Huevos, baby!

As of last Monday, our chickens were 17 weeks old. We knew the eggs were coming eventually, but figured it would be a few weeks still. However, one day I peeked in the coop (using the handy hinged roof Eric put together for us) just checking things out, and sure enough:Can't really see it there, can you? A close up (because really, this was that exciting): And this is what we did with it:

From Drop Box

Since then, we've gotten several more. In fact, they are piling up in the fridge already. God help us when the other three start laying.



Although we can't be sure, we think the Colonel is responsible for the early egg laying: she's a production bird, apparently, and is by far the most nest-oriented of any of the chickens. She's also the loudest and the most obnoxious, but that's another matter.

Any interesting egg recipes (or other ideas) are more than welcome.

Chicken moving day

We talked for a really long time about what kind of coop we wanted, and looked at a bunch of books and designs online. As our space was fairly limited (therefore no converted sheds) and we didn't want to spend a fortune (and it's nearly impossible to find a cute coop for under $500), Eric built us one. I threw together a design we sort of used at work, and it more or less worked. We had to leave the bumped out egg boxes off since that wall was meant to be removable and they would be too heavy, and the flower boxes haven't been added yet, but it's fantastic - Eric did a really phenomenal job. I love the cedar shingles, and the hinged roof is incredibly convenient. We also did a single door that drops down to form a ramp, and that has been working really well. As the run is totally enclosed (wood frames and hardware cloth) and there's an overhanging roof, we can leave the coop open all the time - important given our laziness and the absolutely miniscule probability we would wake up to let the chickies out. Eventually I'll add the flower boxes and perhaps the Phyllis Diller photo. Sooner, though, we'll be installing nesting boxes and a small cut-out on the removable wall for easier egg retrieval.

After 10 weeks - maybe more - we finally got the jerks out of the house. In some perfectly logical way, we decided to do this late at night. Really, after weeks of trying to get the coop together and finally being more or less ready, it had to be done. Eric and I both took turns bringing them out. Some behaved better than others. Matzoh ball in particular was awful; the screeching, flapping, and wriggling was a little intimidating. I ended up covering up her head and running through the house - a strategy that seemed to work pretty well. Once we got them into the coop, the chickens were absolutely silent, like we had killed them. It was actually a little unnerving. But, the monsters settled in fairly quickly. After two or three days we finished the run, and they were free to explore the far reaches of their 3' x 10' run.

And now, without further adieu, the chickens

We ordered our chickens from My Pet Chicken in early February, expecting delivery the first week of April. Thinking we were super smarties, we ordered 6 chicks, assuming some would die in shipping, and perhaps one or two would end up being male. On April 1st, a postal worker came to the door with a madly chirping box. Hysterical. She was slightly confused, but cracking up, and I was jumping up and down like some kind of moron. I finished setting up the brooder (only the best for our girls), and Eric came home at lunch for the big release. (While waiting for Eric I was using the computer in the basement for a while, and the chicks were so loud I could hear them chirping all the way down there. Thankfully, they shut up after a while.) So, Eric came home, and we opened up the box, found all of the chicks alive, and transferred them to the brooder. (For the record, the chickens were all born March 30, 2009.)

We had ordered one red sex link, one silver laced wyandotte, one easter egger, one barred rock, and two australorps. The Colonel (the red sex link, closeup at left) soon showed herself to be a bitch-chicken, the most aggressive and territorial of all of them and earned her name within the first few weeks. The Chairman (also at left) seemed to be second in command, and was breifly called "Ducky" which was later replaced by her current name. Interestingly, she was a hulking beast of a chick - by far the largest - and has actually ended up the smallest of the adult chickens.

At right are the chicks at 4 weeks - they had begun to feather out pretty well by this point, and were happily roosting in their brooder (from left to right: the Chairman, the SLW Matzoh Ball, the Barred Rock Pol Pot Pie, and the Colonel; underneath: the two australorps we later gave away). As it turns out, they had feathered out enough to fly a little, which of course wasn't obvious until one escaped (below). Covering the brooder with chicken wire was an easy fix. This, however, did not stop the incessant wing flapping that later caused the entire office to be covered in a super-fine pine shaving dust.

By 6-7 weeks (below) the monsters were getting filthy, the office was covered in dust, and we were really looking forward to getting them the hell out of the house.

The Garden

Thankfully, Eric is much more on top of the garden than I am. Early this year he picked up some compost, and after the deluge was over (I think we had like three months of rain) we were able to get the garden beds in order. Well, one of them, at least -- you can see in the "after-ish" fence picture (taken in May) we put down sod on one bed to welcome the chickens (it lasted about a week after they moved in). Here is the start of our garden (again, late May): Along the back in the far corner are 3 cucumbers and a bunch of pole beans, and the pole beans stretch along the entire fence. We also have one grape tomato plant against the short side of the fence at the far end, two brandywine tomatoes (from the farmers market), a couple eggplants, a cubanelle pepper plant, perhaps, and a squash and zucchini plant in the nearer bed. There are a few basil plants and marigolds scattered throughout as well. After a couple months, this is what we have now: So far we have gotten a bunch of beets (from our bed at the community garden), more cucumbers than I can count, and a ton of squash and zucchini too. Again, lucky for us, Eric has started seeds for a fall garden too. Hopefully we can get brussel sprouts to work for us this time around.

One thing I've noticed that is really unfortunate about eating produce almost exclusively from your own garden (or a local CSA to which we belong, further exacerbated by shopping at the local farmer's market) is that you really do overdose on local seasonal vegetables. I think we ate beets almost everyday for a month. I was dreading them, until I made borscht (recipe from Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America - a fantastic cookbook), which we promptly scarfed up. Now, we are thinking up creative ways to eat cucumbers, including a really delicious thai cucumber salad that I've made twice and will probably do, yet again, this weekend. As for the zucchini and yellow squash, I've sauteed both with onions a few times, stuffed yellow squash (much better with zucchini), and just made zucchini cream soup - super easy and very delicious.

Zucchini cream soup:
Saute 1-2 chopped onions until they begin to brown. Add 1.5 - 2 lb. chopped zuchinni. Continue sauteing a few more minutes, then add 6c stock (don't use chicken bouillon, it overpowers the soup), 1/2 c oatmeal, and salt. Simmer 15-20 min. Blend well and strain soup. Add plain yogurt prior to serving if desired.

Garden reminders:

• Don't plant cucumbers and beans together -- the beans will strangle the cucumbers.
• Put the trellis up for the beans when they are planted if at all possible -- it is very difficult to move them without breaking them later on
• Brandywine tomatoes are enormous!
• Farmers market plants are fantastic
  

A new fence out back

When Eric bought the house, there was a massive stump in the backyard with some grotesque number of rats living underneath (think the rosebush from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH). There was also a chain link fence, cut out around the stump, and generally not in great shape. The first major outdoor projects outside were raised garden beds and a new fence. Eric installed the garden beds the year before last, and built us an awesome fence earlier this year. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any "before" pictures, but here are a few "during" and "after" shots. Come to think of it, the one on the bottom isn't technically an "after" photo -- it's more a "late-during". Eventually we'll stain the fence, and perhaps add some embellishments on the top. For now, though, it's doing a great job of keeping the chickens in (and semi-hidden) and keeping the riffraff out.

Where to begin?

Well, I guess we have about two and a half years to quickly summarize here so we can start moving forward. I suppose we should start with how we came to be here in the first place. Eric bought this house in December of 2005 and was living with John. I was living with Lex at the time in a house in Southeast Baltimore (mercifully only briefly chronicled at Nightmare on Drew Street). Eric and I got engaged in February 2007, and Lex was heading to law school in Boston in the fall, so it became suddenly very important to get my house together so we could sell it as quickly as possible. I moved in with Eric and John about two weeks before our wedding (probably September 2007) as my bathroom was under construction and I had nowhere to pee. So, we got hitched, John moved out, Lex and I eventually sold the house, and I finished moving in.

To finish the background, I should probably mention the cats. I brought along Purryface when I moved in. Pete, Fat Pete as she's more often called, belongs to Alexa, but was living with Deb since Lex went to law school. Then, after about a year we snatched little Pete up from Deb's (apparently she's not a dog-loving cat) and she and Purryface fell deeply in love. Or lust. Or something. Anyhow, they're very happy together. Or they were until we got Garden Cat about two months ago. We found Garden Cat at the community garden up the street (further explanation some other time). Although she was skinny and matted, we weren't convinced she was a stray until we one day found her eating a bird. That night around midnight we were walking home from dinner and offered her some cat food that she scarfed down so quickly I was a little worried she would get sick. We then ran home, grabbed the cat carrier and the car, and went back to pick her up. After a visit to the vet, she was introduced to Purryface and Fat Pete and they are all mostly happy these days. Below: Pface and Fat Pete on the left (here, Pete has just been treated to her stylish lion cut), and the bitey Garden Cat on the right.


Oh, right, and the house: