Dark Brown Speckled Egg

My golden laced wyandotte finally started laying!!! I was surprised to see that she laid a dark brown speckled egg! It was rather large for her first egg! Honey (the chicken) is funny because she is VERY loud when she lays. The whole neighborhood I think can hear her lay an egg. The first day Savannah and I heard some crazy noises coming from the chicken coop. We went out to investigate and found her laying her egg. So pretty, so sweet, so tasty to eat!!!

Honey's pretty egg.

Honey strutting her stuff.

This is linked to Barn Hop Monday's.

The Size,Shape and Color of my eggs

Now that my chickens are finally laying, I love looking at the different size, shape and color of the eggs my chickens lay! I love educating the neighborhood kids on that fact that not all eggs are uniform shape, white and come out of an egg crate. I asked one of the boys if they wanted to see one of the eggs my chickens laid....he said "I know what an egg looks like!" I replied "Oh really?"  I brought out my eggs (and a few from my friends chickens). He got to see blue eggs, olive colored eggs, dark brown, light brown, big and small eggs. He was shocked by the variety! I find the variety and diversity of chicken eggs amazing and fun. Here is a picture of the eggs I have been getting from my "chicky poo's". I would love to see photos of your chickens eggs! Leave me a link so we can all check them out :0)

Looks like a face !!

This is linked to Barn Hop Mondays.

Hawk vs. Chicken

This weekend I "chicken sat" over at the Sunnyside B&B. My friend currently has (had) 17 pullets, that was until a hawk discovered her backyard. On Saturday, we went over to check on the chickens and let the dogs out. My neighbor girl (11) and Savannah (2) opened the back door and screamed! They saw the hawk attacking and eating one of the pullets. The hawk immedietly took off leaving us the corpse of a headless pullet. Savannah just kept saying "Mommy, it is so sad, the chicken is dead". The neighbor girl didn't know what to say and asked what I was going to do. I told her I would clean the mess up and used it as a learning opportunity to explain the food chain. You see, so many people here in the city don't understand why anyone would want to raise chickens in their backyard. Although gruesome, death is a cruel reality of life. In the animal kingdom, chickens are pretty low on the totem pole. Us city slickers are used to having our meat delivered on a styrofoam tray ready to be cooked. No blood, guts or a pile of feathers to be cleaned up. So although we were quiet sad about losing a chicken, I was glad to be able to use it as a teaching tool. UPDATE: Two more of my friends pullets have been killed by hawks since Saturday. Clearly the hawk remembers where he/she found the easy prey. If anyone has any good ideas on how to keep the hawk away please comment below! My friend has decided of course not to let the pullets out, but we still would love your input! Thanks!!!

This post is linked to Barn Hop Mondays!

Our First Egg!

For the last 6 months I have been patiently waiting on my chickens to lay. Every time I would go outside to check on my chickens I would hold my breath a little before looking in their coop. I was hoping to see a little brown egg waiting for me. I started thinking my chickens were defective, they weren't going to lay. Then one fateful day last week, Savannah and I went to clean the chicken coop and we saw it. Our first egg. We were both so excited. At that time I wasn't sure which chicken had laid the egg. But today that mystery was solved! I went to give the chickens some food and found my Momma chicken and Snowball in the coop. When they got up I had two eggs! I could tell that Snowball had been the first one to lay, and today was Momma chickens first egg. I don't have a picture of Momma's egg to put on here yet (it is coming...don't worry) but here is Snowballs egg. If you don't know, Snowball is a small white cochin. She is very sweet and loves to be held. She always lets the kids pick her up. Even though her eggs are small, they are dense and have a very large yolk.

This is linked to Barn Hop, Miscellany Mondays

Chicken Sitting at Sunny SIde

This last week has been a busy one. My good friend over at the Sunny Side Bed and Breakfast went away on a much deserved vacation. She needed someone to look after her chickens while she was away. Luckily, I only live a few minutes away so I volunteered to chicken sit this week. Twice a day me and my kids went over there to take care of the chickens. In the morning I let them out, cleaned up the fertilizer...I mean poop, made sure they had fresh water and food. Savannah had fun playing on the kids 4 wheeler and Atlanta hung out in the swing. Every evening I would make sure the chickens were in their coop, collected the eggs and locked them in for the night. Since my chickens are not laying yet, I asked to keep the eggs as payment. She also bought me a 50lb bag of feed for my girls. I also got to chick sit as my friend is trying to get rid of 25 baby chickens. She brought them to my house and Savannah and I have had fun taking care of them. It is always so cute how children take such pride in taking care of animals. Every morning she asks if it is time to feed the baby chicks. It has been a very rainy week and every time it started to rain hard, Savannah would worry about the baby chicks. She is such a caring girl. Over all we had a wonderful week chicken sitting and it made me long for a life outside of the city.

* if anyone lives in the Tampa Bay area and is interested in buying any of these baby chicks, comment and let me know!!!



This is linked to Homestead Revival Barn Hop

The Sunny Side Bed and Breakfast

One of my goals for my blog is to feature backyard chicken coops from the St. Petersburg Florida area. I have been very fortunate that my good friend took some amazing photos of her chicken coop. She also worked quiet hard to getting her coop in tip top shape for the photo session!!!!!! So here is a glimpse into the Sunny Side Bed and Breakfast!!




Welcome to the Sunny Side B&B




Feeding time!



Oreo laying an egg



Granny and Coco clucking up the stairs





City Eggs $3.00 a dozen!



This post is also linked to Miscellany Monday, Homestead Revival Barn Hop

Baby Chicks for Sale!!!!!!!

My good friend Liz is selling 26 baby chicks today!! $5.00 a chick if you live in the Tampa Bay area and you are interested please click here for her information!

A Mamma chick laying an egg....this is how it
all begins :0)



This is linked to Camera Critters

A Re-purposed Chicken Coop

One goal I had for my blog was to photograph chicken coops I came across here in the city. I love looking at how people us every day items and re-purpose them into a chicken coop! So much fun! These photos were taken of my (former) neighbors chicken coop. Unfortunately, I was dragging my feet taking my camera over for a photo shoot. So these photos were taken after they had taken the chickens up to their new property. Enjoy!!

The "coop" inside the coop was made from old
closet doors someone was throwing away. They
cut out the middle and filled it with chicken wire.
It was the original coop when they just had 3
chickens. They were using it to separate a
few girls who were not playing nicely.

These photos (above and below) is the nesting box
and area they slept in. They used an old window.
3 pallets and the fence to create it. The window
made for easy access to the eggs and to clean.
The roof was an old awning from their house.

Entrance to the nesting box.

This post is linked to the Barn Hop and Re-purposed Life

My Chicken Coop

So I finally felt comfortable putting up pictures of my chicken coop. It has been a work in progess but I think it is pretty much complete!

Over view of the chickens realm.

I don't know if they will use this as a nesting box.
Please comment your thoughts on this. But I
used this as a brooder and they love to go inside.
Paid $5.00 for it. The wood and cinder blocks FREE!

Old Rabbit Cage FREE from the side of the road.
The "ladder" to get inside of the coop FREE
from the trash. The only thing I paid for  is the tarp to
keep the water out and the hay inside.

This picture wasn't taken THAT long ago and yet
I can't believe how much bigger our Mamma
chicken is!

Introducing Snowball and Rosie

When I first bought my chickens, I bought 3 chickens that were suppose to be "all girls". We all know how that works out. One turned out to be a boy. I called "her" Crazy Chicken because "she" was mean and wouldn't let us hold "her". Well, "she" was really a he!! I am not allowed to keep roosters inside the city. So I found a very sweet lady who owns a place called Martin's Farm not far from here who was willing to take my rooster. I bought from her one brown cochin named Rosie who is about 6 months old.

Savannah and Rosie

My other 2 chickens were less than thrilled that took there "Daddy" away and brought home a new chicken. They were so mean to her and Rosie sat in a corner, with her face against the fence looking so sad. I felt so bad I went back and bought her sister Snowball who was also feeling sad because she had been raised with Rosie.

Snowball

They were very happy to be reunited, but the other girls were less than thrilled. I really hope they will become one flock eventually. They have been fighting less. I am keeping them separated during the day and put them together at night. The two new chickens sleep inside the coop and the two original chickens sleep on a fence (why? I don't know LOL).

If anyone had any good thoughts or ideas on bring new chickens into a flock, or any information about Cochins, please let me know!!!

Backyard Chicken Waterer

There is nothing more annoying than your chickens constantly dumping their water over, or using it as their personal toliet. It seemed no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep their waterer full or clean. Then I found out about chicken nipples. Now I am sure some of you who have huge flocks have known about these for along time. I don't need the whole PVC pipe set up studded with the chicken nipples. I only have 4 chickens!!! So my neighbor came up with this brilliant way to make a simple backyard chicken waterer with stuff you probably have laying around your house. It is cheap and simple. Click here to see why I love my chickens so much.

What you need:

• 1 chicken nipple
• 1 empty 2 liter soda bottle
• 23/64 drill bit and drill
• 1/1/4 drill bit (or a thumb tack)

What you do:

• Drill a hole into the center of the lid of the soda bottle
• Screw in threaded portion of the chicken nipple
• Poke a small hole or use thin drill bit through the center of the bottom of the soda bottle (this releases pressure allowing water to flow through the chicken nipple.)
• Fill with water (put a finger over the hole on bottom of bottle).
• Replace cap that now has chicken nipple attached
• Hang up for chickens to drink. Must be hung high enough that the chickens have to lift their heads to peck at the bottle.

Chicken nipple. I added some plumbers tape.

Drilling hole for chicken nipple.

Finished Product!! I secured mine with small bungie cords.
If you think of a better way comment and let me know!

Grow your own chicken treats

I have been surprised by all the things I have seen marketed for chickens. I've seen chicken diapers, chicken outfits, and chicken treats just to name a few. I didn't want to spend the money on buying chicken treats, but I did want to make my chickens happy! So, Savannah and I went out and spent .99 cents on a pack of sunflower seeds and planted a whole bunch of them. The goal was to make my own chicken treats without relying on anyone but myself and my backyard. How do you do it? Well, I feel silly writing a post about it because it was SO EASY!! All you do is let your sunflowers grow and go to seed. Don't cut it down until you are able to take your thumb and pull a few seeds out. (While waiting for this to happen, Savannah would walk by the sunflower and say "oh mommy, poor flower"). Once the sunflower was dried out, I took a pair of scissors and cut off the flower, saved a handfull of seeds to plant later, and threw the flower into the chicken pen. My chickens were SO happy!!! I wished I had taken a picture of them eating the sunflower! But I did take a picture of the devoured sunflower. Enjoy! I know my chickens did!

This is linked to Bloomin Tuesdays.

Backyard Chicken Eggs

I am sure there was a time that it wasn't considered desirable to collect your own chicken eggs from your backyard. I am sure when people were able to go to the local store and by eggs they were happy about it!!! I think things have come full circle and we are getting back to basics. We realize it is good to know where you food comes from. I know where these eggs came from, they came from my friends backyard. My chickens are not laying yet, but a lady I met at a chicken swap (you heard me right) has an abundance of eggs. She gave me a dozen multi-colored backyard chicken eggs. They are from organic free-range chickens and tasted amazing! I can't wait until my chickens start laying so this city slicker doesn't have to rely on the supermarket for her eggs!

Has anyone given you anything amazing? Have you done some nice for someone else? Share that with all of us at Give Back Thursday, starting July 7th!!

Container Gardening

Let's face it. No matter how hard I try, the hard truth is I live in the middle of a densly populated city. I can almost reach out and touch my neighbors house from my bedroom window if I tried hard enough. If that wasn't bad enough my yard is all sand. I guess that is the price you pay for living so close to the beach, but it doesn't help when it comes to growing things!!!! It took me quiet a few years before I perfected the way to get just about anything to grow in my backyard. I fill just about anything with some dirt (I do have to buy the dirt from the store...since my backyard is all sand) and plant me some seeds. I am sure with some time I will make my container garden look a little better, but for now I am just happy to be growing something!!!!!

In this "container" I have basil, oregano,cilantro, a sunflower and a zenia.
This pot was my first attempt, and as you see it worked out well!



Savannah "helping"



Planting peppers and 4 o'clock seeds.

A not so happy little girl. She was trying to dump out
my precious dirt.

Happy Sunflower! Growing it for the chickens :0)

Also, check out my good friends post about container gardening here.