Chicken Day

Wednesday, March 11th will now be known as Chicken Day in our house. We came home with four, fuzzball chicks that evening. I tried to take some pictures, but they came out all blurry. My husband took some pictures, but they came out all red. Neither one of us used a flash so we wouldn't freak out the babies. The red color came from the heat lamp we're using in their little chick-home (brooder).

We have four females (called pullets when they're under one year or haven't laid any eggs yet) of three different breeds. Daughter W picked a Rhode Island Red that she named "Marshmallow", Daughter M picked a Black Star that she named "Hen", and my husband and I have a Black Star named "Hyacinth Bucket" or "Mrs. Bucket" and a Brown Leghorn named "Cheetah." If I can get some awesome pictures to post, you'll probably see why a couple of them were named the way they were.

I'm designing their future home (the coop) and hubby's getting ready to build it. We had a brief, but nasty, cold snap last week that kept us from preparing the yard, fence and coop. This coop will be unusual in that it will be suspended from the fence and removable. That created a bit of a design challenge since it couldn't come out too far from the fence or it would make things too unstable. Each full-size bird is going to need 4 square feet of indoor space, so the coop is going to be 2'x8'. I have a 20 qt flatback bucket that I'm going to use as a nest box and rig it so that I'll be able to reach in from the back and snag our cackleberries. We have a piece of our yard sectioned off from the rest already on the south side and that's where the chickens will get their free-range time. I'm also going to try and grow some lettuce and kale for the humans and birds to share. Viva la backyard chicken!

On a more sparkly note, I'm working on a necklace for my MaMa. It's very blue and very, very sparkly. I strung all the beads last night, but it got too tight so when I loosened it up enough to be comfortably flexible, there's too much wire exposed when the necklace is worn. Argh. I need an engineering solution!

Spring Break begins Monday. Already the girls are fighting non-stop. And whining. And pouting. I don't think I'm looking forward to break. I don't think I ever will. I don't want to even THINK about summer vacation!!