Big News

coop west end

Well I know I have been a terrible blogger! I hope to be able to keep up a bit better in the future. Yay! The major part of the new chicken coop is done! Whew! Almost a year in the making. There is of course still a lot more to do, attach the gutter and set up the water collector, lots of fiddly trim work, a couple of interior partitions to finish, run some wire around on the ground to prevent diggers, a paint job, some shutters for the open side for really bad weather.... But the major structure is done, enclosed and hopefully predator proof!

In the pic of the east end you can see what look like patches on the front wall. Those are just scrap boards covering the openings for the pop doors. Once the area is fenced in, I'll build the sliding doors and take the boards off so the birds can go in and out when they want. In the meantime I just let groups out in rotation.

coop east end

And just in time. I am sooo blessed to have met my friend Cindy and I have been overwhelmed by her generosity and kindness. I have been drooling over these beautiful Buff Orpingtons bred by Vicki Dawson in South Carolina for a long time. I truly thought it would be a very long time before I would ever get the chance to have some of her birds in my coop. Well, Cindy purchased a pair, Claude & Claire and had them shipped. Everything was fine until Claude began to 'sing'. His singing was not appreciated and he needed to live elsewhere. Cindy has now asked me to partner with her and there are times when I still pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming!

Claude, 100% English Buff Orpington

That's Claire in the background, she was being very camera shy today and I could not get any good pics of her before it was too dark this afternoon. (It starts getting dark in my canyon about 3:00 this time of year!) Claire is not laying yet, probably another month or so. Then we will hatch some babies.

Behind Claire in the pic are the layers, checking out the new kids in the coop.