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.....!