Chickens...Clucking Brilliant!

If you've been keeping up with my blog you know I've had wretched luck with chickens this year! So I decided to bite the bullet and buy one of those per-fabricated coops online. The Chicken Saloon received my business and shipped "The Corral" in a timely manner. Everything arrived intact and all the parts were there. Yippee! The FedEx guy brings me wonderful things. :)


This is supposed to house 3-4 full-sized chickens. I always like the animals to have plenty of room so I've got only two chicks in there. Later on I might add one more hen, probably a banty. I like it for the nest boxes and it looks like a little barn. Cute! Those are some happy little hen chicks. I'm looking forward to seeing those beautiful Silver Laced Wyandottes and their yummy eggs, hopefully in the spring! :)

We've also ad some bad luck concerning dogs. Yotee got away from me the other day and went to chase cars. He was hit by one which didn't slow down or stop to see if he was still alive. I was not happy about that! What if it was their dog? Wouldn't they want someone to do that for them? Anyways, Yotee came out of it with only a tibial fracture and will be in a rigid splint for roughly 8 weeks. He just had his wrappings changed and is now sporting a hot pink right, rear leg! He is ashamed. This is a picture a few days after it happened. That's the new guy, Kooper, in the background. Yotee's a bit crabby at the moment, but they play and have fun when they can. Kooper is currently upstairs barking at himself in the mirror...see what I'm working with? :)

We had our first hard frost last night, which is one whole month PAST the average frost dates for this area. I have to say I've enjoyed it immensely, but alas, winter is definitely on its way. *sigh* I decided to clean-up my little garden since there won't be anymore growing weather. I had a pleasant surprise at the amount of food I was able to get. I'm already planning on what I want to do next year. *teehee* What you see here are parsley, chives, rosemary, pumpkins, and tomatoes. Pretty good haul for being a bad year and learning how to garden in a whole new climate! Kinda proud. :)

And look at all food for my goaties! Glorious because they really, really like their forages! They're not really sure how they feel about the pumpkin plants yet, but I'm confident it wall get eaten! They love green things to eat! :)

I was able to mulch my strawberries before the frost. Thanks to purchasing a "bale" of cedar chips for the chickens, I ended up with a ton of extra and put it to good use!


I did way better with the pumpkin growing than I thought I would and now will have some for decoration at home and work. I'm hoping they ripen up though I have no idea if that will happen. Anyone out there know?
                                
                                                  Happy Fall Ya'll! :)

A Goose And Two Goats Walk Into A Bar...

Good intro huh? :) So the coons have prevailed and all my chickens are now raccoon poop. Bummer for sure! Now all I have is my goats (which are doing great!) and my goose. Still not sure if Gooses is a boy or a girl but "he" now thinks he's a goat. I feel bad because he must be lonely but if thinking you're a goat keeps you from being eaten by raccoons then who gives a damn right?!?

I have gone back and forth on whether or not to get more chickens, finally deciding to repopulate. I want to be able to have chickens for several reasons but mainly I like watching them be chickens. I also like watching my goats be goats. It all calms and relaxes me! What can I say? I have an affinity for animals.

So in an effort to thwart those damn raccoons I began researching enclosed coops because I will have my chickens! I'll let them free range during the afternoon/evenings while I'm home. But holy-moly-cow those pre-fab coops are REALLY expensive. I mean we're talking the cheapest one is close to $350 plus shipping. I then thought I'd make one and quickly on the heels of that thought came a reality check that I simply don't have the tools needed to construct such a structure. However, I knew what I had in mind from searching Google images.

After some thought I realized I know a soon to be unemployed, soon to be college student (who always need money) who will have some time on his hands. Enough time to construct a coop like this. So my brother is going to take a few pictures I found him online and make me a coop for my chickens. Oh yeah, I totally ordered new chicks as soon as he confirmed he'd be willing to do it. :)

I had to do some searching around the online hatcheries because most have a minimum order of 15 or 25 chicks. Now I know I have a 100% mortality rate on this place but I don't need that many chicks! So I looked around and stumbled upon Cackle Hatchery which has some amazing specials for small orders. They call them "City/Town Small Order Specials" and you can pick your chick's variety and sex or just have an assortment sent to you. I've never used this company so I will report in on the procedure and quality.

I ordered five Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. And I think they are some of the prettiest chickens out there. My mom likes her Buff Orphingtons and Black Austrolorps because they are friendly, but I think if you handle the chicks enough when you get them they will grow up friendly. A perfect case of nature versus nurture!

I am determined to successfully have at least three hens to get my eggs from, eat bugs and be a friend to Gooses! Coons be damned! :)