Hello there,

The sun is shining and it is in the 40’s, whoohoo!  The girls are in better spirits since they get to have some yard time, such that it is.  It’s more like patch’s of grass showing through the snow, but hey, we will take what we can get.

It’s a good time to take a coop tour.  Bare in mind, this is not the cleanest coop, the girls have been literally cooped up in here for the past couple of months, with below zero temps and snow, snow, snow.  But hey, when you just drop by without notice you never know what you will see, right?

Ever try to take a picture with 9 chickens under foot, there is always one or two in the photos, so just ignore them.  We have 5 gallon bucket nesting boxes on the right wall and two roosting bars along the back wall for them to sleep on at night.  I put trays under the roosts so I can easily empty them each morning.  The girls produce a lot of fertilizer at night.

There are air vents on the back and front walls up high so the girls don’t get a breeze from them.  Also, there is a window that is shut tight for the Winter above their roosting bars.  But the window makes for a nice breeze in the summer when things heat up.

Front view of the nesting buckets.  I purchased them off of Ebay.  These are fairly new so I have a couple of their old nesting boxes on the floor for those girls still learning to use the new ones.  Bunny is checking them out because she needs to get to work, if you know what I mean.

Sophie will show you how my big girls use the nesting buckets.

Hop up on the bar, insert body in bucket.

Turn around inside while fluffing straw up.

Do your work and then come on out and announce to the world that you just laid an egg.

When these  buckets arrived, I took one look at them and thought for sure the girls would not use them.  They seemed very small since I have all large breeds.  They are all 7-8 lbs each.  Sorry girls, I know that is not right telling your weight.

But, they love them.  I guess there is security in being snug.

Russ (the good chicken daddy), built the girls a little ladder to get up on the roost bars.  Don’t tell him that they just jump up on the bars and don’t use the ladder, lol.

On the left wall is the small door that the girls use to go in and out to the chicken run.  This door is locked tight at night to keep the wild life from snacking on them at night.  We have weasels, possums, raccoon, coyotes etc. in the area that would love to have them for a meal.

Next to the door is a picture window for the princesses so they can have some natural light in the coop, plus look out into the run through.  We don’t have any electricity in the coop as yet, it’s on the to do list.  The window is plexiglass, so no one will get cut in case of breakage.  Russ (the good chicken daddy) put that in also.

I keep a bowl full of chicken grit for digestion and oyster shells for calcium so the girls will lay nice eggs with hard shells.  This is kept in the coop.  Their food and water are fed to them out in the run.  If kept in the coop, I’m afraid it might attract rodents, eeekkk. . . .

This is Pearl (White Marans), one of the chicks from last August, all grown up.

Over here! I see grass again!

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On another note, my gardens are knee deep in snow.

But, that hasn’t stopped me from starting my gardens for 2014.

I’ve already started my Onions by planting the seeds in a seed tray.  More on that in the future.

The End. . . .

This post was spurred on by just one reader asking how the girls are.  See what happens when you talk to me, lol.

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May your day be filled with warmth and sunshine!

Until my next post. . . . . . .  .

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FREE TUTORIALS

The  card tutorials I create from February 16, 2014 through February 28, 2014 (at least 6 tutorials) will be e-mailed to my customers who place a $10 merchandise order anytime between February 16, 2014 through February 28, 2014 free of charge.

Tutorials created so far this period:

(At least 4 more to come this period)

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This month’s tutorials. . . . .

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