PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION AS I FIGURE OUT HOW TO 'MAKE' IT AND ADD PHOTOS, ETC. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, I'LL REMOVE THIS NOTE ONCE I'M HAPPY WITH IT.
Greetings! This is Cindy M, aka: greenpixies. My husband and I currently live in northwest Louisiana in the small town of Natchitoches. Mike is an Academic Librarian at the small university here. I am an unemployed Social Worker and Horticulture Therapist working hard to develop our own 'urban farm'. We live in a great old house that needs lots of love and work, and that keeps me as busy as the gardens do. Here's a photo of the front of the house after we put in most of the front gardens but had not worked on the house exterior yet.
We are old hands with shelter dogs and our current rescue is Dixie, a Blue Tick Hound who was abandoned and living 'on the street' downtown. She is a crazy, loving, demanding, gorgeous animal. Over the past few years we lost our Lab mixes: Winnie and Sophie, RIP! Here are photos of the current and past canine brood.
We are new to the backyard chicken world and our first flock contains 14 chicks. When I list the breeds, you'll know that we were interested in the chicks as pets equally if not more than their food production potential. First, we have 7 Silkies: 1 Black, 1Buff, 2 Partridge, and 3 White. Next we have 3 Standard Brahmas: 1 Light, 1 Buff, 1 Dark. And we have 4 Ameracauna/EasterEggers. The EE's were our more 'practical' choice. Can't wait to see (and eat!) their colored eggs. The EE's and Brahmas are all pullets but we could only get straight run Silkies so we are waiting to see if we will have to cull some of the flock. So far I'm pretty sure we have at least 2 Silkie Roos: 1 Beardless white and one Bearded Partridge. But they're only 11 weeks old, so the next few weeks should show more development in combs and wattles, etc. Here's some photos of the flock members.
We've named about half of them so far.
"Mama Brahma" is our Light Brahma. She is the matriarch of the flock. Not bossy, just fearless, always first in line, and checking on the other chicks. She reminds Mike and I of his late mother. His nickname for his Mom was 'Big Mama'. She was a large boned, beautiful, blond woman of very strong character. She was a nurturer and protector of her son. "Mama B" is blond too. It's uncanny. She's one of our favorites.
"Honey" is our Buff Brahma. We think of her as the sort of 'super model' of the group. I believe that she knows just how crazy good-looking that she is, but is not entirely spoiled by it. She not a snob, but she moves with the air of an aristocrat.
"Henry/Henrietta" is our black Silkie. Even though I'm pretty sure that Henry is a Hen, I love calling 'her' Henry because to me she looks and acts like a curious old man. I think that she may be my most favorite. She was originally one of the 'runts'. When she was a little chick I thought she might have some kind of head injury because she never seemed to be doing what the rest of the chicks in the brooder were doing. Once the chicks moved outside though, she blossomed! She's plenty big now and I have come to realize that Henry just marches to a different beat. She's just not a 'follower'; she explores the world in her own way, and is actually very adverturous. I like that in people, so why wouldn't I love that in a chick?! If Henry ends up being a Roo, we are going to have to risk keeping her/him. Hopefully I can placate any annoyed neighbors with free eggs.
"Ginger" is the lightest colored of our EE's. She's very close to the same main body color as "Honey", and she has a little dark/blackish triangle on her back a little before her tail feathers. She's the easiest to tell apart from the other EE's.
"Ruby" is the darkest/reddest of our 4 EE's.
MORE TO COME....
Greetings! This is Cindy M, aka: greenpixies. My husband and I currently live in northwest Louisiana in the small town of Natchitoches. Mike is an Academic Librarian at the small university here. I am an unemployed Social Worker and Horticulture Therapist working hard to develop our own 'urban farm'. We live in a great old house that needs lots of love and work, and that keeps me as busy as the gardens do. Here's a photo of the front of the house after we put in most of the front gardens but had not worked on the house exterior yet.
We are old hands with shelter dogs and our current rescue is Dixie, a Blue Tick Hound who was abandoned and living 'on the street' downtown. She is a crazy, loving, demanding, gorgeous animal. Over the past few years we lost our Lab mixes: Winnie and Sophie, RIP! Here are photos of the current and past canine brood.
We are new to the backyard chicken world and our first flock contains 14 chicks. When I list the breeds, you'll know that we were interested in the chicks as pets equally if not more than their food production potential. First, we have 7 Silkies: 1 Black, 1Buff, 2 Partridge, and 3 White. Next we have 3 Standard Brahmas: 1 Light, 1 Buff, 1 Dark. And we have 4 Ameracauna/EasterEggers. The EE's were our more 'practical' choice. Can't wait to see (and eat!) their colored eggs. The EE's and Brahmas are all pullets but we could only get straight run Silkies so we are waiting to see if we will have to cull some of the flock. So far I'm pretty sure we have at least 2 Silkie Roos: 1 Beardless white and one Bearded Partridge. But they're only 11 weeks old, so the next few weeks should show more development in combs and wattles, etc. Here's some photos of the flock members.
We've named about half of them so far.
"Mama Brahma" is our Light Brahma. She is the matriarch of the flock. Not bossy, just fearless, always first in line, and checking on the other chicks. She reminds Mike and I of his late mother. His nickname for his Mom was 'Big Mama'. She was a large boned, beautiful, blond woman of very strong character. She was a nurturer and protector of her son. "Mama B" is blond too. It's uncanny. She's one of our favorites.
"Honey" is our Buff Brahma. We think of her as the sort of 'super model' of the group. I believe that she knows just how crazy good-looking that she is, but is not entirely spoiled by it. She not a snob, but she moves with the air of an aristocrat.
"Henry/Henrietta" is our black Silkie. Even though I'm pretty sure that Henry is a Hen, I love calling 'her' Henry because to me she looks and acts like a curious old man. I think that she may be my most favorite. She was originally one of the 'runts'. When she was a little chick I thought she might have some kind of head injury because she never seemed to be doing what the rest of the chicks in the brooder were doing. Once the chicks moved outside though, she blossomed! She's plenty big now and I have come to realize that Henry just marches to a different beat. She's just not a 'follower'; she explores the world in her own way, and is actually very adverturous. I like that in people, so why wouldn't I love that in a chick?! If Henry ends up being a Roo, we are going to have to risk keeping her/him. Hopefully I can placate any annoyed neighbors with free eggs.
"Ginger" is the lightest colored of our EE's. She's very close to the same main body color as "Honey", and she has a little dark/blackish triangle on her back a little before her tail feathers. She's the easiest to tell apart from the other EE's.
"Ruby" is the darkest/reddest of our 4 EE's.
MORE TO COME....