Agnes discovers how fun it is to chase the cursor.

The chicks come home!

On Tuesday, May 3rd, Scott and I trekked to the Valley to get the baby chicks.  It was a little tricky finding a place which had sexed chicks in the varieties we wanted.  However, since we were leary of going the mail order route and we were concerned with making sure all the chicks were the same age and grew up together, this seemed the way to go.  We found a hardware store in Sylmar, CA which was unloading a batch of newly hatched chicks that had arrived moments earlier and were still in cardboard carriers.

First taste of chick feed

It was a bit overwhelming as baby chicks were literally jumping out of the boxes and running down the aisle as we chose 6 tiny little furry chicks: 2 pairs each of Ameraucanas, Rhode Island Reds & Barred Rocks.   We had purchased all the supplies for the brooder a week earlier, so we didn't need to worry about anything else besides just getting the chicks home safely.  Little did we expect that this was going to be the day that the car would run out of gas.  Fortunately, after a small delay, the chicks made it home to Orange Drive. 

Jack babysitting his new sisters.

The chicken run.

Here are a couple pictures of the new chicken run under construction.  Thinking it wouldn't be that difficult, I asked my gardener, Alejandro, to build it.  It's been a bit trial and error and the original walls were made out of green chicken wire.  It made sense at the time, but ended up looking terrible.  The wire couldn't be pulled very tight and the walls were messy and wavy.  We scrapped that idea and then went with hardware cloth which looks much better.  Had I done a little more research beforehand, I probably would have build the frame out of 2x4s instead of posts sunk in concrete.  I learned that Alejandro's brother, Juan, used to raise chickens in Mexico (for cockfighting!  arghhh!!!) and has built many a chicken coop.  Juan is going to build the chicken house inside the run and is already drawing up the plans.

Why chickens?

My name is Danny and I live in the urban center of Los Angeles...an area called Mid-City.   Since many of those who live in LA haven't even heard of "Mid-City", it's near the intersection of La Brea and Olympic.   It's a very diverse neighborhood that is sandwiched between the ritzy Hancock Park area and "the hood," as George and Cristhian and I refer to it as.  My backyard looks out over La Brea and through telephone poles, power lines and billboards.  In fact, an old ad for KIIS-FM is watching over the new chicken run, which is under construction.  I often joke that you can throw a rock in any direction and hit an auto body shop or check cashing place.  

I work full-time in the record business producing music videos for a major record company.  I've been doing this for over 20 years and it takes up most of my time.  I also have a cat and a dog and devote my spare time to fitness, politics & traveling among other things.  So...the most common question I've been getting lately is "what made you decide to raise chickens?!"  This new passion seems to have come out of nowhere to friends and colleagues.

I'm not entirely sure to tell the truth.  I've always felt that I was meant to have grown up on a farm.  In my late twenties, I used to vacation each summer on a farm in Wisconsin and could never get enough of it.  In fact, on one trip I insisted on going to the dairy farm and learning how to milk the cows with my honorary nephew, Greg, who had that as his summer job from school.  I think I was also influenced by the "I Love Lucy" episode when the Ricardos and Mertz's move to California and decide to raise chickens.  Like them, I've also decided to raise the baby chicks in the house and am bringing a large dose of naivete and enthusiasm to this project. 

Naming the blog.

I never envisioned myself writing a blog, but after a lot of urging I decided to give it a stab.  The title was suggested by my friend, Scotland.  He's a huge fan of The Real Housewives series and being that I live on Orange Drive...the name stuck.