When it has come to introducing our dogs to our chickens, we have decided to take the slow road. As the saying goes: "The slow road is the fast roas." We have taken that to heart with our dogs and chickens because we care about our chickens and have dogs that have strong prey drives. Today, after about 4 months of gradually introducing dogs and chickens, the k9s and birds were together with dogs unrestrained and it has been going very, very well. The chickens are showing the correct amount of respect to the dogs, avoiding contact, but not being overly nervous. The dogs are curious, but not so much so as to put any effort into chasing. It will be a while still before they can be left alone unsupervised. But, today we mark the "together and unrestrained" milestone and we are thrilled with how the dogs and chickens are doing!

It has been a while since we updated everyone on our chickens. The short update is that they are doing GREAT! They have been living outside for quite a while, are growing like mad, are super-fun to have around and really easy to care for. Here is a photo of their normal digs: They have their own, secure yard, tucked under an old Oak tree. It has everything they could hope for, including a raspberry patch, that they love to graze in. There are multiple dirt areas for taking dirt baths, a swing, come extra comfortable perches and all kinds of other amenities. Occasionally, we like to take them on outings into other areas of the yard. Today, we took them to the garden on the South side of the house, where there is some real natural chicken habitat. It was fun to watch them do so many of their natural chicken behaviors. Check out this video of them checking out the hasta garden.

Here at Our Urban Farm, we are not very big on commercial foods. Our goal, therefore, is to transition our chickens off commercial foods and on to fresh human-grade foods. We are getting them used to that by giving them different kinds of treats each day. Today's treats: Baby greens, grated carrots and grated potato, with a little calcium supplement.