A Very Special Summer Guest and Watermelon Fun

Life on a chicken farm can be very unpredictable, and this week has definitely been a humdinger. Most weeks my chicken duty lasts just minutes a day, but this week I've had to spend some quality time with the girls.

One of my hens named Star punctured her foot with something quite sharp and it deflated the pads of one of her feet like a balloon. I've had to play Dr. Kelly and give her Epson Salt baths and antibacterial spray to wash her foot all week.

This week, I've also had move my "baby chicks" who are now full sized to the main coop. Chickens are creatures of habit, so trying to convince 15 birds to change coops is a little challenging. I closed the door to the baby coop, hoping the babies would be forced to go inside the main coop for the night, but nope, that didn't work. The young chickens decided to perch high in the tree above their baby coop all week, right where owls can snatch them while they are sleeping. My kids and I have had to hand pick them off the tree and carry them inside the main coop for the night. It was fun the first night, but now I'm going on five days of carrying 15 chickens one by one inside the coop. But, at least my kids are having fun carrying all my stubborn chicks.

I had five hens go broody this week, which means I will be having more babies in 21 days!

Then, quick and simple, I culled my first rooster this week. No details about this, but it had to be done. He was bullying one of my egg layers pretty badly to where she couldn't lay her eggs. Hens come first at the farm, they provide the eggs and roosters don't. The rooster was one of the chicks I hatched in March, and to see aggression in him at such an early age was a huge red flag for me. He was treated with love and kindness up until the end, but culling him was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

Snapping Turtle is in the lower left corner.

But, my most favorite story of my busy chicken week, was when a very large mommy snapping turtle stopped by the coop to lay eggs, like she knew my coop was the place for eggs. She sat by the rain barrel for three hours not moving a muscle, so we knew she was focusing hard on what she was doing. Unfortunately for her, she chose a very busy spot next to the coop door where the chickens are constantly going in and out of the coop to lay eggs and to eat. I'm not sure if the chickens were bothering her too much or if the condition of the soil weren't correct for her eggs (check out my post called The Year of the Turtle), but she finally moved away without laying her eggs.

Here is a video of my chicken, named Speckles, getting quite friendly with the snapping turtle.

The most curious thing about seeing the chickens interact with the turtle was that they were not scared of her. Several of them came quite close to her, like Speckles, but they were careful not to go anywhere around her head where she could have easily bit them. I love the natural instincts that animals have about each other.

Now it's time for....Summer Watermelon Fun

70 CHICKENS vs.

1 WATERMELON

How long will it take the girls to devour one watermelon? Get the kids, grab some popcorn, kick your feet up, because it's about to get quite entertaining!

Here is a video of the first 16 minutes of them eating the watermelon.

Here is the watermelon 1 hour later.

Here is the watermelon after two hours. They are still pecking at the watermelon skins.

Thank you for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly