The First Day of the Rest of my Life

I spent today trying to do too much...  Laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen, cutting weeds on the mower (the only things growing!) and just generally TOO much in the heat, and yes, it got hot again.

One more day predicted of possible triple digits, and then a plunge to the lower and middle 80's, and some possibilities of rain.... yayyy!

This picture shows the three little older hens, Whitey, Suzi and Fluffy.  Whitey and Fluffy were born here, and Suzi is an old English Gamebird bought several years ago.  The white rooster on the right is either One or Two, one of the three little old roosters out every day with the flock. 

Keith and I talked last night... my original plan was to move all layers to the new henhouse.  It will not have as big a yard or access to the pasture as this one in the big henhouse... but if we can move everyone for a while, he can get into the big henhouse, rip out the sheetrock and expose all the mouse nests... repair the walls and wire off all the access holes at the bottom.. have the electrician re-wire... and make the big henhouse as good as new for as long as we live here.  We are also going to have the electrician run a line to the little henhouse, and put a light fixture and a plug in there so that the roosters who will be batching it in the future in that yard will be good during the winter.

So we will disrupt everyone's lives for a period of about two weeks, and then move all the older birds back, including any non-layers I discern. The Ameracauna hen in the above picture, the buff Chatterbox, is the only green egg layer I have left, but she only lays about 3 times a week.

The standard size juniors are moving into the new henhouse and will stay there, and then Butch, Fancy, and their two hens will move over when the other roosters move back.  My goal is to be able to get clean eggs, and not have to hunt high and low to find them. The four in the feed room, Butch, et al, will move into the outdoor pen as soon as the juniors move out.

We have way too many roosters right now. 

Here is one:

This is the chick born in the pasture pen that survived three months ago, purebred Mille Fleur D'Uccle.

Here are his little siblings born last week:

One is a purebred Mille, on the left, and the other, a Mille/silkie/Brahma (I think) cross.

I'm praying they are both girls!

The females in this pen will also move, I'll leave one with Cocky, the adult Mille Fleur in it, to keep him company, but the others will move with the other layers, including this mama you can barely see in the picture, Fleura.

Gratuitous Pug Cuteness.. Gertie Lou was sound asleep and snoring after getting the toys she wanted!

This little girl is so very dear to our hearts, and we continue to marvel that not one but two families cast her out as a young girl.

We continue to be so grateful she came into our lives.