Kelly's Country Squawk

Several people have been asking me when my next book is coming out....well, my answer is not simple and keeps changing. After the first of the year, I had planned to self-publish one of my stories that's had a special place in my heart for ten years called Bubble Man Pop. It's a story that will be definitely be published in one form or another eventually, but I decided to submit it into a writing contest this spring. Since winning third place in The Detroit Writing Room co

The chickens roosts where the arrow's pointing. Last month I discovered a pile of feathers next to the perching section of the chicken run, but no dead chickens. The next morning, I found a another pile of freshly plucked feathers. This continued for about a week with feather piles accumulating inside the chicken run. Every morning when I fed the girls their breakfast, I discovered more feathers. Some of my girls were developing bald patches on their bodies. A new mystery.

Happy Spring! The girls are so HAPPY it's finally SPRING! Not only have they been free ranging more often, but they have been giving me a healthy dose of eggs....SO MANY EGGS! The kids and I have started delivering eggs to our neighbors again since our 45 laying chickens are giving us about three dozen eggs each day, The Infamous Chicken Limousine Last fall I joked about wanting a chicken limousine for my egg deliveries ( Kelly's Chicken Car for Neighborhood Egg Deliveries

Curious chicks left their warmer to check out the basement. After playing "chicken midwife' for the past three days, The Squawk added 13 hens (hopefully hens!) to the flock. The littles are kept in an enclosed playpen in my basement for the first three weeks until they go outside to my "baby coop". Chicks are kept underneath a warmer until their baby fluff falls out and is replaced with their first set of feathers. Because it's not every day you get to see something being

Every February/March, I get my good ole Nurture Right 360 incubator out onto my kitchen counter and start "cooking" baby chicks. Nineteen days ago I placed 22 of my favorite colored eggs inside the incubator. Although my eggs are laid by mixed breed chickens, most chicks hatched will eventually lay eggs a similar color as their momma hens. My preferred egg color is the light blue and light green color. They look so pretty sitting on the counter of my kitchen! Hatching bab

This week was the first week I bought eggs from the store in five years. Why would I do that when I've get eggs for "free" from my hens? (Free is in quotations because I still have to pay for feed, housing, and bedding. If you asked my husband how "free" our eggs are, he would say they are thousand dollar eggs, haha!) I bought eggs, because I was curious to see the difference between one of my chickens' eggs and the eggs they sell at stores. Here is a picture of the eggs

Michigan schools give their students a midwinter break around the middle of February. Since this winter has been pretty intense with the snow and the cold, our family decided to take a trip to the Kansas City Great Wolf Lodge during the kids' midwinter break...a chance to get away from Michigan for a couple days. We had a blast at Kansas City! Although it's not a huge touristy destination, we still found lots of things to do between the two-state city and it was much war

With 10 inches of snow on the ground for the past month, my husband makes a "chicken trail" between the coop and out house to make it easier for me to carry unfrozen water to the coop throughout the day. Frozen eggs are always a problem this time of year, but has REALLY been a problem with the subzero temperatures Michigan has faced this winter. Straw is key to preventing frozen eggs as well as someone collecting eggs from the nesting boxes on a daily basis. I keep straw ev

Hello! I hope everyone is handling this frigid weather in a warm, cozy place around friendly faces. With all the school closings because of the snow and North Pole type weather, my own family has been getting quite "chummy" being in each other's space since it's been too chilly to go outside. My kids have been moody and annoying each other (and me, haha), so I brought out my 1,000 piece Christmas puzzle. We've been working diligently on it all week. It's amazing how much

Happy New Year to Everyone! Believe it or not, this new year has ALREADY brought about an interesting problem for The Squawk...a new predator. I shouldn't be as shocked when something new or unusual happens inside my chicken coop. I've had chickens for six years now...you would think I would be able to handle uncertain things about my coop including the good, the bad, and the ugly. But three days before Christmas, just after I posted my Christmas blog full of love and ho

Earlier this week, I blogged about a chicken chore I've been putting off for a long time...not trimming my Christmas tree, but trimming the three inch spur off my rooster named Maui. Since I held myself accountable for this task by posting about it, I put Maui at the top of my Christmas priority list this week. My chickens HATE being held. Some of my fellow chicken bloggers have pet chickens in their homes wearing diapers or have chickens riding on their shoulders around th

The brutal winter cold came early this year! Normally I'm prepared for "North Pole" type weather around January or February, but this week has been quite frigid. With windchill, we've been having below zero temps in southeastern Michigan which has made my daily chicken chores take a bit longer. Chickens actually are quite winter hardy, like so many other types of outside animals. Instead of keeping warm from the outside in, like humans, livestock keeps warm from the inside

Last night's Detroit Writing Room Awards Ceremony was so much fun and inspiring! I loved being surrounded by at least 50 other writers and photographers who are passionate about creating meaningful stories and beautiful artwork. The awards ceremony took place at the Detroit Public Theatre in downtown Detroit, and boy did I feel like I was breaking curfew by going to the big city on a school night! My husband and I hardly ever get to have a date night which made the evening

In about 20 minutes, my husband (the crazy driver) will be taking me to my first writing award ceremony! I'm a bit excited and very nervous! In July, I submited one of my unpublished children's stories, called The Noise , to the Detroit Writing Room to apply for their Annual Writer's Award. In September I was notified that I won either 1st, 2nd, 3rd place or honorable mention in the Children's Book category. The Noise is a very silly story about a little dog whose snores

Eight book readings in six days...so much fun! Last week was a fun week for me as an author! I was able to read Pastor Jay and Painter of the Sky to eight different student classes and at my library. Thank you to the wonderful students and teachers at Livingston Christian School and the supportive staff at Salem-South Lyon Library for the opportunity to share my stories! After participating in several book readings this year, I've discovered that my books are best suited

My favorite part about being a published author and blogger is being able to talk to my readers...especially my young readers. Yesterday, I was able to visit my kindergarten students from last year who have now graduated onto first grade this year. I read my new book, Pastor Jay , to the kids and handed out the stuffed animals that are characters in the book. Whenever a stuffed animal appeared in the story, the kids would lift them in the air when we read that specific par

This week's post is a bit late. My feathered friends were not very enthusiastic about an idea I wanted to try. We can call this an epic "Pinterest Fail" or a chicken version of the show Nailed It . Why Chickens Love Pumpkins A favorite treat for chickens this time of year is pumpkins. Pumpkins are very healthy for them. They help boost their immune systems, preparing them for the cold winter months. For the past couple of years, I’ve seen several YouTube videos of other chick

Apple Cider made from apples with our rotten apple trees. So, so good! We like using recycled bottles for our homemade apple cider. This past week was another "rotten apple tree" week. However, I believe many people across America felt like those rotten, ugly apple trees I wrote about in last week's post, Apple Picking on the Chicken Farm . There are no words that can truly ease the pain of tragedy or make sense of it. I've seen countless words on social media discussing the

My absolute favorite part of last week was launching my new book called Pastor Jay! I loved all the Facebook messages, texts, and emails...

After nine months of writing, critiquing, collaborating, and having tons of fun, my new Christian Children's Book called Pastor Jay is...