Aria and Coco

One sunny Spring day, we took a drive to the feed store in Bothell after reading everything about raising chickens. Just to look. That was what we had PLANNED, but... There was no way we could go home without a chick or two... or three, after seeing those adorable puffs of feathers. We did however, manage to go home with only three of the breeds they had available.

We had already decided on two of the breeds from researching library books and websites. The Americauana and the Buff Orpington were chosen for their good egg laying qualities, pleasant personalities and availability. It took us a long time to decide on our third chick - it was difficult to think clearly with hundreds of peeps and so much cuteness around us. After researching through all the resouces in the feed store, we decided on the Black Sex-Link to round out the trio.

The “girls” rode home in their fancy transporter (a small cardboard box with wood chips) as we cranked the heat in the car trying to keep them warm enough - around 90 degrees. The sun was blazing, the heat was blasting, we were sweating, the girls were peeping and peeping and peeping... and that was the start of it all.

We named our girls for the next several days and ended up with:
Aria (Americana)
Butter (Buff Orpington)
Coco aka "Sexy" (Black Sex-link)

We built a home for them out of cardboard, plexiglass, bamboo rods, heatlamp, ducttape, wood chips and toilet paper rolls. We would later add a cardboard tunnel, multiple roosts, toys, patch of fresh grass, and a bottle with bugs for entertainment.

The next week we went back to the feed store for a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte. We named her "Baby peachyfoot" for her tiny stature and peach colored feet. On the long hot trip home, we noticed that her bottom was “pasted-up,” (known as pastybutt) and needed to be cleared. Baby would probably have died at the feed store over night had we not picked her to bring home. We used a warm wet towel to clean her and a huge sack of goo blasted free and splatted on my hand. That was our introduction to chicken poop.