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