The Keeping of Chickens

I must admit, I have always wanted chickens. When we bought our house in 2001, The Boy™ picked up a book at Barnes and Nobles called Storey's Basic Country Skills. It is a very handy book, and we have referred to it many times over the years for everything from deskunking the dog, to fixing things in the house. One day during that first winter, I curled up with the book on a cold snowy day, and read through the whole thing. I didn't read the entire book, more than flip through the entire thing, reading about what struck my fancy. I told The Boy™ that it was too bad we had just gotten a birding dog, because I'd love to have a few chickens. Later on I found out that you aren't "supposed" to have livestock in the Village District of our town, and that was that.

A few years ago, I helped my friend C move out to a house she was renting up one of the hills in our town (the one that Blueberry Farm is at the end of, coincidentally)  and we joked about how we could have chickens at her house. In the spring, she bought that same house and we started talking about chickens. Serious talk about chickens. Chicks are a lot of work, and it was decided that the coop would get built, the supplies purchased, and then we'd get some "teens". Chickens who were young, and almost ready to start laying eggs, but no longer chicks.

The chickens showed up in mid-July, and I finally got a chance to get over and meet them. We had a lovely evening on the screen porch, watching them and deciding on their names. They are funny things, and each has it's own personality. A rooster is currently visiting, but it doesn't sound like he's going to stay very long. It was a test-basis with him anyhow. The nice thing about chickens is that they don't crow.  Because they are still considered young, we are excited to see how they look when they are all grown up, and what kind of eggs they lay.