It was a day for the chickens!

You know all that stuff about best laid plans? Well they do have a way of going astray on you from time to time. I've been wanting to get some chickens again, just a few hens so we'll have our own delicious home grown eggs, enough to let the grandkids enjoy feeding them, gathering the eggs, and making the connection between reality and the food they eat.

So I ordered four pullets, two Rhode Island Reds for brown eggs, and two Aracanas for green or blue eggs. Now the word pullet means a young female chicken, just about old enough to lay eggs. I thought that would be great, they'd be past the chick stage when we got them, and old enough that if we set them up with an automatic feeder and waterer and good strong clean pen, we could do our traveling and only have to ask someone to stop by now and then to check on them.

We cleaned up the old coop that we've been using for storage, Jim reinforced it with new paneling, and cut hatch doors for gathering the eggs and adding water to the automatic font I've ordered.
Today was the day to pick them up, and of course we were running behind as usual, but we thought we'd have it all ready by this afternoon when it was time to pick up our half grown hens. We kept Anna overnight so she could help us paint the outside of the coop. Jim picked up some almost florescent lime green paint that's really fun and three brushes and we set to work.The old wood soaked up the paint like a sponge and we had to put two coats on parts of it, but Anna had a ball, talking non-stop, like any excited 5 year old, and actually put a lot more paint on the coop than on herself, but did manage to get a lot on her butt, somehow.I scrubbed out the inside of the coop and Anna scattered wood shaving bedding around for them, we added the waterer and feed dish with layer pellets, jumped in the truck and off we went to bring the girls home.What a shock when we found our box at the feed store to realize that what we got were day-old female chicks! Of course, Anna promptly fell in love, and there was no way we were going to leave that store without those babies, so we added a bag of chick starter and a waterer and off we went.So now, my office floor has a big box with brooder light, shaving bedding, water and food holder, and four peepers, sitting right next to my desk. Not sure what's going to happen to them when we travel, but we'll eventually have our eggs--in about two months, I think. In the meantime, Anna's a very happy girl--with a lot of green paint left on her toenails, in her hair, on her arms, and a big smile on her face.