New Serama Chicks Have Hatched :)

Here are some pictures of our adorable new babies :) 14 baby serama chicks. Seramas are the smallest breed of chicken, and are known for their friendly personalities.

Tulips, daffodils, hyacinth ... so many flowers, and chickens too!

This year our bulbs came up early, and we already have lots of tulips :) Usually we don't have tulips until next month. We really enjoy spring because everything is blooming: tulips, hyacinth, grape seed hyacinth, irises, roses, pansies, snapdragons, petunias, viola, peach and nectarine trees and of course our citrus too!

Here is Karsen getting Elvis to sleep in his lap while he watches TV :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGvJ3ynYD0

We also have Serama eggs in the incubator ... 21 eggs with babies in them as of today, day 10!!! Can't wait for baby chicks!!!

And, we have three baby chicks in the brooder from one of Ky's friends. They are 3/4 polish and 1/4 ameraucana :)
Here they are :)

Can't resist this one!

Coop fixed up and zoo trip :)

The last week was busy :) We painted the coop, Kyle built a "poop" board for the coop, and we put shingles on the roof of the coop to make it more water resistant. We also found that putting sand on top of the poop board helps with getting the poop off later.
Yesterday Karsen and I went to the zoo after his doctor's appointment down town. We, of course, visited the tortoises, and he also wanted to see the rhinoceros horned iguana too. He's seen them before in his class when a reptile guy brought a bunch of reptiles in. We tried to go on a bear hunt too, but the Forest of Eco (or whatever it's called) was closed ... so no bear hunt for us. We also petted the sting rays and were at the leopards enclosure when he roared - too cool!
Today we took the chicks in to see Karsen's classmates. They are talking about egg development in his class right now. Evie and Gertrude were the stars of his class :). Maybe next year we will loan them the hovabator so they can incubate eggs in the classroom and watch them hatch.
The tortoises are up full time now too :) They are enjoying their weeds, but the chickens love weeds too. I don't think we will be able to keep enough weeds on the side yard to feed the tortoises all year like we did last year. Especially since some of that area is chicken free range area!
Last weekend we also had fun at Mom and Pop's house at the Mogen's in Mesa get together :) I brought my camera but forgot to take pictures :(. It was nice to see everyone! This is the first year though that Karsen didn't go swimming ... I guess he is finally old enough to realize the water really IS cold the first weekend of March!
Today is my daddy's birthday, so Happy Birthday Daddy!!! We will definitely get some good pictures of the party on Saturday.

Here are the tortoises enjoying their weeds :)

Here are the chickens eating their flax seed

Here are Clover and Blue Belle on their perch

Here is Karsen at the zoo

Here is the coop with the paint, poop board and shingles :)

That's it for today!

More Flock Changes

  One of the baby Mille Fleurs is getting intimidated by the bigger chicks and needs to be able to get to food and water better.  So we decided to find them a great home, but then it would just leave one little one by herself in the brooder, so she will be going with the Mille Fleurs.  Also then we will have a bathtub again, which is great for Karsen since he's missing his tub!  A very nice lady that runs Piggie Poo rescue is going to get them on Sunday.  
  So ... we found two really nice 12 week old pullets, to round out the flock and we have a nice variety.  One of the 12 week old pullets is a blue ameraucana, she is very pale blue, almost lavendar.  Then the other 12 week old pullet is half ameraucana and half astraulorp, she is a darker blue.  Both are super beautiful.  We think we are naming the ameraucana, Periwinkle.  And the half ameraucana / astraulorp, Cloud because she is all colors of a cloudy sky.  Periwinkle is show quality, so we could show her at the fairs and other chicken shows ... so much fun!
   Then yesterday we found out that Henrietta is really a Cuckoo Maran.  So we will get chocolate brown colored eggs too.
   We still have Gertrude the Buff Orpington, and Evie the Rhode Island Red.
    Here's some pictures from yesterday of the babies sunbathing and acting silly in the coop.  And some more from today with the official complete flock.
    Also we now have daffodils and Iris flowers :)

daffodils :)

Iris :)

sunbathing like silly chicks :)

Tortoises are up, some days!

Here are our 2 new girls, Periwinkle and Cloud :)

Yummy weeds!!!!

Already part of the flock :)

The little ones say, who are this big chickens?!?

Karsen holding Evie :)

More fun weeds - yummy

Hmmm they are almost as big as Elsa, or bigger!

Karsen and Evie

Evie is Karsen's favorite chicken ... he plays with her endlessly, and she tolerates him very well :)  He gives her flying lessons, and puts her on his shoulder all of the time.

Tank and Claude had a cute day together too.  Claude was rubbing on him, and licking his head, and Tank was nibbling on him very carefully :)  Here is the video of them together today.

An here is a video of the chickens in their coop yesterday.  They had some fun time out today too when the sun was shining.  They all LOVE wax worms that I buy for Guido the Leopard Gecko.  Next time I go to Petco I'll get some meal worms and video the silly chickens running around like crazy with a worm in each mouth trying to figure out how to eat them before they get stolen away.

Changes to the flock!!!

  Sadly, Ivy had to find a new home today :(.  We got two new chicks, Mille Fleur Bantams, and Ivy just would not quit picking on them.  We took them out to the coop for a while, and everyone was fine there, but back in the brooder she went back to being really mean to them.  So, we found her a new home with someone who has property, and got a replacement, an Americauna Pullet ... she will lay blue or blue/green eggs.  Karsen insisted on naming her Ivy too.  But I think she looks more like a Lacey.  We'll see if I can talk him into Lacey.

   The two Mille Fleur Bantams will be tiny chickens as adults and lay teeny eggs.  They are really beautiful when they are full grown though!  Their names are Penelope and Gidget.

  The chicks were outside for a few hours today enjoying their coop.  They got to pick at dandelions and some bird seed.  

  Way more exciting was eating some wax worms (buy them for my leopard gecko).  They all ran around like crazy chickens with worms dangling from their beaks until they figured out how to eat them.  Will try to get pictures of this tomorrow.

  Kyle made them a great perch for their brooder and another for their coop, they love them!!!!

This is Gidget

This is Penelope

This is Henrietta

This is Evie

This is the new Ivy (Lacey to me!)

Here is the old Ivy with the other chicks eating dandelions :)

Here is everybody in the brooder with the new perch :)

Here is Gertrude

And another picture of Gertrude, since she is my favorite :))))

Chicks are soooo much fun!!!  I'm so glad we decided to have some :)  And I am so happy there is peace in the flock again!  

Here is an adult Mille Fleur Bantam hen ... Penelope and Gidget should look like this.

The new Ivy (Lacey) should look like this except black and white when she is grown.

Outside in the new coop for the first time :)

Ivy, Evie, Henrietta and Gertrude all got to go out in their coop for a while today when the sun was out.  I think Gertrude and Evie are both after the top hen position.  It was so funny because a fly flew by and they trilled the alarm and all froze waiting for danger to go away.

Birds of a feather really DO flock together!!!  A lot of the time our two black beauties stick together, and our two golden girls hang out in their own chickie click :)

What do you see????  Do I see it????  Maybe I better get some!

 Bread???  What is that??? It does taste good when it's sprinkled in the gravel though.