Is it coincidence that one of our chickens became a setting hen on Mother's Day... I think not.  It seems that Miss Hilary has become emotionally attached to the daily batch of eggs.  I have only had chickens for a year so I had to look this up.  What I have read, some hens in the spring get the mothering urge and sit and turn the eggs hoping to soon have a little group of smiling and dependent youngins following her everywhere.  Hilary would not get off those eggs today or yesterday for anything (last night we finally took them in at 8pm and tonight at 6pm when we got home).   Lovely. Great and all except for one thing... we do not have a rooster.   *sigh* poor Miss Thing.  From my research, this behavior will go on for two to three weeks when Mother Nature will softly kick her in the behind to go and get on with her life.  For now, Miss Hilary longs to be a mom.

Hil - everyone is out playing in the yard - go have fun!

Back off sister, you are not getting my eggs!

A unique way of gathering eggs...

Eggs or no eggs, she is not giving up!

April's egg tally was  156.  

Here is also the outcome of today's birthday celebration.  They demolished it.

And baby sister Opus escaped to join the celebration.

Oh happy day little family.

Princess Leia(remember they were born on May the 4th... get it, StarWars... may the 4th be with you...anywhoooo) thought she was Papillon this morning and tried to escape.

Cracks me up how the others cheer her on!  (do it girl, you come back for the rest of us later!) Too bad I own a bird dog!

We were going to add on to the pen area so we figured today was a good day to do this.

We let the chickens have a final run of the gardens all day before they are "cooped up" for the spring and summer.

Finished!  We ended the day lighting the holiday lights on the coop in celebration while sipping on homemade strawberry lemonades.  Don't you love when things get done!

Getting bigger

A week of highs and lows , of sun and snow. It even snowed today for a bit but by the time I got home it was in the 50's and sunny! 

Can't wait to get in the garden tomorrow!

I remember when we got our chicks last year. Once we got all set up I panicked.

- what the hell am I doing?

I am from the coast of the Carolinas and last I saw, they don’t have chickens running around the beaches . Now, here I am with the cowboy  in Colorado raising chickens. After a momentary freak-out I got used to the idea and fell in love with “the girls”. There are nine. On nice days I even get out my chair and talk to them. They love to carry on conversations about their day and sit on my knees and shoulders.

Now we are beginning to raise our second set . 3 new chicks.

Today is coop cleaning day.

I have begun to keep a log of the egg-laying ways of the girls. We have a chalk board in the mudroom that we mark as we are coming in from the coop with how many we are getting. Since it has been winter , snowy and cold, not all nine are laying. It is also interesting to see that Thursday is their party day and most of them take that day off from laying.

We have 5 that lay brown, 2 that lay white and Hillary lays pinkish eggs. We do sell them for $4 a dozen and often run low for ourselves.

A view from where I work yesterday. I love coming home and reading about those who are already working in their gardens.

Hilary’s summer look….

We had nice weather today...well, nice for Colorado and nice for a while. Okay, so it was overcast and about 40*.  It was a good day to clean the chicken coop.

We have nine chickens.  Last year was my first year raising chickens. We had an old, small rabbit hutch that we used to begin our adventure.  We were lucky that out of 10 chicks we bought at the local feed store, only one ended up being a rooster.  Our chickens are named after famous women and characters from Star Wars - Princess Leia, Yoda, Obi-wan.... due to the fact they were born on May the 4th. You know...May the 4th be with you.. see you understand.  Anyway - the rooster's name changed to Twisted Sister then to Pierre.  We sent him to live at my sister-in-law's ranch where she had about 50 free range chickens, along with cattle and peacocks out on the Eastern plains darn near Kansas.  I thought he would love it.  My bad, he freaked at the sight of so many chattering hens. He hid in the corner for days and refused to eat.  Pierre ended up going to a 4-H'er who wanted to raise him and show in next year's state fair. ohlala. Can't wait to see how he does.

Now, back to where this began... the chicken coop is clean and it has begun to snow. I so envy those who are having spring. For now, planning and catalogs will have to do.

Picture of Pierre