Three Eggs a Day!

That's where we're at! WOOHOO! All three of the older chickens are officially laying eggs now! Crispy beat them by a few weeks, but then Hanky and Leia started within a day or so of each other. Hanky lays pretty brown eggs, and Leia's are green just like her sister's (of the four chickens, only Leia and Crispy are true biological sisters, hatched at the same time from the same parents). So, so exciting!! Barbie is still too young to lay, but she will lay brown eggs like Hanky's, restoring balance to the force!

Anyway, the chickens have been taking turns in the nesting boxes, squawking loudly and letting us know when they are working on an egg (poor chickens!). It is such fun to open the nesting box to find an egg, or two, or three just sitting there! Even Crispy has finally started making use of the nesting box, as opposed to jumping the fence and looking for her cardboard box. Which I now realize I never shared. She was laying her eggs in an Amazon box on our side porch, haha!!

As of today, though, Crispy can no longer jump the fence, even if she wants to. Because Gus spent most of the morning working on the fencing out there, and it is now next to impossible for them to escape. Sorry, chickens!

Anyway, we are now getting three eggs a day from our girls, and they are awesome! I even found this cute basket for them at HomeGoods yesterday! I love being able to see them, and fresh eggs do NOT have to be refrigerated (because they are not "powerwashed," like commercial eggs... I rub them clean with a dry cloth when we first gather them, then wash with soap and water before using them). Don't they look cool?

Meanwhile... our newly-laying chickens seemed to have also undergone a collective personality change. They are more mellow. Perhaps you would be, too, if you birthed a giant egg every day! They don't really pick on Barbie anymore, which is HUGE progress! Poor Barbie had been spending the nights in a cage in our garage, because we were afraid that the others (especially Leia) would hurt her/kick her out of the coop in arctic temperatures. She spent many of her days NEXT to the other chickens, but separated from them by chicken wire for her own protection. The past few days, she's been in there with them all day without issue. And last night, she slept with them in the coop. HALLELUJAH! It was a success! She is still definitely the lowest chicken in the pecking order, but it's great that they are finally getting along. And really, they have all become much more friendly/less skittish, running over to us the minute we go outside. I never in a million years thought I would say this, but I really enjoy the chickens. As long as they stay off of the deck!!!!!

In other news... we bought a gorgeous new faucet today, to go with our new counters and sink which are being installed on Tuesday. Our new entertainment center arrived on Thursday, and part of a table came today (with more furniture scheduled to arrive on Monday). Busy busy!!