Another brooder going on in my kitchen. I took this great pic of a chick hatching. My chicks are mixes... their dad is white leghorn and their Mom was buff orphington.... I gave her away last week and she has died since. My friend said that she overheated in his barn; I am sad but won't ask any more questions... shit happens.

I guess next week I will post some pix of inside the coop at night.

third brood

Well today my third brood is being born. My friend Roger came over and adopted "YellowGal", the reproductively prolific buff orphington. She has had about 30 babies since May. Here are some pictures of the latest hatchlings from today :)

my buff orphington

Several pullets from brood #1, 3 mos. old. white ones look like their dad, yellow ones look like the mom. Mother hen has kind of ostracised herself from the coop. Since May she has had 3 clutches of eggs next door in unkempt thick underbrush. When I was gathering the 2nd brood of baby chickens, I got the worst poison ivy. At least I know what the plant looks like and avoid it like the plague.


I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS WITH ORPHINGTONS - BUT THEY ARE VORACIOUS MOTHERS!


2010, so far she has had 3 broods.... the eggs are about to hatch on brood #3. I can't keep her anymore... too many chicks for a city block. I will give her and brood #3 to a farmer friend .

Fort Knox chicken coop: keepin' the dog out!

OH SHAME, I HAVN'T blogged for my chickens in sooo long.

Today I have 2 cochins, 1 buff orphington, 1 dominecker, 2 australops, 1 silver wyandotte, 1 gold wyandotte, 2 naked neckkers, 1 white leghorn, 3 americanas, 1 rhode island red and a very horny sexy white leghorn rooster....Napolean. He is very protective of the hens and will attack my dog. I usually take the side of the rooster when in combat. LOL

2010 is the year of the BROOD. My buff orph.... KEEPS going next door and laying eggs. She is on her 3rd clutch of eggs since May. I have given up checking on her. The underbrush is thick where she lays ( and LIVES :) and as I found out, its FULL of poison ivy. Yes, a month ago I got poison ivy for the 1st time. IT IS HORRIBLE. Just NASTY! In June, one of my cochins decided to go broody and sat on eggs... of which now I have 7 chicks. I still have 10 chicks from "Yellow Gal", the buff orph.

So YESTERDAY I decided to finally TOTALLY dog proof my coop; I expanded it to about 25' x 70'... sturdy chicken wire. the dog can be t rouble and drools over my chicks. I have had many fatalities in the last 7 years of raising hens, and I am tired of that. So here are pix of my new coop area and hopefully it will be like Fort Knox as far as the dog is concerned.