healing nico, healing me

nico was being picked on by the other chickens.  someone was plucking the feathers from her rump at night.  she started sleeping in the nesting boxes to protect herself.  eventually blood was drawn, and once there is blood (especially on a white chicken) the other hens won't leave it alone.  i had to step in.

at home today

venus

a few things from a sunday at home -

meet the chicklets

i may have been a bit over zealous with the chickens...

i have been excited about having laying hens from the start.  but i really didn't expect to enjoy the chickens as much as i have.  after listening to a couple of friends with chickens, i decided six was not enough.  and since i'm already doing the raising-baby-chicks-in-my-sun-room thing, i hurried up and added four more babies to my flock.  (is this what they call chicken math?) 

did you know that you can order day old baby chicks through the US mail?  our chicks came from My Pet Chicken and they were great.  it was the cutest package ever.

here are the tiny chicklets:

Nico - the blue splash marans

Luna - the silkie bantam

Clementine - the buff orpington

Nellie - the blue laced red wyandotte

nellie is named after my grandmother, mary nell, just because i thought grandma would get a big kick out of having a chicken named after her.  that's the kind of grandma she is.  and i chose this chicken because she is a fancy sounding breed.  grandma is nothing if not fancy.

the chicks in residence are still getting used to sharing space and food with the little chicklets.  tiny nico is trying to assert herself but the bigger girls are having none of it.  it looks like she doesn't realize she is less than half their size!

freeloaders.

Quinn and venus

first, a quick hello to my grandma (my fancy grandma, mary nell, who my chicken nellie is named for). Grandma got her own ipad for Christmas and i hope she has figured it out enough to be reading this.  hi grandma!!
 
my oldest chickens are 20 weeks and 5 days old today.  the transformation from tiny baby chick to strutting hen has been amazing to witness.  they change and grow overnight.

according to all my books about chickens, all of my breeds should begin laying eggs between 16-20 weeks.  which means mine are overdue.  their combs and waddles are growing and turning red, so i know they are close.  we are anxious to finally see our first egg in the nesting box!

chicken eviction

the big chicks moved out!  they got their own place, and we couldn't be happier.

though i am still crazy about them, the chickens were really wearing thin their welcome inside the house.

first, nico had a small injury and had to be separated from the rest of the flock.  but they all hate being separated and they screamed and cried and made so much noise!  then, because they are getting so big (and possibly also because they were trying to get to nico) the big chicks figured out how to fly up and roost on the sides of their brooding pen!  the pen is just made of sheets of cardboard.  i'm shocked that they could stand comfortably on the very narrow ends of the cardboard, but they did.  all night long.  and they pooped all over my wood floor.  so the time came for them to go.

new babies!

the babies are here!!  like last time, i ordered them from my pet chicken.  they hatched on monday and arrived at my post office on tuesday.  i was, again, totally giddy driving home with the little peeping box on the passenger's seat.

halloween 2011

nico admiring our giant squid and turtle

i realized this year that my own picture of an idyllic family halloween comes from the movie E.T. .   

free range chickens!

 

after moving the chicks from inside the house to their coop outside, we kept them confined to the coop for a couple of weeks.  some of the smaller chicklets were little enough that i was worried my cats would decide to snack on them.  and in my vast book study on chickens i learned that keeping them in the coop for several days ensures that they think of their coop as home and return there at night.

devastated

it's been a long while since i posted.  i hate it when bloggers say that.  

this blog is my "fun" and i always tell myself that i have to get my work done before i can edit and post photos for myself.   i've been doing a lot of work (photography -- my real work)  lately and it seems i am never caught up.  so my flash cards are full of photos of my life, my boys, and my chickens that have not been posted.  may i learn this lesson.

tonight seven of my chickens were killed by loose neighbor dogs.  we were out having an early dinner and we returned home to a back yard that looked like a massacre.  feathers and lifeless chickens everywhere.  

seven are dead.  three are missing.  tonight my coop is empty.

i am sad.  that isn't enough.  but it is true in its simplicity.  it seems silly to some people how much i enjoy my chickens.  so it will be silly to some how sad i am at their loss. i loved them in all of their chicken-ness (thanks joel salatin for that perfect sentiment). 

i worked so hard to educate myself about chickens, raise them from tiny chicks, make a home for them, care for them each day, nurse them through wounds.  i gave them a happy, simple, peaceful world to live in.  i am just devastated that they met such a violent end.  i let them down.  

tonight i lifted and carried each dead hen to her resting place.  through my tears i said "i'm sorry" to each of them.  and goodbye.  goodbye red.  goodbye flash.  goodbye lois lane.  goodbye isabella.  goodbye nico.  goodbye nellie.  goodbye singer.  we loved the time you spent here.

we have hope that we may find venus, clementine, and luna by the light of day.

chicklets move out

punk rock luna - 4 weeks old

the little chicklets are not so little anymore.  they are like awkward teenage chickens - they are getting their feathers but still losing fluff, their feet seem way too big for their bodies, and they are starting to fly around and challenge each other.  they have sufficiently covered our house in dust from scratching in their wood chips.  so we decided to relocate them to the coop with the big girls.  

Quinn

Quinn loves being outside.  he loves it far more than my other boys ever did.    he has learned to say "outside" and today he tried to say "chickens" while pointing at the windows in the sunroom.  he is simply more content outdoors.