The New Chicken House

   We where out of cages, and the Surprise chicks were out of room. We didn't want to put 'Possum, Handful, and Amy's girl in with their parents because the peaking order is so horrible and we have a thing about putting all our hens in one house. Mom and I were trying to figure out what to do when it hit us: put my old play house in between the house and the garage and use the two 10'x6' fence panels to make a run.

                    The panels were going to be part of a second chicken house we planed on building, but didn't, because we might be moving soon and were afraid taking the building apart would weaken it.

    We've taken to calling it Barbie's Dream Chicken House, and have named the girl from Amy's brood Barbie.

   Here is a picture of the nest Handful made for herself complete with egg, which for some reason looks blue in the picture. 'Possum who is the same age as Handful isn't laying yet, but both of the Ameraucana girls took a while to start laying.

  The cats love it. Bird watching, particularly close up chicken watching, is one of their favorite things to do. And the chickens in turn seem to enjoy cat watching. Whenever they see a cat laying on the cinderblock or in the dirt near the pen they run up it and hang out. When they aren't watching cats they are usually ruining Mom's heirloom Amaryllises and Pineapple plants. The little flock is all together for the picture to the right. Possum is in front, Handful's facing her, and Barbie is to the right with her back to the camera.

   A couple of days ago when the cold front blew in Persephone, who's favorite place to hang out is the roof, jumped off the garage roof onto the play house and hung out in there while Mom and I finished setting up the light for the little girls. Before we were done Sephy was out. As you can see in the picture she was looking at the roof from the top of the chicken house so she might have jumped straight up onto the roof. We're not sure.



In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

             Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

While sugar cookies are usually a Christmas treat Mom and I always have to make a batch for Halloween. Mom loves Red Hots; I put them on as much as possible. They are best if you put them on before you bake them.

  The frosting is milk mixed with powder sugar and food dye. Put powder sugar in a bowl and add a little milk. Continue adding very small amounts of milk until it reaches an almost spreadable consistency. Add food coloring. (It will make it more liquid.) If it's not spreadable at this point add more milk.
  These are ones we made from some new metal cut out shapes we fond on sale at Michaels. Some of the shapes are weird, like the cat that looks more like a chipmunk, or the candy corn (Seriously?). But the price was right and you don't have to worry about them getting stuck like with some of our older one that have a covered back so you have to dig the cookies out if they get stuck. And the bats are cool. 
   You could also use them to make Halloween biscuits. :)
    Here is a recipe for really good Sugar Cookies. There is a link to a printer friendly version at the end.
                                                              Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar                                              2 cups Flour 
1 stick butter                                           1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                       1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
                                                        
 Cream butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder. Chill for an hour. (Hint: leave the dough not being used in the refrigerator. It's easier to work with when cold.) Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Makes two dozen.

    Here is the printer friendly version:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/136TAN9EWeFhOvoBV6dUydKbEDmYjKjlSA8g7c-cOIpA/edit?usp=sharing

Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

While sugar cookies are usually a Christmas treat Mom and I always have to make a batch for Halloween. Mom loves Red Hots; I put them on as much as possible. They are best if you put them on before you bake them.

  The frosting is milk mixed with powder sugar and food dye. Put powder sugar in a bowl and add a little milk. Continue adding very small amounts of milk until it reaches an almost spreadable consistency. Add food coloring. (It will make it more liquid.) If it's not spreadable at this point add more milk.
  These are ones we made from some new metal cut out shapes we fond on sale at Michaels. Some of the shapes are weird, like the cat that looks more like a chipmunk, or the candy corn (Seriously?). But the price was right and you don't have to worry about them getting stuck like with some of our older one that have a covered back so you have to dig the cookies out if they get stuck. And the bats are cool.  
   You could also use them to make Halloween biscuits. :)
    Here is a recipe for really good Sugar Cookies. There is a link to a printer friendly version at the end.
                                                              Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar                                              2 cups Flour 
1 stick butter                                           1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg                                                       1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
                                                        
 Cream butter and sugar. Add an egg and vanilla. Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder. Chill for an hour. (Hint: leave the dough not being used in the refrigerator. It's easier to work with when cold.) Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Makes two dozen.

    Here is the printer friendly version:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/136TAN9EWeFhOvoBV6dUydKbEDmYjKjlSA8g7c-cOIpA/edit?usp=sharing

Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

         Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

The Chicks

Unsurprisingly the 'Surprise chicks'  out grew their cage. Thanks to a little creative chicken shuffling we were able to put them in the brooder cage. We separated them; putting the ones we think are girls (very little comb growth) to the left and the probable roosters to the right. The photos are in that order too. We have five in the right side and six in the left, and are hoping that some (most) of them were mistakenly placed in the rooster side, while all the ones in the hen side are in the right one. (We can dream can't we?)

There is a cold front coming in soon and we will probably run a light out to them.

This is one of the few chicks that we've named; she is a pure blooded Ameraucana. She looks like a quail. Her name is Charlotte. She's probably going to look like 'Possum when she's grown.

    The mostly white chick to the right is Mira, short for miracle, she was the first one to hatch. She's a Buff Orpington- Ameraucana mix.

I call this one Barn Owl because of her markings.

I put an old rabbit waterer in the hen cage I wasn't sure chicks could learn to use one. Leopard, who has lost her spots, was nice enough to demonstrate that they can while I was taking pictures. 

It was nice to deal with chickens that weren't terrified of cameras.







 In honor of Halloween Bats Bizarre is having a sale! From today October 3rd until November 1st use coupon code HALLOWEEN for 15% off your entire purchase.

Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!