This weekend has zipped by! I feel like I have been busy but for the life of me I can’t tell you what I have been busy doing. Not a feeling I like to have because it makes me tired without seeming to have a reason.
I suppose much of what I have been doing is planning and that is mental work that doesn’t have anything immediately to show. What kind of planning you ask? Chickens!
We will be getting them as babies only a couple days old. They will be living indoors with us for a while in a brooder. My chicken book says it definitely does not have to be anything fancy, it just has to be big enough. It suggested big plastic tote bins or even sturdy cardboard boxes taped together. Since I have access at work to free paper boxes that are quite sturdy, we are going to build their home out of those. I have two boxes already. I think we will ultimately need four. But if we need more that will be easy enough. So brooder solved.
In the bottom under the bedding we will put old cookie sheets to keep the cardboard from getting damp and to make cleaning easier. We can then also use the cookie sheets out in the coop beneath the roost to make cleaning up easier there too.
I have a checklist of other items we will need including bedding, feeder, waterer, heat lamp and baby chicken food. We will get all of that in February when we order the babies. Then we will have time to get everything set up but there won’t be a long time to wait after that before the girls move in. I will be sure to have my video camera battery charged and ready so I can share the fluffy cuteness with you.
We have also finally decided what breeds of birds will be in our small flock. Our chicks will come to us via Egg Plant Urban Farm Store and they have eight breeds to choose from. Unless they tell us when we order that our chosen mix is not a good idea we will be getting one Rhode Island Red, one Ameraucana/Easter Egger (so named because they lay green and blue eggs), one australorp, and one barred rock. We decided one of the advantages of getting four different breeds is being able to tell them all apart.
And yes, we have names for them already. Since we are getting four, we have decided to call them The Dashwoods. Which one will be Elinor, Marianne, Margaret and Mrs. Dashwood remains to be seen. We have plans once the coop is completed to paint it up as Barton Cottage with a faux brick paint job. Why not? There will be no Mr. Willoughby or Colonel Brandon or Edward Ferrars, only the ladies. I wouldn’t mind a rooster, but the city requires I get 100% approval from all my neighbors within crowing distance. Stupid city regulations.
While we are on the topic of stupid city regulations, let’s talk about those for a second. My neighbors can have big dogs that bark at all hours and none of them require permission from anyone. For me to have four hens that hardly make any noise at all I have to get permission from 80% of my neighbors who live within 100 feet/30.5 m of my property. The city sent me a list of all the addresses I have to solicit and there are fourteen! That fourteen includes four houses across the street from me who will never even see the chickens because they can’t see into my backyard. At least they should be easy to convince to sign the form.
We need eleven signatures. We don’t foresee any problems, we get along well with our neighbors. It’s just having to go through all the trouble of getting their signatures that is ridiculous. Last year the city held hearings to drop this requirement but nothing has yet come of it so we have to jump through that silly hoop.
The Dashwoods will be worth the trouble, right?
Looking forward to chicken stories!
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Helen, I’m sure there will be plenty!
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I love the names and I do so agree with you about the dog owners not needing permission. Barking dogs who are ignored by their owners can completely spoil a whole area. I’m looking forward to you getting your girls!
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Piningforthewest, thanks! I was tempted to get five hens so we could name them after the Bennet sisters, but really four is enough for my small garden. At the moment we are blessed with no excessively barking dogs but a couple years ago there were a few and it was rather annoying at times. The girls will be arriving before I know it. I can hardly believe it!
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Surely the Dashwoods will be worth the trouble. Love the names.
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Jeanne, thanks! I’m sure they will be worth it 🙂
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This is a riot!
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booksandbuttons, thanks! 🙂
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Excellent naming decisions. I can’t wait to see pictures of your lovely chickens!
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Jenny, thank you very much 🙂 I am looking forward to bringing the babies home 🙂
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I love the name!! Dashwoods is perfect! I agree ..stupid city rule and very discriminating…I mean dogs can bark but rooster cannot crow! Very unfair! Hats off to you and Bookman…I cannot ever imagine going door to door for getting signatures to get home a pet! But I agree the Dashwoods are worth it!
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cirtnecce, thank you! City rules can be pretty crazy. I understand needing a permit and having animal control come buy to inspect the coop and all but that my neighbors have to say it’s ok is really silly. Luckily Bookman is a very good salesman and has no problem’s knocking on doors. He says he has it all under control! I am so glad because yeah, I could do the knocking but my spiel would likely be a confused stutter!
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Hens hens hens! I can’t wait to read more about them!
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Helen, I am really looking forward to getting them. It seems like it has been forever to wait while at the same time like the wait has zoomed by!
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Here’s hoping the neighbors support and cheer your chicken decisions! I have a friend who recently started this hobby (last year) and she is having a blast.
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Care, thanks! I have a friend who has had chickens for several years and she loves it and was so excited when I told her I was going to get some. I can hardly wait!
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Wow, that is an intense city regulation. I could understand it for roosters, those fuckers are so annoying oh my fucking god, our old rooster used to crow every morning at 3 am, but for hens? Geez. Anyway, good luck!
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Nikki, thanks! It is a pretty intense regulation and it is in the process of being changed but it won’t be changed in time for me. Figures! There are still quite a few of the suburbs that don’t allow chickens at all. Someone down the street from me has had chickens for several years and they had a rooster for a little while and I would love to hear it crow at odd hours of the day. They had to get rid of though because they had toddlers and he was super aggressive and kept going after the kids! In some ways I find that hilarious but in others not so much.
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Fantastic names! I can see having your next door neighbors agree, but across the street! Ridiculous? Oh well, I’m glad you have good relations with your neighbors. Can’t wait to read about the chickens!
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Laila, thanks! It’s pretty ridiculous but it will all work out. I should be bringing home the little chicks in about 4-6 weeks!
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The Dashwoods! Love it. I am worried that the australorp may get an inferiority complex surrounded by all that prettiness, particularly that very pretty barred rock.
As for dogs vs roosters, yes, good point. Eleven signatures? We have chickens next door (not a rooster admittedly) and we hear them quietly clucking around. They suddenly appeared a few months ago. Mr Gums commented the other day that he thought they were supposed to get permission (here too, you see) but they didn’t. However, it doesn’t bother us. Indeed I rather like it – and they ARE quieter than the little foxie on the other side of us.
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whisperinggums, I thought your Jane Austen loving heart might appreciate that 🙂 I think most pictures don’t do the australorp justice, they are gorgeous birds, all black with patches of shimmery blue-green feathers on their wings. She will hold her own against the barred rock in looks 🙂
Very cool your neighbors have chickens. Isn’t the clucking a nice sound? When I took a chicken keeping class last year the teacher brought in a chicken and she sat in her pen quietly clucking the whole class and it was such a soothing sound. Maybe you will get some eggs gifted to you now and then 🙂
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So far no eggs! These are decent neighbours, but they do keep to themselves, and given our location – our house is on the bend of a crescent, we never see them come and go as they are around the corner. (They are also a biggish family). But we do get fresh eggs from my parents handyman. The are wonderful.
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Ah well. If you were my neighbor I’d be giving you plenty of fresh eggs! Nice though that your parents’ handyman gives you eggs!
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Wish you were my neighbour … And not just for the eggs!! (I mean, I’d like beans, and carrots, and …. too!) seriously, though, 😘
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Aw shucks, thanks! And you know I would totally share the produce from my garden. My neighbor who sometimes snowblows my sidewalk in winter is often the recipient of strawberries in spring and jars of apple butter in fall. Eventually he’ll be getting eggs too!
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Wow, it sounds like a lot of redtape. Good luck with the neighbors! You should bring them the cutest possible pictures of baby chicks and they will melt for sure!
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smithereens, heh, I like your thinking! Sign here please if you think this baby chick is adorable 😉
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I can’t wait to see a family portrait of The Dashwoods! Hope all goes well with the neighbors. We live in a neighborhood with a HOA and it is a pain to do anything to your home. Ridiculous.
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Iliana, eventually the signature requirement will be dropped just not in time for me this spring, so if the neighbors prove difficult I’ll get then back later. However, it should all go pretty well. 🙂
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You are going to have a most literary household! It sounds like fun and I can’t wait to see them. Too bad about all the signature nonsense. And I have to agree with you on those dogs. Nearly all my neighbors have dogs and one is not very careful about keeping them inside their fence. They have two very naughty loud yippy dogs who like to chase me when they are out of their yard–not a fan of little dogs, am I! It’s so close now!
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Danielle, only appropriate, right? I think sometimes the little dogs are worse than the big ones! Bad doggies! Naughty neighbors! Maybe you need to carry treats with you that you can toss away to distract them? Or pepper spray?
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