My Family Loves It » Chickens

Spring!

Heather — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:25:28 +0000

I got so tired of everyone complaining about winter this year because I LOVE snow but I am going to admit that even though I was happy for our snow day this Wednesday, I am getting pretty excited about SPRING!!! It certainly doesn’t look like spring outside our house but with the longer days and plenty of eggs from our 4 chickens I’m starting to adjust to winter ending. Now can I order a few weeks of 65 degree sunny weather???

PS- don’t you just love those dark brown and speckled eggs my Cuckoo Maran is laying! She is supposed to lay dark brown but maybe its that she is so young that she gives me a lot of speckled too?

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some new chickens!

Heather — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:39:59 +0000

We just got 3 new chickens yesterday: 2 Salmon Faverolle Bantams and 1 Cuckoo Maran. Our Ameraucana Chickie-Poo is no longer alone! We are keeping all 4 confined to the coop/pen for now and we plan on moving the entire coop to the other side of the house and giving them a bigger fenced in area this Fall. Seems I can’t stop thinking of plans for John (although I have been pretty good with this since he has been working insane amounts for work lately). Anyway the kids are really happy that we have some new chickens and I am too! I will definitely miss the free range thing EXCEPT for the chickens getting eaten on us part. They really do make great pets but its a learning experience trying to figure out the best way to raise a little flock. Oh and the 2 Faverolle’s still need names but Ethan picked Molly for the Maran (I was able to talk him out of Chewbacca and get him to pick a girl name).

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Chickie-Poo is our last chicken :(

Heather — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:58:30 +0000

So much for having free-range chickens! Yesterday morning I heard Hen get killed by what I’m guessing was a hawk. Its so sad since these birds turned out to be so friendly, comical, cute and lovable. Our chickens let us pick them up and pet them and they have the softest feathers. They were really pets that lived outside and gave us the bonus of fresh eggs but apparently letting them live free and happy anywhere they pleased was not the best plan. So poor Chickie-Poo is the last chicken and she is my favorite. I am hoping that John will get some break from his horrible non-stop work schedule to put up a fence around the coop and rig up a roof so that we can keep this last bird alive and maybe get her some little birdy friends. Originally we told the kids we’d get more chicks this spring/summer but when we lost Fuzzworth we changed our minds since we knew they’d get eaten. I’m just not cut out for being a farmer! Here is our lonely birdie:

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NO PLANS TODAY!

Heather — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:05:31 +0000

I am going to take some time to do nothing for at least today! With the busy end of the school year over, company gone and the big living painting just finished yesterday (well minus the baseboards), I am thinking we need to schedule some days with absolutely nothing. We will have to prep for two upcoming birthday parties at our house in July and some more home improvement projects but I’m planning on lots of lazy summer days too. This morning while the bigger 3 kids held a secret picnic in the boys’ room, I took Jillian outside. She fed the chickens (sadly we only have 2 left), lifted her fallen car, gave me a lovely look, took her very first photo with finger to prove it, got attacked by some little biting flying bugs, played with the gate, found and then lost a rock, and then we came in to check on the how the sneaky snack snatchers were doing.

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Poor chickens

Heather — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:53:30 +0000

I’m feeling cranky, my kids are sick and my chickens are getting killed!
First we lost my family’s chicken Henrietta (above) right before Easter (not sure what happened to her but she was old and not acting herself right before she disappeared) but now our 6 chickens that we raised from chicks last spring are getting attacked. Friday evening we found Loretta badly hurt and John had me mostly convinced that it was a broody Princess Leia who turned on her fellow chicken because she was being territorial of the coop. Loretta is still hanging on but not looking good and I am not sure she can make it. Then today I looked all over the yard for Lola and couldn’t find her and then when John came home he found feathers from her by a tree. So one of my favorite birds is gone today and another is suffering. I’m now thinking both were attacked by hawks or some other animal. I HATE this part having pet chickens. It almost makes me wish we hadn’t gotten them. At least Lola probably died quickly, I really feel worse for Loretta and now I’m thinking that they are all sitting ducks. We now just have 4 healthy birds left! Lola was the black and white Wyandotte and Loretta is one of the Ameraucanas, the closest chicken in the other picture.

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Feeding and petting the birds

Heather — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:43:00 +0000

We love our chickens! I got 6 eggs this morning. Jamie and I went out to feed them and she was excited to do it herself and to pet them. We are running low on their food so they also got an old box of granola, a 1/2 eaten banana and the remains of Jamie’s apple.

*update on the day: boys were out playing in the new snow we got late morning and Ben found 2 more new eggs. Ethan built a snowman and Jamie is now in a new set of penguin pajamas because this potty thing is tough to master! She is singing “pajama day” for me now!

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Chicken Video

Heather — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:05:00 +0000

I’m playing around with the Youtube upload feature of iMovie 09. Worked well, very easy. Our digital camera, however, has tons of dust on the lens causing those dark spots.

If you listen carefully, you can hear pirates in the background.

Heather also got some great photos of the chickens out in the snow.

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Lola in the snow

Heather — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:17:39 +0000

Its been so cold here lately and my poor chickens aren’t loving it! Some days they don’t venture out of their little house but I don’t know how much warmer they are in there. We have 2 red heat lights in it but their water still freezes. 4 of the birds were brave enought to trudge through the snow yesterday. Lola looked so funny walking in the deep snow that I wish I had the video camera out with me instead.

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Everyone out of that tree!

Heather — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:26:05 +0000

John wrote a few weeks ago about the chickens sleeping in the trees and its getting out of hand, I mean its winter! Earlier in the week we had a night that was really cold and 2 chickens were missing when John went to close them in their coop. The weather man said it was a record low of 7 degrees so at 11:30pm we went out and found them in the tree outside our bedroom window. They just wouldn’t come down even though it was freezing and they had puffed themselves up with their heads pulled in like little beachballs. They were too high up so John had to get a ladder and toss them down to me so I could put them in their house. Since that night its hit or miss with those same 2 birds, they like their tree even when its cold. Last night they were just too high up even with the ladder. Today Ethan saw the ladder and realized with it he could add another “climbing tree” to his list. So here is my 6 yr old and 5 of the silly chickens up in the tree today.

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Chickens have been laying EGGS and other things.

Heather — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:02:02 +0000

Right after I had Jillian the chickens started to lay eggs. I’ve lost count but we’ve gotten over 20 so far. The 2 Wyandottes started first because we just got brown eggs for the first 2 weeks but slowly the Ameraucanas are following suit and we have some green eggs too (although the picture doesn’t show the colors well 4 of those are really light green). In other chicken news, they are not enjoying the cold that much I don’t think because they keep trying to come in the house and garage. Lola actually knocks on one of our doors pretty regularly and of course I usually give her some food when she does so I’m sure that she’ll keep it up. This morning Fuzzworth was at the front window and the kids thought it was great, they also liked looking out at all the chicken footprints in the snow. Luckily all the chickens have stopped roosting in the trees at night now that its getting super cold!

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