Sunday, July 28, 2013

gender guesses

None have crowed yet, but I feel fairly certain...these are my best guesses as of today:

pullet=hen pink
cockerel=rooster blue


#1 Penelope-black star-pullet
#2 Blackout -black star-pullet
#3 Rocky-barred rock-cockerel
#4 Teriyaki-blue laced red wyandotte-pullet (so far/maybe)
#5 Zacky-gold star-cockerel GONE
#6 Cinnamon-gold star-pullet
#7 NutMeg-gold star-pullet
#8 Stu-E-gold star-cockerel
#9 Blanca-non-standard (has single comb) Rhode Island White-cockerel (so far/maybe)


When I ask the kids which ones they want to keep of course they say all of them.
When I ask for their top two choices....

M: Blanca (if pullet), Penelope, Blackout
N: Blackout, ? (I need to ask him without sibings interjecting)
A: Teriyaki, Blackout, Penelope, Cinnamon, NutMeg (see what I mean?)

My kids are pretty smart...I suggested we pick two favorites and the top 3 we keep....
So, M and A were trying to talk N into Cinnamon and NutMeg. That way they each would have a different top two. Then, Mom would try to make it fair and we would get to keep more than 3.
Ha! smart kids.

vacation


We recently went on vacation.
We asked a friend and her 3 kids if they would be willing to watch ALL our pets (8 chicks, 2 fish, 1 cat and 1 hamster) and our garden. I was soooo glad they said yes! They said they had a good time playing with them. yay!

When we got home...I realized...wow they are soooo big! We were glad their house and run were almost done!

I am fairly certain now that 2 are cockerels. I am looking for homes for them but I'm not sure if I will be able to find them homes...most people don't want them. So, we might have to take care of them ourselves (eat them) but I'm not sure I can do it!
My neighbor suggested I have a local butcher do it for me, then throw it in the freezer with other meat, so I won't know when we eat our chicken...

I have talked to all the neighbors in my culdesac and they are all ok with us having chickens. No roosters, of course, but we just didn't know which ones were roos when they were babies.
So, like I said, most of my neighbors are very supportive. They don't mind at all...
But on the next street over...arg...lets just say I have one neighbor who is very nosey, rude, and controling. I have talked to my other neighbors and told them what they said to me, and they also think they are being very unreasonable and severely rude. I'll try not to go into too many details here...but they tried very hard to make me mad....bashing my parenting, my house (it's a mess), my husband's garden (it's ugly), and my religion (we are close minded?, etc,) I was walking away at that point. I asked him to please not bring my religion into this and my parenting is my business...I'm sure I didn't hear all of the rude things they had to say. And luckily my kids seemed to be mostly obilivous to it all.

But again I felt like giving up....is it really worth it, to have pet chickens???

I really don't like people being so mad (and horribly rude).

I've had to talk to a lot of people just to process it all, emotionally.

Well, one of my neighbors today told me they hope I don't let them bother me. They are bullys. And they have been nosey and strange and controlling to other people too, not just me.

I think, at this point, I am ok with being done with this pet experience. I could give them all to a friend, who I just found out is interested in laying hens and my kids could possibly still visit them. But I don't want to appear to be rewarding those unkind neighbor's behavior.

So, I haven't decided yet if I want to continue...I really don't like drama.

Anyway, like I said, no crowing yet, but we are pretty certain two of the chicks are roos (Rocky and Stu). Blanca might be a roo too, but we aren't yet sure....And we only plan to keep 3 hens (if any).
It will be hard to choose. But choices will soon need to be made.





Sunday, July 7, 2013

4 weeks old and trying to enjoy our chicks

Chicks grow fast.
And we are trying to enjoy them.
We are in the process of building a safer run (hardware cloth on all sides, bottom and top)...so for now we are enjoying them in the house (I know, I know, it's gross). I often am cleaning up chicken poo and washing my hands a million times a day. But when the kids have them out they are happy. It's worth all the lysol and paper towels.


We like to hold chicks first thing in the morning!

Rocky's close up

Blanca enjoys getting her picture taken a little too much ;)

 I have to talk N into spending time with the chicks. He still misses Zacky. I ask him if he wants to hold the chicks and he will say "nah"...but with a little gentle encouragement, he is back to holding them occastionally. He has been helping Dad build the run...he enjoys hammers and spending time with Dad, so I hope that is helping him get through this tough time. 

Stu-E did good for his close-up!

and Stu-E is getting some color on his wings!
Blackout is getting red feathers on her chest

we visited the coop (it's almost done!!!) I will have more pictures soon!