The Lonely Only

This is Donner, the lone chicken in the coop.

She is the lone chicken because she ate one of her brooder mates, 

and my older chicken died.

Yes, she is named for the Donner Party,

the pioneer group who was forced to cannibalize members

 of their traveling party after getting trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

in winter in 1846.

I have no clue what breed of chicken she is, though I fear she may be 

a black sex-link chicken.

I had a sex link before who terrorized any new chickens that came to the coop.

She got eaten, and I wasn't sad.

The cannibalistic nature of Donner makes me concerned

since I'm hitting up the Poultry Swap in April to get new pullets.

I certainly don't want them to be Donner's dinner.

She might also be an Australorp which would be fine.

She was supposed to be a Dominique chicken

known for their black and white checkered feathers.

She's a little lonely right now being the only hen in the henhouse.

And being lonely makes her friendly.

To people anyway.

My grandson enjoyed giving her some attention

and petting her.

He even tried to take her in the house and in his mom's car

so she could live in his room.

Apparently he has a couch in his room she could sleep on.

Also, my grandson speaks chicken.

He told us she was talking and when asked what she said, 

he leaned down, listened and said "She say my name!"

He later explained that she said "Bawk bawk bawk" and that means "Xavier"

in chicken.

Looking forward to getting the coop spruced up this month,

and fixing some minor repairs

to prepare for the new hens.

Winterizing the Coop

Tuesday I finally managed to get the chicken coop 

ready for winter.

I had already put the heated waterer in the coop, 

but I hadn't managed to get the plastic sheeting up.

With a deep freeze forecasted for today and tomorrow, 

it was important to get the run covered.

I left some areas open to offer some ventilation,

and to allow the chickens to see out.

If there is a bad storm forecasted or some seriously cold weather,

I'll cover up these areas temporarily.

I only have 2 chickens left, 

so they don't have the ability to generate as much warmth

as, say, 10 chickens.

This is the only pullet I have left from the 4 I ordered online.

She ended up pecking her fellow pullet coop mate to death.

It seems that my Jersey Giant hen was preventing 

the two pullets from getting to the food.

I've named this pullet Donner.

As in the Donner Party. 

I'm not going to bother with any more baby chicks.

I'm just waiting for April to roll around so I can head out to the Poultry Swap

and grab some more pullets ready for the coop.