Additions to the Family

I'm no longer the only female around! With Nick, two male cats, and a baby boy on the way, I was significantly outnumbered. Now we are even with the recent addition of 3 hens to our newly-improved coop and run! They are still too young to lay eggs, but we're happy to have gotten them at this stage so we can enjoy watching them settle into their new home and grow a bit before they begin laying. 

Chicken ladies

While my sister and niece were visiting, we arranged a trip to the 'country' with some friends who also needed to get some new chickens to add to their existing two. After some searching on Craigslist, we found people raising free range laying hens and had a large number available, since between us we needed five of them.

It was a really rainy day, so chasing hens around a muddy yard was pretty challenging and funny. It poured rain so hard right after we got there that the family invited us into the large garage nearby to wait it out. That's where they had their heat lamp and area for the young hens (pullets) that weren't yet ready to go outside. These pullets were easier to catch, and my niece was excited to get to play with and hold some of them while we waited:

After the rain let up a bit, we went back out and tried again. They had five different chicken varieties, so we had to decide what we wanted to go after them. Since they were all really good egg laying breeds, we decided to try three different kinds: a Buff Orpington, White Leghorn, and Rhode Island Red. That way we might be able to learn about differences in traits, personalities, and habits of each to take into consideration when we get more in the future, though I hope that won't be for quite awhile. As long as they stay healthy and aren't lost to predators, they should all be great layers for us for the next three years or so.

Nick and the Rhode Island Red, which our niece named "Ashlyn"

Our coop is such a great set up. I'll have to do a post soon to show some of the details and the improvements we've made. The run fencing is thickly lined with weeds on all but the west side, which they quickly got to work on scratching and eating. In addition to those greens, they also get a lot of insects flying and crawling through the weeds and the dirt, and we're giving them select food scraps as treats. All that plus the layer feed gives them a diverse and well-balanced diet. The feed ensures they get enough calcium for egg shell production. We've only had them for a few days but are loving being chicken caretakers, and the cats are enjoying their company as well:

Update: June 30th we got our first egg!

It's now July 10th and we've gotten 6 eggs from the Buff Orpington, who is still the only one old enough to lay. The other two probably have a month or two to go, but soon we'll be getting a dozen a week or more. The shells are very thick, the yolks sit tall and firm, and they are incredibly DELICIOUS!