The birds

Here's an update of our baby chickens! Josephine on the left and Susette on the right. They're two and a half weeks old now and getting lots of new feathers. Susette's comb is starting to grow, but I'm still thinking she's a girl because of her dark feathering. Apparently boy Barred Rocks have more white than the girls.

Josephine

What are you looking at?

And the big girls. Here's Mimi. Getting all big and pretty. She's very sweet and when we let them out and I go outside, she comes over to me to say hi.

This is about the best picture I got of Fifi. She moves a lot so lots of fuzzy pictures. She's pretty sweet too. The girls are sticking together more.

Mimi's pretty back feathers.

And last but not least our poor rooster. He crowed this week. I put him on Craigs List and am hopefully trading him for two dozen fresh farm eggs sometime this week. His crows sound pretty funny and juvenile, but he's trying. He's a pretty guy, and I'm kind of sad to see him go. Also very glad I didn't have to eat him.

And... we have two more

We got two more baby chicks to replace Mr. Phydeaux since I really don't want a rooster. He's still with us, but I think I'm going to post him on Craig's List in a few weeks. If we can't get rid of him that way, he's headed for the stew pot. Poor guy.

So here are the two new babies. The one on the left is Josephine. She's an Australorp and she should be a very prolific brown egg layer (6/week in the summer, 4-5/week in the winter). She'll be solid black with a nice red comb and wattles when she grows up. The one on the right is Susette, a Plymouth Barred Rock. She'll be a good egg layer as well (5/week in the summer, 3-4/week in the winter). She will have little black and white stripes all over. I'm excited to see them grow.

They're so cute :)

Here's a picture I just took of Annabelle and the older chickens. They're getting so big! They're all pretty sweet and like their new coop.

Speaking of their new coop... I forgot I said I'd post a picture. Here's the finished product! We love it.

Outside at last...

We moved the chickens outside last week because they had decided that knocking over their water jar would be fun and it got their cardboard box all wet. We can't have chickens living in moldy cardboard, now can we?

So here's them in their new digs. They seem to like it just fine. We had plywood over the top and their heat lamp in it for a while because we didn't have the roof finished yet (just finished it today!!!) I'll post more pictures of the outside of the coop when the weather clears up a bit.

Fuzzy picture of dear Roo Paul (as Andy has started calling him) and his huge comb. He likes to protect the girls.

Fif's beard is growing in! I like it, it gives her character.

The girls (and boy) enjoying the yard. They were out in the rain today and were very smart about staying under the shelter of the arbor vida. I sure do like them.

Guess what??

!!!!!!!

Chicken update

Here are some new pictures of my chickens! We took them for their first outside excursion on Sunday afternoon. It was gorgeous and they had lots of fun. It was hard to get them all facing the same direction for a picture :)

Here's Mimi at 5 1/2 weeks old and almost fully feathered. She really likes meal worms (I bought some at a pet store) and runs off with them before the other two can get them. She's almost ready to be moved to the coop, but we have to finish it first!

Here's Fifi at 4 1/2 weeks old, and she's turning into a very pretty bird. She's also a sweetheart who likes to climb on my hand sometimes.
And here's Phydeaux at 4 1/2 weeks old. That comb of his is just getting bigger and pinker, but I'm still holding out hope that he's a girl. Only time will tell.
They're pretty cute and growing up so fast! They sure are fun to watch, too. They pecked at lots of things in the grass.

Oh no!

I think I have a rooster! Gigi has started growing a huge comb and it turned pink a few days ago... I'm so sad. We'll probably have to get rid of her if she's a boy. And her name will be Phydeaux. (Inside joke) But Andy said if that happens, I can get two new ones! So I'm not too sad about it. Here are some new photos of them. Mimi is 4 1/2 weeks old and the other two are 3 1/2 weeks.

Mimi

Gigi (Phydeaux)

Fifi

My how they've grown!

My little girls are no longer little! They are now 2 and 3 weeks old and growing feathers like crazy. They also eat and poop a lot.

This is Fifi and Gigi. They are growing wing feathers and starting to grow neck/back feathers. Fifi (on the left) likes to perch on top of the food and water jars. And she likes to poop up there. Gigi is very fast and runs around a lot.

This is Mimi. She has full wing feathers now and lots of feathers on her neck and back. She's growing some out of her stomach and her head is all ruffled, so I'm assuming she's starting to grow them there too.
Next to Mimi in the last picture is the little roost Andy and I made for the girls. They like to perch on it. It's preparing them for their roost in the coop that we are building.

Speaking of their coop... we have bought most of the materials and have sanded and cut the lumber. Next up is treating it with non-toxic sealer and stain, and then putting it together! We bought some red stain for the siding, and I think it's going to look pretty great. I can't wait until late summer when we start getting eggs!!

Chickens!

For my birthday this year we decided to get three little chickens! Andy picked two of them up on Wednesday, and I got the other one yesterday. Their names are Fifi, Gigi and Mimi (named after the birds of the Enchanted Tiki Room). They're adorable.

This is Mimi. She's a Rhode Island Red, and I think she's about a week or so older than the other two, so she's a little bigger and has more feathers. She will lay about 6 brown eggs/week in the summer, 3-4 in the winter. Sometimes she picks on the other two, but over all they get along very well.

This is Gigi. She's a Buff Orpington. She's going to be the biggest out of the three (about 8 pounds!). Orpingtons are sweet natured and good layers through the winter. We should get about 3-4 eggs/week from her year round. She's a little more mellow than Mimi and likes to sleep.

This girl is Fifi. She's an Ameracauna and she will lay about 5 blue or green eggs in the summer, and not many in the winter. It will be fun to have a colorful egg carton. I think she's going to be nice and brown, and have a beard. She's a pesky little thing, already jumping at the sides of the box and scratching the food out of the container. She'll make things interesting :)

Here's another cute picture of them lined up. I'm really glad they like each other (for the most part).

Here's the setup we have right now for their brooder. It stays at about 95 degrees.

We're working on building them a little portable coop for the back yard (see the garden ark). It should be a fun project. It will probably be 5 or 6 months before they start laying eggs, and I can't wait!

The beach

We surprised my Dad for his 60th birthday with a trip to Crescent City, CA. He had no idea. We drove down Friday morning and met Cindy, Randall, Quin and Lia (Dan was working in Crescent City that day) in Cave Junction for lunch, then drove to the beach together. My Mom and Dad were supposed to go to Cindy's house that day to open Christmas presents, but when they arrived they found a note on the door written by Quin with a clue that led them to Grants Pass. Then we kept giving them clues that eventually led them to a beach house in Crescent City right by Pebble Beach (my Dad's favorite). Cindy and the kids popped out when they walked in the door with a surprise weekend at the beach. The rest of us were up stairs and popped out when they came up. Randall had been home for Christmas and supposedly drove back down to LA on Thursday. So, needless to say, it was quite the surprise. Dad was very happy and shed a few tears. It was one of the best weekends we have all had together full of lots of laughter and love. Here are some photos of the weekend...

Quin and Lia having a snack after we got there. They had lots of snacks.

Very happy Dad and Cindy (even though they're not smiling in this picture).

The Christmas presents (well, New Years Eve presents) under the tree. But then the guys found a tree a guy wanted to get rid of (it was New Years Eve after all). Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that one. It was pretty.

On the walk to the beach.

My beautiful sister.

Me and my little bro with his eyes closed. :)

Lia showing me her prize rock.

Quin being Quin.

Throwing little rocks at a bigger rock...

Indiana Quin

My beautiful mother.

Little kids are so interesting.

This is the log that we took about 2 hours to roll into the ocean with levers and fulcrums. I got a video of the very end of it, but no pictures. You can imagine it though. Pretty cool.

Searching and searching for those elusive agates.

Some rocks stuck in our log.

At the light house that evening. The waves were pretty amazing.

Birthday time!

We woke up Sunday to a gorgeous day.

Our log in the ocean. Not sure what the boys were doing, but they got very wet in the process.

On our way to walk through the redwoods before saying goodbye.

We all had a fantastic weekend. I love you all, family!!!