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!

Add Insult to Injury

   I saw this the last time I was out with the chickens. This is just another example of Piper's...   stupidity? That sounds so mean... Let's just say confused curiosity.

This is when Piper notices the bucket. 

Note that Raven is in this picture but not the next. She realized in that time that buckets are not interesting.

Piper has a very different opinion. 

She looks closely at the bottom of the bucket.

Then she looks at the top of the bucket.

The inside of the bucket is next.

Then the bottom of the bucket... again...

And the top again... In case it changed? I guess you never know...

What a sweet, silly chicken!

Review: My Pet Chicken

  

 "My Pet Chicken" is the website/company that I bought my chicks from. This is a review of my experience.

   The website itself was wonderful! It had lots of breeds; both rare and common. Ordering the chicks was easy and fast. They also offered Marek's shots for the chicks. This was very important to me.

   Also, the customer service was fantastic! I emailed with a question about shipping and multiple question's about the chicks (I tend to overreact). They emailed back very quickly with very good information.

 
   Next, the shipping. This was perfect! They arrived the day after they hatched by 11:00. (This is especially impressive since the chicks were shipped from Ohio.) The box had air holes and a little heat pack which was still warm when it got to me.

   I was very impressed with the chicks themselves, as well. They all came alive and healthy. I got ONLY the number of chicks I ordered (some companies send extra for warmth), which was very nice. Also, I got my chicks sexed and so far as I can tell they are all girls.

   In fact, there was only one problem I had with this company. The cost.

   I did get some expensive rare breeds, but the cost of shipping itself was high. I didn't mind the cost because I was very specific about breeds and gender. However, if you are not willing to pay much for chicks, this is probably not your place.

  Overall, I very highly recommended this company! See you next Monday!

Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholder

   Many people have seen chicks. Lots of people have seen chickens. But, unless you have raised chickens, you probably haven't seen their "teenage stage".

   They go in cute...

They come out beautiful...

But in the middle, well, all you can do in wait...

Pin feathers (a growing feather surrounded by a feather shaft) start to poke though the chick fluff.

You can see this in Nutmeg's tail (above).

Sleepy might have been the worst. It was... not pretty.

Sweet little Daisy. Her molt was not as bad as the other's for some reason.

Oh, Piper and those big puffy cheeks...

Wow sorry... A lot of pictures in this one. But, are there ever too many pictures of chicks?

Have a good week!

Nose in a Book

   So if you been on my blog before you may or may not know that I am a high school student. When I get home from school I do one of two things.

Go out with the chickens...

Or do homework.

Last week, I decided to multitask. 

   I had some reading to do for my humanities class. The last chapter or two of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephan Crane. (By the way, not my favorite book.)

So, I grabbed my book and headed out to the chicken pen. 

As I talked about last week, the chickens are very... interested in, well, everything.

   When they stole my bookmark. I was alright with it. Kind of.

   Please don't get me wrong, I am usually very careful with books. But, unfortunately to chickens, I guess, books look delicious. 

Note to self: No more multitasking.