other things about chickens

• chickens love to eat bugs.  even moths.  isaac drew one  of the chickens catching a moth.
• i don't like holding birds.  i've never held any of our chickens.
• i do think our chickens are pretty cool.
• this chicken is louise. 
  she isn't alive any more.  she was my favorite.
• some of our chickens have names.  rose.  ducky.  gloria.  miss arrowhead.  sandy.  henny penny.  
• some of them are too hard to tell apart.
• the breeds of chickens we have are production reds, black stars, barred rocks, black austerlorps, americaunas, and one buff brahma.
• i think that gloria (the buff brahma)
  is going to become the boss in the coop when she's a bit bigger.
• ben thinks that miss arrowhead is actually a mister.  if that's the case, her his name will change to stoic (when this bird is a bit bigger, i'll get a picture for you.)
• all our chickens will lay brown eggs, except the americaunas (some call them easter eggers).  they lay green or blue eggs.  
• the chickens love it when i dump the grass clippings from my new bagger mower
  into their coop.  it's like a big party.
• we added to the fence on saturday - there are now two rows of wire above the chicken wire - our girls were flying out of the coop.  that's how louise met her end.  she got out and . . . well . . . we were very sad.  and angry.  and one small brown dog was seriously disciplined; she stays far, far away from the chicken coop now. 
• we also clipped everybody's wings.  chickens have nice long flight feathers that can be clipped without causing any pain.  they can still flutter up to the perches in their house to perch at night, they just can't get up enough momentum to get out of the coop.
• yesterday ben and the kids built nesting boxes.  we did a bit more reading and it seems as though our red and black girls will start laying in september - they'll be five months old then.  the newer chicks will start laying in october, we think.  so . . . we'll see!
• we're learning as we go here.  i think it's going quite well, though.  if you have any questions, feel free to ask!  a book that has been very helpful (and is also maddie-friendly) is Chick Days.  i've also pinned some helpful notes here.