four and a half chickens

One Freaky Egg

2011-03-21T19:16:00.001-07:00

We have two sweet little purebred Ameracauna pullets that I got from a breeder in North Georgia. These girls are defective as show chickens -- they are missing the "muff gene," the gene that gives the breed the distinctive beard -- so last August, the breeder gave them to me for free. They are perfect Wheat Ameraucaunas, the sub-category by the color of their tail feathers. Little Blue and Little Black are still with us, but Little Red didn't get into the house one night, and the next afternoon all I found was a leg and a wing. Hiding under the shed wasn't such a good idea after all.

I'm wondering if being bred for show and not for a "productive" life is now coming out. A few times since the turn of the sun, there have been goopy glops in the henhouse, and yesterday I found a most curious thing, like an enlongated malted M&M. We broke it open, and for sure, it was an egg, with a yolk smaller than a pea.

Today, Little Blue sat in the laying box a long while, and when I went back later I found this curiosity:

If you look closely, you can see the yolk. It's, like, an egg with no shell. Rubbery and squishy -- I'm not sure whether it actually has no shell, or an under-hardened shell. But it's a first for us. Weird. And, oh yeah, I still plan to eat it.

Critter Creak

2011-03-21T18:47:00.001-07:00

Who in your house is big enough to make the floorboards creak??

In our house, it's practically everybody, even the cats. Especially Serik. He used to be skinny, when he was a shelter kitty. Now he's not.

The Bees are Coming!

2011-03-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Video & podcast interviewing Thomas Seely, author of Honey Bee Democracy.

So now I've got almost 3 years of chicken raising (mistakes and all) under my belt, I'm giving in to my desire for honeybees. It's the last in my trifecta of "chickens, bees, and goats" because, frankly, I ain't gonna' get goats in our backyard.

I went to the HoneyBee short course at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in January. Quite honestly, I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know from reading books and online sites (I am a librarian, after all. Research is our business), but it was really nice to network and talk with folks I'd read about online. I met some people who have become lovely supportive mentors, and talked with others who have extensive experience in "off-road" beekeeping (ie, top bar, limited interventions, "bee guardians, etc.").

The night I got home I reserved two packages from Dixie Bee Supply (aka. The FatBeeMan), in Lula, a little hamlet in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains. I was lucky and got the first hatch date available, March 18. That's like, next Friday!!

Alas, I've got extra teenage boys coming for an overnight that weekend, so my friend is going to collect my packages for me. I did get to get to visit with Don the Beeman when we went up to Gainesville last weekend, so I have an idea of where my bees are coming from. I think I'm ready, but the real proof is when the thousands of ladies arrive!

helicopters

2009-07-20T17:20:00.001-07:00

15 or so years ago, when I first moved to a Big American City, the sound of helicopters overhead was very disconcerting. You see, where I grew up, in tinytown north Alabama, a helicopter hovering over your town meant only one thing -- ECAPED CONVICT!!

In Intown Atlanta, the helicopters were more benign. The greatest possibility was traffic jam, followed by major sporting event. Only later, when I moved to an up-and-coming neighborhood, did the police come back into to the picture, only this time, they were looking for a suspect, not a convict.

These days, in our summer home in rural Tennessee, helicopters mean something altogether different, and troubling. I have long had difficulty with the wail of an ambulance siren -- as I tell the kids, an ambulance whizzing by means 'somebody's hurt, and somebody's scared.' The whirlybirds touching down in our town mean the same thing. It's awesome (as in, inspiring awe) too see those huge metal insects hovering, and lowering themselves to the helipad. The windstorm they create is unbelievable. But it's always in front of the hospital, and it's only ever to take somebody away to a bigger hospital many miles away. Somebody's hurt, and somebody's scared.

Amazing how context matters, isn't it? It makes all the difference in the world.

living closer to nature means nature rules

2009-07-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

ewww. That means lovely things like trees, fawns and butterflies, AND less lovely critters like snakes, skunks and possums. Summer relocation has been tough on my hen 'girls'. I was really worried about woodland predators when preparing their run, and put netting over the top to keep out hawks, and made sure no raccoons could get their paws in. And then, the first day in their temporary home, I goofed, left a door open, and three of the girls were attacked by a stray that was hanging out nearby. Poor Silver, Raquel and my darling Baby Madge are no more. I cried and cried, then accepted the way things work -- dogs chase chickens. It's what they do. Everything dies sometime. And chickens are chickens, not children.

My father and I buried them in the woods last week. (Full disclosure -- their bodies were in the deep freezer for two weeks prior to the burial. Morbid humor is still funny.) On the plus side, the incident did result in the stray getting a new home and a name - Blue, for the wild blue eyes. Her new family took her to the vet, where another family identified her as their old dog who had run away. They were happy to see her, and happy for her to stay with the new family. And, of all things, the dog's previous name had been Blue, too!

In any case, the surviving hens, Stormie and Martha Washington (formerly Lacey), are very cautious about leaving the safety of the enclosed coop, even to scratch around in the enclosed pen, so I've gotten into a nice routine of taking a chair and a book out in the evening to sit with them while they range. Yesterday, when I was closing up for the evening and checking for eggs, I found GIGANTIC black rat snake trying to swallow the day's production! Ewww -- can you see the egg inside the snake's jaw? Looks like a golf ball covered in black netting. Yuck.

The short story is that the snake escaped (to steal eggs another day?), the egg didn't (it broke) and I'm reminded that "simple country living" isn't as simple as folks might think.

celebrate independence!

2009-07-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

Isn't this flag cool? It's flying on a cottage in the community where I work in the summer. I only saw it yesterday, (probably luckily) too late to make one for our family this year. But what a great idea, especially if it could be made with handprints from every family member. This one is for sure a present and future family heirloom -- it's dated 1991.

We've a full day of community activities, starting with an 8 am flag raising & potluck breakfast, cat and mutt shows, crafts fair and parade. I'll be the cool mom (not!) driving the pickup truck and flatbed trailer for the summer league swim team float! From me, to my family, my community and our nation, for all our flaws, I am deeply grateful for all the unearned gifts we've been given.

Today I will spend some time thinking about the blessings, costs and responsibilities of independence. And then we'll all go watch the fireworks!

to buy or to make? what is your answer?

2009-06-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

I just saw a review over on The Crunchy Chicken of a great-sounding book that's going on my next library order -- The Green Teen: The Eco-Friendly Teen's Guide to Saving the Planet. It must be synchronicity, since just this morning I watched the DVD of Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-energize America, and am more determined than ever to reduce and reuse as the leading edge of my own family's battle to live as more responsible citizens. My summer employer found out just today that Jeff Barrie, producer and director of Kilowatt Ours, is available and will be coming to speak next week!

Recycling is a tricky third leg of the 3 Rs, because large-scale recycling depends on finding a market for recycled materials. That means somebody (= consumers = you and I) has to buy whatever the finished product might be. The recycling program where we are has been discontinued for the summer, because the guys that collected all the materials can't sell them anywhere that will pay enough to make it worth their while.

I'm happy to buy recycled when it's something I need and was going to buy anyway. But what about something that I could make myself? Enviromom was musing about the Mylar that comes into her house, and what to do about it now that it's not recyclable in her town anymore. TerraCycle is a company that collects consumer waste like juice bags (they call them pouches), chip bags and yogurt cups, and remakes them into consumer goods -- very cute tote bags, pencil cases, cardboard fire logs and other neat products. They even pay a small amount per waste item (2¢ per pouch, for instance) to schools and other organizations who collect and send them in (like the cereal box or soup label programs many schools use for fundraising).

Are you like me? When I see great ideas like this my first thought is -- I bet I could make that! So my question is, is it more responsible to send in my juice bags and buy a finished product, thereby supporting a good eco-company and large scale recycling? Or better to keep our (very few) juice bags out of my trashcan, not buy yet another thing at a big retailer, and save my own money, by making similar products at home? What would you do?

why this mama is not a professional model

2009-06-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

I whipped up this appliqué t-shirt before heading off to my 25th college reunion (yes - yikes! - I'm that old!) and got a few compliments, which was very nice. It was also very cool to discover the number of women among my classmates who own chickens. We are a pretty amazing bunch.

I think the difficulty in getting good photos of my recent handmades is due in part to Mr. Summer Sun and partly to Mother Nature - he's flying so high in the sky these days that the light comes in at a very high angle, when it comes in directly at all thanks to her wonderful shady leaf coverage around the house. Of all the problems a mama could have, this one is pretty darn insignificant. Photos can wait.

in process

2009-06-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a poorly photographed detail of the upcycled t-shirts designs. You'd think June would be a great time for natural lighting. But isn't the little chick silhouette cute?

On the other hand, this fabric detail from the new coasters in the shop is ok. I do have a weakness for adorable cartoon chickens. Real hens are funny, but I wouldn't exactly call them adorable.

Except maybe Baby Madge. Who is back in the thick of things since I took her off the nest and made her run around the yard for a couple of days, to remind her of the fun things (grass, bugs, kitchen scraps) she'd been missing. Still no tiny eggs, though one of the twins (Lacey & Silver, the Silver Laced Wyandottes) has been laying lots of double-yolked eggs lately. The doubles are so small compared to a regular yolk, though the egg itself is huge. Chickens are amazing critters.

ballerina bear has a new home

2009-06-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm a little surprised at the thrill I'm feeling to get the good news! Ballerina Bear, our first Toy Society drop, has found a home. The Toy Society blog posted this message from her new family this morning:

We found the pretty bear @ the Welcome Center;
she now lives in Calvert County Maryland w/a 5yr little girl named Megan.

Hooray! I can't wait to do it again.

read to (or about) your chick

2009-06-09T07:07:00.001-07:00

Life is full of unexpected paradoxes, both large and small. This one is pretty small, really, but in this season of lengthening and sunny days, I cannot find a single place in my house with enough light for decent pictures of the new Chix-themed t-shirts I've been working on. Maybe it's that the sun is higher in the sky, or angled less to the south.

In any case, while I work on pictures of "read to your chick," I thought I'd instead present a short roundup of poultried picture books. Check for them at your public library (even though the links are to book info at Amazon.com).

Tillie Lays An Egg by Terry Golson and photography by Ben Fink.
Tillie's an adventurous sort of hen, and rather than wait her turn for the nesting box, she explores Little Pond Farm and leaves her daily egg in some rather unexpected places. Photographs of real hens illustrate the story. The hens who star in the book (and their author) even have a website (including a blog and a hencam!).

Louise: The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo and pictures by Harry Bliss.
Another adventurous white hen! Louise ventures even further afield, landing on a pirate ship, at the circus, and at an exotic bazaar. Like a little one who leaves the safety of Mama's circle to explore the world, Louise returns to her friends in the henhouse to tell her tales, rest, and dream of her next adventure. Louise is a 2009 E. B. White Read Aloud Award honor book, and Kate DiCamillo is the author of many wonderful chapter books, including the Mercy Watson series, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux and others.

The Chicken Sisters by the hilarious Laura Numeroff; pictures by Sharleen Collicot.
Perhaps you're familiar with what happens If You Give a Moose a Muffin (or a Mouse a Cookie)? Numeroff's three chicken sisters are lovely eccentrics specializing in horrific shower singing, burned cookies and ugly knitting. They're also so generous and friendly with the offerings that the poor old wolf (who's just moved into the neighborhood) is so terrorized that he leaves to move in with his mother!

Chicken and Cat by Sarah Varon.
This wordless picture book tells of country Cat's discomfort and sadness when visiting friend Chickens's drab, urban (New York) neighborhood, and the pleasure of finding color and joy in a seemingly drab place.

Lottie's New Friend by Petra Mathers.
Lottie is the central character of the Lottie's World series, which begins with Lottie's Beach Towel. In this one, Lottie and best friend Herbie's friendship is strained when the exotic Dodo moves to town. Dodo is purple, Dodo has an accent and Dodo's been in the movies! Herbie is so sick and tired of hearing about the wonderful Dodo that he's sure Lottie isn't his friend anymore. Then one day Dodo is in trouble and Herbie can help. He not only becomes Dodo's hero, but also hears all the nice things Lotties's been saying about him, and he learns that you can make new friends and keep your old friends too.

Wow, that's a lot of white hens. Surprisingly, there are many many more chicken-themed picture books out there. I'll try to round up more in future posts; books are just so much fun. Do you have a favorite chicken book, either for children or grownsups, to recommend? Any about roosters?

mission accomplished

2009-06-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, VB, VG and I completed our first "mission" for the Toy Society -- we left a handknit Ballerina Teddy bear toy at a Welcome Center on I-75 near the Tennessee-Georgia border. It was all very covert and exciting, especially now that I see we are officially Drop #353, and as far as I know, the first in Georgia (either USA or the Republic of). I can't wait to see who found her. I hope they contact the site to let everyone know.

The teddy is knit from Bernat Cashmere (boo hoo, I think it's been discontinued). The pink was left over from a hat I knit for VG, and the brown was a ball of what my mom (not from Louisiana) likes to call lagniappe -- I bought a ball of pink from someone on eBay, but got the brown in a mailing mixup instead. The seller graciously let me keep the brown, and sent the pink too.

Ballerina Teddy is from the Mother Bear Project pattern, which you can buy from the website for $5. It's also included in a lovely little book called Knitting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time. The book has information about many different organizations helping people around the world, and patterns for charity knitting projects helpful to the organization, such as prayer shawls, afghans, or warm sweaters for children. The Mother Bear Project gives donated handknit teddy bears to children in emerging countries whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS.

Thanks to Amy at badskirt, who linked me over to the Toy Society.

Have you ever done a charity craft project? What did you make and how was it used?

and the winner is . . .

2009-06-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

Cristin!! I am sending an e-mail, but if you are checking, please send me your mailing info.

Here's how I got the winner -- since nobody entered who is in Central Asia right now, I gave one extra entry to Melissa, who is moving to an unspecified country in Central Asia in December. There were a total of 57 entries, and of all things, the random number generator came up with #2.

I have the very best intentions of putting the prize bib in the mail on June 3 (tomorrow) but I absolutely promise it'll be flying to Christin by the weekend.

Thanks so much to everyone who commented. This was fun, and I hope to hear from you again.

Prize-winning chicken photo by Kate Brown -
Creative Commons licensed photo from Flickr

Late Breaking News --

Christin says:

Awesome! The bib is gorgeous!! My little guy is 7 months old and he will certainly put this to good use:)

As for the something about me...I am a 27 year old SAHM to a 3 year old girl and her little brother and we live near Austin TX. I love blog hopping and attempting anything crafty in my "spare" time:) Thanks so much for hosting this giveaway!!

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

last days for giveaway, and a fat quarter swap to share

2009-06-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

I know that the Sew, Mama, Sew May giveaway has officially ended, but since I am often pushing deadlines to the limit (yes, on Saturday I did discover a credit card bill due Saturday -- thank heaven for online bill-pay!), I'm giving everyone an extra day, closing mine tonight. I'll do the random number thing on Tuesday morning. Jump down to the next post to comment and enter. Thanks to everyone who has visited here and commented. Double thanks to the wonderful visitors who browsed around and read other posts, and who visited my Etsy shop. Your comments make my day :-)

Personally, I can't wait to find out if I've won anything. There are SO many talented and creative folks out there, and because of this giveaway I've found lots of new sites to keep up with.

One of my new sites to follow, Two Hippos, is having a Fat Quarter Swap! You have until June 3 to sign up to swap either 2 or 4 fat quarters, so head on over and get the full info.

I participated in Sew, Mama, Sew's winter fattie swap, and it was a lot of fun. I sent out several fattie Qs of favorite patterns, and got some really neat pieces in return. A couple were just perfect for projects I already had underway. How lucky is that? It's a fun and easy way to reach out and connect with other crafty cloth people. Thank you, Two Hippos, for sponsoring a Summer Swap.

may giveaway!

2009-05-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

Oh my! I feel far too young in my blogging life to offer a giveaway, but I like to participate and I love Sew, Mama, Sew, so here we go!

I honor of my one and only sale so far on my Etsy shop, I am offering the next edition of that handknit cotton baby bib. It's in a shadow denim cotton yarn, the version that my cousin raves over. Please comment on this blog post, including contact information, and on June 2nd I will do a random number thing (I attended MIT my junior year and love random anythings) to choose the winner. It's so exciting to be a part of this big contest, I'll ship anywhere. And a special clause to the random thing, anybody who comments from anywhere in Central Asia gets an automatic trip to the front of the line.

I confess that I don't have nearly enough chicken-themed choices at the shop, a failing that I plan to remedy over the summer. I've plenty of ideas, though, so by August all should be well on all fronts. Stay tuned!

cooking with whole grains #1: barley

2009-05-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

A hundred years ago, when I was in graduate school -- oh, wait, I think it was only 1992 -- I read a little paperback called Rain Forest in Your Kitchen that has really influenced my food choices. The book's argument is that the everyday consumer can actively encourage biodiversity by buying alternate varieties of standard foods.

A good example is eggs -- nearly all of the eggs sold in the US are white; the mass-production chickens that lay white eggs are all Leghorns. What happens if some virus or other pops up to eliminate that breed only? Whether you go free-range, organic, cage free, omega 3-enhanced or whatever, buying brown eggs instead of white keeps the egg producers raising brown egg chickens, so there's at least one other kind of chicken left in the world.

Apples are another example -- Red Delicious is the #1 apple seller (they are red, but delicious?) The simple act of buying a lesser known (but much yummier apple) makes the orchard owners keep growing more than one kind of apple tree. Biodiversity is about hedging bets, practically speaking, and it also makes for more interesting food.

So what about barley (aside from beer)? One thing I try to do is try to include a lot of whole grains that aren't wheat or corn. It's been years since I had any quinoa (it's on my list to try again), but we do eat oats, millet, buckwheat and barley quite often. I wanted to share two recipes for barley that are easy, delicious, and don't scream "weird whole grain experiment."

The first is actually a modification of a wonderful grain salad I discovered on Heather B.'s beauty that moves blog. It's her wheatberry salad recipe, substituting hulled barley in place of the wheatberries. I've made it both ways, and both are joy to eat (flavors, textures, crunch). Some recent reading indicated that barley is as good, or even better than, oatmeal in a cholesterol-lowering diet, so on those days that I can't bear another granola, oatmeal or muesli breakfast, I can feast on a bowl of this chilled grain salad for lunch instead. Head on over to Heather's Grain Salads post for the details.

I use a Granny Smith apple, almonds, orange juice and maple syrup, and leave out the celery and parsley to suit my taste. Can you see all the delicious bits? Mmmm. Heather also has a Mediterannean Barley Salad recipe in the same post that I plan to try soon.

• • •
Another barley recipe that we eat a lot is a vegetable soup developed by my mom, with my preferences in mind (because I can't bear the taste of celery, it uses tomato juice instead of V-8, which had been her usual before). This one uses pearled barley, which I think is to hulled barley as white rice is to brown -- not a whole grain, as the outer layer has been removed, and it's much quicker cooking. For the purposes of grain biodiversity, though, pearled is ok. This recipe is flexible in the veggies you choose, and whether or not you use meat. Substitute soy protein & veggie stock for the ground beef & bullion, and it's vegan. You can even use V-8 juice and throw in some chopped celery -- it's all good.

Babushka Soup

1/2 lb ground beef, browned & rinsed (or you could substitute 1/2 - 1 cup of TVP)
1 large can tomato juice
4 cups water
4 beef boullion or veggie stock cubes
2 bay leaves
1 onion, chopped
1 can beef broth or vegetable stock (optional)
tarragon (to taste)
basil (to taste)

Add all above ingredients to a 4 quart or larger stockpot. Simmer together approx 30 mins.

Add
1 lb. mixed vegetables (frozen - cut large chunks into smaller pieces)
1 carrot, diced (if there are no carrots in your mixed veg choice)
additional vegetables as desired (corn, squash, etc)

Return to boil and simmer 10 minutes.

Add 1/2 c. pearled barley. Simmer 20-25 minutes or until barley is tender.

• • •
With all the veggies and grain in the soup, it's pretty good as a one dish meal, but we usually have some sort of whole grain bread along with it.

"what do you do with a broody bantam?": a sea shanty for baby madge

2009-05-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

what do you do with a broody bantam?
what do you do with a broody bantam?
what do you do with a broody bantam,
earl-eye in the mornin'?

Sweet little Baby Madge is hankering for a family. One night a couple of weeks ago I saw her in a laying box right at dusk, and when I went to open up the coop the next morning she was still there. I thought she'd had a late afternoon urge to lay an egg and fallen asleep in the process. The next night we were gone for a Cub Scout campout. The neighbor who tended the girls told me she was worried about Madge -- she didn't seem sick but she'd been sitting in the box all day. I'm a little slow, but eventually, 2 + 2 = oh dear. We have a broody bantam, and she's only 9 months old!

Miss Madge has chosen the favorite nesting box of all the hens, and from the evidence, they've been either squeezing in alongside her to lay, or popping in when she takes a break, because until lately all the eggs were in that box. I gently lift Madge every afternoon to discover 1-4 new eggs, nice and hot from her setting. Of course, while she's tending the clutch, she's not laying any eggs of her own, so we haven't had any tiny ones in a while. The big girls seems to have given up on sharing the box -- yesterday I found 4 cold eggs in the 'alternate' laying box on the bright side of the coop.

It's supposed to take about 3 weeks to hatch a clutch. Baby Madge should be out of maternity confinement soon. No chicks to show for it, but at least she won't have all those sleepless nights to deal with.

let her keep a settin' til the broodin's over . .
earl-eye in the mornin'!

Oh, and the new bigger coop is finally done. The girls have been in it since spring break. For anybody who's looking for chicken coop ideas, I promise to post building photos before too long. Here's what it looks like -- I'm pretty proud of building it entirely from recycled materials.

what's up with the naked chickpeas?

2009-03-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

Somewhere amidst the several times I've tried to make hummus I read that to get a silky smooth result you really have to cook the chickpeas yourself. OK, so I finally got some dried garbanzos at the co-op, and cooked them today. The first batch seemed soft enough after a quick boil and 3 hour soak, but I can't get it the hummus really smooth.

That was only with half of the soaked batch, so I went ahead and cooked the rest of them (about 2.5 cups of chickpeas) for 30 minutes. Then, following a suggestion in Crunchy Chicken's hummus recipe, I soaked the cooked peas in cold water and started collecting the skins.

Oh my goodness!! Who knew that chickpeas had skins? or that you could take them off? Or, most amazingly, that chickpea skins look like tiny jellyfish floating in the pot? Alternately, if you've never seen a bunch of jellyfish in the sea, imagine floating chickpea skins, only much bigger. Not gross like it sounds, just wierd.

Naturally, now that I've skinned the peas, I'm out of tahini, garlic and lemons, so there's a container of shivering naked garbonzos in my fridge. Poor things.

Does anybody know exactly why one would bother to skin cooked chickpeas? Is it aesthetic, or nutritional, or what? Do tell!

√ auction bibs

2009-02-19T06:34:00.001-08:00

I love this grouping of colors, don't you?

For the past few years I've donated a hand-knit baby cardigan to my school's Financial Aid auction, but this year decided to go for a change. These bibs are 100% cotton Peaches & Creme yarn in a basic garter stitch. The tangerine bib on top is from Ann Shayne & Kay Gardiner's wild and wonderful Mason-Dixon Knitting. I've made a ton of these since the book came out -- must be something in the water around here :-) Lately, though, I've been going off-road, creating my own rendition of a garter-stitched bib with touches I like better. The most fun is the all the great colors of Peaches & Creme (and the Canadian equivalent, Sugar'nCream) "warshrag" yarn.

I hope somebody at the auction likes them as much as my cousin does. She raves about the one I made for her son every time I see them!

our first girls are laying!

2009-02-03T18:57:00.001-08:00

It was a race, and I lost. The coop/tractor that I built for the chickens last fall is just too small -- too small to keep them in it all day (the ground area is 4' x 8') and too small for 4.5 chickens and a laying box. A bigger chicken house is required, and I realized over Christmas that it needed to be soon -- pullets start to lay at about 5 months or so.

It's going to be a cool coop, inspired by Baba Yaga's house*, and with luck it will be 100% free except for my labor and deck screws (friends' scrap lumber and construction dumpster treasures are the building materials). I started a couple of weeks ago, but time is limited (my big chicks need tending and feeding too) and it's cold outside.

Last Monday I lost the race . Coming home from work I almost stepped right on it -- our first egg! Somebody had laid it right there on the patio, by the back door. The next day, another. The third day I had to look hard for the egg, which had rolled off to the edge. Then no eggs for two days. Hmm. On Saturday morning I followed Raquel (the prime suspect) and found the secret stash -- four eggs! They've been laying in that location since.

I'm glad the girls have found a better place for the egg nest. Look closely at our first egg, and you can see the dent in the narrow end. I guess this is the end that comes out first, and a patio isn't a very soft landing place!

The Vs each had half a scrambled egg for breakfast on Tuesday.

* Baba Yaga ('baba yaGAH) is the scary witch in Russian folklore, a lot like the witch that wanted to eat Hansel & Gretl. Baba Yaga's house is a cabin in the woods, and it stands on chicken legs. I haven't quite figured out how to do the chicken legs, but I'm working on it.

why only four and a half?

2009-01-15T19:47:00.000-08:00

I first started this blog when the kids and I were "expecting" -- our chicks to arrive in the mail, that is. The first few posts are about planning for the chicks, and then they arrived. Whew! Our cat died, school started, and taking care of two kids and seven chicks was too much for this one mom, so the blog waned.

Five months later, I'm still only just ahead of the tidal wave most days, but we're back into a decent routine. Our chicks are now pullets (mature enough to start laying ANY DAY NOW! but not hens until they're a year old) and we're down to five. One Barred Rock was a foster chick, and she's gone to live with her permanent family now. Lily, the Ameraucana, started crowing on Thanksgiving Day, and now lives on a horse farm about an hour east of Atlanta. Four of our flock - Raquel, White Storm, Silver and Lacey -- are regular-sized girls, but Baby Madge is a bantam, only about half the size of the others. She'll lay little eggs too. So, in FSHE (Full-Sized Hen equivalents) terms, we're a "4 and a half hen" family.

Thanks for asking. Welcome to our flock and I hope you enjoy our adventures.

blue bunny

2009-01-13T09:47:00.001-08:00

Blue Bunny started off as a Christmas present for my niece, Miss A. Over Thanksgiving, she had a major meltdown over her cousin's Blue Bear, which went back to Virginia after the holidays. I have wanted to knit this bunny for some time, after seeing a lovely pink one at the fabulous Knitch in Atlanta's Virginia Highland neighborhood. Yay!

Blue Bunny didn't get started until a little too late to finish for Christmas, but fortunately Miss A.'s birthday is right after New Year's, so there was a second chance! Normally I pay close attention to both occasions (V-boy's birthday is also right after Christmas), but at four, the bundling of gifting days isn't as big a deal.

The pattern is from Knits, Knots, Buttons and Bows: Projects for Babies by Lynda Schar. See the pink bunny on the cover? The pattern calls for a soft wool; instead I used Bernat CottonTots in 'Little Boy Blue.' It's 100% cotton, soft and machine washable/dryable. Stuffing is plain ol' polyfil.

Gauge doesn't really matter in a project like this one, but I did check, and found that this yarn knitted smaller than the pattern. Since some of the directions are given in inches ('continue in stockinette for 6 inches'), and some in rows, I did my best to adjust the row counts so that Blue Bunny's arms and legs wouldn't be strangely out of proportion with his body.

The pattern is pretty straightforward. The feet have turned heels as for socks -- something about the directions didn't look right, so I did fall back on what I know about sock knitting to improvise. Otherwise this is a pretty simple toy to knit. And if you don't want to deal with turning the heel, you could make the legs the same as the arms.

It would be great if Blue Bunny becomes Miss A's favorite cuddly, but even if I end up loving Blue Bunny more than she does, it was worth it. Blue Bunny's a sweetie.

the chicks have landed!

2008-08-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

Waiting for Chix -- this is a big Rubbermaid tub that I used to soak my scuba gear in after a dive. A fine home for baby chickens. I put pine chips on the bottom (the same stuff as for the hamsters) but then read that chicks tend to peck and eat that bedding. I covered the pine chips with old t-shirts (soft, absorbent, and no strings to cause trouble in chick tummies). It's in the laundry room, where it's easy to hang the heatlamp from the shelving.

Getting the Word -- I was expecting "the call" in the wee hours of the morning, so when it came time to leave for school and no word, I figured it wasn't the day. On a whim, I checked home messages around lunchtime, and YES! -- we had chickens at the Post Office! I ran home, turned on the heatlamp, and headed to the PO.

I don't care what anyone says, the U. S. Postal Service rocks!! And family of one of VG's classmates was on duty at the time, which was nice. You can see the shipping box in the photo. I could hear the peeping when I walked in the back door.

All seven babies arrived healthy and happy, if a bit listless. You can see that the Barred Rock bantam is already smaller than the others.

In this next clip, the chicks have been out of the box for less than 10 minutes. They've gotten warm, had a sip of sugar water and been shown the food. Much more energetic! And peeping like crazy. So far so good. I can't tell the two Barred Rocks from the Dominique, though.

the circle of life

2008-08-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

Kitty
1993?-2008

I had thought that the chicks would be the children's first experience with death -- for sure we'd lose one or two along the way -- but it it didn't work out like that at all. Our Kitty cat died sometime yesterday while we were at school, and I found her when we got home. She must have gone quickly, in her favorite place behind front door. She liked to look out the window, waiting for us to come home. The neighbors called her our own "Neighborhood Watch."

We had a funeral this morning in the back yard -- the kids read letters they'd written to her, I read some parts of the burial service from the Prayer Book, and we put flowers on her grave. We miss her very much.

There are some macabre-funny parts to the story, but mostly we are sad and tired. Life lesson, heart lesson, feelings lesson, science lesson. And we still await the chicks' arrival, practically any minute now. Quite possibly at 4 am tomorrow! I wonder what Kitty would have made of them? Probably not dinner -- that wasn't her style at all. We love you, Kitty.

meet the team

2008-08-13T06:59:00.001-07:00

This site is about my little family's foray into backyard chickens. We are a mom and two kids in urban Metro Atlanta. Our neighborhood is circa 1920-1940, with small back yards, but the codes are very chicken-friendly. In fact, I think you can also keep goats in your backyard (don't worry mama, no goats for us!)

The kids have long wanted their very own pets (Kitty the cat predates the children). I like other people's dogs, but do not want to have one in my house. VG got a hamster last fall, which promptly turned into 5 hamsters! She still has Butterscotch, the mother, and Tiny, the runt. VB tried out hamster-ownership for a while, but decided it wasn't for him.

I've toyed with the chicken idea for a long time, and this summer was inspired by a high school contemporary to take the plunge. Check out her "adventure" at Save Sewanee Chickens.

The chicks arrive sometime next week (gulp). We're expecting 7 female chicks-- 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes, one Dominique, one Easter Egger (Ameraucana), and a Bantam Barred Rock.

Wish us luck!

ps -- we ordered from MyPetChicken.com, which though they seem to get their chicks from the same hatchery as other suppliers, has a shipping system to allow small orders (as few as 3 chicks).