Care to guess as to the two lovely ladies who have recently joined our clan?
I know! We’re very excited!
I had taken the advice of another when it came to the legality of our feathered friends in our community. Silly me. After making a phone call, I’ve come to find out animal control cares very little about a couple of these quiet “pets”, as long as they are well cared for. So with an “okay” from the neighbors, we went for it!
We had found several ads on line but serendipitously stumbled across a woman just minutes before we set out to make our purchase. She had been raising her babes all naturally but just had a few too many for her coop. We had a wonderful chat and narrowly avoided buying her sweet baby goat. Instead we came home with two not-yet-laying pullets.
Want to meet the girls?
Zeb named this one Skittles. She’s a Rhode Island Red and is about 6 months old. She’s larger, lighter colored and certainly the bolder of the two - first one out of the coop for bug hunting, always scoping out our hands for hidden goodies. I wouldn’t say she’s 100% comfortable with us yet but she’s getting there.
This is her sister, Roxy, although I’m very tempted to change her name to Nervous Nelly. She’s a skittish little thing, jumping at the slightest noise or rustling of leaves. She’s very hesitant to come near us and allows Skittles to clear a path before she ventures anywhere. She’s also a Rhode Islander and is the same age.
We’ve had them a few weeks now and we’re really enjoying them, although we’re beginning to see the perks of raising chicks, if for nothing else than to avoid this “getting to know you” stage.
Justin built their coop and run to be movable, but roomy enough to be stationary as well (that’s a whole long post for another day). Right now, because of the heat and intense sun, they are parked under a tree but as the temps drop we’ll move them around the backyard, as we get ready to prepare new beds. We let them free range in the morning but only away from our garden, as we’ve found they make quick work of tearing things up!
I’m loving all the free fertilizer they’re leaving us and we’re told to expect to see large brown eggs within the next 2-3 weeks. Now that’s what I call ”friends with benefits”! 
My name is Tara. I am a mama and a lover, a full-time nomad, a passionate devourer of Life and an Organic Life Coach.
Awesome!! I am dying to get a couple hens but my hubby is totally against it
Do they eat a lot?
OH, that last photo is my favorite!! Can’t wait to hear about how the hubs made your track coop!! Once we move, I’d like to get some laying hens.
SWEET!!!! Look just like mine, and sound about as batty.
Fun, aren’t they?
My rooster has decided I am his; one of his “lovelies”, shall we say? I have to be careful not to let him get around behind me when I am kneeling in the garden, or he gets ideas.
ROFL Miranda that was a visual unto its own!!
MM, they each eat about a cup of feed a day along with misc food scraps and lots of bugs! Wishing they liked ants as much as they like pill bugs right now.
Oh, that’s terrific! I bet it’s very exciting ’round your place these days.
They are just adorable..and I can’t stop telling Jim about your beautiful coop.
Fantastic, Tara! They’re beautiful! I’m hoping to make a similar addition to my family, maybe sometime next year.
How totally cool!
I have started to save my egg cartons in hope that you will be able to sell me fresh eggs some day soon. I have been eating week old or less eggs for 3 weeks and have no idea how I will ever stop.
So cute! We’ve been thinking about getting chickens. How nice to have fresh eggs for your family. Enjoy the new family members!
well you sure kept this news to yourself for a long time! a few weeks! a few weeks!
How very cool for you and your family.
Jennifer, it was a long time wasn’t it?? lol There have been so many things we’ve kept occupied with I’m having a hard time keeping up with blogging about it all.
That is so cool! I am so happy you got some ladies, I need to call the “chicken man” to get our silkie back and 1 or 2 more ladies to replace all those little boys we had as chicks.
i dream of someday having our own chickens…it is challenging to do in a rental…ha
i love the names…i love their color…and i look forward to you writing more about skittles and roxy!
I like what I can see of your coop. Our chickens are truly free range and it is not a pretty sight with all the chicken poop on the porch. Keeps an fancy, snobby people away, I guess.
Oh, they’re just lovely! Congratulations!! My Rhode Island Red has always been skittish, even though we got her as a tiny chick. She’s the only one to lay all the way through winter, though! RIRs are hard workers.
They are just too cool! When I saw this post last night I yowled across the house to Seth to come look! We were originally thinking that we’d get one Rhode Island Red and an Arocauna (I spelled that horribly)… but now Seth wants to switch to two Rhode’s like you’ve got or maybe a Rhode and a Leghorn.
Congratulations! And I especially like Zeb’s name choice of Skittles.
We don’t have room for chickens, but my neighbor just got some. So we’ll get honey from our hive, they’ll get eggs from their coop, and we’ll trade!
Loved your last line…
Yay! I’m so happy for you, and you have Reds like we do. They are the BEST layers. But now I’m wondering if we feeds ours enough–they each only get about 1/2 cup of food a day. And some scraps, but sometimes we forget to bring the food scraps out. Maybe that’s why they act like they’re starving all the time?! I actually think they’re fine and fat and laying lots of eggs, though. Hmmmm….I’ve never seen guidelines on how much to feed them. Maybe I’ll look it up.
Lisa, from what I read it said to have food always available – that they won’t overeat feed. We don’t always have scraps for them (or scraps they enjoy anyway) but oh do we have plenty of critters in our organic garden! Oh and ours still act hungry all the time. lol I’m sure yours are good but I guess you could always leave more out if you’re unsure.
Yaaay for chickens. I keep telling T we need to get chickens and I am not completely joking
And, those chickens are really pretty. Can chickens be pretty? I love those colors!
They are adorable!
This is our first year for chickens as well and all I can say is that… I love them! I never, ever would’ve thought that I’d love chickens. They are entertaining, great bug catchers, give us awesome fertilizer and then there’s the eggs! What a deal!
That last picture is a real hoot!
They are lovely! We have 10 chickens and I really enjoy them … my kids hand feed them veggie scraps and such and they are quite friendly! Lots off enjoyment and yummy eggs!
Look at those cuties! Love them.
Oh, they are so pretty! I am still coming up with a plan for the backyard so that I can ‘hide’ any more pets from the HOA, lol. And keep the dogs away. I’d love to see more pics of their coop and run.
oh, good for you tara! not owning our house means not owning chickens
i’m so happy for you guys!
Tara
If you would like to move your girls (just in case you ever have more or you need to for some reason) you can put a pretty little sheet on top to help shade them.
That’s what I use for our chickens when they are in the front yard and are out of range of one of our trees. A tarp is just so tacky! And though I usually use a white sheet (I use them in my garden too) you could of course choose a fancy floral and put ties at the corners to help it stay when it’s windy (we use a couple of boards rolled into the edges).
Monica
We raised chicks last year. 23 chicks and most of them turned out to be roosters. We had to buy them a lot of grain and by the time the girls were mature enough to lay it was winter. The days were too short to lay.
6 month old pullets are the way to go. You save a lot of money because you don’t have to put your money into the growing part. And you don’t have to wait too long for eggs either.
They are such pretty birds.
Soo great you have these new feathered friends! An essential for permaculture. Yay! And you’ll love your eggs… we went from 6 chicken and a rooster a years ago to 21 chickens and 5 roosters – eek! And we have discovered one of the chickens is actually laying green eggs, really – green eggs! So great for the kids and the book green egg and ham