Oh how time flies. The winter here in the Pacific Northwest has been a most favorable one — and the chickens have adored every moment of sunshine we can get. Of course, we’ve had a few rainy days, which the ducks have been big fans of! 🙂
Chicken Chronicles: Meet the New Guy, Spike
First, let’s play a game of spot-the-duck. Find her? Then you can move onto the next level. 🙂 Meet Spike, a six-month-old Polish Tolbunt rooster. He may look like he’s full of swagger and ‘tude, but he’s as sweet as can be. He’s bonded well with our two other bantam breeds, Showgirl and Pepper. Also, we’re excited to be building a bigger coop and the framing is nearly done. It will be divided to about 2/3 coop and then 1/3 for storage for all the chicken’s accessories. (Because accessories are important for all backyard chickens.) Blondie is pictured here, inspecting the workmanship. PS,...
Miller Homestead & Grunnion Update – September
This chicken continues to play the Houdini and disappear from the backyard nearly every day. She reappears in the neighboring yards or our garden. Clever girl. The ducks continue to splash and frolic about. They’re even happier now that rain is becoming more frequent, creating more mud puddles for them to dive into. As for Grunnion, he is as happy as can be at the barn with his buddies. As for me, I had far too much fun taking pictures of him running around the round pen. 🙂 Just call me camera happy. We’re documenting Honey’s battle with cancer here at hopeforhoney.com — follow us there for the...
Miller Homestead Update #3 – One Full Flock
Honey is hard at work guarding the homestead: Good old Foghorn is one of the most consistent layers we have: As is Gandalf! 🙂 We let the three little birds out with the full flock, and they enjoyed roaming their bigger pen. The bigger hens were a bit protective of their domain, but I think they’ll settle in eventually. Gandalf was not sure about Bug: As always, the ducks are big fans of their kiddie pool: Hawkeye has filled in as the only rooster on campus now. He’s a fan of the new arrangement. We bid farewell to Penguin this weekend as he moved...
The Six Life Lessons I’ve Learned in Urban Homesteading
In February, my husband and I jumped head-first into urban farming — starting our summer garden from seeds. It then developed into an even larger endeavor when we added 13 chicks into our home. And then four ducks. And then three more chickens… The past several months have been a blur between brooding chicks, building coops, free-ranging, fixing fencing, gardening and finding eggs. As I look back upon these summer months, sever distinct themes come to mind — and boy do they ripple beyond our little urban homestead. 1. No matter how much you try, you cannot control everything. When we first let the chickens out of the coop to...