Goodbye Olive

Earlier this week, it became clear that Olive was a rooster. All of the sudden we started hearing an ear-piercing "cock-a-doodle-doo". It also became quite clear when she started growing a huge waddle, comb, and bright tail feathers. Luckily, we gave him away to a good farm and the girls don't seem to mind his absence too much.

Today, I let the girls free-range in the yard and they had a blast! I think that Penny, Kettle, and Snickers are becoming a flock!

This weekend, in place of Olive, I'm going to purchase a chicken from the Chicken Swap located at the Benton County fair grounds. I'm either going to purchase a silkie or polish. The pictures are listed below(polish on top, silkie on bottom):

PS-Vote in the poll and comment on which chicken breed you think I should purchase! Also, I am open to suggestions for other types of cool chicken breeds!

Treat Power!

During lunchtime, I let Kettle, Penny, Olive, and Snickers outside. I brought a leftover corncob out to give them as a treat. Snickers had a hay day! Wherever I went, she would follow, desperately hoping for a handout. Even the chicks enjoyed the tasty morsels left behind. A local western scrub jay also enjoyed the treat when the Girls and I left!

Kettle and Olive are still fighting it out to see who will rein supreme and be the highest on the pecking order. Who do you think will end up being highest? Lowest?

Thank you for visiting Happy Chickens Blog!

Peeping Explorers

This evening, I let the chicks roam outside in my flower patch. Even at a young age, chickens love scratching around in the dirt for bugs! They even took a dust bath!

Also, the fight to determine the pecking order is beginning. For those who don't know, the pecking order is the social ranking of hens established naturally within a flock. So far, Olive seems to be the most aggressive, especially towards Kettle.

When the chicks are two to three weeks old (like mine), a small perch should be installed in their brooder (chick house). Most birds tend to prefer perching as a method of sitting.

As the chicks become older, I will make sure to take pictures of them and post so that you can see their progress!

Thank you for visiting Happy Chickens Blog!

Welcome Home, Baby Peeps!

Last week, I received three new baby peepers! Their names (from left to right in picture) are Penny, Kettle and Olive! Even though they are all somewhat mixed breeds, Penny is mainly an araucana. Kettle is a buff orpington and Olive is a plymouth barred rock/buff orpington cross breed.

They are very sweet birds and I am training them to be used to people and handling. Amazingly, these chicks already have almost all of their wing feathers in even though they are only about a week old (they grow that fast!!).

I can't wait until they grow all of their feathers in! I will keep posting every week so that you can see their growing progress!

Thanks for reading my Happy Chickens Blog.

Snow Chickens

Snow!

Winter is still here, even in late February! A deep snow washed over Corvallis closing the schools. I took this opportunity to take a couple pictures of my chickens. They were very reluctant to come out at first. As the day wore on and the snow melted, they clambered out to experience the bitter, cold ice.

Snow can be dangerous to a chicken as they can easily receive frostbite on the tender parts of their body (this would include the comb, wattle, and feet)! We put a heating lamp inside the henhouse to prevent possible frostbite in the night. The outside water dishes can also freeze. To prevent this from happening we put a lukewarm heating pad under it, so the girls can receive a fresh water supply.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Snickers and Checkers and Sweetie! March third was the girls' birthday. I gave them a special blueberry, millet treat to celebrate their being two years old!