Homesteading Update: Squash Patch 2.0, A New Animal Friend, & More!

             Hey folks! I have an insane amount of photos to share with you today, so I really will try to keep the chit chat and extra commentary to a minimum for once. I think it will be evident that we have been busy around the farm/yard.. (I actually am starting to feel like we have a farm because of our recent addition, which you'll see a sneak peek of below!) With that being said, I have a lot more homesteading-related posts I would like to share with you, so I will probably be posting two types of these posts per week for a bit. (Including, what I hope to be, informative posts.) Not to worry, though. If gardening and animal keeping are not your thing, I'll still be having my “regular” posts on Monday as well. :) Ok. I'm already talking too much. Let's jump in...

             Let's start with a cute one. Little Farm Girl here loves toads, for some reason, which totally works out because there are always a ton in our herb bed next to the walkway. In fact, I found this guy when I was weeding the chamomile finally.

             Don't be surprised if I post about a million pictures of our new squash patch over the next few weeks. I re-did this at the beginning of July and am very excited about it! Mostly for the...

             Black beans and spaghetti squash! Everything is doing so awesome so far! I think I mentioned it in my last update, but in this area we planted pumpkins, black beans, butternut squash, cucumbers, zucchini, spaghetti squash, and luffa gourds (for the fun of it).

             Oh yah. Here's a lovely view of me clearing the dead grass. I don't do tall grass or piles of dead grass or anything really where snakes like might to hide, so yah. I felt silly for raking grass, but it comes in handy for animal bedding and food.

             We've been slowly chipping away at some brush clearing too. How we haven't had brush trimmers/pruners/whatever you want to call them sooner is beyond me! They've come in so ridiculously handy so far. (As well as our lawn mower cart!)

             It may not look like it since you can only see this area from one angle, but we cut a ton of smaller trees and used the weed eater pretty extensively too. There's still quite a bit to do, but I'm happy with the progress we made in just one afternoon.

             I found this guy hiding in our giant volunteer pumpkin vine recently! We've had tons of flowers, but that's only like the third pumpkin that has grown at all. I'm wondering if some of the flowers aren't getting pollinated?

             Alright, y'all. It's time for the segway into the chickens. ;) John and I keep talking about planting something in the side yard where the chicken coop is because it's kind of a giant waste of space, so might as well do something useful with it, right? Obviously, it will need to be something we don't care if the chickens eat, so John was thinking grain of some sort. We had this stuff in the picture for whatever reason, so I planned on planting it. We finally got around to planting it after I had used the , you guessed it, weed eater to make rows a few days before and lo and behond...We couldn't use it because it was cracked. Well, we couldn't plant it, at least, so this happened...

 Chicken smorgasbord. I'm sure we'll get something else soon to plant there!

             We've also been trying to eat better and actually cook more often, so the chickens have been benefiting too. They're still a little unsure about food scraps, but they seem to really like buttnernut squash and cantaloupe so far!

             This is Gandalf that Little Farm Girl is snuggling with in both pics. Can you tell she's one of our faves? Also, as much time as Myka spends with the chickens, I'm pretty sure she thinks she is a chicken half the time.

             And finally, for the big reveal, I present to you our new farm friend, Bruce. He's an American Guinea Hog (if you're curious) and has learned very quickly that people=treats and gets very excited, like in the video below. We're all still trying to get used to each other and it's been interesting...And it's been less than a week. He received the nickname Lil B@st@rd the evening we brought him home. But I promised to keep this fairly succinct, so that will be a story for my first pig post. ;)

             What have you been up to lately out in the yard? Are you reaping the benefits of your garden yet? Planning fall crops? Tell me in the comments section below!

Cost Effective Reason to Free Range

            Hey folks! Today's post ties in a bit to last week's Farm Fridays post. If you missed it, you can find it HERE. It's all about the costs that go into raising chickens, so definitely be sure to check that out if you're considering them in the future!

             I know there have to be some of you out there reading this that are like me and both want to makes things as easy AND cheap as possible. In the chicken world, you get both when you let your flock free range. Let's talk a little about what free ranging is.

             It's probably exactly what you have envisioned: Basically, you're letting your chickens roam around wherever they want. It does have its drawbacks, such as worrying more about predators picking off members of your flock and having to keep them out of your gardens somehow, but it has a lot of benefits too, one of the main ones being saving you a ton of money on feed!

             Depending on the size of the area they're allowed to graze upon and what kind of grasses, plants, weeds, bugs, etc. you have, you can drastically cut your feed costs. Don't get me wrong: Chicken feed doesn't cost all that much. We buy some cheaper stuff and it is about $10 for a 50lb bag and we go through one about every 2-3 weeks for 16 birds altogether. But, that is largely due to how much they forage during the day.

Borrowing this pic from another post, but the big girls seem to enjoy drinking from the puddles much more than their waterer in the coop.
 

             According to the Abundant Permaculture guy, one chicken should only be eating about 1/3 lb of feed per day if they are free ranging/pasture raised. This got us curious about how much ours were eating and we figured it up that they are actually eating less than this per day. That's amazing! That means they're getting the vast majority of their food intake for free! If we kept them locked in their coop all the time, they would be going through at least three 50lb bags per month...And that is rationing them to the 1/3lb/day/chicken mentioned above. If we were allowing them “free choice” (basically letting the chickens eat however much they want) and keeping them cooped up, they would easily be going through 5 bags per month. Again, we're only going through one per month. If that doesn't convince you to free range, I'm not sure what will!

 The chickens LOVE the berries from our giant honeysuckle bush! That's also what Victoria, the Silver-Laced Wyandotte, was after in the first picture.
 

             Now that we got my main point out of the way, let's talk about some other benefits of free ranging. First of all, you will still have to “coop train” your birds. Whenever the word “training” is involved, it sounds like something difficult but I assure you coop training is not. It's a fancier way of saying “keeping your chickens locked up for at least several weeks so they know where home and a constant source of food is”.

             Once that's taken care of, they will never wander too far from home. Honestly. Sounds too good to be true, but it is. Since they are wandering around all happy at their will, this provides the perfect opportunity for varying their diet too, thus having healthier chickens as well. Chickens don't just eat weeds and grasses (though they are excellent weed eaters!), but berries, wild grains, and bugs as well. (They're also great natural insecticides!) They'll even eat snakes! So, not only do they have a healthier, varied diet by free ranging, but they help keep your lawn fertilized, weeded, and the pest population down too.

            I find that they are also less work because they free range during the day. I don't have to fill their feeder every day nor their water. They actually seem to prefer drinking from outside sources that have collected rain water better than their waterers in the coop. I don't have to clean their coop out frequently. (Truth be told, I have yet to clean their coop because we're doing the deep litter method with the wood chip bedding “fluff”.) It's pretty nice. Most days I just have to let them out in the morning and lock them up at night. I only need to fill their food and water every 2-3 days and I really don't need to then. Both their feeder and waterers are usually half full by then and I just like to keep them topped up because I'm OCD like that.

             Do you have free ranging chickens or would you consider it? Why or why not? Don't forget to link up with us at this week's Farm Fridays! (Click on the Farm Fridays image below.) Until next time...

Cost of Raising Chickens

             So, you're thinking about backyard chickens. Congratulations! Sure, it's getting late in the season and the pickings will be slim at your local farm supply stores but, you can always order online through a hatchery or check with your local FFA group. (I'll talk more about this in a minute.) Even if you're still not completely sold on keeping chickens and/or still in the research phase, I would like to share a rough cost breakdown of raising chickens with you today to give you an idea of what you're getting yourself into!

             Let's start with the numbers and we'll expand upon some items after.

• Cost Per Chick: $2.99-$4.99 (in general)
• Chick Starter/Grower Crumble Feed: $12.99
• Pellets for Layers feed: $10.49
• Meat Bird Crumble Feed: $14.49
• Organic, non-GMO Feed: $27
  -Meat Bird: $31
• Pine Shaving Bedding: $5/30lb bag
• Chick Feeder & Waterer (respectively): $2.79, $1.69
• Adult Feeder & Waterer: $5, $20
  -DIY Waterer (Nipples & Bucket w/Lid): $5, $4.40
• Heat Lamp: $2.50 (bulb), $20 (base)
  -Eco Glow-$80+
• Building material for coop: Variable

             Are you still with me? I hope I haven't scared you off! Let's talk some more about the items listed above. For starters, if you are purchasing your chicks from a farm supply store, they are, in general, going to cost less than ordering them online. Most breeds are between $2.99 and $4.99 per chick. Ordering online from a hatchery tends to cost more due to shipping costs (because they are live animals and need to be expedited for obvious reasons. Also, I've read the post office doesn't really like having to deal with them.) Plus hatcheries will have “fancier” breeds available. I've also heard that you can order chicks through your local FFA, but honestly, I don't know much about it as we've never done so.

             Ah, the food costs. Looks kind of scary, right? Think of it this way: It's like feeding a cat or two...except these are chickens and will be a “productive” member of your farm, homestead, backyard, whatever. Also, the prices above are all for 50lb bags. That's a lot of feed! Plus, depending on how many chickens you wind up with, you won't have to buy it too often if you are letting your chickens free-range. For instance, we have 11 chickens eating from the 50lb bag of layer pellets. We go through a bag about every 3 weeks, probably a little longer than that, actually. So, each of our 11 big chickens is only eating 5 cents worth of feed a day!

             Also, a little side note on feed: You will see that the meat bird feed cost more. However, from what I've gathered, you usually cull most meat birds around 8 weeks, so you're feeding them for MUCH less time!

             To be honest, the bedding situation is going to vary from person to person. We use pine shavings and are going for the deep litter method. (You can read a bit more on that on The Prairie Homestead HERE.) We have a big coop and are still trying to build our “fluff” layer up, so we'll usually puchase a thing of pine shavings every time we buy feed, so every 3 weeks. If you're just starting out, you will need MUCH less than this, or, even better, none at all if you build/buy a coop that has a removable screen for where they poop at the most.

             Chicken feeders and waterers are cheap as chips. The adult waterers can be a bit pricy though, in my opinion. A much cheaper method is to make your own from a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and some inexpensive water/chicken nipples. I actually have a post on how to make these with old 2 liter bottles HERE.

             If you get your chickies when it's still cool out, you'll probably want to get some sort of outside heat source for them. Heat lamps are actually not really recommended any more because of the fire hazards they post, but I felt compelled to include them anyways since that's what we used. You can check out these nifty EcoGlow warmers HERE. I don't know much about them other than they're a lot safer!

             It would take a whole other post to cover all of the variables on chicken coop building/buying costs and, as usual, this post is already long. You could build a super cheap one like we did with our first chickens in Arkansas or go all out and buy one of the fancy “pre-fab” models from a farm supply store. If you're lucky enough, maybe your place already has one like ours did!

             From my experience, it seems like there is no in-between when it comes to what people expect it will cost to raise chickens: They either overestimate or grossly underestimate. With that being said, I hope this post has given you a realistic idea of what to expect. As you can see, after the intial costs, they're basically like having even lesser maintenance cats running around your yard and pooping everywhere. Ha ha Their food is actually cheaper than cat food and, depending on how many you have, of course, you will have to buy chicken food about as often if you are letting them free-range. 

*I am not an expert on chickens by any means. As I mentioned, the costs above are a rough estimate and will vary depending on your area, where you buy, time of year, etc. With that being said, I LOVE talking about chickens (in case you haven't noticed. Check out my Instagram account for more chicken shenanigans from Wild Onion Farm.), so please let me know if you have any questions or if you have anything you would add or change on this post. Until next time...

 

Making a Homestead: Getting Off Our Lazy Butts!

             Hey folks! I am super excited to be bringing you the very first Farm Fridays post and link-up here on Mixed Bag Mama this week! I have so many homesteading posts going on right now (tis the season, right?) I figured why not? Some weeks I will be doing a separate post and just linking up to the link-up post. Others I will just have the link-up post with a bit about what we've been doing that week in the intro. It just depends on how long my post is. :P We were pretty busy outdoors last week, so this inaugural post gets its own separate page!

             Hey folks! I have to admit that other than the chickens, we have TOTALLY been slacking on all the homesteady type stuff we started this spring. We recently came across the Abundant Permaculture guy (Justin Rhodes on YouTube) and just watching his videos has given us the push and motivation we needed to take back our yard and gardens that we've been neglecting.

I can breathe!

             Despite our utter and complete neglect, we do have some plants that are actually growing and some that are even producing already! I got out a couple of days ago and freed our blueberry plants that actually made it. Unfortunately, we planted our berry bushes too early and the raspberries didn't make it. However, we have a TON of wild black raspberry bushes growing all over the place, so we're pretty set on those anyways. Also, I'm not gonna lie: I completely forgot we planted a grapevine too until hubby pointed it out while I was weed eating.

            Speaking of those black raspberries, check this out. This is just from going out and picking the easy-to-get-to ones several evenings. There are easily 2-3x this many in hard to reach places! Myka and John have actually been picking the majority of them, so I hope to get out there more myself and try to sell some!

            We've had a crazy amount of chamomile too. It's right next to the back walkway, so I've been better about keeping up with harvesting it. We've got a buttload already drying, so I can't wait to make some tea with it! I'm not sure how long it keeps flowering, but if I get much more I might try to sell some of it too. I let a lot of them go to seed, so I'm hoping even more grows back!

            So, what else is growing? The peas seem to be doing well despite not weeding the garden AT ALL since we planted everything. Seriously. It's super sad and I'm hoping to get around to weeding some more in the next few days when/if it's not raining. We also have onions, carrots, tomatoes, and green beans. Some pumpkins (that the damn chickens didn't get to!) are starting to flower and produce and some of the corn seems to be growing decently for now too.

            Are you sick of my chicken obsession yet? I hope not, because again, no homesteading update would be complete without them! So, this first picture above...Yah. The struggle is real. The chickens have officially taken over the poor cats' area. I'm glad they're not afraid of us or the cats, but between the chicken crap all over the walkway and them ravenously trying to eat the cats' food, it's gotten out of hand. I had to start putting the food bowls in the window sill and a few of the cheakier ladies will still get up there and eat it. (I'm especially talking to you, Gladyss!) Oh. And on top of that they come through and trample all of my chamomile plants and eat the flowers off the pumpkin plants. Sigh...

             These are the Three Amigos. (The two big ones are Brahmas and the other is an Easter Egger.) To be honest, they are my least favorite of all of our chickens because they're the most skittish (which is obviously our fault, for the most part) and they're kind of a-holes. The Easter Egger (Plucky) was picking on the bigger Easter-Egger (Yasmine) for awhile, which isn't cool because she has messed up toes and doesn't like to get around much unless she has to. All three of them come and eat the little ones chicken food as soon as I fill it, which drives me nuts. (The crumbles are supposed to be for the five little ones and the pellets for all the others.)

 Isn't she cute? “Whatcha doin'?”

             I've not given the five little chickies much love besides the super fluffy bantam Silkie I call “Don” on Instagram, so here's a few pics of the others. We somehow have three names for the gray one on top: Lil Chicky (I know. Real creative on my part, huh?), Gandalf, and The Hamburglar. (John came up with the last two. Hamburglar because it's a Silver Hamburg. Hardy har.) She's my new favorite and I've been calling her Gandalf more and more, so female chicken Gandalf it is.

             Live I've said before, I just love watching the Easter Eggers change colors and patterns as they grow. It looks like our two littlest ones are going to be the darker colored variety instead of light like the older two. (Yasmine and Plucky. ;) ) I decided to call this one Amber since she has a lot of dark coloring on her chest. I still need a name for the other Silkie bantam and Easter Egger. Let me know your suggestions in the comments below! I'm obviously open to ridiculous names! (Have I mentioned one of the Australorps is named Australorpennegger?)

            Guess what this stuff is for! I was recently looking into “chicken tractors”. (A caged in area for chickens to clear land.) However, I came across a message board and learned that this can be both detrimental to the land and the chickens, but that pigs are much better at this without affecting their nutrition and the nutrients in the soil. So, we did some more research on using pigs for clearing land and we're deciding to go for it! Since I had some extra money from a sponsored post last month and a lot of the items we need for fencing were on sale at, you guessed it, Rural King, we went ahead and bought all of the supplies we should need for portable, electric fencing.

            We think one pig will be sufficient for our needs, even though there are several areas we'd like to get cleared before next spring planting. Oh. You might be wondering, “Why don't you just till the land you need for planting?” We still don't have a tiller and quite frankly, I can't see us being able to afford one any time soon. Even including the fencing, the cost of purchasing the pig, and having to fix up the old hog shed (which should be free or close to it since we have lots of extra wood and tools), it will still be significantly cheaper to keep a pig than buy a tiller. Like, a fourth of the cost, in fact. Especially since we're cheap and we're making our own fence instead of purchasing one of the pre-made portable electric fences. (Although that might be nice to have in the future!) Maybe I'll do a cost breakdown of that soon too!

            Well, I think that about wraps things up for this time. I could go on about the pigs, but this post is already running long. ;) Until next time...

 

Fun fact: That pile of dirt that shovel is in? That's where our massive, volunteer pumpkin vine is growing!

Click the image above to head to the link-up!

Chicken Update: What We've Learned So Far

             Hey folks! Even though we had backyard chickens before (briefly) and learned quite a bit before and while we had them, I figured we would still learn a lot more about chickens going into it this time too. I had no idea! We've been learning a lot of things the worst kind of way lately: the hard way. So today, I would like to share some of our shenanigans with you in hopes to help you out in the future if you're thinking about getting chickens of your own!

             The biggest one that is flashing in my head right now? GET MORE BIRDS THAN YOU THINK YOU WANT OR NEED! I know this might seem counter-intuitive, but hear me out. First of all, even if you are purchasing pullets (that's a fancy word for female baby/teenager chickens), you still run the slight chance of having a rooster and even more so if you purchase “straight run” chicks. (That means they are not sexed and you get what you get.) Some people like roosters, others don't. But just know that YOU DO NOT NEED A ROOSTER FOR YOUR HENS TO LAY EGGS. To cut to the chase, if you don't want roosters, you might consider buying an extra bird or two just in case one of them needs to go to “freezer camp” early.

             You might also consider getting more than you want or need because, well, shit happens. Our first casualty was one of our Easter eggers who got splayed legs (not uncommon in chicks, but sometimes fixable) and also stopped eating and drinking. It passed away less than two days after we got it. 

             This past week has been nuts as far as chickens kicking the bucket go. One of our Silver-laced Wyandottes just disappeared Monday. John thinks a hawk or falcon may have gotten it. I went out to let the girls out this morning and check things out and discovered both of our new Silver-laced Wyandottes had passed away in the night as well as our new Silver Hamburg. John thinks the first two just stopped eating for whatever reason and the Hamburg looked like it had gotten squashed by the others. :(

            We have bought chicks 4 times this spring. FOUR. How ridiculous is that? We bought 10 originally, one died, one got picked off. Then we decided to get two Brahmas and a replacement Easter egger...Then a Silver Hamburg and two Silky bantams, just because...Then another Silver Hamburg so the first one would have a friend, two Silver-laced Wyandottes to make up for the ONE that got picked off, and two Easter eggers, just because they are fun and pretty and because we can! 3 of the last 5 are the ones that died last night, so we are at a grand total of 16. Now, am I telling you you should go as overboard as we have? No. But I still recommend buying some extras, the amount dependent on how many you are wanting originally. 

             Other than buying extras, what else have we learned? I learned that when in doubt, turn the heat lamp on for the little chickies. It could just be coincidence, but I thought it would be ok last night temperature-wise and like I said, one of the Hamburgs looked like he got squashed. I can't help but think maybe he was on the bottom of the pile of them trying to huddle together for warmth! :/

             Don't try to separate chicks that you brought home together. We tried to do this with our Brahmas and their Easter egger friend and they all basically went into panic mode. We were wanting to put the Brahmas with the big chickens because they are going to be huge and were already too big for the “baby area”, but alas, they wanted their little buddy with them, so now they all get to free range with the big girls already, as much as I don't like it. 

             Chickens will attack (and eat) lizards and snakes. In fact, I just watched my older girls gang up on a small snake in our own yard the other day. Don't believe me? Look it up on YouTube. I loathe snakes and it was the most awesome thing ever to watch. Lol

             Many breeds of chickens are good with kids. And those that are skittish (at least ours) will at least tolerate them. Our friendly Buff Orpington, Bertha, let Myka pick her up the other day and it was just about the cutest thing ever!

             Even if you let your chickens free range during the day, they still eat an absurd amount of feed. We just bought a 50 pound bag Wednesday. I am writing this on a Sunday night and they are damn near through half the bag already. O.o But, there are 11 of them eating from it now. (The little babies still get special baby chick feed.)

             I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting and there are certainly other things I could include, but I think I'll stop there. If you're reading this and considering chickens I don't want to overwhelm you. ;) 

             Do you have backyard chickens? What did you learn about them that surprised you most?

Making a Homestead: Chicken Madness!

            It's been awhile since I've done a homesteading update. To be honest, not a lot has been going on. We got everything planted. We don't have a tiller so we were lazy and just placed the seeds directly in the ground without "preparing it", so I'm not holding my breath too much. We're taking the "if it's meant to live, it will pop up" approach with our seeds this year. lol We'll get a tiller some day, I'm sure, but today is not that day.
            My main focus lately has been the chickens. I really liked chickens before, but I think I can safely say I have gone chicken crazy! I am finding out for myself what the term "chicken math" is all about. The struggle is real. To recap...
            We started out with 10 chickens: 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Australorps, 2 Amerecuanas (aka Easter eggers), and 2 Silver-laced Wyandottes. One poor fellar or fellarette died a day or two after we got him or her. (One of the Easter eggers.) Three weekends ago I bought 2 White Brahmas and another Easter egger to replace the one that passed away. Yesterday, we bought 2 Silky Bantams and a Silver Hamburg. Are you still following? Our original 10 chicks turned into 15!
            I got the Brahmas because hubby talked me into it and I was feeling sorry for myself that weekend and chickens cheer me up. lol Plus, I like having pairs, hence the new Amerecuana. Our original intention of going to Rural King yesterday was to get more chicken feed and cat food. I even told John, "We should just not even go by the chickens, otherwise we're going to end up wanting some." His reply was, "But what if they have some on sale?" Yah. lol And that's how we ended up with the bantam Silkies (only $1 each) and the Silver Hamburg. In my defense, I had been wanting some bantams are Silkies are so ridiculous looking, I couldn't resist. Admittedly, I knew nothing about Silver Hamburgs, but they look really pretty when they're adults. :D
            If it's not already clear how obsessed I am, I have been taking about as many pictures of the chickens as I do my kids. lol So, I thought I would share my "chicken madness" in some pictures below.

            These are my two pretty girls. The one on the left is Yasmine, our Amerecuana from the first batch. (Yes, they all have names. Yes, we still plan on eating them eventually.) The one on the right is one of our Silver-laced Wyandottes, Lacey. They're both a little skittish still, but they're slowly coming around. ;)

            Here we have Bertha and Gladyss, our two Buffs, and Esmerelda, one of our Black Australorps, in the back. Bertha is our friendliest chicken of all and she is mine and Myka's bff. lol Esmerelda is the friendlier of the two Australorps. We think the other one may be a rooster.
            Perching on the right is Yasmine again, and Bertha and Esmerelda. I think that was the day they discovered, by watching me, they could sit up there. lol

            I'm very glad Myka likes the chickens, but she has a bad habit of getting up in their business!

            That's our bff Bertha I'm petting. How do you make friends with chickens? Treats. Lots and lots of treats. lol I used to bring them chickweed from the yard almost daily when they were still in their coop 24/7. It's free and they love it!

            This was the first day we tried to let them out. They were doing good...until our new cat, Trixie, chased them back inside. She hasn't been a problem since and I'm pretty sure Brutus could care less about them. I let him in the chicken coop for a short time this evening and I honestly think the only reason he comes near the chickens is because he wants me to pet him while I'm out there. lol

            Our much more successful first few days outside after the great cat scare of 2016. lol They're awesome little weed eaters and lawn mowers!

            Here is a more recent pic of my pretty Lacey girl on the left. Top right, Gladyss and Esmerelda photo bombing my picture of Yasmine. Can you see her puffy cheeks now? So fun! By the way, they are called Easter eggers because they can lay light blue, green, or even pinkish colored eggs! Bottom right is Esmerelda again. She is one of my favorite birds personality-wise. She still doesn't like to be petted, but she did perch on my hand one day while I was looking away and keeping an eye on Myka with the baby chicks. She scared the crap out of me!

            Here's good ole Bertha again recently. She was pecking my toes, the turd. Good thing I usually have boots on because she likes pecking at those too. lol

            Last, but not least, here are our newer chickies. We don't have names for them yet because I don't really have a feel for their personalities yet. ;) On the left are the two Brahmas and Amerecuana. Even though they other two are going to be huge in comparison and already obviously quite a bit larger, they are all buddies. We've tried putting the Brahmas in with the older girls and all three of them go into panic mode, trying to get back together. (We have the little ones "fenced in" in one corner.)

            Top right is the Silver Spangled Hamburg and bottom right is one of the Bantam Silkies. Look both up. The Hamburg is really pretty and the Silky is just a little ball of fluff!

            Well, there you have it. Told you I was nuts! In case you're wondering the other ones names (I'm sure you're not, but you're about to find out anyways) are, the Barred Rocks are Margaret and Julie, the other Silver-laced is Victoria, and the possible rooster Australorp is Australorpenegger (John came up with that one. I don't feel like explaining our crazy train of thought on that! lol).

            So, have I convinced you to get backyard chickens yet? They're fun and a lot more entertaining than you would think. They're kind of like cats as far as the amount of care they require. As long as they have food and water they go about their merry way. Plus, you can actually get food from them eventually! Damn freeloading cats! What do you have to say for yourselves?! lol Until next time...