Here Chickie Chickie Chickie!

I GOT MY FIRST CHICKEN!!!!!  Meet Della, the "Delaware Mix"! Isn't she darling? I found her at the Burbank Animal Shelter, of all places! We have a local no-kill shelter that takes in mostly dogs, cats, and rabbits, and on occasion they'll have a range of less common animals. I happened to swerve into their parking lot on impulse the other day, and there she was. My new little girl.


There were two chickens, actually. And I debated taking them both. I really wanted to! But the other chicken, a rare breed called Black Sumatra, is a bit aggressive by nature, and I didn't want little Della to spend the rest of her life running for cover. 


(Sidebar: If anyone wants a beautiful Black Sumatra for 5 bucks, go get her! She's really pretty and is laying a LOT). 


At first I thought that Della was a "bantam". A bantam is a midget chicken. I'm learning all sorts of new chicken words... it's its own world, I'm tellin' ya. Anyhoo, turns out she's just a youngster, probably 8 or 9 weeks old (I also learned that chickens start laying after about 9 weeks). That's my estimate anyway, know why?


BECAUSE SHE LAID HER VERY FIRST EGG!!!!!!

Meet our first grandegg!!!!!!!! I'm so proud!!!!! So proud, that I don't mind posting this really unflattering picture of myself. Well, I kind of mind. Whose arm is that?

Anyhoo (I said anyhoo twice), look how petite this her first egg is! It's the most beautiful egg I've ever seen. It's light tan in color and reminds me of a Victorian lass with porcelain skin and a rosy blush. It looks bigger than it is by the tape - in actuality it's just longer than an inch. And it's just the littlest, lovable egg in the world! I might just have to blow out the insides (hello breakfast) and keep the shell forever. Maybe make it a Christmas tree ornament or hang it in my kitchen.

Poor Della is lonely though. So come Thursday, I'll have my full flock fathomed! I'm going to place my order from Dare 2 Dream Farms in Lompoc, CA today for 3 or 4 more chickens. An Americauna, a Salmon Faverolle if they have one, and maybe a Buff Orpington. There are SO many choices for awesome chickens.... I really want a white Silkie, but I'm not sure that they have them. Or a white Frizzle. What's better than a truly ridiculous chicken....


So there ya have it! The latest of my chicken adventures! I'll post more pictures of chickens and the coop in my next blog, after the girls arrive. Sneak peek: my mom had to cut down a dead walnut tree and I got a great branch that I put in the coop for a roost. Little Della loves to sleep up high and really likes her new branch. 


Life rocks. And chickens make it better. 


B'GOK!

The Construction of Orpington Abbey

We did it! We built the coop!

My friend Daniel came over and we did it together. I call him my friend now, but he was just a worker before we built the coop together. I met him through my brother's tree guy, Salvador, who came over several weeks ago with Daniel and one other guy and planted some trees for us. Daniel does construction too, so I asked him to help me build a coop. We got along great and we had so much fun, that now he and I are buds. 

See how we framed in a lean-to? That was the first step, of course. All it took was 2x4's, a tape measure, a pencil, and a saw. With the two of us working, it went up in a jiffy. 

Sawing 2-by's under the olive tree

That's me, framing doors inside the run

Daniel did most of the work, because *SOMEONE* had to take the pictures. 

Daniel was really great at knowing how to do things like making the slope of the roof the same on both sides. We initially thought we'd make a wire ceiling, then decided it was better to make it covered. We considered a real roof (too much trouble), or that plastic, corrugated stuff which I actually really like, but Daniel didn't (hey, I'm really good with allowing artistic license), so we opted for particle board, which we already had (free is king), and I also had a roll of tar roofing paper (God knows why) to make it somewhat water proof for the one-and-a-half-days-a-year that it rains here. 

Ever wonder how to cut a hole in a wall and make a drop-down chicken ladder? Well have I got some valuable information for you! 

First, locate the center between the studs with a tape measure. Put a nail or a screw through it from the inside. Do the same where you want the bottom corners to be.

Next, mark the bottom with a pencil from the outside, then mark the sides and top using your tape measure and a level. 

We cut ours with a circular saw called a Skil Saw. Since it's circular, it doesn't cut all the way to the corners. That has to be done with a straight blade. 

Daniel laughed at me when I handed him my rusty saw. 

But it worked! Who's laughing now!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 TAA-DAAAA!

I like to shop at the American Cancer Society thrift store in Burbank (we call it The Cancer Store). Sometimes I find some really cool stuff.








But one day I found really practical stuff. There was a whole table of Stanley hardware, and everything was a dollar. I bought these hinges, as well as a bunch of other pieces that I'll probably never use.

See the ramp??! It latches at the top. We nailed a few strips of 1x1 (that's the measurement of the wood) to the ramp for little chicken feet to grab onto as they waltz into their house. 

See the roof? We ended up putting one more 2x4 across the ceiling so it won't start to sag. 

This view is actually from the front door. There's a back door, as you can see, which opens to a little enclosure where I'm going to plant "chicken salad" - a seed mix of greens that chickies really like. A Chick Pic! 

We realized that we needed to proof the open eaves from predators, so we nailed up some chicken wire.  We nailed it to the top edge of the roof, then to the wall. We used a long piece of 1x3 to cover the edge and scoot it up to the edge of the beams. I know that rats and mice are small enough to get through chicken wire, but at least it'll keep out the possums and raccoons.

YAY DANIEL! YOU'RE MY HERO!!

When we landscape the backyard, this is where the fountain will go. But that's another story.

I LOVE MY CHICKEN COOP!

And there ya have it. Next step: the interior of Orpington Abbey. Thanks for reading! B-GOK!