Coop Envy

These little beauties belong to Heather Bullard



She got a nice mix of Rhode Island Red, Easter Egger, Buff Orpington and Barred Plymouth Rock.



Their "Hen Palace" was built by her husband. What craftsmanship!

Time Flies

The chicks have started to fly short distances. Coraline is preparing for takeoff in the photo above. Her favorite roost is now the at top of the feeder and her aim for landing is spot on. Today she flew from my desk to the chair back and landed like a pro! Violette, Madalyn & Lacey have yet to take flight, but I could see just how excited they were to do it as they watched their sisters land on top of my camera.

Mabel shows off her fine feathered feet.

Gettin' Dusty

Coraline enjoying her "dust" bath. She's in the food dish.


After her dust bath she was content to lounge in the dish.

Hi everybody, (if anybody). It's already 3 weeks into our journey of becoming backyard chicken raisers. The chicks are growing at an alarming rate! I have to reacquaint myself with them each time I see them for feeding and water changing.

They have been on medicated mash from the start and we have introduced the six of them to live foods such as small crickets and meal worms. It is hilarious to watch them running away and into each other, worm in beaks, each engaged in their own private game of keep away. They bring out the kid in me and I find myself getting lost in their little world in the Rubbermaid bin they have graduated into.

Just the other day after cleaning the food dish and refilling it with fresh mash, our little buff Cochin, Coraline, laid down in the middle of the dish and had herself a "dust" bath. Food flew everywhere, and the other chicks were pecking the chick food that was sprinkled on her downy feathers all over her back. Coraline just stayed in the bowl despite the pecking, loving every second.

Today we introduced a new food bowl with round openings for the chicks to peck at the food without being able to walk in it (or scratch all the food out which they've started doing too).

The more the merrier!

Yep, you guessed it! We were hooked on chickens -we returned to Rivertown Feed the next day and picked up 2 golden laced wyandottes, 1 black star (sex link) and 1 more Cochin chick for good measure.

We will be eating lots of eggs in the near future so we are starting to find egg recipes to try out. We just made a Mushroom Quiche last Saturday that we found here.

The First Night

The Coraline and Mabel spent their first night in a old 10 gal. glass aquarium with the heat lamp dangling from a old useless lamp. We spent hours just watching them eat, drink, preen and sleep. Coraline was the picture of health running around and sleeping just like a mini hen and Mabel the smaller yellow fluff ball seemed to be breathing hard and sleeping with her limp body sprawled under the heat light . I was convinced I would be waking up to a small tragedy and made plans to take Mabel's lifeless body back to the feed store the next day.

I had trouble sleeping and got up at the crack of dawn to check on the status of Mabel. Mabel was still positioned awkwardly but I could see she was breathing! I was grateful and relieved I hurried back to bed and had some much needed rest. When I woke Jessica was up and tending to the chicks She couldn't have been more happy to see Mable had made it through the night. We knew what had to be done so it was off to the Rivertown Feed once more!

The Peeping Box

Hi, this is my first blog! I hope to share my experiences of having a mini "farm" right here in the city. I'm hoping to start growing some of my own produce in the near future, and have just jumped in head first to raising chickens so I'll have fresh eggs.

We purchased 2 cochin chicks from Rivertown Feed located in Petaluma, CA on March 28, 2009.

Jessica was having a "off day" and wasn't feeling to good. We had planned a trip to Petaluma and I thought a visit to the feed store would be just the thing to cheer her up! The feed store had a "chick days" poster taped to the front door. I asked the first employee I saw "where are the chicks?" and we headed straight for them. They had 4 different types, all of which I'd never heard of. They had cochins, a feathered footed breed, golden laced wyandottes, black sex links, and black australorps. The chicks had been sexed (90% accurate). We were smitten. I think we were in there for 15 seconds when Jessica turned to me & asked "can we have one?" The next thing we knew we were in the car heading back to the East Bay with a peeping box containing 2 cochin chicks. On the way home we named the buff colored chick Coraline, and the white one Mabel.