Chicken Update

Ok...I don't want to be someone who only writes about chickens all the time, but I had to post some exciting news. Well, it's exciting to us.

Velma and Hilda

It turns out that all of our chickens are hens! Yay!

This is exciting for a couple of reasons. #1 We will be getting more eggs than if we had less than five layers. #2 if any of our chickens had been roosters, we wouldn't have been able to keep them. We are in the city and we value our relationships with the neighbors. Crowing roosters don't make for happy neighbors. I wasn't ready to give any chickens away or, more than likely, cooking one up for dinner.

This is Caroline. We've been thinking she's a rooster for several weeks now. She makes weird noises and is kind of assertive - things that roosters are supposed to do. We started calling her Carlos, but after learning that she is truly a hen, she can go back to being Caroline again.

Thank you to the experts at Backyard Chickens dot com for being patient and kind and for helping those of us who are clueless in the ways of the chicken. If it weren't for you, I'd still be waiting for "Caroline/Carlos" to crow.

Let's Talk Chickens

In late July 2010, we became back yard chicken owners. This is what the chickens looked like when we first got them. The mom (Velma) and her four babies. We optimistically named all the chicks girl names, except KC (the white one) because my son was being very practical about the possibility that one might not be a girl.

We've been getting quite a few eggs lately, so we suspect that we have at least 3 layers (including Velma) maybe even four. The problem is, being novices and all, we are having problems figuring out if 3 out of the 5 are male or female, boys or girls, roosters or hens. That isn't an easy thing for me to admit...I took biology in school and I feel like I should know these things. But chickens are different than the beings we studied in biology.

This is Caroline. For the longest time, we have been thinking she is a rooster - so we've also been calling her "Carlos". Now, we think she/he may be laying eggs.

This is KC. We thought KC was a rooster, then a hen, then a rooster, then...you get the picture.

This is Hilda. I think we're pretty sure she's a hen. I tried posting photos on the chicken forum I belong to, so that we could get some expert advice. However, the website has been experiencing a lot of spam lately and since I'm a new member, I've been banned from posting photos or links. They have to check me out first to make sure I'm not a spammer. So, if you happen to be a chicken expert and would like to offer an opinion, I'd love to hear from you.

We do know for sure, someone is laying eggs. Beautiful, wonderful, amazing, tasty eggs! Every day it's like a treasure hunt and every day it's exciting to see how many eggs we have. We are truly blessed! I look forward to the day when we are getting enough eggs to share with friends.

Just a Few Bullet Points to Get Caught Up

• It's hotter than Hades here in Columbia, Missouri. It's expected to stay this way until at least Friday. I hate being hot, it makes me sweaty, smelly and grumpy!

• Velma (the hen) has been escaping into the backyard of our neighbors - again. They are very nice people and have not complained. They let me toss my kids over the fence to chase the chickens back into our yard. (The hen has to fly, the chicks just run through the fence). Then I hoist my kids back over to our side of the fence.

• Today, I clipped Velma's wings. I read about how to do it, last night in my farm book (by Joel Salatin). After I did it, I cried because I was afraid Velma wouldn't be able to protect her chicks any more with those short, stubby little wings. That, and the fact that she looked kind of stupid. But after spending time on Youtube, seeing many other people clipping the wings of their run away chickens, (and describing it as being the same as a haircut for you and me), I felt much better.

• I listed three new items in my Etsy shop and I'm very proud of them:

These were made with rubber stamps that I had designed and carved myself. The owl, tree branch and leaves are 3 separate stamps and the tree on the little tree tags is stamped with 2 stamps. I really love carving rubber stamps, especially when I have designs I like.

• Finally, LC's Cottage used my little tree tags in her Etsy Treasury. I think this is a beautiful treasury and am really excited to have been included.

Here's the treasury link if you'd like to see a bigger photo