they come from the east , they come from the west..

Our chickens enjoy the company of people . (maybe because they always bring treats? ) The other day we had another visitor. Cole flew all the way from San Francisco to visit his favorite chicken Lovey.
Lovey started out as a skinny chick , pushed around by the others. She has now grown up to become quite a handful. I already had to clip her wings because she was escaping out of the chicken run. She is tall but leaner than the others and can run faster. She is a little bit of a rebel not unlike her handler Cole.

eggs R us

and finally all the hard labor is starting to pay off. Two of the chickens ( they are close to fully grown now) have started to lay eggs. The first couple of eggs a chicken lays are usually very small with a soft shell. No good for human consumption and they normally brake when the chickens step on them. Then they start laying little eggs, about halve the size of the eggs we find in the grocery store. After about a week the eggs get bigger , after 2 weeks they are regular size. I did a little spying and found out that Spot was the first producer, followed by Chici. So we now have one large and one small egg per day. Can't wait till the others start laying too. Farmers Market here we come.

pics of chicks

While I am still working on the final version of the chicken run , the chicks have been busy growing up. They wake up as soon as the sun comes up and stay in the coop till about 7.00 am . Then the door opens up for a day in the garden. They eat a little , play a little , take a nap and repeat until dusk. They might visit the coop a couple of times a day for some food ( their feeder remains inside the coop to keep away other birds) and to lay an egg. When the sun goes down , they go inside and rest on their roosting pole. The doors closes automatically to keep predators out.
It's a hard life.