Learning curve

We had our first chicken tragedy this month; we lost a girl.

We had an outbreak of coccidiosis, a soil-borne pathogen that's worst in wet, warm conditions (which is the definition of this summer). The girls were all kind of droopy, but poor miss Berry got it first and had it worst. It took me too long to diagnose it to save her; the other girls all responded to the medicine and are back to their perky selves, but we are down to five chickens now.

I love all my chickens, but Berry was special, so it was extra sad to lose her.  I'm frustrated by my lack of knowledge and how that affected my flock. I think it's important to acknowledge that our path to being urban farmers is not completely smooth and easy; we've got some serious learning to do.

Chicken update!

They just keep on getting cuter!

The girls are outside, loving the fresh air and random music coming from car stereos and random passers by who seem to be working on their upcoming albums. Urban chickens appear to be unfazed by sirens and car alarms. Lawn mowers, however are a different story. The girls lose their tiny minds when we have to mow.

And the eggs are glorious! We've been getting 4-5 eggs a day, cute little pullet eggs with lovely orange yolks. The other day, I found an extra special egg in the coop.

Isn't that the cutest thing you ever saw? I think I'll make the tiniest omelet ever.

What came first?

Holy smokes!!!!

We've got our first egg! (Ignore the messy shelf, please.) Miss Berry was looking for a quiet, safe spot to lay her first egg. She didn't find it in the tool zone.

Too much sawdust, too many sharp objects. Nope. The best spot for a chicken to find a little privacy is apparently the ledge in the back entryway.

It's like a Where's Waldo puzzle; a hen can feel safe going about her business, knowing no predators will disturb her in the midst of all the plastic bags and egg cartons!

Notice the "cage free" egg carton? There's absolutely no doubt that this egg was from a free range chicken. Well, free ranging in the basement at least.

And why are there chickens laying eggs inside my little house on the Northside? The coop is almost done! We're just making it absolutely predator proof.

Don't mind me, just securing the inside of the coop basement so the girls don't get taken by a stray dog or wild raccoon. We're so close!

Too. Much. Cute!!!!

The babies are getting so big! Amazing how time flies when you're hanging out with chickens!

They started out as adorable little fluffballs, but now they're turning into daring escape artists.

Their wings are starting to get bigger, so they've mastered the art of jumping on top of their feeder and peeking out over the top of the brooder, which is super cute. Until you realize that they can get out and run around and leave little presents all over the carpet.

So we've had to modify the brooder a little bit to make sure they aren't running amok while we're off at work!

Sorry, girls. It's for your own good!

The coop is coming along nicely; we're aiming for stylish and aesthetically pleasing (that's P's role), and super cheap (that would be my role).

And every once in a while I get the ambition to scrape off a little more 90-year-old original linoleum--the real kind, with jute backing and really impressive glue.

That's so much prettier than the checkerboard! Why would you do that to such a lovely floor?

Excavation!

The chickies continue to be absolutely adorable; P fell asleep on the sofa the other night with a chick resting on his shoulder. I got one to fall asleep in my hands; the goal is to have the tamest, most people-friendly chickens on the Northside.

We had a couple visitors to the farm too! These sweet girls had a lot of suggestions for names for the chicks. We're naming the Ameraucana Julia, but I already forgot which one was supposed to be Ruby. And Pearl. And Golden Feathers. But these chickens are going to be so well socialized!

And because the chicks aren't enough excitement, I decided to start some floor excavation in the kitchen! During my little kitchen reno three years ago, I discovered this tiny patch of maple flooring under the sink (under several layers of vinyl).

And it gave me hope that the floors might be lovely. 

I already got rid of the horrible falling-down plastic tiles. And that dreadful paint color. Now it's time to take on the floors. I suppose checkerboard peel-and-stick tile has its place. Maybe in a 1950s themed rec room. But this lovely kitchen deserves better!

 

Seriously, these cabinets need a floor that matches.

And it's my job to make that happen!

Livestock!

Time to expand the homestead!

The fish are fun enough, I guess, but they're lacking in charisma and charm. So, we've decided to add some new livestock to the tiny farm.

Baby chicks! We decided to stop being those people who always talk about how much they want to keep laying hens, and to start being those people who actually keep them!

We got them from Egg Plant in St. Paul, the only place I could find to buy a half dozen baby chicks. We got one each of 6 different breeds (Ameraucana, Barred Rock, Black Austrolorp, Buff Orpington, California White, and Gold Star, if you pay attention to those things), and I'm crossing my fingers that none of them will turn out to be a rooster because then we'll have some hard choices to make.

Right now, they're living in a bin in the living room (so it's easy to look at them)!

Besties!!

Next step: chicken coop! They'll live inside for a month or so, then they'll need to move outside to a coop. Which we haven't started yet. Except in our minds--we've definitely started thinking and dreaming about how cute it will be!

If anyone has some coop building materials lying around, I wouldn't say no! ;)

Tight spaces!

More adventures in landlording; we were in bed at a bed and breakfast when we got a call that one of our furnaces was out. Thank goodness for Home Service Plus; they came out and fixed it. Twice, because the first fix wasn't quite right.

And then we got a text that the water had stopped flowing in a half bath. Fortunately, they have more than one bathroom in that house, so it wasn't a total emergency. Turns out that half bath is over a crawl space, and one that was well insulated to keep heat from leaking into it from the basement. Seriously people; don't put plumbing on uninsulated exterior walls, especially when it passes through an uninsulated crawl space first.

P got to thaw out the pipes, since I had places to be. But I got there just in time to help out with the heat tape.

So I got to army crawl up into this tiny space, which was just big enough for a half-pint sized lady to squeeze in to. It made me grateful I had crossed "spelunker" off my list of potential careers. And after 30 minutes of scraping my knuckles and getting fiberglass insulation in my sleeves, the problem was solved!