http://youtu.be/VikuubsVIMQ If I ever had any doubt before, I now know the chickens are in charge. Up until tonight, they were just humoring me. After dinner, I let the girls out for a quick evening stroll in the yard. They sauntered over to a cave-like bush near the house, and set up camp. Matt and …
Toe trim trial
The other day as I was watching the girls perch on a homemade jungle gym, I noticed Gigi's toe nails seemed long. Instead of laying on the surface on the wood, aligned with her toes, the nails seemed to curl sideways. I went inside and Googled "how to trim chicken nails." After watching a tutorial, …
Week 14: Chicken sitter
Just as Matt and I got a routine down with the chickens, we decided it might be nice to get away for a long weekend. The biggest dilemma wasn't where to go, or what to pack. We needed to find a chicken sitter! Unlike a dog, we couldn't board the chickens, or drop them off …
Week 13: Geez, it’s hot!
Summer has arrived a couple days early, with scorching hot temperatures. Today it was in the high 80s most of the day, then inching into the low 90s around dinnertime. I kept a close eye on them throughout the day, looking for obvious signs of heat stress. Around 5 p.m., I went back out to …
Week 12: Hey, that’s my foot!
Tap-tap-Tap! Startled, I looked down at my feet to see Nellie pecking away at my turquoise gardening shoe. I know chickens are attracted to the color red. In fact, their feeder and waterer are red, and I've had more than one chicken peck at my painted toenails when I'm barefoot. But turquoise? Apparently Nellie has …
Week 11: My, how you’ve grown
After spending a week away from the girls to visit family, I wasn't sure what I would come to. As the girls ambled out of the coop, I was amazed at what I saw. "My how you've grown," I cooed as I looked them over. Loretta was visibly larger, and Nellie had the start of …
Week nine: The daily grind
How easy is it to take care of chickens, you ask? What I know for sure is that the hard part came before the chicks even arrived. It took us four months to build the chicken coop through blizzards, sub-freezing temperatures and rainfall. But once those little balls of fuzz arrived, we hit easy street. …
Free range (sort of)
Today the girls got a taste of free range life, sort of. As Matt worked on the yard, I opened the door the coop and let the chickens come and go as they pleased. The first thing they did was explore the yucca bushes in front of the coop. The bush's long green leaves held …
Officially official!
We're legal, baby! For two months now, we've had our baby chickens, but we only had a partial approval for the coop. The final OK couldn't come until the inspector returned to check out our chicks. In Ferndale, the town where we live, the local ordinance allows only three hens and no roosters. So today's …
Week eight: Clucky
"CLUCK!" Up to this point, the girls have made a variety of noises that range from their infant "peeps" to sing-songy trills. But this time it was undeniable. Loretta goes down as the first chick to cluck. It was throaty, and confident. Just as I would expect from her. Hours later there's a dust-up in …
Chicken Scratch Fever 