first 1/2 dozen!

Madalyn, a black star, Pippi & Lacey, one of my two golden wyandottes are the first to lay.

I am so proud!

egg monday

Eggtastic!

This morning Madalyn was in her nest box

She was preparing for her first egg!

After about 40 min. lots of scratching & panting...

Her first egg was laid!

After she ate some food

This is the egg it's a beauty, even if it's small :)

something wicked this way comes

The ease & romance of summer has me truly in love with chicken keeping.I like getting up and letting the girls out in calm of morning and tucking them in the warmth of dusk. Now that the days getting shorter and the leaves staring to turn it has me wondering what the winter has in store for us.

Fox in the Hen House

I just finished reading this wonderful interview with Orren Fox, a 12 year old who keeps 25 backyard chickens. Wow. I am so very impressed with this young man. I read it aloud to Elaine who shed a tear of joy that such a young boy could be so eloquent and wise beyond his years. Check out the interview:

A must read! http://www.takepart.com/blog/2009/08/21/meet-happy-chickens/

And he also has a blog here.

Waiting...

Waiting for the girls to lay eggs any day now. I heard the news that their sisters produced 4 eggs this morning up in Petaluma!

Hen Update

The girls are doing great! Still waiting for eggs and have been saving all my empty cardboard egg crates from the store, current count is at 7. I feed the hens Organic Pride layer crumble and of course give them table scraps, fruit, veggies and edible greens from the yard.

Yougurt Sunday

I had read somewhere that chickens love yougurt and that it was great for their digestive tract. Last trip to the store I bought a tub of Straus Family Creamery plain whole milk yougurt. I chopped up some apple and addes about 1 1/2cups of yougurt and took it out to the girls.





On a side note, I stopped by the sweetest little farm today. Their motto is "Grown Like Tomorrow Matters" If you are ever passing through or visiting Petaluma it's worth the visit.

Food For Thought

Most everyone has heard that organic, locally grown food is supposed to be bettter. But why?

Imagine giving your 2 year old a hamburger. 2 weeks later he dies from food poisoning. No, it's not hypothetical, this really happened to Barbara Kowalcyk's son, Kevin. Learn more about where our food comes from and Barbara's fight to pass Kevin's law in the film, Food Inc., now playing in select theaters.

Consumers have the power to change the way our food system is set up-please help. Find out more here. And follow the blog here.

dandelion green friday

First Look

Pippi

I made a turkey sound....

and Madalyn put on a show. You better work it!

strike a pose

our little Mabel loved the fresh greens

Lacey

cutie pie!

It's alot like having a petting zoo in your own backyard!

County Fair

I went to the county fair with new enthusiasm this year, to see the poultry! I had so much fun checking out the different breeds and seeing who won ribbons. I'm sure the girls would have won several if they had been able to be enter but it's for juniors only. Oh well!




a cute Peking duck



a lovely assortment of eggs



a beautiful bantam hen



handsome bantam rooster strutting his stuff



she laid a egg while we were taking her picture - she's proud and wants everyone to know it!

Growing up

Ah summer! It's been hot one day and cold the next here in the SF Bay Area. The girls have shade all day thanks to the trees in our yard and their coop. On warm nights they get a nice breeze through the windows, and when its cold and breezy we just cover the large window in back with a large piece of wood. It seems to be working just fine, they are happy and growing!

Take a look at how their combs are coming in!

Above is Madalyn, a black star.

And this is a wyandotte, they have rose combs.

Sweet Mabel, our late bloomer, doesn't have a very impressive comb yet, but she's getting there!

Every morning they look a little different, it's amazing how quickly they grow!

Bok, Bok, Bok!

We are NOT used to the girls having grow up vocalizations! It still throws us off guard. Little Mabel is really getting close to matching the adult chicken noises. She still is a bit peepy though!

I took some photos of the girls today, they are starting to roost more during the day. At night they still snuggle down in the coop on the floor together.

This is Madalyn our Black Star on the roost, check out her comb and wattle coming in! She's starting to look like a real hen.

I love this shot of our golden laced wyandottes, Pippi & Lacey since it shows what they look like from the front and back. These two love each other and like to hang out together.

Miss Madalyn is very curious and likes to peck on me while I'm trying to take photos. Here she's inspecting where the best spot to peck my sweatshirt might be. She likes the zipper.

Chicken Update

Elaine has been very busy so I'm guest blogging today about our chickens! In case you don't know me, I'm Jessica, Elaine's partner in crime and fellow founder of Aroo Studio. We've been slammed with a huge wholesale collar order, and just got back from camping in Humboldt County. Elaine's Dad was nice enough to stop by twice daily while we were away to let the chickens out in the morning and close them in at night. They put themselves to bed at dusk now, so all we have to do is shut them in, so easy!

The chickens are continuing to grow, they are about 3 months old now. Last week they started making real chicken clucking noises, well, all of them except Mabel who is still peep, peep, peeping away. They've also started to roost more, and yesterday all 5 chickens were in a row on the little roost we made in their run-too cute.

We'll get some photos up soon, we had a bit of a camera meltdown and lost our photos last week. I can't wait to show you how their wattles & combs are coming in. We switched their food to crumbles too, no more chick food for these ladies. When we run out we'll be starting them on laying food! We are already starting to save our empty egg cartons for when they start to lay (most likely in about 3 months time, though Madalyn, a Black Star, may start a bit earlier).

More to come soon, and I'll try to guest post when Elaine gets too busy since I know we have a few followers who have been missing us. Would love to see comments from our readers too!

Saturday in the City

We Did It! ( finally)

So this weekend was the now or never for us to get our butts in gear and build a passageway to and from the coop to the yard. I have to say, it was ridiculously easy! Just a few snips of wire and some staples - now our lives will be much easier as will the girls trips to and from their house. What shall we do with our new found time?

Now the pullets can come and go as they please, Imagine that!

:)

Mabel investigating some wild horseradish.