7-19-13

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Arnold is lovely! Is she getting a new name?

Nah, she’s been Arnold for this long, she’ll continue to be Arnold. It just fits her, somehow.

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Ok…question. I know you eat some of your chickens. How do you decide which ones….well, get the ax? I know you could not pick one that you have named and are attached to…but how do you not get attached to them all? Then, is it hard to see them “missing” from then on?

Usually Fred’s the one who decides which chickens go. Most often what he does is cull the roosters. You can only have so many roosters before they start fighting with each other, so if we have a lot of young roosters who are coming of age, it’s time for him to do some processing. Most of the time, the hens get to stick around, unless we’ve had a spring or summer where we’ve had a lot of chicks added to the flock. Generally what we try to do is keep the docile, well-behaved hens. If we have an aggressive hen who picks on the other hens or the chicks, she needs to go. But I’d say 85% of the time, the chickens that he processes are roosters.

And the ones who are really distinctive – Arnold, the Rock Star, Cruella, Meredith Grey – are really considered pets (who provide us with eggs!) and will live out their natural lives with us. It’s maybe not fair that they get an edge over the other hens that way, but – well, it’s just the way it is.

It was a whole lot harder with the first chicken we processed, because we only had 12 chickens at that point, so her absence was very noticeable. With 60 chickens, I tend not to get as attached to them (except for the notables, which I named above).

Also, I should add that we don’t eat as much chicken as you might think. When Fred processes chickens, he does several at a time, and right now we’ve got a freezer full.

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It looks like you have two roosters right now — do they ever fight? Or are there enough lady chickens to go ’round? How many chickens do you guys have at this point?

We’ve got two big roosters right now, and one younger one, who’s coming of age. The two roosters don’t fight, but that’s because there’s one (Toasty) who has declared himself the boss of everything, and the other rooster is going along with that. With the third, younger, rooster coming along, Fred has to decide whether to keep the two older ones, or replace one of the older ones. I think he’s leaning toward replacing one of the older ones (and I have no idea which he’s planning to keep), in the interest of adding new blood to the flock (he wasn’t hatched here, so isn’t related to any of the older hens).

There are enough lady chickens to go around, thankfully! Fred guesstimates that we’ve got about 60 chickens, altogether, which is a pretty good number for us.

I will be honest, here, and say that when George and Gracie are gone (which will be years yet, they’re only 5 years old), I’ve suggested that we go back down to a dozen or so chickens. Because honestly, there are two of us – we truly don’t need THAT many eggs!

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Robyn, are you missing the garden this year, or would it have been hard to keep up with under your current two-litter regime? Also, muscadines are yummy.

I miss being able to go out into the garden and pick a handful of cherry tomatoes to have with lunch – but I’m not missing the work, especially with it being so hot and humid right now. I wouldn’t have had any problems keeping up, even with the two litters going. At least, I don’t think I would have!

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Wait a minute.. Tommy.. Kissed Stinkerbelle? He reciprocated the love? *thud*

It’s more that Stinkerbelle is the one who initiates the cuddle sessions, but Tommy goes along with them. He’s always happy to lick the ears of any cat who comes along and demands it. And Stinkerbelle demands it plenty!

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I must have entirely missed this before by the way, but what’s with Tommy’s neon green claws??

We were having an issue with Tommy scratching so hard that he had big, bloody wounds around his neck. The vet diagnosed him with Eosinophilic granuloma complex, and while we were trying to solve that issue, we put SoftPaws on his back claws to stop him from digging until he was bloody. Tommy underwent a course of steroids and is now on Atopica, and it seems to be doing the job. As his nails shed, the caps fall off with them, and eventually they’ll all fall off.

For the record, they’re supposedly glow in the dark caps, but I have yet to see any glowing.

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So you have two bottle babies left – but are they all using the litter box now, or do you still have that duty, too?
(Inquisitive mind wants to know…)

Kittens actually tend to start using the litter box before they start eating on their own (usually). The Starks are all using the litter box (and have been since they were about 3 1/2 weeks old – they weren’t perfect at hitting the litter box back then, but now at 5 1/2 weeks old, it’s been several days since they had any accidents.)

On an interesting (to me, anyway) note, I haven’t seen any of the Starks eating litter. Kittens usually do – it’s why I use plain clay non-clumping litter when they’re first learning the litter box – but not the Starks. Either it hasn’t occurred to them, or they tried it when I wasn’t watching, and found it lacking!

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Same coworker who’s trying to find homes for the kittens showed me this today, and I near about passed out from all the cute. It’s got a sad backstory, but does have a happy ending and the CUTE! OMG there is so much cute! Makes me want to learn how to crochet/knit… just in case.

I have REALLY got to learn to knit and/or crochet!

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Robyn, perhaps it’s time to take up the ukulele, then you could make videos like this one.

YouTube link.

That is SO FREAKIN’ CUTE!

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I know for someone good with plants it’s called “having a green thumb” but what’s it called when you can grow kittens so well?

A fuzzy thumb?

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But, this: “then one day you have kittens who can eat food on their own, off a plate, and NOT make a huge mess of it!”

When exactly does that happen? Our current ruler of the roost just turned 12 and still makes a gigantic mess. We have to put down paper so we don’t have to wash her placemats three times a day. I even had the vet check her out several times because I was worried something was wrong with her teeth/mouth.

Yeah, I should have said that sometimes that doesn’t actually happen… or maybe she’s waiting ’til she hits the big 1-3, and then she’ll straighten up and eat right!

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Are Norbert’s eyes still blue?!

No, they photograph as blue in some lights, but they’re actually green.

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Ok, so this is embarrassing, but I dreamt about one of your fosters last night. It was Jon Snow, who, you will be possibly amused to know, speaks with a British accent. The cutest little growly British accent you ever heard.

“Helloooo, my name is Jon Snoooow.”

Did he demand a cuddle? Because in real life, he totally would!

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Robyn, the Stark kittens, as they’re bottle babies, do they ever knead? Is that a learned or automatic response in kittens?

It’s an automatic response – I think! – but I have yet to have the Starks knead on me. Between the failure to knead and the failure to eat litter, I think maybe I’ve got some unusual kittens!

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Though they look blue here, I SWEAR Norbert doesn’t have blue eyes. No matter what color eyes he has, though, he is one awesome little dude.

Deep Thoughts, with Scorch. (I imagine those thoughts go along the lines of “I bet it’s almost time to eat…”)

Ember does this particular move a lot. She climbs up, peers over the side of the bed to see what’s going on, and then drops back to the floor.

Then she goes to sit in the sun and take a nap.

Dragons on the cat tree in my bedroom.

Pretty Puff.

I’m going to just start calling Ember “The Peanut”, because she’s such a tiny little peanut of a kitty. All her brothers and sister weigh around 3 pounds, but she’s only 2 pounds, 6 ounces. One day maybe she’ll grow into those ears – or maybe not!

Ruth is such a sassy little monkey.

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“Hodor?”

“Hodor!”

I can’t swear that it isn’t just a stain from food that he got on his face, but it kind of appears that Jon Snow is starting to get some orange on his forehead.

“Stop biting me, Hodor!”
“Hodor?”

Kittens this age sure seem to spend a lot of time laying around with their mouths open, waiting for someone or something to come along that they can bite.

Arya is the toy inspector.

In the two days since I took this picture, climbing the little cat tree has become old hat to the Starks. In fact, Arya likes to sleep on top of the cat tree.

“How do I…?”

“This wall isn’t as easy to climb as I thought it would be.”

In House Stark, NO ONE uses the litter box alone. EVER.

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Corbie likes to hang out under the table.

It’s outside the line of kitten traffic, but he can still keep an eye on them!

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Previously
2012: “Okay, you got your pictures, lady. Now vamoose.”
2011: Cori don’t care ’bout no spayin’ nonsense.
2010: Hello, feral kitten. (Except, he wasn’t. And we eventually named him Martin.)
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: Maryanne has a hissy fit. Tommy does not care.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.

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