Chickens and Bluebirds

The chickens had a blast digging through the garden bed yesterday. Layers of straw, leaves and newspaper apparently hide lots of yummy bugs and sprouts. 

This is mama Bluebird. She is the one who made her nest in the wall of our three-seasons room last year. They never actually left, they stayed all winter. She was out hunting. It's already too late to put up nesting boxes, we spotted them building their nest already. I'm going to put up one box in the walnut tree and see if they will move later on... 

Summer Storm

We had a decent storm sweep through on Tuesday morning. It took down sections of at least three trees. That's not bad considering we have over 300 (estimated). Power went on and off, internet and tv knocked out. Wednesday we lost power for 5 hours. We finally got internet and tv back yesterday afternoon.

This one looks more like wind damage than lightning. Thank goodness it went into the cornfield instead of on to the chicken coop!

This tree was struck by lightning. Luckily it didn't go into the road and didn't block the driveway. It was also considerate enough to miss our driveway marker :)

As soon as I got in the house after taking the pictures, the town showed up to remove the tree branch.

Connor had a blast watching!



First Snow!

It's December 9th and we just had our first real snow. Unusual for this part of Northwest Indiana! We got just under an inch. This was the first time the girls had seen snow and it was hysterical! Normally, they are clucking at me once they hear me coming and then race out of the coop once the door opens. They were quiet this morning. When I opened the door, they started to come out, then quickly retreated :)

And they took turns looking outside. I was laughing too hard to put their ladder in place :)

Goldie was giving me funny looks...

And flew to my shoe...

Took a bold step onto the snow...

And back onto my other shoe...



Now this is quite unusual for this little girl. She is my flighty one. For her to sit on my shoe for 15 minutes was quite brave of her.

Then Ruby decided she wanted out. She started eyeing me too and I told her that I am NOT a perch and to not even think about it.

And flew to the sawhorse perch to survey the snow.

Finally, Lace came out and tried to push Goldie off my shoe. She wasn't in the sharing mood.

Lace discovered the scratch and mealworms, which brought the other two running.

They better get used to this! We're going to have much more!

My First Egg!

My first! Laid yesterday. I locked them up last night in the dark and somehow didn't step on it. I found it this morning before I let them out. I'm assuming it's from my Rhode Island Red, Ruby, who was hatched on Mother's Day... so she's what, 22 weeks? I found another egg on their perch, but it was a soft shell and was cracked. I don't know if she's just been busy, or if one of my other two are laying. One is a Brahma, one a Buff Orp, both supposed to be a month older than the RIR, but I think the Buff Orp is younger. She's just now not sounding like a baby chick.

The Chickens Are Here!

I picked up "the girls" on Thursday!

This is Lace. She is a light Brahma.

This is Goldie. She's a Buff Orpington. My niece named her :)

And finally, this is Ruby. She is a Rhode Island Red. My "Idon'twantchickens" husband named her!

They were hatched in April/May of this year and should be laying in a month or so. I hope :) They have settled in well. They came from the same flock and get along. I will get better pics later :)

Chicken Coop!

My Uncle Roy, Jon and I have been busy lately... building a chicken coop! Yay! Here it is so far:

Not bad for $3 paint from Habitat for Humanity ReStore! I love the trim color. It's Sherwin Williams Wool Skein. The red is Sherwin Williams Rookwood Red.

I might still have to do another coat of paint on the exterior. I have to do at least two more coats on the inside. The window is in and screened with hardware cloth. I need to find bird netting for the kennel cover and then we'll be ready to go.

The roost will have to be moved. It's not even 2 inches from the back wall and it's supposed to be 12-18 inches.

I'm going to pick up the "girls" on Thursday from a friend I met on Backyard Chicken. I'm most likely going to get a light Brahma, Rhode Island Red and Buff Orpington. I will wait to get my Easter Egger/Americouna until I can find someone who has one. I need a chicken that lays blue eggs :)