Guess what? Chicken butt!

 With Rosie's prolapse showing no signs of getting better, and having reached the end of our knowledge in treating her, we decided to take Rosie in to the vet. Luckily for us there is a vet within 30 minutes of us who treats chickens and came highly recommended by some friends of ours.

We gave Rosie her (now)customary bath and blow dry and packed her in the car. She was a very good passenger and pretty much just chilled out the whole ride there.

There were a few dogs that came over to say "hello" when we sat down in the waiting area. Luckily no one was feeling aggressive and everyone was just curious about each other.

 The vet, Dr. Robinson, was very good with Rosie. We explained that she's been prolapsed for three days, resulting from trying to lay her very first egg, and that there seemed to be some sort of blockage there that we were hesitant to remove ourselves, not wanting to injure her.

Dr. Robinson cleaned her up and removed the blockage and some dead tissue, and her vent immediately looked worlds better. He said he felt good about her potential for recovery because as soon as the tissue and blockage were gone, she started pulling the prolapse back into herself.

 What's wrong with my butt?

After pushing the rest of the prolapse back in and applying some antibiotic ointment, Dr. Robinson threw in a couple sutures to hold everything in place while it heals. Throughout the entire examination and suturing, Rosie made not one peep. She didn't struggle, she didn't squawk, and Dr. Robinson and his assistant said that she was one of the best-behaved chickens they've ever treated. She didn't even require sedation when he was suturing her.

She's such a sweet little hen.

We're hoping to keep her sutures in for about a week, longer if we can manage, to give her time to heal and for the swelling to go down. We have her back in the big brooder in the living room, this time covered and blocked from the light to discourage further laying. If she does start to lay an egg while the sutures are still in, they'll have to be removed immediately so she doesn't tear. We also have Preparation H and Vetericyn handy to help with keeping the swelling down and protecting against infection.

I'm so proud of my little Rosie-bird. And I'm so relieved to have gotten her looked at by the vet. For our piece of mind and her health, it was totally worth the $95. We'll have to be vigilant about checking her for prolapse for the rest of her life, as once it happens, it's prone to reoccurring. I'm hopeful that since she's so young and we caught it early and got it treated, that she'll heal up well and won't prolapse again. Fingers crossed!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

 Life on the homestead has been in a constant state of flux, what with growing chickens and a growing fetus. I'm half-way through my pregnancy, and finally starting to get my energy back(though I still find myself frequently sleeping until the afternoon...).
My wonderful friend Jewels painted this amazing poster that relates the size of our growing bundle to various bird-and-bear things, which is so incredibly awesome and thoughtful and way more appealing to me than all the fruit comparisons.
Currently, Baby McAwesome is the size of the wingspan of a sparrow. :D

 Next level-up: blue-jay feather!

We've invested in some good shears for Butters, and took them for a test drive. She wasn't thrilled, but she was a very patient bun and let us clip her nice and close.

 She spent quite a while grooming after we'd finished, and took the opportunity to investigate the chickens while she was there.

On the subject of the chickens, we spent the last few weeks acclimating them to the back yard, taking them out for longer and longer stretches and introducing them to the coop. The first time we took them out, they clumped together and refused to explore. They're over that now, and have been investigating every nook and cranny of their new kingdom.

For her part, Ponyo is utterly uninterested in being around them when they're free-ranging, which is good. With how much she enjoyed harassing them while they were in their brooder, I was worried there would be issues once that barrier was removed. I should have known Ponyo's bravado was all for show, she's the biggest chicken of them all!

 

 The girls mistook our shoes as something worth trying to eat.

We noticed that Rosie had taken to bullying the other hens and pecking at their backs, plucking their feathers. Poor Marie ended up with a red bald spot! So we placed Rosie in isolation about a week ago, giving her separate outside time from the others, and giving the others a chance to heal up. She has completely lost her standing as the alpha hen(Ruth has taken over, to my surprise, given how hard Ada was vying with Rosie for dominance).

During her time in "solitary", Rosie laid her first egg! Unfortunately, it did not go so well for her. They girls are only 4 months old, and I think Rosie wasn't quite mature enough for laying, not to mention we hadn't switched them to layer's feed yet, and I think the lack of maturity plus the lack of calcium caused the issue. Her egg was still attached to her at one end, and she has a pretty bad prolapse(I'll spare you the images, they're graphic). We destroyed the egg and removed the shell, but she's still prolapsed. We've been keeping her protruding vent clean and moist and treated with Vetericyn, but since there still appears to be something stuck there and we don't want to injure her trying to remove it, we'll be taking her in to the vet tomorrow. I've been worried sick about her all weekend.

Happily, not all our girls are having such problems. As though she knew I needed cheering up, Marie laid her first egg today! And it's perfect!

 A lovely little blue-green surprise in the nesting box!

 Shown next to a store-bought jumbo for size comparison. It's so dainty and little, I feel like it should be made of chocolate and covered in a thin candy shell.

 

 

 Things are changing around here, mostly for the better. I feel like it's going to be a glorious spring.

Big Big News!

I haven't been super-active on the blog lately because we got some life-changing news some weeks ago...

We're going to have a baby!

I've been battling fatigue and nausea, and haven't really found the energy or drive to craft much lately, or write posts for the blog, but I'm told after the first trimester that these symptoms should lessen or stop, and then I'm sure I'll be posting lots and lots of tutorials and craft projects for baby things.

Four and a Half Weeks

 Our girls no longer resemble the adorable balls of fluff they were just a few weeks ago. Instead, they are looking like full-on chickens, and are now alternating between peeps and clucks. Their personalities have evolved as well. Ada, once our most docile chick, has become quite an aggressive little lady, competing with Rosie to rule the roost. Marie is now the most docile. Ruth is still antisocial, and has seemed to convince the others that being held by humans is bad, as they now all resist us when being handled. They've also begun taking experimental flights with their impressive wings.

 Marie is inquisitive, and is displaying the puffy cheeks of an Easter Egger.

 Rosie is still the leader, though Ada is giving her a run for her money. She is also the most clucky so far.

 After we moved the girls into their new brooder, Ada's personality radically shifted. She is now very brassy and bold and continually challenges the other birds.

 

 Ruth still wants nothing to do with us. C'est la vie.

I've begun giving them noodles to play with, which is endlessly amusing, and also long stringy apple peels. We gave them some play time with Butters, to get acquainted. Butters got a little too nosy with them and they flapped at her, which scared the poop out of the poor bunny. They're not ready to transition out to the coop yet, and won't be for several more weeks. Which is good, because we haven't had time to make the coop ready for them yet!

Fledgling Fluffs

 It is now day 10 of our great chicken experiment, and the girls are doing wonderfully. They all have tail feathers, and are beginning to feather out on their backs. As the baby fluff comes flying off them, they've been looking more scruffy.
 

We're getting closer and closer to that awkward dinosaur stage of chicken development.

 Ada Lovelace, Silver-Laced Wyandotte:

 At 10 days, she's lost the adorable chipmunk stripes she had when she arrived.

 Ada started out as the shyest of our girls, and that shyness made her pretty docile as a newly-hatched chick. She's fairly docile now, but definitely voices her displeasure at being handled.

Marie Curie, Easter Egger bantam:

 Marie has the softest feathers of all the girls, which makes her slippery.

Originally the bossiest of our chicks, Marie quickly realized that she is becoming the smallest chicken in the flock, and her aggression and bossiness has scaled back accordingly. She has become more docile, and will nearly doze in your hand when held.

 

 Rosalind Franklin, Rhode Island Red:

 Rosie's plumage is coming in gorgeously, and fast!

 Rosie is still the largest and quickest-maturing of our girls, and has become the most docile. Rosie will snuggle down and nap in my lap while I stroke her back. She doesn't appear to be bullying any of the other chicks, which I appreciate. She's becoming a very sweet bird.

Ruth Benedict, Silver Cuckoo Marans:

 

 Ruth's feet are no longer adorable baby chick feet. They are clawed.

Ruth's wings are starting to display the black-and-white striped pattern of the Silver Cuckoo Marans. She is the most ornery of the girls, hates to be held or handled, flaps furiously and complains loudly. I'm still hoping to win her over, but she may just be that kind of girl.

While the girls all vary in the degree to which they tolerate being held or sitting in my lap, all of the girls enjoy climbing up my arms and checking things out from my shoulders. We have chick grit for them and I introduced freeze-dried mealworms to them today. They haven't quite figured out what the mealworms are for just yet, but I believe in them. They've also been making a mess, tossing their bedding about, so I think it's about time to make them a little dustbath with sand and diotomaceous earth(which is a fantastic natural insecticide!) to ward off mites.

It's amazing how much they've grown in just a week and a half.

On Atheism

I think I'm finally coming out to my mother as an atheist.

She sends me emails full of adorable pictures of animals, usually labelled something like "Proof of Creation", and I usually just say something about how cute I find the giraffe. She has made her disdain of evolution and Darwin quite clear, and how she finds people who believe in it to be idiots. Which means she would find me to be an idiot.

Today, I made my usual comment about a funny raccoon, and when she responded with something about how these pictures prove God, I decided I had to be honest.
"Well, I believe in evolution, but yes, the fantastic diversity of life is always awesome." She countered with the belief that all creatures are made perfect, and I countered with the belief that imperfect creatures exist all the time, indeed spontaneous miscarriages often result from miscoded genes leading to the termination of a non-viable pregnancy. Mutations happen all the time, newly-birthed individuals surviving only a short while. Or mutations happening and the individuals surviving with extra limbs, or no limbs. Imperfection surrounds us all the time, and just because we are filled with awe when we see nature working perfectly, we can't ignore that mistakes happen all the time. I have a congenital joint disorder, and a bum thyroid. I was not made perfect.

A friend of mine said he thought perhaps it was the concept of a godless existence that was troubling and difficult for our religious relatives to grasp, and therefor they couldn't understand why we would choose to believe such a thing. Anthropologically, I understand the role that religion plays. It creates community, a sense of belonging. It tells you what your place in the world is, it helps alleviate the anxiety caused by the random brutality of life.

For me, science fulfills these functions. I feel a sense of community with other life, I feel part of it instead of separate and above it. I understand my place in the world as a human, the only living species of the genus Homo, a member of the Hominidae family of great apes. I am not descended from a monkey. Monkeys are not apes. I am not descended from apes as we know them, either. Rather, modern apes and I share a common ancestor way, way back.

I don't believe in an interventionist god, I don't believe in a deity that cares deeply about me and my life, and is keeping track of all my deeds, good and bad, to determine whether or not I deserve eternal paradise or eternal torture. I don't believe in the persistence of consciousness after death. I believe that this makes life more important, because it is finite. I understand that to a theist this may sound like I think that nothing we do matters, so why not kill, rape, steal, etc. if there is no grand judgement? On the contrary, if nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do. We have evolved past our base instincts, we have developed an understanding of compassion and kindness, of morality. You can be a moral person with out being a religious person. I am a good person, because I want to be a good person. I think stealing, lying, raping, and murdering are all wrong. 

To me, existence is even more inspiring and amazing without a divine hand guiding it. The idea that this vast diversity of life that surrounds us is the result of millenia-long processes of natural selection and sexual reproduction is infinitely more satisfying to me than the thought that it was created static and perfect over the course of a week. I feel like I have an obligation to protect the environment, to minimize the negative impact I have on the global ecosystem, because I don't think that the world is going to end anytime soon. 

I'm not trying to dissuade my mother or anyone else from their faith, but I do think that we can be respectful of each other, and not resort to name-calling or disparaging each other's beliefs. I plan to raise my children without religion, and with a strong understanding and appreciation of science. Maybe they will come to religion of their own accord, and that's fine. They'll still be my kids. 

Love should be unconditional.

Day of the Dead Sneak Peek

I had the pleasure of modelling for Stina Rae Photography last week, as part of her amazing Day of the Dead series, which will be premiering at BonBon on November 3rd. Her work is fantastic, and I love it when she asks me to be in one of her series.

I bought some skull makeup(which I'll be using for the upcoming burlesque show as well, so totally justified!), and added some rhinestones. I made a couple rose hair clips from Dollar Tree flowers and curled my hair up in a '40s-ish style. It was super-fun!

 This isn't the image she'll be using in the actual show, this is just a teaser. We did a Halloween housewife vibe, given my adorable kitchen.

Bam! Gettin' in free to the gun show! Seriously though, I need to work on my triceps...
I used a bunch of Day of the Dead makeup tutorials from Pinterest as inspiration. I'm fairly happy with what I pulled together. That greasepaint is hell on your skin, though.