The girls are laying again and one of them popped out this huge double-yolk egg! Yum! It’s so nice to have fresh eggs and eggs to share with our friends again!

But as long as I toss some scratch in there for them to hunt around for (gives them something to do) they don’t seem to mind.

The chicken playroom. Ok, it’s not a lot more room, but they can entertain themselves by climbing into the brooder box where the turkeys were, and hopping up on shelves and boxes and things (which chickens seem to like to do when they get the chance). Just a bit of extra space so they don’t start getting grumpy and picking on each other. I hung a big shoplight in there on a timer to run from 7 am to 7pm, and put up a smaller fluorescent plant light as a night light so they can find their way back to their roosts after the big light goes off.

I scattered some scratch around to encourage them to explore. The new little red hen was the only one who took me up on it, the rest are all staring suspiciously.

All the chickens are confined to the coop today. They’re feeling a bit cooped up! but it’s better than getting eaten by the hawk.

The coop is about 6 x 10, which isn’t a lot of room for ten chickens. Here Copper, Penny’s son, is sitting up high to oversee the situation.

Blue Bird gives me the eye. Today the birds will be stuck in the coop, but tomorrow I’m hoping to open them up to the rest of the shed, so they’ll have more room to stretch their legs. I did that last winter during the ice storm and it worked well. I just need time to spread out some chips on the floor. Maybe tomorrow.  Then my only question is how long before I can let them out again? Maybe we’ll build some kind of covered/enclosed run outside the coop.

Well, that damned hawk came back and killed another chicken today. I was keeping an eye on them, but of course it doesn’t take long for him to do his work. I heard the fuss and ran back there and he’d just killed one of my young hens, and the rest of the girls were hiding under a bush out in the orchard. I chased him away with a stick, and herded the girls into the coop and closed them inside where they will be safe. I guess we could build an enclosed run for them. Someplace to keep them safe until the hawk gives up and goes away.

I came home from work this afternoon and the chickens were fussing. I went out and went right to the coop and checked their food, and it was ok, so I put a bit more in. Two of the young hens were standing in the coop in the poo pile, which was odd. I walked around to the other side and tossed some scratch out and called them, and that’s when I saw the pile of feathers out in the orchard. I knew who it was even before I did a head count. Penny was the slowest hen in the group, with her dump-de-dump waddling hop when she ran. I’m sure she didn’t have a chance. I must have scared off whatever did it, because they just chewed up her head, and she was still warm. Poor Penny, my favorite chicken!

When we got the chickens I promised they would not get emergency vet visits, and we would try not to get too attached to them. I was a little attached to this one.

Edit: I think I know who did it. I was outside and heard the wild birds making a fuss, and went over to see what was going on, and there was a giant red-tail hawk in the sequoia tree next to the paddock. I got close enough to scare him away, and he flew to the trees in the backyard. He was definitely staying close. I put the rest of the chickens away for the night (it’s almost dark anyway). I prefer knowing it was a hawk and not a coyote who might move on to eating the dogs and cats!

I almost got the whole flock of 12 in one shot, until the girl on the right decided to wander out of frame!

We have been having an ‘arctic blast’, with temps dropping into single digits, which is pretty unusual for us! I’m so glad we only have chickens to worry about. Every morning we go knock the ice out of their water bowl and refill it, and they come running for a drink. Poor chickens! You can see all the hunks of ice from the previous days littered around. I even took a frozen egg out of the coop the other day. The shell had cracked so I gave it to Barclay. He enjoyed eating it, when he broke it open it looked like an egg slushie! Still only getting one egg a day.

Hasn’t our new roo, Blue Bird the blue cochin, turned out to be a nice looking boy? And he is very respectful and keeps his distance, which will help keep him out of the stew pot! The other roo is just as well behaved. In the picture above he is on the other side of the bowl, on the right side of the picture. He is cochin/orpington – one of Penny’s babies from this summer. He has the round body and feathered feet.

Check out this fluffy butt

Today I went and refilled the feeder in the coop, and everyone rushed in to get a bite, and I saw everyone except Penny. So I walked around to the orchard side and called the chickens ‘hey, bok bok bok’, and they all came running. I counted them, and again I saw everyone except Penny. So I called her ‘Penny, where are youuuuuuuu?’, and a second later she waddled out of the coop, and stood on the ramp and gave me a look like ‘this better be good’ 🙂 I said ‘oh there you are, go back to what you were doing’, and she turned around and went back in the coop. Now my question is, after all this time, does she know her name? Do chickens learn their names?