Movin on up - Just like the Jeffersons!

During my vacation the family and I took a trip to NY to pick up a coop I had ordered from a fellow BackYardChickens.com member. Alex and I assembled it and decided to give it a few upgrades, we installed a roost, a divider board for the coop/nest box as well as a vinyl floor in the coop, and nesting box as well as the floor of the attached run. We installed hardware cloth over the window opening and latches to keep out any nasty critters. I finally got around to leveling out the cement foundation blocks and moved the coop with Chip & Dale into it's permanent location (for now!) I considered attaching wheels to the coop and making it a chicken tractor that can be moved around the yard and into shelter during harsh winter months but I decided I can always make the changes later if needed.

Faster than construction in Rome!

It's amazing how a few hours here and there can provide one with a "work of art" like this! Chuck and I have worked on the coop on days that my work schedule have allowed and in just a couple of work sessions this is what we have accomplished.

Hopefully it will receive its certificate of occupancy this Monday as the "little girls" have begun laying!

And then there were EGGS!

I can't believe it my 15 week old little girls are laying eggs already! I knew from my research that Red Sex Links were early layers and once they start - get ready for LOTS of eggs. I know from my older flock the normal age of egg laying is between 22-24 weeks and most RSL chickens start between 18-20 weeks. Much to my surprise the other night while everyone was happily free ranging around our property one of the "little" girls decided to check out the "big" girls coop. She was soon joined by Momo (our Golden Comet rooster.) After a little while I went in to encourage her to find somewhere else to play and much to my surprise I found a warm, little brown egg! Today when I went to put them away for the night I was presented with another one. I am so glad the new coop is almost done - hopefully if all goes well they will be able to move into their new home on Monday night. Below are a couple of pictures of them "In the act" and of the yummy - although still small - eggs I have recieved from my little red darlin's.

New and Improved Egg Palace

Rebecca's father has been helping me fabricate the parts of the new chicken coop that we are building. It sure is nice to have something built the proper way! We finally had a few days without rain and even a little sunshine. This past weekend we took advantage of a clear morning and placed the floor on its foundation blocks and attached the front and back walls. There is still a lot of work to be done and we will be working on it when my schedule permits. Here are some pictures of what was accomplished today. I look forward to posting more pictures as we progress with the construction.

Saddles for riding or Aprons for cooking?

In the words of Hanna Montana - "Say What, Say What?"

My working girls (by working I mean "egg producing" of course!) are starting to look pretty shabby, partially due to molting but mostly due to playing "leap frog" with Sokka - our rooster. Their lower back feathers take the brunt of the damage and on two of the girls they are all but gone. I found on my favorite web site - Back Yard Chickens, that you can purchase Saddles to help protect the chickens during heavy breeding seasons. Some people call them aprons, hen dresses but the correct term from what I can tell is "saddles". I have found them in all shapes, sizes, colors, and of course - Price.

I decided to do a little searching and found a rough pattern on the web and after showing it to Rebecca we (and by we I mean Rebecca - of course!) decided to try to make our own and save some money as well as obtain the satisfaction of using something that is homemade.

So I guess they aren't for the chickens to use while they are cooking and even though four of our chickens are Jersey Giants they are still way to small for any of us to ride around the yard!

Rebecca has done a great job and we have found a few things we are going to change on the remaining saddles. Here are a few pictures of the first ones we made both on and off of the chickens. Hopefully this will relieve any discomfort making them into happy little chickens - and we all know happy chickens lay more eggs! Our first two lucky recipients are Penny and Guinevere.

Spoiled food

No, I'm not talking about food that is unfit to eat - I'm talking about spoiled chickens - (also know by their names - Chip and Dale.) They are our Dark Cornish Bantams, Chip is the girl and Dale is the boy.

I am waiting for my pre-fab chicken coop to arrive so I can get our spoiled bantams out of the house. Here is a picture of the coop I am getting - It is sold online for almost $500 but thanks to a fellow BYC member I am not paying anywhere even close to that!

Chip and Dale have spent so much time around us they have become "pets" and spend their nights in a brooder under the kitchen table and during the day they have the run of our deck. They are very heavy footed and sound like mini T-Rex dinosaurs running to and fro. We have had a lot of rain here in the North East the past month so on several occasions the birds get a good towel drying and lots of snuggling before they get tucked in for the night.

I am also ready for them to get moved off the deck as they have discovered my patio garden and like the rest of us really enjoy the taste of jalapenos much to my dismay! Here they are hanging out with the family during one of our brief sunny moments recently.



Here are some pictures of our other chickens - I can't wait until they start earning their keep and laying some eggs - our mature chickens have been going through their molt which has really slowed down our egg production. So far everyone has been getting along while free ranging around the property and hopefully there are enough girls that the 2 roosters will get along.



Here are our favorite chickens - Our Silkie rooster "Sokka" and our Polish hens "Shiloh" on right and "Edwina" on left.


Alex and I also took the time to bury the ashes of our cat "Britney" who died during the late winter months. As everyone knows I am not a cat person but this was the first animal I ever bought for Rebecca and she was a great pet over the years. Alex really loved her and after we buried her ashes he took the time to make a simple memorial for her and my son's kindness really touched my heart.

Facebook for chickens

Well, Okay it's not really for chickens but for people who have chickens. As most of you know I am no longer on Facebook (old news I know but I really didn't want to discuss it while I was going through withdrawals!) I really enjoyed butting in on everyone's lives and was able to rekindle some childhood friendships which I have been able to keep up with via email and personal blogs despite my lack of Facebook membership.

For those who didn't know why we abandoned our FB Accounts - Rebecca's profile was hacked and after several days of getting nowhere with the FB staff we finally closed out R's profile - only to find it reactivated the next morning asking more people for $$$ due to me getting mugged while on a business trip, Rebecca getting stranded trying to get me back after I left her and went to London, and the lies went on and on. I finally took the time to delete ever post I ever wrote, group I joined, flair, etc...


It has been several months now and despite it being tough at times I was able to give up Facebook - and I did it cold turkey! I found that after I gave up FB I regained my desire to start blogging again - plus it helped that it is spring time and I have more to write about. So how does this all relate to my title - Well seeing that I have been raising a new flock of chicks I often get answers to any questions I may have right here on the world wide web and one of the sites I found myself often referring to was : Backyard Chickens.

It was here where I found my Facebook replacement. It turns out they have a forum that you can join and not only get answers to all your questions you can make your own web page, post pictures, message other members, buy, sell , trade and the list goes on and on. I have really enjoyed browsing the site and even found a new rooster for Ariel that we went as a family to pick up on Saturday Morning.

I hope that you all don't think I'm becoming "Chicken Crazy" but I feel secure with my "Peeps" over at BYC and fear not - I will always be here to Blog about it and thankfully, with the aid of my keyboard it will always be legible so no need to worry about my writing looking like chicken scratch!

Oh and in case you were wondering our new Roosters name is Sokka. It is nice to wake to the sound of the roosters crow again - it was too quiet out here in the north woods!

Warming their new feathers

The early evenings here have been nice so I decided to let our new little girls (and boys) get some exercise and feel the green grass under their toes. I must admit I am getting quite addicted to my back yard flock and would like to build a really nice coop some day that looks more like a farm barn. The kids have really enjoyed finding bugs and worms to feed the chicks, which has really helped with human-chicken interaction. I really like having the larger brooder in the garage and I know Rebecca is grateful too! Here are some pictures of this years chicks during their first back yard adventures this week. They all got a chance to stretch their wings and warm their feathers (and what is left of their chick fluff) in the warm evening sun.

Let us back in!
The Older Girls getting some fresh greens
Navarre watching over his babies

Discovering the joy of clover

Just noticed the older Hens in the yard

Chip and Dale - sticking together

The Kids showing them the ropes

Chip and Dale's Backyard Adventure

A couple of weeks ago I told you about the new chicks we purchased in this post. Well a lot has changed since April 18th - The 6 red sex links and 3 golden comets are all in the downstairs brooder where they have more room to stretch their wings, the 2 dark colored bantam chicks are still in the upstairs brooder - just because I enjoy interacting with them and they are so much smaller than the standard breed chicks. Unfortunately the tiny white bantam chick we had died.

The kids had named the white one "Speed" because when he wasn't sleeping he would run around like Forrest Gump while plowing his way through all the other chicks! The 2 other bantams are now named "Chip & Dale" due to their colors.

Last night when I got home from work I decided to take them outside for the first time. At first they were a little wigged out from the feeling of the grass but eventually calmed down. Then Navarre came over to guard over them and that's when they started climbing on his back and hopping back and forth between the two of us. I wish Navarre would keep his ears up when a camera is around - it seems like his ears are always up and at attention until he knows that a picture is being taken and then down they go!

I am always amazed at how gentle Navarre is with the baby chicks and how big of a desire he has to guard over the mature chickens when they are out of the coop - especially from squirrels! (that's a video I need to post!)

In need of a new alarm clock.

Well as stated in a past post if our rooster kept up his antics that we would have 1 rooster too many. Well, due to the fact that Alex was no longer able to interact with the chickens and Ariel was taking chances getting the eggs after sundown - Thursday night we had a nice fresh chicken dinner! Ariel was sad that I slaughtered her rooster (aka - Bobby - kids don't understand the "don't name your food" rule until it's too late) so I decided to stop in to Tractor Supply Company during my work travels and was surprised to learn that they were getting several more shipments of day old chicks! When I got home I discussed my plans with Rebecca and decided to pick up a rooster if they still had sex-link chicks. Well due to people making bad decisions T.S.C. began a minimum purchase of 6 chicks. After discussing this with Rebecca we decided that the more egg producers the better - we have room for them so why not! Ariel and I dropped Alex off at school and went to pick out 6 more chicks and we would try to pick out a replacement rooster for our flock. When we arrived they had just finished unpacking the mornings shipment which included assorted straight-run bantams. Being the sucker that I am for cute chicks I decided to take a chance and picked up 3 bantams along with the 1 chick we believe is a rooster and 2 pullets. It is fun trying to figure out what breed the bantams are - I think we figured out what the 2 dark ones are - the white one is a little harder although we think it is one of 3 breeds. My guess is here. Once they mature I will be sure to post an update. It is amazing how much the chicks we got last week have grown - it seems like just yesterday they still had their egg tooth and before you know it they will be increasing our egg sales!