Welcome home, little ones

Current count: 88 eggs

The two newest additions came home today. Towards the end of the day a couple of second grade teachers brought them to me all boxed up and ready to go. The chicks did a home visit with me, accompanied me on a visit to a friend's new baby, and went to the gym. Needless to say, it was a full day for them.

We resurrected the dog crate that #1, #2, and #3 grew up in. It's a little weatherbeaten but certainly functional. The cedar chips are long gone, but I gave them some of the ever-present straw and set them up in the garage. I'm fairly certain that I've now given the straw an entry into the house....grrrr. It won't be long before I'm finding it in bed.

They're still split between fuzzy and feathered. Take a look:


This was taken shortly after we transferred them from the box to the crate. I was a little worried about them when I first got them home because of the extended ride home, but they seem to have bounced back from the trip. Last time I checked they were making the little happy chicken noises to each other.

From Chickens to Sheep

Current count: 85 eggs

It looks like the new chicks are ready to come home, so we'll probably bring them home this week. I still have to set up the dog crate because they can't go out with the big girls until they have feathers. Even then, we'll have to figure out how to introduce them so that #2 and #3 aren't beating them up all the time.

While I was web surfing today, I discovered this. It's sheep and herding dogs, not chickens, but it's still worth watching. I hope you enjoy it.

The New Arrivals

Current count: 80 eggs

I don't usually post unless I get another egg, but one of the second grade teachers just sent me these pictures of our new chickens, so I had to share. Check them out:

All Hail the Lawnmower Man!

Current count: 80 eggs

Amazingly enough, the tweaky lawnmower man was successful on all counts...both the lawn mower and the blower are working again. T. mowed and blew both the front and the back right away, which made a huge difference with the Sanford and Son/Green Acres theme we had going on.

To me, it seems idyllic to see chickens scratching in the yard for bugs and eating greens. It doesn't seem idyllic to see them just outside your back door kicking around a pile of straw the dog has made sure to spread out all over your patio in some weird dog game. I love the chickens and everything, but....

In other chicken-and-school-related news, the eggs have begun hatching in second grade! This year I've gotten to see them at every phase of hatching, from the little hole in the top of the egg to the wet, tired, newly arrived chick to the fuzzball stage where they continually try and push themselves under every other chick around them to hide and be warm. I love it that our kids are getting to see this, and I feel a little bit of awe at the cycle of life every time I stop by to watch.

Spring Cleaning

Current Count: 78 eggs

I took some time to go after the straw today. I attacked the pile on the patio and mucked out the chicken coop, changing it over to fresh straw rather than leaving the ground uncovered. I also took out the cedar chips that have been in the roosting box and put in straw. Even with all that, we must still have 7/8 of that bale...yeesh. It's going to be June before I'm rid of the whole thing.

We also had the mobile lawn mower guy come over and fix the mower and the blower. That's going to make a huge difference if the guy manages to fix them. He's outside working on them in the driveway now...it's a business model I hadn't seen before in small machinery repair and frankly, it feels a little tweaky. All that being said, it's happening right now so I'm committed to hoping for the best and bringing him a bottle of water if he needs it. He may not, however, borrow a car antenna and some brillo pad.

In other news, I got in 41 miles on bike this weekend. I saw three fat turkeys and a ton of Canada geese along the American river. It was beautiful weather, and everything is bright green and budding because of the rain/sun combination.

Not Exactly How I Envisioned It

Current Count: 75 eggs

So this video is sort of how I feel about the backyard right now. The rain always makes things sort of yucky out there, but we've done a key thing that really added to the ambiance, effectively creating a cross between Sanford and Son and Green Acres.

The whole chain of events started when I finally got tired of the soupy coop situation and bought a bale of straw to put on the ground in the coop. It turned out to be the perfect solution because the chickens' feet are dry and now it smells like hay, a vast improvement over what we had going on before. The straw was also pretty much a bargain, $8.95 (3.5 dozen eggs) for a bale. It seems like it will last for a while.

In fact, it seems like it will probably be everywhere for a very long time.

T. brought the bale in under the patio on a red wagon we have because it was raining again. We decided to grab some off the end to take put it in the coop. As soon as T. cut the cord, the bale of straw POPPED out at both ends, covering the ground around the wagon with straw. The process of taking straw from the bale out to the chicken coop left another trail, and before I knew it, half our yard looked like a manger.

I did manage to wrestle the bale into a tarp and put it up against the coop. Now it looks like we have a body back there, but at least it's going to stop shredding straw all over the place.