Chickens, Chickens, Ba-Bawk!

Our chickens have to be the most amusing part of the homestead. If I happen to be in a bad mood, watching them always cheers me up. Especially during breakfast, because they're extremely violent (to each other) when it comes to food... and watching a bunch of chickens pecking each other and running each other around the pen is just... hilarious. Maybe I'll post a video of it.

So anyway, here is our "flock", as it were. We probably have about 20 left... We had run-ins with coyotes and a cat who was living in our barn. Good fencing got rid of the coyotes (or at least lessened the chances) and our dog Scout got rid of the cat.



This is probably our prettiest roo. You can't really see it in the pic, but he has black feathers mixed in with the white on his neck. He also has a matching hen.



We don't know what breeds these two are, but I'm betting they're from the Americana hen we had for a few weeks (before a coyote dragged her off). They look slightly Americana. The black and white one is a silver laced Wyandotte.



And two days ago we got the first eggs of spring, 2010.


This is our coop. Hubby built it 100% from material from a barn that had caved in. The frame and floor are the barn wood, the siding is the old aluminum or steel (can't remember) barn roof, and the nest boxes inside were 2nd hand from his dad. Personally, I think he did a fantastic job.


Most of the chickens we have now were actually hatched here. We had 3 hens go broody, and 27 chicks ended up hatching. We still have 2 of the broody hens (the wyandotte and the white/black one), so we're hoping to expand our flock naturally. Except I'm buying some of these from a local hatchery. Isn't she just Beautiful?

(Picture copyright and owned by http://www.bluelacedred.com/gallery1.html, an EXCELLENT wyandotte reference site.)