Chicken Update

First off Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

The hens are getting to look like real chickens and it is pretty cool to have them pecking around in the yard while we are doing the outdoor chores. Our 3 year old daughter is the "Mommy Hen" of the group, and who am I to argue?

This is Ariel in weed heaven. She is one of the Rhode Island Reds.

Last weekend we moved the chickens box outside to the back patio area and Thor built a chicken run out of these pieces of wood from Lowes for .75 each and some plastic chicken wire mesh. During the mornings this past week I've been going out and opening the lid on their covered box then 'Mommy Hen' and I hustle them into the run. I can tell you that our cats are not very amused by the mesh lol.

They are weed pecking machines! In the evening we let them out to run/fly around the yard before we put them back. Usually they spend this time exploring everything, trying to stay in a flock and  they try to get into the house and sometimes they succeed.

Eveie in the front. She is a Plymouth/Barred Rock and she is a brave one.

Ariel and he sister Henny Penny the Rhode Island Reds.

The problem is that we do not have a shingled roof for the box or the run... And a big storm is coming through this weekend! Thor was able to put a tarp over them and secure it so the water doesn't pool. I'm sure this will be our rude awakening on how quickly we need to get the complete coop built. I could have sworn that in a previous post I bragged about how we still had another 5 weeks before they would be old enough to go outside and that would be PLENTY of time to build a coop... Oops!

Before we moved the chickens outside our other cat, Shaka, discovered that we had birds living in our house.

Some days I would find her just checking in on them

"Really?!? You won't let us in the house but you let birds in there!!!???"

I don't want anyone to worry, we do not let the cats near the chickens when they are out of the run. In fact I think the cats maybe a little baffled at how big the hens actually are... either way, we keep a close eye on the chickens.
That is my update so far. From what I have gathered the hens should start laying eggs around 5 months of age and that would be around the end of June and I already have plenty of friends that have asked for eggs ;-)