Soon There Will Be Three

I have terrible, terrible news.  Yesterday afternoon Daphne was hanging out with our dog, Lady, who was so ecstatic to have her come by and say, "Hi".  Suddenly from around the corner, one of our rooster's Benji appeared and surprised Daphne.  Daphne jumped up, right into Lady's mouth.  She ended up suffering from a fatal concussion and died before we could get in the car to take her to the vet.  We are just devastated.  It was a freak accident, and what happened, just shouldn't have had those results.  It was something that could happen a thousand times and not have the same result, by the same token, she could have been hanging with me, get surprised, jump in my mouth as I yelled "Benji" and the same thing could have happened.  We feel terrible, and miss Daphne an unbearable amount.


We still really, really want a Brahma, so we are going to order through a local hatchery and get a day old chick.  Well, actually, they have a minimum order of three, so we are going to get three chicks.  We are going to get a beloved Brahma, only Buff, and we are going to get a Black Giant Jersey, which has Brahma genetics.  The third one is being selected by my nephew right now, so we don't know what it will be yet.  Allowing my nephew to select one and raise it when he is here over the summer was really what drove us to make this decision.  At some point, the new Brahma (probably) will take over this blog.

I'm sure many of you are very sad, but I hope you will be here with me to welcome the new babies to Happy Bird Manor.

Kevin

Hunger Strike Over!!

I've got to admit, I caved.  I got tired of waiting for my food, so I ate some of the food for the other chickens.  However, even when royalty caves, royalty still gets her way.

 As you can see, daddy did end up giving into my demands and got me some food I like.  He was looking for grower, but the two feed stores he went to they had starter and breeder.  They had turkey grower for some reason, but no chick grower.  So he ended up getting me starter.  It is medicated, which daddy isn't crazy about, but it was all they had.  Hopefully daddy will find some grower today.  As you can see, I am satisfied with the starter, and now have a good size crop.

 I've been more comfortable here, and have been growing closer to mommy and daddy, so I haven't been missing my siblings as much.  Because I am becoming very happy here, yesterday when I went outside, I didn't make a mad dash for the fence.  I cautiously went outside paying close attention to what is around me.  The steps were too big, so I took the ramp.

Here I am investigatingsome of the local greenery, discovering what is tasty.

 For those of you with an unnatural interest in chick butts, here's a shot of mine.  You could see I'm living up to my "Poopy Butt" name from that stupid diaper.

Here I discovered a excellent dust bathing spot, and I got a good bath to wash off all my dirt.

Then Benji came along to check out what I am doing.  He is mean to me, so I had to run.  I would like to get back out there today, but it is supposed to be rainy today.  I don't know what rainy is, but daddy says it takes all the joy out of dust baths.


My daddy set up a Facebook page so people have more ways to keep up with my antics.  You could find me here: Daphne Raeleen Tschida  If the link doesn't work, just search for my full name, and you should find it with little trouble.  Look forward to seeing you there.

-Daphne

P.S.  I know some of you are curious, and I keep forgetting to mention it, but I was Spaghetti at my old house.

Hunger Strike

Daddy should have known better, but some how he managed not to get some of my food from Velvet when he picked me up.  I do not like the food he has.  It is not the food I like.  It looks similar, but the food is bigger in pellet form, and it does not taste the same!  I am not going to eat that nasty stuff until I get the right food.  

As you can see, I am not on a total hunger strike, just a strike against the chicken food.  Mommy made it very clear my babysitter, Lady, wasn't allowed any, but chickens don't fall into the dog catagory, so we get all the pizza we want. 

That other chicken is Benji, an Old English Game Cock.  He is a jerk and has attacked me twice.  I keep near mommy or daddy when he is around.  He hasn't attacked me today though, even though he was right above me, but I was with daddy.

If you look at my play yard, you'll see that daddy has put a perch in it.  Daddy read that perching is very important for chicks because it helps their legs develop better.  Chicks that don't get to perch have a higher chance of slipped tendons.  I really like it, but when the blanket is put over me to keep me in, the stupid cat, Snuggle Boy, not my friend Dan-Dan, comes along and jumps on the top making the blanket fall in, scares me, and then I can't perch any more. 

 Here I am looking south missing my siblings.  I really want to go get them, but there is a fence in my way, and daddy says it is too far.

 Here I am exploring more of the yard trying to find a weakness in the fence.  I look good.  Really good so I had to throw in this picture.

After exploring my yard (it is a big yard) it was time for a nap so mommy and I snuggled up together and went to sleep.

-Daphne

I'm Home!

Yesterday was the big day when my mommy and daddy came to pick me up! 

As you can see, I took to mommy right away.  I knew who she was and went into instant snuggle mood.

 But then my mommy put a DIAPER on me.  Oh, that did not amuse me one bit.

 

My brother was very concerned I was about to hand the diaper off to him so he got out of my way.  It wasn't so bad after a little while.  You hardly notice it is there, well every now and then it does surprise me it is on me. 

 

Here I am going to my new home.  I found that I preferred being in the driver's seat so I could better direct the mommy pilot, but she found it was really hard to steer, shift, and snuggle me so I spent most of the drive in daddy's arms.

On the way home, we stopped at a place called Jack-in-the-Box, and I discovered I liked cheeseburgers.  Yep, mommy and daddy seem to know how to treat a chicken.  Except for that diaper thing.

After a long day of coming to a new home, I discovered where I liked sleeping the best, but mommy put me in my play yard and I snuggled with my stuffed friends for the night.

Daphne Raeleen Tschida

Daphne's New Digs

I know I said Daphne would write the next blog, but I wanted to show off her playpen that I set up for her.

 I bought the playpen at a garage sale for ten bucks.  It is a standard Graco Playpen, Winnie-the-Pooh one at that, but they didn't put Pooh and friends on anything visible.  I love the elephant, it is so cute.  I need to find a better water dish, but for now (while she isn't here) it will do pretty well. 

My intent isn't to keep her in the pen much of the time.  It will be her room for when we go away and can't supervise her.  We don't want our current flock to take advantage of her size and innocence.  They can be a little bullyish.  It remains to be seen where she will sleep, it will either be in here, if she desires, or I'm thinking it will be with one of us, probably Paula. 

Here are some toys I pulled out of storage to help keep her company when we are gone.  We had a duck that just LOVED stuffed animals, and it will be interesting to see if Daphne shows any affinity towards them.  The Teddy Bear on the left is a bear Paula got for her son, Daphne's adult brother, when he was just a little kid, so there is a little bit of hand me down going on. 

An exciting question we wonder about is how is our eldest cat Dan-Dan going to react to Daphne.  When our duck Lili was a baby and when our other chickens, Flower and the Spice Girls, were babies Dan-Dan spent as much time as possible with them.  When the were in there carrier we were using as a brooder, he would be right next to them the whole time.  And when they were out and about, he kept an eye on them and made sure they had plenty of cuddles.  He would let them climb all over him.  It was really cute, and Dan-Dan proved to be the best babysitter.  However, they were a day old when we got them, Daphne will be eight weeks old when we get her.  Will Dan-Dan show the same affection? 

In less then 48 hours, we will be on our way South on I-5, going to Velvet's house to meet Daphne for the very first time! 

Kevin

Only Two Days Left

Come Saturday the 14th, we will be on our way to Los Angeles to pick up Daphne.  Spaghetti is the favorite so far, but there is no telling what happens when we get there.  This morning I just couldn't wait any more, and set up her play pen for her to hang out in when we aren't watching her to make sure she doesn't get abused by the chickens we already have.  Eventually she will tower over them, but for now, she is the smaller newbee, and not likely to be loved right away.  (By the chickens, we already love her).  We already ordered a diaper for her, rush order for the first one, so we should have a diaper for her.  Who responds the best to the diaper, may play heavily in our decision on whom to take home.  We can't wait to meet all the babies, and pick one of them to bring home. 

The next post on this blog will hopefully be authored by Daphne herself.  Look for it late Saturday or Sunday.

Kevin

Down To Three Likely Canidates

I have talked to Velvet because we were getting concerned that we haven't been able to distinguish between the cockerels and pullets.  She has two Brahmas she is pretty certain are cockerels and three that she feels are pullets.  So we have narrowed Daphne down to three probabilities, The Chicken Formerly Known as Chick (Chick), Dinner, and Spaghetti.  We are kind of leaning towards Spaghetti as I mentioned earlier, but the 14th will tell. 

Now for the second name.  I am leaning towards; Daphne the Chick, Daphne Dinn, or Daphne Ghetti.  I'm not sold on any of them though.