bye-bye babies

The chickens have left the homestead. I sure have loved having them. A friend of a friend has a farm and was very happy to have them. He lost his hens to a fox (he killed the fox). The girls will get a very large area to free-range in. I sure will miss them.

funky chicken

The chickens are taking turns molting. Molting means they are losing their feathers. This is a totally normal yearly process, but they sure look funny when it is happening. There are feathers all over the yard. The new feathers look like paint brushes as they grow back in. This chicken is the last to molt. The rest of them look fine now and their new feathers are even softer then they were before.

seven chickens

We're down to seven chickens. I (we) had to kill one today. She was really sick, my guess is she was egg bound and it was really nasty, festering, and disgusting. I never noticed it before this morning. When I finally took a look at her behind it was all swollen, dripping blood and had maggots in it. I bet this has been going on for a few days, at least. My wonderful husband did the actual dirty work. I don't think I'm cut out for meat production. I've never had to kill a pet before. This means we've lost two of the the production reds.

chickens as lawnmowers

My neighbor asked me to let the chickens into his yard to eat all of his grass. This is a picture of the girls enjoying his lush greenery. We have minimal grass in our yard, they eat it all! So there is one more plus about backyard chickens, they are lawnmowers.

it's cold

We're in the middle of a cold snap. It got down to 2. I'd bring the chickens in the house but we're up to the gills with DS#2's stuff. He's in the process of moving and all his stuff is downstairs right where I'd put the chickens, if I had any room. My poor chickens. They just huddle out in the cold near the house in a corner that is out of the wind. They look so miserable. DS#2 is getting a U-haul and moving the stuff on Thursday, but I think the cold snap will break by then. Don't get me wrong I LOVE having him here. It has been such a treat to have all the kids home (and to get to meet DD#1's boyfriend) but they are all trickling back to their college/jobs/assignements. So not only are their sunny faces leaving they're leaving me during the coldest time of the year. How many months until spring?

look what's planted in my garden

In the fall I take the chickens wire off my garden squares and give the girls a chance to roam in the garden. They each took one square and settled in. Doesn't it look like I'm growing chickens?

pippin

Pippin hanging out with the chickens. Pippin is adorable. She can't help it, she just is.

City chickens (now with eggs!)

My kids helped me put this together. They're wonderful!

homemade noodles

One of the advantages of having chickens is all the eggs I get to cook with. These homemade noodles have eggs as a main ingredient. They are delicious.

chickens in the rain

I haven't talked about the girls for a while. They have taken over the back yard. They run around, eat bugs, eat grass, eat whatever. They destroy my garden (when there's an opening in the chicken wire). They dust bathe. And they sure look funny in the rain. You'd think they'd huddle away from it, but no. They don't really seem to care how scraggly they look. I find them amusing. AND they're still laying eggs!

love them eggs

We have chickens, chickens lay eggs, we eat eggs. Here are two dishes we make fairly frequently. The omelet is an .... omelet. The hamburger looking patty is a black bean burger. It is usually in a bun with tomato and lettuce and cheese. I'll give you the recipe because it is delicious, vegetarian and uses up my food storage and they charge a lot for it at the store. It is good cheap food.

Black bean burgers (no real need for measurements, just throw it together)

2 cups of cooked black beans, mashed
1 cup of frozen corn (or fresh)
Optional- 1/2 cup of misc. chopped vegetables
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry potato pearls or flakes (more or less)
1/2 cup dry onions
2 eggs (more or less)
salt, pepper, red peppers, to taste

Mush it together like meatloaf. If it is too watery add more potato pearls, if it is too dry add more eggs. Drop, by plops, onto wax paper. Smoosh down into a burger shape. Fry in oil, on both sides, until brown. Serve hot on a bun with all the fixings.

chickie girls

Even if I complain about my chickie girls, I still love having them in the backyard. They are my first real step toward urban homesteading. One of them is sick and laying shell-less eggs. I can't tell which one. They all act healthy. I've been told this illness is going around, but I sure don't have a clue what to do about it. The rest of them are laying (abundantly).

lawn mowing

It is a beautiful spring day today. I love spring. This one is a bit different. I don't have grass in my backyard. The chickens have done a meticulous job of removing all the vegetation in the backyard. I have chicken wire around the garden squares, but other then the garden squares the girls have been very efficient. I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand we don't have to mow; on the other hand I like green. These girls are serious lawn mowers. Who knew? They didn't manage to remove it all last summer. I still had a green lawn last fall. I guess they've been working hard all winter. I just didn't see this one coming. They have free run of the entire backyard. That's a lot of space for nine chickens. They got it all. Seriously. All. Every blade. They've even eaten a six inch strip around the outside perimeter of our yard where they've stuck their heads through the fence as far as they can. On the other hand, they are loving, friendly birds that are really good at laying eggs. I love my chickie girls but we really look like poor white trash with our backyard like this. Front yard is still green.

city chickens

I'm trying to learn how to embed a video onto my blog. I need to make another one of these since the girls have been laying for a long time.

chickens in the snow

The chickens hate the snow. They spend most of their time on a little path I've shoveled out for them. I had to bribe them to walk in the snow by sprinkling oatmeal on it. Even then most of them refused to go in the snow.

pippin and the chickens

Pippin is our cat. Or should I say the ruler of our household? She is well beloved. She is actually sitting in my lap as I write this. Amazing how friendly she is in cold weather. The chickens are enduring the cold weather. The plastic tote is their hidey hole from the cold breezes.

it's so cold

I'm worried about my chickie girls. It is in the teens and they stay huddled together most of the time. I wouldn't want to live like that. I've been reading and trying to get advice on free-range chickens in cold weather. Seems like half the people say they'll do fine in cold weather and the other half suggest a heating lamp of some sort. I've got a bit of a shelter set up against the house, so they can still be outside, but they seem to prefer crowding against the back door most of the time. It is pretty pathetic. Only got two eggs yesterday.

eggs

678 eggs. That's the count from when they started laying in August up to the end of November. 56 1/2 dozen eggs! Pretty good for a bunch of backyard chickens who spend most of their days entertaining us. They are such fun pets, pets that actually give me something eatable!

city chickens

My chickens the day I brought them home AND me and the girls hanging out (last spring). If you treat farm animals like pets they act like..... pets. I have the friendliest chickens I've ever met. They came in the mail the day after they hatched and I've been holding them and feeding them and enjoying them ever since (and cleaning up after them). They are also the happiest bunch of chickens I know of because they spend most of the day running around our yard. They catch bugs, eat grass, scratch for seeds and root through the compost pile for treats. They also lay eggs. Their eggs are fabulous. Very yellow, almost orange, yolks. Most days all of the girls lay, so I have such a surplus of eggs. We're getting creative about using a lot of eggs in our cooking.

My chickens

These are my "girls." The blonde is a Buff Orpington, the red is a Production Red and the black and white striped is a Barred Rock. They are so much fun! I have nine, three of each, and they are all laying. Most days we get nine eggs. My daughter is getting really creative with using large amounts of eggs in her cooking. The lemon chiffon cake was heavenly! A couple of months back we made a you tube video about the girls. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma9caUHRbVg