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through the webless window

20231202_090213

this morning….

Some of the Doe Goats have long full beards.   There is a kind of grass that sends out millions of very sticky prickly seeds,  tiny,  that tangle in them as they brouse  .   They stand…very still,  and Talkie fastidiously snaps them away.   Grooming.  Mutual.

the GOOD thing Talkie continues to do.   

then….there's all the rest. 

Talkie has always been a little mean.   Would chase the kids.   At one point,  we got them pool noodles to keep with them as they played,  in case she would be Coming For Them…they could ward her off with their pool noodle.   and then…it wasn't so much an issue.  for a long time.     She has "trained"   Puppy.   Puppy can only come here…by the door…Care Fully….she dashes from somewhere and skidds across the table to eat from her bowl out there.    When i am sitting somewhere and she comes to be petted,  she keeps an eye out for Talkie who will come from nowhere,  head low,  her wings outstretched and     Bite

a Bite from a chicken is a sharp sudden kind of painful peck from a strong beak…sometimes draws blood but not usually

She has discovered that she can intimidate Minnow.

there is that old lawn chair from Alyssia's that Minnow could sit in to snooze when the ground is wet from rain…No More

Talkie jumps up and bites her.   Minnow no longer even thinks about the chair.   

Talkie patrols the area infront of the door.   No one gets to be here but her.  She shits on the steps.  Before i go out,  i look.

she bites me too…but i'm on to her…also watchfull,  can kick dust and make the Chitt Chitt  sound that says Go Away.  i'm big.  

so what do you do?   when there is a mean Chicken bully?    Alyssia belongs to a local Chicken FaceBook page and she posted that question there…we waited for Admins to ok it but it was a few days and Alyssia looked further and saw that it's been since October that there have been any new posts…so….that's not going to help.   

What SHOULD we do?    What CAN we do?

in Alyssia's neighborhood in town there are free roving chickens.   Maybe we set Talkie loose there?….to seek her Karma?

 

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20 responses to “through the webless window”

  1. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    My kids had a book about symbiotic relationships with animals. So interesting.
    Sounds like she is creating a pecking order over there. Meanie.
    At the old place, the neighbor’s chickens would be so mean to certain ones…pecking almost all of the feathers off. It was so distressing to see.

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  2. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I’m sorry but I could not stop laughing…I do know that this is serious. At first, I was amazed at Talkie grooming the goats and thought what a fine thing but the way biting alkie treats the kids, Puppy and Minnow- not at all so fine…but again, I have to say that a chicken bully who may be set loose to meet her Karma has me in stitches! I do apologize for my insensitivity and ask you this: Could you part with her?

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  3. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    okay, me being me … if there is indeed a pecking order, how would one imitate pecking to put Talkie in her more rightful place?

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  4. jude Avatar
    jude

    she seems a big chicken.

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  5. Margery Avatar
    Margery

    I just smile at Talkie’s tending of the goats’ beards — like the birds that sit on the backs of large animals, keeping them bug-free. So wonderful! But I’m worried about her sudden change of behavior. Perhaps she had a little stroke or something? I hate to think of her suddenly finding herself in a strange urban environment…
    I do love the pool noodles & have passed the idea along to someone who has lovely hens, but a very mean rooster who chases people. Sounds perfect for her grandkids!

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  6. deb Avatar
    deb

    Sounds like a rooster might be what she needs?

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  7. Cindy Avatar
    Cindy

    Chicken talk, I love it . . . and, yes, Marti, I was also laughing! We always lost our hens to predators. Talky is amazing to have survived roosting in that tree. Now I know why. Roosting hen – behaving like a Rooster. Grace, please write more about Talky.

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  8. Cindy Avatar
    Cindy

    I’m sorry, Talky, it’s Talkie, isn’t it?

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    chickens by nature can be very cruel.
    pecking order
    and Minnow had been trained….No Chicken! over and over.
    and now….

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    if i didn’t have to watch it first person, i too could
    see the STORY of it…the humor….i appreciate your words about this….it tempers the grim reality

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    chickens are unique creatures. We see them as so domestic.
    Clucking around, providing their oh so excellent EGGS
    but they are a combination bird/reptile/ dinosaur. I “know” these things about them but this is the first time i have had to experience it in my days. Jenny, Alyssia and i are
    scouring the Internet for ANYTHING that might help
    but it might be how it is for us here. We keep beings on, way on, into their last days. Most Goats, most livestock, most chickens are not kept that way.
    I remember asking my Vet in New Mexico…how do people DEAL with OLD Buck Goats???????? he looked long at me and
    finally said…..they don’t. They don’t get
    old.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    in the last couple months she had become the size
    of a tyrannosaurus

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    the pool noodles were a great solution for those days.
    She quit for a while but now is back at it, especially for Brinley who is afraid of her…who she senses that from and goes after her again.
    the chickens in Alyssia’s neighborhood….there are Many.
    They are almost like a Gang. They roam. Their home base being down the street about a block away…i think they must feed them scraps and stale bread or something, but they ROAM. It is not comfortable, but also…Talkie HURTS things with her agression. She goes for the FACE. Minnow cries out.
    there’s the thing of The Good of the Whole.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    she’s an old lady, chicken wise ….unless the rooster
    could be meaner

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i will. When there is some resolution. But now it’s a
    HARD HARD dilemma .
    tomorrow i’ll call the woman who is Happy Hens. She
    supplies eggs to the Feed Store that i buy and i have talked to her in person a few times at the farmer’s market.
    Will tell her and hope she can offer counsel

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Julian named her that…Talkie. because she talked
    constantly as a chick in their bathtub when they got them.
    There were 4. When they came here, soon after, 2 just
    disappeared and one, Tay got before she learned.

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  17. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Reading others comments and your words tonight, I am reminded of “chicks” a coworker rescued back in the late 1970’s. There were three. She loved them, named them nurtured them. Two did not survive straight away. One, “MEL” did. Her name stood for something no longer remembered. The M was for Mary, this teacher’s name. Don’t recall the rest. Anyway, a pen was built for MEL in the school playground. The children helped care for MEL and Mel grew and grew and grew. Soon MEL became BIG and MEAN, pecking the children. We had discovered that she was a he – a rooster and quite unkind. Finally, MEL could not stay at the school. It was no longer safe. Another teacher offered to take MEL home…to eat! Which her family did, killed and ate MEL. Lil young me, maybe 17 or 18 years old, a surburban city girl who got her food at the grocery store…was horrified! Not the warm fuzzy saving the chicks story we’d all thought it would be. Ha

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  18. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I did not know that chickens had this much personality. So many different personalities. The only chicken stories I have are not as amusing or entertaining in a Martin Scorsese way. One. Neighbour would come over for tea and conversation after spending a miserable time cleaning the coop . As a former city girl I learned that pigs were omnivores after another told me she hated pigs after seeing one catch and eat a chicken whole right in front of her. I guess things can get real in the farm yards. It’s all fun and games until the chicken bites.

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    things can get real
    yes. and they do. Well, actually, all along are real but real continues to evolve and here we are at
    today’s real
    it rained all day today and i don’t know where Puppy sheltered, she does not feel safe up here around this Tin House anymore because it has become Talkie’s domain. There’s the Curry House and Jack Flash’s feed shed both of which are DRY and GOOD but Talkie patrols them. Puppy is not allowed.
    and in the few intermittent moments of reprieve from Rain, Minnow needs to keep a watchful eye out peeing or trying to play with her ball
    this is how it IS. the thing of Radical Acceptance…
    accepting life on Life’s terms. in this case…confusing. but not really. there is the Good of the Whole.
    I wish it were not so. But it is.

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    we get our food from the store.
    i called Happy Hens…the woman who supplies our feed store with eggs, who sells eggs at the farmer’s market
    i said
    do you have a few minutes?
    she did
    i told her our dilemma and dear her….she said the Feed store…they take chickens and the Asian persons in our community come for them
    she said that at her LARGE chicken farm, when hens become
    “witchy” that’s what we do. that things won’t change for the better. it’s just how it is.

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