i like to spray paint.

I love spray paint.  

It comes in an array of colors... you can spray pain just about anything... and the best part??  The results are practically instantaneous.  Love it.

A few months ago I bought several hanging plants to fancy up our backyard a bit... but the plastic pots that they came in were kind of bland.  I didn't want to spend a bunch more money replacing all of the pots... so... in comes spray paint!!! 

I carefully took the plants out of all of their containers so I could prep the pots for painting.  I have no idea what these plants are called... I completely forgot.  I consider it a huge accomplishment that they are all still alive;)

I took the containers to the side of the house and spray painted them one by one... the whole process took about 30 minutes for 6 containers.  I went with a bold lime green that I've used before on some other outdoor projects.  I love this color.

What a difference!!  I love how the green pops!!!  No more bland here.

I think even the chickens like it:)

Now I just need to focus on keeping the plants alive...

chicken shit and other probing questions...

Last week I posted a bit about our new feathered friends and I tried my best to answer as many anticipated questions as possible.  Turns out there are quite a handful of you that have considered having a few backyard hens of your own, or are simply curious about what the process might be like.

So today, as I sat outside eating my chicken sandwich while watching my own chickens (disturbing, I know) I thought I would do a follow-up post, hoping to answer some of your probing chicken questions.  I figured who wouldn't be thrilled to start their Monday off with a post about chicken shit.

No really... that's one of the questions... chicken shit...

1) "I'm kinda wondering about the poop... weird question?  Seems like 8 chickens would get a little messy..."

And yes.  You're right.  Having eight chickens definitely is a little messy.  Initially, we kept the girls in their run (fenced in area), so the poop really wasn't an issue.  But now we open their run during the day so they can have free-range over the entire backyard... so, to be blunt, there is basically crap everywhere.  But I will say this, chicken poop dries up very quickly, so while there is a lot of poop... it's not necessarily "messy" if that makes sense.  Also, as soon as the yard is mowed, it will be good as new... poop free, but extremely fertilized:)

2) "Do they eat the grass?"

Yes.  They eat pretty much anything growing in the ground.  They eat grass, but love our patches of clover and dandelions.  And as I found out yesterday, they will also eat Cheddar Sun Chips.

3) "You guys could start making some money off the eggs (free-range!) if you wanted to..."

For sure.  We definitely plan to sell some of the eggs... especially if we have as many as we think we will.  I mean, a girl can only eat so many omelets.  We will be sharing eggs (free) with several of our neighbors, and we also plan to do some trading as well.  I'm hoping we can find someone to trade a dozen eggs for homemade bread.

4) "How much did it cost to buy the birds and get the coop and cage set up?"

This is a great question.  Surprisingly, chickens are pretty cheap.  We paid just $12.50/each for ours.  It's the coop that can end up getting expensive.  If you decide to purchase a pre-made coop, it will likely cost anywhere from $300-$500... and that was a little (okay, a lot) out of our price range.  So, Lance, being the handy man that he is, set out to purchase all of the materials and build our own coop... all for just over $60.  Then he probably spent another $15 on the run (cage) portion.  If you can build your own, or know someone that can help you, that is definitely the most affordable route to go.

5) "Is it (the cost) going to be worth it in the end for all the 'free' eggs?"

I'm going to say yes here.  Although technically we haven't experienced any of the "free" eggs yet (the girls will start producing in about 7-8 more weeks).  But here's the thing.... for us, this endeavor is more than just the free eggs.  Sure, that's part of it... and I'll be sure to let you know if free-range eggs that come out of your backyard are really that much better than the eggs you buy at the grocery store.  But a bigger part of this for us is building relationships within our community.  We are having conversations (about eggs) with neighbors that we have never spoken to since we've lived here.  We are talking to local farmers and restaurant owners about trading goods.  We have neighborhood kids stop by the house to see and feed "the chickens."  And that is awesome.

6) "I've been wanting a small brood of chickens myself, but we're renting the house we're in now and all of our neighbors have dogs."

Some backyards and neighborhoods are totally not chicken-friendly... but you would be surprised.  We are also renters, but we have an awesome landlord that has pretty much given us free reign to do as we please in the backyard.  We don't have any restrictions on backyard chickens in our neighborhood (no roosters though)... but we did make sure to check with both of our next-door neighbors before bringing any feathered friends home.  Both of our neighbors have been extremely supportive and excited about the chickens.  One of our adjoining neighbors has a large black lab, who on occasion likes to bark at the chickens, but other than that, she's been harmless.  Our backyard is obviously well-fenced in, which helps.

If you are truly considering some backyard hens yourself, I strongly recommend the book City Chicks, by Patricia Foreman.  It has been extremely helpful in answering a slew of questions that we have had.

If any of you decide to take the plunge and become "city chicks" yourself, I would love to hear about it... In the meantime, I'll be sure to keep you posted with our own stories of chicken adventures:) 

a post about chickens...

So... Chickens.  

True story: We are now the proud owners of chickens.  Eight of them to be exact.  Yes, eight.  Just call me Farmer Julia.  Well... truth be told, it's really Lance that is the farmer here.  I'm just here for moral support... and the scrambled eggs:)

I'll admit, at first I was pretty skeptical.  Chickens??  In our backyard??

But sure enough, these gals are starting to grow on me.

A few things to note in case you don't know much about chickens (I certainly didn't)...  All eight of our chickens are little ladies... no roosters at this party.  We got them for eggs... not chicken legs.

The girls have their very own chicken penthouse... compliments of Lance.  They have a "coop" (the metal part) which is where they sleep and eventually is where they will lay their eggs.  And then they also have a little "run" (the larger cage part) which is where they can roam around a bit while still being protected.

We typically open the run during the day so the girls can wander around the entire backyard.  They are absolutely hilarious to watch.  Chickens really are as dumb as people say they are... which makes for some pretty awesome backyard entertainment.

The main reason why we decided to get the Astralop chickens was because we had read that this type was known to be super docile.  We wanted our friend's kids and our neighbor's kids, and even our own kids eventually, to be able to play and interact with the chickens.  So far we've been pretty impressed.

We feed them a blend of grains, and fill up the feeder about once every 2-3 days.  These little ladies are very well fed... and so are the neighborhood squirrels, so we've learned.

We also give them a few handfuls of mill worms (aka chicken crack) everyday.  It's like candy.  I know it looks gross, but it's like dried peanut shells or something... and the chickens love this stuff.

All you have to do is shake the mill worm bag a couple of times and the girls come runnin'.  They love them some chicken crack.

Probably the number one question that we've been asked is, "Aren't they loud?" or "Don't your neighbors mind?"  And the answer is no, and no.  Surprisingly the chickens barely make a peep.  They do a little bit of soft chirping, but you can hardly hear it.  On a rare occasion one of them might let out a little squawk... but even that is pretty quiet.  From what I understand, it's the roosters that are typically the noisy ones, and since we have all girls, noise just hasn't been an issue.  And as for my neighbors... they love them.  Both of our next door neighbors have been over numerous times to see the chickens and everyone's excited about the eggs.

Which is probably the number two question... "When do they start laying eggs?"  Typically a hen will start laying her eggs around 20 weeks.  Our chickens are about 11-12 weeks old right now... so we should start seeing some eggs in about 2 more months... and after that we'll have eggs coming out of our ears.

Bedtime comes like clockwork for these girls.  As soon as the sun starts to go down, one by one, the chickens walk up the ramp to settle in their cozy coop.  We have a couple of roosts built inside and they all huddle together for a good night's sleep.  If you go out late enough at night, you can even hear them snoring... swear.

So, what does Little Cat think about his new sisters??

He's completely unimpressed.  He will sit and watch them for hours, but for the most part doesn't really know what to make of his new feathered friends.

What about you?  Do you know anyone that has backyard chickens?  Have you thought about it yourself?  Stay tuned for more tales of urban farming...