You Gotta Train A Chicken...

Chickens are not born knowing everything... 

So... 

You gotta train a chicken to go up the stairs...

... to get into their coop...


And you gotta train a chicken to go in through the door...

 Before the automatic door closes at dusk...


And you gotta train a chicken to go up more stairs...

To get to their perch for the night...


And you gotta train a chicken to get on the perch...

  

And not laugh when they don't seem to 'get it'...

And you gotta train 17 chickens to do all the above - not just one...

And you gotta get them to stay on the perch even when they challenge you...

 Alli

And you gotta love it when they finally seem to 'get it'!

Lulu

And you gotta train all 17 chickens while one jealous girl looks on...

It has been a busy week for us... 

'Cause you gotta train a chicken and we are training 17 of 'em!

Who woulda thunk you gotta train a chicken?

If you are wondering where we are

Just meet us by the coop - we are training chickens!

See the Boards and Meet My Chicks! Part 2

 The 'poop boards' worked exactly as they were supposed to! Woke this morning to an icky clean:

But in three minutes flat, this is what it looked like!
 

Now, since I have lots of people wanting to see the 'gals' now that they have grown up I am going to introduce you to the chicken clan!

The first pic below is Allie - and Allie is a Dark Cornish. Allie is still young, so (s)he is still kinda homely - this face just shows you how homely Allie is. Allie we suspect is a male. I didn't want any roosters, but if Allie is a rooster - I will seriously have to consider keeping him. Why? 

Well, Allie has to be in the middle of everything.  Every. Single. Thing. I. Do.  

He even stands on my foot sometimes looking up at me waiting for my next step.

If I add something new, Allie tries it out. If I toss a worm in the pen, Allie gets it because he is paying attention to every move 'mommy' makes. If a chicken squabble is going on, Allie is looking at me, squawking for me to come break it up. If anything is happening - I am sure to know about it because Allie will make it known I need to come look.

And if all is quiet and Allie doesn't see me? He squawks until I come tell him "mommy is right here!"

So yeah, I will have to consider not having him for chicken soup... because he is always IN MY FACE, AT MY FEET and KEEPING ME IN LINE!

He cannot be chicken soup - 'cause someone has to keep me in line, right?


This is Verne - a Wellsummer roo. Verne used to be LAVerne until the day he started crowing.  Since he is rooster number 2 - he will not be staying with me. But he is a sweet rooster... 
 

 chicken soup... 


This is Big Bert - a Buff Orphington. He used to be Big Bertha - but looking more and more like he, too, is a rooster:
 

More chicken soup...


And this is Belle - who I think is also a rooster.  He is chest butting with the best of them and was trying to mate with another chicken yesterday - and he was dominate.  *sigh* He is also very hard-headed and was the last to go 'home' last night. After dark we finally got him into the coop. I have no idea yet what breed he is - but he was bought as an Easter Egger"
 

I had high hopes for Belle - I love the coloring he is showing.  But, alas, more chicken soup... chicken soup is good for the soul right?


 These two pics are of Laverne - she is a very sleek Wellsummer pullet (female) chicken:

This is Ellie. She is a Golden Sex Link pullet:
 

Aunt Bea is a Black Sex Link and I hope a pullet. She has the prettiest chest feathers of all:

This is Ella - a Golden Sex Link pullet:
 

This is Gracie (the gray and white with dots) - whom I am afraid may also turn out to be a male, however, I am still debating this theory. No crows yet, but a bit dominate...

Behind Gracie is Stacy who is still outgrowing her(?) baby down - so we still don't know what she will look like. I suspect she is a Black Copper Morans but the other breed she might be is a Auracana. Since I don't know my breeds, All I can do is guess and trust the people I bought them from!  Lol...

And now you have met 12 (remember you met two yesterday) of our chickens.

They are our daily entertainers... who woulda thought they would be so fun??

Life Building a Chicken Coop

As you saw on the last post, we have been building a chicken coop castle. It has take so blasted long and so much work that I have not had time to post. Sooo... what have I been doing??

I have painted:

And painted:

And painted:

And painted:

And painted:

And I am sure I have painted at least half the state on this coop!

I *hate* painting!


Then we assembled:

Can you see I still have painting to do? Yep! Under the eaves...  *sigh*


Steve assembled, assembled, assembled - assembled some more - and added steps:

We added "poop boards" for the chickens to roost above. The idea is they are supposed to roost and poop on the boards that are filled with Sweet PDZ. To clean out, you just sift it like it was cat litter and it is clean!

The chickens seem like it... 

And we will see if it is easy to clean like they say it is... Tomorrow.



Today we are installing their chicken door and fencing their outside area...

It is a good thing, these chicks are not teeny chicks any more:

 Charlotte and Lulu

So, now you know why I have not posted! We are still building the chicken castle!

And wait until you see what I am going to name it... 

But you gotta wait!

How to Build a Chicken Coop

1.  Have a dream of the perfect chicken coop:

2.  Have a husband draw it up on Autocad.


3.  Buy the wood and trimmings (aka spend $1,300+) and start building the foundation in the shop:

4.  Use all the muscle you can find and move it out to the perfect spot:

 

5.  Cut out, build and paint the walls:

I have such a smart husband!  Who 'woulda thunk' to hang the walls to paint?


6.  Let them dry:

7.  Grab your tractor on the windiest day of the year and tell your wife "We can do this... don't worry!"  

I worried.                   
              

8.  Start placing walls on the coop one at a time... and lift them up...

9.  "SEE? I told you we could do this!"  Never mind I had not one iota of control over that wall - if it would have fallen on him, I would have been no help.  *sigh*

10.  Keep adding walls.. 

11.  And adding walls... if you could only see how hard the wind was blowing! It was gusting at 40-50 mph!

12.  Finally - add the last of those 4 walls... 

13.  Add the side walls and beams on the roof...

14.  And the plywood for the roof...

OF COURSE he is using his safety gear... ha!

And finally we rest... he had to go to work today... good thing - we both needed a break. 

Yes, we still have more to do, but at least we are now on the downhill side of it.

What an enormous job this has been!


I hope those 18 hens lay golden eggs..

Better yet, I hope they are all hens!

18 Chickens and One Sassy Gal

I have fallen for 'chicken math'.

Do you know what chicken math is? It is where you walk into the feed store or Atwood's (a farm store) for a couple of chicks (baby chickens, silly, BABY CHICKENS!) and come out with a lot of chicks!

The sad thing is, you don't just do it once, you do it over and over again! 

And pretty soon, you have 18 chicks... or 80 chicks.

And I am not looking at one more chick thank-you-very-much!

18 is my limit!

Now Steve is building a chicken mansion for my little chicks!


On a very sad note, my dear Aunt Connie passed away last Thursday. Aunt Connie and I were very close for a lot of reasons. She had such a unique personality and whit about her that everyone loved to be around her. She made you laugh. She made you remember - her way.  And she made you feel special. And she loved to talk. Oh, my, did she love to talk!  

I will miss my dear Aunt Con. Let me share a bit of her so you know why I will miss her so much:

When I would call to talk to her, she would often answer the phone, "What?!" Then she would just start chattering away...

Aunt Connie changed our names. Every single one of us kids... My name was changed to Gail, Liz's name was changed to Beth, Lisa's name was changed to Lulabelle, Phillip was Pibs, John Dee was Johnde, Stephenie was My Sweet Little Girl, Jeremy was Brat - probably because he was so innocent, Danny was Dannel, Brian was Damn It, Brian! and Pam was Pammie. Oh yes, the list goes on and on... but she never called us by our given names. And I always wondered why...

Every time we talked she asked how my sweet Steve was and then she would say to give him a hug for her and have him kick me on the butt - because she never did it enough and he needed to make up for it.

When we talked on the phone, she always ended with the last words "I love you. Good. Bye!" 

*click*  

Short, sweet and to the point.


My brother-in-law wanted to go meet her when he was in Biloxi training. My sister was in Alaska, so John braved it on his own. I told him he should be prepared for anything - that there is no describing our Aunt Connie.

He tells the story that he rang the door bell and this is how it went... 

She opened the door and said, "Are you Shari's husband?" 

"Yes" 

"Step in here"

He did.

She looked him up and down and didn't say a word. (Can you imagine what he was thinking?)

She told him to turn around.

He did.

She looked him up and down again - still not speaking.

She told him to turn around.

He did.

She reached over and grabbed his ear and pulled his head around and looked behind his ear. 

She stood back and said, "You'll do. Now sit and start talking. Tell me about yourself and I will see if we will keep you!"

Again - can you imagine what he was thinking?

But that is how she was.


Aunt Connie had to deem everyone 'human' - and until you were deemed 'human', you were a 'child'.  I think Jeremy made it when he was born (he is a red-head and she loved red-heads), and Steph never made it. I think I was 45 when I was deemed 'human'. Steve musta been born human 'cause he could never do anything wrong. Thinking back, I am not really sure that Jeremy ever made it, but I am guessing... I bet he remembers though!

I bet he surely remembers Jason and him pelting her with red holly berries... she swore she pulled holly berries out of her ears and nose for years to come.

Aunt Connie made you laugh - did I say that? She was a HOOT to be around! Oh, I'm gonna miss her.


Steve and I struggled with how to get there - it is a 12 hour drive.  We knew we wanted and needed to go - after all, she has been such a huge part of my life ALL of my life, I can't imagine being without her. So we finally decided to use some of this frequent flyer miles that we have saved for the big fantastic trip that we never seem to get around to taking... and instead, we are using them to say good-bye to a very dear loved one. We will hug the ones she is leaving behind, share our memories of her, laugh and I know I am going to shed a few tears. I think it is supposed to be a reunion of everyone who loves her.

I am so thankful I went to see her a couple of weeks ago. I just knew I needed to. Sometimes we just need to listen to our heart and follow it. Thank goodness I did exactly what my instinct told me to do, because I got to hug and hold her and I told her I loved her again. I am so glad I didn't wait.


It has been a tough 6 months; two surgeries, two moves, two death's... and worlds of other stuff tossed in between.

But nothing compares to losing loved ones; Aunt Connie was a second mom to me and a family treasure to us all.

Uncle Ed - I will say prayer after prayer for you. Thank you for turning Aunt Con's life around and making it so special. She loved you with all of her heart and soul. You are a treasure and I know why she thought you were so special - because you are an amazing man. You were truly a blessing to her. Heck, you are a blessing to all of us - but she thought the world twirled around you - and she actually made me believe that it did!  The thing that amazes me the most is you kept her in line! Well, ok, she may have had me fooled into believing she was behaving...

Oh! And she got her way - are you surprised?  She told me she would have to leave this earth first because she couldn't live without you. I can smiling at us and saying; "Nanny, nanny, boo, boo! Told ya so! Told ya so!  I got here FIRST!"  

Can't you just see her dancing and smiling her smug little smile?  

How can we ever say good-bye?

  
I can say I love you so very much...

But

I am just not ready to say good-bye.

I just want to hang out and listen to some more of your stories...

Chicken Football

I love watching the chicks when I put a treat in there. There can be a whole plate of the same treat, but if one chick gets a good bite they ALL want that same bite and chase the chick around trying to steal it. We call it chicken football and it is certainly entertaining!

I think it is better than watching the NFL - what do you think?

Here Comes the Chicken Coop!

So I told Steve I wanted a chicken coop like this one but with windows:

And he started building me this one - this is the front door:

 

I think he is doing pretty stinking good, don't you? 

And yes Todd, he knows the grain on the plywood on the left side of this is not going the right way, but he said this is an interior support wall and he is sure even you wouldn't cut an entire piece of plywood for that little bitty piece... 

This is how he has been working on each of the walls - he builds it flat on the floor of the coop then props it up on the shop wall when he is finished.  He is building all four walls like this then he will pull it all outside, start putting it up and then build the side walls.

This is the back door minus The Poultry Butler door which he still has to add:

And I went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore (I love that place!) and found this solid wood (except the windows) door for $35! I am going to refinish it for the front door of the coop:

Between the front door and the actual coop part, there will be 4' of storage area for the feed, straw and wood chips. Between the storage area and the coop, we will have a regular screen door with hard wire covering so the chickens can't help themselves to the food.  Somehow I think they just might if I don't protect it... 


I am up to 9 chicks now! I got 2 more last night.  :-)

I am pleased to introduce Miss Molly:

And Hazel: 

I sure think they are worthy of the chicken mansion Steve is building, don't you?


I see a game of chicken football in my future.  Don't worry, it is a fun game for the chickens AND their people. I will share a video soon!

Gotta go stare in amazement at... errr... tend to my farm critters. They are so stinking cute!

And just for reference, Raelee took Margaret home with the 7 chicks she bought last night!