Here Come the Chickens!

Once we ordered our peeps, we set about designing hte coop. We had some time, or so we thought, until they were big enough to move from the brooder box to the coop.

Then our friend Monique planned a trip to France, and asked us to adopt her 7 hens.

SURE! They are already laying almost daily, our peeps will not lay eggs until fall.

Then our friend Lisa asked if we would take two of her hens... she was getting bombarded with more eggs than they could consume.

So 9 hens were scheduled to arrive. The coop was pushed to the top of the to-do list.

First to arrive were Bambi and Roho.

Roho's name was changed to Ro, after our realtor, Rowena.

 The next day Monique's flock arrived. Here they all are together inside the coop.

We set about clipping everyone's wings, which keeps them from flying over the fence. Clipping does NOT hurt them... really you just turn them upside down (which makes them sort of hypnotized) and cut the tips of the wing feathers off,  NOT their actual wings.

We introduced Stella to the flock, so she would learn that they are not fun toys to chase around.

So now the chickens are part of her "pack" and they both (her and Xena) guard them.

Every now than then I find Stella inside the fenced area... she thinks she is a chicken! 

Each day we get about 5 eggs... beautiful, perfect eggs.

The difference between store-bought eggs and pastured eggs is profound! 

Not just in looks and texture, but nutritionally too.

Here is a GREAT post about it on Simple Bites.

Our egg is on the left. The yolks are orange!

PLUS the store bought egg shown here is an 'organic, cage-free' commercial egg.

So... buy farm fresh eggs whenever you can.

Next post... Welcome Salatin!