Fresh eggs are collected daily.

The hens are busy scratch and pecking fresh dirt.

Th peas are sprouting.

I’m anxiously awaiting the sighting of my first hummingbird of 2012.

And soon the garden will be in its full glory.

Don’t you just love spring!

When considering keeping backyard chickens after much research, I weighted all the options. And for the past three years, I’ve had a very cohesive flock of four Buff Orpingtons.

The 4′ x 6′ mini-coop that I purchased was advertized to keep 10 chickens, but there is no way! On the few inclimate days that the hens need to be holed up in the house for a day, they are comfortable. But adding one more to the mix would certainly be one more too many. I’ve sometimes thought, just one banty would do. But then I resist the temptation. Two important facts of chicken keeping are having only as many as you can manage and to keep them safe from predators. That is what I have now.

I sometimes toy with the idea of adding another coop and run to house bantams or another small flock of standards…..but DH would need to be agreeable. And so again, I try to resist the temptation!

Happy Easter Everyone!

to this;

Have a wonderful day!!!

But, to me, St. Patrick’s Day represents early spring and time to plant your peas. Peas are a cool weather crop and can be planted as soon as the ground is workable. This year I am planting both sugar snap and garden sweet varieties. Other cool weather seeds going into the ground are lettuce, spinach, swiss chard and beets. The hens benefit from the early crop plantings too. They’ll get the many greens that will be harvested not to mention the many bugs and worms I’ll collect for them while working the soil.

And so this morning, on St. Patrick’s Day, I will hang a cabbage in the run for the hens to joust. It’ll keep them active and busy.

I hope you enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day!

So when we bought our home, I immediately set up a birding station. But it’s noticeable to me that birds that were frequent visitors to our backyard growing up; pheasants, grouse, bob white quail and the like, are very rare sightings today. Urban sprawl, predators, including domestic cats have effected the populations of ground dwelling birds.

So it was natural for me to always keep indoor birds. Over the years I’ve kept cockatiels, canaries and parakeets. But the one true house bird that suits my life style is the Zebra Finch. Zebra Finches are Australian grass birds, and I’ve owned many pairs over the last few decades. They are social birds that need to be kept in pairs, and they are also prolific breeders. They’re not a bird that wants to be handled. They’re small, fast and always busy. Their chirp is pleasant and not so loud. Parakeets and cockatiels can be quite vocal and ear piercing. DH had low tolerance for their call so when I had them they were kept in a back room of the house.

So I guess the natural progression for me was to own backyard chickens. After the initial set up, they are easy to care for and very easy to get attached to. Chicken owners of all sorts refer to it as OCD, obsessive chicken disorder. But it’s important to keep only as many as you can take care of. Chickens are wonderful pets and a delightful addition to my backyard and garden.

This was a wonderful forum of information for the beginner chicken keeper as well as for the experienced keeper. Although I’ve since developed a network of chicken keeping friends, when I was first starting out I would have relished coming to a meeting such as this. The energy and excitement was contagious.

At the end, it was agreed that raising a flock of chickens in your backyard is fun, easy (after the initial start-up), and good in so many more ways than just collecting the fresh eggs. I look forward to next months meeting.

When the girls go into roost for the night, she paces back and forth and watches for me to come out to close the poop door. But when I come to the run door she always pecks at my legs when I enter. It can hurt, especially earlier in the year when I’m not wearing long pants for her to grab onto. She usually gets my leg. But I have a method of gently cuffing her by the wings and spinning her around to pick her up, and avoiding the peck. It usually works. Once held, she loves it. She cuddles and purrs and then I will gently put her into the house for the night. That’s our nightly ritual.

After nearly three years together I’ve seen a change in the pecking order. As I said, it’s always been Red, as the lead hen. Next in line was Gee (distinguishable by her crooked comb). Followed by the twin BO’s, Pretty Girl and Little Bit. The only difference in their appearance is that LB is smaller and at the bottom of the pecking order. She is always chased away from the food tray. But Pretty Girl and Little Bit have always been good friends.

It seems Pretty Girl has asserted herself and challenged Red’s role in the pack. She now dominates at feeding time. I have even seen them bump chests. But Pretty Girl has prevailed and is now the aggressor and Red is being chased away by her. When I bring them a late afternoon treat of mealworms and sunflower chips, I’ll place them in four different spots in the run so that they get their fair share. And that seems to alleviate any threats and/or food aggression.

Their antics can be comical. Just recently Gee had a piece of straw stuck in her beak. I wanted to pull it out for her and chased her around for a while trying to get at it. I gave up when I couldn’t reach her. As soon as I did, another hen went over to Gee and pulled the piece of straw out of her beak. So they do take care, watch out for each other and are still a very cohesive group.

Happily, I’m collecting a consist amount of daily eggs and that makes me eggcited!!

Here we go Patriots, here we go!!!

But today’s a new day. The path is cleared to the coop.
The hens are out and unfazed by the white stuff.
Jasmine loves to be out prancing in the snow.
But Jet, not so much, he won’t venture out at all. He sits at the open door and just looks out. He’s so black you can hardly see him.

Happy Championship Sunday. A day of food, fun and football…let’s go Patriots!!!