My absolute favorite kind of mail came today. Not my favorite magazine. Not a check. Not a letter from a friend. I got a call from my local post office this morning that my order of day-old chicks was there waiting to be picked up.

I had everything all ready in the basement.

Included in this order are the following:

2 vaccinated female Partridge Silkie bantams

that will turn into this

2 female vaccinated Blue Andalusian

that will turn into this

2 female vaccinated Partridge Penedesenca

that will turn into this

1 Male vaccinated Partridge Penedesenca

that will turn into this

Now I don’t normally buy roosters, but this was such a classically beautiful rooster I just had to have him. He looks like he belongs on a box of Corn Flakes. I can’t keep a crowing rooster where I live, so while I’ve had many a rooster over the years, as soon as they start to crow I have to find another home for them. Hopefully this one won’t be a crower. It would be so nice for some of my broody hens to be able to actually hatch their own clutch one day.

and 2 Female vaccinated Rare Marans

that will turn into this or this

It’s a mixed bag of Maran’s, so I won’t know what they’ll look like until they’re feathered out. Maran’s lay the most amazing dark dark olive brown eggs. They are very hard to come by, and I’m excited to finally have some. I’ll be getting more at the end of April from Whitmore Farm in Maryland when I go pick up my new Tennessee Fainting Goat kid. They are big breeders of Copper Marans and other heritage breed chickens, so I’m picking up a few more when I’m down there.

They’re all settled in downstairs. Nice clean water, lots of chick starter food and a heat lamp to keep them warm. The cardboard enclosure can expand as they get bigger.



When they first arrive you have to dip their beaks in water to give them a drink and familiarize them with the water feeder. They seem to find the food on their own. They all gather under the heat lamp to warm up. They were pretty cold by the time I got them. The yellow chick already knows to spread her wings out to warm up faster.



After some water, some food, and some naps they were awake and perky and running around.



I love having new chicks in the house. I can’t wait to see them grow and what they’ll look like. I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

I told you it was going to drive me crazy until I had it fixed. Today I finished it – the Farm Stand sign the way it should have been built the first time. One that actually covers the lemonade sign behind it!



It wasn’t really that hard to fix. I added a piece of plywood to the back and connected it with little hardwood tabs just as a precaution. This process would have been a lot more difficult to do if I didn’t have some overlap on the siding from the sign to drill the plywood onto.



I had to drill another whole through the sign as an additional hanging point. It’s a heavy sign, and I wanted it secured in 3 spots. I had this big metal rooster that I’d picked up at Home Goods not too long ago. I’d planned on hanging on the exterior of the new chicken coop, but to offset the now-not-centered Crafty Farm Girl logo, I thought this rooster was perfect. I love that he hangs slightly off of the board to add a little dimension to the sign. I reattached the weathervane and birdhouses and tad-da!

NOW I love the way it looks.



The girls got a new set of nesting boxes this weekend! I added a “second floor” to their existing nesting box. They were pretty excited about it and laying like crazy in the new boxes today.



Here’s my fat, pregnant goats running to me in the hopes that I might have a little treat for them.



And the chickens wish that the weather would get just a little bit warmer so the bugs are more plentiful.