The Chicken Whisperer

It seems my husband is somewhat of a Chicken Whisperer. The chick-a-poos love him! The Girls could just as easily do without me. They loudly cheep and peep whenever I come near them (which is all the time, since I work in the office and take care of the feeding, cleaning, etc). They fly away from me and peck at me when I reach in their pen. They even do this to my daughter sometimes (though not nearly as often as me). But when my hubby walks by and sticks his hand in there, they hop right up and start climbing his arm. Hmpf.

You'll notice the yellow dog in the corner of the second picture, watching to make sure everything is under control.

Here are three observations I've made after the first full week of chick keeping:

1. Chicks poop a lot! And then they walk in it, and get it on their wings, beaks, each other... the list goes on. No matter how much I clean that brooder pen, some chick always has poop on herself. Yuck.

2. Chicks are not like dogs. They are not going to love me, no matter how hard I try. Good thing I'm really just in this for the eggs.

3. Chicks have a very short attention span. They peck at one thing, them something shinier or more interesting comes along and they're onto that. Talk about attention deficit problems.

At least they're still alive. I know that's how the last post ended, but it's true. We're proud of the fact that they haven't died!!

The Chicken Tenders

Day four and still alive

It seems we've got a VBG on our hands - a very brave girl. She's been the brave one from the start, but she took it to a new level today (literally). When I was working in the office (which is where the brooder pen is), I noticed she was perched on the edge of the pen. She's learned to fly! I told her I was very proud of her, then promptly put some chicken wire around the pen so she couldn't escape. We don't need any tragedies on my watch.

The yellow dog is still keeping guard over his flock. While I work, he lays on the bench behind my chair and watches the goings-on in the pen.

We've made it to day four, with all chicks still alive, and we're pretty excited about that!

The Chicken Tenders

Meet The Girls



The (little) Girls



The Girls made it home. And they lived through one whole night. And the house didn't burn down. We're feeling pretty good this morning.



Since all the local feed stores were out of chicks, my daughter and I headed to Elkhart, along with my mom and niece, to pick out the chicks. What's an hour drive for four chicks, right? The mission was successful, and several hours later, the chicks were in their brooder pen.

You'll notice one very interested dog in the background. We were sure the white dog would be the problem. Wrong. She hasn't shown The Girls a bit of interest. However, the yellow dog is a different story! He won't leave them alone. He hasn't hurt them (yet), just sticks his head in the pen and sniffs around.  



We've had a few setbacks. The most major, our choice of brooder pen was...ummm...poor. It started to melt from the heat lamp, so we made a quick run to find a new pen, 15 minutes before all the stores in town closed for the night. The other problem, the heat lamp was poorly made (can you guess what country it was made in), and the clamp was falling apart. So my husband had to rig the heat lamp so it wouldn't fall into the brooder pen and start the house on fire.

We woke up this morning to find the chicks alive, and they're eating, drinking, peeping, and seem happy. So far, it's a success!

Also, we've had lots of comments on the blog title; thanks to my dad for coming up with a catchy name!

The Chicken Tenders

Epic Eggventure

Let the eggventure begin! My city-living family has broken ground for the backyard chicken coop.  We've read the how-to books. We've visited the feed stores. We've studied the online resources. And now, we're going for it. In just a few short days, our tiny feathered friends will come home to roost.

We're planning a small flock, say three chicks. That should be plenty to provide us with fresh eggs. Of course, we won't be eating those eggs for quite awhile, since it seems to take four to six months before The Girls will start laying. In the meantime, our family is sure to be entertained by the antics our chicks will provide.

We have only one small concern. Well, actually two:

It's not the yellow dog we're worried about as much as the white dog. You see, she tends to kill any small animal that moves. The Plan (as we call it) is to try and socialize the dogs with the chicks each day, so they get used to each other. If that fails, our back up plan is something like this; keep the dogs as far away from The Girls as possible.

We'll keep you posted on our epic eggventure.

The Chicken Tenders