home again, home again

I was pleased to return to the chickens being just fine. They were not roosting in the rhododendron near the house, nor in the coop, for awhile. I took that to mean they missed us.

A day or two later, I checked the coop and saw a rat sauntering slowly out the back door. Eeeeuw! So, I placed the poison in the bait station and replaced the chicken feeder with the bait station. Since then, the chickens have been using the coop. I have opened the door on Red Cheep, who scurried out of there, alarmed. Just this morning I opened the door on Yellow Cheep (formerly known as Black Cheep), who just sat there as I calmly closed the door back up. Later I went out and found three eggs! And one of them was blue!

I am happy to know they are starting to lay, and using the coop. While I was gone there were no eggs for my beloved chicken checker. I was concerned that they were laying in the garden somewhere. Now I am just curious who is laying what. There was one small brown egg, one large brown egg, and one large blue egg.