what the heck???

My sweet Husband was apparently very tired last night....

I was very concerned about all the girls making it home last night since they were scattered across my cul-de-sac....he went and checked, counted and forgot to close the door to the coop...I didn't notice till this morning since it was dark when I got home.

When I went out at 8 am this morning because the 7 year old said the rooster is under the deck I saw it and panic rushed through me....OMG, they all got eaten except that damn rooster!!!  hahaha....well, they are fine...they let themselves out this morning and into the yard of the neighbor....

A weird little treat was an egg laid under the deck stairs....odd..  Even more odd was the egg the was either laid in the middle of the hen house floor OR it was laid and kicked out by the hen that laid it or the next one in the nesting box....it was a soft shell...somebody didnt bake their egg completely!!!

Why did my chickens cross the road??? TO ANNOY ME!!!

SOOOOO.....the girls decided to go out walking the neighborhood....I received several text messages from different neighbor's.

They ALL made it home safe and sound and there was even 4 eggs!!!  After yesterday's single egg I figured there would be no eggs today because of the heat!

The lightest one is a new girl!!  sweet!!  4 hens a layin' !!!!   Funny thing is that they were all in the same nesting box!  Thanks girls!!

Countin' them eggs!!!!

Egg count total since starting laying: 8
Egg count this week only:7


Super excited!  We seem to have 2 laying regularly, late morning and early afternoon....hopefully the rest of the girls fall in line soon!

July 11th...and then there were 8...

Sad events happen with raising chickens....


The hubs and the kids were still on vacation, my neighbor didn't see my text, and my friend didn't have time to stop over and make sure everyone got back into the yard from the neighbor's....there was a fox in the area who seized the opportunity for dinner....our littlest hen, Dora, was alone on the wrong side of the fence when the sun went down and the fox got her.
...and yes, for those of you who have children who also watch "Dora the explorer" I am aware of the irony...lol....

...we found 2 piles like this and that was it.

I was disappointed but it happens....we didn't tell the little kids though,but Dora grew while Sydney (4) was at grandma and grandpas....and yes she did notice the difference....

Cock-a-doodle-STEW...if you're not careful!

This is Campbell....Our rooster....

We decided to go on vacation to Michigan...I was gone a week.  While we were gone, the neighbor lady who loves our chickens took care of them for us.  When I returned home and proceeded to pet my ladies like I usually do...this little buggar of a rooster decided he was going to charge at me not once but twice!  On the second charge, I kicked him in the chest...he calmed down and went about his business.

A few days later, he did it AGAIN!  My husband and children were will on vacation and we decided that if he was still showing aggression, for the safety of our children, we would go ahead and butcher him which is eventually the plan anyway.  

Since my husband has been home he's been fine...except a little stupid when he couldn't figure out how to get back to our yard from the neighbor's yard....silly Campbell.   Nate had to pick him up and toss him back over...wearing jacket, jeans and gloves of course!

**Roosters protect their flock and are naturally aggressive if they feel the flock is threatened which is one of the main reasons I wanted a rooster.  We held him and carried him as a chick to help make him used to humans.  Having no humans in the yard on a regular basis seemed to have bothered him but now that we are back he is not charging or attacking or anything...he even lets one of the dogs lick his booty which I think is funny and gross**

Catching up.....

Sorry, I've not updated a lot and realized there were some milestones I posted about on facebook and not on here....

So, what's been up....well I did update that we are slowly getting eggs now but here is a recap of what happened before...

You know in April we moved the flock outside to the coop...well about 3 or 4 weeks later we started letting outside to free range.  Here is the first day out:

  They stayed pretty close to the coop for about 2 weeks...

Then they ventured further out into the yard ...

And then even further.....at least they know where the fresh water is!

EGGCEPTIONAL EGGS!!!!

FINALLY!!!  After waiting almost 2 weeks for more eggs here they are!!!  The little one on the right was collected about 10am this morning by my youngest son (7) who was soooo excited he got to collect one!  I didn't hear my rooster after lunch so I peeked out into the back yard and saw 2 of the lovely ladies entering the hen house!  About 2pm I went out to feed and water the flock and found the one on the left!  I put a child sized for in for size comparison.  The one from over a week ago was a little bloody which is normal and both of these had a little blood on them as well so I am confident that we have 3 ladies a layin' !!!

EGGCELLENT EGG!

FIRST EGGGGGG!!!!!!!

This is our first egg...laid on july 12th...i have small hands but this is still a really nice sized egg!  Our flock was about 18 weeks old so one of our little layers was a little early to get started....