Chick-lets & Zi

Our little girl loves her chickens so much, she's willing to sit out in the rain all afternoon to keep them company.  Zi's BFF chick-let right now is Sophia the Buff Orpington. I feel that chickens have been unfairly labeled as "dumb barn yard" animals, its pretty obvious to me that they make interesting, fun, responsive pets for kids.  Zi's looking forward to sun down so she can tuck them into their nesting boxes.

Chicklets :) Big News

Napoleon invades

The girls suddenly learned to navigate the porthole to the outside world all by themselves, I can't imagine what I was doing wrong, I must have been going about it all the wrong way :) Or maybe Napoleon is a poultry motivational specialist, I guess we'll never know.......

Chick-lets :) My chickens are "special"

My girls were very excited to see me this morning!  A few of them had figured out how to use the nesting boxes and perches, but some of the slow learners were still huddled together on the floor.  Not one of my little ladies was willing to venture out to the run yesterday.  I made several attempts to help them understand how the little door on the side of the coop works, but they just don't seem to get it.  So this morning I took advantage of their willingness to be snuggled, and walked a few down to the run and set them down.  The six I brought out started doing normal chicken type things immediately, (ya know scratching the ground, flapping wings, pecking at stuff) so I attempted to back slowly out of the enclosure, as soon as they noticed I was leaving, they grouped tightly together and frantically huddled around my ankles.  I stood there for a few minutes wondering what I did wrong, (I had very clearly taken on this project intending to raise strong, independent, confident ladies).  Just as I was about to give in and sit down, Ti-he spotted a bright green grasshopper a few feet away and they were off!  While they were chasing the poor grasshopper around I was able to escape without being noticed.  I'm going to keep an eye on them the rest of the day, I'm worried they won't go back in the coop for water.  There definitely seems to be a pronounced learning curve present in my flock, but overall they all seem to be a bit "special"   (I know because now that the grasshopper is gone they're all huddled together standing in the last place they saw me :)

Chick-lets :)

For some reason I thought they'd be excited to get out of the little cage and run, I was wrong.

Well they're finally in the coop!  It wasn't easy to convince them to leave the safety of their old familiar cage.  We tried a few different motivational tactics, and then gave up and manually removed them from the old cage one at a time and released them into the run.  They're all in the coop now and I haven't seen any of them venture out into the run this afternoon.  Hopefully they'll acclimate quickly and get out there and stretch those wings!

My girls look so tiny in there.

The new rental rehab project: Before

back porch

out front

kitchen

basement

The family picked up a new rental property, and it needs ALOT of work! but over all, it's a good solid structure, great location, nice wooded lot. It's defiantly got potential.  These are before renovation but after clean out photos, my father removed approximately 60 pick-up truck loads of garbage out of this house, removed all the wall paper, old carpet and gutted the bathroom before he'd even let me in for photos.

living room

dining room

the gutted bathroom

neat octogon shaped hallway connecting the three bedrooms

Attic

breeze-way

Chick-lets :)

It's looking like today's gonna be the day for our girls!  The coop is almost ready for them to move in!  We picked up plastic waterer from Tractor Supply last night, mounted the feeder on the wall, and buried chicken wire fence around the perimeter of the run to keep predators from digging under. They've been out in the fenced in area of our yard in their wire pen for the last few days, Always under the watchful eye of one of our dogs.  Amber refuses to leave her girls, so she's even out over night with them.   I admit that the idea of having them so far from the house is scary, so introducing them to the new coop will be bittersweet. But we know they need more room so we're all looking forward to seeing them enjoy their new home.

The fence project: Hell or high water

Between the rain and the humidity I'm not sure how he can stand to be out there, but he's determined to wrap this project up so we can move on to other things. The ponies are happy to have their run back, and the fence looks good.  I have to admire his ability to persevere, and that fabulous short sleeve raincoat/ tool belt ensemble is noteworthy as well.