The Ladies Laid Some Eggs

Finally, weeks after I had taken to simply telling anyone who asked about them that our hens were barren, we have eggs!!!

And perfectly, there was one for each kid! They ate them with their lunch, and never were two eggs declared to be lovelier, tastier, or more satisfying than these first two eggs from our own Fluffball and Arrow.

I have to say that our chickens are more rewarding pets than even I thought they'd be, and I was hoping that they'd be pretty great. We all adore them, and the girls take complete care of them--actual, genuine, kid-chosen responsibility! They're gentle, and funny, and if they're out of food they holler at the girls so they can come and feed them. If you let them out of their tractor a bit before sunset, they'll play for a few minutes in the backyard, eat mosquitoes for us, and then walk to their coop and put themselves to bed. I now keep a jar of stale bread on the kitchen counter just because it's blissfully fun to feed them treats. Sometimes, when the girls are outside, I'll walk by an open window and spy one of them with a chicken next to her, both of them deep in conversation with each other.

We've got some chicken-related DIY projects coming up--I'd like to have the girls help me build this automatic chicken feeder, and this automatic chicken waterer, and I'd like to get the heat lamp re-installed on a timer before it starts getting super cold at night, and I'd like to finish our months-long chicken yard project before it snows, and I'm wondering if I should buy some hay bales to insulate the coop some from the wind, and I want to start the girls raising mealworms and sprouting grains for chicken feed...

Pets AND pet-related DIY projects?!? It's like my own personal crafty fantasyland!