An evening at the coop co-op.

For the first time since we became members of the co-op we ran out of eggs.  We had given some away to friends and family and made a few dozen pickled eggs for Aaron (recipe post to follow).  We were out of eggs for about 24 hours.  I went out for our evening at the coop.  Recently, one of the Chantecler birds hurt her leg and had to be removed to heal and is still not back at the coop but the other 33 birds were ready for my visit!

I brought a bunch of snacks out to the coop for the birds and collected 23 eggs... not bad for middle of February!  The chickens, as usual, went crazy for the snacks.  After patting my 4 BR's, I went to town cleaning the "poop tray" in the coop and cleaning out the nest boxes.  While out at the coop, I always find myself almost in a dreamy dream land.  It feels so natural to get out and tend to a flock of chickens.  There is something so freeing about being in the county and getting back to the good life of growing and raising your own food.

Tail Feathers... Beautiful!

Chow Time.

This spring we plan on getting some new birds for our backyard flock but are having some trouble getting the breeds we want.  There aren't many hatcheries in Canada that deliver rare and unusual breeds.  I really wanted an assortment of breeds but most places have a minimum of 4 birds per breed.  In the perfect world I would love one of each of the following hens: Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Columbian Wyandotte, Delaware, Cochin (white, blue and silver laced), Dark Brahm, Chantecler (Buff, white, partridge), Ameraucana and a Cuckoo Maran.  Likely I will only have 4 birds from 2-3 different breeds.  We did get a flyer in the mail yesterday from a store right in our small town that sells livestock supplies as well as will be ordering poultry in the spring... AmherstSupply!  I am not sure how we haven't found them in past but we are sure glad we have... better late than never.  We have inquired about what breeds but they don't even know yet and will let us know when they know.  They will also likely have ducks, geese and turkeys as well which is great!  We used to have to drive out further into the county (30min) but now it is right in our town!  They likely won't be getting any rare breeds of chickens but if they have any of our desired breeds we will likely buy from them since they are local and we try to support the local businesses as much as possible.