There hasn't been much chicken news around here lately, since the girls are all just kind of doing their usual thing. But yesterday, Peggy provided some fresh excitement by laying her very first egg. Because she's an Aracauna, Peggy lays green eggs. Her first one was large, hard shelled and quite lovely. Here it is.



We spent Christmas week in Texas, and got back on Sunday night. Our chicken sitter had a pretty easy time, since all she had to do was check their food and water every few days. We decided we could just leave the door between the coop and the run open while we were gone, and our chickens would put themselves to bed. Our chicken run and coop are so well fortified against animals and the elements, that they were quite safe.

On Monday morning, the coop needed to be cleaned out, so I set about washing the removable floor and changing the shavings. The hens free ranged for a while, and then I shut them in their run with the coop door closed while things aired out. I was up inside the house for a little bit when I heard some very loud clucking. I went down to see if there was something scaring the chickens, but they were all fine. I went back in, and, moments later, there was very loud clucking again.

After some sustained loud clucks over at least an hour, I decided to test my hypothesis that they were mad about not being allowed in their coop. So, I finished adding new shavings, closed the roof and opened the door between the coop and the run. Immediately, Peggy ran inside the coop and into the nesting box.

Ah ha! I thought. Peggy wants to lay an egg. I watched her mess with the shavings a bit and change positions a few times, trying to get comfortable, and then I decided to give her some privacy. About 20 minutes later, I came back and Peggy had laid her first lovely egg.

I had hoped that Peggy and Tina might start laying soon since they are 24 or 25 weeks old right now. Lisa laid much sooner than that, but I've heard the short winter days can keep hens from laying. I'm happy that Peggy decided to start egg production despite the lack of daylight. Perhaps Tina will follow her lead.

It's always cool to see new solar products appear on the market, and it's even better when they get cheap enough for regular people to buy. Last year, I searched around to see if I could find any solar-powered light strings to decorate the house for the holidays, but I didn't really find anything. This year, solar light strings were available all over the Internet. Delighted, I decided to try them out.

I got two 50-light strings of white lights from Plow & Hearth. They seemed to have the best price on what I wanted. When they arrived, I pulled them out of the box, let the solar panel charge for a day and then wrapped them on two plants in the front yard that grow in a bit of a cone shape.

When you set them up, you wrap your lights where you want them and then stake the small solar panel in the ground nearby.





So far, I'd say I'm fairly happy with them. The solar lights have a light sensor built in, so they turn on automatically when it gets dark. When they light up, they look nice--although not as bright as traditional plug in lights--and the solar battery life seems fairly long. They stay lit for around 4 hours.



The lights are nice, but not perfect. I have noticed two issues:

1) It takes some trial and error to find the perfect place to put the solar panel. I have had to move mine several times when the lights weren't sufficiently charged by the end of the day. And, of course, if you live in a place that actually gets gray and gloomy in the winter (as opposed to sunny Los Angeles), I'm not sure how well the panel would charge. Although, if you live somewhere with snow and sun, I imagine there would be enough reflection off the snow to charge the panel right up.

2) The light sensor is very sensitive. The street light across the street, our porch light and even my car headlights have caused the lights to turn off. I think I have the sensor turned in a way to minimize that problem, but it is a bit annoying. If you live out in the country, you wouldn't have this issue. But, in a place like Los Angeles, it's pretty hard to find a place that's completely dark.

Overall, though, I'm glad I got them. Because you don't have to plug the lights in anywhere, there are no annoying extension cords to deal with, and your light decorating options aren't limited to where your outlets are. Plus, they cost nothing to operate, and with their LED bulbs, they should last for many Christmases to come.

So when I last wrote about the kitchen remodeling project, we had just installed the insulation. Happily, a good amount of progress has been made since then. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Dakota made a big push, and I am proud to report that our kitchen now has walls and a ceiling.

Friday was ceiling day.



Followed on Saturday with walls, and Sunday with taping and mudding.



This past weekend involved more mudding, a good amount of sanding and a layer of smooth coat to make everything look nice.

While we're quite a ways off from actually having a fully-functioning kitchen, it definitely feels nice to have the bare bones of the room in place.

The coop and our chickens are part of a story about urban chicken-keeping in the LA Times today. If you're here because of that article, welcome! To see all my chicken posts, you can click here. Or, feel free to browse around.

We did the interview a few weeks ago, and I think the piece came out really well. They definitely put up some great shots of the chickens and Dakota's coop. Perhaps it will inspire more Los Angeles residents to get their own small flock. They should. It's awesome.