New Additions

We are now officially raising 4 baby chick's who will turn into to happy egg laying hens in about 5 months. Yes, we have taken one more step to self sustainability in our urban dwelling. Knowing where are eggs have come from, what our hens are eating, and that they have a happy stress free existence, really matters to us. Plus, they will provide us with a nice amount of manure for the vegetable and herb gardens.



Our chicks are about 5 weeks old now. We first purchased them when they were about 10 days old. We took a trip out to East County to a feed store and picked out 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks (twins, named Daisy & Loretta) a Rhode Island Red (named Blossom) and an Araucana(named Cookie).





We have watched them grow literally over night. They are very cute, and the colors in their feathers are beautiful. Observing their behavior has been a favorite activity around here. We have seen first hand what all those funny chicken sayings mean, and crack up as we use them in our daily language, realizing we have not only heard these sayings, but have used them for years, but now have a new and improved perspective on them ! Here's some....

"ruling the roost", we think Cookie will fill this role.
"flew the coop", Daisy already did this once, luckily she didn't make it very far!
"nest egg", I think that's our 401K.
"chicken neck", I tell Blake to stick out his "chicken neck" while using the neti-pot.
"chicken scratch", turns out they love this scratching thing.
"pecking order", jury is out on the exact order at this point.
"mother hen", that would be me....

I know there are more sayings, so before I google them, leave me a comment with some of yours...

Oh, and I forgot to mention, these chicks are living in a very fabulous and secure two story chicken coop, complete with several roosting area's, 2 luxurious egg laying compartments, a spacious run, and fresh chicken feed & water supplied daily. There is even a storage area to keep all the supplies you need to care for these birds. All this was built by Alan & Blake over several weeks, in August and September. They had a great time working together, and I loved watching them.









Here is a chicken quote I found for Alan, "Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

We love our chicks & their cathedral !