today in pictures

Our collection of outbuildings on our 8,000 sq ft city lot. The coop, the shed and the shed roof off the right side of the shed for our wood.

The coop with new addition. I'm proud to say that I dug the 34" holes and sunk all 4 posts in concrete by myself! Wow was I sore the next day...

Penny's pretty sure that anything I'm carrying must be edible. Here she tried to grab the wrist strap on my camera. What you don't see is how peeved she was when she realized it wasn't a treat.

The first foray into the yard ever. They were out for a short 10 minutes today before I let the dogs out. I would have given them longer but based on Jake's howling I knew he couldn't wait.

I think their scratching and digging might actually be good for our struggling lawn. We'll have to let them out more often. They were easy to coax back into the coop with a little cracked corn in their cake pan.

Spring is here. The bartlett pear trees are blooming (2 trees).

So are the honey crisp apples (2 trees).

The bleeding heart, pink and white. These were bare dirt about a month ago and now they're almost waist high.

The pink and green hellebore.

One of my new clematis - I planted three on various fence sections this week.

And Jake, who thinks he too is a sign of spring...

Happy Friday!

Been too long.

So it's been too long since my last post. I've got to get better about this! I owe photos when I get a chance. So, here's the news.

Lucy started laying, so all 4 girls are now keeping us in eggs. Lucy's are a dark reddish brown.

Phyllis and the chicks went to Denise's house at the end of March. I heard from her the other day that the chicks are now bigger than little Phyl.

Pru's leg mites got bad enough that I caved and took her to the vet. Guess I should have done that a while a go. One shot of Ivermectin a week ago and she's well on her way to healing. She'll never have pretty feet or legs, but at least they won't hurt anymore. While we were there she got a thorough exam and generally behaved herself. She officially weighs 3 lbs. I feel kind of silly for taking her to the vet, but here in the city it's hard to find the farm drugs that you might be able to easily get other places. I knew from a book I have and from research online that Ivermectin was what we needed to finally fix this, but I couldn't get my hands on a small amount locally. Oh well. At least know we have a go-to vet in case of other issues.

The Dr. also observed that she was rather thin and asked after the others. I said I wasn't sure as I don't often pick them up. I came home and checked and yep, everyone was thinner than they should be. So wormer it is. I had to have Mike stop at the Bothell Feed store as Everett didn't have any Piperazine (sp?). They sell it under the name "Pig Swig". It's bright pink and fruit flavored. As if the girls care? Hopefully everyone will be feeling better shortly.

I got a bee in my bonnet and decided that since Penny and Lucy are so big, that they needed more space. So I sunk 4 posts and expanded their run by another 16 square feet. This section is outdoors, covered with chicken wire. So far it has been a huge hit! It gives the girls a place to dig for worms (they dig in their covered run too but I don't think there are many worms in there), feel the rain, spread their wings and chase bugs. To celebrate I gave them a spaghetti squash to eat. After 2 days they still hadn't figured out how to get through the shell, silly girls!, so I cracked it open for them. Wow! That was pretty entertaining to watch. Over 3 days they ate it all, shell and everything.

But now, no big treats until everyone puts some weight on. I've been spoiling them with lots of greens and cracked corn. But no more, only very limited treats until they fatten up. Shocking how much more layer feed they've been going through since this policy was implemented over the weekend. Apparently I've been a bad chicken mamma without even realizing it.

In other news, I've been putting new plants in and doing a lot of pruning. My pick rock roses took a real beating from all the snow this winter. I'm pruning them all the way back to the bases (leaving about 12 inches) and hoping they grow back. They've got about 4-6 weeks to show an inclination to grow and then I'll have to dig them out and replace them.

We're gearing up to build a two-car garage. We found a firm in NY to design it for us. We got the preliminary plans today and once we approve them, they'll do the final drawings for us. They look great, but I forgot to show them to Mike before he fell asleep so we'll have to wait until tomorrow night to approve them.

I think that's it for tonight. I'll try to be better about posting at least twice a week. Look for photos of the improved coop/run and Pru's pretty legs plus Jake the Marmaduke puppy and the new plants this weekend.

Chicks in progress

Well, to catch everyone up, here are the events of the last week:

Valentine's Day - Mike and I played it casual as we do every year. We exchanged cards, he brought me flowers and I made dinner.

Thursday - Phyl's eggs arrived at last. I put all 6 under her and she was happy as a clam - or perhaps happy as a broody hen?

Friday - I took two eggs away from Phyl as it was pretty obvious she couldn't cover them all as well as she needed to (the outer eggs were a lot cooler than the center eggs).

Saturday - we went skiing with some friends and their 3 year old daughter. It was a beautiful, warm sunny day. Had a blast! That night I discovered that Agnes has a cold, or perhaps bronchitis, either way she's sneezing and wheezing and generally not feeling too good. Likely why she stopped laying a couple weeks ago. I've turned the heatlamp on 24x7 again hoping to give her some respite from the cold.

Sunday - we had a lazy day. Ran errands, played with the dogs, then went to friends' house for "Thanksgiving in February". We do this every year. Buy a turkey when they go on sale, then have a dinner where we all bring our favorite dish.

Today - I candled Phyl's eggs just to make sure this grand experiment is working. 3 of them looked just fine - I could see the dark spot of the embryo and the beginnings of the blood vessel web. But one was cracked. So, that leaves her with 3. Hopefully she'll hatch at least one or two chicks. Otherwise I'm not sure what she'll do!

Lucy's the smartest

So, slowly, slowly my girls are becoming more friendly. Most mornings they come towards me when I go into the coop - looking for morning treats. But, Lucy is the smartest of them all. She's learned to eat cracked corn out of my hand. So sweet! Especially because she's the biggest of them all. Penny is "this" close to doing it as well, she's just a bit shyer than Lucy is. Pru and Agnes are interested, but not enough to come too close yet.

In other news, Phyl is all settled into the dog crate in the shed. She doesn't seem willing to come out of the nest to eat/drink/poop on her own even though she has clean water and plenty of food in the crate as well. So my new morning routine is to take her out of her nest, put her in with the big girls to do what's needed, then put her back in her nest 15 minutes later. Seems to be working so far - her eggs will arrive tomorrow or Thursday. I'm keeping a close eye on her to make sure that she's maintaining her weight and bright eyes.

Hopefully this will all work out - if not, I'm not sure what to do with her...

And the broodiness continues...

Phyl continues to be broody. I've tried giving her ice cubes to sit on - they just made her wet and crabby. I've been pulling her out a couple times a day, but she has a bite to eat and then goes right back. The last two nights I've turned out the light and put her on the roost bar, but she goes right back in the morning. All that's happened as a result is that Agnes and Pru stopped laying as well.

So now I'm trying to find someone that either wants a broody Seabright Bantam, or wants a few chicks. I'd love to buy some fertile eggs for her to sit on and let her hatch them, but I don't have room for any more birds so I'd need to be able to give them (and her with them) away as soon as they hatched. Oh well. One friend of mine is considering it. If that falls through I may post on Craigslist and see if I get any hits.

Finally, here are some new pics from Sunday...




Phyl in the nest box - being crabby





Penny looking pretty.




Lucy - the biggest of them all




How come if you take a picture of a group of hens you always get more butts than anything else?

Phyl goes broody

This week I was once again traveling for work, spending 5 days in Orlando. I left the house about 5:30am Sunday morning. Mike didn't collect the eggs again until late Tuesday night. He mentioned that he was only getting one or two a day, instead of the 2 or 3 we've been getting the past couple weeks since Pru started laying. Last night I got home late and went out to say hi to the girls. Turns out the heat lamp for the girls had gotten unplugged. I plugged it back in and noticed that Phyl was sleeping in the nest box. I just thought, poor little chicken, she must be cold!

I went back in and was talking to Mike and mentioned that Phyl was so cold she was sleeping in the nest box. He said no, she's been there all the time for the past couple days. Sure enough, I went out this morning about 8am - all the other girls were out and looking for treats. Phyl was in the box, looking pissed and then tried to peck me when I moved her to see if there were any early am eggs. She's definitely gone broody on us. Too bad, as I was enjoying the volume of eggs.

I looked around online while eating lunch to see if I could find any tips on getting her to quit. The only one I saw that seems feasible with the set-up I've got, is to give her some ice cubes to sit on. Apparently the coldness on her underside should persuade her to stop. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow if she's still there...

I know I don't have many visitors here yet - but if anyone comes by - any tips for un-broodying a hen?

In other news, Pru laid a two-yolker yesterday! I'll have to get some pics this weekend now that I'm done traveling for a while.

Party in the coop

The 125 watt infrared heat lamp bulb I've had in the girls roost box since October burned out on Monday night. I definitely didn't get the 4,000 hours promised by it's packaging, but that's neither here nor there. Since the light not only keeps the girls warm (and yes, I do know that they don't really need it here in Seattle except when it's really cold) but is also the reason we're consistently getting eggs this time of year, there was a sense of urgency to replacing it. I had an extra 250 watt bulg, but that seemed like it might be too warm in their little space.

So, Mike went to Lowe's on Tuesday afternoon - we were out of all other kinds of light bulbs too. He came home and said that he couldn't get a red one, they only had clear. So, Wednesday after work I went to the co-op to get another red one (where I'd gotten the original) and they were our of them as well. So I bought a clear one - after all, it shouldn't really matter, the red ones just remind of my girlhood as that's what my grandpa always used in the barn.

Since then it's been party time in the coop! The clear bulb gives off enough light that the girls can stay out in the run until all hours. The first night they were out and active until 8pm or so, Thursday night until 10pm and last night until 11:30pm - and then up way before dawn. So today I put in the 250 watt red bulb so that they would get some sleep at night. Plus, I just find it disturbing on some level that their biological clocks were knocked so off balance by all the light. Tonight they went to bed as usual about 45 minutes after dusk.

Prudence starts to lay!

So I was in NYC for the last 10 days. The first 6 for work and the last 4 playing tourist with my mother who had never been before. I'll try to post photos from the trip later.

While I was gone, Prudence started to lay! On Tuesday, I asked Mike how many eggs he'd been getting and he mentioned that he'd gotten 3 that day. I asked if he'd collected them the day before (not an out of line question for my forgetful husband) and he said yes, of course. Soooo, 2 laying hens do not equal 3 eggs. Turns out that she's been laying almost every day since. Her eggs are slightly larger than those of the bantams and seem to be getting bigger with each one. They are a nice warm reddish brown color.

So exciting! She's all grown up...

Still no photos of the new girls. We were busy all day on Saturday and even tho I was out and cleaned the coop, I didn't have a chance to take their photo. Then Sunday was cold and rainy. But the new girls are settling in and the old girls haven't stopped laying (another 6 eggs since last Thursday) - we're averaging just over an egg a day. Phyl and Agnes seem to be in sync, both laying about every 36 hours or so. Which is just fine with me. Hopefully they'll keep on that nice steady pace for the rest of the winter. Pru should start laying soon and Penny and Lucy in March.

I've determined breeds for the new girls. Lucy is a Black Langshan (first photo below) and Penny is a Partridge Chantecler. Both are going to be very big girls.

In other news, Jake and Sam both had big vet appointments last week. Jake got neutered and microchipped. Sam had his teeth cleaned. Both are doing well, we just took Jake's cone off tonight. Altho, it looks like Jake might have another minor ear infection. Mike will have to take him in and have that looked at. And then deal with ear drops while I'm gone next week. Bummer for him!

Oh, and our omelet last week was fabulous!

And now there's five

So, M says that I don't really want to get eggs because every time we start to get some I create chaos in the hen house. Not true. But I did create chaos again. I found 2 more pullets (12 weeks old) through Craig's List. They're both brown egg layers. Standard size, very pretty, exact breed unknown.

One is black, with feathered feet - I named her Lucy

The other is a rich brown with partridge coloring - I named her Penny

I'll post pics this weekend - right now it's too dark both day and night to get any due to all the rain.