Chicky-babe no3 lays first egg! and an even newer coop thanks to Asher and his brothers.

Nearly every day for 3 weeks we get an egg from Bossy-britches the ISA Brown pullet and Pigeon the lavender Araucana but today, we received 3 eggs! at last another of our 9 pullets is laying. I am putting it down to the new roomier coop and lush green sprouts popping up after the wonderful rain we were blessed with last week.
Here are Bossy-britches and Pigeon.

Here are today's eggs. the third long, narrow, paler lightly speckled egg belongs to the new layer, another ISA-brown which has hitherto been un-named but after her performance this morning will henceforth be known as Bird-brain lol. She was unavailable for pics and an interview as she was busy eating bugs under the deck :)

 It was quite hilarious to watch her anxiously clucking and ber-cucking and searching for a suitable place to lay. First the egg boxes, where she created quite a kerfuffle clucking and carrying on like she had already laid an egg. Meanwhile Pigeon was carrying on because Bird-brain was in her "spot". Then she came down and chased me inside and tried to squeeze onto a shelf. Got chucked outside, then raced to another door to get inside, paced up and down and jumped onto the stacked outside chairs on the deck and settled for half a minute, followed me around the yard, even tried to jump onto my shoulder like I had all the answers, then finally back to the egg boxes and all went quiet. Half an hour later (seemed like forever cos I was waiting lol) a long skinny egg! I hope the other pullets will follow suit very soon.
I don't know if her eggs will be massive in the future because I think for a first egg this is a pretty good effort. If they stay as long but get fatter such as the other two have done she will be quite an amazing layer. The Aracauna's eggs are naturally smaller and it is a shame that the photo doesn't do justice to the colour of the egg which is actually a pale bluey-green.

It wasn't that long ago we received our new coop bought online. It took all of about a day to realise after we rushed out and bought the 4 ISA browns, that owning chickens is very addictive and the coop wouldn't be big enough.
I was in a bit of a quandry after having paid good money for a small coop and there was no way that I could justify buying a bigger one. My son Asher volunteered to build me a new larger coop if I came up with a design. We turned the large old Hills swing frame into the frame, used some timber left over from the deck and various projects, bought  4 lengths of timber and 5 sheets of colourbond from the local salvage yard, bamboo stakes lying around and 1 roll of wire from the hardware store. A drawer from an old divan bed dumped in an abandoned carpark became the egg nesting box.
DH's final contribution was to place the KFC lid on the apex over the door. We could call it the Kennel For Chickens but I think you would be familiar with his thinly veiled threat ;)

 

I hope it isn't too draughty for them but at least it is well ventilated and sheltered from a lot of winter rain and wind. The door faces North and the open side faces East. I might have to put a roof over the egg boxes to stop some of them roosting on the edges and divider and see how it goes so far as sealing the gaps on the southern end. I am very pleased with the finished product. Not exactly a work of art or highest quality craftsmanship but it has a certain rustic charm and fulfills it's purpose admirably. Asher and the boys (that were conscripted to help lol) did a great job getting it happening and putting it together :)