The coop is complete!

Much good news to report on all fronts. After two days of medication and quarantine, Rose has recovered from her illness. She has rejoined the rest of the girls (we hope!), and they are happy to be back together. They have each declared their personalities, and since Gabriel and I are diehard devotees of the Golden Girls, the choice of names was obvious. As their sex remains indeterminate, we had to have male alternates:

• Rose - Nyland

• Dorothy - Stan

• Sophia - Getty

• Blanche - Blanche (isn't it obvious?!)
  

The picture doesn't do them justice, but baby chicks sit still for no one. Gabriel and I will do a little photo session soon. We've got to get their faces out there if they're ever going to have a chance at stardom!


The second bit of good news is that the coop is done, and we are very excited for the girls to move in. For those of you who want to write to them, their new address is:

The G's
6151 Richmond St.
Miami, FL

The girls should be ready to move in later this month and have a tentative date of September 19th, the same day as our City Chickens 101 course at Seattle Tilth. They will be about six weeks old then and able to keep warm in the coop with the help of some pine shavings.

We made a small addition to the Ark, a light inside the coop. Apparently, hens need about 16 hours of light per day to lay a decent amount of eggs. And since ours will be coming of egg laying age in January--roughly 8.5 hours of "light" in Seattle--we are going to need some help.

The coop project drew a lot of attention and excitement from the neighbors, and we now have omelet orders aplenty. I discovered today that the family next door will be getting their hens in the next few weeks. Gabriel and I are such trendsetters.