Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 10/04/2009 05:12:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Saturday, September 26, 2009

Peanut Time

Labels: menagerie

posted by Alison 9/26/2009 11:49:00 PM : (0) comments : splink

Project #239 - Fake Chicken Eggs

In order to get chickens to do what you want, sometimes you have to play to their instincts. Chickens naturally prefer to lay eggs in a nest that has already been used. It's better to use a nest that has been proven safe rather than taking a chance and building a new, untested one. Most people take advantage of this chicken behavior and put out fake eggs in a place of their choosing. Otherwise, free-range chickens will just lay where they please and their humans are left playing a real-life Easter Egg hunt.

But why fake eggs? Why not use real ones from the supermarket? Chickens are curious and they have a way of discovering that real ones, even hard-boiled, are delicious. Once they go down that path it's hard to make them stop. They'll peck at the fake ones and then ignore all eggs because those first few sure weren't tasty.

Our chickens are almost old enough to start laying eggs and we'd prefer that we got a first crack at them. I decided to make a few test eggs out of polymer clay and see how they worked for the chickens. Polymer clay is expensive, so I decided to make two with different materials in the center to see which worked best. I wrapped my clay around a ping pong ball and a large marble and then baked them at 215 degrees F for 30 minutes.



The marble egg came out just right, but the ping pong ball one exploded right before I pulled it out of the oven. That's too bad because we have a lot of defunct table tennis balls sitting around the house that are dying for a purpose.

I'm going to make at least two or three more and add them to one of our nesting boxes. The funny thing is that these are supposed to work even if a chicken has never seen an egg. There is supposed to be something about round objects that trigger a nesting instinct in those little peanut brains.

Labels: menagerie, polymer clay, projects

posted by Alison 9/26/2009 12:50:00 PM : (3) comments : splink


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Project #237 - Chicken Palace

After weeks of work we finally have a fully functional and permanent chicken coop. It's two stories, almost all of the wood is recycled, and all together it provides more than 6 square feet of space for each of our three animals.

The chickens knew that it was built especially for them. Before we finished their new residence I placed Elanor the chicken on the roost to see if she would be comfortable. She grabbed on with both feet and refused to let go, not even to go to sleep in the kitchen for one of the last times with her sisters. So, we let them all sleep in their incomplete chicken coop, and they haven't stopped loving it since. Each night they take the ramp to the second floor and hop one by one onto the roost. They are especially keen on it now that they have a roof and protection from predators.



Clark did all of the construction. I helped with the painting and chicken wire. The top box was made of a box-like wooden coffee table that we got for free from Construction Junction. The posts holding it up were old stair posts that we got for 25 cents each.

It looks good, and I hope it lasts for years and years.

Labels: clark's projects, menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 9/23/2009 07:02:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Monday, September 14, 2009

Project #232 - Half Baked Idea Speech

I ran across an interesting announcement via I Heart PGH, the Waffle Shop will be holding a speech competition for visionary ideas. For those of you unfamiliar with the Waffle Shop, it's a place to buy breakfast and a talk show. The examples of visionary ideas they gave were not very conventional ("a way for animals to run governments", "a cloning system that reinvents history"), so I came up with my own half-baked, impractical idea and sent it in.

How to Teach Animals to Speak the King's English

Wouldn't the world be a better place if animals had better manners? Deer would no longer leap in front of cars on the highway, ants would await invitations before attending picnics, and the insult of pigeon poop would be a distant memory. The only way to encourage animals to embrace politeness is on a being-to-being level. That is, we must learn to communicate with animals and get them to communicate back with us. The trans-species conversation could spur on better human stewardship of the environment, more understanding for endangered species, and help teach barbaric-mannered animals to be more considerate.

But are animals capable of the higher order brain functions needed to produce the King's English? Consider this: the computer on your desktop at home has about the same intelligence capacity as a frog. It has a number of bits in its memory chips comparable to the number of neurons in the frog's brain. Your computer has the power to correct your spelling and grammar as well as look up words in dictionaries containing millions of entries. Not only that, your computer has the capacity to let you play games, do your taxes, and remind you to send your mother flowers for her birthday, among millions of other tasks it is capable of performing. We are not asking the average frog to fill out a 1040, we are asking it to have a simple conversation and comment on the weather, something a the average computer is capable of doing.

Certainly, we have had other friends in the animal kingdom who have already learned to converse with us, for instance Koko the gorilla or Alex the African gray parrot. Additionally, it is a historical fact that Alexander Graham Bell taught his family dog to say "How are you grandma?" Now, that is not only functional and polite, but also respectful of the elderly.

There are several layers of functionality to a language. That is, any language must be learned (in ascending order of complexity) phonetically (sounds), lexically (words), morpho-syntactically (grammar), and pragmatically (intention and discourse structure). By tracing along this pathway, starting with sounds and words and ending with polite conversation, we can teach nearly any animal to communicate with us from the humble grasshopper to the mighty elephant.

Of course, we practice what we teach. My husband and I care for three Rhode Island Red chickens who are currently undergoing lessons in elocution and table manners. They have brains the size of peanuts and yet the are keenly aware of the goings on in their tiny backyard and are prone to gossip, a habit we are trying to mend.

We took a cue from Mr. Bell and his talking dog in order to train our chickens. In order to prepare his dog for speech he first trained it to growl continuously before teaching it specific sounds. We used pumpkin seeds to encourage the utterance of specific phonemes. We knew off hand that they could say 'buk buk', which gave us two important consonants, Through a system of rewards we managed to get them to say 'rrr', 'mmm', 'nnn', and so forth until they were prepared to form words and then sentences.

I propose to teach these methods in detail to a live audience. I hope in the end help spread good grammar and fine manners throughout the animal kingdom and build a new era of communication.

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 9/14/2009 07:02:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, August 23, 2009

Project #211- 10 Minute fence

Our old backyard fence was never very good. I never really took a picture of it, it was supposed to be temporary, so I had to collect an image of it from one of my video clips. It was far too short and the chickens technically could have flown over it months ago, but chicken psychology being what it is, they never cared to test that boundary until we started pasturing them on the other side. Once they spent a few days grazing from the comfort of their mobile pen, their territory magically expanded to include the land on both sides of the fence and suddenly they realized that they could come and go to either side as they pleased.

Chickens are perfectly legal in Pittsburgh, except when they are "fowl-at-large". That is, fowl unencumbered by a barrier, free to go where they like. Our chickens never cared to leave our yard, but the fence-hopping had to be curbed immediately.



We built our new one out of wire fencing and metal fence posts, the kind usually used to keep deer out of vegetable patches. The posts can be installed in a few minutes with the application of a shoe to the the flanges and pushing the lower part of the post a foot into the soil. The fencing then be strung across and held in place by built-in hooks on the posts, and finally, cut to size.

I installed our fence using my dainty hands and feet in less than ten minutes. We have plans for a gate, but for now we just unhook and rehook the fencing when we need to get through.

***

BTW, I never made a formal announcement of it, but our two ducks are now back living at the farm from where we purchased them and the chickens. Their persistent ability to wake up our entire block with loud, echoing quacks everyday precisely at 6:00 am, weekends included, lead us to our decision. This farm is run by someone who won't eat fowl of any kind and we like to think they are happier now and have lots of boyfriends.

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 8/23/2009 09:46:00 PM : (1) comments : splink


Thursday, August 06, 2009

Project #194 - Farm Animal Designs

Today I woke up at 4am to finish something for testing this morning. I'd worked a full day and a little more by lunch time. I'm kind of sick of these days where I'm too tired to actually rest and spend most of the day zombied in front of the TV or on the internet. I need to do things while my work schedule is flexible. I need to go and see things outside of my house.



So, I went to the county fair, the county fair three counties away. I went to the Fayette County Fair. I'd never been to a real county fair, one with livestock and blue ribbons. My hometown only seemed to have fairs that were related to civil war reenactments.



There were so many things on display in competition. I never knew that fairs gave out prizes for best hay.



Holy crap, there was a lot of livestock.



I took a special interest in the rabbit & poultry pavilion.



It was teeth-vibratingly loud in there as each of the roosters attempted to out do each other.



Blue ribbons only went to the giantest of a particular kind of livestock. This duck was the size of a suitcase.



I couldn't imagine any of my chickens tolerating such a tiny cage for a week. I am raising princesses...or maybe chickens with higher standards.

Still, I took lots of pictures that I'll be able to use later for screen printing or fabric design.

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 8/06/2009 01:55:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, July 26, 2009

Project #191 - Chicken Illustration

I'm thinking about overhauling the look of this site and using some of the things from my everyday life, like my chickens. They're pretty photogenic for animals that can't stay still.

I drew up a simple little swf of one of the chickens. I figured that it would be easy to animate them stooping down and pecking or have them flap their wings, or something. However, I overestimated my animation skills. By a lot. So now I just have a chicken that blinks.

But I will have my revenge and I'll have a chicken doing...something...eventually.

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 7/26/2009 01:57:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, June 14, 2009

Poultry Update

Clark has finally named the ducks. He wanted to announce what they would be himself:

Clark here. I have finally given names to my boys, and I wanted the honor of explaining them. The larger, faster developing duck has been named 宇宙戦艦ヤマト (‘Uchuu Senkan Yamato’ which translates to Space Battleship Yamato). [She's the one with the collar marking on the left. --A] A grandiose name for a grandiose duck. The smaller, slightly more spastic duck has been named 孝三郎 (‘Kouzaburou’) after one of my favorite co-workers in Japan. While it is typically a name you give to a third-born, it has an emotional connection, and it’s a very old-fashioned name, which Alison and I tend to like. [She's the one on the right. --A] As with many Japanese names, there are slightly different (in our case, shorter) nicknames. 宇宙戦艦ヤマト’s is ‘Yama-chan’. 孝三郎’s is ‘Sabu-chan’. They’re my boys, and I am very proud of them. (and yes, they are very clearly female)

Labels: menagerie

posted by Alison 6/14/2009 01:45:00 PM : (1) comments : splink


Thursday, June 04, 2009

Poultry Update

We've only had our chickens and ducks for two weeks, but they've certainly grown and developed in that short amount of time. The chickens are really starting to develop personalities, especially now that they're starting to establish a pecking order. Every time we give them a little free range time there is always chaos for a few seconds while they flap around and harass each other.

I named the chickens only a few days after their arrival. I'm a history fan, so each are named for Queens of France who had interesting second acts in life. One namesake became queen of England and then spent 16 years imprisoned by her husband, one ruled France as regent for her sons for nearly 30 years, and the last married in secret for love after her husband, King Louis XII, died. Out of the three, only one was born French, the other two were imports.



Elanor (named for Elanor of Aquitaine) is the alpha chicken so far, so she usually gets her way. I can identify her by her size (she's definitely the biggest) or by the big patch of white feathers on her chest.



Mary was named for Mary Tudor; both are redheads. Mary is the smallest chicken and gets bullied by her sisters. They usually try to steal whatever she is eating, so sometimes I run interference to by Mary a few seconds to gobble down whatever she found. She's a little more curious than her sisters, and possibly a little smarter. She's the most cooperative one when it comes to taking pictures, good at posing and standing still, so she gets extra treats from me.



Catherine, a blonde like her namesake, Catherine de' Medici, is the bounciest, most energetic of the three. I have to be careful when replacing food or water in the Chicken pen because she is always ready to escape. Catherine is just a little smaller than Elanor, so she is constantly challenging for dominance and the most prone to pick fights. She is going to be a challenge when she reaches adulthood.

The Ducks remain nameless as Clark is still mulling over his choices. He calls them collectively his "Boys", though it is getting more evident by the day that they are both female. I really want to name one of them Houdini because she was an expert at escapes when we bought her, but that name was rejected.

Labels: menagerie

posted by Alison 6/04/2009 11:03:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Sunday, May 31, 2009

Project #142 - Mobile Duck Pen

This was really a two day project, although Clark did most of the work. I need to get over myself and learn some carpentry skills, but it's easy to move that to the bottom of the list when living with someone who is more than happy to do all the sawing and nailing for you.

We weren't sure what to do with the pointy ends of the chicken wire, so we covered them with duct tape. So far the ducks have not tried to eat the tape, which was a legitimate fear...'cause they're kind of dumb...cute, but dumb.



My mom was really nice and bought us a staple gun and chicken wire as early birthday gifts so we could go ahead and finish the whole thing today. I spent a few hours stapling the wire to the wood, but it went much faster after Clark got home and there were two of us to work on it. He is much better at staple gunning than me; I need two hands to push down the trigger and he manages to do it with only one.

The biggest predators we have to worry about in the city are house cats and the peregrine falcon who lives across the street. There might be opossums and raccoons around, but we were faced with making a dig-proof pen to guard against animals that may not even live here, or making a pen that could be moved easily so the ducks would always have access to fresh grass. I hope we chose correctly. The ducks have a temporary shelter inside the pen, but we plan on making a better one that will be more predator proof.

There was one type of predator that I forgot about completely: runaway dogs. Our backyard has a narrow alley running behind it that is popular with neighborhood dog walkers. Some people like to leave their dogs off leash when walking them to give the animal a little more freedom, but I guess those people never expected to run into a tasty-looking pen of ducks.

I was in the kitchen making pie crust when I heard a dog bark and the ducks peep their 'I'm sooo frightened!' peeps. I ran outside and saw a bear-sized German Shepherd taking a great interest in my animals and the ducks going nuts with fear. It was clear that he was big and strong enough to tip the whole pen over, even with bricks weighing it down, and attack the ducks. I yelled at the dog to get it to go away as the dog's owner came running into the yard to claim it.

The ducks were supposed to spend their first night outside in their pen tonight, but we might have to rethink that. I hope that incident was just a fluke, but we are raising some tasty, defenseless morsels and there are lots of creatures who want a piece.

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 5/31/2009 11:55:00 PM : (2) comments : splink


Friday, May 29, 2009

Project #141 - Baaaaby Animal Party

Our poultry adoptees are getting less adorable by the day (though, on the bright side they're getting closer to laying eggs), so I wanted to have a small (< 12 people) party so that our friends could experience some of the remaining cute. Together with free food, baby animals create an irresistible combination.

It was tempting to buy a bucket of chicken to feed everyone, but instead I took the less creepy route and had everyone make their own mini pizzas. I used my olive oil crisp recipe to make the dough for the crust in advance. I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting a picture of the pizzas, but they were tasty and gone immediately.

We served the pizzas along with some homemade salsa with chips, finger veggies, and strawberries with brown sugar whipped cream. Many thanks to my friend Saralinda for the extensive pre-party chopping.



The ducks didn't take to the party atmosphere and squawked at anyone who came near. The chickens, on the other hand, were okay with being handled and seemed to enjoy the attention. They even fought over the best perch on the lip of their laundry basket so they could see what was going on most of the evening.



So cute!

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 5/29/2009 11:53:00 PM : (1) comments : splink


Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Project #139 - Mobile Poultry Coop Plans

Our ducks and chickens are quickly outgrowing their current living quarters. The pen that houses the ducks is quickly developing a thick coat of duck poop despite daily cleanings with the hose. The chickens are also getting too big to be comfortable in their overturned laundry basket accommodations. It's been a week and a half and I swear that they have doubled in size.

Clark has promised to help me build more permanent living quarters for the animals, but he needs plans to help him figure out what supplies to purchase. The new duck pen will be open on the bottom to allow them to graze on the grass underneath. We'll be able to move them around the yard to keep them from completely denuding any one area. Ducks need about 4-5 feet of floor space to be comfortable, so we'll need to build something that will have at least 10 square feet, plus a little extra for an enclosed nighttime shelter.



The chickens have a little easier time getting around vertically, so while the first level will be similar to what the ducks will have, they will also get a second story that will serve as their nighttime enclosure and laying area. This box will just be a (near) cube with an opening in the floor for chicken entry and exit. Of course, we will build a ramp to help them get up there.

I hope we build the duck coop soon. They are getting more and more pissy at us for bringing them in at night. The chickens are getting used to being handled, but the ducks act like we are inflicting the greatest indignity by touching them at all. We adopted two duck princesses.

Labels: menagerie, projects

posted by Alison 5/27/2009 11:34:00 PM : (0) comments : splink


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Duck Bathtime