Chickens!

Sadly, not chickens for myself. Yesterday, I celebrated Earth Day by picking up chickens for my sister and getting a temporary coop set up for them. They have a large coop that needs a few repairs before it is chicken-ready, so these birds get to just live in a run with a few covered boxes as houses.

The pullets I picked up are a variety.

I picked up four Olive Eggers. These are all white or white with black spots and lay eggs that range from light green to a deep, dark olive green. They might even throw the occasional blue egg. There is no way to know for sure until they start laying. They are 10 weeks old right now, so should be laying sometime in July.

This was taken while we were transferring the pullets one by one into the new coop from the dog crate in my car that they rode in for the trip. The dog kennel had to be hosed out and scrubbed, of course!

I also got two English mottled/jubilee Orpingtons. They are the oldest of the lot, at 11 weeks old. They produce light tan to off white eggs, and are probably going to be the largest of the chickens.

These are the most distinct and colorful of the pullets we picked up, as well as the largest and oldest.

The seventh chicken I picked up is an Icelandic. She is a light tan color, but this breed apparently comes in a huge color variety. We named her Hawk.

This Icelandic is under watch just in case she is actually a roo rather than a hen.

She has such an attitude, and a really fun poofy crown of feathers, so we are hoping she is a girl. 

And of course, I had to stick around and get some pictures of the chickens after we got them all set up in their temporary coop. They seemed to be having fun eating grass, leftover foodstuff from the kitchen, and some chicken food. And of course drinking water. Chickens are super cute when they drink water.

Gossiping around the water cooler

Hawk really isn't this bad tempered, I promise!

They also had a few disagreements here and there, resulting in lots of flapping.

Some wing flapping while they figure out the pecking order in this new set up.

Overall, though, all of the chickens seemed happy in their new digs. Hopefully they stay happy! Their new coop should be done in the next month or so, and then they will have even more room to enjoy. Happy chickens produce more eggs!