Chicken coops and crawling things.

The work on the chicken coop continues...... my husband has been attaching chicken wire to the existing chain-link fence that surrounds the dog-pen-soon-to-be-chicken-coop. With the ridiculously high temperatures lately, he can only work in the morning, and thankfully the sun doesn't hit that part of the property until late afternoon. Another morning or two of chicken-wire attachments, and that part should be done.

We already have the four-chicken nesting box which has to be attached to the back wall of the coop. And then we have to figure out a latch for the gate that will be raccoon-proof. (I have no doubt that a 30-lb. raccoon would be able to open up a simple lift-latch.)

I will be looking in the resale shops for cute little hen-house things........ I wish I had bought that red and white wooden sign in Caldwell that said "Chicken House," but at that time, we had no plans for a coop. I'm sure I'll be able to find stuff like that in the shops here. A little chicken-decor might result in happier hens. (Happier hens = more eggs.)

Rather than getting four baby chicks, my husband says we should get six. "Just in case something happens to one or two of them," he said. The plan is that he'll pick out three, and I will pick out three. I'm thinking of getting three different chickens..... one red, one yellow, and one black and yellow-- so I can tell them apart when I give them names (which would be hard to do if they're all yellow or all white).

And the names for my chicks..... Dolly, Edie, and Jaye-- the names of three of my aunts. My Aunt Dolly would smile and think it's funny, mainly because my Uncle Mino always used to say that all of his sisters "looked like Spring chickens;" Aunt Edie has passed away, but I don't think she'd like the idea; and my Aunt Jaye wouldn't mind, as long as I named the prettiest chicken after her.

My husband has other ideas for naming his three chickens-- Country Fried, Extra Crispy, and Over Easy. (Everyone's a comedian.)

As for the crawling things...... we had a little scorpion in the house last night-- right on the kitchen floor. I saw Mickey playing with something on the floor, putting his paw out, then backing away right quick. As soon as I saw the tail on that thing go up, I knew it was a scorpion. I got Mickey out of the way, called up the stairs to my husband, and he came down into the kitchen without shoes or slippers. I pulled off my sandal and told him to "smash that thing!"

Which he did.... and then Mickey spent the next half hour searching every corner of the kitchen looking for his creepy crawly thing. Yuck. Double yuck. That's the second scorpion to get into the house. (That we know of.)

Just a little while ago, I opened one of the drawers in the bathroom vanity and there was a tiny lizard in there..... one of the light beige gecko-things that crawl side-to-side and look at you with those black beady eyes. So of course I screamed, which got my husband to running in there and asking what had happened now........ A gecko, that's what happened! In there with my make-up! And, of course, when we tried to find him, we couldn't. Heaven only knows where that thing is now. My husband left the room saying "City girl...."

Our neighbors here tell us that the chickens will eat all of the crawling and flying things that they find. I'm counting on that, and I hope the chickens know about that part of their job.