Chickens!

Today I want to talk about the only animals who actually pull their weight here on the farm, our hens!! I had always wanted chickens and the first spring after we moved to our little farm was the time to get started. Our local feed store has Chick Days where they bring in a number of different breeds, and I went in and just said, "I'll take two of those, and two of those, and two of those..." until I had a dozen. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying close attention and one of the little chicks had a deformed bill and died shortly after I brought them home. So 11 babies made it to be big enough to go into the coop and hopefully lay some eggs. Over the next year we lost a couple of chickens; one to a coyote and one just up and died for no reason! Here's the first dozen eggs we collected from them...aren't they tiny!


And here they are being cooked too! In a short amount of time they were laying eggs that were normal sized!


Frank and I really love the chickens and all their antics. We let them out in the afternoons to forage for bugs and dust bathe under the big cedar tree. They are great at eating almost all our food waste from the house and the weeds from the garden too. We have them pretty spoiled so they follow us whenever we are outside, hoping for a little handful of scratch or some bird seed when Frank is filling the feeder.


The next spring I decided I wanted a turkey or two for a pet, and while purchasing the tiny poults, the feed store suggested that we get a couple of chicks at the same time because the little turkeys were too dumb to find the food and water without someone showing them...so I came home with two baby turkeys and two tiny little banty chicks. Well, the turkeys didn't work out (another long story for later!) but the two little chicks grew up in to a little rooster called Colonel Sanders and my favorite little Silver Sebright hen named Sophie. She supervises most everything that goes on here at the farm. She has discovered how to get out of their safe run, so she is loose most of the time. She also lays her tiny, walnut-sized eggs in the barn in the hay rather than in the nest boxes.

I don't know why everyone who has the space doesn't have these wonderful animals. Who could want more than to be entertained by their antics and get fresh eggs at the same time! And nothing compares to farm-fresh eggs...YUM!!