Well horse before the cart and all. I went out and bought 6 chicks. They were day olds and so cute within three days I brought home 3 more. I have them currently set up in my home office. My daughter now calls it the mullet room, all business in the front and party in the back. The chicks are great and we have been working on building a coop. It had been raining crazy so the coop is coming slow and unfortiunately the chicks are growing fast. They have now currently flown up and broke my favorite japanese lantern in my office and shat all over my top sales award. I love em, but so want them outside.
I also have added a new goal to the goal,..I want to add some silkies to my brood. They are just beautiful.

I may have to wait until I own that house in the country, but someday I will own chickens! I have vowed not to eat meat until I have learned how to raise it myself, and I’ve stuck to that promise for 3+ years. Don’t know if I’ll ever be able to “process” my own dinner, but fresh eggs will be good enough if I do choose to stick to my vegetarian ways.

I guess when they actually start laying eggs (sometime soon), I can call this goal “done.”

10 Cuckoo Marans – 8 pullets, 2 roosters
9 Ameracaunas – 7 pullets (including Kick-Start), 2 roosters
8 Silver Laced Wyandots – all pullets

27 babies nearly all grown up

Read all about them at http://HighDesertGardening.blogspot.com

They crow, they strut around like, er, roosters, and they are growing spurs on their legs. I asked my friend’s Mom how I would know they were really roosters, and she just said, “You’ll know.” She was right. They totally look and act like roosters, not hens.

Originally, we were going to eat the roosters. But I must be getting soft in my old age – I’m pretty sure I can’t eat them.

The hens will be ready to lay by the end of Nov., so I will start increasing their light hours so they are up to the right amount of light by mid-November.

Chickies are healthy; life is good.

On an average day, I can get away with about 15 minutes of care if I really don’t want to hang out with my biddies. On the other hand, sometimes one needs to get out there with the mucky boots on and go to town. Today is one of those days.

• clean out sleeping crates
• bleach drinking facilities
• wash off porch
• mist and rake the chicken yard
• let the chickies play in the garden
• (let chickies destroy more of the garden)
• mix up more feed (moving off of the medicated chick starter to non-medicated game bird mix + scratch + oatmeal)
• take more photos and/or videos of chickens

They lay deep brown eggs known as “chocolate” eggs. Still a few months out from seeing any eggs from her.

I guess if one has chickens, one should build a coop. Well, that, or marry a great guy with power tools who will build one for you! I’m lazy. I went the second route! And, to top things off, our son is also helping… so mostly I fill the ice chest with water, gatoraid and ice… but I put “Build a chicken coop” on my list of things to do since I did/am doing some little things (I stained some of the wood… I play with chickies in the garden so they stay out of the construction zone…)

I found out that if I live in Baltimore City, I can legally keep up to four chickens as long as I purchase a one-time permit! You can best believe that as soon as we buy a house, we’ll be getting some chickens!

Wow, I can’t believe they are 7 weeks old already! They have certainly ransacked my garden, but that’s ok. They find so much entertainment from it, and that entertains me, so that is another use for the garden. And I will recoup the un-eaten zucchinis in eggs in a few months, right? This has, unfortunately, put a big damper on my goal to “grow a row for the hungry.” I wonder if I can give my eggs away to the food bank? I am expecting 15-20 eggs a DAY when we hit peak production!

You can view picture of my babies at http://highdesertgardening.blogspot.com

I guess I shall consider this complete when I get my first egg! But that is still at least 3 months down the road!

Was away for a week on business and they look more like chickens than fluff-ball chicks now. Can’t believe how fast they are growing.