chickens in the burbs: You can get a lot done in 4 hours

Since it's been so long between posts, I figured I owed my loyal readers (and by that I mean my mom...hi mom) an update and a goodly amount of pictures.

In the time since receiving our first few eggs, we have continued to get about 1 egg per day. Not exactly the egg-production that I was hoping for, but I don't think all of our chickens are pulling their weight yet. With this meager production schedule there has developed a little difference of opinion in our house. E believes that as soon as we have enough eggs to make a meal, we should enjoy said meal. I am more of the mind that we would be better served to store-up the eggs for a few days in order to develop a little inventory. Once we have a dozen, go ahead and eat a few, it means there'll be some for baking as well. We haven't been seeing eye-to-eye on this one.

In addition to the egg-eating/saving debate there was also disagreement (or discussion...tomato, tomahto) about running a light out to the coop. You see, chicken's systems are very in tune with their environment. When there is less light, it signals winter, thus the chickens go a bit dormant and egg-laying can drop significantly or even stop until the sun returns. You can, however, trick their bodies if you provide artificial light. I think it sounded like more work that E really wanted, so he was opposed to the idea.

It occured to me that our two disagreements were quite connected. You see, if E would compromise and run the light out to the coop, thus ensuring more eggs, I would compromise in my current hoarding of said eggs. So a deal was struck! For $14.00 we purchased an outlet timer with 2 on/off settings and a lightbulb socket with a plug. Now an energy-saving bulb is providing light to the chickens from 4:00 AM until 8:00 AM and again from 4:00 PM until 8:00 PM. We will, of course, adjust the timing once we start adding daylight back into the schedule...whenever that happens again.

We had beautiful weather this weekend and definitely took advantage by getting a lot done outside. We accomplished all of this between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PMIn addition to the coop-lighting we also primed the outside of the coop (and plan to paint it next week), did the monthly coop cleaning (this is more in depth than the weekly cleaning), put trim around the coop window, replaced the little barrier that keeps the shavings in the hen box, organized the shed and put all of the feed, shavings and scratch in bins, and raked up all of the leaves in the back yard. Oh, and E replaced a light fixture above our kitchen sink...but there are no photos of that. Below are some photos to document the work. Enjoy! :)

Phoebe systematically destroying my leaf piles

This really is what they do 95% of the time...scratch, peck, swallow, repeat until bedtime

I'm pretty sure these two are up to something

Nice pose from Chick (I think, could be Phoebe)

Lady Catherine's tail makes a nice contrasting backdrop for this picture of Chick

All of the ladies getting in on the leaf-scattering action

Mrs. Dashwood

Here's something you may not know, chickens LOVE to take dust baths. I understand some hamsters and chinchillas do as well. Anyway, I like to call this next series "Foul Spa."

Here are Phoebe and Lady Catherine, they roll around and flip the dirt up on their backs, very bizzare

Lady Catherine getting down and dirty

Both Phoebe and Lady Catherine spent considerable time "bathing"

The fact that Phoebe's head can be at that angle (look for the red crop under her body) is crazy, Lady Catherine and Mrs. Dashwood seem to agree as they look on

Here is a view with the egg door open, the lower opening is where we collect the eggs