Life in the City having a farm

I could only dream and hope of having a farm or maybe I just think I want one but right now it is fun having a "farm" in the city!  Update on our little projects:  The garden is great although we don't see much "fruit"....so farm we have the most beautiful tomatoes on the bushes but they will not turn red!!!  We have baby green pepers and baby cucumbers coming up.  The zuchinni plants and flowers are gorgeous but we have no vegetable....I look everyday.  John planted a new bed of potatoes, onions, and strawberies that our nice County Worker gave us but it is a little late for potatoes so we shall see!  John is constantly working...and working...and working outside!  I don't think he has sat down once the past two weeks!  I love a working man!  WE HAVE CHICKS. The coop is done except for their boardwalk and the door isn't painted but we had to move fast because they were too big for the box.  I have learned sooo much about chickens!  Here are some of the things I have learned:

1.  You don't need a rooster to get eggs.  You need a rooster to get baby chics.
2.  Pullets are chickens in between chicks and hens...so I guess you could say teenage chickens.
3.  Hens will start laying eggs around 17 weeks of age.
4.  You will most likely get an egg every 24 hours per chicken
4.  There are soooo many different breeds and you can read about the moods, attitudes, personalities of the different breeds online.
5.  Chickens like to roost when they sleep. (John put them on the roost....a piece of wood he nailed across the house in the air...to show them...they remembered and now roost everynight)...its hilarious...all he had to do was show them once and now we find them roosting in their house every morning when we go to wake them up!
6.  They lay eggs in a nesting box and sometimes you have to put a golf ball in the nesting box to show them where to go until they get use to it if you don't have an older hen to mentor them.
7.  They love to eat bugs.
8.  They also can eat table scraps, pieces of old veggies, fruits, etc for a treat.....they love it when I give them diced squash!
9.  Some chickens are better fliers than others.  Sometimes you have to clip the edge of one side of their wings to keep them from flying in trees.
10.  Different breeds lay different colored eggs.
11.  Chickens stop laying eggs every 24 hours after about 1 year..then it becomes about 1 egg every other day....the jumbo eggs you get at the store are more expensive because they are from older more mature chickens that lay less frequently.
12.  chicken poop is a great fertilizer and compost additive.

Its been a wonderful learning experience!  We can't wait to get eggs and learn more.  They are the cutest little things!  I feel very motherly over them.  The kids and I go out every evening, change their water, take them out of the coop (screened part) and put them in the closed house part to sleep...They are very friendly.  Emily named her Brown Leghorn, Betsy.  John Daniel named his Brown Leghorn, Brownie.  Molly's Amberlink chick is named Penelope. 

They seem to be very happy!