Happy chickens

A few weeks ago we built a semi-permanent enclosed chicken yard for our small home flock. The “let-‘em-wander” theory worked until the chickens began wandering into inappropriate places such as our wash station and the neighbor’s flower garden. We realized that they preferred being around the house, where they had more coverage and protection from the hawks who moved into the area this fall. So, we moved them up to the walnut tree and built a little fence to keep them in one place, close to their house, food and water (things they had been neglecting in favor of our small raspberry planting).

But, we still let them out when we are home and can keep an eye on them. They go crazy on the green oats and grass growing in our field with all this rain. Chickens love green growing things. The other day, they were romping in the field just before dusk, and the sight was so beautiful we documented it …

Happy hens in the field …

Farm animals! Mokum & a hen meet at the tractor! (Why, yes, that is a new tractor implement — how kind of you to notice. We just purchased this Lely Roterra in an attempt to use more gentle tillage methods in our fields and eliminate a plow pan … but that’s a story for a different blog post.)

A white rock, up close and personal. We just have a feeling that the first few eggs we’ve received this week might be from our white rocks, since they seem to be the most visibly mature.

Casey & Nelson watching the hens frolic. We love sunny fall days!

A glamour shot of the very first egg from our very first flock of chickens. Isn’t it a beautiful little thing? What did we do with it? We baked chocolate chip cookies, of course!