The girls are a group of 4 Rhode Island Reds and 22 Americauna hens. The first thing in the morning they are let out of the hoop house, fed a scoop of layer feed, and then they begin their morning wanders. We have found that leaving their water by the barn/garage is much easier to deal with, no lugging the waterer to the coop. Since they are out all day and are only in the hoop house at night, they can trot right over to it at anytime. And the dogs like to drink out of it too!
The picture shows them having their morning "crack". It is the custom that at about 8:30 or so every morning, they are thrown a cup of cracked corn. You just can't help but smile when you see 26 chickens come a trotting and a clucking to you for their big treat.
We have 5 nest boxes that are located just inside the former carport. It has long ago been taken over by hay storage for horses and is now home to the brooder box and other "stuff".
The girls roam the 3 acres all day. They are great at picking through the horse manure, getting chased by the cat that thinks he can actually take one of them down, clean up any goodies that the rabbits have dropped and until very recently, liked to redistribute the fall garden plants. They were very disappointed to find that they were no longer allowed access!
We try to collect eggs all during the day as it keeps them cleaner and less chance of someone breaking an egg by sitting on them. It is a satisfying feeling to carry a dozen or so eggs into the house. The eggs are all different colors, no white ones at all.
They get a late afternoon scoop of feed and then like all good chickens, put themselves to bed. We go out and shut the hoop house door as they softly cluck and coo goodnight.
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