My Mini Aussies and Minpin

    

      Sorry if I confused you on my mini aussies with chickens.

              

                 I did'nt have a picture of my girls together so I just had them get on the couch and snapped a quick one for you.

 

       These are my girls that keep me on my toes every day.  It's like having small children in the house again as they want attention all the time.



left to right: Pearl, Onyx, Jade

        Pearl helps herd in the chickens each night and Jade was the herder last night (she's just learning). The chickens went inside in under two minutes.

               You think they are getting the idea that when dog shows up, it's time to go to bed? Sure makes life easier for me.

              I tucker out real quick trying to round up chickens going round and round (real cute, not!).

       You're probably wondering why I put the chickens in at night. Reason is, when a snow storm is getting ready to hit, I want them in out of the weather so I don't have to round them up when it is hitting us hard.

            Most times they do put themselves to bed at dusk which then all I have to do is collect the eggs and lock up the little door.

            The aussies aren't as happy when that happens. 
                                 They love their job.
                                   (mom does too)
Hugs,
     Gail

Hens like their new home

We got a new roof put on the chicken house over the weekend. I got all the roosts put in along with some new nesting boxes. Hubby wired it so they could have heat. After collecting three at a time, and moving the girls up to their new place they spent all day out eating bugs and grass.

Today however, there is once again snow on the ground, but you can see they still come out occassionally.

With it being only 32 in their coop, I had to install the second light so it would warm up a bit inside for them. They seem to be doing pretty well living up here but I am still only getting 2 to 4 eggs a day for now. It will be so nice when my babies are grown and giving us a few more eggs each day.
Evenings are still a little crazy putting the hens to bed. They want to go back to the old coop that is also up here in the corral. The babies are in it right now.

So I bring up my oldest mini Aussie, Pearl, and tell her to "round em' up" and she gets them to go back into their coop for the night. I really need to learn the terms they teach the dogs to herd, but for now slow, easy, wait and round up, seem to be working just fine. Now the youngest mini Aussie, Jade, would rather play but she is fearless of anything right now so I really have to keep an eye on her when the deer are nearby. Her being the youngest and smallest makes her the toughest. She puts the other girls in their places quite often.

Since there is not anything I want to do out in the cold today, I think I will make up a batch of brownies. Stop on over and I'll even put on the tea kettle.