Tour de Coops Recap

Well, we had the big Phoenix Tour de Coops this past Saturday. So incredibly fun and ridiculously exhausting. Those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about can read my last blog post on it here. In short, the Tour de Coops is a tour of the metro Phoenix area's coolest urban chicken set ups. This year we were honored to be a stop on the tour and loved showing off our coop and our girls. 

 

When the tour goers arrived, they put on a pair of blue booties and spritzed their hands with sanitizer. Chicken diseases are easily transferable and in the rare case that there were any sick birds on the tour, this ensured that all the other birds remained healthy and diseases weren't transmitted from coop to coop. A bonus is that those booties kept the chicken poop off of everyone's shoes!

We had about 200 people visit our coop over the course of the day. It was a great mix of people who already owned chickens and people who were thinking of taking the plunge. What a blast I had talking to them - it was fun giving tips to those who knew nothing about chickens and getting tips myself from old school chicken keepers. 

Showing this couple our "brooder"

The girls were a little bit nervous at first with all the people. Lucy and Effie stuck to the patio with the familiar faces of my mom and my sister and Flo hid in the bushes. Eventually, they warmed up and visited with the other folks. (Effie is molting which explains her wonky feathers right now).

In addition to learning about our chickens and our coop, a lot of the visitors wanted to learn more about our raised bed vegetable garden. Fortunately, my sister who is an Arizona gardening guru, was there to answer questions for us since we were so busy talking about the chickens.

Even Finley and Oliver had a great time. Finley managed to wrangle some kid into pushing him on his "tractor."

Talking all. day. long. seriously tired me out. I even fell asleep before the big USC/UCLA game (gasp!!). But it was so worth it - we had a fabulous time and are already looking forward to next year's Tour de Coops (but as tour goers next time around).

2nd Annual Tour de Coops

When the idea of being chicken owners was just bouncing around in our heads last year, we had the opportunity to attend the 1st Annual Tour de Coops in the greater Phoenix area. The Tour de Coops is a self-guided tour of the valley's coolest chicken setups. (Kind of like one of those holiday home tours but way cooler).

We had an amazing time touring the different chicken set ups at different homes throughout the valley and talking with the owners. It was after attending the tour that we decided raising urban poultry was definitely in our future and set off with plans for our own coop filled with baby chicks (you can read all about the beginning of our chicken adventure here).

A couple of months ago, the Phoenix Permaculture Guild put out a "call for coops" to be on this year's tour. We were all over that and quickly submitted our detailed application. Once they looked over our application, they sent someone over to check out our coop to ensure that it was seriously cool (and it totally is). They agreed and this year our cool little coop (as well as our chickens, gardens, trees, etc.) will be on display for this year's tour. You all know how much I like to talk about my chickens and now I get to do it for an entire day - with a captive audience! Absolute heaven for me.

If you are in the Phoenix area and have any sort of interest in urban poultry or even urban gardening, I highly recommend this tour. It's a blast and a great way to connect with like minded people.

2nd Annual Tour de Coops

December 4th, 2010

10am - 3pm

Visit www.tourdecoops.org for more details and ticket information

My girls are growing up!

Time for a chicken update. (I warned you I like to talk about them a lot.) My sweet little girls are coming up on 3 months old! I absolutely can't believe how big they've grown in that time and how much I've enjoyed having my own little backyard flock. There is nothing more relaxing than sitting on the patio and watching them scratch and peck and listening to their soft clucks.

The past couple of months we've really gotten to know their personalities. Each one of my girls is so unique. I hate to do this, but I have to admit I have a favorite. While she may not be the prettiest chicken I have, I am absolutely smitten with Effie. She is friendly, curious, and super goofy with her fluffy cheeks.  Just last night while we ate dinner outside, she hopped up on the table and sat with us. My boys love her and she loves their attention.

Ramona is another friendly and sweet girl. She is beautiful and I have a feeling she'll be my best layer. We won't know for a few months since they're not old enough to start laying for us yet.

While Flo isn't quite as comfortable around us as Effie and Ramona, I think she is very striking with her black and white feathers and her personality is very sweet.

Lastly, we have Lucy. Although I love her, she is my least favorite of the four. (I know it's horrible to play favorites, but you know you'd do it to.) Lucy does not like people and tries to avoid contact with us as often as possible. Somehow, she is still Finley's favorite chicken. And she really is a pretty girl.

Caring for the chickens has been easier than I thought. Way easier than having dogs. My biggest challenge is all of the chicken poop (seriously, they poop a lot!) and ensuring that my dogs don't try to eat them. We're looking forward to seeing how much bigger they get in the next couple of months and best of all, we're looking forward to their yummy and gorgeous eggs! *Another warning, when we have our first egg, I will be ridiculously excited and will likely have a whole post on just one egg.

If you are in the Phoenix area and considering a backyard flock of your own, I highly suggest you look into the Phoenix Permaculture Guild. They have been an invaluable resource for me with their discussion boards, chicken classes, and the Tour de Coops.