Tonight, Loretta squatted for me! In chicken-speak, this means she'll be laying eggs in the next week or so. For some reason, she wouldn't come out of the coop today. Normally she's the first one barging through the door. But it took coaxing, and finally me just picking her up and putting her outside. That's …
A dirty little secret (resolved)
It's a backyard chicken keeper's worst nightmare. That barnyard smell. For the first month, it was totally fine. Then one hot, muggy day, after a heavy downpour, it arrived. I had to be standing literally at or in the coop, but the smell was undeniable. Of course, I freaked out. I worried about it getting …
Combs and wattles
In the blink of an eye, my girls are almost grown up! Tonight, as I let them out for their evening stroll, I saw all three are sporting big combs atop their heads. Also, wattles now hang below their chins. The combs and wattles are bright red, too. These changes signify that the girls are …
Week 15: Nite-nite
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 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 …
Chicken Scratch Fever 