Light at the end of the tunnel

Darren and Travis (and doors)

I can see it, I really think I see light at the end of the construction tunnel. We have doors people!  Today we put up cedar panels around the coop, installed cedar siding on the back, made two doors and a window in back.    NOW... we have to build the nesting box, finish the paneling, build the roosts and the trap door for the chickas to go up and down to the run (play area) and their closed in house.  I know they say you can build a coop out of anything, but not when you are married to a contractor, "anything" just won't do.   No, no, it must look good, be firmly rooted in the ground, with plum 90 degree angles allllllll around. 

I let the ladies out in their coop today so they could test out their new digs.  They had a blast.  They forgot all about me.  : (  I am going to have to starting bribing them back into my arms with treats.  What should we name the coop?  .... their BED & my BREAKFAST, PEEPERS PALACE, POOP COOP.... any suggestions would be appreciated...

Construction...day 942...

This ongoing project is stillllllllll ongoing.... Today we finished putting on all of the hardware cloth

 (wire mesh), made a door (not shown), added cedar trim and well... I don't know what we did, but we sure were out there for a good 8 hours!  This coop is going to be the death of me.  As usual we like to have as many chiefs as possible on one project. GOOD-ness, I'm pretty sure I threw a

hammer near Travis, not at Travis, but really close.  Tomorrow we will hopefully have the actual coop part enclosed (please God).  If you hear Travis complain about this coop, please remind him that this was HIS idea not mine.  I was going to buy one.  If you can't tell, I'm tired and frustrated, but all in all really happy the coop is coming together.  I just hope Travis meets the Wednesday (yes, this Wednesday) deadline...

I took the girls outside to play in the grass. I think they were scared. Ginger jumped on the edge of the un-tilled garden, but the others ended up on my arms and shoulders.  I told you these girls were sheltered.  We'll try again tomorrow and see if they get excited about the outdoors.  I can't leave them all alone in this coop unless I know they won't be scared.  



Week 2

They grow up SOO fast. Here are some before and after pictures (and please ignore the Captain Morgan box in the background. It contains my law school books that I can't seem to throw away). 

Week 3



Week 4



Week 4 Photos

I am starting to feel bad.  If you read backyardchickens.com all of these crazy chicken lovers are talking about how you need to take your chickens out to play in the yard once a day to get ready for the real outdoors, but MY chickens are sheltered.  I mean that in the literal and the figurative sense.  They are in the garage and don't know about the predators that await them.  I am not sure if I will be able to leave them on their first night outside!  I can't stand the thought of a coyote running off with Ginger while she helplessly PEEPS for her human mother (real tear).  OH the thought!  (gasp)  My chickens can just run around in the garage and poop all they want.  It's official I'm attached. 

Ginger is no longer the smallest.   Yes that is my PINK extension cord in the background.  Sorry about the background.   I have to improvise when Travis isn't around to take the pictures.


Ginger

Miss Bunny

Littlefoot is the smallest.

Littlefoot

Scramble is getting GINORMOUS, if that is a word.  She is going to be the fattest, I mean biggest boned chicken.  Seriously, the picture doesn't do her justice, she's huge.

Scramble

Dottie, still chillin.

Dottie



Ginger about to jump





Chill chickens



I can fly!

Well, Miss Bunny is super excited that she can (sorta) fly.  Every morning when I walk out to say hi to my baby chicks here she comes along with a big rush of wind and feathers.  She gives me this look like "look what I just did" then jumps back down to be with her friends.  Kids these days... they grow up so fast.

Ginger in the hot tub??

As you know, Ginger has had some, well... issues.  Travis and I have been reading about what to do with her poop problem.  She just shakes and shakes her little tail feathers and nothing comes out.  It's stuck!  I know it's gross, but she could DIE PEOPLE!!  So... you know how you can put babies in warm water to help out their little bowels?  Well you can do the same thing with baby chickens! 

I took poor little Ginger to the kitchen to fix her up!  (no we do not use this bowl for cereal)  At first she thought I was going to kill her.  I base this on her extremely high pitched "PEEPS".  But after I dunked her swollen butt vent in the water she was like "oh this is nice" and fell asleep (remember too that she's the narcoleptic one).  After the hot tub, Ginger was ALL better and had a big BM.  (you're welcome for not taking a photo of it). 

I dried Ginger off and took her back to her friends.  Of course, she fell asleep on the way to the garage...  This ritual may continue every night until her digestive system is fully developed.  Is it weird that I care about these little babies so much?

Technical difficulties

One computer crashed, the other has a virus and won't let me on the internet.  Stay tuned for the upcoming adventures of "Flying Miss Bunny" and "Ginger in the hot tub"...

Early Easter Photo Shoot

Today is the beginning of WEEK 3 of Linsey and Travis's Chicken Operation.  Soon to be known as Linsey's Chicken Operation.  I don't think Travis will love our girls as much as I do once they grow up and their poop gets bigger.  Although I must say, he has been a good chicken dad so far.  Last night he read message boards on what to do about baby chick constipation (Ginger has issues).  Do NOT tell him I told you!  Ooops, too late. 

Dottie screaming

The girls are getting so big so fast I want to keep you updated weekly.  Their pin feathers are starting to come out.  For those of you who don't know, pin feathers are the feathers behind their neck that stick up like pins.  They will eventually spread out into beautiful feathers.  Please take note of the Easter colors in the background of this photo shoot. I know it's not Easter yet, but my creative juices are not flowing at the moment so this is all I've got. Week 4 may be more entertaining.

All the girls seem to get along right now. I hope they don't turn on each other as they grow up. I would probably cry. Each of them start screaming when they are away from each other for too long.

Chill Dottie

Dottie was extremely upset that I took her away from her friends.  She screamed so loud you would have thought I was taking her to the butcher.  After I put her in my hand, she was cool.  Dottie is normally chill.  She likes to hang, roost, eat, drink, and of course, poop. 

"take my picture"

"don't look at me"

Ginger, Travis' fav, has really pretty wings. Click on the photos and I think they get bigger. Recently her tail feathers popped out. She likes to shake her tail feather and I wish I could catch her long enough to video her shakin it. Ginger is one of the smallest and is stuuuuborn. She won't let me change the food or water without jumping all the way up my arm. She is also a fat hog. She will eat and eat and eat, but not drink any water. Hence the constipation issue mentioned above. Last night I forced her to drink water with a syringe.  Take THAT Ginger.

Curious Little Foot

I was only able to take one picture of Little Foot because she wouldn't sit still.  She's going to be a black and white, kinda striped, chicken. You can see the beginning of her stripes.  She is the baby of the group and barely has any tail feathers. She and Dottie both like to roost/chill still on my fingers. (If you can't tell, I am determined to have tame chickens so we hang out every day.) 

Miss Bunny.  The largest chick with the biggest wings and a crazy eye.  I'm pretty sure she's nuts. She's all over the place all the time.  She jumps all over me and scratches the poo out of my arms.  I think she may need A.D.D. medication.  She reminds me of Leigh Anne (my step mom), distracted. "OH LOOK BUTTERFLY!"  She also would only let me take her picture after I put her on my arm, to scratch it. The second picture is her charging at me.   Crazy bird.

The crazy eye

"what?! where?! who?!"

"don't hate"

Last, but not least we have Scramble.  Scramble, the cute, loving, yellow chickie.  She is big like Miss Bunny, but MUCH more calm.  She likes to be really close to my face.  She quietly squat waddles a little closer and a little closer to me so I will stroke her wings.  Her pictures didn't turn out very well because I was trying to hurry to return her to her wolfpack of hens before the screams got louder.   And I put a yellow chicken on yellow paper.  IDIOT!  Anyway, she's starting to turn tan in color and get her pin feathers.  Scramble is also really smart.  I could tell she's been scheming up some plan and today she flew to the outside rim of her container and perched there.  All the other chickens were jealous that she almost got away.  She was just excited to see me and flew up as soon as she saw my face and heard my voice.  Needless to say, the chickens were moved to the garage.   I just can't risk finding poop on the floor if they get out!

"PEEEEP!"

Construction!



Footing

The construction project has begun.  Travis feels a little better about how large the coop is actually going to be, but he was pretty nervous when the walls went up.   There were a lot of chiefs outside on this project today so I stayed out of the way and let the builders build.  I did make the mistake of asking why the lumber was uneven and why would the lumber yard cut it the wrong size.  Oops... Travis cut that one.  You would think this was an actual human home they were building.  Angles, dimensions, foundation, etc... WOW, but I am not complaining.  It is looking more and more like the photos I showed these meticulous contractors and I'm impressed.



Jeff Supervising

  

We also had several wonderful (little) helpers today.  Cora and Molly kept busy by supervising their uncle Travis and pretending to be chickens.  I'm glad they are so close so they can come babysit - I mean visit - the chickens.  The coop is in between the garden and our fire pit. Hopefully it will be complete soon because today the girls started their escape attempts. Miss Bunny and Scramble, the largest hens, are the instigators of escape. I do not want to wake up one morning with a chicken on my head and poop in my bed. All the blogs I've been reading say the chickens have to stay inside for 5 weeks, but these little birdies seem eager to get OUT.

Framing going up

Cora with Dottie and Ginger

Molly supervising

Reading about chickens

Who doesn't know?

I must talk about my chickens like they are my children because I'm pretty sure everyone in Coweta and Tulsa knows I am raising chickens.  At work this week, counsel for the other side brought us discovery (law stuff) and left me a note (to your right) which says "There is a seminar on raising chickens at the Tulsa Library coming up.  I saw notice in the Saturday Tulsa World."  How awesome is that?  It's awesome because 1) theoretically we aren't supposed to like him since he's "on the other side" and suing my client and 2) I just met the guy (he's old and has a ranch and appreciates the fact I have chickens, no he is not some young lawyer trying to persuade me with his nice words and good looks).  

Then I get a random text from my hair stylist today with a picture of a chicken coop attached saying "I thought of you when I saw this LOL."  I appreciate the fact that she thought of me, but why is this funny?  I am a SERIOUS chicken raiser dang it!  

NoName has a name!

NoName has a name!!  I have finally decided on....drum roll please.... DOTTIE!  

She got the name because of a few dots on her beak.  At first I thought, "Dottie isn't really that great of a name," until I remembered the only person I've ever met with the name Dottie.  The first time I met Dottie (the human) she introduced herself, then began to explain how she had IBS (yes, irritable bowel syndrome) a conversation I did not invite (true story btw).  Regardless of my lack of enthusiasm for the conversation she told me ALL about it.  So I realized that Dottie is the perfect name for my little chicken as she too has a touch of IBS.  It's like her poops are uncontrollable.  Or maybe I just scare the poop out of her every time I pick her up.  Either way, the name is official. 

Dottie

Future Dottie

To your right is Dottie now.  To your left is what she is SHOULD look like when she grows up. I really don't see the resemblance, but whatever. 

The Chicken Coop

The chicken coop building weekend is here!  Travis has committed to build a chicken coop for our little girls.   These photos depict the requests I've put into my contractor.  I sure hope he knows what he's doing.  I've only used him once before and it turned out ok.  As far as I know, he's not listed on Angie's list, so there is no real way to check him out for sure.   As you can see, though, he really loves our babies and I am sure he will build them the best home (a small amount of) money can buy.  He has already been talking about how to reinforce the coop given our strong Coweta winds.  I wonder what will happen when we have a tornado?  Will I run outside to get the chickies and bring them into the fradie-hole? Only time will tell...

"Gentle"

What a day!  These chickens are worn out!  Liz (law firm friend) brought her kiddos over for a few Easter photos.  Maisey, who is 4 and Charlie, who is 2 1/2 both loved the baby chickens, almost to death.  Charlie also likes to squeeze things.  Scramble almost had scrambled brains had someone (me) not kept saying "OH gentle Charlie, GENtle."  The kids were so excited, but unfortunately the chicks are so tiny.  They were stressing out.  I think Liz got some cute pictures though. 

Charlie and Maisey

Chick Home

Cora Grace

After the first set of kids my two nieces and nephew came over for some excitement.  Cora was very gentle with the little chicks, but did not want to hold the one that pooped, she said. My chicks live in a huge plastic bin with a heat lamp above them. I would give her a chicken, put it back, give her another chicken, put it back, "I wanna hold another one, I wanna hold another one."  I told her it was time for the chickens to take a nap.  She seemed to understand and told them "goodnight."     The next day, Pat (Cora's dad) sent me a text that said "did you rock your chicks to sleep too?" along with the above photo.  Cora had been taking care of the chickens ever since she left our house.  SO cute!