Life with Chickens

I thought my husband was crazy when he said he wanted to get some backyard chickens.

I mean, I move from a rural area to the largest metropolitan city in the southern United States and this man wants to raise farm animals in our backyard.

The coop. Notice all of our flowers have been eaten by... you guessed it... chickens.

To say the least, I was skeptical.

"Hey there, my name's Fricassee."

But, as it turns out, chickens are not that much work. Truth be told, they are barely any work at all for me. Mike is the one who feeds them and gives them water. And after building a coop, that is basically all the maintenance that is required.

It is likely that you will open your blinds in the morning and see this.

Plus our eggs are soooo good I can't even eat regular eggs anymore. My dad feels the same way. He asks before every visit if we have eggs and coffee, as those are apparently the only guest accommodations he feels are necessary.

Chickens were even guests (or "scenery") at our surprise backyard wedding.

There are certainly downsides. These include going to your window one morning then wondering aloud "Why are there white feathers all over the yard?" Answer: raccoons.

Or hearing a shrieking hen desperately try to fight off a hawk. Just to reassure you, the chicken won. Well, I helped. That was the first time I ever hit a hawk with my bare hands.

Yeah... you could say I'm that chicken's hero...

The chicken that survived the hawk's attack is a Sussex hen named Gimpy. At almost five years old and with a limp caused by a birth defect, Gimpy has endured where other chickens have fallen prey. She's a tough old bird, and she is the slowest, smartest, and sometimes out of necessity, the meanest.

Though she is past her laying age, Gimpy became a mom for the first time this week. She has always been broody (a term used to describe a very "motherly" hen). The city allows for plenty of hens but no roosters, so Gimpy had not been able to lay fertile eggs while she was laying.

Since she is his favorite and because we are running low on chickens (blame the raccoons), Mike bought her some fertile eggs last month.

Within 20 days, we had five sweet baby chicks. Gimpy absolutely dotes on them. She is a great mom.

Our other chickens are two Polish Top Hats and one Ameraucana.

Buffy

Salt n' Peppa (two much chicken for just one name)

Gertrude Stein

We use our chickens for eggs and generally don't slaughter them for meat. We did slaughter one once who terrorized the other chickens and was an egg eater. (It's really difficult to break a chicken from eating eggs, and other chickens will pick up the habit.) I didn't care for the mess and thought it was more trouble than it was worth. We let our old hens die a peaceful death (or, you know... raccoons).

Only the Top Hat chickens are still laying eggs. Luckily, in about 20 weeks we should have some new hens to start laying. They grow up so fast. *sniff*