so it turns out my hen is a ROOSTER

sometimes the obvious is just not obvious enough until it starts to crow in your face. yup... my dear little fart face aka. fifi is indeed mr. fart face. i thought it was a little odd that his feathers were skinny at the top of his neck, not to mention his long neck, his aggressive behavior towards the girls and his confidence. but for some reason i must have been in some serious chicken denial. and i was. because its certain that i got myself a boy chicken.
as much as i love the dude. he is really a gorgeous bird, i am concerned that the noise is going to not be so great with trying to get my new neighbors to like me and he picks on my little lucia and that is not nice. don't worry i am working on figuring out a lovely new home. potentially a ranch with lots of other barred rocks that hang out in tall trees.
i won't tell you which is which, but i am sure you will know right away. so silly what moving does to a person's brain. you can't even tell if you have a boy chicken all of a sudden! :)

name that chicken!

awhile back i mentioned in an early chicken post that i didn't know what breed two of my chickens are. i searched far and wide but never really found a proper source online. so i bought a starter book, and it had great insight of feeding, what to expect, egg recipes and lots of chicken owner tips. it also had a photo of a gorgeous hen that looked just like my little (now big) stevie. although the book is full of tons of super valuable information, it didn't say what breed that chicken was on page 77. luckily the lovely author of this great piece of chicken knowledge is the wonderful ashley english of the blog small measure. i contacted and right away she wrote me a super friendly email informing me that stevie was a black australorp! i googled this breed and was thrilled to discover that they are "hardy, docile, and a good egg-layer as well as meat bird" (although she won't be dinner - ever).
knowing what kind of chick i got, well its beyond exciting for me. and best of all now i have discovered ashley's blog and her collection of inspiring books. she not only has her excellent book on keeping chickens, but she has also written a book on canning and preserving, home dairy and keeping bees! this woman is my hero. check out her blog here. again, thank you ashley - i love finding other folks that have a passion for learning how to be sustainable in this crazy world of robots and gadgets.

next chicken detective job - what kind of breed of bantam is lucia?

a feather from each of my chicks...


stevie (looking over her shoulder) in her early days with her sisters...


the book! the page that named my chicken!



big girls (and hannah the chicken tending dog)...




p.s. i know, i know, the chickens are still living in that dog crate till i move to the new place - i promised them a fancy new house. in the meantime they mostly free range or the dog pen works just fine. don't judge. i am a good mother!

p.p.s. hannah the puppy is terrific around the chicks! only negative - she loves to eat chicken poo. and she has bedding all over her fluff when she sits by them. :)

my furry feathery family

today i drove far for a little lady. a fluffy girl with sweet eyes, who licks my nose and is smaller than my cats (for now).
today i met my future daughter, first dog of my own. she doesn't have a name yet, but i am beyond excited! she is an australian shepard (aka. aussie) - a herding dog! perfect for my little farm of cats, chickens, vegis and art making.
i also visited a potential new home with lots of land for free range chickens, vegi growing, puppy hula hoop jumping, outdoor dining and mountain views... things are shaping up. and i can't wait till i get to take my pup home. what will my cats think of their new baby sister? my chickens will probably be a bit alarmed. any tips on the introduction process? tell me everything!
i am glowing with happy feelings today. there is nothing quite like a new addition to your furry / feathery family.

z-ranch and the naked lady sculpture garden

lastnight i visited my two favorite artist / farmer friends, wayne and emily. both of them are such remarkable human beings. we met while at calarts. wayne was in the grad program w/ me. he is quite honestly one of my all time favorite painters. equally talented is his wife emily, who recently has set out to create a naked lady sculpture garden right by their home on the zorthian ranch.
they recently moved back to la after having had a successful farm out in south carolina raising all kinds of livestock. nowadays the pair are working on an organic vegetable garden project along with raising chickens and much more. i will be checking back in with them often to show you the process of their project.
the best part of these two is their commitment to sustainable living. they have actually grown their own food for several years now, so feasting with them is always a treat. and having naked ladies watch over your shoulder in the garden, that just makes it 10 times better!

by the way, the horse in the image, yeah he just hangs out like that. he is like one of the dogs. and the chicks, well that is the same breed as my dear little fart face. fun to see what she will look like full grown, wonder if she will become a tree jumper too :).
(take a closer look at that tree shot, there is a chicken up in there!)

excuse me i composted

one of the things i am most proud to say i do is compost. there is nothing quite like knowing that even if you were totally lazy about getting to that piece of fruit in time to eat it before it went bad that you can instead allow it to rest in peace and make magic in your compost. that is brilliant! recently with the chickens i have shifted my system a bit. now whatever edible thing has gone almost bad (too mushy or stale for me to eat, but not rotten) the chickens will eat. they are funny about scraps though. not everything you read is true for every chicken. some chickens love what others hate and vis versa. mine are totally obsessed with shrimp, rice, blue berries, figs and corn on the cobb. however there are so many things i read they would love that they don't really care for.
my point being though, the satisfaction that i got from the compost being my back up plan when feeling guilty about wasting food, well now the chickens also heal that guilt ridden feeling. plus all the shavings from their cage goes right into the ol' compost too.
my mom now sends me home with all kinds of treats for the girls. soon i will return the favor with a lovely bag of compost.



p.s. chickens also rock because they eat all the weeds in your garden. but they also love ferns, well at least mine do.




some helpful sites for information on starting your own compost...

howtocompost.org/compostguide.com/root simple

my babies

i was going to do a post with a simple introduction to my new chicken children and then a long list of coop designs i have been contemplating but i found myself so obsseed with every photo of them that i could barely edit down. so although this may seem like a whole lot of photos of 3 (very special might i add) chicks, you have to understand i really wanted to capture their personalities for you! clearly i have become like those mothers who can't stop snap snap snapping their camera away on photos of their human babies (although i already do this with my cats).

with all this said, its out, its public, i am a chicken mother! and a crazy one indeed! the story goes, my grandmother lent us some chickens for the dwell exhibit of designer coops, we also needed some teenage chicks to get that cute factor (not that big chickens aren't adorable). so my grandmother hooked it up. i took the little one's home every night. they would chat and gossip about the day SO LOUDLY in my car, then they would purr with sleepy noises. i fell in love. so in love. and now, i have chickens in my backyard.

there are 3. all hens (i think). i can't wait for the eggs and already am using the poop for the compost! each one is unique. i only know the breed of one of the chickens, so if you know what my other two are - name away! if you have any advice or tips or comments - share them too! i have been loving the blogs green frieda, root simple and poultry book store for all their chicken story telling.



alright, it is time. i introduce to you my baby chicks....

the big sister of the group, lucia. my grandmother named this little lady. she is the first reason i considered keeping the bunch. i held her and she fell asleep, purred. She is so pretty with her fancy long tail and always stays near me. i don't know her breed, but i know she is meant to stay relatively small. lucia made her first loud sound the other day and scared herself!


sinister steve, aka. stevie has become one of the most trusting of our chicks. She eats out of my hand, also stays close and is super noisy! she has kind of a sleepy eye from time to time, but it seems to be doing well now. i have really grown to see a whole other side of this little one. she really is a sweet chicken. but also very goofy! stevie has a pretty gold neck and black body. anyone know what kind of chick she is?


this name like the above was another doing of erick, my partner. part of the deal in keeping the chickens was that he got to name the two nameless little ones. he had all these punk rock names in mind (he still refers to lucia as juicy lucy), but somehow this little girl got the name fart face. rock n roll, huh. i say that her lady like name is fifi, but i admit, calling her fart face has stuck. she is the smallest of the bunch. the only breed i know the name of (plymouth rock). although she is close buddies with stevie, she is also known to be the most curious and wanders the farthest away (although she comes back running flapping her wings when she sees how far away she got). she also chases the other hens every now and then. i think fart face is just making up for being so little... now.



here she is running around far from the rest...


they love to run around in my yard free (started with the a metal gate first). erick plays guitar for them. they attract all kinds of other birds into the yard. they flap their wings around and jump as high as they can. soon i have to build them a proper coop. they currently reside in a LARGE dog kennel that is not exactly super great looking. by the way one of the other cool benefits of chickens, their diet. they eat so many leftovers! its fun to see what they are into and reject. two days ago they had yogurt. tasty but messy. they LOVE corn on the cob! and shrimp shells!