Today we welcomed four chickens to our urban homestead. These twenty week old pullets have not yet started laying but they will soon. They are heritage dual purpose breeds with good heartiness in cold temperatures, many laying years, and calm personalities. The orange ones are Buff Orpingtons, the black is an Australorp, and the speckled is a Sussex breed.
Alex built the coop of his own design. Lil and I painted it to match our doors and porch trim. We have pictures of the coop building process and will post about the costs and procedure in the near future.
So far the dogs are far more interested in the chicken food than the chickens themselves. We haven't left them out alone with the fowl yet but we are confident they can remain peaceable.
We are all very excited to have hens and can't wait for that first egg!
PS. I hope you'll read my poem honoring three great people born today - my sister Sarah, uncle Mike, and Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.