Fetch finally notices

Though we've had the chicks for a few weeks, the dogs haven't noticed. The chicks peep constantly, and move around a lot, so why the dogs haven't noticed, I don't know. Today, Fetch finally discovers them. Daisy, our wheaten terrier, still hasn't - and actually never does. But she is 14.

Introducing Blanche

Blanche, whom we had been calling Peachy, is now Blanche - following along with the Southern ladies names. She loves having her picture taken and walks into as many shots as possible.

Legs gets her name

We name this one Legs, because while she is our smallest chick, she has the longest legs. She looks like she is wearing capri pants.

And more names

The floodgates have opened. One of my favorite things to do is to name pets. I think I get it from my Grandma, who had a black Scottie that she named Rastiss, a goat named ZoZo and a cat named Ipsy, because she found it in Ipswich, Connecticut. My favorite was the cat she named after the town bachelor: John Slater.

I grew up with lots of pets. My Mom was a Pharmacist at Snyder Bros. Drugs. They had a little pet aisle. It was her job to formaldehyde any pets that came in sick. Of course, she couldn't do it. So we gave a home to one-eyed cockatiels, lame hamsters and canaries that wouldn't sing.

My Mom continued the fun pet names tradition. We had a canary that would sing only when we vacuumed. She named it Hoover.

Names have to present themselves to me. I am reading The Poisonwood Bible and decide it would be funny to give them all southern lady names. I name the black one (above) Orleana.

Names

Despite our best efforts, we can't help but name the chicks. But just starter names, like Stripey (left) and such. We are chicken novices, but we do know the chickens, when full grown, will not look anything like they did when they were chicks. In fact, each morning, it seems they've grown a full size bigger.

Community Ed

I signed us up for a 'Chickens In The City' class through Minneapolis Community Ed, and my husband attends on our behalf. He gets good information, but is still noodling his coop design.

One good tip they gave: Save your fall leaves. In the winter, the chickens want to be outside but do not like to step on snow. Putting leaves down for them lets them be outside even if it snows. I find later that this is actually really helpful, and I hadn't read it in any of the books. The books also don't talk about insulating a coop - mostly because the coops are all in states that don't have harsh winters like us.

I certainly don't want the chickens cooped up all winter.

Coming in June (but happened May 20, 2008)

Well, it looks like we will be adopting the six hens I mentioned earlier. We are adopting them from Lori, a dynamic woman whose husband died and she now wants to join friends to go traveling. Though we don't have much to offer the hens, she says we can have them. My daughter is ecstatic. While squealing, she is jumping up and down and clapping her hands. Can we pick them up right now! How about tomorrow? How about this weekend?

We will have to be patient. Lori would like us to take them mid-June. This ups our coop-building deadline. (My August calculation was way off anyways. Hey, I'm an English major.)

I take notes about their names, which I just found today (June 14, 2009) in my 'chickens' file. I am reconstruting this story off bits and pieces I've saved; the printouts of various coops that my daughter found on the internet are the scratch paper I wrote these names down on. Luckily, it prints the date as well.

My husband, good at math but not so much at estimating, presents a coop plan that will cost $600, which I know means at least $800. No way! Chickens aren't picky, I tell him. We need to get it down to $200 at the most. Good naturedly, he starts a redesign.

Since we have chicks but have never had hens, we don't really know what we're doing. But like I said, chickens aren't picky.