Life is busy as ever. We have a few random things we’ve had going on in our life and around the house. The chicks are getting big fast. It’s amazing how quickly they start replacing the fuzz and start getting feathers. First the baby feathers come in at the wings (1-2 days old), then the little tail feathers start shooting out (day 3-4) and now (almost one week) the wing feathers are fully in and they are developing back feathers. We can also start to see their little necks and they are testing out those wings by flapping them around.
I think they are going to be out-growing the beer box that has been the de facto chick house soon. We are also starting to learn their little personalities. For instance, the Rhode Island Red is very loveable and just wants to be held all the time. The New Hampshire one tolerates being held, but peeps so loudly that it sounds like a whistle and the Ameraraucana is full of energy and runs and flaps whenever we try to pick her up now.
Won’t be able to do this much longer!
Also, work has been going pretty good or the usual for both Britton and me. But we are also ready to be able to live in Puerto Rico -or wherever we want to live- without the traditional “office job”. One of the ways we hope to do that is by renting out our house and another house we are buying, but we realized that might not be enough. So, we have put an offer in on another rental property. It looks like it will probably go through which means more work for us this summer. Britton is nearly finished framing the rest of the basement in Evans so…another big project right around the corner! Fun, fun!
We also got a new roommate for the basement bedroom. He’s an nice older gentleman and seems to mainly work and keep to himself. He is from Minnesota but came to Greeley to buy the Culver’s in south Greeley. We’ve had quite an array of people live with us now: a Japanese student, a German student, a volunteer fire fighter and Aims student, a city of Greeley municipal attorney and now a Culver’s Franchisee. Like I said, life is fun.
Oh, and I found a cool website that I just ran into while searching for info about chickens online. It’s about a couple who move to Hawaii to start an organic, free range egg and tea farm. Now that lifestyle is right up my alley.
Orchids in bloom on our kitchen table
Awwww. Those chicks are adorable. I want to get some for our property, but I know there would be no stopping our evil little cat from having his way with them. We’ve talked about setting up a coop, but i would much rather have them roaming freely around the property.
Summer,
You guys should definitely have chickens. They are super easy and make great eggs, plus great fertilizer and they will eat all your food scrap waste, so less trash to haul. We had two full-grown ones (now just one) and you just feed, water and make sure they have shelter. We just let them run around in our yard during the day.
They do need a coop of some sort to sleep in to have cover from the rain/wind etc and night time predators, but they will put themselves to “bed” at night, so you can just let them roam around all day long. I think what you are thinking of is an enclosed coop and chicken run. A lot of people in Puerto Rico just let them run around so I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem to have them be free range and not just in a run.
As far as the cat, once they are full grown chickens, he’ll leave them alone. We have a cat and a lot of neighborhood and stray cats and they leave the chicken alone. I actually think a full grown chicken could take on a cat. Your very own “Vicious” chickens and eggs 🙂
The only time you would have to worry about the cat would be when they are chicks. We haven’t let Kitty around the baby chicks yet. So you would want to keep them somewhere that the cat couldn’t get to like a bathroom or separate room. They would be big enough to handle the cat by the time they are 2 months old, maybe even one month. They grow super fast. Or you could just get full-grown chickens (but the chicks are so cute!)