Jun19

The chicken has landed

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Four chickens, to be exact. As you may recall, our coop was smaller than expected, so Husband constructed a “chicken run” to give our birds a little more free range.

DSCN5433

My youngest daughter has become one with the chickens. She spends time playing in their yard daily.

Backing up a bit, we planned to buy our chickens from the same store we bought the other supplies. Only those chickens were $20 each. I was like, uh, no. That price is fowl. (Thank you. I’ll show myself out.)

A quick craigslist search found me chickens nearby for $7 each. I called up the owner to confirm the price and that they were old enough to tell the hens from the roosters. I hung up with a triumphant smile.

Hubs was less confident.

“The store gives a 90% hen guarantee. Plus, they let you trade in if you accidentally get a rooster. How do we know this guy’s honest?”

“Hmm. I just wouldn’t think that people who keep chickens would be shysters.”

Who can argue with that logic, right?

So Hubs relented. We drove to the Chicken Man’s house and were greeted by a beautiful flower-filled yard. The kind owner spent ten minutes giving us a tour. He explained what the flowers were and gave us two hand fulls of seeds from my favorite of the flowers, hollyhock, with instructions on how to plant them.

hollyhock

These suckers were taller than his roof and oh-so-gorgeous.

We made it to his giant coop area, greeted the ducks, admired all the chickens, picked out the four we’d like, and then, because the kids were with us, he removed a wood panel and showed us where the ducklings were hiding–about two dozen cheeping balls of fluff.

ducklings

Oh my goodness. Cuteness overload.

He let each of the girls hold one, including me because I held my hand out too. 🙂

He walked us to our van with a fond farewell and told us to email anytime with questions.

As we drove off, Hubs said, “You were right. Chicken people are good people.”

I texted my mom the news that the chickens had arrived.

“Are you sure they’re all hens?” she asked.

“Not 100%, but pretty sure.”

“When they start borrowing your mascara and nylons, you’ll know.”

#wisdomfromourelders

Are any of you chicken owners, or would like to be? What’s your favorite flower?

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94 responses »

  3. We wouldn’t have enough room for some chickens although it would be pretty cool to have some. I remember this time last year, someone had a Rooster nearby to us. It crowed all of the time! It was only the other day, we realised the rooster hadn’t crowed for an extremely long time! :O. Pictures are beautiful 🙂

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  7. Cuteness overload is right! Awwww. My hubby and I have gone back and forth about chickens, and so far have decided against it. Our neighbors are always pushing eggs on us, and they do live for a long time, unless… you know. Ours would become pets and we can’t do that to our pets! So no chickens here. But what fun for your family. And the eggs can’t be beat!

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  8. No way because chickens terrify me, but I remember when I used to run…sigh. We are in a very “produce our own eggs” area…roosters too…apparently. Anyway, I used to love it when the weather would start to get colder, and I’d run on a road with cottage homes off a lake. Not paved…not really. The air had that cool crisp smell/feel as I’d inhale. There was this one house with the type of garden in the front with a collection of haphazard, overextended plants and flowers that my husband hates, but I secretly love for their chaos…okay, maybe not that secret. The house always had bacon frying, and I could smell it. And, then other homes wood burning…something. Anyway, it would be the morning and I’d pass goats…because, of course. They were penned, and periodically reported in our local paper for attacking unsuspecting children or butting porch railings. I ranked those police reports with the escaped llamas and random other Mrs. Kravitz people reporting random things their neighbors weren’t doing wrong. Sorry, chickens…so many houses with them, but it’s morning, so you could hear roosters greeting the day, and I’d think. Why would anyone do that to themselves?

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    • Thank you for being the first person to mention my mom’s funny line! Well, this is our first go round with chickens, and there are only four of them. When they’re a little older we’ll get eggs from them–more than we’ll need, so hopefully we can sell organic eggs, too.

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  11. No chickens for me. Friends had chickens for a few years, and those cute little balls of chickie fluff turned into a mean bunch of hens. Your mom is funny. I see where you get your sense of humor from.

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  12. How exciting!
    My mom grew beautiful hollyhocks that were huge. My dad specialized in angel trumpets. Every year he would cut them down to the ground, and the next year they grew taller than their house! People came from miles around to see their yard, they had so many beautiful flowers.
    I’m lucky if I can get a weed to grow! My husband blames me for the ones in the yard, but since that’s his domain, I maintain they are his weeds, too!
    Your daughter looks like she loves the chickens!

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    • She does love the chickens. She’s so great with them. They’re so comfortable with her hanging around. Weeds are the only things I can grow. This chicken man had yellow trumpet flowers too. So exotic! Sounds like your childhood yard was a fairy garden. 🙂

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      • That’s so sweet!
        The flowers were actually after I left home. We never stayed in one place long enough to grow anything until I was about 16 (we moved over 60-not a typo-times before I was 14!).

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      • No, I think my parents had gypsy blood, LOL!
        It was tough. Fortunately, I only had to go to 3 high schools and spent 3 years at the one I graduated from.
        I never really was able to make friends, but I can move at the drop of a hat, LOL!!

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      • It was all sorts. Some from California to Georgia, some from Georgia to Texas, then back to California, then Georgia…and spots between. I’ve lived in 12 states and multiple cities (I guess that’s kind of obvioous, huh?)
        It has made me able to adapt to changes much more easily than most people. There are both good and bad aspects, but I guess that’s true for everything.

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  13. I would have balked at $20 each. Good grief they’re chicks! The yard reminds me of the spreading, dog-filled year where we got our Labrador. With the special place where the new puppies were kept. That was fun.

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  16. LOL! I’m sooo far behind–sorry. Chickens! But, but, you missed the fluffy chick stage 😦 But wow, the hollyhocks! And hope your family likes eggs, because you’ll probably get a couple dozen every week (yes, because hens typically lay one egg per day, and 4 hens will give you a dozen eggs every three days 😮 ) And you’ve got a coop cleaner in training already 😀

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    • I know we bipassed the fluffy chicks, but we didn’t want to deal with a heat lamp and special food. If the chicks were born here, their mom would take care of that, but no such luck. We have agreed here that if one of the hens turned out to be a rooster, we wouldn’t mind getting chicks. But then we’d probably need a much much bigger coop! We’d end up selling most of the chicks, I suppose, which is what we’ll do with the extra eggs. Or at least try to.

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  23. We’re not chicken owners, but I would consider it ESPECIALLY if they can help protect the garden from the scourge of deer that have successfully destroyed my ENTIRE tomato crop this year.

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    • Ugh. So sorry about your tomatoes. Though I wish I lived in a more woodland setting, I guess I’m thankful we don’t have deer to eat our garden. Gophers, skunks, lizards, and raccoons, but they don’t seem interested in the tomatoes. Gophers ate all our lettuce and spinach, however. Darn things! Would chickens actually ward off deer?

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  24. oh i’m soooo jealous! i would be right there holding my hand out, too! congratulations! your sense of humor must come from your mom, lol. she’s funnee!
    tell us your chicken tales often, fluffy cuteness is never old!

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