HOUDINI AND THE OTHER CHICKENS

Our chickens are little rascals!  Their names are Fluffy, Marshmallow?, Princess, Snowfall (the white ones), Midnight, Shadow, Zebra (the black & white ones), Goldalicious, and Sunlight (the reddish ones).  Whew!  All 9.

After letting them have the run of the yard all winter, we are finishing up the work on the chicken coop and have gathered them all up.  All of them, except Houdini.

Who is Houdini you ask?  She is a white chicken with the previous name of Fluffy or Marshmallow.  Marshmallow is one of the chickens that previously escaped the yard to go to the neighbors, so my bet is Marshmallow.

Anyhow, at least two times a day, this chicken manages to escape over the makeshift door.  It is really quite entertaining.  We have figured out how she does it.  She jumps up on the ladder, over to the top of the makeshift door and then flies down.  I think that it's her personal mission to cause mischief and out shine the other chickens.  To her dismay, it may be the early result of chicken noodle soup if she continues once our garden is up.

Here are a few of the latest pictures of our girls!  (Courtesy of Faith Jolley photography)

Is that you Houdini?

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Let's ditch this joint!

 

Houdini is crazy!

I don't know about this chicken behind me ...

 

Egg-cited for spring!  More eggs!

NOVEMBER CHICKS

We are really enjoying the chickens. They make us smile, laugh, and wonder if the neighbors will ever call us into Animal Control (it happened to another neighbor.)

Here are some pictures of the rascals.

RED BARN

Many of our friends and family are interested in our progress to complete our chicken coop. Well, the chickens are still growing and the coop (other than a door and the rest of the chicken wire) is up and working very nicely. The kids are still interested in the chickens and also are okay with eating them... So I think that we are still in business.

Here are some pictures that I found on Brandon's phone that document part of 'da coop'.









This was a long exhausting project, as clearly seen by Will Bohney



On a side note, these beautiful, cute, fun, whatever-you'd-like-to-call-them chickens ate our garden. I hope they enjoyed it!!! Next year, we will try to put up a fence around the garden ...

CHICKEN LITTLE, CHICKEN BIG

If you've noticed that posts have been fewer and farther between, you probably have a few guesses as to why. One is that I have been working extra to cover on vacations and such. And the second, yes, CHICKENS!!! They are getting so big.


The kids play 90% of the time outside, taking care of the chickens. I am afraid that they are going to be really attached!


They are everywhere!


Kids making a resting area for them in the coop.


The other day, we even lost a chicken under the fence. No worries, we got 'Marshmallow' back.


Zebra has a broken talon (aka toe). Faith and her friend Kristin carry her around in a red jacket everyday.



We are working hard to build the coop before fall hits and the chickens start their egg laying. After searching for the best chicken coops, we picked one that we liked, but we didn't have a pattern. They did however, have plenty of pictures. And so we set out, full throttle to build and paint this fabulous chicken coop.


We have now discovered a flaw, which is leading to a hiccup in the building process. The flooring should have had notches cut out where the 2x4s were, so we are 2 inches short ...


We are working on improvisations at this point. Here is one option that we are currently looking into.


Our work in progress ...

RELOCATING THE BROOD

The chickens were moved to the garage the middle of this week and are doing well. We also upgraded their cardboard box to a extra large red tote. I hope that they enjoy the color red, because the outside of their coop is going to be a barn red (per Zoey's request)!!!

Here are the latest pictures of how they are growing ...



And finally, we have started the process of building the coop. Brandon rented a sod cutter that ended up being not only a waste of time, but an energy drainer. He said that it felt like he had been holding a jack hammer all day ...

Next week, we will rent another sod cutter and get the grass up in that area. Then starts the fun part of framing!

HOW TO PICK UP CHICKS

Call me a newbie, or a greenie, but I had NO idea that chicks could grow so fast. Really, I didn't know!!!

So, here are a few pictures of the kids 'picking up' their chicks. They are now 1 week old from when we received them.

Faith with "Shadow"

Dawson with "Fluffy"

Kate with "Goldalicious"

CUTE CHICKS

Brandon got a phone call from the Post Office Tuesday about 3 in the afternoon to come pick up a package. It was an exciting phone call and one that we have been waiting for since the day after Easter.

The shipping box. They were VERY chirpy.

Their friend didn't make it.

Moving them to their temporary home.

Trying to get them to eat and drink.

The water and food set up.

There was one chick who was just hanging out, wobbling. No interest in food, no interest in water. We were worried about her, so Brandon tried to push her beak in the water to make her drink. She was not having it. SO, we tried to help 'Buddy' by getting a medicine dropper filled with water. We managed to help her drink and by the next day, we could not tell which one was Buddy, which we believe was a good thing.

We are so excited to raise chickens and to learn more everyday. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of the kids holding them next week.