Bean sewed up this lovely outfit for her favorite chicken, Beatrix! She's a regular chip off the old block. :)

I love her little ankle decorations!

We have 5 chickens*.

We got 5 eggs today!

If this continues at this rate, we'll be in the urban farming egg business this spring/summer in the neighborhood...

*We inherited/adopted six chickens, but Helen, the Buff Orphington, got re-homed a week and a half ago. Helen (Helen the Hoover, we called her) was not a nice chicken. No one liked Helen. There were many reasons why Helen was re-homed, but the top two were because she was mean and a bully.

If  Helen was a human, I would not like her nor want to be friends with her. In the slightest.

My girlfriend has a farm and took Helen in for us as a half-way house/farm of sorts. Evidently, there is a woman out in the East County, who takes in older hens (who are in "hen-o-pause") to live out their golden days. My friend is currently waiting to hear back if that was going to be her final destination.

Going to a chicken retirement community is a very lucky break for Helen, I'll just leave it at that.

We are going to be gone on a trip in a next few weeks and have asked our neighbor's son (he's the same age as Lulu) to take care of our ladies while we're gone. Even though I went over details with he and his dad this morning, Bean wanted to make up instructions for him to follow. She takes her job as being responsible for the chickens, very seriously, even though, I am basically top chicken. Bean is definitely a good second in command, but day in and day out, it's mom who not only rules the roost (both) but is consistent in their care and feeding.

Anyways, here is what Bean did up for me to give to our neighbor. She pretty much got the most important stuff! :)

Our neighbor is selling her house and moving and unable to take her beloved 6 chickens with her. She immediately thought of us as (hopefully) adopting her flock and we said we'd love to!

Last weekend we moved the chickens over and took apart her coop to reassemble in our back yard. The breakdown of the coop took longer than we thought and the reassembling of the coop is taking even longer. So it goes.

We have been getting fresh eggs since the ladies joined us last Saturday! The girls, and Eddie, love having chickens. While I was supportive and in agreement to take them in, I will love the ladies more when their coop is finished and they are restricted to a specific portion of the back yard. For the time being, I have had to put fencing around certain plants and areas I don't want them to dig and peck!

Bean ADORES the chickens, and takes their care almost too seriously. She is learning how to pick them up the right way and loves to feed them their meal worm treats. Also, if you look for eggs and not let her look and retrieve them, it's a major meltdown!  Bean is also going to be responsible for their coop care and cleaning. She is looking forward to this! We now all have rubber "chicken" boots we keep outside the backdoor.

Each of the chickens has their own unique and funny personality. And just for the record, we still each chicken, but won't eat any of these six chickens.

The chickens were already named when we got them: Helen, Bernice, Beatrice, Ruby, Black Pearl and Lucy.

Eddie loves to just sit and watch the chickens do their thing in the yard. He finds it very relaxing. Here are some pictures:

Breaking down the coop at Saundra's house

Bean getting to know the Ladies better in Saundra's yard...

I set about scrubbing and cleaning the tin roof panels since they had 7 years of dirt on them.

Eddie was glad we saved the pallets from our backyard brick paver adventure last summer...

Their temporary home until we got most of the coop box rebuilt and secured.

Ruby is probably the most interesting and funniest of the chickens. She's a real firecracker! She took it upon herself to "help" and inspect the progress of the coop breakdown and rebuild. We dubbed her Eddie's supervisor! :)

Here you can see Bernice (brown), Beatrice (a Rock Bar hen with gorgeous brown and white striped feathers!) and Lucy (white).

This is Bernice, the beaded lady.

Ruby in the background and Black Pearl up front. Black Pearl has the prettiest black-green feathers! She is also the lowest on the pecking order of the chickens. I have a soft spot for her because I typically want to rally for the underdog, no matter if they are chicken or human.

This is Helen. She is the oldest, at 7 years old and the largest. Because of her age, she is at the top of the pecking order. Saundra said after Helen, she decided to not buy any future chickens for meat. Helen is really bottom heavy and she has a bad hip because of the weight which gives her a funny limp/walk. It's endearing, though. But because she's a "meat" breed, they get larger and mobility is difficult. We have not plans on eating Helen now or later, but we do help her get up and down out of the coop until Eddie gets the coop ladder at a more manageable incline for her to maneuver. Helen is also Lulu's favorite...

This is Lucy. She has a funny comb that is flopped over to one side. It reminds me of a goth hairstyle from the 1980's, where you have to blow or flip the hair hanging down over your eye or face in order to talk or be seen. She is a proficient egg layer, white eggs, but it's also because of the breed. She is a Leghorn.

Here is a back view of Helen. She's very bottom heavy but also, very fluffy!

Three eggs gifted to me this past Wednesday. The white egg was from Lucy, the pale pink egg from Beatrice, and the darker brown egg from Ruby. Bernice lays pale blue-green eggs, but she is molting right now (common in the fall) so we may not see any eggs from her until next spring. Aren't these three beautiful together?!