Sherri's (Never A Dull Moment) World

That Little Savannah

Our little puppy has been a Rodgers for a month now. Honestly, it has been a TOTAL BLUR.

Our accomplishments:

1) She knows her name.

2) I think she knows the word "NO!".

3) She is learning how to "sit" on command.

4) She is wonderful to cuddle with.

Still in progress:

1) Potty training.

2) Sleeping through the night. (I seriously cannot remember what it feels like to get 8 hours of continuous sleep in one night.)

3) Learning what is okay to chew on (rawhide twists, rope toys, balls, bones) and what is NOT okay to chew on (shoes, chickens, underwear, my puppet collection, our bathrobes)

What is NOT going well:

1) Dragging me around with my bathrobe on:

2) She makes it hard to get any kind of housework done because she wants to attack my broom/vacuum/paper towels/wipes and/or get into the dishwasher and/or drag off socks from the dryer.

3) She leaves a bit of a mess sometimes. Here is her puppy pen before she gets in it:

and after:

AND...

she is growing like a weed! As of Monday this week, she had doubled her weight at 22 lbs.

We love the fact that she can fall asleep anywhere:

AND...

She is a little jealous of my baby chicks. When I walk by them and say,"How are you, sweet baby chicks? Cheep Cheep, cheep cheep"-- Savannah runs to the aquarium and races around it (making all of the babies run and flitter around and cheep in alarm). Then she plops down in front of the aquarium with her rear end thumping the glass. She is sassy and naughty at the same time.

I told her she has to be nice to our baby chicks...

In my head, they will become great friends one day.... Silly Savannah!

Farmer Jane

I am a woman of many names....

You can call me Sherri (friends).

You can call me Mrs. Rodgers (strangers).

You can call me Dr. Rodgers (Darin G.).

You can call me Mom or Mama (J, A, Nick & Natasha).

You can call me Honey (Elijah).

You can call me Chicken Mama (my chicks).

You can call me Babydoll (Bill).

However, I am also answering to another name: Farmer Jane. This is what Bill calls me when I am juggling chickens, kitties, a new puppy, sometimes a garden, and now something else.... Can you guess what it is? Or isn't?? Hint: It means more mouths to feed... or rather beaks to feed.

In April, I brought home this:

Inside the box was a handful of new baby chicks:

I had made reservations for some Araucaunas (a breed that lays pretty green eggs) and they were absolutely DARLING:

Since the new garage is in the middle of drywall/paint/electricity, I went back to the set-up that I used two years ago. I use a long, rectangular aquarium to house the baby chicks until they are big enough to go outside. Inside is a layer of pine shavings, a heat lamp (they need warmth), a chick feeder and watering dish:

I use two layers of rounded fencing on top to keep interested kitties and a nosy puppy out:

I just LOVE baby chicks! They are pretty easy to care for-- just keep them warm, fed, and dry. And keep a watchful eye on baby Savannah:

Here is to my new little girls of 2011:

Our New BIG Project

We have been patiently planning a BIG project for over a year now..

What are we doing???

We are adding onto the House of Rodgers!  We have been garage-less ever since we bought this house:

We have been very creative with storage space. Our laundry room is behind secret doors in the family room. We have assorted tools stashed around the house. We think it is about time to solve some of these problems with a new approach. We think ~1800 square feet should do it.

Here is a frontal view (in blueprints) for our project:

That's right! The addition will be two stories; the bottom floor will be the garage with utility/mudroom and an extra storage room. The upstairs is a bonus room.

We spent over 6 months shopping for the right contractor. After we found him, we had to wait on the weather. We had snow. We had frozen ground. Finally, one day we came home to this:

Which was done by this:

 
The next step was this, building forms for the foundation:

Followed by this:

Note: During construction days, my chickens had to be penned up in the sideyard so they would not be in the way. However, one Rodgers chicken is very clever. And always gets out.

Who could that be?

That would be Miss Runt (a.k.a. "Houdini"). She thought she would be the on-site chicken inspector:

Silly chicken. There is no extra $$ in the budget to pay her. But I could make her a salad. ;)

 

 

A Touch Of Fall...

I really don't know what happened to summer...

We had a chilly spring, which stretched into June and made our summer months feel very short. Usually September in the Pacific Northwest is gorgeous with bright, sunny days and an extension of warm weather which stretches out our summer gardens. Not so this year. September was rainy, rainy, rainy. My garden tomatoes didn't stand a chance for getting ripe in this crazy weather-- instead they all just turned black and died. My only garden successes were a handful of zucchinis, lots of green beans, onions & garlic turned out well, and my pumpkin patch is HUGE.

Now, it feels officially like fall. I picked a handful of Rodgers pumpkins for my front porch:

I changed out my banner so we can get a little excited about Halloween:

Elijah is modeling a new pumpkin fleece hat that I gave him this morning:

I changed my kitchen table for the season, which includes an octopus sporting fall colors (remember, I am a marine biologist) (even my kitchen is "fishy"):

And I remembered to change out my dishes, too. This may sound weird, but I have a secret "thing" for seasonal dishes. (Remember, I get bored easily.) So here is my fall collection:

And who can resist a trio of Rodgers chickens, showing off their pretty feathers? I know I can't...

This is Sugar, Oreo and a Blondie wishing they all could come inside for awhile... Silly chickens!

Though I do LOVE summer, I happen to LIKE fall. And the colors of fall are my favorite. :)

Too Sad To Blog...

Anyone familiar with this story???

My name is Sherri and I have had a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad WEEK.

We made the difficult decision to have our loyal dog, Shadow, put to sleep yesterday.

A dog getting walked in my neighborhood attacked one of my chickens yesterday. Poor sweet Chickita was in the wrong place at the wrong time,  is seriously injured and may not live to tell her story.

AND my parentals are arriving tomorrow to spend the weekend househunting. They are staying at our house all weekend.

I would really like to be Alexander and just go back to bed. I wish I could stay there until next Friday. And then take the next weekend to recover from my Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad WEEK.

Chicken Hormones

Meet Oreo. When she was a little chick, she was black with a white little butt. But as she grew, her white downy feathers disappeared and she became this beautiful black hen with metallic green highlights (look here) .

Oreo has been acting weird lately. She has been in a chicken funk. Her chicken hormones are making her "broody". What is "broody", you ask? It is when a hen's hormones tell her that it is time to incubate eggs. For the last three weeks, she has been spending most of her days & nights in a cubbie:

This is what I see every morning when I let the chicks out for the day:

So I consulted my chicken books and found that Oreo will be feeling broody for ~6 weeks. She will not lay any eggs because she thinks she is sitting on her original eggs to hatch them. She doesn't know it-- but that is impossible at Club Poultry. You see, without a rooster present to mate with the hens, there will be no fertilized eggs to turn into chicks! Instead, all of the Rodgers eggs are "blanks" or unfertilized eggs. 

So she sits on any eggs that are in the cubbies in hopes they will turn into chicks. {sigh!} Poor Oreo! But I am a good Chicken Mama. I get her out of the cubbie twice a day to make sure she eats & drinks and gets some chicken exercise. She is funny when I set her down for these sessions because she thinks she needs to "nest". She immediately picks up twigs, dead leaves, or grasses and either places them on her back or sets them aside-- as if she is going to clean a micro-area. It is ridiculously funny:

 

So she gets a drink of water. She eats a little. She does chicken-maintenance-- like taking a nice dirt bath to clean her feathers.  I saw her take a break on Saturday and do a little chicken-sunbathing. Then, she takes off running. She runs all the way back to the Chick Condo and goes right back in a cubby-- with or without eggs and sits some more. I will be glad for her when she starts feeling like "normal" again...

Silly Oreo!

10 Things I Love Right Now...

It is time for a new Sherri's Top Ten List!  Are you ready?

1) It may be spring but there is still a chill in the air. I have been warming up in the morning with a Starbucks Vanilla Chai Latte (I hate coffee) (extra hot so it will last for awhile) and a molasses cookie. YUM!

 

2) Did you know that we are only a week away from Disney's new movie, "Oceans"???? I can hardly wait!

3) Natasha made a music CD for me to listen to on my way home last weekend. I think this British pop/punk singer is pretty fabulous. Her name is Lily Allen and I have been humming one of her tunes all week... Her lyrics are clever and sassy and her accent is adorable.

4) This song was also on Natasha's music mix and I recognized it immediately:

"Be OK" by Ingrid Michaelson. After surviving a week like this, I know that I will also "Be OK"!

5) My sweet chicken, Chickita, is back on the egg-train! 

She took two months off from egg-laying duty due to molting. Why?? Birds often "molt", or replace feathers, once a year and when that is happening-- it is too energy-expensive to lay eggs and regrow feathers at the same time. Chickita's eggs are unique-- she is the only chicken in my group that lays lovely, lovely green eggs.

We LOVE Chickita's green eggs!

6) OMG! The TV show, "Glee" is back! Hooray!!! Their new episode aired this week without missing a beat from where they left off with this musical-high-school-drama:

 

The cheerleader coach, Sue Sylvester, is still as mean as ever as she is back to take down her nemesis, the Glee Club.  I am already looking forward to next week as they are doing a Madonna-theme!

7) I can't help but smile every time I see this commercial for Amazon Kindle.  The stop-motion animation is fabulous down to the minute details...

 

8) I had a craving for Swedish (gummy) fish yesterday. I stopped at the store, bought a bag, and even incorporated them into my Biology 100 exam today!

At the beginning of the hour, I passed out the exams and then had each student take a gummy fish from my bag. I used it as a "prop" for Question #5 that read, "Examine the object Sherri has given you. If this were REAL, which kingdom would it belong in?"  I haven't graded exams yet, but I seriously hope every student got this particular question RIGHT. ha! [Answer: Kingdom Animalia]

9) Another one of my favorite TV shows is about to climax. Project Runway (Season 7) is now down to their final three fashion designers to compete during Fashion Week in Bryant Park. I was rooting for different designers along the way... My new favorite is Seth Aaron Henderson from Vancouver, WA. He is slightly eccentric in personality, dresses like a preppy punk rocker, loves vinyl and lots of zippers. Would I wear his clothes? No, not me. BUT... he is very, very creative and innovative in all of his endeavors. His clothing is meticulously made. He is a family man and loves his wife & kids. I like that he is willing to take risks. 

Underneath his spiky, black-dyed hair, tattoos and black fingernail polish-- he is very grounded. He is confident without back-stabbing his fellow fashion designers. Good luck, Seth Aaron!

9) I am soooooo relieved. I am finished lecturing on chemical compounds:

[This is NH3; also known as ammonia.] On Monday, I can begin a new set of lectures on CELLS:

10) College exams don't have to be all work and no play. I had a chemistry professor many years ago that always put a cartoon on the last page of his exams. Though I struggled with that course (my "ah-haaaa!" moment for Chemistry happened a year or two later), he always made me feel better on the last page. When I became a professor-- I adopted his practice. Here is a classic "The Far Side" cartoon by Gary Larson that usually shows up once in my exam pages:

 

Happy Friday!

Saturday + Sunshine = Sleepy

On Saturday, Bill took me out to lunch and then I settled down to work on our 2009 income taxes. I don't know about you, but who wants to crunch numbers when it is sunny outside? Not me, BUT they had to get done!  He teased me that it would take all day long... because I tend to be a multi-tasker and usually get distracted by other things when I am supposed to focus on one thing.

I am sure he did not mean to sabotage my plans (=income taxes) but Bill let the chickens play in the front yard.  Not a problem for them-- they LOVE that.  However, this means that they need some occasional supervision. Why? Sometimes a couple of chickens sneak out of the front yard and wind up in the neighbor's yard, pecking and scratching. And because they are MY chickens, I am the chicken supervisor. 

Soooo, I took breaks from short stacks of paperwork and receipts in order to keep an eye on my chickens.Some were here.... some were there.... I eventually had two escapees who I found scratching in the neighbor's yard.  I made my way through a couple of more deductions and went to check on them again. THIS is what I found at our sliding glass doors:

Brown Sugar and a Blondie were both basking in the afternoon sun and taking a nap. Oreo was standing there looking sleepy too...

Just two feet away, Honey and Pepper were also taking a chicken break and talking quietly amongst themselves. (And yes, I needed to clean my windows but I was supposed to be doing our taxes....)

I called Bill over to see what my chickens were doing! Just as I predicted, Oreo just cuddled into Brown Sugar and they were all resting.

 

And it must have been the warm sunshine... because then Honey and Pepper decided to take naps too!

Cute chicks! Then I remembered I was supposed to be doing our taxes. I put my camera away and went back to work. I am proud to say that I DID finish them-- although I had a few distractions along the way.

That's just how I roll... I am a Chicken Mama.

Chicks Dig Salads

Although spring is coming and many things are growing, my chickens are constantly looking for greens while they scratch and peck in our large yard. 

So I have been making them salads for their afternoon snack:

I start with a couple of handfuls of Costco mixed greens, then I add whatever veggies are in the fridge as leftovers or in the pantry. This particular chicken salad has a little corn, chopped cucumbers and a 1/2 can of diced tomatoes.  I go outside and call for my chicks... and they come RUNNING!

All of them love to pick at the top of the salad... Usually Honey, Sugar and The Blondies get distracted and/or want to be petted and wander away.

Some of them go back to the salad, like this Blondie did:

But some chicks love salad more than the others. Chickita cleans up all of the lettuce and veggies that have been flung off of the plate onto the deck. Runt, Oreo and Pepper are the cleaner-uppers. They stick around or return to polish off the rest of the salad when the other chicks have gone off to peck and scratch somewhere else. Within an hour, I will return to find the plate (and the deck) picked clean.

Seriously....Rodgers chicks really dig salads!

How To Be A Good Chicken Mama

Last spring, when I began raising chickens-- I really had NO IDEA what I was doing. I often just made it up as I went along... I nurtured those sweet fuzzy chicks until they were teenagers. I gave them all names. Except for the two white chicks. I could not tell them apart so they became affectionately known as "The Blondies".

All of them turned into sweet young hens and began laying eggs between August and October! It was sooooo exciting! Or how about EGGCITING! Their combs grew out and what do you know? I still could not tell my Blondies apart...

 

The Blondies have their own personality quirks. They stay meticulously clean. They tend to be skittish when you are trying to catch them. But they know who their Chicken Mama is and they let me pick them up so I can croon encouraging words into their chicken ears. I looooooove my chickens!

 

The Blondies are serious about their egg-laying. My Blondies lay smooth white eggs every single day. Something is wrong if you do not find their white eggs in the Chicken Condo cubbies! A few weeks ago, The Blondies stopped laying their eggs in the Condo. Each morning, when I let them all out for the day-- The Blondies would take off running. So I decided to follow one/them. A Blondie ran quickly up our hill and into a patch of blackberry vines. After a short time, she emerged and as I scrambled to get to the same place---- I found 10 white eggs in this matted down area!!! HOLY GUACAMOLE! The Blondies had decided the Condo was not safe and had been laying stealth eggs!

Since then, I have caught the Blondies laying white eggs on top of one of our deck storage units. I have caught them laying eggs under the deck. And each time I take their eggs from the latest secret location-- they get paranoid and find a new spot for their eggs. Sooooo... I have a new trick as their SMART Chicken Mama. Literally, I have been TRICKING them into laying eggs under my bedroom window for the last month...by leaving a "decoy" egg:

 

What is a "decoy" egg???? I placed a hard-boiled white egg in their "spot" and made a felt pen mark on it. As long as I leave this one egg outside, The Blondies both feel secure enough to lay two fresh eggs for me each day! Ta daaaaa! This is exactly ... I mean, EGGACTLY what I mean when I say that I just make it up as I go along.  I could write a new chapter for all of those "How to Raise Chickens" books, entitled "How to Find Your Chickens' Eggs When They Go Rogue".

As for My Blondies? Silly chickens. :)

Goodbye Santa Fe, Hello Elantra...

When we bought my Hyundai Santa Fe a few years ago, it was just what we needed for a transitional family. Jeremiah had joined the Navy and Nick was headed off to college at WSU. We knew we needed a vehicle that could move kids in and out of college apartments, be comfortable during road trips to WSU, and could take a dog to the beach. This SUV met all of our needs and exceeded our expectations. We had not had a brand new car before and it was a driver's dream-- it was reliable and functional at the same time. I loved this car-- it was definitely a WSU Cougar Mom's car.

When J & A & E arrived in Washington, they needed a vehicle until their household shipment is delivered in March. So I loaned them my Santa Fe. Since then, Bill and I have been discussing how our kids are now transitional in their lives. They now need to transport a baby, a car seat, a stroller and misc. baby goods. AND they need something that can grow with their family. They need a SUV. So we offered to sell my beloved car to them. Goodbye, sweet Santa Fe....

Time to shop for Sherri's new ride...We were pretty sure we wanted to stay with Hyundai but looked at smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. I had two requirements: 1) it had to be RED and 2) spacious enough in the back seat to have a baby car seat and carry some of that baby stuff (for Elijah). We test drove cars. We talked to salesmen. We waited. 

Last weekend, Bill made his move. He had done all of his research and found someone he wanted to do business with. Bill is my ace in the hole. Because I hate to barter. And just like our "Yin" and "Yang", he LOVES to barter. He made an AWESOME deal on my new car, a 2010 Hyundai Elantra:

 

For example, we got the sporty SE model for the same price as the low end model. [I really don't know when I will need those fog lights or the extra-traction tires, but I am ready!] And my hands-free Bluetooth is being installed for free. And since the car was coming from another dealership, Bill arranged for the sales manager to deliver it to us at home. Now THAT is great customer service!!  This is Keun, handing over the keys to my new car (he took very good care of us):

 

Hello, Elantra!

And one more thing.... my trunk is perfect for CHICKENS:

While I was putting my emergency kit in the new, spacious trunk, both Honey and Brown Sugar hopped inside to check it out. [Brown Sugar even made her special clucking sound when she finds a new exciting place.] Honey hopped out, while Sugar gave it her chicken seal of approval. Silly chickens!

Chicken Gossip

Three Rodgers chickens were standing around a water bowl when they were overheard saying:

Chickita--" Have you been listening to our people? They have been talking about something new that is coming here someday. Something about a "babee"? What is THAT??"

Pepper-- "Hmmmmmm.... I don't know."

Blondie-- "Wait a minute! I thought we were "babees"! Doesn't Chicken Mama and Chicken Auntie call us their 'sweet babee chicks' ???"

Chickita-- "That's right! We're the "babees"!!  They LOVE us!!"

Pepper--" But there can't be a new one. We are the "babees" around here!"

Blondie-- "Seriously."

Blondie-- "Chicken Mama knows EVERYTHING. Let's go find her!"

 

Don't worry, chicks. You'll be my sweet baby chicks until Little Elijah shows up. And he doesn't know how to lay eggs. ;)

CCT #17

Remember CCT (=Covert Chicken Training)? Here is another example for you to ponder...

This is Runt. She and her sister, Lucky, were the tiniest chicks in my mini-flock this spring. Here she is as a teenage chick, sitting next to Honey.

Now she is a young hen and no longer the runt of the flock. She is pretty plump.

But that is beside the point. She is another extraordinary Rodgers chicken that is working on a specialized skill.

(insert drumroll, please)

Her covert skill: EXPERT ESCAPE ARTIST.

Bill spent a large part of his summer securing over half of our acre as a Rodgers chicken zone. We put up new fences. We fixed old fences knocked over by deer. Some chickens were flying over the fences. So we clipped some wings. Some chickens were finding gaps and going under the fences. We walked the perimeter over and over again trying to make it chicken-escape-proof. I told you our chickens are SMART. Each time we thought we really had it down-- another chicken would find a new way out! Sometimes we would come home and find ALL of our chickens playing in the front yard (=off limits!) and other times it would be a lone chicken who didn't show the others her secret place.

Back to Runt-- she is our professional escape artist. AND she likes to escape solo. We have caught her plump body on the other side of the wooded fence-line many times. And one night, she did not come home. She is the ONLY chicken to spend the night alone (outside of the protective Chicken Condo)-- by choice.  She escaped our yard, did not come when I looking for her, and I worried about her fate all night long (I did find her the next morning). She seems to go by a different set of chicken rules.

So, Bill said I should get one of these:

or these:

[Note: This product is made by "Killzone"; I have no intention to kill my chickens! Instead, I would use this for spying on them.]

I think this is a logical (and PRETTY FUNNY) idea...picture me, setting up one of these in our woods. I could pack a lunch, take a few magazines, and spy on Runt all day long. Oh, I would probably need some binoculars. Who knows? I might just find out how she is getting out and it could be amusing to see what my Rodgers chickens do all day long.... ha haha

Who wants to join me?

Chicken Beauty Salon

I have been learning LOTS of interesting things about chickens... just by observing them.

We have had many rainy days this fall and I always worry about my girls getting wet. I didn't feel so bad when I caught them doing this -- in between rain showers:

A bunch of them jumped onto our picnic table and started fanning their feathers to dry out with the blowing wind. Aha! Nature's version of a blow dryer!

Brown Sugar decided to clean her toenails while they waited for the next wind gust...

She also flared out her neck feathers to get some air in there...I call that "chicken fluffing".

 

Several chickens started to turn their bodies to air dry different parts-- one of the Blondies started to primp her tail feathers. So pretty...

 

And here is another beauty salon trick I have watched them do all summer long...

Chickens are notorious for taking dirt baths to clean their feathers. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? It's TRUE! They find a spot with "good dirt" and nestle in. They flop onto their sides, kick dirt around with their toes, shake their feathers and flick it onto their heads with their beaks.  They even close their eyes as if they are totally immersed in their "spa" activity.  I caught Honey in the front yard today sneaking in a little dirt bath, without any chicken interruptions. She didn't care that I found her, nor did she bother moving. It was her moment of "Serenity Now".

Silly chickens!

CCT #12 (Covert Chicken Training)

Shhhh... there is a secret operation underway at the Rodgers household.

I told you that the Rodgers chickens were smart, even extraordinary. They are sooooo smart that I have begun training different chickens for different tasks. I will share one with you today. 

Remember Brown Sugar? (sometimes referred to as "Bill's Little Helper")

She is also MY little helper.  I have trained her in the masterful art of ...

SPIDER POPULATION MANAGEMENT.

Let me explain-- when the weather gets cooler, sometimes those big, fat, scary spiders from outside begin sneaking inside the house to hang out for awhile. They usually wait until it is primetime TV-watching hours to begin crawling out from some discrete hiding spot.  We have light wood floors so they are easy to spot and Natasha & I either begin screaming or choke it down while we are running for the next step. The next step involves retrieving a clear glass from the kitchen and quickly putting it over the hideous, crawling spider to contain it. We usually scoot the glass w/trapped spider off to the side somewhere so we don't accidentally trip over it and begin screaming all over again.

The spider has to stay there overnight. This is where Brown Sugar comes in... with her amazing talent.

I will go get Brown Sugar in the morning (after I let them out from the Chick Condo) and carry her into the house. She loves being carried (which usually involves petting and sweet talk) so she is totally into the "ride". I set her down next the the glass on the floor ... and then... her training comes into play. She knows to assume the spider management position-- her head is cocked and she is ready for whatever is underneath that glass.  Here is documentation of a recent event:

Her technique is flawless. She wastes no time disposing of (=eating) whatever size spider is under that glass. I do not have to see flailing spider legs or cringe at messy parts-- it is GONE in one second. She understands her mission and is happy to complete the task at hand.

Stay tuned for more CCT revelations.....and remember not to tell anyone.

Chicken #10

We had a little visitor yesterday. I went to see my chickens when I got home from work and there was an extra chicken, Chicken #10, in my flock.

This little chicken's name is Mikiah. She came over for two reasons: 1) to see my chickens and 2) to show me her new Halloween costume.

This is Mikiah's cute mom, Jonna.

Mikiah got a kick out of seeing Natasha & Chickita close-up. We chatted, took some cute pics and then Chicken #10 went on her merry little chicken way.

 

What is REALLY FUNNY about this visit is--I bought the same adorable (chicken) Halloween costume at Old Navy two weeks ago! I added it to my secret stash for my future grandkids in my closet. Maybe a little Rodgers will be a Chicken #11 someday at Halloween..... hahaha cluck cluck!

Little Lucky

When I picked out my ten little chicks last spring-- I didn't really know what I was doing. I bought one "how to raise chickens" book and we agreed to meet at the local country feed store one day after work. Inside, there were big steel containers that contained several kinds of chicks. Some chicks were running around on the pine shavings, others were asleep under the heat lamps. Some were standing in little groups. Each container had different breeds of chicks inside-- which meant nothing to me. So I picked two each from five different containers full of chicks. I just thought they were soooooo cute... the overall sweetness of the moment was OVERWHELMING! I think at that moment, I fell in love with the concept of raising chickens.

So we took them home, I read the chicken book and I Googled "how to raise baby chicks" a few times to make sure I was covering their basic requirements.  My chicks were adorable. They learned how to eat and take drinks of water and they slept a lot. Natasha & I brainstormed on names. We just couldn't decide what to call these gorgeous chicks. We did not know who they would become...

Of the five different pairs of chicks in my mini-flock-- one pair were tiny in size. We called them both "Runts" for awhile. They got pushed out of the way at the feeder dish, the other chicks sometimes gave them mini pecks or even stepped on them. They were both perfect, but at the bottom of the pecking order. Poor runts.

A few weeks later, I noticed that one of the runts was hanging her head a little. She continued to feed and drink water and she was getting slightly bigger. But she had apparently been stepped on one too many times. I may be a Dr.-- but I do not know how to perform micro-surgery on a chicken. Bill said time would take its toll.....she would either live or die from what we guessed was a broken collarbone.  I started to call her Lucky. She was Lucky for every day that she was still alive and she was proud of it.

So all of the chicks went through their "ugly" teenage stage. And Lucky lived. All of the chicks grew lovely feathers and moved outside into the Chick Condo and became semi-free-range chickens. So did Lucky. They hung out with Bill while he worked on his summer projects, they pecked and scratched all over our acre of land, ate and ate and ate and grew into lovely hens. Lucky did too. With her bent head, she developed her very own signature chicken gait-- she sidesteps quickly to keep up with all of the rest of those chicks. She can straighten her neck and look forward, but it seems to be more comfortable to rest on the side. This is what she looks like today:

She is not the most beautiful of the Rodgers chicks. But she tries the hardest. She is not a Special Ed. chick-- rather a Special Olympics kind of chick. She is still the bottom of the pecking order -- especially when all of those Mean Girls (a.k.a. The EggLayers) matured and began to lay lovely eggs. However, Lucky has learned a few tricks....

Lucky is patient when there is a snack plate on the ground. She tries to avoid getting pecked by just avoiding the drama. [Literally-- chick drama!] Natasha & I usually give her a private taste of the snack on the side, but if we don't she waits. She eventually darts in, grabs a big bite and runs off with it so someone else won't steal it. Sometimes they do... she just gets another bite and ... guess what? Keeps trying!

Lucky has also become an EggLayer in the last 2 weeks! Ta daaaaaaaa! Her eggs are perfect and light tan in color. So she is functional and still alive. She loves our extra attention-- she has a lot to talk about (in chicken language) when Natasha & I hold her and walk around with her. We don't know if she is complaining that her little legs are tired from running all of the time, if she is tattle-taling on who pecked her last... or maybe, just likes to chicken chatter. It doesn't matter. She is still the runt of the flock, is second to last to join the Mean Girl clique, and .... still Lucky. I hope her luck runs sweet for a long time...:)

Ohhhhh Yeeeeaaaah!

Remember my chicken version of "Mean Girls"? We have some new members in The EggLayers clique...

After Pepper, Honey joined the clique with beautiful brown eggs.

On Friday, Oreo joined the clique with lovely mocha brown eggs.

And Runt was thinking about her first egg on the very same day.... it was a tiny, little tan egg!

On a PERFECT day-- we collect 7 eggs! Surprisingly, this does not happen every day. We suspect both Honey and Sugar take occasional chicken days off.... from laying their eggs. Today, Miss Runt took a day off from laying her new tan eggs. Maybe they need to rest? Maybe they just need to reset their internal clocks? Maybe they just don't "feel" like it? However, my Blondies have been laying white eggs every single day, rain or shine.

Once in awhile-- they even lay size XXL eggs! We found when we crack these jumbo eggs open that they have double yolks!

Coincidentally, both Blondies laid XXL eggs over the weekend... and then took a day off.  They deserved it.

YOU GO, GIRLS!!!

It's True!

Whoever said, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence..."

must have had chickens. ha!

Mean Girls (a.k.a. The EggLayers)

Have you seen the movie, "Mean Girls"? It is about a new girl (Lindsay Lohan) in high school trying to find out where she fits in. The school is full of cliques-- the jocks, the nerds, the misfits, and the popular kids-- all jockeying for their position in teenage society. Lindsay's character gets noticed by the pretty, popular girl clique known as "The Plastics"-- and they woo her to become one of them. I would bet that we all remember some version of "The Plastics" from our own high school days-- they were beautiful on the outside but usually mean on the inside.

Well, guess what? The concept of "Mean Girls" is just another version of chicken behavior! You have heard of "pecking order", right?

According to Wikipedia:  "Pecking order is a hierarchical system of social organization in animals.  The basic concept behind the establishment of the pecking order among chickens is that it is necessary to determine who is the 'top chicken,' the 'bottom chicken' and where all the rest fit in between. The dominance level determines which individual gets preferential access to food and mates."

Although I love my chickens dearly, I have been observing my own batch of "Mean Girls" in progress. The new chicken clique that has formed recently are The EggLayers. Brown Sugar is not only the 'top chick', she is one of The EggLayers... (she thinks she is such hot stuff that she can perch on one of my new deck chairs!)

Both of the Blondies are EggLayers...

 

 

Last week, Pepper joined The EggLayers. Now that she lays one beautiful brown egg every day, she is strutting around with the other EggLayers and getting bossy around the food.

This is a whole other kind of "chick drama" to deal with..... all because of this!

Little Visitor

The Rodgers chicks do a good job of staying busy throughout the day-- but sometimes they come looking for us. They definitely know who their Chicken Mama is...

And their Chicken Auntie...

 

And their Chicken Papa....

Sometimes they hang out at doorways to see if any of us are coming out to play.

And sometimes, they come inside to find out where we are...

 

Here is Brown Sugar, with her chicken voice, saying, "Helloooooooo.... Anybody home?"

 

Silly chicken.

Chickens for Sale?

Last week, one of our best friends sent me an email with an excerpt from Craig's List. Here is his email:

"Hey Dr Rodgers – Are you sure Bill does not have another phone number you don’t know about?? 

Just asking- Darin"

Here is the posting on Craig's List that caught his attention:

 Chickens For Sale-- $15

We have lots of chickens that are close to laying. Rhode Island Reds... Barred Rocks... Buff Orphingtons... Sex Links... and more. We also have a Buff Rooster... Americana Rooster... Black Sex Link Rooster... and some Rhode Island Red Roosters. They are all just shy of six months.

Call Bill at xxx-xxxx

Location: Mount Vernon

Once I read the official post, I KNEW it wasn't my Bill with chickens for sale.  Though he may be fed up with chickens escaping the yard, chicken poop on his decks, spending time and money on the Chick Condo, fencing, feed and all of the other chicken-related expenses-- truthfully, he has no idea what breeds we have.

And he would have asked for $100 each. Duh!

Arachnophobia

The older I get, the fewer things I am afraid of... Handle a snake? No problem. Are there bees or wasps flying around? Whatever. I actually like slimy things... like worms, slugs & snails. Sharks? Take me to them!(I actually asked Bill if I could go to Shark Alley in Florida and "swim with the sharks". He said "NO".)  Yes, I am afraid of heights-- but I LOVE roller coasters and will just giggle away while ziplining in a tree canopy. I am fascinated by most insects. And rodents are just furry animals that are on the bottom of the food chain. Am I afraid to die? Not really.

But one thing I haven't been able to dismiss is my fear of spiders (a.k.a. arachnophobia). The small and medium-sizes are somewhat manageable to me, but if it is bigger than a dime--time to scream! At least I am not alone-- Jeremiah, Nick & Natasha do not like spiders either. We have many family stories that include spiders... and screaming... and running away... and throwing shoes... and creative disposal of certain spiders. (insert wicked laughter here)

Here is a new one for the family vault:

Tonight, Natasha & I went down to the Chick Condo to tuck the chickens in bed for the night. I noticed a big, striped spider hanging from a web on the side of the Condo. When I showed it to Natasha, we both agreed it was hideous. We have seen the chickens eat a LOT of insects this summer so we began to plot who we could get to eat that big, fat spider. Brown Sugar was hanging around (no surprise). Natasha dared me to pick up Brown Sugar and hold her next to that spider on the web and see if she would peck at it. I picked Sugar up and held her out at arm's length, but she freaked out because it was not a "nice" hold/snuggle so she flapped her wings and flew down to the ground. I then double-dared Natasha to do the same thing-- only she got the same result. So we started looking for sticks to detach the spider from it's web and feed it to Sugar. Our sticks looked too short for the job-- neither of us wanted to risk the spider crawling up on the stick (and possibly onto us) or drop on us! (insert shudder here) So I found an even longer stick and went for it. We had Sugar waiting... I finally had the huge spider dangling from a silk string attached to the stick... we both screamed... I tried to fling it onto the deck... but it started to crawl onto the stick (see earlier worry)... so I screamed again ... and then tapped it onto the deck. Sugar looked at it for a second... pecked at it... ate half the body... and we both screamed as the rest of it fell underneath the deck. I am seriously hoping she will find the other half tomorrow and eat that too.

The moral of this story-- Chickens come in handy.

Sweet Summertime

Q: Do chickens sunbathe?

A: Why yes, they do!

As a new Chicken Mama, I am learning ALOT about chicken behavior. In May, I caught the Blondies doing this in the yard. It was a warm, sunny day and it sure looked like they were sunbathing to me...

Apparently, the Blondies are not the only ones who love to stretch out and relax in the sun... So did Honey on our deck.

And then there is Brown Sugar. She is the friendliest of all Rodgers chicks, she follows Bill & I around like a little companion, she likes to be involved in whatever we are doing, AND she wants to live in our house soooo bad.... We have caught her all summer 1) poking her head into any open door and using her chicken voice to say, "Helloooooooo.... anybody home?" and 2) actually walking into our house behind our dog, Shadow, as if she was another pet who lives inside the giant "box".

Here is where my stories tie together-- after my parents left on Sunday, I took the comfy pad off of a chaise lounge chair and placed it in the middle of our deck to soak in some August sun. While I was reading, a couple of chicks (Brown Sugar and Honey) came over to me on the deck and proceeded to flop onto their sides and stretch out their legs so they could sunbathe with me.  (Darn! No camera!) Awhile later, Natasha came home and we chatted about a whole bunch of girly things sitting in our new patio deck chairs. While we sat there, I saw Brown Sugar walk over to my abandoned chaise lounge pad (still laying on the deck).... walk onto the middle section.... flop onto her side, stretch out her legs.... and sunbathe... just like her Chicken Mama.  I think she thinks she is " mini-me".

Our BillBQ

When my mom comes to visit in summer months-- she can count on us to throw a BBQ. She asks me who we are inviting, she prepares a dish or buys a fancy dessert, and she teases Bill about what kind of hamburgers he is going to make.You see-- Bill makes the BEST hamburgers in town. All of our friends and family know this--they are all big fans of  Bill's "mystery burgers, meaning that he does not use a formal recipe and they are always different from the time before. One summer BBQ he made some tasty "plain" ones and some tasty "spicy" patties. My mom wasn't paying attention to his announcement of which plate was plain or hot & spicy.  She prepared her burger, took the first bite and proceeded to turn beet red (from the spicy heat). Always polite, she was not sure how she was going to gracefully finish that burger. My father-in-law, Lindsey, leaned over and told her to ditch that burger and get a plain one-- her secret was safe with him. Since then, she laughs about that screw-up and always asks Bill which plate is the "safe" plate to choose from.

She always looks surprised at how much food we get from our "potluck" invitations.

This is my mother-in-law, Wilma, and her friend, Nina, testing out her new 2009 salsa recipe.

The "older crowd" (Nina, my mom, Jesse, Lindsey, & Wilma)seemed to have a really good time swapping stories. Check out my mom's facial expression...

And then the Rodgers chickens decided to make an appearance. Some got excited seeing all of that wonderful food. Time for me to turn into "Chicken Mama" and help them find another area to investigate...

The bolder, more curious Rodgers chickens came back. .. It was time for Bill to find his official "chicken herding stick"-- a long, green plant stake with a bent hook on the end that he found works well to poke chickens in the butt and make them go places. My chickens DO NOT like to be poked in the butt...

Just when we thought we had the Rodgers chickens distracted (with a nice slice of watermelon near their Chick Condo).... Bill told me to look down at my feet. Here was Honey, standing next to my leg, being very still-- as if to prove that she could be a good chicken and attend our BillBQ after all. Nice try, Honey.