Summer's End

This summer has flown by! It has been almost 4 months since I wrote a blog post and I figured I should do one today. Our summer was filled with so many fun and exciting things. We finished up making our chicken coop and enclosure for our chicks.

My lovely hubby Mike scaled down a plan from book The Art of the Chicken Coop by Chris Gleason for our coop. I think it turned out wonderful. We made the enclosure a 8' square with chicken wire enclosing it on all sides. There is plenty of room in there for our cute chickens.

I love the ramp that leads up into the coop. We had a brooder light inside the coop at first to keep them warm at night, but took it out once they got more feathers!

Unfortunately, my little chicken turned out too be a little rooster. Pixie went to live with my sister out in the country where roosters are welcome.

He didn't last there too long due to an animal attack one night. My poor little Pixie. We are hoping to get another hen sometime soon to fill the hole in our little flock that his passing left.

Our "flying saucer" squash, as we call them, grew wonderfully in our garden this summer. Lexie Lou found a new favorite veggie, as we cooked these up in a variety of ways. I think sauteed in olive oil with zucchini was the tastiest.

We planted a new nectarine tree in our front yard last fall. I was waiting hopefully to see if it would live. We have lost several fruit trees the first year we planted them. Good news for us, it lived! Yippee :) Here are the first little fruits it presented us with. They were very tiny, about 1" across, but oh so delicious.

We ended up with around 15-20 baby nectarines but the wind and birds got to a few of them before we did. I'm usually a peach girl, but these nectarines might just make me change my mind.

Out of the three packets of sunflower seeds that my daughter Lexie and I planted, we lucked out with 6 good sized sunflowers this summer. There were also a couple mini sunflowers that looked more like daisies.

Here is a picture of Zoie holding Colbert, with Fluffaz showing off her pretty wings. I love the expression on Zoie's face as she tries to smile, but is worried that she might get attacked at the same time. Fluffaz is the brashest of our three hens and always the first to come up and peck you.

I hope your summer was as exciting and filled with love and joy as ours was.

Chicken Update

Our little chickens are growing up fast! We've had them for just over a month now and they have more than doubled in size. Fluffaz and Pixie are the biggest by far, and look very similar. The major difference is that Pixie has a bigger comb that has turned red. Fluffaz also has bluish legs and feet, while Pixie's are still a tan color.

Here is a picture taken of them all on Mike's arm April 17th.




L to R: Rocky, Pixie, Colbert, Fluffaz

And a picture of them on my arm on May 5th. What a size difference!

L to R: Rocky, Fluffaz, Colbert, Pixie

Here they all are roosting on my arm. They get pretty heavy after holding them up for a bit! They are all used to being handled by us, and will come over and hop onto our legs, climb up on our arms, to hang out.

Colbert (above) is starting to get quite the attitude. She loves to start flying and land one the other chickens backs, startling them. I'm not sure why but I think she is saying that she shouldn't be messed with even though she is going to be the smallest of the chickens.

We have upgraded the size of their brooder once already, but they are almost too big for it. Mike has been working on finishing up the chicken coop, and we bought some material to start making their enclosure this weekend. Hopefully we can get them moved into their new home soon!



Baby Chicks Have Arrived!

We have been thinking about getting chickens for quite awhile at our house. Zoie and Lexie love the idea of having more pets, What kid doesn't? So our new baby chicks have been added to our household petting zoo. We each picked out one chick from the local feed store.

Introducing my chicken - Pixie the Maran chicken - 1 week 2 days old

Maran chickens are a heavy chicken that produces large dark terra cotta colored eggs. They are an active chicken. When we got little Pixie home, her vent was all shut up with dried poo, and we had to clean it. I'm hoping that she will recover from that and be a nice healthy gal.

Introducing Zoie's chicky - Rocky the Jersey Giant chicken - 2 days old

Jersey Giant chickens are an extra large chicken that get to be over 10 pounds heavy! They produce extra-large brown eggs, and are a calm and docile chicken. So even though Rocky will be huge, she should be a sweetie. She is the probably the cutest, as she is only 2 days old and really just a tiny ball of fluff right now.

Introducing Lexie's chick - Fluffaz the Barred Rock chicken - Probably around 3 weeks old

Barred/Plymouth Rock chickens are another heavy chicken, this type makes large brown eggs. They are also docile, so it's a good choice for my somewhat easily spooked Lexie. Fluffaz is starting to get her comb and is more active and larger than they other birds currently so that is why we think she is two to three weeks old.

Introducing Mike's chicky - Vanna Colbert the Ameraucana chicken - 1 week 2 days old

Ameraucana chickens are a medium sized chicken. They produce Easter eggs! That is medium to large sized green, blue and sometimes pink eggs. How awesome is that? They also get a beard and puffed cheeks called a muff. Vanna Colbert is a sweet little thing now and should stay so as she grows up.

The little chicks make such cute noises in their little brooder that we made up for them. I can't wait to watch them grow up. Welcome to our household little chicks!