The introduction to our blog mentions that some of us have chickens, and that would be me.  I started keeping a small flock a few years ago after reading too many times about the horrible conditions of commercial poultry operations.  I figured the least I could do is provide a small number of chickens with a better life than that.  Mine have free range of the yard from mid-day until they decide to return to the roost at nightfall.  (Our three dogs use the yard in the morning.  Since two of them are bird dogs, we have never let the dogs and chickens mix.)  Pictured above are Dana (left) and Amy.  Dana is an Aracauna and gives us beautiful blue eggs.  Amy is a barnyard chicken and is our long-time best layer.  Her eggs are brown and have big dark yellow yolks.  In addition to eggs, they give us nice pooped-on straw for the compost pile, so I make sure they get their fill of lettuce from the vegetable garden.   Oddly enough, they do not like spinach.