Chickens before the snow

I've been neglectful of my blog with so much going on at work...weekends have been an endless cycle of canning or freezing tomatoes, cutting back plants, harvesting pumpkins, spaghetti squash, and tomatoes and finishing up the winter prep-in addition to getting used to my 'new' Sunday hours at the Church...and of course, the elections and debates have taken up a lot of my time too! I am a political junkie!
Today, I had some time when the sun was out, I didn't have anything to 'do' and my chickie girls were just being so cute so I took some photos!

Isn't Little Rhody adorable? She is so funny...she makes this plaintive sound, " bawkkkk...bawkkk.bawwwwwkkkk..." when she can't see me or the other chickens. It's like she's lost her best friend! She's enjoying the end of the kale here! She gives me a dark brown egg in the dirt every other day or so. But she trumpets when someone else lays an egg!

This is BO...named after the President...but she is now just "Bo-bo." She is a very aloof chicken. She does not like being touched, but she loves corn and worms. She is the only one who lays a dark brown egg every freakin' day in the nesting box. Ol' reliable.

This is Moa- the golden Hawaiian Goddess...well, she's an Ameraucana so she lays blue green eggs but she is a beautiful sassy and very friendly chicken. Her name means "chicken" in Hawaaian. My dear friend, Aarah, who lives on the Big Island named her! Moa will tolerate being picked up, and she LOVES greens...hence, the reason all the other kale leaves are GONE. She lays eggs every other day.

This is Squirt, the Light Brahama. She is the friendliest of all the chickens and the biggest! Her breed is called the "Gentle Giant". She loves to sit in my lap, or just hang out with me or Kevin! She is the sweetest chicken and loves to follow us around the yard. She is also my favorite. She talks to me and always comes when I call her name! Well, the others know their names, too- but Squirt is my little sweetheart! She is also the one that the other chickens picked on initially- until she got a lot bigger-and the dogs have grabbed her a couple of times and ripped out some feathers during a couple of yard mishaps...she has bravely weathered the storms and still is very curious about the dogs. I have been very careful over the past couple of months and she is really thriving! She lays a pale brown egg almost every day.

Foggy (Foghorn Leghorn) is the Queen Bee of the Hen House! She is a very dominant girl and disciplines and keeps after the rest of them! I swear, if she didn't lay a pure white egg EVERY single day, I'd think she was a rooster!
She is a very friendly chicken, and loves to sit on my lap, on the chair, and actually pecks at the back door to come in or to get our attention. She is also the first one at the door when I get home every day!
And she drives Bridget the Yorkie insane!!

Look at that face! "Really, Mom? Reallly? Foggy is teasing the heck out of me!"
We bought a heated chicken waterer for the porch (since they are in the yard free-lancing, uh, free ranging all day- to paraphrase Gunny Highway in Heartbreak Ridge)  and for the coop.
Kevin is building a play yard for the winter and I bought a bale of straw today for the playyard...yah, my personal advise is never buy a bale of straw after Church, in your dress clothes, and bring it home in a closed car and then, open the windows since it was stinky and warm...I have straw in places it never should ever be...
We are getting some snow tonight, so we will see how the girls handle the cold weather. They have a red lizard light in the coop that comes on at 35 and stays on until 45 degrees...but, since I do baby them, we might be making a temporary chicken hotel in the garage if it gets REALLY cold this winter. I guess, you will find out as soon as I find out what they can handle! So, enjoy our chickie pics!