A visit to Goatlandia, Part II – da chickens!!!

[TV Announcer Voice] Previously on Pegasus in Paradise, I recounted the first part of my visit to Goatlandia, a home and private animal sanctuary north of Santa Rosa, run by a cool woman I met online. This week I will continue this tale – far too much happened that day to fit in just one post!

After visiting the goats, we headed over to see the chickens. Before I talk about the chickens, please know that I am in no way advocating keeping backyard chickens or eating eggs. You can read more about why even eating eggs from rescued chickens is problematic in this excellent overview from the Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary.

The chickens naturally broke into two groups, the ‘regular’ chickens (do you like my extensive knowledge of chicken breeds?) and the ‘silky’ chickens:

Chickens hanging out convivially 🙂

Extreme chicken close-up! Strike a pose! Yeah baby!

Yes, these are also chickens!

First person to find the chicken’s face in this picture wins a prize!

Chicken: “Put me down you weird lady!!!!”

Silky chicken photobomb!

All of the chickens lay eggs in these little nesting boxes, except for one rebel chicken who lays eggs behind a tractor in a barn. Hee! Apparently, if you don’t remove the eggs from these nests, they will stop laying eggs as they only lay enough eggs to get a full nest. Another interesting thing I learned about chickens recently is that you can get a contraceptive implant for them them that lasts 6 months and will stop them from laying eggs (it’s called Deslorein). This can be used in cases where the chicken’s body can not withstand the stress of laying so many eggs:

Free living chickens, like all birds, lay eggs only once a year (usually in the spring) and only enough to ensure the survival of their species—an average of 10 to 20 eggs. Domesticated hens have been selectively bred to lay between 260 to 300 eggs a year. As a result of being genetically manipulated to produce an unnaturally large number of unnaturally large eggs, laying hens suffer from a host of crippling disorders of the reproductive tract, many of which can be fatal. (Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary)

Deb said that the chickens really loved eating their eggs, so I took a little video of them in action:

Nom nom nom…

By giving the chickens back their own eggs, it helps them to restore some of the vital nutrients (calcium especially) that are lost during the egg laying process.

After chillaxing with the chickens, we headed back to the garage to look at some of the interesting things going on in there:

Stuffed toys! In the garage! Fun!

Sorry this picture is blurry! Deb took this bicycle to Burning Man Festival with her 🙂

Deb had one of her cars converted to run on biodiesel, which she gets from the restaurant she works at (boxes on the left). I wonder if the exhaust smells like french fries?

Then we hung out for a while on the deck and chatted while her sweet dogs kept us company:

“Don’t forget about us doggies, weird lady!!!”

I was grateful Deb was able to fit me into her busy schedule – the next day she was driving to Half Moon Bay (quite far) to pick up the latest member of her family, Sheldon the pig:

Fast forward a month or so later, to Sheldon the pig happily settling in to this new home. Who’s a handsome devil? 😀

On the way home I stopped to look at the memorials at the site of a fatal head on collision earlier that week. One man tried to illegally pass a row of cars, and collided with another man coming from the opposite direction, killing both of them and a dog :-(. So many crazy drivers out there, it’s scary! Makes me glad I don’t have a car, even though if I did I would be better protected on the road than I am on my bike!

Memorials at fatal car crash, River Road, Santa Rosa, March 2015

Do any of you have any funny chicken stories? I’d love to hear about them in the comments. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and see you next week, when I will be talking about my buddy. Scrawny the Squirrel.