Meet some of our new family members

Saturday we went to a chicken show and now we have some new chickens at the farm. We have a sizzle turken, moderns, cochins, old english bantams, show girls, a polish mix, 2 quails, and a new serama. What a fun weekend!  A grand total of 13 new family members. The new ones are mixing in perfectly with their new brothers and sisters. Here a just a few pictures of some of them.

2 More Days

Getting excited!! Only 2 more days until the chicken show. This will be our first show to attend. I can't wait to see what it is all about. I am still hearing little whispers about a duck though. I wonder what my chickens would think of having a duck among them. It is going to be a fun weekend.

Blah...Blah...Blah

Sorry no pics to share. Nothing has been going on. I do have another broody hen... When asked how many eggs were under her, the chicken farmer politely replied...A SLEW..... Good luck mama hen.

It has been so rainy here. It is putting us all in the best of moods. Even the chickens seem a little happier these days. Not really. It is so jucky out side I will be glad to see the sun again. Although it is looking more and more like fall here. It makes me want to go to a pumpkin patch for some reason. Guess I will have to settle for the chicken show we are attending this weekend. For some strange reason though I overhead the chicken farmer ask little miss farmer in training if she got in contact with the "lady" about the show and the ducks (WHAT DUCKS!!!). Don't know what all that is about, and I ain't gonna ask.

Sharing some cuteness!!

I wish I could get this comfy and cozy when I sleep.. Wait what am I saying? I just wish I could get some sleep..

Sunday at the coop

This is coco my demon rooster. Ok maybe that is being a little harsh...no maybe not. In this picture he is actually charging me through the fence. I don't know why he hates me so, but he does.

These are two of my sizzles they are soft sizzles(I think that is how Cappie puts it). They are a silkie and frizzle mix. They are twins. I have not named them yet, just can't come up with that perfect name.

This is one of our little buff cochins. She is always ready for her shot!

Meet Tic and Tac

Note to Husband: Never tell us we can go "LOOK" at the kittens. 

This is what we brought home today after going to just "LOOK" at them. Cappie and I fell in love. It is a little brother and sister. They are eight weeks old and have the prettiest little blue eyes.. Arn't they the cutest!!!!!

My little cutie- Stitch the funky Sizzle

I love this little man he is so cute. These are two of my Sizzles that Cappie surprised me with. They are so wild. This one is Stitch. 

Not sure what to call this one yet. He is all rock star so it has to be good! Any suggestions?

I've got you in a corner

I went to the coop this morning and Cappie was calling from inside.."Come here mama, they've got me..." Hilarious, these little ones love to peck you. They had backed her into the corner. I don't know what they thought they could do to her---she is only 4 foot taller than them.

Moving the coop

I wanted to share J.D. moving Cappie's Serama's coop. He made an extension for the tractor with some boards and picked it up and moved it across the yard.. By the way the Serama's LOVE their new home.

Here J.D. is carefully moving the coop into place.

At the end of the day this is what the back yard looked like. We also had a small house delivered the same day. The first house houses our larger chickens, the second one houses the sizzle, frizzle, and silkies, and the last little red house was made very specially for two little Seramas. (They think they are the king and queen of the chickens since they have their own house.)

Sharing our coops

This is a little video of our coops. I will do another one later to show the inside of each of them. I really wanted to share the COOL latch my husband made to go on the serama coop. It is low on the ground and hard to crawl in and out to open the little door to let them out in the mornings so he so creatively made this latch for the door. Enjoy!

Before there were chickens

Before I had Real chickens I enjoyed viewing these in my kitchen window. One day my gram (LOVE my gram) came over and cleaned for me while I was at work. She called and told me she had gone by the house and cleaned and fed my chickens. I said ooookkk... Not knowing what in the world she was talking about since I did not have chickens yet.. A couple of days later I happened to look over at my chicks in the window and this is what I say. I had to laugh she is so funny. (except for the time she put the rubber snake in my tub, now that was another story)

Our first egg

We discovered our first egg this year on July 4th. How neat is that? I remember being excited each day to go to the coop to see how many eggs we had, now we are getting about 15 a day and not all of our hens are laying.

This picture shows our first egg compared to a store bought egg. It was sooo cute!!

Quick Chicken Cake

J.D. put so much hard work into the coop that I wanted to make him a special cake for his birthday this past June. I was very limited on time, but he loved it anyway.. Of course lack of time did not change the taste of it.

New little mama

Our broody hen hatched 10 little babies. We got 3 turkens out of the bunch. One of our turnkens started setting and then our buff took over her nest. They are so cute. I love this pic. of the mama and her little one, she is giving me the evil eye! I don't think she wanted to be photographed this day.

A completed coop

and a constant work in progress!!


I have not made the video yet to show the inside and out of the coop, but I wanted to show you what it looks like now. We added vinyl siding to it to match J.D.'s shop and a tin roof. Today we are cutting trees on the side of the coop because we have a prebuilt house coming for our silkies, frizzles, and our sizzles. We are also going to be building a small coop for Cappie's seremas. You think the weekend is for resting-not when you have chickens.

Now for the chickens

I have to get a picture of the completed coop as it is now, so I thought I would post a picture of our first bundle of babies.

This is when we first got them in December.








And this is them now. I took this picture last week. Yep, that is clothes on that chicken. Poor little missy the roosters are so hard on them, I made them some aprons to cover their bare backs.

Trusses and Walls

After much framing, we worked our way to the top. It was fun watching J.D. with the trusses- he hates heights. That of course is one thing we have in common. Legs shaking, heart beating, sweat pouring- I would love to think that this was all brought on by the site of me coming around the corner, but it was all caused by that beautiful ladder sitting beside the coop.





When we completed the trusses we started adding the sides. This is when it really gets exciting. It starts to look like a little house. During this time (Nov.-Feb.) I have a brooder box (a huge wooden and wire netted box) in my laundry room. While I love my chicken babies, the site of this house lets me know that soon they will be OUT of my house.

And the building begins....

After the blocks were in place and level, we layed the floor and started framing the walls.

Here J.D. is framing in the door and the window. On the opposite side of the coop is another door and a small door for the chickens to come in and out.

Keep the home fires burnin...

While we were working on our coop--oh yeah, did I mention it was COLD--I HATE the cold--Chandler kept a cozy fire going for us...

Better watch out Bear Grylls, Chandler is one bad fire startin dude.

In the Beginning

We have 75 chickens. When did it-- no how did it grow so fast. We are loving all of them. I am going to start at the beginning and lead you on a journey from then until now..

It all started with me telling J.D. I wanted some chickens. Ok so my brother had a rooster and maybe 3 hens and I instantly fell in love. He had a small open coop with a wire fence. I came home after visiting him and his family and told J.D. all about it. What started as an idea soon became all out chicken heaven..

This is the very beginning of our coop. Lots of measuring, leveling, and running line. Leave me to the cake leveling, this kind of leveling and measuring is not for me. Hum.... wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I can't read a ruler..I'd say that is a positive.