This is a true story.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent (or insane).  

Once upon a time there was a girl who was preparing to move across country to California with all of her pets (including her beloved chickens).  To get all of the animals there safely and legally, one of the dogs needed a trip to the vet and the chickens needed a health certificate.  And so my (her) Tuesday began…
Thankfully, the girl worked at UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine, so she loaded up her 4 chickens and her tiny Chihuahua mix dog and headed to work/the vet clinic to get all of the necessary requirements for travel fulfilled.  

Okay…at this point, everyone knows it’s me…so I’m just going to tell you about my CRAZY day.  :)

Picture this, the 3 hens and the rooster are loaded in a large dog kennel in the bed of the truck, with my little dog in the backseat.
I arrive at work, park in a faraway parking lot, and start working towards the building.  The rooster crows.  Cringing, I walk on, hoping that this is not going to be an all-day issue.  My first hour of work passed, and I had an appointment at 9am to take the whole crew in to the clinic.  I walk outside, head to the truck, and again the rooster is crowing.  :(  Embarrassed and anxious to just get this whole thing over with, I pull the truck around to the clinic entrance and leave the chickens in the bed of the truck.  Again, the rooster crows.  Well…that’s okay, no need to check in at the desk…I’m pretty sure they know I’m there.  An eager student greets me and tells me that she would like to bring the chickens inside to examine them.  Examine them?  Inside?  Really?!  They are chickens!  Now…granted, I understand that I made an appointment for this exact reason (so really I am the one that is insane) but what the heck is she going to do with them?  Okay, fine.  We walk out to get the birds out of the truck.  We struggle inside with the oversized carrier (after all, I didn’t want them to be crowded…) and put them in an exam room.
Another student comes in and sweetly shares her excitement about the chickens’ arrival.  She used to show chickens in college.  She loves chickens.  At this point, I am feeling like I should make her day and give them all to her.  The health certificate is being filled out and while I am feeling a little foolish for all of the effort that I have already put into this, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  My plan is to drop everyone off at the house after the appointment is over.  I will get home, let the chickens go, drop the dog off, and head back to work.  As a treat for myself prior to the move and our mini-vacation to Florida on Wednesday, I had a hair appointment at 4:30 downtown.  I was beginning to think that was a super good move on my part – I could use some relaxation.  The student finishes with the health certificate and just needs to go get “Vet A” to sign it.  Perfect.  The chicken loving student informs me that since my dog has had vaccine reactions in the past, I should really leave him with them for the day to monitor him.  Ummm…sure…it’s a nice day, I can leave him in the car with the windows cracked while I get my hair cut – slight inconvenience, but no problem.  The dog and student leave.  It’s just me and the chickens.  The rooster starts crowing again.  In a closed room.  The walls are vibrating.  My ears are bleeding.  There are eruptions of laughter from the other side of the door.  Stellar.  The student that left with the health certificate returns with nothing in her hands.  “There’s a slight problem” she says.  My heart sinks…I was so close to being through with all of this.  “Vet A doesn’t have the necessary level of accreditation to sign off on a livestock health certificate.  However, I’m sure someone in the large animal hospital has it.  We’re contacting them right now to see if someone wouldn’t mind popping down and just signing the form for us.”  Sure.  Why not?  Let’s get someone else involved.  Okay fine.  She tells me to just hold tight, and she’ll be right back.  This time the rooster doesn’t crow, but the hens start squawking.  Not just squawking, it’s more like they are singing their favorite hen Christmas carol in rounds.  Everyone gets a turn.  And then, the rooster crows.  Vet A comes in and explains the situation and says that there is yet another complication.  Ummm…okay, patience is not really my thing…but let’s hear it.  Vet A spoke with a friend in the poultry industry and he told him that I need to take all 4 chickens to Oakwood, GA (which he tells me is only 45 minutes from here) to get necessary blood tests and mouth swabs on everyone.  It is a turnaround time of 48 hours for the test results, so this shouldn’t be a problem.  Oh no.  No, no, no.  I’m crazy, but I draw the line.  I am NOT paying for diagnostic testing on backyard chickens simply so I can truck them 2600 miles west.  No.  At this point, I remember the woman at the California Animal Health Branch that I spoke with when we first started planning our move.  The people at the California AHB are the folks that make all of the rules and regulations about what animals are required to have to come into the state.  So, okay, I will call her and hope that she is at work today.  Stupid California time difference!  It’s 10:30am Georgia time, which makes it 7:30 in the sunny state of California.  I leave a voicemail for her and am reassured that I can leave the chickens in the clinic.  Ummm…huh?  This is a clinic where normal people bring their dogs and cats.  “Are you sure?!” I ask.  “It’s not a problem,” everyone tells me.  Oooookkkkkaaayyy.  So, I leave the chickens in the middle of the clinic and return to my desk, defeated.  After a couple of big hugs from some of my super sweet coworkers, I am feeling ridiculous.  This is the definition of insanity.   At 11:05am (8:05 in Cali) my phone rings, and it is my new best friend in California.  She informs me that the chickens do not need any additional tests to enter the state, just the health certificate.  YES!!!  I call Vet A and inform him of the good news.  “Great,” he says.  He actually just got off the phone with Vet B and he is going to come down and sign off on the chickens.  Now we’re getting somewhere!!!  I head down to the clinic and meet up with Vet B.  Vet B is one of the exotics vets at UGA and is well-versed in chicken health.  So, he asks me to get the chickens out one at a time so that he can examine them (again).  I start shuffling chickens to him, and he examines them.  Examines is really a serious understatement.  He performed neurologic testing on my chickens.  He checked their reflexes.  He inspected them beak to tail.  If anyone in the state of California is reading this, my chickens are healthy.  Don’t worry about us being your neighbors.  Really.  I reach in to grab the last chicken, and she had just laid an egg.  Really?!  Add an additional point to our awesome freak show.  I pulled it out and the students had their smartphone cameras snapping pictures of the chicken, the egg, and the whole scene.  Finally, the health certificate is handed to me, and my friend and I carry out the birds.  I stow them in the bed of the truck again.  I snag my dog, and take the whole clan to a shady spot in the parking lot.  Windows cracked, rooster crowing, I walk away.  In 1 hour I will leave, go get my hair cut and be on vacation!  :)  I did it!!!  Not quite.  I close up shop at work, and head out to the bus stop to take the university bus downtown that drops me 1 block from the salon.  I wait, and wait, and wait.  Ooooooohhhhhhh nooooooooo.  It’s spring break.  No buses.  I can walk…no…I don’t have time for that, my appointment is in 7 minutes.  Ugh.  I run back to my crowing rooster truck, and take the whole clan downtown.  That’s right, I parked my truck with 4 chickens and my dog in downtown Athens so I could get my hair cut.
That was the longest haircut of my life.  The whole time while I was supposed to be relaxing, I am envisioning a Clarke County policeman standing behind my truck, looking at my crowing rooster, quizzically writing me a ticket for illegal parking and possession of chickens in the city.  Thankfully, my appointment ends, I run (literally) down the stairs and to the truck to find everyone calmly waiting for me.  The end.  (Except, not really, this is just the beginning of the next 2 weeks of my life). 
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There has been a great deal going on in the life of Front Porch Farm over these past few weeks.  First things first.  Our silkie was a successful mother!  
She hatched out 3 lovely babies on February 1st!  She is caring for them better than I could have hoped.  If you can't tell, the picture above is her looking at you (yes, she has eyes under all of that fluff!) with a day old chick snuggled up under her chin.  She is so fluffy that the newly hatched chicks had a hard time making their way back underneath her!

In other farm news, this Saturday, March 3rd, Front Porch Farm will be a guest speaker at Lazy B Farm's chicken workshop in Statham, GA!  I have been diligently working on my presentation - something I haven't done since college - and you know what?!  Pouring over a presentation about chickens is a whole lot more fun than anything I ever did in school!  :)  On to the big news!      
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This is the soon-to-be new front porch for Front Porch Farm.  It is in Rio Linda, California.  My husband accepted a job in Davis, CA (home of the quarter-acre farm lady, for those of you who know the book).  I am excited/nervous/nauseous, but I think that overall, it is going to be a great location for me and the chickens (and the husband, of course).  We will be moving at the end of March.  There is sadness at the conclusion of our time in Farmington, but hope for the future and whatever God has in store for us in California!  Did I mention that I have been promised 2 dairy goats as part of the transition?!  Yep, I think the chickens and I are going to be just fine! 
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My sweet adorable silkie chicken has decided that she wants to help out around the farm and gift us with some new baby chickens!  She started nesting, flattening out, and getting a little cranky (but mostly maintaining her sweet disposition).  All signs were pointing to her desire to be a mother, so I jumped at the opportunity to facilitate this!  
In our effort to continue breeding chickens that are well-suited to our climate and that are inclined to be mothers, I slipped 4 eggs from our wonderful Rhode Island Red under her.  These 4 chicks will be a cross of Rhode Island Red and Lavender Orpington. 

So, that sums up the exciting, what about the unexpected?  Well, last night I was doing evening chores, and I stumbled upon an egg.  Eggs are not unexpected at our house, however, they are unexpected when they are next to our porch!
One of my young hens has been sneaking up to the side of the porch and laying her eggs under the nice cozy shelter of our jasmine.  I personally commend her choice of location, as this is much more fragrant and exotic than my wooden nest boxes.  So, now what?  In several books, there are discussions about how to prevent hens from laying eggs outside of the nest box.  However, I am curious to see if this hen is trying to prepare a location to start her family.  Only time will tell, but this might just be the start to another wonderful mama at our place!
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Thanks to a very sweet friend, this cute little fluff ball is now a part of our flock.  Her feathers truly feel like a long-haired cat, and she comes running like the family dog whenever she sees me.  Truthfully, I think that every crazy cat lady only chose cats because she had not met a silkie.  I would rather have a house full of these instead of cats or dogs (but I do love chickens...).  They are adorable!!!  This little girl is hopefully going to be a future mama at our place.  Silkies are recognized for their inclination to be wonderful mothers and their sweet personalities.  So far, the latter is spot on.  I am hoping that early spring she will demonstrate the excellent mothering part.  :)       
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Update on Ruggles...here she looks like she is trying to kill our dog, however she is not...I use this picture for a size comparison.  The brown dog weighs 40 pounds.  Ruggles is bigger than the brown dog...and she is only 6 months old.  However, her size doesn't seem to be a problem to her chicken friends.  
And baby chickens...last, but not least...they are super cute and growing big and strong!  
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This is what our trees look like...

This is what one of our chicken coops looks like...

They made it!!!  My sweet hen is the proud mama of 10 baby chicks!  : )  

They are  definitely a unique bunch!  Here are some close ups of some of my favorites...
These pictures were all taken within 24 hours of these critters breaking out of their shells and seeing the world for the first time.  

I love that they are on grass, eating bugs and nipping off grass seeds.  

I love that they are in the sunlight.

I love that they get to sleep and snuggle under their mother whenever they get the urge.

None of these things would be possible for at least another 6 weeks for chicks that are raised without a mother hen.  Chicks need lots of warmth when they are this size, which typically means they are warmed under heat lamps in brooding boxes.  The day I took these pictures it was 60 degrees outside and breezy.  This is why I love raising chickens this way.  I love giving a hen the opportunity to be a mother.  I love letting her worry about her babies and providing them whatever they need.  I love that the chicks are bonded to another chicken, not a person.  

What a blessing it is to witness nature at it's sweetest.  : )
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Meet the new hen.  This is what she looks like all day long.
She gets up off the nest once a day, usually in the warmest part of the afternoon, for about 10 minutes.  She eats, drinks, has one large dropping, and then she returns to this exact position to sit and wait.  This is amazing to me.  I know I love chickens, but this is one of those awesome things that makes them even more special to me.  All day long she sits.  ALL day!  No scratching and pecking, no dust bathing, no stretching her legs...just sitting and waiting.

Last weekend, I candled the 12 eggs that are sitting under her to see if the eggs were indeed fertile.  The whole dozen were fertilized and developing!  I even saw a few of the chicks move around in the light.  Awesome!!!  So, now, I must wait.  Next Sunday is supposed to be the day.  : )     
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Update from the last post...my sweet Rhode Island Red hen that hatched out my first 10 beautiful babies decided she wasn't as committed this time to staying on the nest.  I learned to trust the hen, not my desires for more chicks.  Mama is happily laying again and hanging out with the flock.   

On to some exciting news...our friends have a large laying flock on their farm and I have been spying on an old Araucana hen that has been spending quite a lot of time in the nest box.  She appeared to be serious about her decision to be a mother, and so I took her home with the 2 eggs that she was sitting on at the farm and gave her a nest of her very own.  Six days later, she was still sitting.  I removed the eggs that I brought home with her and replaced them with 12 (hopefully) fertile eggs from my chickens.  These misfit chickens will be interesting, to say the least.  

The Father...a Lavender Orpington Rooster

The Mothers...2 Araucanas, a Buff Orpington, and a Rhode Island Red

I have absolutely no idea what these chicks will look like...or if they will even make it out of their shells, but hopefully I will have my very own grand chickens in 3 weeks!!!  : )

Sadly, one of the eggs that I pulled out from under my broody hen was fertilized.  The chick that was developing was 6 days old.  Unfortunately, if I would have left the developing egg under the mother hen, she would have abandoned all 12 eggs that I put under her when this chick hatched (a week before the other 12).  In the interest of learning from this, and not merely being sorrowful, I opened the egg to reveal what a 6 day old chick looks like.  
Amazing, isn't it?  The dark spot in the center is the eye.  If you look to the left of that, you can see the tail, legs, and the start of a wing.  

Hopefully my new hen does as good of a job with her 12 new eggs as she did with this one.  
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Chicken Feelings 08/25/2011
 
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I am convinced that I feel much more distress when things change in my chickens' lives than they do.  Everyone looks happy, right?  I think they are...but if I think about it too hard, I will give in to the urge to run home and check on them!  

Last night I moved my "chicks" (who are now 14 weeks old and gigantic!) to the coop where my 3 laying hens and my mother hen were peacefully roosting.  The advice I have found about merging flocks say that doing this transition in the dark is least stressful on the birds because they roost together and then all wake up together.  Less stress?  Great!  Less stress for them...yes, that seemed to work.  However, this meant that I was running around in the field in the dark hauling chickens and rearranging coops...certainly more stressful for me...but a girl does what she needs to for her feathered friends.  I merged my flocks for multiple reasons.  I am curious to see if my new pullets (young female chickens that have not laid an egg yet) will be enticed to lay sooner with the old pros showing them how it's done.  I also would like to achieve the true flock, with ONE rooster and his hens all in one coop.  Until now, I only have one black orpington rooster that is crowing in the morning - pitiful - but still a crow, nonetheless.  Maybe I just have one?!  Doubtful.  : (

On to the real reason I moved the chicks...I wanted to give my mother hen her very own spacious abode to (hopefully) sit and hatch out her next round of chicks!  That chicken has me completely wrapped around her little cute yellow chicken foot!

    
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Ever since she separated from her chicks (2 weeks ago) she has been acting a little "odd."  She has been following me around, trying to make a nest in Ruggles' doghouse, acting very interested in her old coop where she hatched out her other babies...hmmm...  In my expert chicken farmer opinion, she is wanting to have another clutch.  She seemed (to my sensitive self) cramped in the little A-frame coop that she sat in last time, so this time, she gets the best place in the yard!  Her own coop with a cat guardian and an extra large doghouse to sit in!
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Here's hoping we have new additions in a few weeks!!!
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Meet Ruggles!  For those of you who don't already know us, this was a big step forward in our small-scale farming aspirations.  Ruggles is a 9 week old Great Pyrenees pup that we are training to be our livestock guardian dog (LGD) for our poultry.  Just about everything can be a predator for a chicken (hawks, opossums, raccoons, stray dogs, coyotes, and many others).  Ruggles will grow up to be a very large deterrent for these predators, and we are hopeful that she will defend the birds if her presence is not enough to keep the predators at bay.  So far, so good.  No chickens have been harmed in this process thus far, and Ruggles seems to be fitting in really well.  The chickens are getting more used to the idea that this particular dog does not mean them any harm.  We have a long road ahead of us, however, as these dogs do not fully mature until they are 12-18 months old, and only then can they be completely trusted with livestock on their own.  Right now we are simply trying to enjoy the puppy stage while she still (for the most part) fits in our laps!     
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