Tales from the Coop-keeper

Chickens.  Seriously one of the best.pets.evah!  I never thought of chickens of pets, until I had my own.  Actually, I thought of them as a food source, whether it was for eggs or meat.  I never knew of their quirky, silly sense of humor, and never would have guessed they had a sense of humor.

Our rooster, Ellen DeHENeres is such a sweet little soul.  I love watching him with the girls.  He is so polite and gentle.  One thing that he does that melts my heart is, when we bring down treats, he let’s the girls go first.  When they are done, he joins in.  What a little gentleman!  Another cool thing about Ellen is, he will let Chris cradle him upside down like a baby and rub his belly.  We have had hens before, but never a rooster.  Admittedly, I am a little intimidated by him, even though he is so sweet.  I’m workin’ on it!

 

I fully admit that I am a little bit of a crazy-chicken lady.  I don’t have a problem saying so.  I spoil our flock.  I spoil them rotten.  But they give us so much, it’s my only way to give back.  Every morning I make them a fresh salad of some sort.  This morning they had kale, fresh basil, fresh cilantro, summer squash, blueberries, watermelon, flax seeds, chili pepper and garlic.  (see Ellen hanging in the back,  patiently waiting?)  At night they usually get the left over veggie/fruit fixin’s from dinner and snacks from the day, and the stuff I pull out from the garden.

Another thing I do is make them homemade iced tea on these blistering hot days.  Sometimes mint, some times alfalfa, sometimes a combo of whatever herbs I have an over abundance of in the garden.  I have found that the iced tea would be considered chicken crack for my feathered friends.  They see it coming and they start squawking and flapping their wings running toward me.  I am pretty much known to them as “the treat lady”.

Last night I cleaned out their coop, which is something I do pretty often.  With 11 chickens living in there, it’s important to keep their living spaces in tip top shape!  My favorite thing to do is leave fresh cut herbs in their nesting boxes.  Kind of like getting a mint on your pillow at a nice Inn.  Don’t you just love the little surprises?  I think my girls and roo do too!  I mean, who wouldn’t want to come in and see this-fresh oregano, english thyme, rosemary, basil, lemon balm and chamomile.  Smelled like heaven in there!

I am hoping to get in and paint their boxes soon.  After all, if they look nice, they will want to use them, right?  We now have 3 hens laying!  I am so excited!  We have one more who is super close.  We will need to wait about another 5-6 weeks before the other 6 start giving us eggs.  I can not wait!

Miss Rosa is the “leader of the pack”.  She is also the one who will follow you around, (she is such a nosey hen) and just talk to you.  She also laid her very first egg last night!

Oh!  If you are wondering about the tea and why I use fresh cut herbs in the nesting boxes and their coop, take a look at this article from Backyard Poultry.

If you don’t have chickens, consider them.  They are easy to care for, they are fun, it’s a great learning experience and they will not only provide you with constant entertainment, but food as well! 

More goodbyes and a hello!

Sad day at our house today.  We got rid of Mrs. Pteranodon, Aunt Bea, Gloria, Binky, Zoe and Joker.  It's always hard to say goodbye to pets, especially ones you really, really enjoy and love.  Because of the move we decided to lighten our load of animals and downsize.  Our new yard is great, but not nearly as big as what we have now.  So we had to be fair to the animals and let them go. 

I placed an ad on Freecycle about the chickens and got a response from a woman who was interested.  As we started talking I also mentioned the rabbits.  She wanted them all.  Of course I was happy about her wanting everyone, but was even happier to find out they are a homeschooling family, they like to grow their own foods, etc.  Sounds a lot like we are.  I knew they were the perfect ones to take the chickens and rabbits.

We still have our original 6 girls.  We kept the Giselle and Peter Rabbit.  I just couldn't totally get rid of rabbits! 

One thing we did do this week that was TOTALLY NOT in the plan was getting a new puppy!  I have wanted a Yorkie for a good 6 years now.  But having spent a lot of money on our English Bulldogs I said I would never spend a lot of money on a dog again.  Not that they aren't worth it, but because, well.....I would rather get a shelter dog!  Anyway......I happened to check out Freecycle (yes, I LOVE Freecycle!) and an ad was placed just minutes before.  A lady had 4 Yorkie puppies-purebred.  For Free.  I called Chris IMMEDIATELY, knowing in my heart he would be sensible and say no.  Well, he said yes.  So we are now the proud owners of a little puppy dog named Triton.  This guy is little and full of ATTITUDE!   If you looked up Little Dog Syndrome in the dictionary you would see a picture of Triton!

Here is a picture of my new sweetie-it's almost impossible to get a picture of him.  He doesn't slow down long enough to get a good face pic!

And of course you can tell that even though he is suppose to be MY dog, somebody else has taken him over.  In fact, between Maggie and Chris, I am wondering where I fall into this who ownership thing!  LOL

We have 9 more days until we move.  I haven't done a whole lot to prepare so my posting may be hit and miss for a little bit!  I have lots to do.  I am finally getting in the frame of mind though, so it will be a breeze from here on out!  I am so looking forward to our new home!

Saying goodbye to a pet

I didn't want another cat.  I especially didn't want a cat with long hair.  But Chris found "Buffy" on the local shelter website and begged if we could go look at her.  I said fine, but we are NOT coming home with her.  Well......we came home with her. 

Chris fell in love.  And how could I say no?  I mean, he isn't even a cat guy.  But there was something about this one.  We quickly changed her name to Gracie.  I think she even liked it better. ;)

Our hearts were recovering from the loss of our sweet Harry.  He was our first "baby" and we loved him so much.  Gracie sure did help heal that wound.  Now, she was NEVER a cuddly cat.  She hated being picked up and only wanted to be loved on when SHE wanted it.  She was very independent.  A loner.  If she were human, she would be the old lady on the block that the kids would be afraid of.  Not because she would do something mean, but because she was just old and crotchety!  The crotchety part of Gracie's personality is what we loved best!  Especially with the kittens in the house recently.  She was never mean, but the kittens new without incident that they should just stay away.

Everyone that would come into our house and see her would ask how old she was.  She looked old!  You could just tell by looking at her.  She had this weird habit of doing "the running man" in front of the water bowl.  We still don't know why she did this.  It was weird.  But that was our Gracie!

Her hair.  Oh my gosh.  The HAIR!  I HATED the hair!  She would shed something fierce.  She would lose clumps of hair, but never managed to be bald anywhere.  I don't know how something could lose so much hair and continue to shed for years and years!  Gracie's only really bad habit was at night she would lay on my kitchen table.  She knew she couldn't get in trouble for doing it then.  Every.single.morning I would have to come out and clean off the table.

That didn't happen yesterday.

All the years of complaining about it and I was sad yesterday to not have to clean her hair on my table.

I did however find a few clumps on the kitchen floor. What used to bother me, comforted me.

Gracie had a peaceful death.  She lived a great life.  14 years!  She gave a lot of joy and happiness to my family.

We love her.

We will miss her.

We will never forget her.

Spring is definitely in the air!

Good grief!  It's almost been a week since my last post!  Time sure has gotten away from me!  I guess I will just have to "recap" a little of what has been going on here!

On the project home-front we made a Spring Bouquet.  It was really fun, and turned out cute.  These have become a tradition in our house over the last couple of years.  Chris and Maggie started making them when he was a stay at home dad.  This time we got to do them as a family.  :)

We have had a lot of excitement around here as well.  Something we have been waiting for for some time FINALLY happened!  Ellen DeHeneres laid her first egg!  And, not only was it her first egg, it was also green!!  We have been a bit disappointed with Meryl Peep, who gave us a brown one, which is rare for the Easter Egger hens.  It's hard to tell the color as it is pretty light, but here is our green beauty!

She is in her box right now laying her second egg.  I'm hoping it's a bit darker.  :) 

And something we were expecting but didn't know when it would happen was the birth of Daisy's babies.  5 sweet little fuzzy babies.  3 striped, 2 black.  They are so stinkin' cute! 

Hours old

One baby-1 day old

3 days old

Daisy will be going in to get spayed in 12 weeks.

Yesterday we had an unexpected surprise.  SNOW in Northern California.  We were bummed it didn't stick, but it was sure pretty coming down!

Right before it started snowing we saw our neighborhood Coyote running about in the field.  He/She sure is pretty!

And today we had a little food fun.  We made Rice Crispy Treat Easter Eggs and Chocolate Covered Raisins.

Somewhere in between we have snuck in homeschooling and a lot of game playing.  I also got some great products in the mail this week that I will post a review on next week.  We have been having a lot of fun with that as well!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

New Additions!

Just when I said "no more animals!" we got the phone call.  And I just couldn't say no.  One of Maggie's 4H leaders has a daughter who shows rabbits.  She was diagnosed recently with leukemia and is undergoing treatment.  She will be in treatment for the next 2 years and can't take the chance of getting scratched by her rabbits, so she has to get rid of all her bunnies.  When we got to their house there was about 11 rabbits.  We took 4.  We took 1 American Fuzzy (lower right corner) and 3 Holland Lops. 

We are totally enjoying everyone of them.    So much for no more animals, huh? 

Homemade Dog Food

If you have pets then you will agree that they are very much apart of the family. And just like any other family member you want what is best for them. I know our dogs, Agador and Starina had some eating issues when they were babies. They were put on a restricted vegetarian diet around 8 wks old by UC Stanford because 2 of their siblings died from a very rare to puppies issue. Since then we have always worried about their health. After All, they are the only two that survived more than 2 years out of their entire litter of 5 pups. We are so blessed that they have never had any health related issues at all.

Anyway......we slowly re-introduced meat back into their diet about 5 years ago and they have done wonderfully. But, it's dry dog food. An even though it's a good quality it's still processed. I hate processed foods, even for my fur-babies. I was reading on down---to---earth (one of my absolute favorite blogs!) that she has been making her dog food for about 12 years. I read this a few months ago, was curious about it but then forgot about. Which is something that happens....a lot! LOL
Then a friend of mine on facebook who also reads down---to---earth mentioned that she made the food and it was wonderful. So, two people who make it and like it. I was on a mission to make dog food!

I didn't have any left over meat to use, so I went to the store and bought some hamburger. Everything else I had in my pantry or stockpile cupboard. How easy is that??

Here is what you do to make your own dog food:
2.5 lbs. ground hamburger -
1½ cups raw brown or white rice
1 cup raw barley OR lentils
1 cup raw pasta
2 cups chopped vegetables - it can be whatever you have on hand but NOT ONIONS or LEEKS.
1 spoonful of peanut butter (optional)
Water
Place all the above ingredients into a big stockpot. Cover with water and stir to break up the mince. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes. When it's finished cooking, top up the stockpot to the rim with water and leave to cool.
When it's cold, place into portion sized plastic containers and freeze until you need them.

How easy is that? Really? I made a half batch and it gave me enough to feed my two dogs for 3.5 days. I am only feeding 1 cup, once a day until their dry food is gone. Rhonda Jean says she feeds her two dogs 2 cups/day and this recipe makes enough food for 1 week.

I plan on going to the Grocery Outlet and buying 5lbs of hamburger and making a double batch. I used ziploc sandwich bags for storing in the freezer. Very convenient.
Last night I had some frozen peas and corn, so I threw it in!

The best compliment I got from dogs were, Agador barking at his bowl for more and Starina glaring at her bowl as if she was going to magically make some appear. Happy dogs make a happy owner!

Now go make your pooch some food!

The Hen Palace

We finally got started on the chicken coop. After many drawings and discussions about what the coop was going to be like we went with the complete opposite of what we were going to do.

Originally the coop was going to sit at the top of my garden area. But we are getting new neighbors and aren't too sure how they will respond to having chickens right next to their bedroom window. So instead I will use that space to make my garden larger this coming Spring which excites me to no end! It's a rather large space and I figure I can do a lot of planting when the time comes!
We decided to move the coop to the opposite side of the house. Our neighbors on that side are awesome, and they are excited about getting fresh eggs so when we asked how they would feel about having the chickie-poopoo's on that side they were not worried about them being there at all.

I am a worrywart by nature when it comes to my pets. And to be completely honest I have been excited about this coop, but so fearful about my beloved girls getting hurt by a predator. We have a lot of mountain lions, coyotes and other creatures around here. In fact, Sunday we were looking out our front window only to see a very large coyote running thru the empty field infront of our house. Of course that made me go outside and take a count of our kitties who reside outside. Everyone was there! YEAY! So while we were outside planning where the coop would sit I started thinking about the predators and already stressing about them being outside. I would keep them in my master bathroom forever if I had to! While measuring and looking around the window in the garage on that side of the house made something click. Why can't we build a coop in the garage with the window being the entrance/exit for them. What a great way to keep them from danger at night when the creatures come out looking for prey! I said something to Chris and *boom* that was it.

Thankfully we have a large garage so it doesn't inconvenience us at all. The coop should be done tomorrow, then the inside will need to be done. It is WAY larger than it needs to be for 6 chickens. I figure it will give us room to grow if we want to. :)

Here is our work in progress!





And the girl having a blast in the coop


Excuse the mess. Those are our holiday decorations which will be stored underneath the coop.


The chicks have been getting treats here and there lately. They have had yogurt, mealworms and fresh greens. They are happy campers! I can't believe they are already 4.5 weeks old!
This has been such a great learning experience for Maggie. She is really into the chickens. She helps feed, water and clean their area. Surprisingly she still pets and holds them. I thought for sure now that they are bigger she would shy away from them, but so far so good. She is really enjoying them. So are her mama and daddy.

The Chickadee's!

I can not believe how quickly these gals are growing! We just got them on Friday and they looked so tiny and seemed so helpless. A few days have gone by and their wings are showing now, they are taller and boy are they NOSY! I knew chickens were nosy, but I didn't think it would happen so soon!

I'm definitely starting to see personalities too.

*Dora, Maggie's chick is the adventurous one. She is the most daring. Jumping to get out of the box they are in. She doesn't quite make it yet, but I would bet in two or three days she will.

*Ruby & Scarlett are a team. Always together. Scarlett is the leader between the two of them. The twins. They are both Rhode Island Red's.

*Mary Virginia is the other Barred Rock (the same as Dora), she is quiet. Sits back and lets the others go first. Always wants to be in the middle of the pile when they are huddling.

That leaves the two unnamed ones. The Ameraucana's. They look like a cross between baby owls and baby turkeys. The biggest one is Chris'. I think it's going to be between her and Scarlett for "leader of the henhouse". Chris has mentioned the name Prudence, but he isn't sure yet. I think he is waiting to see her personality.
For some reason these two are harder to name. They are like Ruby and Scarlett. Always together. If you take one from the box the other starts squaking looking for her sister.

Our little urban homestead!

This past week has been so busy for us! Good busy! We have had so many learning opportunities and so much fun!

For starters, on Monday we started our winter garden. We planted carrots, lettuce, onions, leeks, swiss chard, brussel sprouts and radish. When we moved in here there was already a bunch of raised boxes so we just had to dig up the dirt, add more fresh dirt, chicken manure and some minerals to the boxes. We have more planting to do. We want to add garlic and potatoes. Now, we could have went hog wild and planted a lot more than we did, but we have so many critters around here and unsure of the dirt, so we are testing the waters right now. If these crops do well, well, next planting season will be crazy fun!
I will have to post pictures on that later. I don't think I have taken any yet!



And, the newest and most fun is.......we bought 6 baby chickens! That means fresh eggs in a few months. I can not wait! These little perfect fuzzy creatures are so incredibly cute! We got 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Ameraucana and 2 Barred Rocks. I can't tell you the conversation topics that have come since bringing our newest family members home. From "what do chickens wear" to "do chickens wear jewlrey" to "how were the chickens made".

Maggie one chick of her very own. She named it Dora. We have one RIR that we named Mary Virginia. The others are waiting for names. If anyone has any suggestions, please, let us know! And no, we will not be naming them shake or bake. Or Kung Pau or Marsala. LOL

Here are our new babies!




I plan on getting individual pictures soon! They are so stinkin' cute!

We are also building a chicken coop, so there will soon be pictures of that process too! Maggie wants to paint it pink. She is having a hard time convincing her daddy of that. I don't really want a pink henhouse, but I have a feeling it just might end up pink!

Please, spay or neuter your pets!

If you have pets, please spay or neuter them! The people who live here before us left behind 2 mamas (well, one is confirmed female, not sure about the 2nd) and 9 babies! So far 3 babies have been trapped and taken to animal control. They were spayed/neutered and got their ear tagged so the animal catcher knows they have been fixed and wont pick them up. One died and sadly, before the program above was found out one was taken to the animal shelter and sadly euthanized. There are the two adults and 4 babies left to catch. Trying to trap them before more babies are made.

The owners who lived in our house before us left them behind. The adults were once pets. Now they are very shy and scared. I feed and water them daily. I already have 3 indoor cats, I wasn't in the market for anymore, but it is what it is. They are incredibly cute and fun to watch. I can't imagine just letting them go on as they are and making more and more and more babies. It's so sad.

So someone else's responsibility is costing me $50.00 each to spay/neuter plus the $60 per trap! I am slowly becoming attached, as is Maggie. And Chris, "Mr. we are not going to be feeding those cats" has gone to the store several times to buy cat food. All but one have names....we are still trying to think of a good one! Here are a couple pictures of them.

The striped one is the female, her name is Coraline. The kitten is Blondie.


Its hard to see their sweet faces, I just fed them. The striped one is Licorice, the gray one is Green Mint and the Black one still needs a name.


The only one not pictures is the black one I assume is a female as well. But could be papa.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!