We have lived on Plum Crazy Farm in Newnan, GA since 1996. We have 40 acres about 35 minutes south of Atlanta and just love our town. The country music superstar Alan Jackson was born and raised here and has written frequently of Newnan in his songs.
My husband Pat and I have two wonderful sons who seemingly didn't mind not giving up suburban teen packdom for the joys of being raised with horses, chickens, dogs and cats. Keegan is at now LSU and Sean is at UGA.
We decided to add chickens to our family shortly after purchasing our farm in 1996. I remember shortly before we got our first chicks, I read a book called "Raising Your Backyard Flock". In the book, the author made all kinds of claims about chickens and their personalities and Pat and I were skeptical... we had both been around chickens at our grandparent's farms but didn't remember chickens as being entertaining. We purchased a variety of female chicks (we started learning terminology - pullet, not to snicker when someone said "cock", etc) online including Aracauna, Rhode Island Red, Light Brahma, Leghorn, and Polish. And you know what? That book was right! Those chickens did have personality! They were absolutely awesome! Some were friendly, some were shy and our rooster Clarence - purchased separately - was hateful but totally and shamefully gorgeous.
We had a terrible accident when a neighbor's dog literally pried the door off the back of our coop and sadly killed our girls and Clarence when they were 9 years old and we were heartbroken. We strongly reinforced the coop and the neighbors have since kept the dogs permanently up or in their house so all is well there. You have to maintain neighborhood peace.
We got new girls and kept adding to the flock and then last year we purchased a new chicken coop through My Pet Chicken. We do not have the time nor talent to build a coop like the ones we have seen on the Coop page on BYC. So our coop is being shown here rather than on the COOP forum. But it is lovely and has done a very good job except there is some leakage around the egg box that we have been addressing. I am adding that in case anyone is interested in purchasing this model. But overall we quite like it.
This is our big coop for the larger girls. We had to separate the smaller girls and our blind chicken Yuna. They have their own digs.
This is the coop for the Millies and Silkies and Miss Yuna Belle. We like this coop a lot. Only complaint is the roosting pole is a little low so I will get a doweling rod and some cookies and mount it a little higher and it is fixed. No big deal,
Some of the chickens enjoy munching on some greens....
Milles and Silkies milling around...
That's it for today from Plum Crazy. We'll see you soon.
DECORATING IDEA
I wanted to share a fun idea that is a great way to show off different colored and size eggs from your "girls". I found this cool lamp at Hobby Lobby that is the type you can fill with seashells or other collectibles so I decided to fill mine with eggs from our farm. I also collect eggs that have dropped out of birds' nests and let them set for a year or two so they won't explode.
I also have a couple of Emu and Chinese Red Chinese Pheasant eggs in the mix. I blow out my eggs, wash and dry them thoroughly and they make an interesting lamp base. The table in an antique ironing board dating from the Civil War.
Living on a farm, I like to have a unique but clean decorating style. I like to mix folk art, antiques and lovely family heirlooms to create a sense of home and comfort for all who visit.
My husband Pat and I have two wonderful sons who seemingly didn't mind not giving up suburban teen packdom for the joys of being raised with horses, chickens, dogs and cats. Keegan is at now LSU and Sean is at UGA.
We decided to add chickens to our family shortly after purchasing our farm in 1996. I remember shortly before we got our first chicks, I read a book called "Raising Your Backyard Flock". In the book, the author made all kinds of claims about chickens and their personalities and Pat and I were skeptical... we had both been around chickens at our grandparent's farms but didn't remember chickens as being entertaining. We purchased a variety of female chicks (we started learning terminology - pullet, not to snicker when someone said "cock", etc) online including Aracauna, Rhode Island Red, Light Brahma, Leghorn, and Polish. And you know what? That book was right! Those chickens did have personality! They were absolutely awesome! Some were friendly, some were shy and our rooster Clarence - purchased separately - was hateful but totally and shamefully gorgeous.
We had a terrible accident when a neighbor's dog literally pried the door off the back of our coop and sadly killed our girls and Clarence when they were 9 years old and we were heartbroken. We strongly reinforced the coop and the neighbors have since kept the dogs permanently up or in their house so all is well there. You have to maintain neighborhood peace.
We got new girls and kept adding to the flock and then last year we purchased a new chicken coop through My Pet Chicken. We do not have the time nor talent to build a coop like the ones we have seen on the Coop page on BYC. So our coop is being shown here rather than on the COOP forum. But it is lovely and has done a very good job except there is some leakage around the egg box that we have been addressing. I am adding that in case anyone is interested in purchasing this model. But overall we quite like it.
This is our big coop for the larger girls. We had to separate the smaller girls and our blind chicken Yuna. They have their own digs.
This is the coop for the Millies and Silkies and Miss Yuna Belle. We like this coop a lot. Only complaint is the roosting pole is a little low so I will get a doweling rod and some cookies and mount it a little higher and it is fixed. No big deal,
Some of the chickens enjoy munching on some greens....
Milles and Silkies milling around...
That's it for today from Plum Crazy. We'll see you soon.
DECORATING IDEA
I wanted to share a fun idea that is a great way to show off different colored and size eggs from your "girls". I found this cool lamp at Hobby Lobby that is the type you can fill with seashells or other collectibles so I decided to fill mine with eggs from our farm. I also collect eggs that have dropped out of birds' nests and let them set for a year or two so they won't explode.
I also have a couple of Emu and Chinese Red Chinese Pheasant eggs in the mix. I blow out my eggs, wash and dry them thoroughly and they make an interesting lamp base. The table in an antique ironing board dating from the Civil War.
Living on a farm, I like to have a unique but clean decorating style. I like to mix folk art, antiques and lovely family heirlooms to create a sense of home and comfort for all who visit.