Retired Chicken Auntie

April 6, 2019   Well, it's been almost a year since we moved from Santa Rosa to Ashland, Oregon and I gave up my chickens.  The neighbors who brought the property have one of the vineyard workers in charge of my girls now. And I occasionally hear what's going on.

Last July, Fearless went to the Big Coop in the Sky.  Just her time, and being 7, she had a good life even though she rarely laid an egg.  Fearless took over being Queen of the Coop after Curious had to be put to sleep and she did a good job as dowager queen.

I'm not sure who is running the group now. Gabby was still alive at last I checked and she is the last one of my original group from 2011, but I think Lilly is my pick for head mistress now. She just always kind of had that regal, bossy air. Kiwi would be a close 2nd, but she is a little Buttercup and I think size matters when you establish a pecking order.

I'll have to check in and see how they all are doing.  It always chokes me up to think of my girls and the fun times I had learning how to wrangle chickens!!

Virtual Garage Sale

Ladies, 

You probably know by now that we sold our house to our western neighbor who has vineyards and we are moving. As of now, we are hoping to move to Ashland, Oregon sometime in April or May.

So, I'm doing a garage sale on Saturday March 3rd, from 10 to 2.

Ahead of that and not wanting you to trek up here [and be disappointed that its not wonderful furniture] I am posting photos of everything.

You can email me >>  kchianello@gmail.com << with 'dibs' and what you want to pay. Or, if you want further information.
No reasonable offer refused.
I will set aside item for you to pick up on Saturday......OR, we can make other rendezvous arrangements. 

Please share with any friends and bring them with you Saturday !!

 Dark brown leather chair + Ottoman

would like $ 75

















             Assorted Books  $ 2 each

 3 Pillows: 1 regular down and 2 TempurPedic

10'10" x 8 ft rug - needs cleaning but in good shape. I've vacuumed it...

 Double bed sheets, fleece blanket and a down blanket all in sage-green.

NOT SHOWN: queen size down comforter

 21 wine glasses, generic, pan press,platter, tart pans, chip and dip/Mexican plates
aluminium lasagna pans pkg'd









All Clad pasta pot with steamer insert. This thing is at least 16: tall


Misc. bowls and pie plates, All Clad sauce pan, iron skillet, chip and dip/ceramic, little dish with lid, assorted ramekins, silver plated serving tray [top right of photo, barely visible] Yellow LeCruset sauce pan.

White dessert plates [8], 2 black bowls and plates [one plate is chipped], mini muffin tins, [8] 3-section dishes for entertaining [sauces or what not], loaf pan, [8 or 10] plastic appetizer plates 6" sq. Generic lid for skillet 10" [?]

Assorted table cloths, chaffing dishes [2], bowls, misc. glasses, various colors Milk Paint, battery operated votives, drawer knobs, hook, assorted  old linen napkins











 [6] Gold charger plates, electric carving knife, various mixing bowls, pyrex 8x8, mini muffin tins, umbrellas, [2] bbq tongs 

Cookie jar, assorted vases and small outdoor pots, 3 nice wine decanters, small green lamp,  poster "winged angel in blue" done by a friend of mine, star chart, battery operated kitchen scale, bronze candlesticks [for taper candle]

Various vases and bowls, red napkins, red tomato napkins, little crystal pitchers, glass gravy boat, decorated wine 'tube' carriers 

Bowls, assorted rubber stamps, colorful table runner, wine Vinuri decanter

Great for parties - [50] oval melamine plates, 13" long
and [12] plates about 10" long

Large ice chest

Books on Cassettes

L/XL bathrobe, never worn

This is a Queen size sleigh bed that was once white-washed 

and I painted brown. Mattress is med-firm and in great condition.  Headboard sticks out from the wall on the bottom about 12".

Bed breaks down into several pieces

This is a black leather side table, some of the leather is coming loose but I think it could be fixed. Pretty cool piece in the right house!

[8] stackable, green plastic chairs

From Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley, the Total Gym. Slightly used and has some accessories. Folds up more/less flat.

That's it .... for now, at least.  

 

February 16, 2018 Jasmine Dies

Fondly called "Orange Chicken"

Jasmine was in triage for couple of days and quietly died on Friday night.

Here's what happened.  She was my best layer, 28 out of 30 days a month!!! She started a late molt in December, and then in January just seemed kind of 'off'. Usually she jumps up for the food cup when I enter the coop, she will jump up on my back if I bend over, and she will sit on one of the human 'perches' with me when I'm down there.

But, none of that. I chalked it up to the molt. The girls just don't like to be touched when their 8,000 feathers are falling out because new little pin feathers are poking through.

She was hunched over for a couple of days and not interested in much and was taking herself to bed at 4 pm, way earlier than normal and ahed of the others.  I thought she just wanted a preferred spot, which everyone did want - the end of the perch by a window.

I made an appointment with one of the vets in town that handles chickens. 
And, on the very morning I was going to take her in, she laid this!*#%!*#!@!!! 
The middle 'thing', photo on left.
A bad fingerling potato - ha ha ha!

Scooped it up to take with me, along with some poop incase she was suffering from tapeworm and they could analyze the droppings.

Vet said no worms and thought the egg-y thing was yolk collection.

She seemed better for a few days. I treated her with my favorite 1-2 punch, goldenseal and echinacea in a tea and eye-dropper in her mouth for a couple of days but didn't continue.

Several days later, the same withdrawn behavior repeated. And, she had diarrhea. Brought her up to the house when we came back from looking in Ashland, Oregon, for our new home on Wednesday.

Did lots of googling and ran across the info on the 'egg' she laid, which is nicknamed "lash egg" and isn't an egg at all !!!!!!

It's a collection of [usually] pus from an infection that gets into the oviduct and excreted like an egg. Oh no...a sign of a larger problem and the term for the condition is salpingitis.  A viral or bacterial infection which can maybe be handled by antibiotics if it is bacterial and caught in time. But, I didn't know in time: my antibiotic tea of oregano, goldenseal, cinnamon, with electrolytes just too little too late and I couldn't save her.

She ate well on Friday morning and drank my herb tea, but then didn't want anything else the rest of the day and she was ok sitting and sleeping in my lap. But, I think her organs were just slowing shutting down. Yes, I have tears in my eyes now because I hate to see how fast she went downhill and how powerless I am to help.

I don't know if, had the vet known this, that antibiotics would have worked 3 weeks ago. He didn't even know this condition. Dare I say that I wonder how chicken-knowledgable he is??

Chickens are really good at hiding a lot of problems and, drat if they could only talk and tell us what was going on, they'd get medical treatment from their flock owners right away!!!

I haven't observed any major shifts in power yet. Fearless has kinda stepped into the top spot when Curious died. Jasmine was leader of the New Girls and challenged by Kiwi, one of the small Buttercups.

It remains to play out what the new pecking order will be.

Bye, Jasmine! I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

Jasmine wanted Camelia's hat !!! And she flew up there !!!

October 29, 2017: I lost the leader of the Flock

I had to put Curious into eternal sleep on Tuesday 10-24.

Everyone is molting. It was always nice to see Curious's dirty butt feathers get replaced with new ones.  Sunday October 22, I went down to the coop and washed her butt off. It was looking more poopy than normal so I thought cleaning it would be a good idea.

Monday she seemed pretty fine but at dinner time, 5 pm, she was already on the perch inside the coop.  I thought that was strange but chalked it up to molting behavior. So, I brought her down and out to eat some treats. She kinda of ate, but then just stood around.
Had I known what was to happen, I would have looked at her butt.

I've been fermenting chicken crumble/powder and feeding them some at night. Mostly in the hopes that it would help Curious eliminate her always dirty butt.

Tuesday morning I go to the coop to give them their morning "salad"
and open the gate to the pastures.

Curious is sitting inside the coop, on the floor. I pick her up.
Oh My God. She's bleeding pretty heavily around the anus and there are lots of [what I thought] worms crawling around and maybe in and out of the anus.

Oh God Oh God. What to do?!  I grabbed a rag to hold over the bleeding because I couldn't tell exactly where it was.  Walked fast up to the house and took another look. Bad. And I know she didn't feel good because she didn't fight me.

Called the vet with the avian doc and drove the 25 minutes in to town.
A long wait at the vet, fitting me in between other patients.
And for some dang reason it was 'dog' day at the vets, the waiting room was full of seniors and their dogs.

I thought she might die before we got to see the vet.

Dr. Lankes took one look at the butt and then looked up at me.
I kinda knew this wasn't good news.

Those weren't worms - they were MAGGOTS !!! !!! !!!
So probably what happened is somehow there was dead or dying tissue that flies laid eggs on. The maggots were about 18 hours old. Did I made a raw spot on Sunday? I feel awful if it was my fault.

And, because they were getting inside her, she probably had some other secondary infection. Basically a septic chicken.

I could take her to the vet hospital at U.C. Davis for expensive treatment, but no guarantees for a complete cure.

.....Or, I could say good-bye and put her out of her misery.

I asked the vet if I could just take her home for the last remaining time and she kindly looked at me and said that would be a cruel way to let her die.

So, I said my good-byes to my Leader, the grand-dame of the coop and one of my best egg layers.

I was able to bring her home and bury her in the chicken cemetery next to Dolly, Evie, Blondie and Amelia.

Here she is on the right with her two original sisters, Gabby and Fearless.

I think Fearless might take over the Flock leader spot, but Jasmine is a good second choice.  After the molt, it will be interesting to see how the power structure shifts and who wins out.

We just go through all the Santa Rosa fires, with our mountain being spared! And, then this.....

Bye Curious. I sure will miss you!

June 2017 and Almost Summer

 Our Chicken Hilton looked like shantytown over the winter with plastic and tarps along the front edge to keep out the rain. Unlike ducks, chickens aren't fans of wet feathers and are not out scratching around if it's raining.  The tarps keeps the whole area dry with a couple little peek-out areas. On sunny days, I roll up the tarps and let in the air and sunshine.

Meanwhile, when it warms up I re-seed the outdoor pastures and the girls get to take advantage of breakfast salad. Something funny - when they eat too many greens, there is a greenish cast to the poo.
Hahaha - roughage! So then I end up portioning off the pasture and not letting them free-feed.

Plus, the flock can scratch, eat and go thru the whole 8 x 12 area in a couple of days. At least by giving them a little at a time, it makes it last longer. Rotationally, the other side is growing, too.

It's funny to see them trying to get inside the fencing: I guess they can see or smell that fresh green foliage. Sometimes, Jasmine and Kiwi figure out how to duck under the fence and get inside, stomp around and munch. When I come down at the end of the day to close them inside the big pen, they are waiting to get out only because they perceive that I have something better to eat than salad!

For the pastures, I use a mix of seeds: barley, various kale and lettuce, wheat, alfalfa, and various clovers depending on the time of year. And I learned early on that I have to cover the whole area with a plastic tarp during germination or else the roving band of juncos will get in and eat all the seeds. Oh yeah, a sparsely germinated field means those little birdies got a free lunch....
 

      

You'll notice that my 'pastures' are top-covered with a green plastic "fencing", in rolls at Home Depot.

It's the best flying predator control I've found and I zip-tie the overlapped edges so nothing can crawl in.

So far, knock on wood, it's worked great.  Now about 6 years later it is kind of staring to get brittle and probably will have to replace soon.  But, for the investment, it's a great solution.

[See earlier blog on loosing Blondie to a hawk when we let the girls free range].

Flock Dynamics and the New Year

It was a busy 2016 with our landscape company getting busier and keeping up with chores around our property.

Except for Jasmine, all the girls have been molting and not laying eggs. Physiologically, they generally don't lay eggs and grow feathers: both taking similar proteins to do that. So, I'm down to 1 egg a day.

Molting is not a beautiful thing. Here's Curious growing new butt 
feathers. The good thing is it gets rid of her always-poopy butt for a while.

When winter sets in with  shorter daylight, the egg production drops. Chickens lay the best when they have 12 to 14 hours of daylight. In December with short days and without supplemental lighting in the coop, production stops or slows way down....well, except for Jasmine aka
"Egg Laying Machine". 



Commercial egg farms use artificial light to stimulate continuous egg production and the chickens 'burn out' sooner. I turn on a low voltage an automatic light around 7 a.m. so they can see to get down off the roosts. [chickens have poor night vision].

My flock is composed of the Old Girls [ Curious, Fearless and Gabby] and the New Flock [Hosta, Jasmine, Ivy, Kiwi and Lilly]. The leaders are Curious and Jasmine. The lowest are Gabby and Hosta. 

In 2015 during the molt, Fearless mounted a coup agains Gabby and moved up to 2nd place. Gabby, always being more gentle natured, just accepted the move and she has higher ranking than the New Girls. She won't hesitate to peck someone if they are getting her food treat, however. 

Hosta gets pecked on by everyone. And, she is such a sweet girl, too.
She has learned how to dance around the others to get a tasty bite of scratch or other offered goodie.  Lilly seems to be particularly harsh to Hosta, partially to make sure that she maintains her ranking higher than Hosta.

Ivy is mean to both Hosta and to Lilly - not wanting either one to get something to eat that she wants. A peck or a chase away just adds to the dance that the 2 lower girls have to do so that they can also get a goodie.

Curious growls at everyone. And, you know its a growl, not a chirp or a coo or a cackle. She just barely has to look at another chicken and they move away. A growl clearly means "stay away from my food or else..." Even Fearless gets the growl if the food stakes are high.

In the 2 flocks that I've had, there is always one girl I call the Coop Mistress. She seems to be the one that reads me the riot act if I'm inside the coop cleaning the floor or nest boxes. Gabby and Lilly have that title. Whenever I go inside the coop, its not long until they come in and chortle at me. It's like they have to keep tabs on what the human is doing inside: it does really agitate them if I spend too much time there! And, no one likes it if I'm cleaning up while they are on the nest box doing business!! 

Lilly is also the lookout: she makes the first alert call when she hears me coming thru the big gate that surrounds our olive trees, chicken coop, barn, compost pile and pepper garden. Then, everyone crowds the door knowing I bring snacks.

Kiwi ranks 2nd to Jasmine, and I think she'd be first, but she is smaller than Jasmine. They have to know what the other is doing: neither one is getting one-up on the other. I've watched the subtle interplay when one is eating or exploring and might have something interesting - the other one will rush over saying "You aren't going to out do me! Give me that!" Sometimes a steal occurs, or a deflection with a tap dance to move away.

April 28, 2016 Finally Updating

April 2016: Since my last update I've had right knee arthroscopic surgery to remove scar tissue and a new left knee surgery the end of November. Both recoveries going well and dependent on me exercising every day - yuck, but I do it.


The New Girls turned 1 year old the end of March. They are all in full laying mode to varying degrees.

Jasmine, my Gold Sex Link, is pretty much head of the new flock and the best layer. She usually misses only 2 or 3 days a month! The others give me about 4 eggs a week,

 Lilly seems to average the least and now she just went broody! [defined: When a hen wants to hatch a clutch of chicks, she will sit on the nest continuously until they hatch. This is called broody, for raising a 'brood'.] I take her off twice a day so she can get food and water: oh she does not like that. Growling at me and puffing up feathers "How dare you take me away from my important mission". She'll go thru the 3 week cycle and come out of it. If I needed more chicks, I'd get some babies and put them under her so she knew she fulfilled her duties and could raise them up. But, not this time. Eight is enough!!!  

The Buttercups have the habit of flying up on me. Amelia, RIP, did the same thing. I am thinking it is a trait of the Sicilian Buttercups.  If I bend over, they launch up to my back. Kiwi can fly up to my shoulder without notice, and especially if I walk into the coop-pen carrying the worm cup. She's up on my shoulder ready to eat them all!

Selfie: Kiwi and Karla - that's the fringe of my hat, not a bad perm

Ivy is a little more reserved on the flying, but she still will join Kiwi on my back when I bend down.

And now, Jasmine, who is much larger, will do it too!  I think, because she is Leader, she doesn't want to be left out of anything. She can't get to my shoulder like Kiwi, but she can get on my back or in my lap if I am sitting down. It really is too funny because you don't normally think of chickens as flying.

I just love a basket of New Flock eggs!

From the top: Medium brown is Jasmine's size large egg, Hosta lays the sage green egg, Kiwi and Ivy lay the small white eggs, Lilly lays the dark reddish-brown egg.

There's Ivy checking out their offerings.
I made a felted basket to carry the eggs safely in something soft.

August 17, 2015: Growing Up and Laying Eggs

After Amelia died, Gabby seems to have been pushed into lowest of the original 3 by Fearless. Gabby, in her easy-going way, is just taking it but she does let the other ones know they rank below her.

But, there's war between Jasmine and Kiwi. Both positioning themselves as leader of the Young Flock. Jasmine outweighs Kiwi by about double, but that doesn't stop Kiwi from squaring off eye to eye with her in a real game of 'chicken'. It's hard to tell who gives first. And, I'm not sure which one has the top position yet. Wherever Kiwi is, Jasmine goes. If Kiwi jumps up on a perch to sit next to me, Jasmine jumps up on the higher perch to sit behind my head. Kiwi can fly up onto my arm - Jasmine is to hefty for that, but it doesn't mean she doesn't want to be noticed and cooed over [by chicken auntie - "Pretty Bird"]

Most pullets start laying generally between 5 and 6 months so we really have until the first part of September to be on track

In our egg producing arena,  Jasmine is first! She laid her first egg a week ago, at age 20 weeks.  In true fashion, a pullet [chicken under 1 year] starts laying a small egg and they will gradually get larger until reaching the size for their breed and hers have started out at soup spoon size. 



Jasmine should eventually lay a large, dark brown egg.

.......... She got the dark brown right!

And she has only missed 1 day out of 8.

Way to go, super-Chick. 

I'm not sure who is next. I watch the growth of their combs and wattles. Jasmine's grew pretty fast and got dark red as well, which I also know is a sign of a healthy layer.

Hosta might be next, Lilly is big and looks ready but her comb is still small and light red.

The 2 Buttercups have a ways to go, I think.

                   See all their current portraits on the Chicks page.

Here is group nap time.  At least for the New Flock....The 3 Old Biddies are still maintaining their distance and cool reserve, so they nap and dust bathe separate from the New Girls.

I have even added ice cubes to their water founts to tempt them with cool water.Right now it is so hot here (100 degrees this past weekend) that everyone is hanging outside in one of the cool pastures, dug into their own depression in the ground. Wings are spread open and they actually 'pant' with beaks apart. Chickens definitely do not like temperatures anywhere near their own 103 degree body temperature.

June 12, 2015: Amelia just...died

Friday night: I went down to check the new chickens. They won't go in the coop to sleep and they all seem to fly up to the top of their temporary coop and it's about 42" high.

But, I looked in and saw a lump on the floor of the coop pen. 
Uh oh...oh NO!......Amelia was dead..!

There will never be a sassier chick than you!

My sweet, sassy Sicilian Buttercup who loved and hated me at the same time. She would fuss around me until I bent over and she could fly up on my back and chirp and walk around.
Or she would peck my hand, quite strongly, as if to say "I'm higher in the order than you...take that!"

I'd feed her the daily treats on top of the trash can, where she was safe from the hungry Old Biddies and I know she felt special.

She was a loner: given to me by chicken mentor Barb, who took her in and thought she'd make a good addition to my flock....and she did, but clearly never made it to full acceptance by the Original 3 [Curious, Fearless and Gabby]. So, she would hang out by herself, sometimes in the coop on a perch watching the others lay their eggs or outside scratching and dust bathing. I was hoping that the 5 new ones would become part of her "flock".


Her eggs were beautiful, small white with the most wonderful matte luster and so smooth to the touch. A surprise tangerine-colored yolk always made me thank her for her efforts. She was a great layer last year but for some reason this year, after her impacted crop she never really got back up to speed. 

And so, maybe it was her time. 

There is a 'chicken sudden death syndrome' which can be caused by many things and without a necropsy [chicken for autopsy] I can't be sure.  But sometimes they just get sick and you don't know it in time to save them. Or stressed from being low in the order with all 5 new ones scampering around....I just don't know.

I'm sad she is gone and I will miss her following me around, attacking my hand, and laying those gorgeous eggs.

A quiet service at the chicken cemetery. Good sleep, Amelia!

May 28, 2014: Integration Day

Today Steve went into the barn early to get some tools before heading to the job and ... uh oh....4 of the youngsters were out of the brooder pen and sitting on top of it ! He called me to clue me in, "Your chickens are out."
Huh, out? Who's out? Thats when he told me that the teenagers staged a coup.

So, down to the barn I go and there they are: sitting on top of the 2x4 bracing, but kind of nervous. I get 3 back in the pen, but Hosta did not want to be picked up and she jumped down to the floor, skittering around.
I had to open my little side door. When she heard peeping, she came over to the door, saw the others and hopped inside. Jasmine, who is Miss Amazonia, was inside the pen the whole time, so she either couldn't hoist and fly up and out or she wanted to be The Good Girl.

Well, I got the hint that this little space was too small. As the weather was getting warmer at night, into the 50's, and we had built out the area for them, I decided to go ahead and move them over.

A cat carrier worked to make two trips from the barn to the Chicken Hilton.

Steve built a nice roosting area which doubles as a spot to hide in, away from the Old Biddies.

And, they have an open area to get some sun and visually see the other girls while being safe for now. Since Kiwi and Ivy belong to the flying Earhart family [along with Amelia], we ran plastic poultry netting up to the roof line.
One escape is enough!






I call the new girls "my little chirpas", as they are almost non-stop chirpping.
They have happy chirps, nervous chirps, a cooing-chirp and a squawk [as in don't pick me up!].

And, after the initial fear of a new place, they settled in to exploring, scratching in the dirt and watching the Old Ones.

Here they are checkin' out the outside.....

  and here are Fearless, Gabby and Amelia pretending they don't see the Chirpas.

The 4 Big Girls have pretty much ignored the little ones: unless I give the Chirpas sunflower seeds and the Big Girls are left out, then Curious has a fit and paces in front of the net until I give her and the others their own handful of sunflower seeds...jeeze, talk about a jealous chicken!

April 27,2015 Almost 5 weeks old

Well....what a few weeks makes in the life of a baby chick. They are almost flushed out in their adult feathers and little combs are starting to peek out on the top of their heads.

Yet...they still scratch, eat, poop and nap. The 2 Earhart sisters like to fly up my arm and walk up to my neck. They are the 2 Sicilian Buttercups, Kiwi and Ivy: and just like their grown sister Amelia [Earhart, as she also is a flyer].

Kiwi climbing the arm

I can relate Kiwi and Ivy to a certain sister-in-law who is always busy and she never seems to rest. Neither do these two...busy busy busy ...scratch, flap wings, run around and when I'm at the brooder coop they want to fly up into my hand, walk up my arm and dance around on my shoulders! They are pretty good at flying back down, too.

Jasmine's feet - not tiny by any means

  

Jasmine is a really really big girl! Oh - and the feet just seem to be way bigger than they need to be at her age. Kinda like my sister, who was a pre-teen with large feet and believe me there were no fashionable shoes to be had back in the mid-60's. Now, at a stately 5'11" she is into fashionable high heels! [Making up for those early years. Thanks, Zappos!]
I think that Jasmine will grow into her feet, too! [no high heels allowed in the chicken coop, tho]. She is definitely at least 1/4 larger than her flock-mates and maybe destined to be a leader of the group.

Finally over the last 3 days or so, my sweet little runt, Ivy has grown in size and is now the same size as her sisters and coming out of her earlier behavior of just sleeping under the light by herself. Hosta is likewise shy and runs away from my hand, unless it has chick mash in it. Oh well, I guess they can't all be gregarious can they?

I've been moving the brooder coop out for a little afternoon r & r. They all love taking dust baths in the sun and laying with wings outstretched. Of course, they are supervised - we wouldn't want any opportunistic predator snatching a baby!  

And, they don't really look like chickens right now...maybe some exotic bird? The fact that they are terrestrial seems strange for a bird...like an ostrich or emu....or chicken!  It's weird when you think a bird should fly and these don't so when you see them on the ground, it just seems strange...

I've expanded the coop now 3 times and we are about 1/2 way in length.
As they get bigger, you can just tell they want a little more space to scratch, rock and roll. But, they still like the comfort of napping in a pile under the lamp.

March 25, 2015: A Hatching Birthday to You

 I adopted 5 baby chicks on Saturday, March 28! The flock needs an influx of youngsters. Chickens do slow down in the egg-laying department as they age and since 3 of mine are 4 years old and Amelia is 3, this is definitely happening.

...Oh, by the way, Amelia recovered from the grass episode, but now she has a droopy left wing. I suspect one of the Mean Girls grabbed her at the shoulder blade and might have broken or tweaked something. She can't turk it up and under like normal, but doesn't seem to be in pain or limited mobility, so I am just watching! I could wrap her wing, but that's an invitation for pecking abuse by the others and she really hates moving to a hospital cage for recovery. So, it's live as you can...

Steve built a chick nursery. It's expandable as the chicks grow and need more space! We edged it with cardboard and it has wheels so I can wheel them out for some supervised fresh air.

Portable Chick Nursery

Back to chicks...Well, a local supplier was getting 600 newbies in on Friday so I thought I was sooooo clever and raced down to Napa on Saturday morning at 8:30 only to find that they only had 4 ... YES 4! ... left.  I was about to cry, when she said 2 Buttercups and 2 Silkies....Oh, Someone was watching out for me, because I wanted 2 more Buttercups for Amelia to have breed-friends! YAY, scooped them up, and raced home with the car heater on to 84 to keep them warm. Into the brooder box and then off to Santa Rosa. [this means up the mountain from Napa, stop at the barn and down the mountain to the other side into Santa Rosa]. 

At Western Farm, I was lucky to get 2 of the other breeds I wanted: Ameracauna [lays blue or green eggs] and a Welsummer. I wanted a Black Sex Link, but they had Gold Sex Link instead so I took her. [Sex links mean they are easily 'sexed' at birth by coloration to know males from females which is not so in most of the other breeds.] ...Raced home with them and all 5 happily chirping away under the heat light in the nursery in the barn.

Newbies under the heat lamp, staying warm

My goal is to work my way through the alphabet with naming chickens.
                        This group is H-I-J-K-L.... so we have
                     Hosta .... Ivy.... Jasmine ..... Kiwi ..... Lilly
Notice a trend? Last group was mostly 'attributes' hence Curious, Fearless and Gabby...this group is plants. [Amelia was named for Amelia Earhart, since she is a flyer! But the "A" kept my trend going].


 Here's Hosta, the Ameracauna.....she's not yellow, it's the camera. Right now she is carmel colored and will have a 'ruff' at her cheeks

Jasmine is a Gold Sex Link and a beautiful blonde!

These are the 2 Sicilian buttercups, Ivy and Kiwi. You can see a little difference in the black eyeliner. 



Kiwi is very curious and is showing leadership in the pecking order already! There a battle between her and Hosta, as she is also a strong personality.

And, here is baby Lilly. She is a Welsummer and right now, a runt! Smaller that the other 4, quiet and naps more. She seems to get easily over-run at the feeding trough. I am worried about her size and behaviour, but she is perky, not acting sick...so maybe she will catch up.




Thanks to my sweet friend, Brenna, for holding each one while they had their photo taken! Her favorite? Little Lilly!