Our girls are all grown up

I know its been a long time between posts and whilst I could say something about computer issues in accessing photos, and who wants a post without pics, but let's just say that lots has been going on that I can now show you.  The biggest change is that our 20 little chicks are almost full grown now.  They are in their own run, with a brand new house (that still needs the laying boxes attached) and just weeks away from starting to lay.  Our original crew are laying about six or seven a day, now that we've past the winter solstice, so there'll be lots of quiches, baking and omelettes at our place, as well as selling the surplus.

This is a photo of their first day in the new run.  We brought their brooder box out so they could sleep in that as they were used to.  That gave us a few extra weeks to build their house on the base that Shaun had already constructed.  We loaded up lots of compost for them to dig around in and there was plenty of greens for them to eat.  That lasted about a day...

We'll soon be opening up the fencing that is keeping them separate from the veggie patches, so they can rummage around with the other girls.  Though we will separate the big Sussex from the layers then too, just so things don't get ugly.

Here is the house that is almost complete (bar the nesting boxes).  The girls enjoyed sitting in the house as it was being built over a few weekends, but they were a bit at a loss when we took the brooder box out the first night.  After half an hour of fussing around, the jumped up on the perches and settled down.  We're dumping all the weeds I pull out in at the top of the run, and as chooks scratch downhill, we'll have some nice compost delivered near the gate at the bottom as the months go by.  And if you're wondering where they all are, the 19 other chicks had rushed down to the gate to see what I was bringing them.