Four Part Harmony

Today was a beautiful spring day in Portland.
We had our share of clouds, but the sun shone through in the afternoon, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to give the chicks their first taste of the wild freedom of the backyard.
They stayed huddled up together for quite a while, not quite knowing what to make of it.
The grass was getting pretty tall, and the terrain wasn’t easy to traverse.
After 20 minutes or so though, they started to embrace their new-found freedom and ventured out a bit.
They managed to find a few bugs, and were peeping quite contentedly.
We let them roam about for an hour or so, while we alternatingly did some yardwork, chased Anna around, and lounged about in the sun.
A finer Sunday afternoon couldn’t hardly be had.

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Not too much happening with the chicks, but here’s a quick photo anyway. They are growing quite a bit, and getting more of their feathers in, including the beginnings of some tail feathers. They poop a lot more (if that’s possible), and are pretty skittish when you try to reach in to clean the cage.
We still love ‘em though.

Here’s Anna getting a little practice in, picking weeds and tending to her flock.

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Well, 30 years and two days to be precise.
It was a great birthday. Nicki made the whole day really special…a great breakfast, dinner, drinks…lots of friends came out to celebrate. No photographs were taken to commemorate the event (thankfully), and no photographs survive from the day after either (even more thankfully).

Now that I am upright again, I had my first chance to try a few squawking notes on my birthday gift from Nicki. I’ve been talking about picking up a fiddle for some time.
I’d better find someone to give me a lesson soon though, or I might drive everyone within earshot crazy.

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Got some time to work on the coop today.
It is much more difficult to find a big enough piece of time to make it worthwhile to drag out the tools and such, as opposed to when Don and Mary were out here.
Nevertheless, today I managed to get the main structure mostly assembled.
Still need to solve the problem of what to use for a roof, and need to build the nest box etc…
But progress is being made, and we’ve got a while before the chicks are ready to head outside.
It is starting to look pretty good though.

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Here are a couple of pictures of Anna with the chickens.
They seem to be growing pretty quickly, but it could be imagined.
They are starting to get their wing feathers in, and seem to have established a pecking order of sorts.
The Red is clearly the dominant, with the Wyandotte and the Orpington vying for second tier.

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We got some baby chickens yesterday!
Three chicks, just a couple of days old.

From left to right in the photo, a Silver-laced Wyandotte, a Rhode Island Red, and a Buff Orpington.

We set up this little brooder in the basement, and the chicks seem to be pretty happy in there. Temperature seems just about right.
They’re quite the little peepers!
We can hear them upstairs sometimes.
Anna is enjoying the chickens, but hasn’t yet suggested a name for her chicken.
So far just the Buff Orpington has a name, ‘Banjo’.

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Welcome to the freaking 21st century!
This is a blog with stuff from the life of Dan, Nicki, and Anna Wildrose.
Starting right……..now.

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