Our Little Urban Farm

Last winter, our good friend Kalki, owner of eScape Landscapes, installed some raised beds and a run for our chickens. We love the way our backyard is shaping up!

The Midtown Chicks are especially grateful. Saffron wanted me to give Kalki a shout out.

Saffron

The run extends from the coop which allows the ladies to roam free during the day. This also prevents them from enjoying our crops before we do. They have plenty of shade and places to scratch and peck.

Our yard may be small, but its packed full of goodies. Thanks to Shawn's green thumb, we will enjoy herbs, veggies and fruit.

Carrots

Blueberries, installed by eScape

Grapes, first yr to produce fruit. Planted 5 yrs ago.

Cilantro

Happy Holidays

Productivity

Egg-citing news!

We are happy to report that the new chicks are finally contributing to the food supply. However,  tiny chickens make tiny eggs so right now 1 Ollie egg + 1 Ellie egg = 1 Saffron egg. Mei is still molting, so no blue eggs just yet. We hope the newbies will inspire her to start laying again.

Yay eggs!

Molting Mei

Our girl Mei hasn't been herself lately. We think she had sour crop a few weeks ago and with the introduction of the new chicks, she has been quite stressed out. She hasn't laid an egg in two weeks.

Thinking she might be egg bound, we bathed her in warm water and I did unspeakable things involving a latex glove and olive oil. We started to notice that she was losing some feathers. I began to panic.

Today, we came home to an entire backyard of feathers. We were relieved to discover that our girl is simply molting.

Thanks to Melissa B. and Backyard Farming for saving the day!

She looks a bit disheveled and has bare spots on her waddle and wings. Molting is stressful so we will need to supplement her food with some protein, like cottage cheese or yogurt.

The molting could last as long as 12 weeks and so could the lack of eggs. Good thing we have two other birds still producing.

Who knew chicken tending could be this exciting!

Making New Friends

The Midtown Chicks made some new friends today. Andria, Abe and Meredith stopped by for some quality time with the ladies.

 Abe gave Blackberry a little love. She is our most social chicken these days.

 Meredith is a natural! She took to Blackberry immediately. We were so impressed.

Thanks to Farmer Shawn, Abe met our newest and littlest chicken, Ellie. She was on her best behavior.

And in the end, Andria was brave enough to pet Ellie too. It was a successful chicken adventure all the way around.

Complete Package

Another special delivery arrived yesterday. The Midtown Chicks have their very own stamp!

Thanks to my thoughtful and creative hubby (and the fine folks at Simon's Stamps) sharing eggs with others will be even more fun. And official :)

 Ain't she a beaut Clark?