Animal Antics

Sasha, the gobby Appenzeller,  is continuing to be the shriekiest chicken I have ever met.   We're shutting the coop door at night now, in an attempt to muffle her sounds, but still I have to get up somewhere between 5 and 6am to do something about the racket.

"Doing something" usually means letting them out of the coop and going back to bed, then getting up again half an hour later to try and catch Sasha and shut her in one of the nest boxes to keep her quiet.  The standalone nestboxes work quite well for this, because she can't stand and stretch her throat (like a cockerel does while crowing), so she can't reach quite the volume. 

However, I don't really like doing this, so I only do it when she's being particularly voluble particularly early. I always set a timer if I do it, just so I don't forget about her.

This morning it was 6.05am.     When I rushed through the kitchen to get to the back door I saw that Izzy had had  a fit.  After sorting out the chooks, I came back in to investigate the fit, decided to make a cup of tea, and so there was no point in going back to bed.

Izzy has had two fits in the last 2 days, and is being extremely finicky about her food.

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Wash has also been "not quite right".   He got tangled up in my legs yesterday, when I was working on the duvet cover in the kitchen.  Last time he got tangled up, he went on to get hit by a car, and we learned that he has liver problems and jaundice, and this had affected his reaction times.      I mentioned it to DH, on the basis that a one-off we can not worry about; 2 instances, and we have to keep watch; 3 instances and action must be taken.

Last night when I went to bed, Wash was sleeping on the top step, just below the landing level.   DH went downstairs and, in the dark, almost trod on him.   Wash was very shocked and ran into the bedroom.  We checked him all over and couldn't see any obvious sign of injury, he wasn't reacting to being poked and prodded.

This morning Was came in with a cut on his head. Unlikely to have been caused on the stairs last night, we would have found it.

Vet appointment for him tomorrow, I think.

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The torrential rain and bad weather has meant the chicks haven't got outside much.   I managed maybe 10 mnutes yesterday.  It was hot, briefly.  I put the outside hen on, then waited 15 mins to see if  the weatherwas going to stay hot, or whether it was going to turn.  It stayed hot, so I put the chicks out.   10 mins later I could see a rain cloud approaching, so I had to try and catch the chicks on my own, and put them away.

This morning I've been waiting for the grass to dry and the wind to die down.  I'm ging to attempt to put them out shortly.

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And while I was outside, I noticed that a snail was having a drink from a chick waterer I'd left on the paving. It was balancing on the lip, and leaning in to the dip where the water was.  It was a very delicate operation, it's little antenna wiggling slowly as it tried to stretch in.

What a little sweetie!  I've bever really thought that about snails before,  they are usually a pest in the garden.  But this little thing was going about its business, drinking from the oasis I had kindly - if unknowingly - provided.