It was a weekend of new experiences for the chickens here on our urban farm. Yesterday made it ten days since Peggy and Tina got their Marek's shots, so they were officially allowed to go outside for the first time ever. Not a moment too soon, if you ask them. They were getting really rowdy in their inside brooder box. I mean, look at these two little trouble-makers.



Peggy and Tina took to the chicken tractor pretty quickly. They only stood frozen in terror for about 60 seconds or so before they started checking out their new digs. Yesterday, they were down by Lisa's coop, because that's one of the only available flat spots in the yard. Today, we moved them to their own personal chicken tier, which Dakota dug out early this morning.



Here they are inside the tractor. Can you believe how big they are already?



Lisa is quite curious about the new girls, as you might imagine. She has checked them out from every angle through the wire mesh of the tractor. She and Tina were practically beak to beak today. I'm not sure if she's decided what she thinks of the new chicks yet, but we're hoping they end up as friends. I don't plan to force it, though. I have read about babies getting injured in fights with bigger, more dominant chickens. I think several weeks of staring at each other through the wire will be important before they actually meet out in the yard. That should give Peggy and Tina time to grow a bit bigger, too.

I can already tell that Tina is going to be the leader of their little team. Whenever I go into their brooder with my camera or reach into the tractor to pick them up, Peggy runs behind Tina to hide. Like this:



Tina's a good protector, so hopefully she'll take good care of her smaller sister when they move in with this no-nonsense lady.



Don't you feel chastised by her disapproving expression? Lisa's actually a pretty sweet girl, most of the time. Although, the appearance of the new girls has gotten her a bit riled up. She's been hooting and hollering quite a lot this weekend. Lisa has always had a big, impressive cluck she uses to remind us how important she is, but she's been doing it even more the last couple of days. Dakota thinks she wants more attention. He may be right.


Lisa's Big Cluck from Audrey on Vimeo.

Finally, by special request from one of Lisa's many admirers, here's a full-body shot of her. Here you go Sarah! I hope this helps you figure out the sex of your Rhode Island Red.

Dakota and I were in Iowa last weekend, and we got to attend the Warren County Fair on Friday. Like most fairs, it had rides and funnel cakes and 4-H competitions. Of course, I was most excited to check out the poultry section. I mean, wouldn't you be?

We had to wander through several livestock barns and a few craft areas, but we did eventually find the poultry barn. Yes, only one barn of chickens and ducks. Can you believe it? (I guess it was a smallish fair. I'm sure the Iowa State Fair has several large barns full of chickens.) I was absurdly excited to check out the 4-H chickens. I guess I really am chicken-obsessed.

They had quite a few Aracaunas, although almost all were white, which I hadn't seen before. They had a really nice big Rhode Island Red, and some other classic breeds. There were also a lot of English Game Birds, which were so pretty and really small. They were cute but regal, I'd say. And there were lots of Silkies, including this fluffy lady. So cute!



Anyway, it was fun to see some fancy chickens in person. I wonder if I would have raised a chicken for 4-H if I'd grown up in the country. I think my future kids will probably really like our chickens. Dakota had a few chickens growing up, before he moved into town.

While at the fair, we also saw some prize-winning vegetables. Look at these zucchini! I wish I could grow squash that big.



Dakota's uncle, Tim, who lives in Des Moines, was growing some huge zucchini in his back yard. They were over a foot long and really thick. I think it's the super-rich Iowa soil, and all the rain they get. Plus, I think Tim is a pretty good gardener.

I do finally have a zucchini growing on one of my plants, though. I just hope it grows to a normal size. No blue ribbon necessary.

I finally did it! I got the chicks vaccinated for Marek's disease. It only took me two weeks of researching, calling, rescheduling and ordering online--plus a mid-day drive to Santa Monica. But, Peggy and Tina got their Marek's shots, and in 10 days they should be okay to go outside and be on the same ground that Lisa scratches around on.

I had heard rumors on the chicken message boards of a avian vet who saw chickens in Santa Monica. I emailed some folks through the board, and was able to confirm that there are vets at VCA Wilshire Animal Hospital in Santa Monica who will see chickens. So, I called and set up Peggy and Tina with an appointment. I mentioned I wanted to get them Marek's vaccinations when I set up the appointment, but when I called back a few days before the appointment to confirm, they revealed that they don't have that vaccine. Dang!

After some scrambling, I came up with a new plan. I would order the vaccine online from Jeffers Livestock, and the vet would administer it for me. The vaccine was FedExed to me this morning, and Peggy, Tina and I drove to Santa Monica this afternoon to get their shots, peeping all the way.

The chicks were very good when they got their vaccines. They didn't struggle or cry or anything. It's a small subcutaneous shot, so I guess it doesn't hurt too much. I watched the vet when he did it, and it actually looked pretty simple. I bet I could do it myself if I ever needed to. That might be a good idea, because the appointment wasn't cheap. The things I do for these chickens.

All the vet techs were cooing over Peggy and Tina while we waited for our appointment. They are pretty cute. And look how big they are getting! The girls were weighed at their appointment, and it turns out that Tina weighs a lot more than Peggy. She seems a lot taller, too. I guess that's the difference in their breeds. It'll be interesting to see how else their development differs as they get older.



As you can see, they've transitioned to pine shavings and a starter perch, and grown lots more feathers. Chicks grow up so fast. Sigh.

Last weekend, I decided that ordering chicks from a hatchery was not going to be a good option for us. So few places will ship small quantities, and no place will ship only two. Plus, we needed to get some chicks as soon as possible, since Lisa is all alone in her run since Jackie died.

So, last Saturday, we drove out to Agoura Feed in Agoura Hills, just north of Los Angeles, and got two little babies. Here they are: Peggy and Tina.



Peggy, the yellow and brown one, is either a Arucana or Ameraucana, although probably not a pure bred version of either one. These chickens are also known as Easter Eggers, because they lay light blue or green eggs. She's such a pretty chick, with stripes down her back, black "eyeliner" and fluffy cheeks. Dakota thinks she looks like a cartoon character. Eventually, I think those fluffy cheeks will grow into a feather "beard." For now, they are just extremely cute.



Tina is a black sex-link. Right now, she's basically all black. But she may end up with some gold feathers as well. She has a tiny pink comb, and her legs are black and pink. Not sure how that'll all turn out when she's older. She'll lay brown eggs when she grows up, and should be around the same size as Lisa.

The chicks really seem happy together. They snuggle when they sleep and spend a lot of time chasing each other around. And, of course, they're both peeping like crazy.

On a more cheerful note, Lisa has been doing splendidly lately. She's laying up a storm, and her egg size has increased. Here are a few of her eggs, just before I made them into a tasty scramble. I really do think her eggs are more delicious than the ones we get at the store.



Lisa is a very funny girl, and she and I have become good friends. When I let her out of the run in the morning or after work, she follows me around the yard for a bit, just to see what I'm up to. She's a very curious chicken. She also loves Crocs, particularly my orange ones. She likes the bright color, and often stands there staring at them and wondering, "What are those tiny pink things I can see through the holes?" (Answer: my toes.)

And check out her nice big comb and wattles. Snazzy!



Speaking of tasty eats, I have some really nice veggies getting close to harvest, including eggplant, tomato, green beans and corn. I can't wait to try some beans straight from the vine. My dad and I grew them in our garden when I was a kid, and they were so delicious. It's been fun to watch the corn grow, too. I'm sure it reminds Dakota of home. (Okay, probably not.) But I bet the corn will be tasty when it's finally ready.



Annoyingly, my zucchini has only produced male flowers so far, but I can see some little female flowers developing on the plant. (Not to be crass, but they look like tiny green penises. Am I the only one who thinks that? Probably not. Hee hee.) So, hopefully it won't be too long until we're inundated with fresh squash.

It's been a difficult few weeks, chicken-wise.

Last weekend, we had to put our new chicken, Becky, down. It was a really really hard decision, but I think it was the right one. Becky had been showing some clear signs of respiratory disease: a smelly crust in her nostrils, sneezing and a rattle in her chest when she breathed. I did a lot of research in my chicken books and online, and, unfortunately, I realized that she seemed to have infectious coryza. This is a very serious and contaigous disease found in poultry. She likely caught it at the feed store, since she was in quarantine the whole time we had her at our house. I looked into treatment, but the overwhelming consensus seemed to be that we should cull her. Even if she had got over her symptoms, Becky would have always been a carrier of coryza and would have spread it to Lisa and Jackie. So, it was the right thing to do both for Becky and for our other chickens.

Of course, killing Becky was the last thing we wanted to do. Many tears were shed. I wanted to do it humanely, but was pretty certain that neither Dakota nor I would be able to cut off her head, which is the generally agreed upon quickest and least cruel way to kill a chicken. It turned out, I was able to find a way to kill her gently. We used automobile starter fluid, which contains ether. We sprayed the fluid on some paper towels and then put a Becky in a bucket with the towels. The ether puts the chicken to sleep, and then she suffocates in her sleep. It was very sad, but I think Becky went peacefully. After she died, we had to burn Becky's body. We also either burned or washed with bleach everything else she'd ever touched. That's how serious infectious coryza is. Scary stuff.

We said goodbye to Becky on July 5. We only had her a week, but she was a very sweet and pretty little chicken. I'm sad we never got to know her.

Today, we had another tough loss. As you know, Jackie has been sick for several months now. Tonight, when I got home from work, she was lying very still on the side of the run with her legs stretched out and her eyes closed. She's certainly been weak lately, but I didn't expect to lose her this soon. I thought she was already dead, but she was still moving a bit. I tried to move her towards water in case she was dehydrated and went to call Dakota. By the time I got back to the run, Jackie had died. I was very sad to lose such a sweet chicken, and I imagine Lisa is pretty upset, too. We'll miss Jackie. I hope she's in a better chicken place now.

So, as you can imagine, things are kind of melancholy in our coop at the moment. Life must go on, though, and I plan to get some baby chicks very soon. Lisa needs some companions, as chickens are social animals and don't like to live alone.

Here's Jackie, basking in the sun, in happier times.

So, here's some more detailed information about Becky, the new girl, because I know you're dying to know more about her.

Becky came from Blacksmith's Corner, which is a good-sized feed store in Bellflower, a city near Long Beach. We got her on Sunday on our way back from Sunset Beach. The feed store had a pretty good selection of very cute baby chicks, but we wanted to get a chicken that was a bit older so she could hold her own with Jackie and Lisa. I am guessing Becky is between 2 and 3 months old. She's fully feathered, but still pretty small.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Becky is a black sex link. The benefits of sex links are (a) they are supposed to be hardier and (b) you can tell their sex at birth because pullets and roosters have different coloring. Becky has very pretty feathers. She's black with a gold chest, and she has nice black legs as well. It's nice to have a different-looking chicken, just to mix it up a bit. Sex link hens are also known as excellent egg-layers and tend to have lovely personalities. Hopefully, Becky will live up to her genetics.

Unfortunately, Becky can't hang out with her new sisters just yet. She has to stay in quarantine for at least four weeks. This is to make sure she didn't contract any chicken diseases at the feed store. If she is sick, we don't want her infecting Jackie and Lisa. For now, she's living in a stylish chicken tractor, designed and built by well-known chicken architect, Dakota. She stays in the tractor during the day, and at night she sleeps in Jackie and Lisa's old brooder box.



Now, I know what you're thinking: You've told us all about Becky's breed and living situation, but what's she like, you know, as a chicken? Well, so far, she's pretty low key. She still peeps, like a chick, and she's fairly docile--except when you pick her up. She'll get used to being held after a while, I'm sure. I'm excited to watch her grow up and to see what her personality turns out like.

This is our new chicken, Becky, who we just picked up this afternoon. She's a black sex link, which means she's part Rhode Island Red and part Barred Rock. She should end up about the same size as Lisa and lay brown eggs as well. For now, though, she's just going to concentrate on growing bigger and getting a clean bill of health so she can get out of quarantine and into the coop with her chicken sisters.

More on all that later. For now, please enjoy the cuteness that is Becky.

It was an exciting morning at our house today. Lisa did something pretty thrilling: She laid her very first real egg! That's it at the top of the post, as you may have guessed.

Lisa has been working on laying a real egg for a few days now. On Saturday, she laid a soft-shelled egg. Or, I should say I think that's what happened. Dakota and I went out for a fancy dinner that night, so we missed the actual event. But, on Sunday morning, I found some evidence of a soft shelled egg in the coop. Specifically, there was something that looked almost like part of a snake egg--white and soft--plus half of a yolky soft egg-shaped thing on the floor of the run. I was actually pretty surprised to see it, since Lisa is only 18 weeks old. But, I guess she's just precocious. I found something similar in the run on Monday evening.

This was all very exciting, at least for me, and I have been trying to make sure that Lisa is getting enough calcium in her diet, to help firm up the egg shell. I ended up baking some clean shells from some store-bought eggs in the oven for 30 mins on 250, as suggested on the BackyardChickens forums. Then I crumbled them up and gave them to Lisa, hoping she'd eat a few. It's tough to tell if she went for them.

I looked around and didn't see anything of note when I let the chickens out of the coop in this morning. But, Lisa did head back into the coop after a short visit to the feeder. Dakota put a snazzy new nest box on the coop on Sunday, and Lisa is a big fan, so I thought she might just want to sit in it a bit more.

Then, just as I was packing my lunch for work, Dakota called up to me from the yard with some exciting news: Lisa laid an egg AND she laid it in the nest box. (Apparently, many people have a hard time convincing their chickens to lay in the nest box, but I guess our Lisa is a chicken genius.) Of course, I immediately rushed down to the coop to see, and there it was. An egg!

It's a bit on the small side, and the shell is thin at both ends, but it's definitely a real egg. Dakota and I admired it for a while, and then popped it in the fridge. I haven't cracked it yet. Maybe we will tomorrow morning.

We couldn't be prouder of Lisa. Hopefully she'll keep up the good work. Now if I could just convince Jackie to get healthy!

My summer garden is really coming along nicely, and there should hopefully be a few delicious veggies ready to harvest in a couple of weeks.

This year, I'm growing a few things I've never grown before, including eggplants. These are actually plants I foolishly started last Fall, because I mistakenly thought they were winter vegetables. In fact, they need warm weather to bloom. Since California winters are so mild, I managed to keep a few plants alive until summer, and now they're thriving.

I am growing two varieties of eggplant, one small globe variety and one long skinny variety, usually used in Asian cooking.




I am also trying onions this year, both in pots and in the garden. They take a long time to mature, but I have planted them in stages, so hopefully I'll have one or two a month starting in a few weeks.



I have planted okra for the second year in a row. Last year, my okra was a complete failure. But, after a brief setback when Lisa hopped in the garden and pulled up all the okra seedlings, this year things are going pretty well so far. There are a good number of okra seedlings popping up out of the dirt. If they survive this weekend's heatwave, I think I may actually harvest some this year. Fresh okra, Mmmmmmm!

Also in the garden are tomatoes (of course), peppers, green beans, corn, zucchini, carrots, radishes and cucumbers. Some plants are doing better than others, but I think we should get a few tasty meals out of my efforts this summer. I'll keep you posted.

Sweet old Jackie is still hanging in there. It's hard to say whether she's "better" or not, but she hasn't really gotten any worse. She's still limping, but my main concern these days is her weight.

She's way too skinny, and her comb is very small and pale. Both of these symptoms made me think Jackie has some other issue beyond her limp. I finally decided to deworm her, in case she has some sort of internal parasite that's messing with her ability to get nutrients. I guess lots of people deworm their chickens, although there are not many dewormers sold specifically for chickens.

I ended up getting some SafeGuard Canine Dewormer based on the success of someone else on the Backyard Chickens message boards. They sell it at Pet Co. It comes in three 1 gram doses, and I gave her a little less than one dose each day for 3 days. I made a little mash of the dewormer powder, a bit of her food and a touch of water. She ate it right down because I fed it to her first thing in the morning when she was hungry. Today was the last day of treatment.

As I said, she hasn't necessarily improved, but I guess it may take some time. One positive sign is that her poops are more solid than they were (sorry, I know that may be too much information). On the negative side, her poops are also green. Green poops can apparently sometimes mean they are not absorbing their food. (The green is bile.) So, I am hoping to see some nice, normal, light brown solid poops from Jackie soon.

If she continues to be sick, I am not sure what to do. Other possible fits for her symptoms are coccidiosis (treatable) or lymphoid leukosis (not treatable). At least, that's what I could put together using the Internet and The Chicken Health Handbook.

It could also be something like lice, which is weird, but I guess someone else on the message board had similar chicken problems and it ended up being lice. Anyway, we'll see... I really hope the dewormer did the trick.

Cross your fingers for Jackie!

I thought I'd post some good chicken news for a change: Dakota has completed his installation of the green roof on the chicken coop. It looks great, too, and is only going to look better as time goes on.

Here he is securing wire mesh over the gravel in the roof frame. I don't know all the technical details, but basically the gravel is there to provide good drainage. Under the gravel is a sheet of resin, to keep the roof waterproof. There are drain holes drilled straight through the resin and the wood underneath it, in case extra water needs to drain.



On top of the gravel, Dakota put a mixture of cactus soil and broken clay pot. Then, he transplanted a plant from a planter on the deck into the roof soil. It's a sedum-like plant that shouldn't need much water or care, and will fill in and spread out over time.



Here's the completed project. Looks pretty classy, I think. It will also keep the coop cool this summer, when things get scorching hot around here. The chickens have yet to give an opinion on their new roof, but I have a feeling they will like it a lot.

It's been four days since we noticed Jackie's limp. Currently, I'd say she's doing fine, not great. Her energy seems high, she's eating normally and she doesn't seem particularly unhappy--if that's possible to tell in a chicken--BUT, her limp is still there. I don't think it's gotten any better, either.

Since Monday, we have been heavily dosing her with the children's liquid multi-vitamin and feeding her a mixture of special foods, including: plain yogurt, cooked oatmeal, banana, peaches and strawberries. I'm not sure if any of it is helping, and I don't want to make her fat, so I don't think I'll give her treats for much longer. I plan to keep up the vitamins for a while, though.

Luckily, Jackie is so nice and low-key, that it hasn't been too hard to give her the vitamins. I just pick her up and squeeze the dropper into her beak. Today, she opened wide for me and I got a whole dose down at once. Jackie wasn't too thrilled about that, unfortunately. She made some funny chicken noises, which I took to mean that maybe some of the vitamin went up her beak.

So, that's the chicken update. Some of my anxiety has subsided, which is good. My nervousness about Jackie's condition actually kept me up worrying for a couple of nights. But, Dakota and I have decided that, while we obviously hope she heals completely, we'll be okay with having a permanently gimpy chicken. Jackie's great, and I just want her to be healthy and happy. (Yes, I am still talking about a chicken, not a kid.)

Jackie is limping! We think she's sick. She's been more low-key, and smaller, than Lisa for a while. While Lisa runs all over the yard when they free range, Jackie usually sits under a bush and relaxes. I thought this was just a difference in temperament, but yesterday we noticed she's wobbly and unwilling to put weight on her left leg.

At first, we thought she might be injured. I looked at her leg and didn't see any cuts or swelling or anything. So, later Dakota and I looked in our chicken books to try to figure out what else it might be. Our current best guess is: chicken rickets.

Apparently, this is fairly common, although I can't find many personal stories about the treatment of chicken rickets online. Rickets seem to come from a vitamin D deficiency. The symptoms include weak legs and slower growth, both of which fit Jackie's current condition. The only place I really found info on what to do if your pet chicken gets rickets was on the forums of backyardchickens.com, and even that wasn't as specific as I would have liked.

This morning, I ran down to the drug store and got some liquid children's multi-vitamins with vitamin D and then to the grocery store for some plain yogurt. Then, we went down to check on the chickens. Jackie got her foot caught in the floor slats in the night, and I think she wasn't strong enough to pull herself out. It was very sad.

Jackie seemed really quiet and like she wasn't feeling well. I gave her a mixture of plain yogurt, liquid vitamin and cut-up bananas, Jackie's favorite treat. She ate a little yogurt and most of the banana. But, we were worried that she didn't get enough vitamins, so we put a dropper-full in her beak. She seemed to drink it down with no problem. We waited a little while, and then put her outside with Lisa (who was freaking out because we shut her out of the coop while we tended to Jackie and they hate to be apart).

Jackie did eventually perk up a little, and seemed to be somewhat okay--although still limping and sitting down, a lot. This afternoon, I got some unfiltered apple cider vinegar to put in their water. I guess it's supposed to be good for their digestion and to prevent infection and algae in the water and whatnot. Possibly an old wives tale, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

Tonight Jackie seems a bit better. She's still limping a lot and unsteady. We're going to keep giving her the vitamins for at least a week and see what happens. I really hope she gets better soon. It's really sad to see her limp and she's such a sweet little chicken. I have been worrying about her non-stop since we noticed the limp.

Here's a picture of Jackie snuggling up to my dad's Crocs a couple of weeks ago. Chickens love Crocs, and my dad.

Who needs air conditioning? Well... maybe us, but central air is not going to be installed in our little house for quite a few years. It's just too expensive. Sometimes little problems like this are good, because they lead you to find interesting and smart solutions. For example, a solar attic fan.

I didn't know much about attic fans until recently, but it seemed like a good solution for one of our major heat problems: hot air from the attic dropping down into the house on summer nights and turning our house into an oven. Attic fans help suck hot air out of the attic and keep cooler air cycling through. Getting a solar attic fan means we don't have to hook it up to our electrical system, saving us money and, you know, saving the planet.

Our solar attic fan is made by Solatube. It doesn't have a thermostat, so it just automatically turns on when the sun hits it. The stronger the sunlight, the faster it spins. There are other varieties that are a bit more expensive and have a thermostat, but we felt that it was better to get a simpler system with less parts that might break. This fan is really simple, and comes with a 5-year warranty for the solar panel. We bought it from a small distributor in Sherman Oaks.

The attic fan was quite easy for Dakota to install. He just cut a circular hole in the roof, slipped the flashing under the shingles and screwed it all down. I'd say the whole project took him about 45 minutes last Monday.


Dakota installed the fan on the front of the house, because that part of the roof gets the most afternoon sun. I was worried it would look ugly or weird, but the fan has a really low profile, so you can barely see it. It's also completely silent. I don't even know it's there. Of course, I hope I notice its effects once the weather starts getting hotter.

If you:
1) live or work anywhere near Burbank
2) have a lot of old sneakers you can't donate to Goodwill
3) like recycling
I have a tip for you. You can drop off your old sneakers at the Burbank Recycling Center. They collect a big bin of old sneakers and then take them to a Nike Reuse-A-Shoe drop-off point in Santa Monica. Nike takes all the shoes and grinds up parts of them to make sports surfaces like tracks and tennis courts.

I dropped off a bunch of our old sneakers at the Burbank Recycling Center a couple of weeks ago. We actually had a big pile, since Dakota really wears out his sneakers pretty quickly, and, of course, he wears a size 15. So, they'll have a lot of material to recycle of his old shoes.

I guess I have never really showed off the (mostly) final coop setup on this blog. So, here it is:



The coop and run have been completely connected by the patented Witzenburg Chicken Tunnel(TM), and Jackie and Lisa seem very happy with their little home. They love the tunnel, and enjoy hanging out in there, probably because it's both safe and shady. Here's another angle on their set up.



Since these shots were taken, Dakota has added some locks and other little items for safety and ease of cleaning. The whole compound is both stylish and secure, in my opinion. So far, there haven't been any incidents with predators, although there were some small holes dug at the edge of the run a couple of weeks ago, and we've seen some suspicious footprints. Dakota is confident that the chickens are quite safe when they're locked in the coop at night, though, and I agree with him. They seem happy in there, too.

The only things still needed are a nesting box addition on the coop, which can wait until Jackie and Lisa are old enough to lay eggs, and the green roof. We might also add a little shade-creating overhang or ledge in the run, for when things get really hot this summer.

Happily, Jackie and Lisa are quite comfortable with their daily routine. Every morning, I open the door to their coop and then close it behind them once they come out into the run. At night, one of us goes down and opens the door to the coop, then comes back a bit later to lock them in for the night. They are usually very eager to get inside at night as it gets dark. If we get home too late, we'll find them already asleep inside the tunnel, pressed up against the closed coop door. They sleep so soundly that it takes some effort to wake them so we can open the coop door to let them in. It took them about two weeks, plus some bribes and a little shoving, to get used to the schedule, but they seem pretty attached to it now.

I've been getting a lot of excellent harvests from my winter garden in the last couple of months, which is good, because summer is almost here. I had great success with the turnips, carrots and chard in particular. I've always been intimidated to grow leafy crops like chard and arugula, but they have turned out to be easier than I expected.

Dakota's favorite garden-fresh meal ever came from the vegetables pictured below. I peeled and braised the carrots and turnips together, using a simple recipe from How to Cook Everything. Then I cooked the chard with a bit of garlic and olive oil until it wilted, and steamed it briefly in the pan. Served with a bit of wild rice, it was a pretty delicious and extremely healthy meal.



Just a couple of weeks ago, I pulled these lovely beets. They're kind of striped on the inside, although not as stripey as the picture on the seed packet. I roasted them, which is my favorite way to eat beets.



The biggest crop this winter has been carrots. I've pulled several big bunches so far, and I still have quite a few left in the garden still waiting to be harvested. This winter I grew pretty traditional carrot varieties, but, this summer, I'm going to try a more exotic type called Dragon Carrots.



And of course this summer I'm growing tomatoes and peppers, plus eggplant, radishes and, for the first time, corn. The corn was planted last month and is coming along nicely. I hope it works out--and so do the chickens. They love corn.

We now officially have free range chickens. Well, semi-free range. Yesterday, since Dakota and I were both in the back yard, we decided to let the chickens out for a little stroll.

At first, they were pretty nervous. They walked up to the open doorway, cautiously stuck their heads over the frame, ran back in the run, considered again, then took a careful step out. This went on for a while, with Jackie and Lisa eventually getting about a foot outside the run, looking around, then running back inside again.

When they finally summoned the courage to venture out for a longer period, they walked practically pressed against each other at first. After stumbling around nervously for about five minutes, they eventually got the hang of the whole free range chicken thing and then began happily exploring the yard.



Here's a video of Jackie and Lisa checking out the yard, eating some grass seeds, scratching in the dirt and generally enjoying the afternoon. I think they had a good time, and we'll probably let them out again this afternoon and most weekends when we're out in the back doing yard work.


Free Range Chickens from Audrey on Vimeo.

The chickens officially moved into their coop on Sunday. Dakota spent most of Saturday making a connecting tube and getting everything set in the ground and attached properly.

Here he is (or part of him) attaching the chicken tube to the chicken run.



The chicken tube was Dakota's elegant way to attach our snazzy coop to the run in a way that looked nice and kept Jackie and Lisa safe. They actually really like the tube, and sometimes hang out inside of it insetad of going into the run.

Dakota put a little door in the top of the tube so we can access the chickens while there in there, and so we can open and close the door to the coop at night.



Here are the chickens taking their coop for a little test drive on Sunday. The hopped up on the perch right away and got comfy. They seem to really like their new home, as they should. It's a pretty beautifully-designed chicken coop, if you ask me. Perhaps it will soon be featured in the pages of Dwell Poultry or Elle Poulet.



They are still getting the hang of their new all-outdoor routine. It's a bit of a struggle to get them to go into the coop at night. (Lisa made a new, more grown-up sound last night when I was pushing her in there. It was something between a peep and a squawk, which I took to mean, "But I don't want to go in there!") And, of course, it's tough to get them out of the coop in the morning. Although they can be bribed with strawberry tops, their favorite treat.

I'm hoping they get the hang of the run in the day, coop at night routine soon. But, you know, they are chickens so I don't expect them to be fast learners. No offense, Jackie and Lisa.