Chickens

Whew! Finally got that dirty job checked off my list! I'd been meaning to clean out the chicken pen for some time. It was on my spring "to do" list. I must have hauled five or six wheel barrow loads of straw, shavings and chicken manure to the compost pile. But now the pen is lined with some nice grass hay, new food put in the can and Duane put  the nest boxes up on the wall. (They'd been on the floor and the girls thought it was a good place to sleep, and poop!)

Here, let me give you a little tour...The chicken pen is on one end of our woodshed. Here's the cute old door.

A peek inside.....

A metal garbage can (for the scratch and crumbles) to hopefully keep the mice at bay.....

Here's the ladder where they roost at night. The little door at the bottom opens out to the garden. In the fall or early spring when there's nothing much to scratch up, I let the girls out there to roam around. The light is on a timer in the winter to give them longer daylight hours.

The nest boxes filled with grass hay. We've never had them on the wall before so will see how they like them up there.

Here's some of the girls out in their yard scratching around. There are a lot of these small native bushes in their pen which is nice for shade and also protection from hawks and eagles.

We have nine hens at the moment. Three bantams of mixed heritage, two Americaunas, two Light Brahamas, and two Silver Lace Wyandottes
This is what the Wynadottes look like. Aren't they pretty?

An Americauna (they call these Aracaunas at the feed store, but I'm pretty sure ours are the Americaunas) This breed comes in a variety of colors and lays bluish-green eggs!

And lastly, the Light Brahama..

I really enjoy the chickens. They're good little garbage disposals for all our produce scraps, they give farm fresh eggs. (I've been able to sell some to the neighbors, which helps pay for "the girls" food) and they're just kind of fun to watch scratching around.