The Chicken Lady

Aren't these baby chicks soooo cute! Too bad they didn't stay that way for long but we sure had fun getting them so little.

When we moved to our new house in April I decided we HAD to have chickens.  We had plenty of  space and I wanted eggs. My previous neighbor had gotten a few and it didn't seem too hard. Well, I took a one day informational class, read a ton of books, and proved to Mark that I had the knowledge to go ahead with the chickens.

A small kiddy pool was the first step, plus a heat lamp to keep them at 90 degrees when it was still snowing outside! We picked up 8 (the original plan was 4) but I wanted more in case of roosters. I also thought if I gave any away I would give a group of 3 away since chickens are social animals and don't like to be alone.

 

They were a little needy at first, trying to keep them at the right temperature, but SO much fun! And did I mention we got 4 more chickens so that I could have a few that laid GREEN eggs!! What would be better than green eggs from Hamm's :)

When it warmed up and Mark had some time to convert an old shed into a coop we moved them outside. Bennett loved catching and holding the chickens. This one, Fluffy (cousin Sean's chicken), was now a month or so old and into the awkward "teenage years".

Here is Fluffy in the summer time. The chickens loved to roam the ENTIRE property, all 2 1/2 acres. When they got tired of that they started to roam the entire neighborhood. This became a problem as they were running into neighbor dogs as well as hanging out in the street like a gang of teenagers looking for trouble.

Grandpa Slocombe helped me fix the fenced back yard and clip a few of their flight feathers so that they would stay put in the backyard.

 

While Mark was away hunting I found this little beauty in the coop.  It wasn't in the nesting box but I was so excited to find it. She has since learned the proper place to lay and 4 other chickens have started to follow suite. No green eggs yet :(

Hunter and Bennett are overjoyed to help gather eggs. We have loved having the chickens. They are easy to take care of and extremely entertaining to watch and chase.

 

 

Now for this chicken, it has caused us some trouble. See what his mouth is doing (if there were sound it would be REALLY LOUD)....see that tail.... he turned out to be rooster # 2 (#1 had already been served for dinner). He was loud and was being rough on the hens so he had to go!

Hunter asked if he could do the job. It was one of the funniest 30 minutes of my life watching Hunter chase this rooster around with a fishing net.

Into the garage...across the yard...into the trees...under Grandpa and Grandma's  motor home...back into the garage...

Finally we corralled him and a few of his friends into the backyard. Hunter was scouting it out and planning his strategy.

He didn't give up. I offered to take over for him but he insisted on doing it.  It took at least 30 minutes and he never gave up, good lesson in perseverance.

He even helped with the "swinging part" that followed as well as the skinning part.  I went to YouTube to find out how to skin a chicken rather than pluck all those feathers. It was surprisingly very clean and QUICK. Good thing too because just yesterday I discovered we have rooster # 3, in Mark's words "gray beard has to go." 

 

See, it is a good thing I started with 12 instead of 4!  I already have plans for closer to 20 for the next batch in a few years. I guess I have become the Chicken Lady after all!