Enjoying Our Hens

The weather is unseasonably warm for January.  Our Easter Egger hens had taken a break from laying, but they are laying again.  Their pretty blue-green eggs are lovely.

The new chicks are now about six months old.  Our daughter has five and I kept three: a buff orpington, an astrolorp and a speckled sussex.  Yesterday I found our first brown egg, but am not sure who has layed it.  They were in a seperate house which was right on the side of our Easter eggers.  They gradually worked out their pecking order, and now they are happily living together in our large hen house.

I would let all of the chickens out to roam the area whenever I would sit with them.  I found this to be a very healing time for me and the hens seemed to love it, also. We got very comfortable doing this until one day last month.  I walked a few yards away to get some items to clean the hen house when I heard lots of noise and saw what looked to be a huge chicken trying to catch one of our hens.  We have alot of trees and a hawk had been sitting on a limb, waiting to find dinner.  All chickens went into hiding and it took about an hour to locate them all, but they were all safe.

I know that this is a natural thing in nature, but I knew that I had to do something to keep the girls safe.  I made a chicken run, about 6 by 8 by 5 feet with PVC pipe and chicken wire.  It is just high enough that I can get in with them and sit and enjoy their company and take photos.  That is exactly what we did yesterday afternoon.

It was difficult to take photos because the three new hens wanted to stay and eat the grass right at my feet! I laughed alot!

This is Blacky, our new Astrolorp hen.  She has such beautiful feathers!

This is Goldie, our new Buff Orpington.

And Speckles, our Speckled Sussex.

She is one of our Easter Eggers.  They are difficult to tell apart, so they are all called "Girls"

Our hens seem content and I am able to continue to enjoy their company.  They are enjoying my harvested chickweed and turnip greens and slightly imperfect pecan halves during this time of the year.  This is indeed fun!!