Eggs (week ending 8/20): 26
Eggs (year to date): 1446

A megapost featuring harmless bits of business about memory, Swiss Army Knifes, chicken blogging, the latest on the chicken experiment and the chicken tractor, and the tale of an errant grasshopper.

The Essence of Memory

In the late '70'sI went to Oklahoma Christian College (which is now Oklahoma Christian University), on the north edge of Oklahoma City and bordering a once-small bedroom community named Edmond on the south. Just west of the school, on a four-laner that led south into the heart of the city, was a Purina pet food plant that I'm sure, at one time, was in the middle of nowhere.

The interesting thing about this setup was that when there was an easterly wind, this unearthly smell of cooking pet food would drift across the campus. It wasn't particularly pleasant, and it could ruin things if you were on your way to a meal in the cafeteria.

I used to tell this story when I first left school, but it had gradually drifted out of my repertoire. It didn't have much relevance anymore. Until the other day when, doing chores in the tack room, my mind was sent reeling back to my OCC days.

It didn't take long to figure out. The sense of smell is the strongest trigger of memory, and I was moving cat food from a bag into a plastic container. It was "Paws and Claws" brand, which I'm sure is Tractor Supply's private label for pet food. But I'm pretty sure it was made by Purina. Maybe even at the plant in OKC. If it's still there.

Interesting. I hadn't caught that scent in more than 25 years, yet I instantly knew what it was. And it put me right back where it came from, too.

The Joy of Swiss Army Knives

One of my best friends made me a Swiss Army Knife addict. Years ago when I was in his wedding, his groomsman's gift was a Tinker. I carried it around with me for years and years, and found out that it was useful for anything and everything. In fact, my Tinker outlasted my friend's marriage (but it's okay, he found The Right One the second time around).

One day I lost the Tinker. It was like losing my right hand. I was panicked. Desperate. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I had to do something. I ended up going to a local True Value store, where I got the Deluxe Tinker and fell in love with a knife all over again - this one having pliers, and something I used constantly - scissors!

Then things got strange. I found my original Tinker. By then I had gotten used to having scissors and pliers in my pocket, but I didn't want the knife to go to waste. By that time I had chickens, so I put the Tinker in the toolbox in the tack room, where it gets used frequently for cutting the strings off of hay and straw bales, and slashing open feed bags. Since I change into jeans before doing farm chores, the knife is always there when I need it, and the Deluxe stayed in my dress pants.

Until I went to a political rally last year. Standing in line to hear George W speak, I forgot the Deluxe was in my pocket until they asked me to empty them during the security check. I had to leave it in a box where others left their forbidden items, and after the speech some unscrupulous Republican (obviously a Democratic plant) had helped themselves to the knife.

So I was back to the Tinker until I was again in Tractor Supply, and noticed in their sale bin that they had a boxed set of two Swiss Army knives;, the Huntsman and the Rally on sale. I picked it up and gave my wife the Rally.

That would be the end of the story except that at work I became a first line computer technician. My boss sent me to a local technical college where I took a couple of classes in opening computers up and putting them back together again without having any spare parts left over. Our instructor mentioned that it would pay for us to get a kit of computer-worthy tools, so when I started researching I was delighted to learn that the Swiss Army folks had the perfect solution. So now a Cybertool 34 lives in the cell phone pouch in my backpack. It's a little big to carry around in the pocket of Dockers.

So the Huntsman is what I carry around now. I miss having the pliers, and I've worn the scissors spring out, and I don't use the wood saw at all, and I'd rather have the phillips screwdriver than the corkscrew but hey, the price was right. Still, I wouldn't mind having a Deluxe Tinker again.

And if I didn't have an iPod shuffle, I'd be waiting for them to make a Cybertool that has a memory stick built into it.

And by the way, Tom, thanks for such a constructive addiction.

Another Chicken Blogger

For some time I've been wanting to link to other bloggers who were writing about raising chickens, but haven't had much luck. I've found a couple of self-proclaimed chicken blogs, but they either a) hadn't been updated in about a century, or b) while using the word "chicken," they didn't really have much to do with chickens.

Now I've found one. Or rather, they found me. Checking out my web site stats, I found that I've been linked to by Humboldt Hens. Amy Stewart is an author (!) who started keeping chickens in April, and she's chronicling her adventures - with lots of photos - on her site. It's especially fun reading now because in the last week or so she's started to get her first eggs.

So stop by and enjoy Amy's work. I've also included a link to it over in the link-o-rama column.

The Chicken Experiment (the latest)

Regular readers know of The Chicken Experiment, a bit of semi-scientific noodling on my part which asks the question: "If chickens have taught themselves to run back and forth between points A and B in search of food on being let out of the coop, will they also learn to run to a third location? And if so, will it be included in their pendulum-like peregrinations?"

I completed the latest part of the experiment this week. As a refresher, when I let the chicken out in the morning, they immediately run to point A, which is one of my Frequent Feeding Spots. If no scratch is there, they run to point B, which is another FFS. If no scratch is there, they return to A, a little slower and without enthusiasm. If there is still no food, they go back to B, after which they become disorganized rabble, then wander and crowd around me.

After letting their food-seeking pendulum run down a couple of times, I walked over with them underfoot and tossed down scratch in location C. I did this a couple of times last week, and then they were ready for the experiment. Before letting them out, I put down food in FFS C and opened the coop.

They ran to A. They ran to B. Back to A. Back to B. Then they started to disorganize. But... two of the pullets wandered in the direction of C, found the scratch, and started to eat. A few others saw what was going on and followed suit. Before long, the whole gang was there eating.

The next day I put food down in FFS C and opened the coop again. They ran to A, then to B, and some started for A again - but this time a group of about five diverted to C.

So the answer to the first part of the question is Yes - a new location can be added to their repertoire.

I gave them a rest over the last day or two and plan to take up the training again. After that, it will be time to not put food down at C, and find out what their reaction is. Will they return to A or go back to B? Or will they dissolve into rabble early? Stay tuned.

Lumber Floats

I've been occupied with going through scrap lumber trying to find the right pieces for the chicken tractor, the tentative construction date for which will be a series of Saturdays in September. The only thing I lacked was some sheets of plywood to wall in the sheltered part of the tractor.

On the way to work the other day, I spotted something near the barn that I had taken for granted. It was the float that our church had put in a recent parade. It was built in my father-in-law's barn on his hay wagon, and it was just sitting outside waiting to be torn down.

I went over and looked at it. It was made mostly of 2 x 4's and thin planks of plywood. Perfect.

So I asked my father-in-law what was to become of the lumber. He said it was going to be scrapped, and that there was some left over planks and plywood that I could have. I said no, but if it was all right, I'd rather recycle what was on the float. "After all, the chickens don't care what's painted on it." I didn't say recycling was also truer to the concept of building it out of recycled wood found on the farm.

So after the fair, I'm going to scrounge up a friend and a digital camera and start building.

The Tale of an Errant Grasshopper

Call it a modern fable. Sunday afternoon my daughter and I were driving home from a restaurant when she noticed a big green grasshopper on the windshield of the car. I marveled at that because, growing up in Wyoming, all the grasshoppers I'd ever seen were brown.

Whenever we'd stop, we'd wait for it to hop off, but it never did. So we started joking about what was going through its mind (yeah, I know, they don't have minds - but it's human nature to do that).

My daughter said, "It'll probably hang on until we get home and then jump into the green grass and say, 'I'm home.'"

I said, "And then this shadow will fall over him and the last thing he hears will be 'buk buk buk buk-awk!'"

We got home and stopped the car. The hopper crawled off of the window onto the edge of the car. I opened the car and said in my best Robin Williams voice, "Fly, little brother! But beware, because you are in the land of the CHICKENS!"

On the work chickens the hopper took off, making a beautiful flight away from the car... past the hibiscus bush and the maple tree... coming down to land...

Right in front of Sir Poofalot, the Silkie/Cochin rooster.

Who pecked it and then began calling the hens over to share in the bounty.

There's probably a warm, fuzzy lesson in all of this, but my daughter and I were laughing too hard at the irony of it to hear what it was.

Eggs (week ending 8/6): 20
Eggs (week ending 8/13): 25
Eggs (year to date): 1420

The egg count continues to be low compared to last year around this time, but at least one of the factors has been taken care of. I keep finding hidden caches of eggs, mostly broken by scavengers, around other parts of the farm, and I think that in part this is because of crowded conditions in the coop. Now these are fenceless free range birds, but if a bunch are hanging around the coop when a hen is looking for a peaceful place to plop an egg, she just might go looking for greener pastures. So to speak.

Well, Saturday night, while they were roosting, I went in and abducted 11 birds, all roosters or suspected roosters. Sunday night they went for a little drive, and as I type this, my wife is probably on the way to pick them up again so they can be taken to their new home - the freezer. This batch will be a bunch of slow cookers, being a bunch of six-month-old roosters and rooster suspects, but there's still a lot of great slow-cook recipes out there. No problem there.

The other problem will take care of itself. The Wyandottes are now beginning to molt, just as a couple of the older Reds are starting to come out of it. Good thing, too. I miss the dark brown eggs that the New Hamps were laying. I like their personalities, too, and will no doubt get a few with next spring's order of chicks.

I still have more roosters than I should. That's okay - I've got a couple of people who have expressed an interest in raising their own chickens, so homes will be found for a couple. The other extras are to have around as guards for the hens. I wouldn't do to have one roo as a guard and then lose him.

One of the keepers is the mystery bantie, who recently started crowing and trying to take liberties with the much bigger hens. This morning he faced off with a Buff Orpington hen that was easily twice his height and three times his weight - and he won, chasing her off. The highlight was when the hen tried one of those patented chicken flying leaps at him, and he simply ducked, letting her fly over his head. Yeah, just like the cartoons.

The two Easter Egger hens walked the Green Mile, leaving what was supposed to be a hen - but now I'm not so sure that the one left over is a hen. The tail feathers are getting kind of long for a hen. There are also a couple of mutt males that I kept, one because it keeps following me around (I call it Rusty because it has a barred rock kind of pattern with some red thrown in), and other calico looking one that might yet turn out to be a hen.

I also suspect the Buff Orpingtons are starting to lay. I've been finding eggs that are light brown - but are lighter than the light brown that the Wyandottes were laying before molt hit them. These eggs also have rough ends on them, and look to be the work of an amateur layer, one whose body is getting used to the idea of pushing out eggs every 24 hours or so.

The weekend of the 6th my wife and I were in the midst of what turned into 10 days of celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary, so there was no Saturday project. Last Saturday's was getting caught up from everything I didn't do the previous weekend. With all the molting birds, I really want to get the chicken tractor built. At the beginning of the week I was ready to buy lumber on payday since I couldn't find exactly what I wanted around the farm - but now I'm thinking of scavenging again. I did that to build the large goat gate and the floor of the chicken coop, so it's kind of a tradition. And having a hefty tractor will discourage predators as well.

I will also have to continue the chicken experiments. They continue to run back and forth when I let them out mornings. I must see if I can get them to run North after running West and then East to see where I put the scratch down.

And I should also add that my daughter has been harvesting goat's milk on a regular basis. I've got to try it on top of some Cheerios.

Eggs (week ending 7/30): 22
Eggs (7/31): 3
Eggs (month of July): 152
Eggs (year to date): 1375

So the other day I noticed something interesting. I've been feeding the goats first so they don't get in the way (and eat the scratch I toss down for the chickens) while I do the water and let the chickens out.

Monday I opened the coop up and started to go into the tack room when I noticed something interesting. The chickens ran to the west part of the barnyard, onto a concrete pad where I sometimes feed them. Seeing nothing was there, they stampeded to the east end, near the fence - I often toss their scratch on the other side of the fence so the goats can't get to it. Seeing there was nothing there, they started back towards the concrete pad, but didn't go as far. Then back towards the fence. It was like watching a pendulum stopping.

So Tuesday I tossed food down on the west end, on the concrete pad (one of my favorite morning sounds is rattle made by the chickens as they peck food off of this pa). They ran almost the whole way to the pad before some started back toward the fence. A couple found the food and started eating. Then a couple more realized there was food on the pad and turned around to join their friends. More and more started turning back. A few chickens actually made it to the fence before realizing where the food was.

On Wednesday I tossed the food down on the other side of the fence. The chooks stampeded to and overran the concrete pad and found nothing. They ran to the fence. Like the day before, a few went through the fence to find food while the majority started back before realizing what was going on.

So today I threw the scratch down in a third location, this one inside the barnyard along a worn, gravelly path that leads to a fence (on the other side of the fence is the manure pile, where I also throw scratch sometimes). On releasing the chickens, they overran the concrete pad. Then they all flocked to the other side of the fence. Back to the pad. Then they started wandering toward me. So I stalked toward where the food was and called them.

I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.

I should also report that the buck who was born as the sole kid to one of my daughter's does is now bigger than the two bucks who are a month older. He's going to be a monster, I'm sure.