Category Archives: Pets and Animals

Scenes of a Sunny Nature

The yard is becoming quite the wonder once again. I wish it could be spring, summer and fall all year round because our house and yard look awesome and produces some terrific food in the bright sunshine. The chickens would be happier too!  But if that were the case, we might not be planning our escape to Puerto Rico!

The chicks are getting bigger. I think they are still too small to live outside, but they might be able to here in about 3 weeks. We had to put the Schnoodle baby gate over the top of the box because they kept flying up on top of the box sides and pooping.

The big chicken continues to lay her eggs in the newly constructed chicken coop, but still wants to sleep in the greenhouse. One day we closed the greenhouse to see if she would go to sleep on her own in the new coop. When we checked on her, she was sitting right outside our back sliding door, so we just let her into the greenhouse once again.

Here’s a few pictures I took today. Beware, they contain scenes of a sunny nature:

An Exploring Chick
A chick exploring in the flower garden (under supervision)

Chick on my arm
Here’s the chick on my arm and the adult in background

Columbine in Greenhouse
Columbine plant (Colorado state flower) in Greenhouse

Looking up at a columbine
Looking up at a columbine in greenhouse

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Bird Life in Greeley

We went out to lunch with Shana on Saturday and saw some geese, pelicans and herons in a lake near our house. It was pretty neat. Britton and I saw a bald eagle the other day as we were going to work too.  There’s quite a lot of bird life in Greeley if you look around -in addition to our chickens! :-).
Heron in lake in Greeley

Is this a crane or a heron?

Pelicans in lake
A lake full of pelicans in Greeley

As we were admiring the birds, we saw two Mother Goose type geese (I know, not very technical). I was going to take their picture, but since they were coming up to the car, I decided to take a video instead.

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Colorado Spring in Full Bloom

Spring is in full bloom here in Colorado. The tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are proudly standing tall. The grass is turning green, the trees are flowering. Even the dreaded dandelions are showing their pretty colors. The 70 and 80 degree weather has been such a welcomed visitor. We all (the chicks, chicken, dog, cat and people) have been enjoying spending time in the backyard. We haven’t moved the chicks or the chicken out to the new chicken coop yet, but we have started to feed the chicken there and will have to move her there soon. Anyone know how to transition a chicken from one coop to another if the original will still be around?

Two tulips

Two Red Tulips

Chick in Kitchen
Chick in our kitchen

on-step-of-chicken-coop
Showing the chicks (see chick on step) around their new home (soon)

Chick in Coop on roost
Chick on roost in coop with hay

Hanging out under the laundry basket
Chick hanging out in yard under laundry basket

Hyacinth
Pretty Pink Hyacinth

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Building a Chicken Coop

Well, we are finally done building our chicken coop for the most part. Britton woke up early on Saturday and put the shingles on the top and built the nesting boxes. He had the basic layout of the chicken coop already done, but with the crazy rainy/snowy weather we had put off moving it to the backyard until today.

We used the lawnmower as a dolly to transport it from the garage to our backyard because I am a wuss and couldn’t carry it. Then we needed to paint the plywood white to help protect it from the elements including the sprinkler system. So we went for a bike ride down to Ace and picked up a little can of exterior paint. We sat down to paint and were done in about 15 minutes. When I saw the white blank canvas, I decided to make it a cuter chicken coop with a custom paint job. Voila! Not bad for a day’s work. What do you think? We can’t wait till the baby chicks are old enough to live there with the Leghorn.

Lawnmower dolly and chicken coop
Britton with the chicken coop that we transported on the lawnmower dolly

Chicken coop painted white
Chicken coop painted white

Colorful chicken coop with chicken
After I painted it. Now it has a painted window with curtains and a window box of flowers.


Full Video Demonstration of chicken house functionality


Future inhabitants

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