They’re Beginning to look a lot like Chickens

At 5 weeks old our little chicks are really feathering out.  The Barred Rocks are the biggest and I’ll give you one guess who is smallest…

They’re starting to show some real personality and even Dinner is growing on me.

A few of them figured out how to climb up into the apple tree and have been roosting away up there.  It was pretty cute, one of the Rhode Island Reds did it first and then it was the hot thing for about five minutes, all but the silkies were trying there little clawed foot at it.  My husband wonders if they’ll fly the coop climbing up so high into the tree…what do you think?

Now if they will just figure out how to get back into the coop by themselves I’ll be happy.

Dinner and Goldilocks enjoy the warm day from the bough of our teeny Apple tree.

Dinner, our SLW, is turning into one of the more beautiful birds.

Dinner snoozing.

Our Barred Rocks and Teeny Weenie, the partridge silkie, taking a nap.

Pretty Polly pecking for prizes.

Apparently the chickens aren’t the only ones who like Apple Trees.

The poor chickens were all huddled in the corner trying to stay away from the monster after their feed. The poor squirrel didn’t know how to get out, and about had a heart attack when my husband went in to chase it out of there.

And as a side question…doesn’t anybody know when we should harvest our lettuce?

Flow: A Shoutout to Hunter Webb Photography…

I have been very impressed by the photos I’ve seen while trolling blogs these last few days and I stumbled upon Hunter Web Photography http://hunterwebbphotography.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/flow/.  I think you should take a look, he has several wonderful shots under the title flow.  I wanted to post a few myself.  These were taken during our family vacation last Aug.  My husband took the middle one (my favorite) and I took the first and last.  Hope you enjoy them.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer

 This photo was taken the summer of 2008.

This photo is Summer.  Sunshine, swimsuit, sprinkler and a smile

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

Beanie’s Poetry Assignment

We have been doing a focus on poetry this month.  We started with a simple haiku and now we’re doing poetry appreciation and memorization.  Beanie worked hard to memorize two poems last week and we took a video to share with friends and family.  She asked if I would put the video up on the blog.  Why not, there are other homeschoolers out there who might enjoy it.  I’m not sure how to post the video directly without upgrading my wordpress so here is a link to the youtube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S-xDI9fyv0&feature=g-upl

 

Beanie (4 1/2) giving Bubba (2 1/2) his first chess lesson with the chess board she got from her Grandparents.

We start learning early in this family…get reading baby!

 

You’re Grounded!

Honestly I can’t believe it took her this long to figure it out.  Our part russian blue part mutt cat Lucy finally figured out how to get into the chicken yard.  Considering she can climb the wooden posts from the ground all the way to our second floor deck, and any tree in our yard, the hop up and over our gate was easy-peasy.  My husband just happened to look out the window and see Lucy running madly around the chicken yard.  He rushed out and immediately she feared for her life.  She ran faster, trying to find a quick escape…what’s that?  a ramp? perfect!  She lept up into the coop, terrifying Teeny Weenie, silkie Willie-blue and our largest Barred Rock who were enjoying the heat lamp on our chilly May afternoon.  Thomas managed to shoo her out of the coop and finally scruffed her and hauled her into the house.  Lucy.  You’re grounded!

That is the closest you’re going to be getting to those chickens until they’re big enough to wallop you!

No worries, I checked the chickens and none seem injured (although they were all a bit shaken up) and came running to me chirping when I came out to the chicken yard.  Good thing my husband saw her when he did or Dinner may have been a feast for a feline instead of us.

They were not amused.

It rained today.  I didn’t think at 4 1/2 weeks my little chickies are feathered out enough to weather the rain…but they sure wanted to.  They were not happy they had to stay in the coop all day and let me know it with their loud chirps when I came out a few times to check their food and water.

Did I make the right call?  I’m assuming when they’re full-grown I can open the door and if they want out they’ll go out, right?  Other birds are out (sometimes) in the rain, and I’m sure they’d be all about some worms when the rain lets up…so much to learn.

What in the World are my Chickens Doing?

Our always curious Easter Egger.

Ok all you chicken owners out there, help me out.  What the heck are my chickens doing?  They will plop down onto their side, stick out their little drumstick and raise up one wing.  Are they just sunbathing?  My uncle says he’s never seen his chickens do this?  I spent a while outside hoping to catch a few with the camera.  What do you think?

Beanie also wanted me to take some shots with her in the chicken yard.  That girl loves to hang out with the chickies, but doesn’t want to pet them (only b/c she doesn’t want to have to go inside and wash with soap and water afterwards).  Her brother on the other hand would pet them for hours and hours if I let him.

You have to love how she works the camera. She just skipped around the coop saying, ooh, take one here…and here…and here…very adorable.

Beanie and Pretty Polly, my favorite little chicken. Several of them will tolerate being held, but I think she may actually enjoy it.

What are these crazy chickens doing? Barred Rock, Silkie, Silkie, Rhode Island Red…in some sort of crazy raise-the-wing line.

One of our blue silkies out enjoying the weeds.

Beanie snapped a pic of me over by the coop.

Update

My daughter and I just spent a little over an hour cleaning up in the garage while the boys napped and somehow it is still covered with a fine layer of chicken dust.  Bleck.  Thankfully I had to wake up baby for lunch so I had an excuse to take a break.  I’d really like to get it done today so my husband can work out in the morning.  I think we all feel better when we get a chance to workout.

The chicks have survived living outside in their coop!  They’ve stayed in today though as it’s only 53 degrees outside.  Good old Washington weather.  I had the chicken door open for an hour or so but twice had to come to the loud chirping rescue of two little chicks who’d managed to get out of, but who still have no idea how to get back in, the coop.

I got the idea for the PVC pipe feeder from this blog. http://thebroodybunch.com/story/feeders/216/new-feeder/ and we have the materials, just need to install it. We figured we’d wait until the chicks are a bit bigger. (Especially Teeny Weenie who would starve to death if we put this in now.)

There are still a few more things to do, build an automatic watering system, and install the pvc pipe feeder.  However, I just looked over our budget for last month…apparently building a palace for chickens pecks quite a hole in your bank account!  They’d better start laying soon.

The only issue I’ve been having is that they’re still managing to pile shavings into their watering dish at least nightly.  Have you found any way to keep your young ones watered so they can’t clog it up?

Venturing into the great wide somewhere

It only took a few minutes for the little girls to begin exploring their new home.