More Feathers!

I adopted 7 pullets last Thursday, about 6 weeks old. These are Ameracunas and Ameracuna mixed. They should lay greenish eggs, but you never know - we'll see in a couple of months! Meanwhile they are happily living in the pen with a makeshift coup until they are a little bigger and can be put with the "big girls". The Big Girls are fascinated by them and walk up and down the pen fence clucking. Perhaps some maternal instincts? Here are 3 of the "babies", sitting on the frame of the old coop. All 7 were sitting in a row very nicely until I walked over to the pen! They have learned about me being the food provider already!

Feathered friends update!

We have eggs! Yep, this past week the "pullets" became "hens" and started laying! The first eggs are small, so I call them baby eggs. The girls seem to have adapted to their new home, aren't quite as skittish, and will actually roost on the roost in the coop. They have learned to take dust baths and will venture further than the garden near the coop. In fact, one managed to get into the fenced in yard the other day and Princess the wonder dog cornered it, which I'm sure caused quite a stir (I was at work!)! Not a feather is out of place, so I can't even tell which one it was!
Patches the Parakeet is quite the noisy fellow! He and Snowball seem to try to out-sing and squawk each other, especially in the morning when the birds outside are singing, or when I'm sewing. They must like the sound of the serger (can't say I blame them, so do I!). It's hard to get good pictures of the keets, as they flit around constantly! Here is Snowball, and Patches ducked behind the mirror just as I snapped the camera!

New Feathered Friends!

Didn't I recently have a post with a similar title?

Our little flock of chickens had dwindled to 3 old red hens whose egg output was undependable at best. I had to actually go buy eggs the other day. So, we knew we needed to add some young stock to keep up with our egg needs and be able to give eggs to friends. I'll be getting some fancier birds from a friend in a couple of weeks, but DH was on a mission in the Amish area of the county to find a whole hog for a picnic next weekend and came across a farm with pullets. He called me at work (I was in a meeting discussing high tech things like servers and data warehouses and the like) from an Amish farm (no electricity or phone) and asked how many I wanted! We decided on 6, and he brought them home and popped them into the pen with the 3 old ladies. They are a little tentative about the out of doors as they apparently had not been outside their barn yet. but, they are starting to get the hand of going in and out of the pen from the coop, and when the coop door is open finally wandered over to the butterfly garden (about 15 feet) to hide under the plants. It will be a couple of weeks before they start laying, so I've got to build new nest boxes between now and then!

Time flies...

Where have the past two weeks gone? Seems like I get up, go to work, get home, help DS with homework and getting to bed, then I collapse in bed. The laundry elves have not shown up to do our laundry, and I think the dog wears all of our clothes during the day while we're at work. How can 3 people possibly create these mountains of laundry?!

Oh well, since I last blogged, we have done a few fun things in between work and sleep!

• We went out to dinner for my birthday and afterwards strolled through Pier 1 Imports. I found a Laurel Burch dog tapestry pillow and bought it with some birthday gift $. Very sad that such a wonderful artist has passed away. I hope her artwork will live on in textiles and embroidery designs.
• Speaking of my birthday, DS and DH gave me a pink Nintendo DS Lite. Not sure that it was something I wanted, but the "Brain Age" games are fun. DS and I had given DH the red one for his birthday. DS is feeling left out. I keep telling him he can use mine, but he days, it's PINK!
• Last Sunday was our local Humane Society's Bark in the Park, a fundraiser and fun day for the animals (mostly dogs, although there was a little pig on a leash!). There were games for the dogs, prizes, a parade, craft show, lots of freebies and fun. They recognize all of the dogs who have been adopted/rescued from shelters with a "Shelter Graduate" ribbon. Here's our "graduate"
• We finished DS's dresser drawers and moved his clothes in. Still a work in progress. We read the fine print on the "metal" border stuff and saw that it can't be used on a wall. So, we've been surfing border/wallpaper sites and may have found a winner! We have two samples to decide between today and order.
• One of our hens has gone broody! We have no idea why, as they are supposedly a production strain, which has broodiness bred out of them. I am tempted to let her set for a while, just in case she had wandered through the woods back to where we hear two roosters in someone's yard. It would be neat to have baby chicks!
• I made great progress on the re-started sock. Hopefully the third time's the charm. If this sock is going to be one half of a Christmas gift, I have to get knitting! I was the only one on the bus yesterday afternoon who was happy that we got stuck in traffic!
• I found more of the curtain fabric for DS's room, so not only will he have curtains, I can make a quilt (a simple one!) and some pillows!

Mama Hen

Yesterday was just a crazy day, and I ended up taking the day off at the last minute because neither E nor I felt that great in the morning. By lunch all was well and he went to school while I ran some errands. It's Teacher Appreciation Week so I had a few things to pick up. (Say thanks to a teacher this week!)

Last night I was about ready to go to bed (at a decent time even!) when I remembered I hadn't gone out at dark to lock up the chickens! Aack! I grabbed a flashlight and headed out the front door, only to be greeted by three hens on the front porch. Oh, oh, why aren't they roosting in the coop? I went to the coop and a pile of feathers and a couple broken eggs said something had attacked. I gathered the three porch-bound hens, one at at time, and put them in the coop. Now to find the others. I walked around the yard, calling, chick-ie, chick-ie! I heard something in the woods behind the coop so I grabbed a pitchfork just in case. I found one hen in the day lillies, one at the edge of the woods, one in the middle of the front lawn. All unharmed, but scared. I carried them one by one back to the coop. Glad no one drove by - I was already in my pajamas!