Roosters competive crowing.

         Hi again!
 It is once again the farm gal!
 Our roosters (Mr. Guts, Mr. Houdini and Mr. Specks) seem to think that 5AM is the time to see who is the loudest.  Mr. Guts just loves to protect the hens eggs! Just about every time I go near the eggs he seems to think that kicking my ankle is going to make me leave, until I chase him around. "Ha ha" I say to him. Mr. Specks is the fatest one and the one chicken that was a late bloomer of a rooster, yeah I didn't know he was a rooster until last month.  Mr. Houdini was well what his name indicates.  If they hear our truck start up they start making a weird clucking-clicking sound, that is really loud.  Taking care of chickens can be easy but during winter the water freezes and you have to make sure it stays unfrozen. They need to have plenty of feed that keeps their body temperature up to stay warm.  They also need plenty of straw to help with the heat problem. If it isn't too cold today I need to get out there and clean out the disgusting fesses out of there roosts and coop.  I shall write more tomorrow! Have a good Saturday!

So far this week!

Hey curious readers! The chickens are chasing me around wanting out of the coop but I deny them the pleasure of run loose in my yard.  Their wings are clipped, don't worry they didn't get hurt. They run for the water buckets, which I need bigger ones since they drink lots of water when it is warm out.  My chickens don't seem to like wheat that much.  Does anyone know how much chicken wire costs?  Well we want a Border Collie next so if PALS in Emmett has one we want to Foster to Adopt one.  I am so excited to see how this is going to work, this blog, the farm and everything in between. 

Sunday Evening Chase!

Well I guess I need to rebuild my chicken run and use smaller wire.  All the white chickens and the aricona excaped and started running from me and my lovely daughter Beth.  We caught most of them and tosed them gently over the run and the rest that were out went through the fence.  The only two that didn't excape were the two black and white chickens. This happened at 5:30pm, I shut the doors for the night and I could here them crowing and cackling at me for not letting them roam free. I did feel bad but it was either letting them run lose and get eatten by wild dogs (from foxes to wolves), wild cats too like bobcats to mountain lions or put them in their coop were they are safe to sleep at night.  The next thing to do is find something to either weave into the wire so they can't get out or rebuild the whole thing. Well I'm gonna eat dinner and sleep for the night. Talk to ya tomorrow about my thoughts on the chickens.

Sunday

Hi!  Well I obvisously did nothing yesterday.  I only gathered 3 eggs yesterday and today. I went chasing the chickens and I think I got most of the females' wings clipped.  I was sweating when I got done because it was warm in there and lets face it I'm out of shape.  I let them out at about 3:00pm, I am going to shut them in at about dark.  Then at 6AM I am going to check on their water and food. If they don't get out of the fence I built (tonight) then in the morning I will let them out before I take the kids to the end of the driveway for school!  Have a good night and tomorrow I will write again.

Friday's chicken run is complete!

Hi,  this is my first blog post so bare with me.  My husband and I are creating our very own farm. So far we have 11 chickens and one dog.  The plain is to end up with 100 chickens or more.  We will be getting two grass calves soon and some pigs too. We are going to get another dog, one that actually barks!  A couple of days ago I finally started making the chicken run, after two months of having our chickens.  I used a post hole digger and dug two holes, which took 2 hours because after going about 3/4 of a foot there became a layer of rocks.  Boy oh boy was that tougher than I thought it would be.  Anyways, I got one post in one of the holes by evening.  I had to wait for two days of rain to stop long enough for me to finish.  I finished around 1:30PM today! Unfortunately it isn't very tall, it is only up to my hips, I just hope that they don't jump it.  Next step is for me to let the chickens out tomorrow and pray that they stay in the run.  If that don't work, I have two choices; either put a roof over it or clip their wings and see if that works. Well good night and take a look tomorrow evening to see if I made any progress.