Miss Vicky! How are you doing! It's wonderful to see you here! You're looking gorgeous in that picture.. *jealous* You're lucky. DH won't let me have a turkey or rabbits.. he knows I'll just grow them up to eat them! He doesn't mind the chickens so much 'cuz he knows I'll sell them as soon as they start producing eggs, but I wanted to get a turkey & he wasn't too keen on that 'cuz of the impending slaughter. Soooo very sorry about Gremlin.. I don't know what I'm going to do when my Conan passes away. He's getting pretty old.. don't know exactly how old though. And as far as japanese beetles.. what about some guinea hens to take care of that problem? I've read that they work wonders for bug problems, but that may be just for grasshoppers. I don't know... I'm in an area w/no Japanese beetles yet..

I think I'd rather have a Japanese beetle on my rose than a guinea hen landing on top! - Not to mention the noise...

Whoa !!! Vicky is one hot goose keeper !!!
Great pictures of the flora and fauna, too.

Calsurf73 said:Whoa !!! Vicky is one hot goose keeper !!!

I agree. Look at that pointy little chin!

We've missed you and your wonderful photos, CR. Now that it's winter, maybe you'll be more visible?

So nice to see you here again Vicky! Lookin' good! Beautiful garden shots and also enjoy the birds!

We are getting ready to jump into the chicken raising thing, just doing the research now, hubby is chomping at the bit to start collecting materials to build the coop. We'll be hunting Craigslist for some cheap or hopefully free materials and putting the word out with local friends to see if they have anything they don't need that we can use.

Thank you all!
Sue I don't have chickens presently but I've raised them for over 30 years.
If you want some super-dooper layers with a calm dispositions look into Isa Browns.
Warning they do scratch in the soil bad and will scratch around your plants so if you have
new things coming up in the garden they can ruin them. Its the one thing I don't like about chickens.
Zuzu I quit going to Facebook...as in deleted my entire friend list so nothing to go back to.
I was spending way too much time there and wanted to break the habit, so I'm sure I will come here more often.
After the holidays I will try to post more pics but believe it or not I only have 2 rose pics from this year.
Glad to be back.

P.S. LOL at Calsurf73/Mike...he must like Farmer - Granny - Cougars :lol:
Mike I clean up well...but most the time I don't look like all that.

Oh Sue, your avatar pic is GORG!!!

I'm sure you've said before, Vicky, but who are the roses in your avatar?

Chicken raising has become very popular here, too. I know zilch about them, but do find it interesting.
A friend of mine wanted chickens and her husband wasn't too keen on the idea, but he relented and built her a coop for them. She went to visit her family for two weeks and when she returned he had turned this modest coop into a 4 star chicken hotel and is now totally into it.

Knowing how Sue is, I'm sure her chicken venture will be a work of art and she'll have coordinating plants to go with the chickens...thus taking color harmony to an entirely new level ! Stay tuned.

Vicky: You're too modest. You must cause quite a stir at the local feed store. Yes, please identify the roses in your avatar.

I cheated with my chickens. I'm cheap & poor (buy too many roses ). I found a free doghouse off of CL and then found a guy, also off of CL, who makes big cages cheap. They're not pretty, but they're functional. So I just used the doghouse (lined with hay) as their coop & put the cage right against the doghouse door so that the chickens could get outside when I wasn't with them. If I was in the area, I'd let them roam around free (they decimated my honey suckle!!). This past late summer, I found 2 NICE bunny cages for free on CL, so I got them. One I'm bringing inside so that I can keep the baby chicks inside & warm 'cuz we get them in season WAAAAAAAAAAAY too early to go outside (mid/late Feb), and they'll be protected from the cats then. Hopefully. LOLLLL

Thanks Vicky for the breed tip, I think that was one I had looked at along with Barred Plymouth Rock, Buff Orpington, Speckled Sussex and I would love a Silkie.

LOL, funny Mike, just read that to hubby and he grinned!

These are a few I am in love with, especially the color scheme on this first one, that's what I plan for the paint!
http://www.backyardchickens.co...
http://pinterest.com/pin/13074...
http://www.babyj.com/post/chic...
http://pinterest.com/pin/13074...
http://pinterest.com/pin/13074...

Sue - here's my thread on chickens. They're dumb. LOLLL
The thread "Anyone else have Silkie or Showgirl chickens?" in Farming forum
The thread "Chick identification?" in Farming forum
The thread "Chickens is Dumb." in Farming forum

In 2013, I'm getting 6 white silkies & probably 4 Buff Orps. I won't gets NH Reds again.. they're a bit aggressive!

Those are really cute coops! My coops are all do-it-yourself affairs that I designed as I went along to suit the materials at hand. The most important feature of any coop is that it be predator-proof. My chickens are almost all old heritage breeds (to go with my old garden rose collection), but the hybrids do lay better than average and many are sex-linked so you don't end up with accidental roosters. It sounds like a fun adventure ahead!

Thanks for the links Toni, enjoyed reading them, they also led to one of our favorite sites, BackYardChickens.com, we are learning so much reading through the forums!
Porkpal, ours will also be one designed by hubby based on materials we manage to collect and yes, predator-proofing will be high on the list, we have racoons and fox plus hawks here. Hubby saw one coop where they had added hardware cloth to the base of the entire run to prevent any burrowing critters, something we did to prevent gophers entering the raised beds and the new lawn.

Mike you crack me up. My avatar pic is peonies, Constance Spry and some Albas. Maybe some ramblers too. It's an old pic.
Sue its fun to try different breeds and I've had a tons over the years but the Isa Browns are THE best brown egg layers.
Silkies are adorable and sweet but poor players and not very hardy but I'm sure they would do well in Cali.
If you order from Murray McMurray you can mix and match chicks. There's no minimum on the breeds,
Popular site for chickens is Backyard Chickens. http://www.backyardchickens.co...

Heres some more pics from this year.

Disapproving Bunnies! Love it!!

I like the lop with the rakish "ear-do"!

Pretty flowers and lots of nice critters.

I do wish I lived somewhere that chickens are allowed as I would dearly love to have chickens.