The Chicken and Dumpling Gang

Meet our new babies. We've been talking about adding chickens to the mix, (because we didn't have enough going on already), for a long time. Finally we decided to take the plunge and we are loving every second of it. We started off by adding 8 female chicks. This is our first time raising chickens so we decided to try 8 different kinds. If you know me, you know these chickens weren't just going to be production type animals, they were going to be spoiled pets. We held the girls several times a day and of course gave them all names. We wanted the names to have a theme. It took us a little bit to decide on one but when we finally did it fit them perfectly. All of our girls are named after old west bandit-outlaw ladies. Their names are Belle Star, Pearl Hart, Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Sunny Days, Etta Place, Maud Davis and Rose Dunn. We call them the Chicken and Dumpling Gang, (come on, would you expect anything less from the crazy Kaizen's?).

Before raising chickens I never knew how sweet and friendly they could be and what different personalities each of them has. For instance, Belle is the mama of the group. All the other chickens follow her lead. Etta is Belle's faithful sidekick, Annie Oakley is the trouble maker of the bunch, and Maud thinks she's a dog rather than a chicken. They make the kids and I smile everyday.

Recently we decided the girls needed a boyfriend so we gave in and got a rooster. We were hesitant because we didn't want him to harass the girls, I didn't want him to attack me when I went in the coop, and I wasn't sure "cock-a-doodle-doo" was going to be a fun sound to hear every morning. I couldn't have been more wrong with my concerns. He has proved to be an absolute gentleman with the ladies (in fact they follow him EVERYWHERE), he's sweet and lets me hold him and I LOVE hearing him caw. They are wonderful pets and have been a great addition to our family.

Our new babies in their brooder. They had to stay in this until they are old enough to be outside.
The girls stayed in the brooder (which was in our house ) until they were 12 weeks old.

Meanwhile, while the girls were enjoying their cozy stay in our house, Mommy and Daddy were working hard to finish their soon to be home, outside! The frame
Starting to put up some of the walls

A little paint
Our coop! Designed by Me and put together and fine-tuned by Daddy.

The nesting boxes
More of the nesting boxes
Peeking in through their window you can see the nesting boxes and perches
Finally, after 12 weeks in the house the girls are trying out their coop for the first time. They could have gone out sooner but Mommy felt bad putting her babies outside in the cold. After all, they'd sit by the door and wait for me to carry them back in the house. Who could turn that down. Finally Daddy told me that he wasn't sure 8 almost full grown chickens were meant to be in the house. I guess he was right.
Meet our Ladies: Annie Oakley (Tea's chick) at 1 week old


8 weeks
"Annie Oakley", our Easter Egger. She lays blue tinted eggs (16 weeks old)
Calamity Jane (Caden's chick) at 1 week old
8 weeks

"Calamity Jane" our Mottled Java (16 weeks old) Sunny Days at 1 week old (This one is our Niece Aleah's chick) 8 weeks old "Sunny Days", our Salmon Favorelle, (she lays blue tinted eggs) 16 weeks old Pearl Hart at 3 weeks old 10 weeks "Pearl Hart", our Gold Laced Wyndotte (18 weeks old)
Belle Starr at 3 weeks old 10 weeks "Belle Starr"- Silver Laced Wyndotte (18 weeks old)
Etta Place at 1 week old 8 weeks "Etta Place" our Barred Cochin (16 weeks) Rose Dunn at 1 week old 8- weeks "Rose Dunn" our Gold Laced Cochin- 16 weeks Maud Davis at 1 week old 8 weeks old "Maud Davis" our Partridge Cochin (16 weeks old) Our new addition, an Americana rooster, named "Wyatt Earp". We decided our bandit ladies needed a law man to look after them. : )
The Chickens free ranging outside their coop for the first time. They were really scared at first but it didn't take them long to get to hunting and pecking. Baby gates double as seedling protection from the chickens. They love hanging out under our deck
After 20 weeks they finally started to earn their keep.