Can You Trust Your Dogs With Your Chickens?

Do your dogs get along with your chickens?

I wasn't sure mine would, but I worked with them from the day I brought my first pullets home and before long, they were all getting along just fine.  Molly, my large Golden Retriever mix, and Jethro, my Jack Russell Terrier, could be trusted in the yard with the chickens at anytime.  With a little patience and plenty of supervision, your dogs and chickens can get along well too.

Read more:  Will My Dog Eat My Chickens?

Naked Chicks Celebrate World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD)

Who knew that there was such a thing as World Naked Gardening Day?  I'm here to tell you there is and it's today, May 14th.  I'll not provide the link because it does contain some nudity, but if you've no problem with that, give it a google for a giggle.

I've lots of work to do in my garden, but I won't be tossing my clothes aside today to do it.  My contribution to WNGD is to share a few photos of the other naked chicks in my backyard.

Amberlink Chicks 

Golden Comet and Amberlink Chicks

Keystone Kops and Katzenjammer Kids

Do you remember the old Keystone Kops movies, where the unkempt koppers ran amok across the silent screen? I never understood how they didn't run into each other and hurt themselves, but they were good for a laugh.

With six new chicks, I'm treated to my own version of the Keystone Kops in my living room daily.  They're of an age now where they've got the 'shiny thing syndrome', where one will pick up some small bit of nothing thinking it's a great prize, and the rest will give chase trying to grab it.  Six little buggers peep-peeping and running willy-nilly sets the dogs off, so they pick up the chase around the outside of the cage.

Think Keystone Kops and Katzenjammer Kids.

I best enjoy it while I can as they grow so fast.

I is for Independence

It was a beautiful 80 degrees yesterday, so I put the chicks outside in their playpen for several hours on their first adventure.  They did well, scratching the ground to look for goodies and testing their little wings.  I constructed a temporary chicken wire playpen to keep them in a smaller space within the larger fenced chicken pen, but they preferred to stay close together in one area.  So much for independence, but it was their first day out, so certainly understandable.

Back in the house overnight, here's one of them doing her darnedest 

to escape her plastic home, with Molly supervising, of course.  

And then the whole family had to get in on it ... Molly, Jethro and Boo.

It's hard to believe that just a few days ago I brought 

these cute little fuzz-balls home.  They grow so fast!

Next week will bring the next step to independence - overnight in the small chicken coop.

I'm taking the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I will post something from each letter of the alphabet on the corresponding day in April, except for Sunday, on at least one if not all four of my blogs. You can see my other blogs in the sidebar - More of Marie Anne.

Golden Comet Chicks

Of the six new chicks I picked up a week ago, three were Golden Comet and three were Amberlinks. The Golden Comet hen produces a good-sized brown egg and the breed is tolerant of colder climates so is a good choice for Ohio winters.

These little gals, only a few days old when I brought them home, thought the kitty food dish was a nice place to snuggle up for a nap.

As they mature, the fuzzies will be replaced by feathers, but they should retain the golden brown color as adult chickens.

This picture seven days later shows them already feathering nicely.  They grow very fast and are already flapping wings and fluttering around their temporary home.





The gender of sex-link breeds can be identified at birth by their color, so these three should be female.  The Golden Comet pullet (hen) will be buff/red, and the cockerel (rooster) will be white at hatching.  (The white chicks in the photo are a different breed - Amberlinks).

I'm taking the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I will post something from each letter of the alphabet on the corresponding day in April, except for Sunday, on at least one if not all four of my blogs. You can see my other blogs in the sidebar - More of Marie Anne.

C is for Chickens!

I suppose it's no surprise I'm writing about chickens for the letter C since this is my chicken blog, after all.

No lengthy post today, just random shots of my chickens.  If you're thinking about keeping chickens in your backyard, do some homework before buying the bib overalls and announcing yourself as a chicken farmer.  My article, Straight Poop on Keeping Backyard Chickens, can get you started.

Last Year's Production Red Pullets

Starting to Feather Nicely

All Grown Up, and Catching Some Sun

Of the six 'pullets', two ended up roosters
This is Herman

The old gals playing in their sandbox

I'm taking the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I will post something from each letter of the alphabet on the corresponding day in April, except for Sunday, on at least one if not all four of my blogs. You can see my other blogs in the sidebar - More of Marie Anne.

A is for Amberlink Chicks

Yep, I did it again, picked up six new chicks yesterday. I figure a few of my girls are going to be slowing down egg production by the end of the year so got some replacements that should be laying by then to pick up the slack. I'd never heard of Amberlink, but that's one of the breeds my local Tractor Supply had on hand, so three of the six I brought home were these cute little yellow peeps.

The Amberlink breed isn't that common in the U.S. right now and Mt Healthy is one of the few chick hatcheries that offer them (Mt Healthy is the supplier for my local TSC). Also known as the DeKalb or Silver Amberlink, they are a Rhode Island White hybrid and should be mostly white with flecks of brown at maturity. The Amberlink is a large bird that will produce large brown eggs.

Until yesterday, my flock consisted of Black Sex Link and Production Red hens so I think the brighter coloring of these little gals will be a nice contrast in my backyard.  You'll be seeing more pics of these little cuties for sure.

As you can see, Molly approves.

I'm taking part in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I will post something from each letter of the alphabet on the corresponding day in April, except for Sundays.  I will be posting on at least one of my four blogs daily.  You can see my other blogs in the right sidebar - More of Marie Anne.

It's Official - Two Roosters!

The 'chicks' are between 3-4 months old now and there are definitely two roosters in the bunch. They are the same two that I suspected that were a bit larger than the other four pullets. They're trying to crow now but haven't quite figured it out yet and it sounds like someone is in the backyard playing a kazoo. They haven't met with much success mounting the hens either.

I haven't named the young hens yet, but the cockerels have been dubbed Lurch and Herman (think Addams Family and the Munsters), because they're much taller and more long-legged than their little sisters.

Here are a couple of random shots of the roosters taken recently:

Herman

(LtoR) Lurch and Herman

Aren't they some handsome fellas?

Peep Show - Cute Chick Alert!

The chicks are a little better than three weeks old now and are sure growing fast. They're almost fully feathered with just a few bits of fluff left here and there.

It was a beautiful day so I took the chicks outside in the dog crate Thursday for their first adventure on the grass. They seemed to enjoy it enough and surprisingly were more curious about the hens than the big girls were about the chicks.

That's Ophelia stopping by to see who's in the nursery.

They all started out the same size so I don't think they can be more than a day or so apart in age, but I've noticed that two of the chicks have grown much larger than the other four the last few days, and their tail feathers are much longer. Ohhhh nooooo, could I have two roos?

Look at the tail feathers of the one on the far left.

... and compare it to these gals.

Molly and Jethro wanted them to come out and play, but I didn't think it was a wise idea (Molly was literally drooling with anticipation).

Who dat?

The peep at the feeder is the largest of the six chicks and has the longest tail and wing feathers. He (?) is going to be the most gorgeous golden brown color.

There you have it - a true peep show!

What a Difference a Day Makes

Ok, more like three days ...

Here are the latest chick pics. The wings are already starting to feather and I can see changes almost by the hour.

Look at the chick at the top/middle of the bunch - see her wing as she stretches?

I thought I could tuck the chicks in this little basket for a cute photo op, but they had other ideas and jumped out faster than I could put them in. I finally just set the basket down and let them climb on it.

Still not sure of the breed, but I found out that my local Tractor Supply Company got them from Mt Healthy Hatchery here in Ohio.

They've already graduated to a large plastic tub (still inside the dog crate) and I'm working on a brooder box for when they're feathered enough to go outside.

New Chicks

I took the plunge and bought six baby chicks yesterday. One container had straight run (little bit of everything, both pullet and cockerel chicks), and another container had assorted reds (again, pullet and cockerel both). I'm not ready for a roo yet, so I picked from a third container marked 'assorted pullets', so goodness knows what I have. I'm assuming they're sex-link of some variety, perhaps gold.




The chicks are temporarily housed in a cardboard box inside the dog crate so Molly and Jethro can't hurt them. Molly's mouth is watering and I'm sure she'd like a little snack.

Molly on nursery duty

You'll be seeing more of these cute little chicks in the days to come, and I'm sure I'll be needing help in identify what breed they might be.