens can have twins, they can! One of our girls layed a giant egg with a band around the middle that looked as if two eggs had been fused together. Hope it didn't hurt coming out!

As you can see below, two seperate but attached yolks came out of the big shell: