Chickens...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 05:44PM I was telling someone recently, about our family's attempt at keeping chickens. It was several Easter's ago and it all started, again, with my husband. I remember the day vividly. I was curling my hair, it was a warm, lovely Saturday morning and the kids were scattered about the house playing. Wade was out running errands when he called to say that he had just picked up a surprise for the kids and could I get them to all go out into the back yard to sit under the shade tree.
How thoughtful - this was actually my first thought. And my second thought was that I knew what he had gotten them - it was Popsicles for the kids on such a warm day. How thoughtful is he to have them actually go outside to eat them! With that, I hurried to shoo them all out under the big tree.
I was inside when I saw him enter the yard and I gave him a big wave and a smile. What a thoughtful dad...getting his kids Popsicles and making it such a grand surprise. How could I be so lucky? As I looked out again and noticed the box in his hands, which was NOT a Popsicle box at all, it hit me....how could I be so naive? I watched as he directed them each to sit in the grass. Then, there they were - four colored chicks running around in circles as the four crazy children followed. There was a blue one, a yellow one, a red one and a green one, each no bigger than an egg. Four fuzzy little chickens and each of our kids immediately claimed one as their own.
I don't specifically remember the exact sequence of events that followed, but I do remember that my husband and I had a "meeting" inside, while the kids ran around outside with their "popsicles". I don't remember exactly what we said in our meeting, but I remember it was a little loud. Once he allowed me to vent my frustration in not being made a partner in this great decision, he assured me that it would all be fine and with all our other animals, chickens would fit right in. "Look at the kids", he said. "Look at how happy they are." He was mumbling something about eggs when I left to check on the kids, who were all elated. They could not have been happier with their new chicks.
We kept the four little chicks in the box overnight, while deciding how and where we should permanently keep them. Audra's little chick, sadly, did not make it through that 1st night. This was not the chick we thought we'd lose first. Colton spent the entire first day sending his chick down the slide, so we were sure his was the one with the worst odds for surviving that first day. The combination of Audra losing her chick and Colton's chick being in constant peril, made for a good solution. She adopted his (he didn't seem to care) and now there were three.
The three remaining chicks quickly grew into large white chickens that enjoyed pooping and roosting on my nice patio furniture right up by the house. After too many months of this and excessive complaints from me, Wade decided it was time to take the chickens out to the horses and introduce them to our blood hounds, Harley and Elvis. Our yard is divided into two separate areas. The pool and kids area is close to the house and the horse and hound area is in the back. Wade spent the better half of a day in the back half of the yard getting the chickens and the hounds acquainted. After all the introductions were made and a brief observation period had successfully elapsed, he assured the children (and me) that the chickens and the blood hounds were now good friends.
You can imagine our horror when Wade went out to feed the next morning and found only two and a half chickens in the yard. The two surviving chickens were way up in the Mesquite tree and were not easy to coax down. He discreetly disposed of the remaining chicken, which we later discovered was Sierra's, and we decided it was time for another "meeting". A friend of mine knew of someone who had an air-conditioned chicken coop and who would gladly take our two remaining chickens. So, we waited in the driveway with our two new bags of chicken scratch and our two remaining chickens. The lady pulled up, we loaded them up as fast as we could and off they went. She was thrilled to have them and we were equally thrilled to see them go. She, apparently, did not have dogs, which is obviously an important factor when keeping chickens.
I'm sure that I will add a future post about our attempt at keeping a goat. It ranks up there with the chickens and again, not one of our better ideas.
Reader Comments (2)
Win some, lose some. Bread, win. Chickens, lose. Life is, after all, about balance. Kudos to Cupcake for keeping it "live."
Cupcake is the "live" wire here and I give him credit for keeping us on the edge, always with optimism. Gotta love it! You are so right about balance - it's what keeps us sane. Looking forward to seeing you all SOON :)