What's in a name?

Now that we had our 4 little fuzz balls, it was time to name them.  I asked R which one was her favorite, she responded "yellow." I figured we would start there.  Asking an almost 2 year old to name something is a pretty comical event.  "R, what would you like to name her?" I asked.  "Daddy!" she eagerly responds.  I just couldn't bear to have to possibly tell her "Daddy was killed by a fox last night." The next name on her list was,  Mommy, not shocking! Finally, I asked her who she loved at school and she said "Abby." This is a person at R's school who she is always talking about yet we have never seen or met and her teachers act confused when we ask about Abby - possible imaginary friend? Abby it is! Our first chick has a name.

Abby now has green eyes and is the namesake for this Blog

My niece and nephew were coming to town in a few days so I left the other 3 for them to name. They named the other 3 in 5 minutes flat.  "This one is Coco because she is brown!" One chimed in.  The other said " how 'bout Happy 'cause of the feathers on her feet?" OK, great! the last chick was the bravest one who was already trying to fly so they named her Amelia after Amelia Earhart. So, now we have it, our first four chickens have names, they are officially pets! From here on out they are referred to as the "OGs" or Original Gals since we will be getting more chicks soon.

Chicken namers building the chicken ramp for the coop

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a chicken?!

Rules, Rules, Rules

G and I decided we wanted to try our hand at raising backyard chickens.  We love the idea of cackle fresh eggs right from the coop and we are always  open to trying new things. Plus, chickens are cute and it would be fun for R to grow up with them.  We had heard that chickens were OK in the City of Boulder but we decided to follow the rules and check the City of Boulder laws and ordinances.                                    

 According to backyard chickens, the first rule of raising chickens is " be sure you have a place for them to live" before you get your chicks.  Well, we broke that rule. We were so excited to get started on our chick raising adventure that the first day of my spring break, my daughter and I headed to Murdoch's, our local feed store, to pick up some day old chicks.



Another rule is to get more chicks than you think you need because something always happens. My plan was to get 2 and we left with 4 - how could I resist those little peeps and all that fuzz! The idea was to have a colorful egg basket so we got a Buff Orphington, a Cuckoo Maran, an Easter Egger and a Light Brahama.  These chicks were textbook - fuzzy, tiny and oh, so adorable! also, homeless. Their first home was a fish tank with a heat lamp and pine shavings which is fine for the first 2 weeks.  We were unaware that they grew so fast! This perfectly cozy fish tank became close quarters much sooner than we expected. Still no coop!