More on chicks...

Since I'm not getting around to posting any pix/updates of my own - check out our dear friend Jason's entry on his blog, The Real Garden, about our newest members of the household.

Damn, they are cute.

Oh - we got our first egg of the season yesterday from the new adult chickens (we're still settling on names - they are eerily identical looking to Mabel and Leota) - a sure sign of spring!

A trip to the feed store...

Can you take a trip to the feed store to look at baby chicks and come home empty-handed?

Apparently not:

We brought these little darlings home from the Bothell Feed Store on Saturday afternoon, they're 6 days old today. They're cheeping and peeping away in the garage under their brooder lamp as I write, having managed to tear myself away for the evening not long ago.

A flock of 6 chickens in the city - are we crazy? Time will tell.

More on this topic in the coming weeks, no doubt...

March update

Spring is slowly emerging in the NW, soggy and grey for the most part with occasional patches of color...We're looking forward to the equinox this weekend - can it be that we're already halfway to summer?

It's been a wild month - earthquakes, nuclear catastrophes, and widespread misery for our neighbors in Japan, and the impacts ripple out from there touching all in its path to our western shores. This global web of ours is tightly woven, and it's hard to fathom the enormity of what's happened. The world anxiously watches, prays, grieves, mobilizes...And life carries on, albeit somewhat more gingerly.

We decided to acquire some companions for Amelia, after a month or so of pondering what the next move would be. Despite her age (8), we decided that it's no good to have only one chicken - such social creatures can't be happy alone for long, and she was showing signs of solitude. But since she's also the dominant hen, very young chickens wouldn't be able to hold their own against her. So after perusing craigslist for a couple of weeks, we happened upon a pair of 2-yr old Buff Orpingtons that needed a new home, and brought them home the other night.

They were introduced today, and so far it seems to be going ok. Started by putting them in the coop this morning, separated but able to see/hear each other. After a couple hours of that, we let them out in the yard all together under supervision. Minor bullying/pecking by Amelia - but nothing awful. After several more hours, we put them all in the coop together - and the establishment of the pecking order continues.

We're considering getting some baby chicks at the end of the month, and establishing a more age-diverse flock that will provide us with eggs every year while staggering the old-age end of life scenario we've had the past year with our original 3. Seattle allows up to 8 chickens per household now, I think we'd aim for 6 this year, and maybe add a couple each year or two?

Here are the new girls - they look just like Mabel and Leota, I know. No names yet.