Finished Chicken Coop and the First Eggs!

 Back in April I talked about my in-laws getting some chicks for egg laying purposes. Well, they're all grown up now and starting to lay eggs!  The plan is for Matt's parents to have three and for us to have three.  The girls (what we call the chicks) have been together for so long though I feel kinda bad splitting them up now :(  We don't have a fence on one side of our yard yet, so until then we can't bring any chickens over anyway, but Matt did finish building our chicken coop a couple weeks ago, in the 100 degree heat no less!

 We plan to paint it white at some point, but other than that it's done.

 We plan to keep it right outside the back garage door for easy access as well as keeping is shaded during the afternoons.

 Three nesting boxes with a roosting bar in front of them, mesh wiring at the top to help with air flow.

Mesh floor for easier cleaning (theoretically) and air circulation.

When we went to a seminar at the extension office about having chickens one of the things the speaker talked about when considering coop design is that it's easy for them to turn into little ovens, so airflow is very important.

While the chickens aren't living with us yet, visiting them on Sundays after mass has become a weekly tradition. 

Melanie and Claire go outside with Gramps to let the girls out of the pen and feed them while Grams works on making breakfast.

 The chickens have gotten pretty tame and will come right up to you to eat out of your hand.

(And no, I have not fed any of the chickens out of my hand in case you were wondering.)

 They'll even let Gordon pick them up to hold and pet them. 

One of the chickens, Lady as she's been named (since she has a really nice comb and wattle that make her "pretty") started laying eggs last week, so this past Sunday the family used the eggs she had laid over the course of the week to make breakfast. 

 While we were inside starting on the cooking she laid another egg, so the girls got to go out and get it 

(She hasn't gotten in the habit of laying on the nest in the nesting boxes yet - a second one of the chickens laid her first egg after we left that day - in the chiminea!).

 Lady's eggs.

Five eggs over a six day time span.  Her newest one is on the left, the first one she laid is on the right.

As compared with an extra large store bought egg and a quarter.  The eggs will continue to get bigger for a while, the eggs she's laying now are considered pullet eggs.

The yolks were a very dark yellow, bordering on orange.  After Matt beat them the color was comparable to orange juice.  It's been very exciting to watch the chickens grow and start to lay, and our girls really enjoy the chickens as pets as well.  So while we haven't decided if we're willing to break up the chicken "family" over at my in-laws, I'm sure we'll have chickens here eventually, some way or another!