Thursday, November 18, 2010

Meet the Girls

It's been three months since we expanded our city farm to include actual livestock. Wow, what a difference three months makes. I was so nervous to invite those little puffball chicks into our home. I felt everything had to be "just right" and then when out and bought them before we were really ready. Such is life, it never is what you think it'll be.

L to R: Caramel (Cari), Coco and Lemonade (Lem)

 But I have to say that even with the issues we've had with them pecking and rushing to build a coop when they quickly outgrew the rabbit cage in the laundry room, adding chickens to our home has been quite a wonderous thing.

Jenna

For starters, chickens aren't stupid. They're not. When they cock their head and focus one beady little eye in your direction sizing you up, you know intelligence lay within their peanut sized brains. Yes, they're flighty and get distracted easliy but when you're low on the food chain and 99% of your day is made up hunting for your dinner, you really can't blame them for it.

Lemonade (or Lem)

The learning experience for the kids alone has been worth the occasional stomps in chicken shit. Chasing the chickens around the yard to get them back to the coop has been more fun than our trip to Seaworld. And then there was that time Coco escaped into the house...

Caramel (or Cari)

They're resourceful, friendly and low-maintenance. Their food is cheap to free and they gobble up kitchen scraps like mad reducing our need for feed, boosting their vitamins and elminating scraps that would normally just be waste. They're not laying yet but I'm hoping for eggs sometime in January.

One abrupt decision on a hot August day and I can easily see myself owning chickens for the rest of my life, who would have thought.

2 comments:

  1. Crystal,

    Your pullets are so pretty. I see Jenna is an Easter Egger who will give you either blue or green eggs somewhere around 26-30 weeks of age. What are the other two? Is Lem a White Rock?

    Get yourself a few chicks in the spring, too. It's good to have hens of differing ages so that when 1 group is molting (and often not laying or laying slows down; starts at 18 months), the other is, and then you have a steady stream of eggs. And they don't all lay an egg a day - Easter Eggers are said to average 4 eggs a week - don't know if that's true, mine seem to be average 5-6 a week, but Scout just started laying.

    And once your coop is done you'll be able to corral the droppings to use as compost in your garden.

    Ara

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  2. Ara, they're actually all supposed to be Americaunaus. I got them all at the feed store which is adamant they all are that breed even when I went back and questioned it.

    The next chicks will probably come from McMurray though their shipping is killer, I want to know what I'm getting and be sure. We're going to add some Barred Rock, RIR's and Orpingtons to these 4 to give us 10-12 layer birds. I'm hoping to have them delivered in early Feb.

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