I don't know how this happened so quickly but I have the chicken bug! It all started with a friend of ours asking if we would watch their flock of 6 while they were on vacation for two weeks this summer. The hardest part was driving the 5 minutes to their house every morning and evening! And I just loved watching their little flock do their thing. Soon my friend was texting from vacation offering to give us their old mini coop. At first I said no but the wheels were turning. And soon I had convinced myself it was possible even in our small yard. My husband and daughters needed no convincing. Before my friend even arrived home from vacation we had ordered our chicks!

I wanted to end up with a flock of 3 (no one told me about chicken math) so we order 4 chicks from Meyer Hatchery - a Barred Rock (Jiji), a Black Australorp (Ebony), a Buff Orpington (Luna), and a Golden Sex Link (Rosey).

The funny thing is that we got the baby Buff Orpington and the Golden Sex Link mixed up so the Buff ended up being named Rosey and the GSL was Luna. Then sadly Rosey died after just a few days.

And this is where the chicken math kicked in. Remember I wanted a flock of 3. We only got four in case one died or turned out to be a rooster. But then we lost one so early that I worried that we might lose another and we still had the risk of roosters. And it turns out I really wanted 4. So I found a English Orpington breeder who had chicks that were only a couple days younger. So off we went to get two more. Yes two! Chicken math!

So Bella (Blue/Black English Orpington) and Hedwig (Splash English Orpington) joined the flock. And then we were 5. It's been fun watching and documenting their growth.

But then we soon began suspecting Hedwig was a roo.

And as much as we liked this guy we couldn't keep him since we live very much in a neighborhood. Our neighbors have been wonderful but I didn't want to push it by waking them up every morning! A call to the breeder, and we had plans to return Hedwig. But I was still caught in the grips of chicken math. And I had gotten really used to the idea of a flock of 5 - so back to craigs list I went. This time looking for a slightly older pullet. And I found one. So we added Lacy - our 6 months old Silver Laced Wyandotte (after all I had been really wanting a laced Wyandotte!). For one night we had 6 flockers but the next day Hedwig went back to the breeder at 9 weeks.


Lacy is currently still in quarantine but is a sweetheart and already laying.

Yesterday, we sprung her from quarantine for a bit. We took her to the far end of our yard away from the rest of the flock. She had a great outing helping me clean out the garden and taking a long dustbath.



Three more weeks and we will begin the process of introducing Lacy to her young flock mates.

Luna (Golden Sex Link)

Bella (Black English Orpington)

JiJi (Barred Rock)

Ebony (Black Australorp)

Another perk is they have given me such great info for starting a blog. I found a love of chickens and a love of writing!
http://www.coopview.blogspot.com