Good old ManDuck, he's definitely still around. Going on 5 or 6 now, I believe.
The white chicken is full Silkie, the other is a Silkie-Ameracauna cross. So she's much bigger, but has the fuzzy feet. $15 for both, which I thought was a good deal. Most people around here try to charge $50 for a pair of Silkies. Outrageous!
The water heater is great, I just ran an extension cord from the yard. I also put a light in the coop to get everyone laying again, they've been lazy the last couple of months
I don't worry too much about predation, every so often we lose one but for the most part we do alright. As long as everyone goes in the coop at night it's fine. The little one we lost on Thanksgiving kept trying to sleep outside, and the one night I forgot to get her in, she was gone.
We have seen some coyote droppings in the front yard though, which is concerning. Actually we were discussing this last night- do coyotes "scout" food sources, then come back with friends? I thought so, but the mr. doesn't think they can do that kind of complex thinking.