The Girls

Well I believe that our hens have officially stopped laying eggs.  It has been a couple of months since we have gotten an egg. Bummer.  We will still keep them as pets but we have been missing fresh eggs.  We just built an additional coop (I should say my talented husband built an additional coop).  It is smaller and on the side of the house where the girls really like to hang out.  We figured in the winter we might let the neighbors dog use the big chicken coop and heat lamp when it is really cold. When our dog Zeena was still alive she would go in the coop until we got home and let her in the house. What can I say we are worriers.  So now the girls have their huge chicken coop plus a little mini coop! 

We have talked about getting some new chicks but we are afraid we will get a rooster.  I do not want a rooster.  I know our neighbors do not want us to have a rooster either!  I am not sure if you can even have a rooster in the city.   A friend of ours has offered us one month old chicks (which are fairly big) but we won't know the sex til they hit 5 or 6 months. Daron said he would re-home them if they are roosters. I would rather not get them than try to re-home them! 

We also had a Cooper's Hawk (we think) checking out the hens the other day.  Addyson yelled "Those chickens are our family not your dinner" and the hawk flew away.  The girls just finished molting. Molting is a process chickens go through once a year to shed their feathers and replace them with new ones. Their new feathers are coming in and they look so pretty! 

Powder sports her new WHITE feathers

The mini coop