Another step

Great news, I found a rental with fields, a barn (complete with water and electricity) and .....wait for it.... a two car garage *gasp!  I honestly don't know what I'll do with myself.  It's not that I don't love the 800+ ft2 3 bdrm apartment with 5 kids and no yard (oh wait, I actually don't love it), I just can't imagine this space.

The poultry orders are placed.
15 chickens
9 ducks
1 goose
and 3 dozen extremely beautiful hatching eggs.

I still need to track down a turkey and a pig but other than that I'm getting VERY close to meeting my animal goals.

Woot!

You've got Quail... (patterned baldness ;)

Yes, you guessed it. Just when you thought our summer couldn't get any more fun, it did. My friend Jeanie lent me an incubator and gave us some quail eggs to hatch. (Such an enabler!) It is so fun and they are just adorable! Here's the blow by blow :o) We got 13 quail eggs total. 6 developed, 1 rotted, and the other 6 didn't develope at all....so

13 Corturnix Quail eggs. Each given a number to keep track of progress. Inucbate 14 days.

On day 14 they all go into the hatcher! Pip, Zip, Pop!

Could you die? How cute is this?

There are 3 babies under the heat lamp and 2 eggs that haven't hatched....yet? This is very fun and exciting. Stay tuned for more hatching posts.... Jeanie also gave us some chicken eggs! :o)-

Such a thrill

Today we woke up to a surprise from Buttercup (btw she has the sweetest smile). We went to a hobby farm that was selling pullets that had just started to lay and we did not plan on buying a blue/green egg layer. It sort of just happened. When we got home she laid an egg that night, but I suspected that it was already 'en route' when we got her (the tip off being that she was swatting by the nesting box at the farm!)

Well today we got Buttercup's 2nd egg. The color is so beautiful and darker than I thought it would be. There is no mistaking that this egg is green (with a touch of blue). Our next pullet is due to start laying in about 1 month. We can't wait!

New Digs

Today we finished the new coop. Hooray for us (and our pullets). Although the original plan was for 3-4 birds in the end, we have ended up with 6. Each one will lay a different colored egg which will give us a very fun 1/2 dozen. Here are the new digs.

Large roof opens on a hinge for inside access. Small side door opens from the outside to reveal inner mesh door for ventilation, or open the mesh door for side access.

Coop w/o run. White base panel is end of slide out tray for cleaning. Side access door with latch.

Nesting boxes from the inside lined with linoleum tiles

Slotted floor roosting bars remove for easy cleaning.

Floor and doors view from nesting box roof

Coop with the run attached and the girls in there looking around. It took us about 1 1/2 weeks to build the coop. We're happy with how it turned out. My hubs is especially happy to be done with this project.

a Royal upset!

I remember the day that the chicks arrived. Princess was so small and brownish grey, I couldn't ever recall seeing and Easter Egger that color before. Even when Princess got sick (see last post) the family was on pins and needles saying prayers for Princess. We looked forward to the beautiful blueish green eggs that she would lay this fall...

Sooooo, remember when I was typing away on my last post and saying that hopefully there wouldn't be any more chicken issues in the near future?... well.... turns out this week a shocking piece of news has been revealed to our family...... drumroll please......

Princess is better and back to her normal self and as I compare her to the other chicks I notice...

weird? Princess' tail is pretty tiny compared to the others.... I wonder why?

and boy is she assertive (that's the way that we say aggressive when we talk about girls). And hey, wait a sec.... her comb is sure coming in fast and turning red before the other little chicks...

Princess!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Here, here. Order in the court. Today we announce to the subjects of our kingdom that Princess is indeed..... a prince. He'd prefer to be knows and T.A.F.K.A.P. (The Avian Formerly known as Princess) but the sad fact is that whatever we call him, he must now relocate to a non-urban home. A few people have shown interest. We will be sad to see Prince(ss) go.

We have arranged a chicken trade so that Princess' former owner will not be left without a chicken (she is now claiming my chicken as her new Princess). So as of today we can now decree that all is once again well in the kingdom. ;)

Princess is back

About 3 days ago we noticed that my daughter's little chick Princess wasn't acting normal. We watched her closely and she wasn't doing her normal chicken things like scratching and pecking at food. I checked the 'help' forum on http://www.backyardchickens.com/ and did what was suggested for unusual behavior.

On day 3 Princess bounced back. We have heaved a huge sigh and are so relieved since she is such a sweet little chick and loved by all. (you can kind of tell in the pic that she will have a beard when she grows up). We have now had our very first chicken incident. Hopefully this will be the last blog post of it's kind!

So this is love

We are absolutely loving our chicken experience. Here is the blow by blow so far :o)

The chicks arrived on a Tuesday.

Each of the older children has their own chicken which they picked from the http://www.mypetchicken.com/ website. We did the questionnaire on the website matches chicken breeds to your situation. We ordered 4 chicks total and each chick owner named their own chick. A huge portion of the bickering, meltdowns, and power struggles has ended. I took away a LARGE bunch of toys (the usual fight causing ones) and the children are blissfully happy with their new united purpose. The only care about their own chicks but they have the chickens in common. Nobody wants to hold anybody else's so the there aren't any power struggles or fights. We should have between 18-24 eggs a week when the laying starts.

Yellow Chick - California White (cross between a white leghorn and a California Grey) Will lay white eggs average 6/week. Name "Lulu"

Brown/Grey chick - Easter Egger

Will lay wither Blue, Green, or light pink (unlikely) eggs average 6/week.

Name "Princess"

Brown chick - Welsummer. Will lay med brown eggs with drk brown speckles average 4/week. Name "Lady Windsor"

Black Chick- Australorp. Will lay light brown eggs. Average 6/week. Name "Big Z"

It's been about 3 weeks now and boy have these little girls grown! The novelty hasn't worn off and the children (and I) just love it. I never thought I would feel like I loved a chicken but I do.

Every Monday we take a picture of each chick and weigh them to keep track of their growth. We love the Eglu that we bought and the children have their lawn chairs set up in a row to watch chicks during the day. They sit and narrate what they believe the chickens must be saying. It's all very cute.

We look forward to our first eggs which should arrive late Sep or early Oct. I think I will blow out each chickens first egg to keep. More updates to come :o)