Do my feathers make my butt look fat?

It's no secret that a lot of people overfeed themselves and overfeed their pets. But overfeeding chickens can be bad news. An obese chicken is more likely to get an egg stuck on the way out, and who wants to have to strap on the latex glove and go rooting around in there? Besides, as strong as their legs seem when they're jumping on and off the roost and kicking up dirt, I don't like to think of them needing to hold up extra weight (like some of their poor industrially raised cousins).

A chicken & urban farming message group I subscribe to posted a link to this article today on how to tell if your chickens are a normal weight, and I thought it would be a good resource for any fellow backyard chicken farmers reading this!

Easter eggs

Lady Marmalade was QUITE put out that I invaded her privacy while she was attending to her egg-laying business on the nest yesterday. I rarely open the nest box door when I know a hen is inside (usually when it happens I simply wasn't paying attention that all the chickens were not accounted for in the coop run), but it is pretty cute.

Meanwhile, the rest of the ladies enjoyed their Easter treat of a head of lettuce and cut up carrot tops. Tasty, and good fun!

We got a lot done outside on Saturday, seeing that it was such a glorious sunny day. Jeff made huge progress on the path from the patio to the chicken coop, and even put down pavers in front of the coop. (The ladies went NUTS as he was loosening up the soil, because of all the worms it stirred up. Worms that they couldn't get to. Oh, the chickenmanity!)

Some of our garden beds are still to cold and wet to plant in, but I was able to plant three kinds of peas (shelling, snap and snow) and small patches of lettuce and spinach. I covered up a few beds with clear plastic to help them dry out and warm up. The Zoo Doo we got was really wet and clumpy this year (side effect of our cold, wet weather), so the beds are a little tricky to work with right now.

It is quite fun working in the garden with chickens nearby. It's entertaining, and even a little soothing, to here them going about their business, making their little chicken noises. I especially like how they turn their attention on you with laser-like focus every time you pull up something green. Chickens love weeds! They had a really nice dust bath too, after we were inside (we were peeping at them out a back window). Little Bob was really in chicken ecstasy, with Marmalade next to her until Coco flopped down right between them (how they don't accidentally kick each other in the eye, I do not know). Miss Buttons remained upright the whole time, eating. That's her usual MO. If you've never seen a chicken dust bath, check out YouTube. There are quite a few there, some of them pretty cute.

Front: Miss Buttons. Back (from left to right): Little Bob (aka Babette), Coco and Lady Marmalade.

She's got high hopes!

Happy Earth Day! It's supposed to be 65 degrees tomorrow. Oh please, let it be so!

Our spring has been so cold, and I am so far behind in my seed sowing! Last weekend we picked up a truck load of Zoo Doo from Woodland Park Zoo and spread it around the front and back gardens.

Our garlic is going strong...

...and our asparagus is pushing through the Doo!

We are fighting morning glory coming up in the former weed-infested strawberry patch, so we're going to forgo replanting berries this year. It's a good, sunny, spot, so I'll do either tomatoes, pole beans or summer squash there. It will be easier to nip out weed problems in the bud than it would be if they were obscured by strawberry foliage.

Speaking of weeds, our rhubarb is doing great...

...and so is my pot of lemon balm. Never mind that I had to dig up 10 times that much from beds and paths where it did not belong!

Lil' black pot herb garden.

This weekend we hope to plant our onion starts and sow seeds of peas, carrots, beets, lettuce and some other greens. We even have a packet of "chicken lettuce" to plant for the ladies!