I have an easy one for you: Which Came First - The Chicken or the Dinner?

Peeping Mom

Yes.  I consider myself the mother of my Six Chicks.  Dirty Gerty: she's like my foster child.

I've been lurking around the coop a lot lately.  The egg laying business is so interesting to me.  That and my girls are so funny.  Better than TV.  Almost.  It really depends on how hot it is outside.

We have 4 girls now laying.  A new egg showed up yesterday, and I'm pretty sure it was Cinderella's first.

I snapped some pictures of the girls taking care of business and got a quick video, too.

Here's Dirty Gerty lounging in the basil.  She lounges a lot.  Hence the dirt.

Johnny Cash, strutting through the rose bed.  The girls LOVE the roses.  The light catches her feathers just right, and you can see the green and blue cast to the black feathers.  I think she's gorgeous.  Her eggs are a light buff, very pretty.

The girls are waiting in line.  We have 3 nesting boxes, but they love the center one.  It's prime real estate for young eggs.  They are so curious, and really quite supportive.  They all gather around when it's egg laying time.  I went out to check on them, and they were all lined up.  Bunny, the lighter Easter Egger in the center is not laying yet.  I think she's just taking notes so she can do it right.

I had to take a quick video of this.  Ariel hopped up into the box with Johnny Cash.  Technically, Ariel was in the box first, cozying up, getting ready to lay, and Johnny Cash, who's been laying a couple days longer than Ariel, kicked her out.  Ariel waited patiently for a bit, then jumped up into the box too.  You can hear her cooing softly to Johnny Cash.  It was so funny to me - it reminded me of the encouragement you give to a mother in labor.  Funny girls.  It's a little hard to hear sometimes, it was pretty windy, and a couple cars drove by.

Anyway.  I love my girls and I love their eggs.  The eggs are getting a bit bigger every day - soon we'll have full sized eggs from our cluck-clucks!

Adjoa loves the chickens, too.  Every evening we go outside to let them roam a bit and play with them. Adjoa carries them around.  This particular night, she was dancing with the chickens and singing an "egg song."  I had complained to Robert that I hadn't yet heard an egg song from the girls.  Adjoa beamed and started making up some song about eggs and chickens and spontaneously choreographed a dance involving several of the chickens.  I guess I've heard an egg song now!

It's OK that I Don't Have Tomatoes... I Have EGGS!

Our girls are about 4.5 months old, so even though I've been shamelessly checking the nesting boxes, I haven't really been expecting any eggs for another couple weeks.  At least.

Robert was adding some more fanciness to the coop and dropped a screw.  He bent down to find it and instead he found... you guessed it.  An EGG!  He was pretty excited and came in to share the moment with me.  {How sweet!}

One of our girls left it sitting comfortably under the raised part of the coop.  As I walked around the coop to figure out how I was going to get that thing out, I spotted a little nest of 3 more eggs!

My cluck-clucks have been BUSY!

All four eggs are green, so I'm guessing they are gifts from one of the Easter Eggers.  It's also possible that both girls have been blessing us with eggs since there appeared to be two different nests on opposite sides of the coop.

They seem small.  Tiny, actually.  So at first I thought our Seabright Bantum was leaving us treasures, but I doubt they lay green eggs.  Is a mystery.

So here are a couple glamour shots for you to enjoy.

All four beauties.  The one on the top right is lighter and was the single egg.  So maybe Bunny {the lighter EE} left that one for us?!?!?

Here's one egg next to a regular store-bought egg.  It looks so much smaller!

Maybe "Extra Large" on the egg carton, really does mean XL.  If this egg is from my EE, I can't imagine the size of bird that laid the store-bought egg!  Ouch!

Here a Chick, There a Chick, My Six Chicks are now Seven

Technically, hens shouldn't be able to reproduce, but the six chicks have expanded.  {I guess life does mimic art - or entertaining movies at the very least.}

After a traumatic wiener-dog attack, my cousin's chicks perished in battle.  There was one lone survivor, and Jeremy just didn't feel like building a coop for a single chicken.

So we brought her home.  Our Six Chicks picked on her a little at first, but we gave her space to escape and she grew quickly.  Now that she's the same size, the pecking and chasing have stopped.

Robert has been feeling neglected on the blog. He works so hard to build everything on my list - the list keep growing - and I haven't displayed his handiwork for a while.

So here's a tribute to the work he did on the coop.

He's so handy {and that makes me so lucky}.  I drew a cartoonish sketch of what I wanted the coop to look like, and he worked his magic.  We had neighbors asking if he was building a play house for Adjoa - that's how awesome it looks. 

Robert added some nice features - a window that slides open so the coop gets additional ventilation, poop drawers that pull out for easy cleaning, a faux mailbox where I can dump feed directly into the coop {this is especially nice for winter, or rainy days, or when we go out of town}, and an automatic waterer that is hooked up to the sprinkler system.  He's still working out some kinks on the indoor waterer.  We're hoping the insulation in the coop walls will keep the water from freezing in the winter with that indoor waterer.

Here's the base. I wanted it open under the coop so the girls can get out of the sun and rain.  Robert cut grooves in the redwood so the chicken wire could be inserted.  It made the wire a lot more stable, and there aren't any sharp edges that could hurt the girls.  It's super strong and looks fabulous!

Robert made the base, house, and roof in 3 different sections.  They can be taken apart so the whole coop can be moved.  It also makes it possible to do any adjustments, repairs, or deep cleaning without too much trouble.  The roof is SUPER heavy, though, so it still takes a few good men to take it off.

Good thing he enjoys all the projects I give him!

Adjoa was super eager to help with the coop.  She loved painting - and climbing in and out of the coop, declaring "Look!  I'm a chicken!" and flapping her "wings" while strutting around the coop.

Here's the coop in it's spot near the garden.  I had just started painting it.  You can see the base, door, and egg boxes.  I painted the inside of the coop white so it would be nice and bright in the winter, but the nesting boxes are gray because the girls like cozy, dark places for laying eggs.  Or so I heard.  Robert made the ground slope slightly and added a drain pipe that runs along the fence.  That should keep the run nice and dry for our girls.

Here's the inside.  You can see the black indoor waterer.  There is a large tube between the walls, and a door on the outside so people can access it, fill it, and maintain it without having to climb in the coop.  The walls are insulated, so we are hoping it will keep the water from freezing in the winter.  On the right is the interior food tray.  There is a faux mailbox on the exterior where I can dump in food and a shoot that holds food between the walls.  the flooring is chicken wire, so poop will fall into the drawers below.  Makes for super easy cleaning.

This is where the drawers slide in and out.  There is a cover that flips down to allow access.  The cover will prevent drafts in the winter and keep mischief out.

The girls are learning how to use the ramp.  This was the first day they could leave the coop voluntarily.  It took a few minutes and some logistically scattered scratch, but they got it.  I painted the ramp white, which looks nice, but I think was a mistake.  It's covered in poop now and doesn't look so nice.  I think I'll repaint it gray next year when it's time to freshen up the coop.

This is Ariel, one of Adjoa's chickens.  As you can see, we have been enjoying gardening so much, we decided to expand our garden space.  It's going to be about 3 times bigger!

Funny faces.  It's darn near impossible to take a picture of a dog, a child, and a chicken and have them all cooperate!  Eden is doing one of my favorite faces - some strange lip thing that makes her look like she's more human than dog, Adjoa's eyes are closed, and Ariel looks like she's about to bail.  Oh, and yes, those are 3 foot tall weeds in the background!

This is "the white chicken."  That's what Adjoa calls her.  I call her Dirty Gerty {Britt gave me the idea for the name} because she always looks filthy. Adjoa loves holding the girls - especially "the white one" and Ariel.

So that's the chicken update.  We're loving our girls, and can't wait for some eggs!  We should be getting some at the end of the month, or beginning of September.  Fingers crossed, of course! 

Wasatch Community Garden Giveaway

Wasatch Community Gardens is doing a giveaway this week!

I'm hoping to win a T-Shirt!

First Worm!

Adjoa and I took the girls on an outing today. The sun was shining, and we were all eager to get out of the house for a bit. It was fun to watch the chickens gain confidence and start to explore a little.

At first they would stay all huddled together, but as they started to realize 'outside' was a good thing, they started cheeping happily and pecking at the ground and nibbling at some of the weeds.

I kept them close to the area where their run will be, so hopefully it will feel familiar to them when it's finished.

After about 30 minutes, I spotted a Big Fat Juicy Worm {BFJW} and called to the chicks. The Golden Cochin {Sula?} came over looking at me quizzically. She spotted the BFJW, pecked it a couple times, then scooped it up and started screeching happily.

The Australorp dashed over and snatched the BFJW immediately from {Sula} and started squawking and running all over the little chicken yard. Soon a competition started between all the chicks. Our Australorp fended off most of the attacks until our big, possibly-boy, Easter Egger {who I will now call George Eliot?} grabbed the worm, gave 'er a good tug, and cried out excitedly announcing the half-BFJW {s}he had. It was quickly gobbled up {I think there's a lesson here in not gloating} as {s}he ran around behind a stack of pallets.

Finally, after several minutes of chasing, shrieking, and dashing, our Australorp settled down to enjoy the remainder of the BFJW.

A good outing for all. The girls were highly disappointed to be coming back inside after this debut.




{Sula} stares longingly after our Australorp, having just had her treasure swiped.

Happy to let everyone know she is now in possession of a big juicy worm!

Successfully fending off attacks on all fronts can't go on forever, but it CAN go on a lot longer than you think! These girls chased, squawked, dashed and screeched for a good 10 minutes. I thought the worm would be all dried up by the time it was enjoyed.

Mmmm. delectable! Can it get any better than a BFJW? I submit that it cannot! I love that her eyes are closed! She's hysterical!

Introducing....

The Six-Chicks - but no Tom-Tom. {And hopefully no rooster since they are illegal and it would be a HUGE waste of my time to raise an illegal, noisy rooster}

We are taking name suggestions. I have a whole list of names that I like, but the main problem is that Adjoa wants to name 2 of the chickens after our friends, Aimee and Corbin. I'm not sure A&C would like to have chickens bearing their names for the next 10 or so years. Also, I'm not looking forward to talking about how many eggs Corbin is producing, or that Aimee got attacked by a racoon and is no longer with us. {Not that I'm looking forward to announcing a racoon attacking any of our chickens, but I feel it would be espeically confusing or off-putting if it were Aimee}.

So. Do we let Adjoa name 2 of the chicks Aimee and Corbin?

Here's a few of the names I like:

• Circe
• Zipporah {Heb. meaning 'bird, a beauty'}
• Sula {Heb. meaning 'bird, peace, sun'} I especially like this for the yellow one....
• George Eliot
• Henrietta & Gretta {Possibly for the 2 easter-eggers that look a like}

And here's one of my favorite clips to honor the origianl Six-Chicks {or rather the movie from which they came, the acutal Six-Chicks are not really all that great}.