Hot Chicks

They grow up so fast... especially when they are chickens.  Pip, Flower, Red and Tuna have officially moved out.  This will be the fifth night the chicks spend on their own, beneath their very own aluminum roof, nested inside their still temporary tuperware roost, inside a bright red five by five ish coop.

The chicks have had a early eggless benefit for W and I; we have begun to really use our backyard.  Since we have a wide, shaded, porch and since I have poured hours of back straining love into the soil of our front yard, W and I are usually perched somewhere in the front of our house.  But, with the addition of our four two-legged companions, we have spent hours under the rustling branches of our back yard Sycamore.  (And, as everyone knows, nothing pairs with chicken like a nice Hefeweizen.)  

Pig and Nori (the pug and the boston) are entirely acclimated to the chicks.  They all happily co-exist.  In fact, I don't allow the chicks out of the run unless the dogs are with them, as dogs, even ours, are great cat- deterrents.

Home to Roost

So as the bar draws closer, the chicks are becoming chickens.

Willie surprised me with an anniversary trip to Jackson Hole, Wy last weekend. We drove north through Idaho along a beautiful two lane highway that winds through farmland and green grassy hills that were blanketed in yellow and pink wildflowers. Due to serendipitous timing, we were able to drive up in a loaner 2008 X3. While I was driving, I pretended to be in the new one-series.

We hung out at the Cowboy Bar where the bar stools are each covered in a saddle, hiked around Jenny Lake (which is this lovely lake of clear blue water reflecting the Tetons and rows of Pine trees), then we went shopping for my unborn niece, and headed back Sunday.

Jazlyn, Willie's secretary, dog and chicken-sat. I think she enjoyed the dogs. However, the chickens were another story. Before we left, I tacked together a make-shift chicken-run to substitute until our coop is finished. But the chicks need to be taken in each evening. She spent a half hour trying to catch Flower. The little things are fast, these days, and Jazlyn had to enlist the help of neighbors to catch her.

The Coop, meanwhile is nearly done. The roof is finished, but not yet lifted into place. And, we still need to reinforce the side-walls. This has literally been a family-neighborhood project. My parents helped (planned it and constructed the frame). William helped and constructed the foundation. Becky helped frame the roof (she did a beautiful job, even after a few glasses of wine). David basically helped with everything. And our neighbors Jason and Gabriella have been on call after their kids are in bed. Bruce and Ann and Johnny get credit too, for sharing tools, chicken-watching, and general next-door-neighborly support.

This project has been a well-timed diversion for me, from studying for the bar and going to work.

OOOO After attending a classic car show in Jackson Hole, W and I have decided to build a kit car together. So, I hope everyone is ready :)

Raising the Roof (well, almost)

To prove that my childhood dream of living in a small farming community (with highly liberal social and economic policies) has come somewhat true, family and neighbors have toiled long and late hours to help in the construction of The Coop.

We procured my father's schematic expertise early on Saturday for some Coop renderings. Then, my mother, father, and I surveyed our scrounged inventory of random length of 2x4s and began framing our coops. As always, we depended upon the generosity of our next-door-neighbors for their non-cordless saw. And, by the end of the day, we had the coop basically framed. I secretly wanted to forge ahead, perhaps even sleeping outdoors to be able to leap to work again in the morning. But, we had W's 10-year reunion to attend.

Sunday, David came to our house, and we continued our hen-home-making. David and I finished adding the no-formaldehyde plywood to the frames, adding the windows, and chicken-door. David then began to paint the Coop what should be called 'Coop Red.'

Meanwhile, Willie prepared a lovely little pad of professionally installed pavers (see more at www.EschenfelderLandscaping.com). I almost wished we could keep it as a patio. Then, Gab and Jason, our neighbors from across the street, wandered over to help actually put the thing together. However, when we stood up the lovely abode, I realized that I mis-measured. So, Monday evening, Willie, Jason, Gabby, and I added another row of pavers, finished with concrete, before dark. But, since I was home from work around nine and Willie was home about ten minutes earlier, we decided not to use any power tools that night.

Meanwhile the chicks are waiting anxiously to stretch their wings. We need to raise their little bird roof tonight.

Bird Bath

Last night, W and I had our first major chick-scare. After turning off the chick light and changing the chick water, we closed the pantry door and sat down on the couch together.
Soon, though, we realized that instead of settling down to sleep, the chicks were chirping and peeping in a highly distressed manner.
I went in to check on them, and they were all entirely drenched in water, Flower (the dark one with the white tail) was lying on her side in the water. I yelled to W to come and picked up Flower to hold her near the heat lamp. She was shaking and peeping sadly. I could feel her little heartbeat in my hand. The others, though soaked, seemed to be okay.
Willie, as quickly as possible googled possible poultry ailments that would cause our birds to drench themselves and then lay down and chirp loudly. We could not find anything.
So, after a few minutes of panic, they all seemed to perk up. Flower dried out and they all cuddled into the corner to sleep.
It seems that we will have to provide them with the opportunity to bathe on our terms.

Pig and the Pecking Order

Sunday evening, given our earlier success with chick-freedom, we decided to add another sort of farm animal into the mix. We let the chicks out, under our little Japanese Maple in the front yard, and allowed the dogs to hang out as well. We were most concerned about Nori, given her love of chasing small moving balls. However, after she associated our no-word 'bah' with getting near the chicks, she steered clear and hung out in the shade of Bruce and Ann's yard.

Pig, however, has been devoted from the start. He followed them around the front yard for an hour. He herded them from shrub to shrub. And, Red, who has seemed to have had a love/hate relationship with Pig from the start, was entirely un-phased by our little pug. If Pig nestled his little face too close to the chicks, Red would run right up to Pig and peck him on the nose. Otherwise, they seemed to co-exist very nicely. Pig even sat down a few times and let the chicks peck and flutter around him. And, the chicks seemed very comfortable around him. Since the day after the chick's birth, Pig has stood in the pantry with his paws over the top of their little abode and watched them. So, I guess they have become accustomed to his presence. And, we now have a great cat-deterrent four our chicken-outings

Stretching our Wings

Despite the fact that William and I have yet to fix our swamp cooler for the season, we have been anxiously awaiting an afternoon warm enough to allow us to finally let our chicks earn the name 'free range.' Such an afternoon came this week, and we picked up our fist-fulls of feathers and deposited them in a shaded, warm nook, in our flower bed, next to the garage. They peeped excitedly for a bit, and then settled down to try a beak-full of everything. They pecked at bugs, they pecked at dirt, they pecked at grass, they pecked at leaves, they pecked at wood, they pecked at each other. And, where-ever they went, and what-ever they did, they did it together.

Red, the most alert and assertive of our chicks, the literal top of our little pecking order, is always the leader. She is the first to try a new plant and she is the first to scurry to a new area. The others follow immediately and in a bit of panic, behind. They stay together, no matter what. Our little dark Aracuna, whose little fluffy butt is white, was distracted for a moment while the others moved to a new area. She started to peep the most horrified little peeps imaginable. So we scooped her up and dropped her with the others.

In all, they seemed extremely content to be outside.