Lisa's not-quite-Backyard Chicken update!

While I'm recovering from a weekend of laid-back girly goodness with my college crew, I thought I'd hand the blog over to my sister, who has some chicken updates for you! Take it away, Lisa!

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Chick Update!

April 18, 2011

Our 1st set of chicks are getting big!  They have the most beautiful wing feathers coming in and little bitty tail feathers.  They have become very friendly little things, too!  As soon as we open the brooder they're jumping all over us hoping we have treats for them. 

And big, huge, gigantic thanks to our friends Steve and Danyelle for lending us their generator during the crazy storm!  A tornado went through extremely close to our house and the power was out from about 3:30 on Saturday until 4 on Sunday.  I was so worried about our chicks and the eggs on lockdown in the incubator getting too cold, but thanks to them all the big chicks and at least one of our little Ameraucanas are doing well!  Here's the 1st little hatchling at about 5:00 this morning!

I keep staring at the incubator anxiously waiting for some sign of life from any of the other eggs, but nothing yet.  I don't really have a plan if none of the others hatch and don't know what I'll do with one lonely little hatchling!  Here's hoping at least one more hatches!  And so far this little "girl" is looking to have the most beautiful coloring and was hatched out of the very bluest egg!  I'm feeling very lucky to have any at all but this poor little thing really needs a friend!

The coop has finally made a bit more progress also.  We put up our 1st section of hardware cloth!  All this crazy weather and crazy kid stuff has delayed progress, but hopefully we can make up for lost time. 

Here's a couple more cute chick shots.  I am so in love with these babies!!!

I love this action shot!

On a sad note my one little Cochin egg did not hatch.  So sad!  But hopefully there will be Cochins in our future one way or another!  We'll see!  In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for the other 6 little tornado eggs!!!


19 Chicks!
April 27, 2011

Well, my lone little Ameraucana didn't stay lonely too long.  He had 4 little buddies hatch also!  One turned out to not be an Ameraucana, but a cute chubby little Easter Egger - which is a blue egg laying mixed breed.  She had a 50% chance of being what is called "frizzled" but looks to just be a normal smooth feathered little chick.  A sweet and friendly one though!  Here are a few pics of the new cuties from the past week!

Here they are when first moved to their brooder (formerly known as my homemade hatcher!) - the one standing and glaring at the camera is the first hatched, now known as "Stevie" thanks to our friend that kindly loaned us his generator to save my little chickies!  He has grown on me now, but nearly got the boot.  He was a very unfriendly and naughty chick the first couple of days of his little mini-rooster life.  I am 100% sure he is going to turn out to be a he.  Well, maybe I should say 99% just in case since I don't really know what I'm talking about and all!!!  He is going to be black and the others are all blue!
Here's one of the blues a couple days ago.

Here's my little Easter Egger!  So sweet!  She (I'm hoping!) will also lay blue eggs!

So in this brooder I don't have a fancy ceramic heat emitter so the poor little guys have a light on them 24 hours a day.  I decided to give them a little stuffed bear that they can climb under to get out of the light and sleep just like a little mama hen and not only does it work great, but it makes for a whole lotta cuteness!!!!

Here you can see their little wing feathers are already coming in.  They are going to be such a pretty color!

Now onto the big kids!  They were starting to get cramped in their old brooder and able to fly up onto the sides so last week we moved them up into their new home!  Here they are before the move getting a treat of cucumber.  They were so cute.  Not sure what to do with it but one would finally be brave and grab a piece and all the others would start chasing it around and they'd steal it from each other.  They had fun!

And then now here they are in their new digs! They love the room to fly and chase each other around.

Here's a pic of them from just last night.  Aren't they getting big and very chickeny!?!

And here's my big boy.  He is a Welsummer and his comb is HUGE!  He runs around with his neck all stretched out long and tells everybody who's boss.

This is one of the two little black Orpingtons.  They are cuties and the smallest and least feathered of the group.

The top left corner is one of the *girl* Welsummers (I hope!) and 2 of the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes.

And one of the three Sussex.  They are funny and the most inquisitive of the group.  They are all very fascinated with Bella dog and get right up to her nose through the playpen.  Too cute!

 

And as for the coop, with the crazy couple of weeks we've had with Lucas having a little procedure done, Liam breaking his leg, then getting sick, STILL not being able to walk, and the dozen or so doctor appointments to go along with all of this, we just haven't gotten much done. There are 2 sides of the run kinda almost done, but that's it. We desperately need to get working on it because these chickens are getting bigger by the day!!! Just how long can you go living with almost 20 chickens in your house???????? If Will doesn't get cracking I guess we'll find out!!!!! Honestly, I enjoy them being where we can watch them.  I love listening to their little noises and being able to check in on them constantly. They are really quite low maintenance and I am discovering that chickens are my zen. I highly recommend the website www.backyardchickens.com if any of you are getting sucked in by this chicken cuteness and considering starting your own flock!!!!