Chicken coop...

A building project has been going on in the garden this week and I have the blood blisters on my thumb from hitting it, my thumb, as well as the nails, with the hammer to prove my part in the construction. What is this great edifice, you ask? Drum roll, please. It is the chicken house. I designed it and helped to build it and now it is finished. Yipee!




The cute little chickie-dudes, who aren't so little anymore, have been living outside in a pen by day and then back into their cage in the living room by night. Needless to say, it has been getting a little cramped for them in their cage. But they have been very good little girls and have not complained. You should see them run and jump, though, when I open their door in the morning!




Anyhow, now they have a lovely, lovely home in which to live. I think they were a little unsure about the perch I built for them. But they'll figure it out.




I sat out in the chicken house with them for awhile after I moved them in to make sure they wouldn't be scared. ("Aawww. How sweet.") After they looked around some, they sat on my lap for quite some time. I finally had to stretch out my legs but they still wanted to stay with me. They are very warm and soft. I had no idea when I bought them that I would enjoy them so much.


Have a beautiful day!

Blackberry plants...

First, a chickie up-date: I think one of the chicks is blind, so I don't know if it will make it since it doesn't seem to be able to find the food and water. That makes me sad, but I am doing everything I can for it. If it doesn't make it, I will be o.k., though, because this is just part of life. (This is also why I grow plants, instead of raise animals.) Other than that, they are all doing fine. They are rather mesmerizing to watch, so I am not getting very much done!




Today I got a couple of blackberry bushes - an Arapaho and a Navajo. They are thornless and are supposed to be disease resistant, which should be helpful since the humid air of the South seems to lend itself to plant diseases. The bushes are also self-pollinating, but I read that even self-pollinating bushes do better when there is a different variety nearby. I am planning to plant them between the Myrtle trees (for the dappled shade the berries are supposed to like), but first my helper and I will have to dig out the wild, non-disease resistant, very thorny blackberry bushes that are already there. Some fun, huh.


Have a beautiful day!

Chickie update

Chickies!!!

Yesterday I went to buy scratch for our poultry. We have 2 ducks, 2 roosters (that's another story), and 6 hens (that is part of the other story). After wandering through the plant section - o.k., so it was a quick wander because it was very cold - I went inside where I heard very cute little bird sounds. My first thought was that for some odd reason, someone had brought their pet birds to work. Then I thought, that's silly. Some outside birds must have somehow gotten trapped inside the store. I have seen that happen. (In fact, one time I rescued a hummingbird that had flown into a store and couldn't find its way out.) Well, that wasn't the explanation either. The store had little chicks for sale and they were making the sweet little peeping sounds. But these weren't the yellow chicks I expected to see. They were black.




Today I went back to the store and bought 4 little black chickies! They are so soft and sweet and cute! The sign said they are Barred Rock, which, if you don't know (I didn't until I looked it up) are those beautiful black chickens with white flecks or "bars." I asked if they were female or a mixed lot and was assured that they were all female. I've never had little chicks before; we got our other chickens after they were grown. My new little chickies will be my work chickens. The ones we already have are more just for fun and some eggs. The new ones will live in my garden either in a chicken tractor (google that one if you don't know what it is) or in a movable pen, so I can change what part of my garden they are digging up and fertilizing for me. Until they get a little bigger - they are 3 days old - and it gets a little bit warmer, I have cute little peeping noises coming from a cardboard box in - where else - my living room!

(I gave them some chickweed {ha-ha} but they just pecked at it rather than eating it.)

Have a beautiful day!

Chickie update