Growing girls

Last weekend we went out of town for 4 days. This was the first time our chickens had been left unattended for any length of time. They did fabulous. They were quite self-sufficient, needing no-one to change their food or water the entire time (we did have a neighbor stop by to check). In the midst of that time, our littlest one began to grow! We returned home after our long weekend to find little Susie Q-ty Sussex covered in feathers and much larger than we left her! This was cause for celebration as we were beginning to wonder about her health. She is still quite a bit smaller than the rest, but hopefully she'll catch up eventually. We'll see.

The Finished Coop

Ned putting shingles on

I am pretending to help

The finished coop

The hens have their finished coop. It consists of 3 main sections. First, there is the henhouse, the interior section, which is where they sleep at night, and will be where they lay their eggs. The second section is the main area where they can roam around during the day. The third section is referred to as chicken Guantanamo bay. It is the open area directly under the henhouse. This section is walled with hardware cloth, which is impossible for any predators to get through. If we go out of town, we can can close off the main section (which has larger holed chicken wire) and leave the trap door to chicken Guantanamo bay from the henhouse open. That way the can still get outside and rummage around a bit, but will be safe from predators. Most of the time, all 3 sections are open to them. And if we are home, we let them out entirely to have free range of the yard. This is also a mobile coop, so that every few weeks we can move it to a new section of lawn. This keeps our lawn in good shape and always gives the ladies fresh grass/weeds to munch on.

Chicken Keep Away

Buffy finds a cherry

Even though our chickens have their fancy coop, whenever we are home we like to give them free range of the entire yard. Watching them run and chase each other around is always ripe ground for many laughs. One of my favorite things is watching them play keep away. This usually happens when one of them finds something intriguing to eat (a worm, a cherry, etc.). Instead of eating it quietly and inconspicuously, she will instead proudly pick it up, and begin to run. The others, noticing the obvious distraction, and wanting a piece of their own, will begin running frantically after. This begins a chase which can easily span the entirety of the yard multiple times. It is usually several minutes before any of them get a bite of the magic morsel, because they are all just chasing each other around. Usually the object will get stolen and passed around a few times; and eventually they all will get a bite. Chickens are very cheap entertainment!

Chicken Coop Deluxe

Ned is used to building multi-million dollar houses and just can't seem to bring himself to do something simple. So he designed a state of the art chicken coop that even the most distinguished of chickens would be proud to live in. Heck, I even think it looks pretty comfy. We still have not finished up the last details, but it's mostly finished. Here are some pictures in process:

Here I am opening the chicken coop with the built in posts to hold the door up. You can see the nesting boxes on the back wall.

Buffy and Fluffy are peeking out of the removable door we have at the nesting boxes for easy egg removal.
We have the heat lamp in there now for the little ones who are not feathered out yet.

More pictures to come when it's complete.

A Little Scary

The park at the City where I work has chickens which roam free throughout the trails. (And no, it is not in the country. It is less than 20 miles from downtown Seattle). This was met with much surprise and delight when I made the discovery a few years ago. You cannot always see the chickens, but every once in a while you will be walking along the path and see a couple of chickens or roosters walking around! One time a couple years ago we even saw baby chicks roaming about! Lately I have been running into two hens on my daily walk. The funniest thing about this is that I can tell you exactly what breed of chickens they are! Maybe I am a little too obsessed... :)

Wee One

Well our youngest chicks are 3 weeks and one day old today. Although we are slightly concerned about our littlest one. She was the same size as her birthday counterpart days after birth, but while the other one has been growing rapidly and feathering out, this little one is pretty much the same size. In fact, the other chick born on the same day is now nearly 3x the littlest one's size! She does not seem sickly at all - in fact, she has the most spunk out of all of them! She is a fearless little girl and will keep up with anything the big girls do. We are not sure what the problem is...

So today we made a call into the feed store. They said that it sounds like she has stunted growth, and that there are two possibilities: #1- she will one day soon grow all of a sudden and catch up, or #2 - she will be a dwarf. We are hoping for possibility #1. I did a quick google search on the web, and didn't find much in the way of helpful or hopeful information. I will just have to wait and see what happens.