It's been a few months since I stopped in here. Today there was an update in my email from this site, so I figured I'd stop in and give an update on my chickens.
The winter has been bitterly cold, it is their first winter with me. Part of the pen caved in because of the snow, but the chicken coop itself is completely intact. The extreme cold doesn't seem to bother the chickens too much.
They didn't lay any eggs for at least 3 months and they refused to eat the laying mash I had bought for them.
Then one morning I decided to make a stew out of the laying mash by adding hot water to it. I also added birdseed in the mix. They loved it. The very next day after they finally started to eat the laying mash they also started to lay eggs again. They get their laying mash stew every morning now.
They have been in the coop for several months now because of the cold. I go in the coop every two hours to knock the ice off their drinking dishes and to give them treats. They get bread and birdseed as treats every day. Going in the coop so often has resulted in them becoming very familiar with my presence. At first when I would go in the coop they would be on guard and huddle together in a corner, but now they are so used to me they come running when I go into the coop. They eat right out of my hand now.
Joe, my dominant rooster has taken a liking to me. He's been very sweet. Gosh I like my chickens a lot and I hope spring will come soon so that they can go and play outside again.

In the meantime I have gooten a digital camera so I can finally show some pictures.

Here is a picture of the chicken coop, but it is hard to take pictures with all the snow being in the way.






inside the coop...

Your chickens are beautiful! You sure have a lot of snow! I'm working on finishing up the new bird directory and could use some photos of chickens and chicken coops if you want to contribute. My page with house photos of my chickens' house is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/birds/birdshelter.htm

Hi Robyn, your site has a lot of beautiful pictures. The bird shelter is amazing, seems like a real paradise for birds. I've been feeding the birds too this winter because it has been so cold and there is snow all over the place. Would you believe that they are actually picky as to what they want to eat?

Anyways, I can take some more pictures and post them here (unless there is another way to get them to you). Feel free to hotlink, my pictures are stored in my imageshack and in my photobucket accounts and they're not going anywhere, so if it is easier to hotlink, go right ahead!

If you want to put some photos of your chickens and their coop on my site, then e-mail them to me at help 'at' fishpondinfo.com (replace the 'at' with @).
Thanks.