Chickens! - Week 2

We've had our chickens for over a week now and you can definitely see how they've got different personalities. As groups we're seeing that the red ladies are growing faster, are more shy yet a bit less skittish and seem to be coming into their feathers faster than the more inquisitive black ones. They also tend to stay in groupings of their own colors. I told them I won't stand for segregation in this house so hopefully they'll come to be more comfortable with each other. So far no one has come to blows.

 "Get that camera out of my face!"

To get them used to us and us handling them we've begun spending time each day feeding them from our hands. At first they were completely afraid of our hands and arms entering their mini coop, but once one realized there was food on there (and that it wasn't a death trap) they all came running. Now when they see us starting to open up their coop (dog crate) they come looking for the food on our hands, even when there isn't any. It's silly because it's the same food in their food dispenser and that dispenser is full. Maybe they're bored.

You can start to see real feathers coming in already replacing the downy fluff they had when we first got them. They also walk around like mini dinosaurs. As they were pecking the crumbles of food off my palm today I imagined a flock of Compy's from Jurassic Park massing on a fallen human and just all taking tiny bites of their prey. It was actually unsettling.

"Damn you prehistoric chickens!"

Here is how Lola spends most of her time, watching, waiting for the right moment to attack. We've had to cover the front of the crate that has a gate at chick level to keep them from sticking their heads through the mesh. 

One of the funnier things to realize since we got the chicks is that they pass out almost instantly, narcoleptic-style. They'll be fully awake one second, then they'll sit down the next, and within 3 more seconds they've face-planted into the bedding. And that's how they sleep at this age. I have to keep giving the crate a bit of a shake to make sure their not dead. So far they're all doing very well and are still alive. Woohoo!

We've thrown in some branches for them to get used to roosting. At first they were freaked the hell out, but like the hands of the giants that bring them food they got used to them fairly quickly. Last night was the first time we saw them roosting as they slept. I was wondering if the guy underneath was going to get pooped on, and sure enough this morning he had a big poop stuck to his back. Chickens can be assholes too, don't let them fool you.

While the heat lamp is their main source of heat you do need to give them some darkness each day. You want to give them almost 23.5 hrs of light when they're first starting out but then gradually increase the amount of darkness each week so they get used to the normal schedule of the sun. But, they panic when the lights go out. Here is a video to hear how unhappy they are when their sun falls out of their sky. Poor Chicken Little.

See you next week.

Chickens!! - Day 1

For us it's Day 1, but for the chicks we got it's day 9 or 10. We would have liked to have gotten day old chicks but the place we went to to pick them out had only a small selection. Though they did have day olds we decided to go with some week olds because they were more likely to survive and we were able to get a greater variety.

We ended up getting three Barred Rock and three New Hampshire Red pullets. (pullets = young hens)

Here we see one NHR looking at me looking at her through one of the holes in the box they came home in.

Little dudettes all huddled together trying to hide from the big scary humans.

 We borrowed this set up from a friend but decided to use a big ol' dog crate we had lying around. It would give them more space and cut off floor drafts.

  This is the dog crate with the water and feeder inside.

 Jane putting the first chick into dog crate. You can see just how big it is in this image. We tied the heat lamp to the door with wire.

And here they are getting used to their new surroundings.

"What chu' lookin' at sucka?!" 

And there you have it, our first flock on Day 1. When they grow up they should look like these guys.

Starting the garden

Two weekends ago I woke up early on Saturday and went with my neighbors Tom and Nina to my other neighbor's house to shovel up some free animal poop for the garden. My other neighbors have a small farm which is totally concealed from the road, I had no idea it was there.

Here I fed the pigs some cracked corn so they'd hang out with me instead of trying to kick my butt. Notice my sexy friend in the back, he was trying to get sexy with everyone.
I like this little guy, reminds me of the little pig I had for a while, his name was Bacon.
This horse is about 30 years old! I had no idea they lived that long.
She looks so sad in this picture. It's ok horse, we all get old some day.
This guy was a total ass.

This goat has devil eyes.
Here he is again, this time getting sexy with the chickens. I love the look on the brown one's face.
With the buckets full of poop I shoveled I returned home to start getting the garden ready. My gnome friend kept the garden safe all winter. I rented a tiller and started plowing the field.
But I took constant breaks to take picture of the flowers starting to bloom around the house. Here are some tulips.
Close up of the interior of a different tulip, this one was all red, not sunburst style like the ones above.
Our mower is currently broken so I haven't been able to mow the grass yet. This has allowed some plants I didn't know existed in our yard to grow and blossom, like there guys. We've also been finding random tulips around the house popping up here and there in the middle of the lawn.
Here is some rhododendron flowering. At least I think it's rhododendron.

Here are all the empty poop buckets after I mixed them into the soil.
A quick shot of the bad ass tiller I rented.
And me trying to look bad ass. Didn't work. But I hope my kids look at this one day and laugh their asses off. Hey kids of the future, you're welcome.

Now, onto the continuing saga of the car shitting robin. Here is a picture of the beautiful nest it built after I gave it a shelf as a good foundation. She flew off (probably to crap on my car) so I snuck in to take a picture of the nest.Pretty cool. And guess what.....

Booya! She must have been ready to pop because she finished the nest the day before this picture was taken. So cute and pretty. Now I get why that color is called robin's egg blue. Duh.It was a long day but the garden was fully tilled and so was my attempt at raised beds. Next year I'll actually build some beds using wood. Right now the whole garden is not on level ground and during a heavy rain it can flood towards the bottom. It's hard to see but there is an apple tree in the middle of the garden. I planted it before I knew I was going to build the garden, one day it'll be the garden or the tree that has to go but for now she's safe from the hungry deer within the sanctity of her loving fence. If you're wondering why I have a row of rocks across the garden it's marking off the septic pipe from the house to the septic system off in the distance. I found out it was there when I hit it with the tiller last year and had to fix it. That sucked!

Since these were taken I built a trellis of sorts for the cucumber and bean plants to grow up. Also two types of lettuce are in as well as spinach and some red cabbage. Also some onions and potatoes. I have a bunch of my seedlings out on the porch hardening up and they will likely go into the ground this weekend.