chicken coop part deux

I finished the chicken coop and run last month sometime.  Here it is.

This neighborhood cat seemed to think I did a great job and didn't want to leave until Molly chased it away with a squirt bottle.

Having chickens in the yard has made our house seem a little more friendly to the other avian populace as well I think.  We have had a bird house sitting out on our fence for years and they have never once looked at it.  But this year we had two sets of birds lay eggs in it.  It was pretty fun.  Especially when they were little fledglings and learning how to fly.  We got to hold a few of them while they screamed for their mom after falling out of the house.  At first I was worried that they had fallen out of the nest and would be abandoned by the mother, but I read that they were just learning how to fly and that their mother knew exactly where they were and that they would be ok.  I also read it was a myth that the mother would abandon them if we touched them.  So I liked to pick them up and pop them back in the house.  Then they would promptly jump back out again and fall to the ground.  They sure are cute.  Well they got cuter when they had more feathers than they are in this picture.

The chickens have been giving us eggs now for a couple of weeks.  They are small and brown and sometimes speckled with black or white specks (no, the specs are not just poo).  We are getting about two or three eggs a day and should end up getting about three a day on average.  The kids still love the chickens.  Especially Ethnie.  She wants to go out and hold them all the time.  They run from Luke, but hold still and let Ethnie pick them up whenever she wants.  We like them.  Everyone should get some.