Sugar and Spice

   I was thinking of ideas for blog posts today and I realized that I never finished the individual chicken posts. So, today I am going to be talking about Nutmeg. 

   The reason I have not written about Nutmeg until now is that she has never been very photogenic. Even as a chick... 

...she is moving in ever picture. 

   Nutmeg is very shy and nervous so she ends up in the background of most pictures. 

Nutmeg is the chick standing on my leg.

There she is peeking out the chicken door.

   Nutmeg is a Welsummer. This means that she is absolutely gorgeous. 

   I think she is one of the prettier chickens in my flock. Her neck feathers are gold and black. Those fade into a light red on her stomach. Most of her body feathers are a mottled brown and her tail feathers are black. 

   It is definitely an interesting look!

   Despite her shyness, Nutmeg is a very sweet chicken and I love having her.

   See you soon!

Coming Up Roses

   One of my favorite parts of summer is having a garden! My Mom loves to garden, but I have my own little garden in our yard.

   My garden is in a raised bed. This is a wooden frame filled with good soil. My mother built this for me a few years ago because my yard in this spot is mostly sand

   This is what my garden looked like before I started working on it. I use the large flat rocks as stepping stones. 

   First I raked through it and loosened the dirt. 

   Then I planted the flowers. I bought two packs of a "butterfly mix" at a local store. These are flowers that supposedly attract butterflies. Most years I plant mostly vegetables, but this year I just planted flowers. 

   The flowers very quickly sprouted...

   I can't wait for them to flower and I will definitely post when they do!

Home Free

   Welcome everyone! So this week we finally built the chickens their new pen!

I am not sure if this is going to be their final pen, but it is a lot better than their first one.

We threw this little area together over the winter after... 

...their large pen collapsed. 

(You can read about that here!)

   The biggest change from last summer's pen is that we dropped the electric fence. I think I will be writing an updated review of that soon, but in short, we didn't like it.  

   We did bring back the ugly green netting. It is just so much easier to work with than chicken wire. 

   The chickens are so excited about their new pen! New bugs, new treat and even a little grass! (That last one probably won't last long, but it's good while it lasts!)

I love Sleepy in this picture!

   Well, I'll see you all right back here next week! 

Another Man's Treasure

   Since I first got chickens, I started collecting chicken related stuff. I didn't do this on purpose... it just kind of happened. Now, all over my room is chicken stuff. Some of it was given to me, other pieces I bought myself.

   Today, I am going to show you some of what I have collected over the years... 

1. Tiny Chick Bowl

   I bought this adorable little bowl at a hardware store strangely enough. It was Easter and it was just too cute to resist!

2. Handmade Snow Globe

   A good friend of mine made me this chicken snow globe for me last Christmas. It was so thoughtful! 

3. Straw Hen

   I found this at a consignment shop. I have figured out that those stores are a great place to look for chicken related stuff. Everything in them is usually very unique, like this straw hen! 

4. Chicken Tape Dispenser

   I absolutely love this! It just looks so cute on my desk! I think I found it online at My Pet Chicken. I am not sure if they still sell this, but it can be found pretty easily online.

Update: As many of you have most likely noticed, I have not been posting as much as I used to. With the school year finishing up, I am kind of swamped with finals work. So, at least for a while now, I will be posting every other week. Once Summer starts and I have more time, I will probably go back to the old schedule. I really appreciate you staying with me! See you soon!

Spring Fever

   As I have said before (most likely multiple times), it is finally spring. The chickens definitely have spring fever, as they showed me this week!

   I am sorry for the lack of pictures in this post. I had some technical difficulties...

   I am constantly looking out the windows to check on the chickens. I think this is probably because of the predator attacks we have had in the past.

   Anyway, one day last week, I looked out the window and the chickens were all over the yard!

   They have stripped their small winter pen of any green that had started to grow. With the lawn in full swing, it must have been irresistible.

   The chickens found a weak point in the fence and burst through... Except for Piper of course. Her stupidity has apparently not improved since last year and she could not find the gaping hole in the fence. (Sigh.)

   I was able to lure them all back inside with the help of some mealworms. It makes me think though. If the chickens can get out, what can get in? I think its time to build a new pen!

   See you next week!

Fuss and Feathers

   Once a year, chickens molt. This is when chickens loose all their feathers, then grow them back. This doesn't happen all at once, but the chickens do end up looking scruffy.

   This week, Sleepy started molting.

  

   One thing that goes along with molting is pinfeathers. When the chickens are growing feathers, pinfeathers form. They are kind of hard to explain, but they look terrible. Imagine porcupine quills. 

   On Sleepy's neck, right where that gap in her feathers, are pinfeathers. You can only see this if she moves a certain way, which made it hard to get a good picture. 

You can see them pretty well here...

Here is a zoomed in version. 

   I know... Really gross looking...

   It is going to get worse before it gets better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however. After chickens molt and their feathers are all new, they are just gorgeous! 

   See you next week!

Spring has Sprung

   So it is finally Spring! The snow is FINALLY melting and the chickens are so happy to be outside.

   Unfortunately, I don't have much time to write this week. It is the end of the quarter in my school and it is the week of tests. (And essays. And projects.) Also, I just finished celebrating Easter with my family! I thought I'd share a few pictures since this post is pretty sparse.

   I love Eater because everything is chick themed!

Everything from napkins...

...to cookies!

   I always LOVE decorating Easter eggs! My sister and I take time to do it every year. Even if they don't turn out well sometimes, they are still so fun!

Getting the dye ready!

Drying!

The finished product!

   If you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a great one! If not, I hope you are enjoying Spring just as much as I am!

Thank you for sticking with me and I'll see you next week!