The New Additions!

Well lately I have been adding a privacy fence so the dogs will have more room to run and the chickens can free range all day. While clearing out brush for the fence, Hershey and Bear found two baby bunnies. They were licking them and had torn the nest apart. I got the babies away from them before they hurt them..... So now we have two bunnies as pets! I'll post pics soon

OK- Gotta get better at this!

I have really been remiss with my blog (not that anyone noticed, since I really don't advertise my blog - this is just my rant to myself in reality!).  Seems like I don't make the time to write, just like with a lot of things.  Seems life gets in the way.

Since I last posted, I added more run space for the chickens to move around in.  My neighbor, Dave, gave me a tractor he used for his chickens before he let them free-range.  I added legs to one end and some wire around the bottom and it added another 32 sq. ft. of roaming space.

 I planted some of my garden - just things that can stand a cold night or two before spring really sets in.  Two types of lettuce - Romaine and red leaf, Spinnach, Brussel Sprouts, and some strawberry plants.  Had to keep shooing the chickens out of the garden as they were extremely interested in the "green things" sticking out of the ground!  Fencing went up immediately afterward, especially since we have an over abundance of rabbits that live around our house!

Egg production is up - most of the girls are laying an egg a day - have gotten 10 eggs on a couple of days!   Woohoo!  The longer days are really helping this out, plus they are enjoying the longer afternoons that they are now able to roam in the yard!

Black Sex Link (have not named her)



Becky - A Buckeye Chicken




The Girls perched on the bench in the back yard




Gave them a treat of the pumpkins from Halloween



We had a couple of big snowstorms - for NC.  This picture was taken from our bedroom window early one morning.  The chickens were not impressed ... as a matter of fact, they would not come out of their coop.  They looked at the snow, looked at me, and went back to their covered run!

I made this one come out - just to see what she would do.  She looked around and made a beeline for the coop!

Just to keep things straight, I currently have 3 Buff Orphingtons (the yellow ones - one is named Butterscotch), 3 Black Sex Links (Chicken Little is one), 1 Plymouth Barred Rock (Barbara), 1 Americana, 1 Rhode Island Red (Lucy), and 1 Buckeye (Becky).

Been Absent

Wow - sorry been away for awhile.... lots going on...  The chickens are doing well - laying areound 6-8 eggs a day!!  Still looking for a Marans of any color... would love to get one laying those dark chocolate eggs!  Totally awesome!  I need to run water and electricity to the coop.  The wife is tired of the hose being strung out all the way to the coop and I know it is going to freeze eventually! 

The number increases...

Well - you know that chickens are pretty social - so my dilemma - I have one chick that needs a friend.....  back to tthe feed store!  Got an Americana to go along with her! 

A couple of weeks later we had an invasion of the coop.  A racoon got in and absconded with my Plymouth Barred Rock!  I was ticked!  So now, I have a lonely Americana who is too small to fit in with the others because she is four weeks younger and smaller!  Back to the feed store!

This time I got pullets that were a little older - the same age as the Americana - and I got 2!  A Rhode Island Red and another Barred Rock!  I am up to 9!  Did I mention that the city limits me to 10?

The Saga Continues

Well, the coop had to go up FAST!  Catie was about to strangle me and had to get the chickens out of the kitchen! 

about 4 weeks later I was in the feed store and saw they had Plymout Barred Rocks!  Man - that will be a cool looking chicken!  I wonder if I can put it in with my pullets...... Hmmmm.....
I bought her and put her in with the girls - unfortunately she was too young and just stood there and took the pecks from the bigger hens - so I had to bring her back into the house for the night ... then the wife found out!

A little history

Yes, my wife thinks I am nuts!  I had been thinking about getting some chickens for a couple of years and finally pulled the trigger ...... er, got permission from my better half!  (well - sort of got permission!)

We started out as a blended family 10 years ago.  I had Sammie and Abby - a yellow and black Lab, she had Matilda (Tootie) and Cowy - Tootie - a buff Cocker Spaniel and Cowy - a black and white cat.  Everyone got along (well, Abby was only about a year old, so Cowy had to "teach" her the rules of the household!)

Over the years we first lost Cowy to old age, then Sammie to old age (she was 16 - I don't remember how old Cowy was).  Then, about a year ago we lost Tootie at age 14.  Tootie was my wife's baby and, of course, had a hard time.  

Six months later our neighbor brings home a stray mama dog with 8 puppies which were adorable!  Catie instantly picked one out and named her Hershey.  There was another puppy there that seemed to catch my eye - the largest of the puppies and the kids had named her Big Blue Bear (she was wearing a blue ribbon to identify her).  So we decided to get Bear and Hershey.

Chickens???  Oh, yeah - this blog is supposed to have chickens in it, right?  Well when Catie said she wanted a puppy - I said "well, then I am going to get my chickens!"   Her reply was fine - you just have to build a coop!

The next day was Monday and at lunch I stopped by our local Feed and Seed and bought 3 Buff Orphingtons and 3 Black Sex Links

That is the start of the madness.....!