New Chickens

We have been raising 6 little baby chicks that were a Father's Day present from our daughter, Jennie. Today they went out into their pen outside. They are fully feathered and the weather has warmed up. Hope they stay warm tonight. They had a great audience for their move. The girls loved watching them run and fly up and down the pen. They've never had this much room as they have been living in a large animal carrier in the house.

New chickens

My oldest daughter is a first grade teacher and this spring they hatched baby chicks in the classroom. Of course, after they were hatched she had to find homes for them so 10 of them came out here with her this weekend. They are Rhode Island Reds and a mixture of hens and roosters. We think 4 of them are hens for sure but it is really too early to tell as they are only about a month old. They seem quite happy in their pen. This is one of the "chicken tractors" that we move from place to place in the garden, letting the chickens scratch up the soil, eat bugs and fertilize for us. It also keeps them safe from owls, hawks, and eagles. And our visiting eagle was here at 5:45 this morning checking them out.

We started planting the warm weather crops today. Plants like corn, beans, and squash all need the soil to be at least 60 degrees before you plant them or the seeds rot in the soil. We planted the first corn today, 4 varieties with different maturity dates to give us a crop stretched over several weeks next fall. I also put the first zinnias in the ground. This is another plant that wants warm soil. Hopefully in the next few days we can get the first beans in the ground. We always start with brown seeded varieties as they are more tolerant of cool soil than white seeded ones.

Living with wildlife (and chickens)

I woke up this morning hearing a ruckus from the chickens. I looked out the window and saw the rooster, out of his pen, running for the bushes near the house. I got dressed and went out to see what was up and startled a mature bald eagle who had just killed one of my Barred Rock hens. The chickens are kept in small pens called chicken tractors that are moved around the garden where they can eat bugs and scratch up weeds. The wire at the end of this pen was loose. It looked like the chickens had tried to escape the eagle by forcing their way out of the pen. Last spring I chased an eagle away twice who was chasing my chickens, probably the same one. Once it actually grabbed one and tried to take off with it. But a full grown Buff Orpington, like the ones in the picture, is too heavy for an eagle to get off the ground with, so as soon as it saw me it dropped the chicken, who ran for cover and survived the experience. I rarely let the chickens loose to run around just for that reason. In the evening when we are around I will often let them out for a couple of hours. Once chickens are used to sleeping in their pen they'll go back there when it gets dark and I can shut them up again.