Cheep Cheep Cheep

Chickens!!  We got chickens!  We're starting with 6.  2 cuckoo maran, 2 black australorp & 2 silver laced wyandottes:

When they grow up the Cuckoo Marans will look like this:

and they will lay eggs that look like this:

The Black Australorps lay a nice medium brown egg and will look like this:

The Silver Laced Wyandottes lay a light brown egg and will look like this:

Chickens come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but I find that I like big, hearty birds.  As my mother taught me, you're not healthy if you're not fat!  No little bantam hens for me!  Peter likes the little ones though so we will, eventually, get some of them (once we're sure our chicken virus is gone we'll get LOTS more chicks).  I got free reign in chicken picken while Peter was off on another errand so I picked out the breeds that appealed to me.  I very nearly brought home two turkey chicks.  They are very friendly little birds and I love adult turkeys.  They have such attitude as they strut around with their plumage.  But I resisted.  For now anyway.

Right now our chicklets are asleep in a box in the kitchen.  They will live there for a few days, perhaps for even a week or more, until they get strong enough to survive outside.  I don't mind chickens in my kitchen at all and I'm in no hurry to throw them out the door.

Tomorrow we begin construction on converting the garage into additional living space for Peter's mom.  It's all part of a process that will require tearing out the parking pad, re-grading the front lawn, re-pouring concrete paths and parking pads and framing walls, hanging sheet rock, installing windows, painting, re-siding, and building a pergola and a breezeway between the two houses. I've already taken the before pictures so I'll be sure to put up updates.