Spring = Chicks

It is that time of year, Spring!  Yea!  Time for new chicks!

Here, where we live, we can have a total of 8 hens.  We have 6 now, but only 4 of them are laying.  Of the two that aren't laying, Fancy Pants is obviously molting, 

so she has an excuse. 

(Here is what she normally looks like.)

But Lacey looks perfect.  She hasn't been laying since November.  I thought it might be that it was winter, even though we had supplemental light in the coop to counteract the short days, but she hadn't started laying yet, so I was ready to get rid of her and get 3 new chicks to add to our flock.

But she is so pretty, that we decided to keep her.  (Fancy Pants did have a 9 month laying hiatus last year, then started laying again in November.)

Our chickens are definitely more in the "pet" than "livestock" category.  Though I am not ready to put chicken diapers on them and let them run around the house.

We ended up getting two new chicks.  We got a Welsummer and named her Summer after our Welsummer chick that died last year.

And a Rhode Island Red, we named Ruby.

 You have to hold onto them, they are quick!

They are very cute and fun.  I have decided that 2 chicks make much less of a mess than 4 chicks.

We let them run around in the sunshine.