Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New animals in the menagerie

Well, a mere 14 years after moving to the country, where we are surrounded by farms on all sides, we have finally got some farm animals of our own.

We now have 4 chickens and so far they have survived 48 hours in our care, which is just short of miraculous. (We’re lazy & somewhat incompetent & know only what we’ve read on the internet about chickens, well, that & some advice from some people we know who keep chickens but still…).

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This is Stewin’, Fried & Fricassee. Rotisserie walked out of the shot as I was taking it.

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WHAT did you say my name was?????

The reason we are surprised they are still with us is her

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Our dog, Houndini. DH has been fairly certain we are not getting chickens so much as buying expensive & short lived dog treats. But after a couple hours Houndini lost interest in the walking snack bar & so far things are ok.

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It’s not so much a chicken coop as a chicken prison. Maximum security.

It’s not the chickens breaking out we are worried about but Houndini breaking in.

Once the chickens are settled in and we’re sure Houndini & the cats have lost interest in them, we’ll let them  out of the smaller run attached to the coop & into the larger pen area.

Also once DH has replaced that leaning piece of wood with plywood actually cut to fit & nailed on the coop to keep the chickens from escaping out of the big gap there.

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The boys are responsible for letting the chickens out in the morning & feeding them. They get up at the crack of dawn anyway so they might as well start doing something more useful than fighting over which DVR’d episode of Star Wars the Clone Wars they are going to watch.

I’m more concerned the chickens will escape the boys than that the dog will eat them.

Despite their names, which is just me amusing myself, we got them for the eggs, though we have 4-6 more weeks before they are mature enough to start laying, but then we’ll have fresh laid eggs! Though given laying times, it will take most of a week to have enough for an omelet.

Mostly this is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.

6 comments:

Wendy Bukowski said...

Ooh, we'd love to keep chickens but we spend every other weekend away and somehow I can't picture them travelling well in the back of the car with mad dog Maisy. Great names and I love the shot of
Rotisserie :-)

Cheri Andrews said...

The names are probably (imho) the best part of owning the chickens!

Shonie said...

I would love to have chickens for the eggs. DH says no he's not having a farm (and he's the country boy!). So I will live vicariously through your chicken posts!

Carrie/scrapchick said...

Wow, really nice photos first off. Secondly, love the names! How fun, look forward to hearing more of your chicken adventures.

Ginger said...

Those chickens are cute! i grew up on a farm and we had chickens, but they were the kind you ate and so therefore not as cute :) I look forward to hearing more chicken stories!

Rinda1961 said...

I adore that picture of the chicken! I always wanted chickens (and fresh eggs), but I could never get my husband to agree. Looking forward to their progress.
Rinda