The girls: Ebony, Blackie, Blondie, and Golden
We bought four chickens on Saturday. Two Australorps and two Buff Orpingtons. I figured out which breeds to get by using a breed selector tool. Who knew such a thing existed? In selecting chickens I was looking for a few things: 1. Mild temperaments, 2. Good year-round laying. We purposefully chose pullets, which are essentially teenage hens, because we didn’t want to have to deal with very young chicks that require heat lamps and because we wanted the chickens to begin laying eggs soon. Pullets are definitely more expensive than chicks, but for novices like us we figured it would be an easier entry into chicken keeping. I bought the chickens from a nice iPhone-using chicken rancher in Everett who retired from Microsoft. I found him via Craigslist. Both BackyardChickens.com and MyPetChicken.com have been useful resources as we figure out how to care for the chickens.
Shots of Harry and Lucy, our goats. They’ve been happily grazing all summer. In fact, they are looking a bit obese.
Harry the Pygora goat
Lucy the Alpine/Nubian goat
The new passive solar greenhouse, with the sides open, and a shot from inside the greenhouse of our menagerie.
Chickens, goats, dog, and Lily
Passive solar greenhouse
The chickens will be moving into their permanent home, the new coop, on Monday. We’ll post pictures of the coop later this week.
Sandy
The 10 Year Challenge 
Backyard Chickens is a GREAT site. I haven’t signed in ever, but I lerk and read and have gleaned many a helpful tip. I have lots of chicken stories on my site, even though my blog isn’t about chickens, the Chichi Sisters and Mr. Chuckers definitely hold a prominent focus.
Hi Nancy,
I’ll check out your site for sure. We had chickens when I was a kid, but I don’t have a lot of chicken knowledge. I’ve been wanting to get chickens for a few years now and am excited that we are doing this. The kids are having a lot of fun with the project as well. I’m also starting to think about how I will set up composting for the old bedding/manure to use in gardening.
Sandy
Hi Sandy, Great pics. I have heard those are great breeds, you should be happy. The chickens we chose were specifically for white eggs. We have some issues here, but the eggs are great.
I got your request about the canning recources, I’ll post that tonight for you. I have a request of my own though, I’d like to see some more pics of that solar greenhouse. It looks great, I’m really curious about how it’s built.
Love the goats too, we can’t have them:-(
P~
P,
I am planning to do a whole post about the greenhouse later this week and will include lots of pics.
Thanks in advance for any resources on canning.
Sandy
I hope that you will be getting milk and making cheese from your goats. Once your females are freshened, separate the doe from the bucks to keep your milk from stinking like the buck. Fresh raw goat milk is delicious.
Hi Virginia,
Right now, we are not breeding and milking Lucy. It’s something I am considering for the future, but can’t take on goat milking responsibililities right now. So for now they are pets (Harry will always be just a pet because he is fixed). We use them to eat yard waste, to keep a field down, and we will be making compost from their manure.
Sandy
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