BIRD OF THE MONTH ~ TINA SMERCZYNSKI ~ OUR POLISH HEN ~

The Polish Chicken is certainly a show stopper when anyone comes to look at our chickens.  Not only are her looks unique, but her name is a bit misleading.  She is a European breed, but she did not originate in Poland...her breed actually came from the Netherlands.  The Polish Chicken seems to be a friendly bird, but she does act a bit crazy due to her impaired sight line.  I'd be a bit frenzied too if I couldn't see something that I could hear heading in my direction.

After careful thought and consideration we named this beautiful bird after two different people.  TINA is a wonderful waitress at a local restaurant in downtown Beverly.  She is an awesome person who happens to be Polish, and who can sing "Happy Birthday" in MANY different languages!  Our bird's last name comes from another family friend who also shares our same love for chickens!  "MR SMUZ" loves to talk "chicken" with my mom and ME!

Our "Tina Smerczynski" is a wild and crazy bird...Her beautiful head piece  makes it very difficult for her to see things...so she sometimes runs around like her tail feathers are on fire!

One day my mom walked into the coop and she went to fly out the chicken door...she missed and flew into the side of the coop...AWKWARD!

                   TINA SMERCZYNSKI ~ BIRD OF THE MONTH OCTOBER 2012

Maybe we need a bigger COOP ~ MAY 2012?

Knowing that our desire was growing for more types of poultry, we thought that we may need to get a bigger coop.  With that being said, we talked to Dan over at Agway, and he was able to upgrade us to a bigger coop.

 My mom used Raglan's dog crate to hold the chickens while they made the swap...

Big Bird and all her friends seemed to enjoy their afternoon out on the lawn.  At this point we did not have the chicken run built, so this was really their first time scratching at the back lawn.  It was a great idea except for when my mom thought she would introduce Raglan to the chicks.  Since they were safe inside the crate, my mom brought Raglan down to see them...Within seconds the chickens were squawking and flapping around, the dog was barking... and ... then ... "POOF" the baby bantams flapped their way right outside the crate!  My mom FREAKED OUT!  Luckily my sister was home and she came down and helped collected the runaway chicks!

So my mom cleaned out the smaller coop...

...then, Dan and his men from Agway delivered the larger coop. It really doesn't look any different, but it is longer, wider, and taller.  My mom was really getting tired of hitting her head on the pitched ceiling in the smaller coop.

Here is the view from the front...

...and from the side...my dad even let him drive over the lawn!

This is the backside view.

In with the BIG...

out with the SMALL!

Bird of the MONTH, Big Bird

Big Bird's History

The Easter Bunny brought 6 chicks, and when they grew up Big Bird was the biggest. Big Bird was not always nice. When ever we introduced new chicks she'd peck at them really hard.  If you tried to feed her out of your hand she would open her mouth really wide and sometimes she would get more than expected, like your hand.

Once they could hop out of the cardboard box, we put them in a plastic tote.

        

This is Big Bird when they all could get out of the plastic box and roam free in the coop.

They all loved to climb on their food and water. YUCK!  Just ask the production red climbing right now.

Here they are in my dog Raglan's crate, seeing the grass for the first time.

Sometimes on hot days chickens will pant like Big Bird was doing here in the picture above. 

Big Bird loves company and she'll greet you at the door as long as she's not roosting or laying her eggs. 

They grow up so fast. Here she was very little and now she's laying eggs, at least I still have pictures to look through to help me remember. And I'm so glad you get to see them too! 

"Big Bird" is a Dixie Rainbow. Dixies seem to be a good egg layer and a very friendly bird.  She should lay between 280-300 eggs a year.

What's Another 6 Chicks...Let's Fill The Coop! April 19-20, 2012

A week and a half pasted and my mom and I wanted to fill the coop.  The coop we got from the Easter Bunny could hold up to 12 chicks.  So my dad and I went on an errand and because I was so good, my dad brought me to Agway to look at Ashely's chicks. I'll tell you more about her later.  My dad and I  picked out two new chicks.  One was a polish, yes I said polish, and one was a black bantam.  

Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity, and knowing Ashley at Agway was having a "Chicken Day" event at the shop, my mom and I thought, "...we better get another 4 chicks to even things out."  So the next day, my mom picked up a white silkie, a partridge silkie, a black cochin, and a silver lace cochin.

Here is the first group of chicks...

They could fly of their box at this point...

These are the 6 new chicks we picked up to fill up the coop.

We made a cover to protect the new chicks in case the older chicks tried to fly out of their box to explore.

What a set up...food, water, heat lamp and shavings...Living Large!

The outside view.

Easter Surprise

EASTER MORNING 4-8-12

Easter Morning 2012, the Easter Bunny left an amazing surprise...6 baby chicks
one Dixie Rainbow,
two Production Reds,
and
three Tetra Tints.

They were just a few days old...

...and did I mention...the Easter Bunny left me a coop too!
Here I am with my Dad.

This is me with the wonderful people who taught me EVERYTHING I know about chickens
Ed and Betsey.
They let me go to their farm, and help with their animals...the alpacas, the turkeys, the chickens, dogs, and guinea fowl!

My smile says it all...I can't believe how fast they grew!

  Through my blog,  I am going to share my adventure with you.

I hope you enjoy reading it, and perhaps you may want to get chickens too!