Buff the wayward chicken gets clipped…

Behind The Garden Gate…

June 23, 2011 9 Comments

Things are heating up here in the Seattle area… The temperature actually rose to 80 degrees on Tuesday… Shocking I know…

Despite the heat… I was finally able to transplant the last of my summer seedlings into the garden.

I finally wised up and started cucumbers in pots rather than let the seeds rot in the ground with all the rain we had been having…

I thought Summer was never going to arrive there for awhile…

I picked my first Kohlrabi… I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to eat the leaves (apparently I’m suppose to)…

So I feed them to Black Fatty and crew… They were devoured in about 3 minutes… But for the Kohlrabi bulb itself… I peeled the skin and sliced it up… I thought the unusual vegetable tasted like a cross between a spicy radish and raw cabbage. Not my favorite thing in the world… but interesting. And since I have more growing in the raised garden beds… I’ll eat them… I just don’t think I’ll plant them again next year.

But tomatoes… Hmmm… I’ll never stop planting those. I currently have about 5 or 6 plants with green fruit on them…

The rest… well… the plants are much smaller…and have a long ways to go…

The peas on the other hand… should be ready to harvesting in a few days…

And the cabbage? I’d say about 2 maybe 3 weeks… In fact I should start thinking about planting new flat of cabbage seedlings for fall.

And I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to get started on planting #5 (or is it 6?) of the green beans.

However the Walla Walla onions… Well… I still I need to find the time to thin those… Otherwise I won’t have any. And that would be tragic. They’re a necessity for my cucumber, tomato and onion salads I look forward to every year.

So how about you? What’s growing well in your backyard this week? Anyone harvest a tomato yet?

All New Square Foot Gardening

Filed Under: Amazon.com, Chickens, Gardening Tagged With: Books, chickens, Gardening

Peace and Quiet… At Last…

June 11, 2011 1 Comment

Buff the wayward chicken has gone broody (much to my delight). She likes to puff up like a turkey when anyone gets near her or the clutch of eggs she’s sitting on. I really ought to place some golf balls in there when I steal her eggs… Maybe that would fool her.

Anyway… This means I have approximately 30 days of peace and quite. 30 days of not having to chase her back into the chicken yard… 30 days of not having to hunt down her eggs in the brush because she has refused to lay in the Eglu yet again… All I can say is that chicken has been the “problem child” since day one. Ya know… you think you raise ‘em all the same… but there’s always one that just has a will of their own…

The Joy of Keeping Chickens: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Poultry for Fun or Profit (The Joy of Series)

Filed Under: Amazon.com, Chickens Tagged With: amazon, Books, chickens, Eglu, eglu

Random photos of the week…

June 8, 2011 1 Comment

Do all teenage boys pack this much food in their lunch?

Oh Dear…

Did you know Winco sells cat toys?

I made everyone eat free tacos for lunch and dinner for 2 days straight… and we STILL had leftovers… I finally called it quits and tossed out the extra cupcakes and rice to the chickens…

I don’t remember the chapter about feeding chickens dinner scraps… but I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.

And seriously… If I don’t win a major prize here real soon… I think I’m gonna cry. No more doughnuts… no more prize tickets or free cans of corn… how about that $10,000 dream vacation getaway to Tahiti? That’s what I’m hoping for…

Filed Under: Albertsons, Amazon.com, Chickens Tagged With: chickens, Gardening, lunch

Chicken run…

May 29, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Girl Who Thinks She’s A Bird sure got a workout yesterday… The poor thing had to chase down the baby chicks (now 8 weeks old) and move them to their new location.

We’ve decided (okay… I’ve decided) that it’s time to move the baby chicks in with the old chicks…

We moved the mini Eglu next to the Eglu Mc Mansion where the big chicks sleep at night. I figure I’ll give them a few days to play nice together and let them get acquainted over the next few days…

And then towards the end of the week they’ll become room mates…

Me Casa Su Casa

I’ll keep you posted.

Keeping Chickens: The Essential Guide

Filed Under: Amazon.com, Chickens Tagged With: Books, chickens, Eglu, eglu

The egg hunt…

May 3, 2011 1 Comment

Remember how I told you about Buff the wayward chicken? How all she wanted to do was escape her poor… lonely… miserable… the grass is greener on the other side of the chicken fence why won’t you people let me roam carefree/hippie lifestyle? Well look what I found the other day? Is that a good looking nest or what? Ya… it’s pretty sweet… considering it must have been sitting under the window hidden behind a row of bushes for a good few weeks now… Let’s just say I approached those eggs with caution… and a very large ziplock bag I might add…

And I thought I was finished with all her shenanigans until I spotted another nest…

This time by the back fence… Only now it appears Peter the chicken is a roaming egg layer as well… I dismissed it the first time I saw Peter’s eggs in Buff’s nest… thinking Buff was peer pressuring her into laying eggs under the window (Peter lays pale green eggs). I’m telling you… these two chickens are a thick as thieves. A couple of really trouble makers if you ask me.

I thought I was all done with caches of eggs until I came home from California this weekend… I looked out the window and asked Monkey Boy where White Fatty was… You wanna know what he said? I dunno… maybe she’s laying an egg or something… Did you collect eggs while I was gone? Huh?

Ummm… I’ll take that as a NO.

Filed Under: Chickens, Gardening Tagged With: chickens, Eglu, eglu

Living the good life…

April 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Nothing says “Wow… you’re living high on the hog”… like a stack of wood on the back porch and a bunch of chickens enclosed in a overpriced piece of plastic with cardboard taped to the outside of it… I’d use all the fan mail letters I had to carry home from the Post Office in that “official” tote to spruce up the joint but I’m saving them (the letters) for when I hit it big and get invited to go on Oprah… Not that I really want to go on the Oprah Show …In fact I don’t think I’ve watched a single show in 10 years… but the idea of a free plane ride and hotel stay with (I’m guessing) a super deluxe fruit basket and complimentary bathrobe… now that would be nice…

Yep… that’s me… Mavis…

Living the good life… cardboard…tape…and chickens…

Yee Haw!

In other news…
Lucy & Goosey are doing much better…
Apparently living in a semi-private suite (rubbermaid tote) complete with their very own heat lamp, food and water trays has done those two a world of wonders..

Filed Under: Chickens Tagged With: chickens

Why I don’t like falcons…

April 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

Sooo…

Sunday afternoon was lovely… it was such a nice day in fact I had told The Girl Who Thinks She’s A Bird and her bff Little Miss Smarty Pants to bring the baby chicks outside for a little frolic in the grass. The weather was perfect.

This was the baby chicks 3rd outing in as many days… in the two previous days the chicks spent about 1/2 an hour outside under close supervision… just to make sure they wouldn’t wander off or anything… However… this time I had the girls move the Eglu over to the grass so the baby chicks could spend a few hours outside… all safe and secure within the confines of the Eglu run…

About 2 hours later the HH and I were sitting in our room reading with the windows open and all the sudden we heard Peep…PEEP…PEEP!!!!

We both jumped up…. and ran to the window…
and Holy Freakin Scare Your Pants Off…
There was a falcon sideways on the outside of the Eglu with a baby chick in it’s talons/claws(?)

Poor Goosey…
Her back has a rather large gash in it…

She spent all of Sunday afternoon and evening on her belly… all puffed up…her eyes were droopy and she wouldn’t eat or drink anything… it was rather sad

And her twin… Lucy… received a gash to the head as well…
So The Girl and I separated Lucy and Goosey from the rest of the flock and set up a warming lamp and took turns checking in on the birds and talking to them…

I even made them a plate of goodies…

And so now we just wait… and hope they’ll be okay.

Filed Under: Chickens Tagged With: chickens

Baby chick update…

April 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

We have now entered the ugly duckling stage… or ugly chickling stage if you will… feathers are sprouting all over the place and the chicks run around all day hopped up on pear slices and bits of berries… They peep at anything and everything and are constantly trying to fly from one end of the box to the other… Ahh yes… the teenage years… such joy.

Here’s the latest snapshots…

Lucy & Goosey… I should of named them Trouble 1 & Trouble 2…
Their only goal in life right now is to fly out of the box… These two are as thick as thieves I tell you…

Picasso…
A rather curious bird… and a little on the jumpy side… the jury’s still out on this one.

Coo Koo 2…
She’s the largest bird in the flock right now… even surpassing The Jersey Giant…

Martha…
This tiny lovable bird is a total spastic… When she gets nervous she runs around in a series of 5 or 6 circles… and then peeps real loud… it’s rather odd behavior for a chick if you ask me…

Jersey…
The calmest bird ever… She reminds me of Black Fatty… cool…calm… collected… and fat. Oh … and she loves to be held by the Girl Who Thinks She’s A Bird (big surprise there).

Adelheid
Very sweet… I love how she looks up at me when I peer over the box… It’s almost as if she is saying “Hello Mavis… how are you today… would you like a hug?”

All in all… things are going well… I’m rather anxious to move them outside soon though… I’ll have to look in my book to see when the best time to do that would be. I plan on moving the 7 of them into the small Eglu in the beginning and then slowly introduce them to the older chickens… Hopefully it will all work out.

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If you’re new to the whole raising your own chickens so you can steal their eggs thing… but want to learn more… here’s my all time favorite book.

Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens: 3rd Edition (Storey’s Guide to Raising Series)

Filed Under: Amazon.com, Chickens Tagged With: amazon.com, chickens

Note to self… Stop answering the phone…

April 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Crazy PTA Lady called my house again last night…

Hi Mavis… Remember me? The school is performing a play this week and we thought it would be fun to sell cupcakes at intermission…

Uh Huh…

Could you make us a few cupcakes?

How many cupcakes are we talking about?

Oh… I don’t know… 100…200… Yes… 250 frosted cupcakes should do it…

You want me to bake 250 cupcakes… and frost them… tomorrow… so you can sell them at the play…

Yes…

Hello?

Mavis? Are you there?

Can you hear me???

Filed Under: Chickens, Stupid Stories Tagged With: chckens, cupcakes, stupid stories

Buff the wayward chicken gets clipped…

April 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

After a day of having to catch and release… catch and release…

I finally decided to clip Buff the Wayward Chicken’s wings…

After reading an article about wing clipping I decided to be like Nike and “Just Do It”…

I had read over on ThyHands blog about how her husband Jamey had only clipped one wing on each of their chickens… the goal being to keep the chicken “off balance.”

But I didn’t want to mess abound… so we clipped them both.

And…