A Bit on the Gang

Well, I'm not where I can start posting pics yet, but I suppose I can at least give you some wordage about the gang. Mike and I live on a small plot. It's a little over a half acre, I believe. We have a nice neighbor on one side, Henry. He's divorced with kids that stay with him part time. He's a good guy. He's always offering to lend us things like a hoe for the garden, scratch when we run out before I can get to TSC or things like that. On the other side used to be Ron and Susanne, but they, too, are divorcing. They put their house on the market and moved away. Now the home is empty and up for sale. Don't know much about the folks across the street. Mr. Wade lives across the field behind the house. He owns the field. This Spring he plowed a few rows for Henry and us to plant. I have squash, canteloupes, watermelons, okra, tomatoes, beans, radishes, eggplants, corn and cucumbers growing. Sometimes I let the hens out and have to watch them. They try to get in the garden to scratch.

We have two dogs, Max and Minnie. Max is a Toy Poodle. He's smart and loyal. He's a good dog and very "motherly". Minnie is a Rat Terrier mix. She's over weight. She loves to eat and eats almost anything. I try to keep her on a diet, but she sneaks in bites of cat food and everything. We have two cats, Elvis and Priscilla. Elvis is about 6 years old and all black. He spends a lot of time outside. He's fixed and has no front claws because he was supposed to be an indoor cat. But he wouldn't let that happen. Prissy is a gray tabby. She had kittens in April, but there was no way we could keep them in our little place. I tried to find homes for them, but no one would take them. They went to the pound. I hope they were adopted out, but I'm not going to ask. Prissy stays inside a lot and is still young. She's not even a year old. She was way too young to have babies, anyway. We have a Quaker parrot. Her name is Becky. We got her as payment for a debt. She used to be so mean to me. She tried to bite me every time I walked by. She's changed lately, though. I can't pick her up, but she lets me change her food and water and pet her head. We also have a couple of fish tanks. One has a bunch of Fire Belly Mickey Mouse Platys in it. The other has two African Cichlids, two Opaline Gouramis, and an African Brown Knife.

Then there's the chickens. We have four roosters. Perogi is the first rooster we got. He's a Rhode Island Red. He is so mean. He will spur you in a New York minute. He even tries to spur or bite me through the fence when I feed him. He's by himself at the moment. Bojangles is our Dominique rooster. He's very young. He's in a round with a buff hen, but he's not messing with her. Bucky is our Bantam rooster. He's pretty fiesty, too. Mr. Wade brought us a bantam hen for him. Hopefully she will start sitting soon. She had nine eggs this morning. Henry's bantam started sitting at 13 eggs. Then we have Col. Sanders. I don't know what he is. I don't even know if it's a he or a she. I thought she layed an egg once, but someone suggested it was left from the white hen that had been in the round. Mr. Wade swears it's a rooster, but he don't crow. We have four Buff hens that don't have names (yet). We have 10 black Sex Link hens (also nameless) that are still a bit young for laying. And we have 13 White Leghorns that were rescued from Perdue that lay very large brown eggs. One leghorn has a gimp foot. She doesn't lay. Her name is Dana, after a high school friend also with a gimp foot (lol). We have two bantam chicks that we got from Henry, and should be getting one or two more from him. I think one is a rooster, but I would prefer if the others were hens. I have a small Red/Leghorn mix chick that we hatched in the incubator. His name is Little Chicken. He follows us everywhere and comes when we call. Yesterday her rode around on my shoulder. His sister died in an escape attempt their first night outside. And we have five bitties that just hatched this weekend.

That is our gang. Yeah, I've put a lot up here. But it's a necessary introduction. Hopefully I can start posting pics soon. Hope you like what you have read, and will stick around for a while!!

Chicken Fever

My first blog will be just a little history. Mike and I moved into our first owned home together in November 2008, just before Thanksgiving. There was a dog pen in the back yard we didn't know what to do with. We joked about putting chickens in it. Then, Henry, our neighbor, got some Buff hens and a Buff rooster. So we started talking a little more seriously about it. Of course, neither of of knew a thing about "chickening". We started looking. Then Mike surprised me. One night about 9 p.m. I heard a truck pull up in our back yard. It was Henry. He had found some White Leghorns that were raised for Perdue. They were escapees, so we got a good deal on them. We had 14 hens and a Rhode Island Red rooster that he got the farmer to throw in for us. I started getting frustrated because we initially got them just for the eggs. It took 10 weeks before they started laying. Then Henry got some bitties and raised them. Just recently, we bought all of Henry's chickens from him. He bought his for his kids, but they had little interest in them. He hatched our first 2 in an incubator 5 weeks ago. One died after trying to escape at 2 weeks old. So we have on left, a small speckled rooster. We had 5 more hatch on
Sunday, and there seemed to be one more trying to hatch this morning. Our fingers are crossed. We now have 13 White Leghorn hens, 4 Buff hens, 10 Black Sex Link hens, a Rhode Island Red rooster, a Dominique rooster, a funny looking something (not sure if it's a rooster or hen. Looks like a rooster, but doesn't crow), a mixed bantam rooster and hen, and all our little bitties. It's pretty fun. But this is what I'll be blogging about. Our little chicken farm.