He wants to stay anonymous in my blog, so NO, that is not him in this picture Broody sisters, who take turns when Carla is out eating & doing her poop stuff

A little look at what has been going on in our chicken coop this week.... so much for holiday cheer! There's been lots of rain, lots of construction, lots of eggs, oh, and lots of wet poop-- eh.  Carla B. Our First Lady in her favorite place!

Best boyfriend ever! We've been working on finishing our main coop (ok, I haven't really been working on it, mostly just inquiring on the progress) and yesterday the darling boyfriend put the roof on. It's been so stormy here, and the chickens have just been a wet mess. Our enclosure has turned into a swimming pool & they just huddle together all day. The darling boyfriend, sensing my anxiety, decided to go out in the rain & put the roof on. Then he surprised me by putting some of the birds inside on their new roosting bars! So cute! 
Now Carla has the old coop all to herself to sit on all of her eggs. She has about a dozen Silkie eggs under her that were delivered last week from Shayna's Silkies and Catdance Silkies. Yay! She is the best broody & will sit non-stop with one or two of her broody sisters to help rotate. I still keep eggs in the incubator, but in 3 weeks I should have some adorable new peeps :) They will stay in their broody barn until they are old enough to venture out- but thank goodness I have such a nice partner who puts up with my chicken habit & builds such nice stuff. 

I've discovered all sorts of ways to keep my chickens healthy & occupied during the yucky winter months. December is a beautiful time of year. It's also REALLY RAINY & WET/COLD/ICKy?  This is my first "real" year of country living-- and super awesomeness for me-I live in a vineyard & there is a second crop just begging to be harvested by an amateur who can barely hold her shears in one hand & a bowl in the other.    Begging, really....the grapes can't wait to be picked & fed to stinky chickens ;)  Full of anthocyanins, I have started giving my girls (and my one boy, Harmon) a few grape clusters as a treat. They love it! The seeds are their favorite, and a cluster or two a day is all they need to keep them entertained for a while.  It's so late in the season, a lot of the grapes are too moldy even for chickens, but I am trying to keep them occupied--all work and no play makes for bad chicken behavior. So excited to feed them something from our land.  They are outside in the rain ALOT, getting all muddy & gross. When they are bored, they get mischievous and leave all sorts of nasty messes behind.

No babies-- chickens or otherwise. Sigh