We have a little black bird who has a simple request. Will you please give me a name? Our Dominique is called Baby Girl. And the Olive Egger's stage name is Gigi. That leaves the Black French Copper Marans. After discussing this dilemma with Matt, we both agreed that we would let our readers name …
Week three: The name game
Three weeks in, and two of the chicks have names. Sort of. I put this disclaimer on it because Matt claims to have ultimate veto power. I've asked him for his suggestions, and so far he's come up dry. So I've gone ahead and named two of them. I was tiring of calling them by …
Week two: Field trip!
With temperatures above 50 degrees today, we decided to take the chicks on a field trip to see their chicken coop! I packed all three into a cat carrier, and walked them out into the yard. At first they were scared to come out of the carrier, but the bold Olive Egger led the way. …
Discovering the crop
Last night, I gently moved my finger toward a chick and stroked her chest. This in itself was a victory, as the chicks usually run peeping, away from my hands. But as I touched the chick, I felt a lump. My stomach dropped. I gently picked her up, and palpated. Did she have a tumor? …
Homecoming!
The babies are home! After spending the weekend in Cleveland (most of it holed up in a hotel room because poor Matt is awfully sick) we got up early this morning to pick up the chicks. While we were finishing breakfast at the hotel, I received a cheerful call that the chicks were ready and …
The final countdown
Chicks are just seven days away! We've been busy taking care of last-minute details, and prepping the brooder. A couple weeks ago, Matt and I bought a new rabbit hutch that we converted into a brooder. It's just big enough for the chicks to live in for their first six weeks, before transitioning to the …
Meeting our neighbors
When we decided to have backyard chickens, it was clear we needed to include our neighbors. Over time, it came up casually in conversation with the ones who lived on both sides of us, but now that chicks are two weeks away we needed a more formal outreach. So I came up with an idea: …
Brooder experiment
I had this weekend all planned out. I planned to team up with Matt to build a brooder for the chicks. This is a box where the chicks can grow up safely and warmly inside the house, until they are strong enough to live outside. Earlier in the week I had even sketched a rough …
It’s how cold in the coop?
As the wind blew outside, I looked out the window and shivered. "It's gotta be cold out there," I said. "Even for chickens." Matt asked the temperature. "How cold is it in the coop?" I pulled out my iPhone, and opened the My Backyard Weather app. "It says 6 degrees. Brrr." The chicks are five …
Chicken techno-geek
So I just ordered a gizmo that will allow me to track temperature and humidity in the chicken coop on my iPhone. Yeah, I'm a geek. Originally we had bought a La Cross Solar Powered Wireless Temperature Station. We selected this model because it boasted of a 200-foot wireless transmission range, which sounded perfect because …
Chicken Scratch Fever 