Our Dogs

It's time to introduce our 2 babies.

Drake. He is 8 years old.

and Bristol who is 1.

And no they are not spoiled at all!

Keeping the Chickens Cool

The last few days have been around 100 degrees with a heat index around 115. I've been taking Drake my black lab with me to work to keep cool and Bristol the chocolate has been staying home inside in her crate. The chicken have pretty much suffering though it on their own. I have been doing what I can but there is only so much you can do when it is this hot. I have been freezing tomatoes and giving them those to help them cool off. They love them too! I have also been freezing water bottles and putting them in the waterer. They seem to melt so fast I don't know if they are really helping at all. I have been thinking about putting a misting system in the run for days like this but just haven't had time lately between work and Vacation Bible School this past week. So this morning we went to Lowe's and picked up some supplies from the garden watering section and built a little temporary mister. It actually works really good. They don't like the water at all but I'm sure they hate the heat more. I noticed they are panting a lot less when the mister is on so it seems to help some. I need to get a timer so I can have it run during the day when I am not here. I'll only use it on the really hot days so I don't waste too much water. I have a pressure fitting connected to the hose that connects to a small hose that runs to the mister fitting. It said on the package that the system should run at 10 gph.

Blackberries Plus Cobbler Equals Yummm

While at church one sunday we made a great discovery and found Blackberry bushes out by the woods! At first we thought there were only a couple of bushes, but before long we realized they were everywhere! So of course we made plans to make a trip back up to church later in the week to start picking some!

After about 20 minutes of finger pricking and the scorching hot sun beating down on us, we decided we had enough. Not to mention I had to look out for my own safety with my husband acting like Rambo with him machete taking down every bush that didn't have Blackberries.

We used the blackberries to make a cobbler for a celebration lunch after church the following sunday and everyone really enjoyed the cobbler. Ultimately we were just glad to be share the berries we had found at the church with the church.

Our First Egg

I have been checking the coop everyday for the last 3 weeks looking for eggs. From what I have ready the earliest you could see one is 12 weeks but 16 to 24 weeks is usually the norm. My chickens are 15 weeks today and we finally got an egg.

I had also read that you can tell when a hen is getting ready to lay because her comb will turn from pink to red. One of our chicks "Benelli" had been acting a little weird and her comb was bright red so I new something was going to happen. She laid this egg on 7/6. There is another chicken named thumbalina(can you guys who named this one?) who I think laid our second egg the next day. Her comb was also red and this second egg was in the left nesting box and "nelli's" eggs have been on the right. I am just guessing that they prefer one nesting box over the other. As of today we are up to 5 eggs over the last 7 days and I would say that is pretty good considering I think 4 of them are nelli's and 1 for 'lina. The eggs are pretty small and I am hoping that as the chickens continue to grow and they gain experience as egg layers the eggs will get bigger! These 5 eggs still may not be enough for a breakfast for 2.