Lots of Yummy and Colorful Eggs!

We decided to put a light in the chicken coup for a few hours a day to keep our chickens laying through the winter. I know some say to just leave them and let nature take care of things, but we have done this in the past and everyone, chickens, us and people buying our eggs, seem quite happy with the set up. We are very pleased with the quautily of the eggs, and since we have several different breeds, it is fun to see all the different colored eggs. It is fun to watch the chickens pick around in the muddy yard looking for worms and such. They make me laugh when they are drenched with rain, but nothing slows them down from hunting for a good snack. The coupe we have is working okay, but come spring when we have better weather, we will need to make a few changes for them. Since we added so many chicks last spring, we needed to add some roost to their house. We just kinda found some wood laying around and ran some across the coup up high. They all love being up high, but makes a bit nervous for the person going in the coup when they are roosting! We need to be sure our hats are on. I will have to try and post some pictures. The ducks are loving this rainy weather (glad someone is). They are giving us a few eggs, but they do not have a light. The Pekins are really beautiful and I am hoping to get a few hatched this spring. I have heard that they are not really nesters, so I may have to put some under one of our hens. We have a couple hens that really would love to set on a nest. That will be fun to see, mommy chicken being followed by a bunch of baby ducks. We have decided to raise some meat chickens again this year. After buying serveral chickens at the grocery store and having to cut so much fat off, I am looking forward to some nice homegrown chicken for a change. We should have a little extra goat milk to help keep the feed down a bit, and I am hoping to build a portable coup so they can forage a bit. Same thing on turkeys. I was highly disappointed in our store bought turkey this Thanksgivin. I think that is all for now on our fowl.