Finton and Honey

Finton and Honey

As you probably know, the past several days have been exceedingly cold. While commencing my evening chores, I noticed that, Honey, one of my Serama hens was missing! I looked all over for her and finally found her underneath a ramp, cold and shivering. I dropped what I was doing and brought her inside by the fire. Her comb was purple, she was barely breathing, she was very thin, wouldn't eat or drink..all in all, not in very good situation! I still had a lot of chores to finish before night fall, so Carolina fixed her up a basket by the wood stove. Before I left, I forced a couple drops of warm water mixed with some apple cider vinegar down her throat. About an hour later I came back in from feeding, and found she had taken a few more sips of water, but was still not interested in her warm mash. We kept her as warm as possible and periodically gave her a drink. About 40 minutes to an hour later we went to check on her and she was wolfing down ever. single. morsel of food in her bowl. In a few minutes she had eaten the whole bowl full! She must have been pretty hungry! Once her tummy was full, all she wanted to do was roost on the basket. But with three dogs in the house we didn't think that was such a good idea, so we kept placing her back inside her basket, only to have her immediately jump back out. We gave up and let her roost on the basket.

This all happened on Sunday, and in case you didn't know, that particular day had been extremely stressful already, and the last thing I needed was something else to worry about. Read more about what happened that day here.

I am so thankful that nobody was hurt, God was watching over them.

Back to Honey...

She spent the evening by the fire in the living room, then when it was time for us all to hit the hay, we put her and her basket in the garage, by the heater that was going in there to help keep the laundry pipes from freezing. This morning I went to check on her, and she was doing just dandy. After spending the morning roosting on her basket by the kitchen fire, and having a breakfast of warm oatmeal with us, I took her back outside to see her feathered friends. It was quite chilly today, and I was afraid she might have a relapse so I locked her, the other two Seramas, and Daffy and Taffy inside the building with a heat lamp on them all day. Last I checked on her, she was cuddled up with Ms. Fuzzypants underneath the heat lamp. I am so grateful that I was able to find her before it was too late. I'm not kidding when I say another hour of being outside in the cold and she would have been a goner. 

Honey by the fire.

She was as snug as a bug in a rug, by that fire!

After she got warmed up a bit, she went over and investigated the frying pans, she ended up roosting on the handle of one of the pans. It must have been warm..silly girl.

We (we includes everyone, including Honey) all had a lovely breakfast of warm oatmeal.

For an extra treat, I added a handful of fermented raisins (taken out of our water kefir..but more on that later...) to Honey's bowl of oats. 

She ate...

and ate, and ate.

We all sat around the kitchen table and enjoyed our breakfast. We would have stood by the stove, but Honey was hogging it all for herself. 

After breakfast, Honey's beak was covered in oatmeal, I wiped it off and gave her a good drink of some warm ACV water.

I took Honey, and her left over oatmeal out to the "Poultry Palace" to reunite her with her friends. They were glad to see her and her oatmeal.

This afternoon, I went out to check on everyone, Honey especially, I worry about her all the time now. *sigh* Anyway, upon opening the pen door, she was the first (followed by Taffy and Daffy) to march up to me and demand food. She thinks she is entitled to a life time supply of Special Oatmeal Rights. Oh dear. I'd better stock up on oatmeal, and raisins!!

Also that evening, while I was standing by the fire, trying to warm my frozen self, I noticed the birds (Finton and Creamy) were out of water, so I went and refilled their water, opened their little door, and the next thing I knew Finton flew past my hand and escaped into the kitchen! He went flying to one side of the kitchen and then the other, then landed on top of a decorative vintage can Mom had on top of the warming rack, that is above the stove. He sat there quietly for a minute, but when Dad tried to grab him he flew over into the other side of the kitchen again. I raced over, right as he flew smack dab into the refrigerator and slid down to the floor, where I put my hands over him and caught him. Afterwards I returned him to his lady friend who had been frantically calling to him as he zoomed to one side of the kitchen and then the other.

What sort of mayhem has been happening on your farm?

Blessings - 

~ Aspen