Oh, I forgot to tell you

All three chickens are laying eggs - every day! Peck and Clementine's eggs are quite small, oblong in shape and a nice nutty brown colour (the shells). Tofu's egg is bigger, paler in colour and more round in shape. I'll provide pictures soon.

Yes, we're eating them, and yes they are delicious. We haven't bought eggs in over a month now!

Cheep Chickens

Our chickens are famous!

Building a dinosaur from a chicken

chicken chicken chicken, chicken

Chicken Update

The chickens are like real grown up chickens now. They no longer have a lamp on at night, they have a ladder so they can walk in and out of their house (although Peck hasn't quite figured it out - she walks down the ladder backwards) and they spend most of the day outside pecking around in their coop.They are still locked into their house at night - this will be the case for ever as we don't want raccoons or other creatures making nocturnal visits.

What's wrong with this picture?

Evan & Lucy

Funny chickens

Lucy at the chicken swap

Lucy's friend Evan came for a visit and they spent a lot of time wrangling the chickens. At one point Lucy and Evan were inside the chicken house and the three chickens were outside. Hmm...          

After brunch on Easter Sunday, we all went to a chicken swap in Metchosin. We got there near the end of the swap but there were still lots of chickens to see. Lucy made a beeline to the crate with all the baby chicks - there was some pleading regarding bringing one home but that didn't happen. We did almost come home with a 3 month old Silkie chicken but we were told that our bigger Wyandottes and Brahma would most definitely pick/peck on the Silkie.                        

Watch Your Daughters

A friend sent me this picture - love it. I hope the chickens don't peer pressure the girls to start smoking. Although Clementine is kind of a bully...

Big News in the Chicken World

Tofu ate her first worm and we got to see the whole thing go down. The three chickens were pecking around in the grass (their favourite thing to do) when all of a sudden Tofu lifted her head high in the air with a 10 cm (it was really big) worm dangling from her mouth. She then proceeded to run around the yard (kind of like a chicken with her head chopped off) not really knowing what to do with herself. Clementine and Peck chased after her - not sure if they knew what was going on but they didn't want to miss out. After running around for a bit, Tofu stopped and proceeded to gulp down the worm. I think she was pretty pleased with herself - Lucy and I were a little grossed out.

I think hunting/eating worms helps keep their stress levels down.

The Chicken Charmer

The chickens love Lucy and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. I often catch Lucy holding one of the chicks lovingly petting them and giving them little kisses. Our time outside mostly consists of Lucy holding and moving the chickens around. They don't seem to mind at all and in fact, they now run to Lucy when she calls them.

Chicken bum

Proof that I now hold the chickens. Also, you can see Tofu's feathery feet.

The Chicken Charmer - Lucy has discovered that if she holds the chickens one-handed on their sides they stay very still. They really seem to like her.

Chicken close-ups

Tofu expressing her concern about being in a apple tree

chicken chillin

beautiful chicken

Things to do with chickens

Put them in the apple tree

Let your dog take a chicken for a ride

Play chicken hide and seek

The chickens have moved out(side)

Breaking news - the chickens are now living in their coop. They spent their first night outside and I'm pleased to report that we didn't find frozen chickens in the morning. That reminds me of my favourite joke. You'll have to ask Beth if you want to hear it. Pictures of the chicken handler coming soon - stay tuned.

box vs outside

Last weekend the chickens spent the afternoon outside in the backyard with Lucy, Georgia and Lindsay. And they loved it! Tofu was definitely in her element - she walked around checking everything out, pecking, scratching, doing the normal chicken thing. Clementine & Peck were a bit reluctant but they came around. I'm pretty sure they like the outside over the tupperware box in our basement bathroom.

Outside Chickens

Other than their plane trip from Iowa, the chickens have never really spent any time outside. That changed this past weekend. Brad and the girls took the chickens outside so they could inspect their new home. They seemed to like it. They pecked and walked around (although they do this in their current box) and even jumped into one of the nesting boxes.

I'm really ready to no longer have chickens living in the house. They don't smell (as long as their box is cleaned out regularly - which Brad does) but they are getting louder and they move around a lot more. The try to fly out of the box which kind of makes the girls (and maybe me) and little skittish around them. They also kick their food dish over and scratch the wood shavings into the water dish. Typical teenage chicken behaviour I would think. The move is going to happen very soon - stay tuned.

Chicken stare-down

Fighting for the best nesting box (Not really. They were probably huddling together to stay warm)

Tofu checking out the play house

People

Teenage Chickens

Teenage Tofu

Teenage CHSMF II & Peck (look at how giant their feet are!!!)

It's happened. The chicks are no longer chicks. They're teenage chickens. Also they can fly. The like to perch on the side of their box. I think the move into the coop is going to happen soon. Just need more feathers and less fluff.

New Box

Since we had the great chicken escape, I made Brad* move the chickens into a new home. The space is much bigger (and square, not round) and there are some toys in the new house (Brad thought they needed something to play with. So far I saw one of the chickens peck at the ball but no playing has occurred). So far no escapees but we'll see. The chicks are getting giant, they no longer look like little fluffy balls, more like awkward teenage chickens so they might start to get all rebellious and start trying to escape.

* So it seems that I'm a bit squeamish about picking up the chickens. I think it has something to do with their feet. I'll get over it I'm sure but for now Brad does most of the holding.

Chicken Close-ups

Cheap Chicken Chow

So it turns out that chickens are pretty economical, at least their feed is. Guess how much this bag of feed and grit cost? If you say more than $2 you are wrong. If you guess $1.73 you are right.

Chicken Head

I really like this book cover. To learn more about it, check out this blog post written  by one of my co-workers:

And here's another great chicken/book related (kind of) post. The Dashiell Hammett pairing is one of my favourites!

Chicken Coop

I'm sure many of you are dying to see the awesome coop Brad built for the girls. It's pretty good considering Brad didn't use any plans, just made it up. There are two really great features - one is the floor of the house which is actually a drawer. This will make things so much easier when Brad has to clean out the coop. The second cool feature is the nesting boxes. Brad is going to build little steps so Lucy & Georgia can reach into the boxes to get the eggs. It seems hard to believe that these tiny little fluff balls will soon be providing us with our breakfast eggs, can hardly wait!

You can't tell from these pictures, but the house part of the coop has been painted red with white trim - looks just like a real barn.

We don't keep them in there for very long, I swear

This picture really cracks me up

You can see the nesting boxes to the left. The nesting boxes will be filled with with straw (and hopefully eggs) and the floor of the house will have lots of nice wood shavings covering it. Cozy.

Chicken Out of the Box

While I was at work today, I received a panicky text from my mom saying that one of the  chickens was out of the box. Apparently Peck flew/jumped out x and landed on top of the blanket that is half covering their box. So, this means that we're on the hunt for a new home. I wonder how much longer it will be until they can move into their real home...

Chicken Friends

Over the weekend the girls had lots of people visiting them.  Tofu still seems to be the most social and likes to hang out with her non-chicken friends. Before we know it, the chickens are going to be unruly teenagers so if you want to meet them while they're still cute and fluffy, come on over!

Sweet chickies

Let me hold her, I won't squeeze her

This mama isn't scared of baby chicken feet

Chicken friends

Chicken close-ups

We're trying to assimilate the chickens with us humans so we (Brad) do a lot of petting and holding and sniffing (Charlie). So far Tofu seems the most relaxed around us, Peck is indifferent and CHSMF II is a little shy but is coming around. We had a little chicken party after dinner and everyone had fun. Oh, also Peck met Peck, it was really nice.

Tofu showing off her hairy legs

Chicken love

I have a picture like this when Lucy was first born. Except Brad was holding Lucy, not a chicken.

It may look like Georgia was about to whack Peck but she was just teasing *nervous laugh*

Animal farm

Chicken lips

Peck, meet Peck

RIP Clementine Hazel Sabina Maple Fraser

Lucy and CHSMF I

They're Here

After many months of talking, planning, discussing and building, the baby chicks have finally arrived. After much debate we decided on three chickens, two silver laced wyandottes and one brahma chicken (with fluffy legs!).

We talked a lot about what we were going to name the chicks. I got to name the Brahma - Tofu seemed like an appropriate moniker. Georgia went back in forth between Fluffy and Tiny and Brad wanted to name one Peck. As an aside, I bought a chicken finger puppet a number of years ago which I love quite a lot and we named it Peck so the new chick really has some big boots to fill. Since we only got three, Georgia was willing to let her names go so Peck it is.

Lucy can be thanked for coming up with the best chicken name in history. Ready? Clementine Hazel Sabina Maple Fraser. Yes. It's a mouthful but I can't really think of a better name for a pet chicken.

The chicks are currently living in a diaper box that has been modified so it is circular in shape rather than rectangular. Apparently chicks will gravitate to the corner of a box and get stuck so it's important to keep them in a cornerless home. The box is filled with some nice wood shavings and they have lots of food to peck at and fresh water. We have a heat lamp on all the time as it's very important to keep them very warm. We were told that the air should be approximately 30 degrees at all times until they get big enough to keep their bodies warm (probably when they loose their fluff and their feathers come in). The girls will move outside into their chicken condo when they're a bit bigger, probably in a few weeks.

The chicks hatched Saturday February 12th, they were 3 days old in the pictures below. Tofu and Peck are proving to be strong, healthy little things. In fact Tofu seems to be a bit of a bully, pecking and pushing the other two out of the way. Both Peck and Tofu eat a lot and drink lots of water. Have you ever seen a baby chick drink water? It's pretty funny. They stick their little beak in the water and then tip their head way up in the air to let the water drip down into their throats (do chickens have throats?? So much to learn!). The funny thing is that they look like their stretching their little necks up so they can look at us, it's all very cute. Now, CHSMF isn't doing as well. She's just sitting around with her eyes shut and isn't nearly as active as the other two. Lucy is certainly giving her lots of love and she and Brad have even started to spoon feed her chicken gruel. We'll see how she does over night. Keep your fingers crossed.

Peck in the foreground,Clementine Hazel Sabina
Maple Fraser in the back

 

Tofu (don't mess with her)

Tofu (front) and CHSHF