The new czicken palazz, at work

We finally finished the new tractor several weeks ago, but I never got a picture of it in action. I made this tractor four feet wide (the width of my veggie beds) and six feet long (my beds are 15 feet long). The girls are now employed in scratching and fertilizing my garden for me. Up until Saturday, they were positioned over the end of this particular bed, and we moved them a few feet further down so they could get at some fresh vegetation. It only takes them about two days to completely denude a 4x6 section of dirt. The dirt in the foreground is where they were up until Saturday. After we moved the tractor, I forked it up (they also compact the dirt where they walk, and it gets horribly uneven where they scratch and fluff), raked it smooth and seeded it to crimson clover (because I didn't have any winter rye).

Dorothy, behind bars

New coop

You've heard of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, right? At our house it's Charlie and the Chicken Coop.

Work on the New Improved Coop proceeds apace, after a break of about a week to visit with the Mother-In-Law (actually, she helped on some of the building one of the days she was here). We've had three eggs in the past week from the Black Hen (Dorothy). Nothing from the other two Dorothys, yet.

First egg!

This evening I was showing my neighbor what to do to take care of the cats, chickens, and plants while we are away camping, and I was just telling him that we haven't had any eggs, yet, but he'd be welcome to check, here's how you get inside the coop, and voila! There was this little beauty sitting there. It's from the barred rock hen, the black one.

Another reason to have chickens

"Mommy, I had a nightmare last night, but then I took it outside, and the chickens ate the nightmare."

Blondes preferred to Gentlemen, continued

The current czicken residents:
And the previous czicken resident:

Mmmmm, tasty he was, too.

The following are the pictures to share with prom dates of the future:

"We'd say 'Momma' and she'd say 'whhhhhuuuuuuuut?'"

"Why have toys when you can run around in your sister's clothes, with her underwear on your head?"

Blondes preferred to Gentlemen

RIP Rooster. Buh-bye. Or rather, "Bye, bye, rooster, so long, Donna has an axe!" (A hatchet, really, but it doesn't scan)

Picked up two new hens yesterday from a woman east of Cottage Grove. There will be a picture of them posted as soon as Blackie lets them come out. Right now she's got them holed up in the nester and if they venture out, she pecks at them and chases them back in. They're a few weeks younger than her and about half her size. They're also blondes.

My children have been getting a good lesson in how undesirable male animals are. Also that a rooster keeps his testicles up against his spine (we had an impromptu anatomy lesson yesterday) and they look like kernels of corn.

INSERT EVIL LAUGH HERE

I may have finally found an outlet for my fiercely sadistic side.

All those earwigs that were hiding in the leaves of my artichoke plants are now inside a chicken.

Transgendered chickens

Whitey appears to be a boy.

Introducing...The Ladies

So, we've placed the Czickenary pretty much right outside our bedroom window to start with, since we all need to get into the habit of getting out there to take care of them. You know that feeling when you're just waking up and you feel like you're being watched? I opened my eyes this morning to see two pairs of beady little yellow eyes peering at me.

The kids are now pretty fascinated by "Chicken TV." This morning I allowed the Number One Son to fish a couple of worms out of my worm bin to give to them. Those were *very* popular.

CZICKENS!!!!

I'll post a picture tomorrow...right now the light is really bad where they are. Two barred rocks, one mostly black and one mostly white. WARNING: POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS ALERT!!!!! Thinking of naming them Honky and Negro. Actually, just like when we got our black kitten (now named Cathy).. I already had a cat named Berkeley (white, with a little bit of black on him) and so we thought we would name her Oakland (black, with a little bit of white on her). Time for dinner.

Czicken Palazz, still almost finizhed

Work was slow-going today, because I'm running out of useable scrap. Also because the two smallest have found out that a czicken houze devoid of czickens makes a great playhouse. Note to self: Must build a playhouse for the kinder. So, there's some hardware cloth in place, but the outer part is not entirely covered, yet. What I have has also lost its uniformity of look (it looked so handsome this morning) because there's been a bunch of new white- and silver-painted scrap screwed to it (I found a bunch of door moulding in the garage, and that's helping to hold the hardware cloth in place).

Yesterday I posted to Craigslist looking for hens, and I just got a message from a woman in Springfield who has a couple of 4-month old Barred Rocks to give away. We might have czickens as soon as tomorrow! Better get the rest of the darned coop covered. The inside portion, at least, is entirely secure.

What I *really* need is about five 5' pieces of lumber, 3" to 6" width. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Czicken Palazz, almost finished

El Palazzio de pollo, my most recent project:
Most of this is scrap wood and hardware that we inherited when we bought this house - except for some of the plywood, which came from a chicken box/coop/thing we got for free from Craigslist. I completely dismantled that thing; it was ugly and not suited to our purpose. I have only had to buy the two 1"x6"x8' lumber pieces that are the long edges, the 1"x2"x8' piece along the top, the two strap hinges in the foreground above, and a bunch of hook & eye (spring-loaded type) to fasten the doors with, which are not attached yet. Grand total: about $25. That price includes the $10 can of wood-stain (the bulk of what I've spent) which, once applied, made this motley collection of bits look a little more cohesive.


Today I'm affixing the hardware cloth (also free/inherited) to the triangular openings in the top of the Swiss Chalet/IHOP part, and wire to the outside portion for the enclosed run.

ISN'T THIS THING JUST *BEGGING* TO BE DECORATED?

Now, all we need are czickens.

(My thanks go out to Katy Skinner at The City Chicken website, who has posted so many great pictures of backyard chicken tractors.)

This is the coolest chicken coop in the world.