Meet the New Chickens

We have a few new additions to our family.  Well, not really to our family because they are not exactly pets, but they do get hand fed often. 

 

On Friday I was searching for this and that on craigslist and found a listing for some hens that I had wanted to add to our flock.  I had specifically been checking frequently for BC Marans which are somewhat rare and lay a dark chocolate brown egg.  We lost 2 of our girls this winter, but the rest of the flock seem to be doing well and we really wanted to increase our overall numbers.  With the increase in the total flock we should be able to start selling our "Treehouse Eggs" this spring when their production goes back into full swing. 

(Notice the feather on the leg ... BC Maran hen)

We also added a rooster to our flock to protect the girls and to give us fertile eggs when we decide we want to raise some chicks.  However, I think the real reason we added him is that he is GORGEOUS! 

(Ameraucana rooster)

The Ameraucana hens lay a pastel colored blue-green egg that looks like the Easter Bunny has come to visit when you go to the nesting boxes to collect the eggs.

(Ameraucana hen)

Then there are the girls that we added just because we thought they were pretty and added some new character to the flock.  They lay light brown eggs like the rest of our flock.

(Silver Laced Wyandotte)

And finally our little girl that lays olive green eggs.  Dr. Seuss would be so proud.  In honor of his birthday we will be having real green eggs and ham ... okay, they aren't green on the inside.  That would be a little disturbing.

 (Olive Egger = Cross between an Ameraucana and BC Maran)

We had intended to double the size of our flock by adding 10 new hens.  However, then we decided to add the rooster too which brought us up to 21 birds.  Or, so we thought.  When we opened the coop on Sunday morning we discovered that we had 22 in our flock.  We must have had a stow-a-way.  I'm sending a payment for her today.  Thankfully we built the coop for up to 25 birds, so everyone is still comfortable.  In the spring we are planning to extend their outside run and then they should be delighted.