They're Chicken

So the other day we had a rather eventful chicken day.

It started out with Little Joe crowing...FOR THE FIRST TIME!!
It was rather cute, like he had a sore throat.
We are going to see how much and how loud he gets.  We may have to trade him as we aren't supposed to have roosters in the city.

 Hiding.

A little later in the day one of the hens, Cheeky AKA Cleopatra, fell into an empty trash can and FREAKED out!  When one freaks they all freak.

The same day, they are out free ranging and I hear them making "scared" noises.  I look out just in time to see a hawk swooping down.  Scared that bad boy away, only to see a hungry cat right next to our wall a little while later.  I kept them in their coop for like two days.

I really think they got shook.  When they come out to free range they don't hardly go anywhere.  They really feel safe in their coop.

The Zoo with my Brother

 You may or may not know that my brother and his family are missionaries in America Samoa.  We haven't seen them for 2 1/2 years.  We had a very nice (short 2 days) visit with them.  We took them to the zoo.

 Here's our son narrating  for you all.

 There was a pigeon with a stump leg.  Our daughter really felt for it.

 Our son seeing how far he could jump.  Not too bad
.

 My awesome brother and his family.  Miss them tons.

 I think I got everyone, except me.  We were all looking at the bears.

My brother was really into these birds.

Grad Party Photos

Our daughter graduated from home school a year early!!

 The card box made by moi.

 Pre-party set-up.  I couldn't have pulled this off without all of the help I had!!

 Idea from Pintrest.

My mom (who was  BIG help) and I having FUN!

Indepence Day

We like to go watch the fireworks in different places every year.  This year we went on Hang Gliders Ridge.

 Our ride was a bit bumpy.  Oh, and my voice doesn't sound that high...I hope.

 View from our spot.  Not very clear, but you get the idea.

Chicken Photo Dump

 Little Joe and me.

 Dust bathing beauties.

 The two Barred Plymouth Rocks.

 Their newest favorite hangout.  There is about a week difference in time in the above set of pics and these.  They really do grow very fast.

 We seriously did just wash our windows.

Nap time inside and out.

Next post...Non-chicken.

Fast Forward

Today we got some really good news that lifted a weight off of my shoulders.

When we started out on the home school journey, we were just going to get our son caught up then send him back into school. 
That was fourth grade. 
We ended up loving it and wanted to home school both of the kids until 12th grade.
Picking curriculum is half of the work done as a home school parent.  The legs of your school.

(chicken photos are just to give you something to look at.)

Fast forward to 9th grade.
The distance schooling we tried just didn't happen for a few reasons.
We tried to put son into public school, but were too late.
Son busted out the credits we were told he needed to get into 10th grade with not much problem.

Fast forward to end of 9th grade.
The high school is still giving us a hard time.
Long story short...he had two choices, go into high school as a 10th grader who will be behind and would have to take extra classes that cost pretty big $$.   Or go in as a 9th grader and be ahead.
There was just no going around it.  They don't do things like they used to.  I felt like this chick.

(look at those claws, talons...not to cool when we get scratched now.)

Today son got into an alternative school with NO problems!!!
There is normally a waiting list for this school.
No waiting.
No begging.
No rearranging schedules.
NO 9th grade!!
No cost!
Now we are getting somewhere.

(SOOO hard to get a still shot of these gals.)

This school is small and really works one on one with the students.
He will get caught up.
There's no drama at this school either!

This retired home school mom is so relieved to have her son be able to get things straightened out.

Coop De'Ville or Coop De'Redneck

We bought a used coop with run a couple of weekends ago from some very great people, I mean super nice.  Since we had to dismantle it anyway we figured we'd make our own out of the pieces.  Plus we were able to use up some of the pieces in our yard.

Here's the old:

Here's ours this far:

 Please excuse the mess...we are still in construction mode.  It has taken us about 24+ hours to get this far.  That's just counting since we brought it home.  Taking off the chicken wire, the screw, nails, etc...

We cut the old nesting box in half.  We will be putting the other half on top of these three.  Under the boxes we will put their food and water.  There will also be a ramp from the ground to the boxes on the left.  For now our coop is open.  It is so hot here that we wanted to give them as much air as possible.  We'll play winter by ear.

Resting on the chair is the perch which will go along the back side.  The chair...well, I put the chicks in the coop and watch them.

The top is all from the old coop.  We left the siding over hang to give the hens more shade.

There are a few more areas we need to tighten up and staple down.  But for the most part it's just about there.

Oh, the girls...they LOVE being in there future home.  They are already dust bathing, foraging, exploring, etc.  We let them out more than some folks from what I have read, but then again, those folks have hens that are much older who don't dust bathe, etc.

For now we had to upgrade their indoor home to this...

 They are in the office now and love the extra running space.

Flying the coop!  Red is always the first out of the box!  You should've heard the other two inside itching to get out.

Meet the Girls

Really only one of the chicks has a name, Red.  She is our daughter's chick.

Red is the most curious, the larger of the two reds.  She seems to be the most flighty as well.  She could end up being the Mama Hen, but we don't know yet.  Right away she stood out for her richer color.  She is also the calmest when you hold her.  We hold them each everyday and she calms right down and sinks into your hand and starts to "purr".  Red is the one who may be our Houdini.  She almost got out of the box on the way home and almost got out some other time.  I think when I was cleaning out the box.

While she has a nice rich color, her wings aren't as pretty as the other red.

Meet Jewel, as I call her in my mind.  I really don't want to name them as we may eat them.

 Her wings remind us of butterflies.  Our daughter calls her is the "girliest".  She doesn't pick on the others at all.  She doesn't push the other around to get food either.  One time she was even trying to nuzzle under one of the blackies wings. 

She is also pretty skittish.  When we are reaching in there to hold one of them she runs around chirping.  She is a follower for sure...well they all are, but more so than the others.

Then theirs poopy.  We really don't call her that, but she has poop stuck to her backside.  We have tried to get it off and will probably have to bathe her.  The other barred rock has no name either.  They are also harder to tell apart.  Though Son says he can tell them apart.  Poopy had a crusty on her beak that we could use to tell them apart, but it is now gone.  Poor thing is a mess.  She is a tad bigger than the other.  They don't like to be held as much as the reds, but will relent.  It will be fun to see how their personality emerges.

Chicks Part Two...Food Dishes

Since we've never owned chickens before we are learning some things as we go.

Like their food dish.

At the feed store I almost bought a chick feeder, but the sales lady said a small dish would be fine.

Cool.  We had a small container/dish.  Let me tell you, these little girls ate, slept and pooped all in the same container.  Plus they started to kick/scratch a lot of it out.  I tried a smaller dish.  They crowded and pushed each other out trying to be the one sleeping in the dish.  And there was crazy food flying.

So, I did what I should've done in the first place...bought an actual feeder.

MUCH better.  I did raise it and the water container up in a piece of broken brick.  I wanted to discourage them sitting and pooping in their food and water.  They still try to sit on the food.  Funny little things, I have a canning jar as the food dispenser and they try and try to peck the food out of that thing.

A few days ago we bought a used coop/run.  The man told us to dust their food with cayenne powder and put a little bit of apple cider vinegar in their water.  These will help them "make it" and be healthy.  They LOVE the cayenne powder and still drink like crazy. 

These girls are eating machines too.  You can see how much they have grown in just a few days.

New Addition

Remember all those books I was reading?
Well, some of them had to do with raising...

(This is the box I brought them home in.)

Man, these babies are just too cute!

We bought two Barred Rock Hens (that will look like this when older)...

And two Production Red Hens (which is a cross between Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshire Reds)...

These were the only two breeds the feed store had, which is totally fine.  Daughter wanted red ones and Son wanted this kind anyway.  So it worked out great.
People who have owned or currently own chickens always tell me how addicting they are.  We have only had our for five days and I want more!!

 The day we brought them home (I bought them in the next city...1+ hours away) they would just right asleep when we held them.  The chicks are pretty vocal, especially on the drive home.  At one point they went silent.  I had to check to make sure they didn't die.  They just went to sleep.  When one sleeps, they all sleep.