Thursday, December 8, 2011

Holiday Silliness.

It is that time again where the silliness ensues.  I have composed some new songs for the season from a slightly poultry point of view:

O Come All Ye Chickens


Oh, come all ye Chickens
Flying, Running , Flapping
Oh Come ye 
Oh come ye to e-eat your scratch

Come and enjoy it
Eat until your crop is full
Oh Come peck up the kernels
Oh Come peck up the kernels
Oh Come peck up the kernels
And don't forget your grit

Oh come all ye Chickens
Squawking, crowing, clucking
Oh Come and lay eggs for me
So I may hatch them
We will have more birds
Little fluffy chickies
Oh come let us hold them
Oh come let us watch them
Oh come and make me just another
Chicken addict!

A challenge was put to me, so I answered the call:


Ava Maria, you say?
My hen's version-

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk
Baaaaawk BawkBawk Baaaaaawwwk BawkBawk

Baaaawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwk Bawk
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Ba-gawk

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Ba-gawk  Ba-gawk
Baaaaaaaaaaa-gaaaaaaaaawk   Ba-ba-ba gaaaaaaaaaaaaawk
Bawk bu-bu-bu-bu-ba-gawwwwwwk


I need her to work on the rest, it is such a long song for such a small chicken.


Rudolph the Naked Neck Rooster

Rudolph the Naked Neck Rooster
Had a very cozy scarf
And if you ever saw him
You would even say he crows
All of the other roosters
Used to laugh and peck his head
They never let poor Rudolph
Try to breed any of their hens.
Then one windy Autumn eve
Farmer came to say
Roosters who like to peck and fight
Go to freezer camp tonight
The how the hens all loved him
As they clucked around with glee
Rudolph the Naked Neck Rooster
Should change his name to Mr. Lucky!


(Along the lines of Silent Night)

Silent Night Chicken Style

Leg-horn White
Gold-en Se-bright

All the hens
In their pens
Coo-ing sounds com-ing
from their roost
Eggs come pop-ping out
In their nests

In the morning Ome-lets we'll enjoy
My pet makes my break-fast

A-mer-au-cana
Black Ja-va

Eggs in Blue
Green ones too
Brown and White, and Speckled ones too
Large and small and Jum-bo too
All my hens are so haaaaa-ppy
Nest-led all in their coop

Leghorn Whiiiiiiiiite
Golden Se-briiiiiiight



Check Your Nest (to the sound of Deck the Halls)

Check your nests or you'll be sorry
Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck

Frozen eggs bring you no glory
Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck

Heat your nests or collect them often
Cluck cluck cluck
Cluck cluck cluck
Cluck
Cluck
Cluck

Snatch them up put 'em in the bator
Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck


Chicken Wonderland

Roosters crow
Are ya listening
In the coop
Where their scratching
They're singing their song
As hens cluck along
Crowing in a winter wonderland

In the meadow we can throw some corn seed
and the Crows will come and chow it down
Bald Eagles with come and circle 'round here
Until the Crows all mob and chase them around

Later on, they'll puff their feathers
To fight off
The cold weather
Dreaming of lawns
As the night lingers on
Crowing in the winter wonderland

Crowing in the winter
Snowing in the winter
Crowing in the winter
Won-der-land




If you can escape them, you start to think like them.
Know they enemy!

Okay, my chickens are not my enemy, I love each and every one of them.  Some I love with dumplings more than in the coop, but I do love them.
The new house is getting closer and closer to being done and I have it almost half full now.  The birdies are appreciating not having to huddle and roost in the portable pens that set on the ground.  They are in deep shavings and out of the wind, or at least the ones that are smart enough to sleep in the back of the pen away from the windows.  Some are just not smart.  Yes, it is true, chickens are not the brightest of the bunch.  I felt terrible for my one Minorca boy, he is already showing signs of frostbite.  It is the downside of having birds with such large combs in this cold climate.  I have read that putting Vaseline or Bag Balm on them helps.  I will have to find me a can and give it a try.  Poor guys.

Even with the extended fall, I wasn't able to get all the preparations done that I needed to for winter, but I  got my snow pants and heavy work jacket, several pairs of gloves and hats to help me continue my quest.  I finally got all the wire on the outdoor runs the first day we really started accumulating snow.  It was tough trying to tack up the wire at the 6-foot level and having to look up into the clumping snowflakes to do it and having them going in my eyes.  I was glad I forgot to wear my glasses that day, it would have been no help if I had.

It has been a cold last couple of days and tomorrow is supposed to be the worst yet for this time around, a high of 14 and the low nearing zero.  Ouch!  I can't say as I like the sounds of that.  In this old house, we feel the cold a bit when it gets like that.  I can't wait until next year when we are supposed to be tearing this old house down and putting up a new, very efficient and comfortable in-ground dome structure.  (Look them up on wwwformworksbuilding.com).  It makes more sense than trying to fix all the problems this 100+-year old house has.  This week it was a drain/septic issue.  We are just praying that it doesn't all give out on us before spring.  I told Husband that I don't think we should hedge on things working through the winter, but we still have not come to a decision on whether or not we should do something different right now.  It all cost $$ and sometimes you just feel like you are throwing it away in these cases to band-aid fix something that is going to be all taken out in the not so distant future.  Decisions.  Decisions. Decisions.

Someone is happy the snow has come though.  Middle.
He has been just chomping at the bit to have snow.  He wants to go snowboarding tomorrow after school.  I hate to break it to him, but in addition to it being colder that a witches nose, he has a bedroom that needs cleaning AND he has been having problems with his back for a few weeks from an injury during soccer season.  I had him in the chiropractor yesterday and have had him in there several time before that to help get over this problem.  We did find out a couple of weeks ago, the boy's feet are as flat as a ducks!  We wondered why it sounded like duck feet slapping down the hall when he would go to the bathroom.  Now we know.
I had suspected this a long time ago and had him show me his feet, but I went about it wrong.  I had him lift his foot to show me the bottoms, to examine the arches.  Well, when you lift your feet it pulls the arch up, therefore appearing normal.  So, this guy we see had him stand with his feet on the floor with no shoes and he has NO arch.  Add that to the almost half inch difference in his leg length, and no wonder he has some issues with standing up straight.  It is hard to get it through a 13-year old, stubborn boy's head that jumping on his snowboard and going up and down hills is probably not the best thing for him to be doing right now.  Any bet on how big of a hissy fit he throws when I tell him he can't go?

Well, the sun is out and there is much to be done.
Let the silliness continue, if for no other reason but to help deal with Old Man Winter's extended visit which has only just begun.
In case I don't get back to say it,
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!

CC