Chicks Gone Wild!

Kathie Lee, Tiara, and Oprah

 

In March we went to CAL Ranch.  Probably to buy some work gloves.  While we were there we were beguiled by the tiny chicks peeping and running around their enclosures.  Reed asked if we could get some and I hemmed and hawed about how it didn't go so well the last time we had chickens.  (We were poor. . .  didn't get a coop in time. . . eggs all over the yard. . . chickens eaten by the Bichon Frise. . .)  He looked at me with a blank face.  "When was that?"  I began to laugh because he had been so little that he didn't even remember the chickens.  He was probably only two at the time!

Kathie Lee

 

 Big Red would not come out of the nesting box.

 

This is Izzy.  She is our meanest chicken- and the smallest, too!

 

Since he had never had the experience, how could I say no?  To be totally honest I wanted to bring them home as much or worse than he did- I just needed him to be the excuse when Ed looked at me in wonderment.  We decided we should look around first.  We drove to IFA and left with 6 chicks.  Three Americaunas and three Rhode Island Reds. 

Oprah

 

Gladys

 

We rigged up a brooding box in the laundry room and had a blast watching our chicks.  Sadly, a couple of days later the smallest, weakest chick died.  Reed wanted a replacement chick, so while he was at school I went to get another.  The lovely gentleman at the store would not sell one alone, so I had to get two.  I got a white leghorn and a Plymouth Rock hen.  Reed was thrilled.  Everyday we held each chick and started naming them.  Everyday a couple of chicks participated in dog training so that Lewis and Clark would learn that they could not touch or hurt the chicks.  I didn't think it would work, but it was worth a try.  As it happens, it DID work.  My two bird dogs bark at every sparrow and robin, but they wander among the chickens with no issues and are quite protective of them.

 Lewis watching the free-rangers

 

Now it is August.  The ladies outgrew the brooding box and moved into their first coop the first week of May.  After a couple of weeks in the garage, they moved outside into a dogrun- coop and all.  Last week they moved into new luxury coop that is on the outside of the run, but they have full access.  We are getting 4-6 eggs a day.

The new coop.  Colby helped me paint and shingle it.

 

The coop and run.  Our mini farm.  Reed's domain!

 

What?  You're leaving?