All Grown up

  Easter came twice this year for us! Our chickens layed their first eggs this week!! 

Even Sassafras was excited about the eggs. It took about 5 months for us to get our first eggs.

We got our chicken coop built complete with boxes for them to nest in.

There is still work to be done but it is functional for now.  This picture was taken the day we found eggs.
Below is how our chicks grew!

November they arrived.

 December big enough to move outside!

  January taking a dirt bath..

By February they are pretty much full grown here.
They have been so much fun to watch.  They are all still very tame with the exeption of our roosters. They like to practice their dominance by chasing children that run and pecking at thier legs. :)  Our girls have gotten better about warding them off. Sugar bug carries a "chicken" stick with her to bat away attacking chickens.
We only need to have one ot two roosters so we are still deciding which roosters to keep.  We have four right now. The others will go the the frying pan. 

We feed our chickens ground corn but only feed them a couple handfuls in the morning and evening.  They get the rest of their food from the land.

So ever wonder the difference of farm, free range eggs from store? 

Our's are smaller but will get bigger as our chickens grow a bit. They are brown because our chickens lay brown eggs.  Some chickens lay white eggs, some blue, and even geen. 

I did a little research and this Mother News site tells the nutritional difference of store bought and free range eggs.  Including what qualifies as free range being that chickens are able to get food from the land.  And interestingly enough that eggs labeled free range from the store may not have the same quality as there are not strict regulations for what qualifies as free range.
We have eaten our share of store eggs the cheapest you can buy and some inbetween grades but farm fresh are by far the best tasting!  If  you have a way to get good eggs I highly encourage you too.

Any questions??  

Chickens

  Peep, peep, peep, That's what we wake up to every morning for the last couple weeks.  I kind of enjoy it.  Our little chickies are growing fast like all children and almost have all their feathers. Super D is going to be building them an outside home in the next week or so!
But to break this up a bit I thought I'd give you all a little info on chickens.  Since I am by NO means a chicken expert I am linking to helpful sites I've found.  If your wanting to raise chickens these may get you started. 
Let's start with some basic terms. These are words I had to learn what they meant...
Bantam- These are smaller breeds than the "standard" chickens.
Broody - Broody hens can be recognized by their behaviour. They sit firmly over the eggs, and when people approach or try to remove the eggs, threaten the person by erecting their feathers, emitting a characteristic sound like clo-clo-clo and will peck aggressively. When broody, hens often temporarily cease eating or reduce their feed consumption is when a hen is wanting to mother a brood or group of chicks.  A broody hen will lay more eggs but want to sit on the nest to hatch them.  Some breeds have a higher tendency to go broody than others. Sometimes you want them to go broody so they will raise chicks for you.

We ordered our chicks from Murray McMurray.  We picked Buff Orpingtons which will lay brown eggs and are good layers in the winter.  They also make good meat birds.  I highly suggest researching the breed you want as there are so many and they have so many different traits.  Some are better layers than others, some are raised primarily for meat, and some are pretty good for both.  Buff Orpingtons are a popular classic. Murray McMurray also includes a rare chick in orders from them (see them for details). I believe our uniquely colored one is an Ameraucana. This site has a chart that tells of 60 different breeds of chickens. Chicken breeds Chart

I really liked this site for a very general overview on keeping chickens Urban Chickens. 
Although all these sites recommend against using newspaper as flooring that is what we did.  It is what we had available that was easily changeable.  We kept our chicks warm by setting up space for them next to the woodstove.  While it has cooled off some at night we have been diligent in keeping the fire stocked so it rarely dropped below 75. That only at night.  This may have contributed to us losing some of our chicks as they can't handle cold when they are very young.  But we have done our best with what we have and are happy with the 15 chicks we have.  Get a chick feeder as they go through feed and water so fast.  We fill ours at least twice a day. They must always have water.  We noticed that when one goes empty they make more noise just like children.

Now that your getting chickens you will need a coop. Or a place to keep them outside.  From my research I have learned there are 100 ways to raise chickens.  Even Super D and I have different ideas on how to keep our chickens.  Alas, Super D has more experience than I do so I have to go with his judgment and we will work towards new ideas as we get the hang of it.  Right now we bought a big bag of feed for our chickens but eventually we would like to make our own feed and have our chickens scavenging for much of their food themselves.  We would like free range chickens for the most part but at the same time we don't want chickens all over our porch, picnic table, chairs, ect.  So we will set up some boundaries for them.  As where the chickens go you will have chicken poop.   I hope this gets you started in information on chickens if your wanting to keep them and I will continue to update as I learn. 
If you have questions about chickens or any thing else we are doing please don't hesitate to ask.  I will try to answer them or at least point you in the right direction :) 

Upgrades and new arrivals

   I have a new appreciation for bloggers! Some of the blogs I read have a new post everyday. After just 7 months of keeping this blog and trying to at least post once a week and failing I am amazed at the wonderful loyal bloggers I read.  I have ideas for posts quite often but getting on the computer to put them to type is another matter entirely.
   Our new life is quite busy but laid back at the same time if you can believe the two can go together. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective. :)  The fall weather here has been nice a mild.  We have had a couple good freezes so the garden is done and all but one kind of mushroom is done for the season.  The garden didn't fare well this year as I only got the tomato plants in and the armadillos kept digging them up.  We did have some good fried green tomatoes but that was about it.
    Now we will be on to hunting season.  Super D has been getting ready and the girls are itching to go.  We also added on to the trailer to make room for a wood stove.

 Super D hard at work again!  He is awesome!

Ok, here's a shot from inside you can see the stove pipe behind the silly hillbilly, dark fairy, and leprechaun. Well, I don't think he was going for leprechaun but I think it fits :) We still have some work on this room as you can see the exposed insulation.  I am loving the wood stove but am learning it's a bit of an art to know just how much and when to add wood so you don't cook yourself out.
  Our family is also growing.  We moved here with our two dogs, remember Grandma holding them in Colorado vacation post, and we have had a variety of reptiles move through our doors since being here. Well, now I have to introduce Simba.                                               

 Simba has adopted us as his family. He has made himself at home and is super sweet.













He has no problem with

Sugarbug smothering him with love.
















It took Simba two day's to break us all down and let him into the house one freezing night. I don't think the dogs like his presence!

 Simba has been regulated back to the outdoors for the time being and we've given him a bed next to the batteries for the solar system to get out of the weather because we added baby chicks this week.

 Who knew you could get chicks mailed to you!  Super D picked them up at the Post Office.  They are super cute.

  This little one is our rare chick.  Not sure what kind he/she is but the rest are buff orpingtions. I'll have a post about their care later :)
Our only other big news is we have a well coming!  I can't wait till we have our own well and pump.  Running water is on the way :) We're moving up in the world.