A Chicken in a People House

Last Monday afternoon I went out to check on the chickens and found one of our ladies in rough shape.  She was huddled up in the corner and her beak was open with a piece of ice in her mouth.  After a second look, I realized that her mouth was stuck open and that piece of ice was keeping her from closing her beak.

With no other warm place to put her, I brought her in the house.  She spent the rest of the day in a clear rubbermaid tote lined with straw guzzling water and having stare downs with the cat.  By the time bedtime came, she had drank nearly 6 cups of water.  

When she came in, she could not stand and was definitely in distress.  My first thought was that she had an egg broken inside of her, as we have lost hens that way in the past.  But first I had to address the ice in her beak which went away pretty quickly when I offered her a bowl of lukewarm water.  I was surprised at just how much water she drank.  

The next thing I did was examine her vent.  The feathers around her "area" were all clumped up so I cleaned them as best I could with a soft cloth and warm water with a few drops of dish soap in it.  At first she didn't seem to mind my hand being back there, but after a few minutes she had had enough and wanted me away from her nether region.  I did get her cleaned up enough to see that her vent was open and healthy looking.

She spent the night in her makeshift nest by the stove and never tried to escape.  By mid morning on Tuesday, she was standing up and looking pretty good, so I gave her some oats.  She pecked at them a bit, but when offered some of Joey's soggy raisin bran, she perked right up.

Hoping that she was recovered enough to re-join her flock, we put her back in the coop before leaving for work.  She seemed fine when I checked on her later that day and this morning again when I went out.

I am left wondering what caused the distress.  The obvious culprit is the weather.  The cold was brutal for several days.  I have put dishpans full of snow in the coop since it is impossible to keep water in its liquid form out there and have tried adding a bit of water to their mash to keep them hydrated.  Whatever the cause, at least the story has a happy ending.

Looking Ahead Update: Getting Started

What do a day planner,  a batch of mini muffins and a vintage bowl have in common?  They are all things related to my goal of being more on top of my family's budget in 2013. 

 In my last post, I wrote about hoping to get back on track with budgeting and clear up some debt.  My husband got a me a spiffy little day planner for Christmas that I absolutely love.  It is the perfect size and has plenty of room to write in work schedules and appointments, plus my dinner menu and my weekly bill pay plan.  So, starting the last week in December, I got my checkbook in order and organized all our bills into the day planner so that each week I can sit down and pay what needs paying.  I also write in a meal plan for each day's evening meal.  This helps with grocery shopping on a budget and is a huge time saver for me.  It saves time in that I don't sit and try to come up with a meal for supper on my way home from work and also then am not tempted to "swing by" the grocery store on my way home, for a "few" things which never fails to turn into a half hour and $30 because I always get sidetracked.

Love this planner!  Isn't it pretty?

Wednesday before work our mission was to fill up our stash of snacks for lunches.  I did not go to the store that day, but Joey and I were home in the morning and he helped me fill up little baggies with mini muffins (from an 89 cent just add water mix) graham crackers and a pan of granola bars.   I have never made granola bars before but thought it looked kind of cool on Pinterest, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. We also did celery sticks and baby carrots. Making lunches should be a breeze for the rest of the week.  I know that using little baggies seems wasteful and not as cost effective as small reusable containers.  Here's the thing.  I bought the little reusable bowls to put snacks in, but they don't fit very well in her Hello Kitty head-shaped lunch box.  So, I went back to snack baggies. I don't reuse them either. Sorry.

Our week's worth of  snacks: Pan of granola (waiting to be cut into bars), celery & baby carrots, mini muffins, mini graham crackers, mozzarella cheese sticks

There you have it.  My big plans to budget and get all our bills paid on time every month and eat too.  It's not overly complicated or scientific, but it gets the job done.  Besides, I like to make lists. ;)

My cute vintage bowl

Still wondering how the vintage bowl figures into this?  Well, its like this.  Everybody needs a little fun money.  I figure a small amount of play money into the budget for the sake of my own sanity.  Not as much as I'd like, but a little bit anyway.  And with that money this week, I went to Goodwill and bought a cute bowl that I probably didn't need, but liked enough to spend 99 cents on it.  Oh and some more jelly jars.  I always need jelly jars for something or other.  Man I love Goodwill.