2014

   2014 was a great year. I got the chicks, they all survived, and now I am getting eggs! I hope you all have enjoyed following along on this blog. So to celebrate 2014, here are my fourteen favorite pictures of 2014. Some you may have seen before, some are new. 

14. Winter Wonderland

   I took this right after the big snowstorm of Thanksgiving break.

13. Blue Egg

   This was Piper's first egg. You have no idea how excited I was to find it!

12. Speckles in the Brooder

   Because of the red light, most of the pictures in the brooder don't tend to come out well. However, this picture of Speckles is too cute not to include!

11. Olive

   This wonderful picture of Olive was taken about the time that the new pen was built.

10. Lizzy Photo Bombing

   I just love the way Lizzy snuck into the background of this photo. And the expression on her face is just priceless!

9, 8, 7. First Day Outside

   You can almost see the confused look on their faces as the chicks see grass for one of the first times.

Lizzy

Daisy and Piper

Daisy and Lizzy

6. Lizzy Looking

5. Lizzy

   If I sit down in the pen, the chickens will still run over to sit on my lap like they did when they were little.

4. Teenagers

   Even though Sleepy looks a little rough, this is still an interesting picture. 

3. Silly Chicken

   This picture just makes me laugh! It reminds me of her personality.

2. Speckles

1. Puffy Cheeks

   So here it is! My favorite picture! I just can't get over how cute Piper was as a chick. That really shows through in this perfect picture.

   I hope you liked 2014 and here's to an even better 2015!

Merry Christmas to All

   Wow, in only two days it will be Christmas! It seemed to come so fast this year!

   Well, with all the cold weather the chickens have been staying inside a lot. For chickens, this is never good. They tend to get bored and develop bad habits (egg eating, picking on each other).

   So here are some of the chicken's favorite wintertime treats!

1. Scratch

   For my chickens, scratch is an everyday treat. Scratch is a store bought mix of many different grains. They get it when we let them out in the morning. As you can tell from the pictures, the chickens love it!

   I usually sprinkle some outside to get the chickens to come out. They will usually spend a while scratching for overlooked grains. This is great because it gets them outside and moving around.

   I also put some in the inside bedding to keep them active in there. 

2. Sunflower Seeds and Meal Worms

   I give these in the same way as scratch, but I give much less, and much less often.

   Some people raise meal worms, but I buy mine already dead. I get mine at a bird feed store (they are meant for wild bird feeders). They look pretty creepy, but the chickens love them! They are a great source of protein, especially in the winter months when the chickens can't get their own bugs. 

3. Rice and Pasta

I don't know why I don't really have any pictures of these...

   Anyway, the chickens do really love rice and pasta! Usually they only get these when we have left overs. If we have old pasta, no one really wants it... except the chickens!

4. Cabbage

   This is the final and most special treat I give my chickens. 

   First, I cut a cabbage in half. Then I poke a hole through it and feed a wire through the hole. 

   Next, I cut up the inside. This will make it more interesting for the chickens and easier for them to pull in apart. 

   Lastly I hang it in the coop by the wire and let the chickens have at it!

They were very confused at first.

But, eventually their curiosity got the better of them!

The next night, all that was left of the cabbage was the wire!

(This doesn't have to be done with a cabbage. Any soft fruit or vegetable would most likely work!)

   

   I am sure your chickens would love any of these for a nice holiday present! I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas/holiday season and I will see you right back here next week!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

Easter Egg

   Well, once we got one egg, more were soon to follow. I have been getting eggs all this week. One day we got four eggs!

I don't know why the last egg looks white... It is really is about the color of the egg next to it.

   But then, yesterday we got something extra special!

   Piper laid her first egg! She is an Easter Egger, which means, you guessed it, she lays colored eggs!

Piper's egg just happens to be this lovely blue. Other Easter Eggers can lay green eggs.

   Now if you were wondering, the eggs are completely safe to eat. There is nothing that makes them different from a regular egg. Except the color of course!

   Also, each chicken only lays one color. So we will always get these blue eggs from Piper. I am definitely not complaining though! What a cool color!

It is a perfect funny little egg from my perfect funny chicken.

The Golden Egg

   Well, it finally happened! The first egg!

   I went out to check on the chicken's food and I noticed Olive standing near the nesting boxes. I had seen her squatting a few days earlier. (Squatting is when mature chickens squat down and raise their shoulders. It is a sign the chicken will start to lay soon.)  So, I decided, just for fun, to check. And there it was!

It had this weird hole in the bottom. Possibly from being pecked, possibly from being dropped?

   If you have not raised chickens, it is hard to explain the excitement of a first egg.  Months of work.

Then finally, FINALLY, a single wonderful egg. 

  By the way, all that work tastes great!

   Thanks Olive!

Thanks to my dear friend Bridget, who helped me with the title!

Snowed In

   Thanks to winter storm Cato, in a matter of hours my yard went from late fall to a mid-winter wonderland!

   Also thanks to Cato, our seemingly perfect fencing system is in ruins. Driving around my town you can see tons of downed branches and we were no different. Luckily this didn't fall on the coop! However, it did fall on the electric fence.

   I am writing this just as our power came back on. It has been out for five days including Thanksgiving! Luckily we had a generator and family with power close by.

A funny snowman I helped my sister make!

   The chickens were, no are, not happy with the snow. None of them have dared to touch it yet. I have tried to bribe them out with treats but they still refuse.

Here Daisy was considering touching the snow.

When she decided not to and turned away she slipped and almost fell out. She freaked out flapped her way back in. (Sigh.)

   Something else exciting happened this week. Don't worry; good exciting. Come back next week to hear all about it!

On Cloud Nine

   Okay, so this week I am going to be talking about what I am thankful for (chicken related). It might get a little sappy but just stick with me.

   I am so thankful all of my little chicks survived to at least this age. I love them so much and I have no idea what I would have done if I had lost one.

   I know that most likely sounds weird if you haven't had chickens, but you get attached to them. You love them just like a dog or a cat... Or at least I do.

   I think in order to be happy, you have to appreciate the small things in life. For me it might be Lizzy sitting on my lap or Olive and Sleepy eating out of my hand. What small things make YOU happy?

   The last thing I am thankful for is the chicken's ability to make me smile. No matter how bad of a day I have, a few minutes out with the chickens can always turn that around. They are such curious, funny little birds. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the chickens ever. Makes me laugh every time!

Wow, sorry. As I said, this got kind of sentimental.  I promise not to be like this all the time...

Happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you next Monday!