Our New Chickens

Larry brought home new chickens a couple weeks ago. We have been without for a couple years, our last ladies stopped laying so they became chicken stock. They were Rhode Island Reds and the ones we have now are very different! We have 2 white, 2 zebra, one black and one black/red. Very pretty!! And not as aggressive.

Again, this was taken with a phone so the quality isn't great, but you can see how different they all look. David, our oldest grandson, wants to name one and now he'll be able to tell which one it is. He's coming for a visit this weekend so he'll get the chance to meet them finally. 

I told Larry I didn't want them free-ranging because the last group of ladies demolished my hostas while scratching for food. All that money!! Fortunately they didn't kill the roots, just had a couple years where the plants looked beaten. Have to admit, they are great for keeping the weeds down! Anyway, before he brought them home, he added another large fenced area off the coop for them to roam. We still let them out but only when we are around to keep them out of the woodland garden! You can get an idea of their new playpen from this blurry picture. Jet had to get in there to meet his new neighbours, his kennel is right beside the coop. He wants to play but they'd rather not. hehe

And the cats keep going in too, still very curious about the large birds...I think they are trying to figure out a way to hunt them without getting beat up. :) You can see Pickle on the left checking out the ladies. It is hilarious to watch Pepsy stalk them...course they are not going to let him get close!

It took a couple days before they started laying due to the shock of the move, and they are still very young so the eggs are small, one was the size of a quail egg!! And we get the prettiest colours! But boy, there is nothing like fresh eggs on your plate! 

Here you can see half of their coop with the feeder and nesting boxes. When we got our first ladies, we took an old ice fishing hut and converted it. Put in a door to the screened-in, raised 'porch' with a ladder they walk up, it already had a window and door for us to use and we built the nesting boxes on the existing bench. Recycling at it's finest. :)