the story of my actual chickens...

We are not farmers.  Not good ones anyways.  Back in March, The Rooster finished up our chicken coop, and we got 12 pullets and installed them into the coop.  In case you are not familiar with the world of chickening, a pullet is a chicken that is not a baby, but isn't laying just yet...around 16 weeks of age.  We decided on pullets because while yes, baby chicks are cute, for about 2 weeks, I have a baby child, and a baby boxer in my house, and combining such things with Busy Chick is certain to end in the demise of baby chicks...so we picked chickens that could just go straight outside.  Anyways...back to the birds....we got 12.  One night we didn't get out there quite early enough to lock them all in, I think it had been raining, and they wandered around too late....and then there were 11...same thing happened a few weeks later...we had a sitter for the children Chicks, and the bird chicks were still out eating worms in the yard, so we left them out...went to put them up that night...and then there were 10.  Last week I was playing in the yard with the children Chicks (this gets hard when I talk about my kids and the actual birds all in one post, but try to keep up) in the yard and I saw a large SUV slow to a stop in front of our house...and then reverse to the driveway and pull in.  I was actually expecting her to fuss at me for my birds being near the road..but she was kindly coming to tell me that she had just hit a chicken, and she was so sorry....I of course assured her that it wasn't her fault...and my next call, after telling The Rooster that then there were 9, was to the general store to order 3 more chickens...and now there are 12 again.  We had been cooping them since the tragic not making it across the road event last week, but in a coop is really no way to live when you have so much room to roam on, so The Rooster and I have decided to let the girls out of the coop, and we realize that by doing this, we may see our numbers dwindle again, but that they will at least be happier chickens for us doing it.  They will also eat less feed, b/c they are roaming around getting feed like they are made to do, and they will make less poop in the coop for The Rooster to clean up, b/c they will be out in the yard pooping there...so...win.win...happy chickens, happy The Rooster = Happy Mama Hen!

Here's hoping that we don't have any chickens crossing the road, and that the foxes are well enough fed at this point to leave these girls alone! 

I forgot to mention that Marley the Boxer has gotten after them a few times but so far hasn't taken anyone down....yet.  I can't tell if she can not catch one, or if she just enjoys the thrill of the chase. I'm sure at some point Busy Chick, Brainy Chick, or Chickette will accidentally release her into the yard when the chickens are out and we will get to see again if she can or can't catch a bird!

Now you know the story of my actual chickens....if you're wondering why we have them, it's for the fresh eggs...you simply cannot beat a farm fresh egg and we even took it up a notch and these ladies are non-soy, non-gmo fed chickens...so we get fancy eggs!

Any questions??

Mama Hen