kris went out the coop at the end of the day to check on The Girls and happened to look in the nesting box and discovered they’ve started laying eggs! whooohoooo! fresh eggs!
it seems like just yesterday we were attempting to teach frida to not eat The New Girls.
when i lifted open the lesting box, The Girls were all “oh hey! we didn’t know it did that!”
a pile of cow horns! now i think she thinks every backyard might have a pile of awesomeness and she’s veeeeeery keen to get back into their yard.
we’ve been watching a few of the suspect roosters and it’s much more evident that probably three of our latest flock of six are probably roosters, which is a bit of drag because roosters in town are a no-no.
the prominent combs are a giveaway in addition to the fact that they are practicing cock-a-doodle-dooing.
update: a few weeks later.
we found a good home for them with someone who appreciates and can have roosters 🙂
frida loves, loves, loves to go running with me. with the warmer weather, keeping her cool is important so it’s great that she also loves, loves, loves cooling down in the kiddy pool!
she usually goes 4 or 5 miles when the weather is cooler in the mornings or evenings. 3 miles if it’s during the heat of the day and she gets plenty of water. i think she’ll totally be game for 10-13 miles runs in the winter since she’s built for running the cold.
our dearly departed pushkin never gave a second thought to eating the hens, in fact, he was The Great Defender of All Members of The Pack and was known to shoo cats away who prowled around to give them trouble.
but we suspected frida, having the genetics of a very predatory malamute, might be tough to teach that the chickens were not food. so we started training her when they were chicks and while she tried super hard to be good, i wasn’t very confident that she’d be able to control herself outside when the were running around, scratching and pecking and clucking.
they’ve been out in the chicken run surrounding the coop for afew months – which is plenty of space for them – but they’ve really been wanting to run around the yard to munch on bugs. so today i decided to let them out and see what would happen.
while she was interested in what they were doing, i was very surprised to see her leave them alone. and even more surprised to see them walk up to her.
i’m not going to leave them along for any extended periods of time but i’m cautiously optimistic they might all live in harmony 🙂
after we sent the last flock to a nice amish family we thought we’d get some new chickens soon but then frida came into our lives and we decided a new puppy and new chickens was a bit too much to take on at the same time.
so we decided to wait until spring had sprung knowing the down side of waiting until frida was older was it would be that much more difficult to teach her the chicks were not actually food, despite what all of her instincts were telling her.
the local tractor supply store had some chicks for sale this weekend and we thought it was as good a time as any to pick up a few and start her training.
i have to admit i was not very optimistic we’d have much success, since malamutes have a strong prey instinct. the chicks are spending their first couple of weeks in a bin on our dining room table under a heat lamp and while frida hasn’t jumped up on table, she hears their peeping and looks at me like she’s wondering when i’m going to give her a snack.
basic training at this stage involves getting frida used to the chicks by putting them next to her snout and telling her “no bites”. when she doesn’t attempt to bite, she gets a treat! odin is a big helper and after years of training knows how to make the chicks feel safe. or at least as safe as they’re going to feel when put next to the snout of a canine!
we got the chickens yesterday and when we tried the training after they first came home friday tried to chomp their heads off 🙂
but today she’s doing much better and she’s really, really, really trying to overcome her instincts. her tongue is a “tell” to what she’s really like to be doing.
after a looooooong 30 seconds or so of doing a great job of not attempting the eat the chicken, frida finally got a treat.
i think it took a lot of effort on her part.
odin is doing a tremendous job here as well, calming both the chick and frida. if he were to let the chick start flapping her wings or wiggle just a bit too much it would probably set frida into a bit of a frenzy. he’s both a dog and chicken “whisperer” 🙂
a super successful day of training! no harm, no foul. ahem.
i’m amazed that frida has come so far so quickly. we’ll see how she does after a few weeks when they’re running around on the floor
friday looooooooooves seeing all her buddies when she goes to doggie day care. i can’t quite tell how much she loves the st. patrick’s day outfit.