Cluck, cluck (almost)

Sorry for the long hiatus!  If you remember my last post (which was almost a month ago - yikes!), I was heading off on a sock-knitting cruise.  Since my return, I've been a crazy woman trying to get back to reality.  Fortunately, while I was gone (and since I took the kids with me), my husband finished the chicken coop.  It is really quite nice!  Any chicken would be proud to call it home, thanks to Bill's more-than-adequate construction skills.

Once we got the coop finished, the next step was to acclimate our ladies to their new home (and the heat lamp-free great outdoors).  We did this by putting them outside several days in a row and letting them spend the day in the coop but taking them back in at night.  Once they'd done this for a week, had all their adult feathers in, and we had a stretch of warm weather, we moved them permanently into their new home.  They love it!

They're still not full-size, but aren't they pretty with all their grown-up feathers?  Particularly Diddy (the Amerucana out front), who looks like some kind of hawk with her fierce eyes and puffy cheek feathers.  Who knew chickens could be so attractive?

Now that they've gotten accustomed to life in the coop, we've started letting the free-range in the backyard during the day.  Let me tell you, there's nothing more delightful than sharing your backyard with chickens!  They are endlessly entertaining to watch.  They travel in a little pack, and if one of the girls gets separated, she will call for the others with this very mournful little peep.  They are constantly pecking at things - the fence, rocks, the dirt, the grass, weeds, the concrete on the patio - everything.  If one of them finds a prize (like a nice fat earthworm), she'll snatch it up and a small scuffle will ensue while the others chase her around, trying to take it from her.  Finally, the victor will find a quiet corner and scarf down their treat while the others try to pretend like they don't care about losing out.  Then, they'll all settle into the dirt of the flower garden and give themselves a little dust bath - oh, the contortions they go through to get every square inch of themselves into that dirt!  A couple times I've been convinced they were dying or having some kind of seizure, what with all the rolling and thrashing around (but no, they're just trying to get to that itch on the back of their neck).  Chickens are the best pets ever, I'm convinced.

The one small disadvantage is the poop.  They poop everywhere.  I have vivid memories of walking barefoot as a child on my grandparents' farm and stepping in fresh chicken poop - kind of like stepping in cold, slimy toothpaste (except a lot more disgusting).  We haven't quite figured out how to control the free-range poop in the yard (and especially on the patio), or if we need to even bother.  So far, the kids haven't been tracking poop into the house or anything, and I know it's great for the soil.  We'll have to figure something out if it starts building up, but until then I console myself with the fact that dog poop is a lot worse and you can't just throw that on your compost pile (although I have seen a compost tea maker that uses pet waste - call me uptight, but I'm just not ready for that one yet).  Now we just have to sit back and wait for the peeps to turn to clucks, signaling the very exciting prospect of the arrival of those first eggs!  Cluck!