The before: Chicken coop and day lilies

This space on the side of the chicken coop has been bugging me for more than two years.



I planted day lilies on the side of the girls' house, and they do great in the spring because they get all the rain that runs off of the roof of the chicken coop. Then we hit the dry season and I have to water them, but the water runs everywhere but where it needs to be and I end up with more weeds than flowers.



For years I have planned to build a small rock border around it to hold in the water; it's a great use for some odds and ends rocks left over from the rock wall I built at the front of the house several years ago. Two years ago I was too busy with the backyard to work on it, and last year I was too busy with Lachlan to work on it. And so this pile of rocks has been sitting there for years, which is really quite embarrassing when I think about it.



But this year Lachlan LOVES to be outside, so I am finally getting to all the unfinished projects outside. And this weekend, this is my project. I am going to finish the little border around the flowers, and if it doesn't rain (the skies sure look grey!) I'm finally (!) going to paint the trim around the chickens' door. If I don't have great "after" photos by early next week, please feel free to leave a comment chewing me out. :)

And then there were two

I have some sad news to report about the girls. Our neighbor came over a few hours ago, quite upset to tell us that his dog had killed one of our chickens. He was of course profusely apologetic over the situation. I let the girls roam around to get the bugs, and they love their freedom. They have no fear of dogs, having only really been around Sadie, so I am sure they are a bit like sitting ducks, er chickens. The next door neighbor's dog (a small cocker spaniel) usually stays on his side of the creek and has never shown any interest in the girls, but the chickens often go roaming and I think it was a classic case of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Rest in peace, Hazel. The girls and Lachlan and I will miss you.

Sunday versus Tuesday

On Sunday it was 72 degrees and sunny. I took advantage of the nice day to clean up the backyard and garden.

I had intended to do a lot of weeding in the backyard, but it's getting harder to bend over now that I have this big belly, so it wasn't long before I decided that it will have to wait until the spring. At least I managed to cut the grass of the new lawn, which has filled in rather nicely!



There was little hope left for all of the tomatoes and the rest of the garden after several hard frosts, so I worked on clearing out all the raised beds.



Harriet and the other girls joined me outside for what will probably be their last day in the garden until next spring.



Every time I pulled up a plant, Harriet came running over to see what kind of bugs I uncovered!

All in all, it was a perfect day. Warm and sunny with a gentle breeze.

And today? Well, today it is 35 degrees and snowing....

Harriet's big adventure

For awhile now I've wanted to let the girls out of their house to play while I'm in the garden. But I really feared being able to catch them again.

Then last week we had a horrible wind storm during the night that blew open the door to their house. I went out the next morning to find Hazel and Harriet in the garden! Fortunately their training worked, and I just said "Hi, girls!" and they came running to see what kind of goodie I had for them. I just knelt down and picked them up and deposited them safely back in their home (fortunately Greta, the most skittish one, was busy inside laying an egg, so I didn't have to worry about catching her.)

So I decided to start letting one girl at a time out while I'm in the garden, just to make sure that Sadie wouldn't try to love them a little too much, if you get my drift. Harriet was the first one to the door, so she was the lucky girl for the day.

First she helped herself to a great dirt bath. Gee whiz, do these chickens like their baths in the dirt.



Then she took a little nap.



I finally had to wake her from her nap to get her into the garden to do her job. So she scratched and pecked around the garden, finding rollie-pollies and a few grasshoppers, all while under the very watchful eye of Sadie.







Sadie did really great with her! And yes, Sadie really was that close to Harriet. And no, Harriet didn't care one bit, which has me slightly worried about letting the girls roam free until our property is securely fenced to keep the neighbor's dogs out...

Go, Greta!

I haven't exactly kept it a secret that Greta is my favorite of all the girls. Sure, she isn't very smart, but she's so pretty!



And, as it turns out, she's now a proven performer in the egg-laying department! Yesterday I found two eggs, but I hadn't looked the day before, so I wasn't sure if they were both from the same chicken over two days, or from two chickens.

This morning I peaked inside their house and found Greta making herself comfortable in the nesting box. I went back a few hours later and found another egg!

They really are pretty. I'd say they tend more toward green than blue, though. And although they are smaller than a store-bought egg (shown here next to a AA Large egg), I'm not complaining!



All of the girls now squat and hold out their wings when I touch their back, so I think it won't be long before I find 3 eggs every morning. Yay!

Casa de pollo

The girls are really excited to show you their new home.

Last month, my friends Young and Tony came to visit from Baltimore. Tony is known in these parts as the Construction Bandit, and he certainly lived up to his name! While Young was attending a conference in Denver, Tony was here working away on projects around the house.

During his visit, Tony got in touch with his inner farmer by working on The Chicken House.

Our original plan was to build the girls a new house from scratch, but after reality set in, I realized we could use an old shed that was already on the property. I'm not sure what the previous owner used it for, but it is incredibly well insulated with 6-inch thick walls. About a year ago, the husband covered it with some leftover metal siding from our workshop. We still need to finish the trim around the front door and paint it a pretty color. It's not painted yet because I can't make up my mind on the color...



I had a nice glass window that I had been using for a cold frame for the garden, and Tony was able to use that to give the girls a view out toward the peach orchard across the road. He even added a beautiful screen so that the window can stay open to give them more fresh air.



I put a roost under the window, so the girls line up on it and watch the world go by. Note that Tony even put nice trim around the window!





The husband used some small buckets and plant saucers to make an automatic feeder that is suspended from the ceiling so they can't get in their food and scratch around, and I have a similar bucket for their water. It's quite a handy system. I fill the feeder about once a month, and the water bucket about once a week.



The shed already had some shelves on the side where the window is, so we left these in place. The bottom shelf was intended to be their nesting area, and I realized the other night that instead of sleeping on their roost, the girls like to sleep on the upper shelves.



The part that the girls love the most about their new house is this screen door that Tony built for them.



It allows them to have more light and fresh air, but it also gives them this great view of the garden!



For now the girls are living indoors. We have plans to build a wire pen next to the shed so they can come and go as they please during the day, but a large branch of the apricot tree is in the way. As soon as I harvest the apricots, we'll cut off the branch and they can have a new backyard.

The girls hope you enjoyed this tour of their new house, and they express their sincere gratitude to Tony for giving them such a deluxe living space!!

In fact, they're so happy in their space, that they left me a present this morning. The first two blue eggs!!!

An update on the girls

Wow, it seems like just yesterday that I brought three fuzzy chicks home from the feed store. They've grown so much since then, and I am anxiously awaiting the first blue (!) egg from them; they'll hopefully start laying in just a few weeks.



Here they are, then and now.

It was clear from the beginning that Hazel would be the boss of the flock. She's smart, loud, opinionated, and fiesty! I couldn't even set her down for a photo when I first got her, because she kept trying to run away.



She still has the small black spots on her back, and she is the first chicken to the door when I call "Here girls!" while in the garden. She knows I'm heading her way with a tastey treat.



Harriet was a little black puffball when I first got her, with a cute patch of white on her throat.



She seems to have lost the white patch on her throat, but her feathers are the most beautiful irridescent greenish black when in the sun.



Greta was my favorite from the beginning. She started out looking like a mouse-colored cotton ball.





Now she has the most beautiful feathers. They're light gray on the interior with a darker gray on their edge, and as she's gotten older she's developed a few rust colored feathers on her throat. She's still not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she sure is pretty!



On Monday I'll show you their new home!

Hen house

I need to start thinking about some proper accomodations for the girls.

Would it be ridiculous to build something like one of these for just three hens? I think this is why my friends call me "super size."









I can see it now. I get three hens because that's all I need. I build a massive chicken coop for them. And then next year I decide that the large coop requires the addition of more hens. This is a genetic defect I inherited from my father. Case in point: His friend gave him a motor for a small boat. He didn't have a boat, so he bought one. Now he's out shopping for a bigger motor. See? I can't be held responsible. It's in my DNA.

Do chickens like bananas?

They sure do. If you listen carefully, in between the tiny peeps of some very content chickens, you'll hear a lot of lip smackin' going on. Chickens have lips, don't they?



I think it's so sweet how, at the very end, Hazel helps Harriet by removing a chunk of banana stuck in the corner of her beak. Now that's true chicken love.

And in case you were wondering, Sadie still loves watching them. The best part of the day is when we go to the workshop to visit them in their temporary condo. They'll need a real home soon, but I need to get my own home under control first!



Happy weekend, everybody!

Diary of a baby chicken

Last week I moved the chickens out of our bathroom and into the tub of the guest bathroom. I didn't realize how great this would be for Sadie. She was really enjoying the new view.



Yesterday I moved them back into our bathroom because I started back to work on the guest bathroom. If things go according to plan, the space you saw in that video will look quite a bit different next week. If it doesn't, feel free to scold me!

This new move does not sit well with Sadie. The guest bathroom is the only one with a toilet right now, so I obviously go in and out of the room several times a day. Now that the girls are back in the master bathroom, Sadie doesn't get to see them as often. She disappears throughout the day and I always find her patiently sitting outside the door. It is a pocket door that slides open, and although she's learned how to push open a door, thankfully she hasn't learned how to slide one open...

So what does a baby chicken do all day? Well, now that they have a new, higher perch in their box, they mostly just hang out on it.



You'd think they'd be a little disturbed by the large dog towering over them, but Sadie doesn't seem to bother them. Maybe they think she's the chicken mother ship or something.

I can't get over how cute they are when they stretch and scratch their head. They always stretch the back leg and wing on the same side of their body. For some reason I think it's adorable. I had several chickens when I was younger but I don't remember ever seeing one stretch.



The girls are a little stir crazy these days because they haven't been outside since Sunday. Monday was cold, on Tuesday and Wednesday we had 40 mph winds, it snowed yesterday, and today it's snowing again. The weekend is supposed to be nice and a little warmer so I'll hopefully get them outside again. Since they've been cooped up so much (get it? chickens? cooped up?) I've been trying to keep their tiny brains occupied by giving them new fruits and vegetables periodically throughout the day.

I always put their special treats on a small paper plate. Now Sadie goes nuts when she sees me get a paper plate out of the cabinet! Every time I walk into their room I say "Hi baby girls!" and now they start jumping up on the perch when they hear me coming. And when Hazel (the white one) sees me holding the paper plate she jumps onto the top roost (if she isn't already there) so she can get the first shot at it. If it's a familiar food, she'll try to gobble down as much as she can before I can set the plate down. If it's not a familiar food, she waits for Harriet (the black one), who is an adventurous eater, to try it first.

Greta (the favorite) continues to appear to be playing with less than a full deck of cards. She rarely will take food off the plate. Mostly it seems not to occur to her that she can do that; instead she just tries to get the food away from Harriet and Hazel if they drop it. Yesterday they tried some grapes and tomatoes for the first time, and boy do they love tomatoes!

Harriet and Hazel seem to be good buddies, and act like the cool girls. Greta is the outcast and always follows in their footsteps. But she's definitely the prettiest, so at least she's got something going for her.

A day in the sun

After a very long weekend working on a set of wedding invitations, I spent most of yesterday outside working on the garden.

The weather was amazing, so I brought all the girls outside with me. The husband helped me build a very small temporary pen by our workshop so that I can let them come outside for a bit when the weather is nice. The sides are almost 4 feet high and I found out yesterday that we'll need higher sides soon. The girls love testing their new wings, and Harriet made it up in the air to within 6 inches of the top of the fence! Hazel spent most of her time walking around looking up in the air, trying to figure out just how hard she'll have to flap her wings to make it over the top...

It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but the girls have nearly tripled in size and have lots of feathers now. They have the cutest tails that stick up in the air now!



True to her genetics as a pointer, Sadie pointed the way to the baby chickens. This series of photos was taken over the course of almost 2 minutes. She'd hold each pose for at least 30-45 seconds!







That last photo cracks me up. Sadie was in the process of taking a step forward when one of the chicks started hassling another chick (they do that alot!). She froze in place, with that hind leg in mid air, and stood there for at least 30 seconds. She may have stood there even longer if I hadn't started laughing and distracted her!

The IQ of a baby chicken

I've been digging in the garden recently and have uncovered some grubs. Do you know how much baby chickens like grubs? They like them a lot!



The sad thing is that Harriet (the black one) figured out almost immediately that grubs are good and that grubs come to her on a paper plate, and so when the paper plate enters the box be ready to grab a grub. Hazel (the white one) was about a day behind Harriet in discovering this for herself. But I first started feeding them small grubs about five or six days ago, and Greta (the gray one, my favorite one) STILL doesn't get it. She has only managed to get two grubs that she stole out of her sister's beaks. Despite my best efforts to keep Harriet and Hazel away and let Greta look at the grubs on the paper plate, she just doesn't understand the concept yet.

Not long after I introduced them to fine dining on grubs, I added a small perch to their box. Hazel jumped on it right away, and Harriet was right behind her. But it's been about four days since the addition of the perch, and Greta still hasn't jumped on it that I've seen.

I hate to say it, but I think Greta might be stupid!

Where are the baby chickens?

Sadie knows where they are.



On a totally unrelated note, you can see from the video that we still have sections of the floor that aren't tiled. After many months (EIGHT months, to be exact), I think we finally have a solution to the problem we encountered with the defective sealer on the last pallet of tile. We can't get any more tile to replace the defective ones, but we have tried a new sealer for the past month or so that seems to work well. So as soon as the weather warms up just a bit, we can get back to tiling and will finish the floors. Yay!

Meet Greta, Harriet, and Hazel

I don't care what the calendar says. It's officially spring at my house, because over the weekend I got three chicks!!

This is Greta. She is the exact color of a mouse.



I think she's my favorite so far.



And this is Harriet. Every time I pick her up and stroke the top of her head, she closes her eyes and stops wiggling.



She's a glossy black with a small spot of white on her chest.



And this is Hazel. I couldn't put her down for the picture because she's a runner!



I love the few black freckles on her back.



All three chicks are Whiting Blues, a locally raised form of the breed known as Americanas. The neat part? Each chick will lay about 300 eggs a year. The great part? They love bugs. I can't wait to turn them loose on the vermin in my garden this year! And the fun part? They lay BLUE eggs!! The rumor is that the feed store where I got them will also soon have Whiting Greens, which lay GREEN eggs. I only wanted three chicks, but if they happen to have a Whiting Green next time I'm there, I may have to add another one to my flock.

I'm really excited to have them. It took a full year to convince the husband that we needed to have a few hens. But do you know who is even more excited to see them?

Sadie.



They currently live in a box with a heat lamp in my studio. I have to keep the door closed. If I walk toward the door, Sadie is right beside me. She can't wait to see the chicks. She peers into the box with the most intense stare possible for a dog.



I handle each chick a few times a day so that they'll be used to people. I pull each chick up out of the box and stroke her head. Before long, Sadie starts shaking. I'm sure that she thinks she's looking at the best squeaky toy, ever. So far she's been pretty good, but she did lick the head of one of the chicks I was holding! Of course, I keep a close eye on her and make sure the door is always closed.

The other night I woke up and Sadie wasn't in her bed. I turned on the light and looked out in the living room and found Sadie standing with her nose touching the door, no doubt giving it a push every now and then just to see if the door knob was really latched...