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.

The coop is here ... Chicks are almost 3 weeks old!

  Our coop is finally in it's place in our yard, complete with some sand for the floor.  We still will need some more sand to make it deep enough.  Maybe tomorrow when it is warm I will take them out for a while to visit their new home.
  Here is their new coop :)

Here is Ivy

Here is Evie

Here is Henrietta

And ... Here is Gertrude

Tomorrow we'll try outdoors for a while :)

The Chicks Are Home :)

  After much searching, our little darlings are home!  We got four baby chicks; one Buff Orpington named Gertrude, One Wyandotte named Henrietta, one Rhode Island Red named Evie, and one Chochin named Ivy.

  They are two weeks old, and will need to stay indoors for another two weeks.  Then they will be ready to head out to their new coop.  Here is a picture of what their coop will look like.  We have picked out a nice shady spot next to our house so they don't get too hot in the summer.

  The chicks are happily settled in their brooder for now.  When we got home, they were all pooped!  Here's a picture of them all sacked out and sleepy.

  Then we had to get their heat lamp all squared away.  The first bulb was too hot, it was the only one they had where I got the chicks.  So, we tried a regular bulb, but it was too cold.  So we got a nice little 75 watt infared, and it works just perfect.

   Here is Karsen and his favorite chicken, Evie, the Rhode Island Red chick.

  Here is Karsen holding Ivy, the Cochin, she has feathery feet :)

  The light chick is Gertrude the Buff Orpington.

   Henrietta is the Wyandotte and she has lacy white edges on her feathers.  She is the one all of the way to the right in this picture.

That is it for today, time to enjoy the chicks :)

Did anyone say chickens?

  We are talking about getting chickens ... more than talking as we have ordered a custom coop :)  So today will be all about looking for chickens, and getting things set up.  Feed stores to call about what kind of chickens they have and a few local chicken breeders too.  
  Decisions, decisions ... baby laying chicks or pullets that will lay sooner.  Karsen would love to play with baby chicks, and they would bond to us really well.  But the pullets would lay eggs sooner ... hmmm.
  Some types we are looking at are Americaunas, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons and Blue Andalusians.  It would be so fun to have two or three, each a different type :).  Frizzles are also really cute with wavy feathers.   Here are pictures of a Buff Orpington, an Americauna, a Rhode Island Red, and a Blue Andalusian hen.