#2 The Chicken
The chicken is a farm animal. They are also very intelligent! Did you know that you can teach a chicken how to play checkers? Chickens will eat almost anything, and although little baby chicks are cute, they are hard work!
We started out with 26 chickens, and ended up with 8! One chicken got killed by a hawk, one chicken died in a storm, and all of the other 16 all were killed to eat. Trust me, we did not want to kill them, but we had to. Our homemade coop could only hold up to eight comfortably.
Our chickens started to lay eggs when they were about five months old, and each chicken now lays about an egg a day! We are loaded, and we only have 7 hens (female chickens)! The hens actually do not need a rooster to lay an egg! The hens will lay even without one! So why do we use roosters? It is not because we want to wake up early at their crows at sunrise, but because to get chicks, you HAVE to have a male!
After some of our chickens started to lay, we kept the eggs in an incubator, which is a fancy word for a place that will keep the eggs warm so that they can hatch. We have hatched 6 little chicks right now, and keep them underneath a heat lamp in our garage and gradually lower the temerature over a couple of weeks until it matches what it is outside; that is when you move them into the coop. It is best to move them in when you have a lot, that way they will be better protected by the older chickens.
The chicks really smell after a while, so you have to clean them out every day! It is not hard to do, but it is REALLY smelly and messy work. The more that you handle the little chicks, the less they will fear you. I just love holding them on the couch, and rubbing their little heads until they fall asleep in your hands! Be sure that you hold a napkin, or a folded paper towel just in case that the little chickies have to poop!
Although messy, little chicks are well-worth your time. If you do not want chicks though, and you just want eggs, then do not bother with a rooster! Chickens are very smart, so do not think that chickens do not have a brain, because they do!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Animal of the Week
The Basic Dog #1
Some call it "mans best friend," others call it "a terrific companion," but I just call it, a dog! There are millions of dogs owned by people all over the world, and over 1,000 different breeds of dogs! (There can be an infinite amount of mixed breeds!) Dogs are actually the most popular animal on earth!
The vision of dogs is different in shape, and dimensions! Some long-nosed dogs can see up to 270 degrees around them! (We can only see up to 180 degrees around us!) Dogs also have a very good sense of smell, also! Dogs can smell things that are up to 100 million times weaker than we can! A good dog also can have impeccable hearing, too! One of their ears alone can hear better than both of our ears combined!
A young dog can learn many new tricks, including: Rollover, play dead, sit, stay, run, fetch, and catch. Those are just some of the thousands of commands that your pet can learn! You can potty train your dog, or just keep him as he is! There are many possibilities when it comes to getting a dog!
A dog needs to be cleaned at least once a day, by scraping out his kennel (if he has one) or just cleaning his food and water bowls! A clean dog is a happy dog! My grandpa breeds Brittany dogs, so I know how it's important for a dog to be taken care of properly! I have my own Brittany dog, and I have to wake up early every morning and clean her kennel, give her more water and or food, and then I also try to teach her tricks before school also! There is no reason why you can't have fun while you are maintaining the proper hygiene in a dog!
You can't underestimate dogs! They can hear better than you, smell better than you, and they can also see better than you can! Dogs are also very easy to teach tricks, too! If you take care of your buddy properly, then I'm sure that you will appreciate your dog more, and he will appreciate you just as much!
Posted by Hannah
4/2/09
Some call it "mans best friend," others call it "a terrific companion," but I just call it, a dog! There are millions of dogs owned by people all over the world, and over 1,000 different breeds of dogs! (There can be an infinite amount of mixed breeds!) Dogs are actually the most popular animal on earth!
The vision of dogs is different in shape, and dimensions! Some long-nosed dogs can see up to 270 degrees around them! (We can only see up to 180 degrees around us!) Dogs also have a very good sense of smell, also! Dogs can smell things that are up to 100 million times weaker than we can! A good dog also can have impeccable hearing, too! One of their ears alone can hear better than both of our ears combined!
A young dog can learn many new tricks, including: Rollover, play dead, sit, stay, run, fetch, and catch. Those are just some of the thousands of commands that your pet can learn! You can potty train your dog, or just keep him as he is! There are many possibilities when it comes to getting a dog!
A dog needs to be cleaned at least once a day, by scraping out his kennel (if he has one) or just cleaning his food and water bowls! A clean dog is a happy dog! My grandpa breeds Brittany dogs, so I know how it's important for a dog to be taken care of properly! I have my own Brittany dog, and I have to wake up early every morning and clean her kennel, give her more water and or food, and then I also try to teach her tricks before school also! There is no reason why you can't have fun while you are maintaining the proper hygiene in a dog!
You can't underestimate dogs! They can hear better than you, smell better than you, and they can also see better than you can! Dogs are also very easy to teach tricks, too! If you take care of your buddy properly, then I'm sure that you will appreciate your dog more, and he will appreciate you just as much!
Posted by Hannah
4/2/09
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