Spring

It's here! Jonah helped me with transplanting by dumping my pots full of soil and delicate little leek and broccoli starts onto our gravel paths. However, it turns out that leek and broccoli starts are more hardy than you'd think - maybe he has found the easy way of doing this for me!

The dogs have found that the straw is a nice place to rest when it's chilly. Zoe makes a nest for herself under the coop (on the other side of the fence from the chickens, of course), and Bella will lie next to her but out in the open. She's a shelter dog and has always been claustrophobic. Here's the back of the coop, sans dogs:The section poking out in front is for nest boxes! It is just tacked down for now. Later, we will add hinges so we can get eggs without having to disturb the hens. Eggs won't happen for a few months, though.

The chickens like their new spot. They hang out in a group at all times, just the four of them. We all love to go back and just watch them. The Buff girls will poke their heads out of the fencing to see us, and they'll eat out of our hands. The Rhode Islands are still more timid, but they'll come over and see us, too. Dave's had to catch them and put them in the coop at night - they won't go in on their own, so he has to chase them. Which is a feat, considering that the bird netting is stretched about 3.5 feet high and he's 6'2". He still likes them.

This is the only decent shot I got of the birds yesterday. I had to poke the camera through fencing, and it was sunny, so I'll try and get some nicer ones later.
Oh! And the new owner of our rooster e-mailed me some shots of the rooster in his adoptive home. The rooster is in chicken heaven: he now lives with eight hens in a huge and fancy coop, shares space with some horses and later will have a whole acre to wander during the day. It worked out perfectly for everyone, and we've even been invited to stop by to visit him sometime. Here he is in the middle of his harem: