Old McDonald had a .... chicken?

Well we did it again. We've expanded out menagerie. We now have 4 chickens.

This time it was hubby who wanted them. He built the coop with a little help with our wolf scouts (passing off the 'build something' arrow point). Then we couldn't find any chickens to buy!

So I advertised a few times on craigslist.org and finally found 3 rhode island reds. Of course after I found them there was a whole week where chickens were available nearly every day.

Anyway, our research showed that Rhode Island Reds do well in cold weather, lay brown eggs, and are pretty hardy. Most of these chickens are heavy layers, laying 6 days out of 7. Also, they don't tend to slack off as much during the winter as most other breeds do. Something about it being colder. Anyway, they lay on average somewhere around 260 eggs per year.

The person we bought the chickens from also threw in a black silkie who lays white eggs, but not yet because she's to young. She said something about how anyone who has chickens should experience this kind. I should take some pictures of them all, but especially the silkie. It looks like it has a mohawk or something.

Anyway its been a lot of fun. The kids helped me feed it, and I may let them help a little with egg collecting.

We put the hen house and run inside our pasture. So the 2 sheep keep the chickens company. I've also moved the bunny inside the pasture, next to the hen house. We had it on the back porch and had some poop catchers under its cage, but man that thing is a poop machine. so I say let it poop in the pasture. I just have to figure out how to make the cage more weather proof. The bunny is long haired so seems to stay warm. I just worry about it once it gets really cold.

So the hen house has 3 nests. Hubby needs to build a 4th one so that the silkie has one.

Each nest has a little door that has a hook keeping it closed. Well Charlie the sheep figured out how to open it. Actually, he just nosed around enough to make it open so he could investigate. So hubby looks outside and says 'the chickens are out'. We raced outside and figured out that only 2 chickens were out. We chased them around the pasture and finally got them back inside. We tightened the hooks and are hoping that we're good now. If not, we may be getting different closures. We really don't want to chase them around anymore.

I'm really excited about the eggs. Today was the first time we got 3. So finally all 3 chickens are laying. I had heard that when they get moved around (or chased around :) they tend to take a few days off to get accustomed to their new surroundings.

The strange thing is that instead of all 3 chickens laying in the morning like most chickens do (according to the internet), we have lazy chickens who lay throughout the day. This morning I fed them at 9:30. Only one egg. I checked again around 11am (we had been getting 2 a day, so I didn't want to miss one) and there was another egg. I checked once more before church for fun and there was another egg! I hope these guys know that I'm not checking 3 times every day!

The other thing we are dealing with is that its been so cold lately that everyone's water keeps freezing. Yesterday i had to use an ax to chop through the ice on the sheep's water trough. The chickens keep stepping in the water, making it filthy and then it freezes. The bunny's water bottle (supposed to be weather tough) has been freezing solid.

My solution? pour hot water on the chickens water. this melts a little of the ice and fills the bowls the rest of the way. The bunny has a water bowl that I've been doing the same to. I fill it with hot water every day. The water bottle is useless. (weather tough, my foot).

The girls love to help. They love that hubby installed a new gate in the pasture so that feeding and caring for the animals is super easy now. It is literally a hop skip and a jump from our back door.

On to other things. My parents next door have 2 goats. One is sort of ours. We tried to give her away last summer, but things got complicated and we took her back. Then the neighbors intact nigerian pygmy goat hopped the fence and we thing bertha may be pregnant. If she is, she is due the first week in Feb. Its hard to tell for sure with goats, but her stomach is very different that it used to be. Lots of strange bumpy angles and her tail is at constant attention. I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to it if she is pregnant. I don't know if I'm up to a delivery!

Mom and Dad are in the process of putting in their papers for their mission. They could have a call within 3 months. Its exciting and scary.

They could stay in the area, and at home. Or they could go anywhere. We are pretty sure that because of Dad's allergies they would stay stateside. But you never really know.

So that is the excitement in our lives. I'll try and post chicken pictures soon.