Chicken farm

Well, we got us some chickens! Real, live, stinky chickens.

Allen has been talking about getting chickens for a while now. He wants to do the whole raising chickens for their eggs thing. It has been discussed to also eat these chickens but I quickly put my foot down on that idea. There is no way I'm eating a chicken I raise myself. I just couldn't do it.

I've tried to delay our little chicken farm for as long as I could. We have too much other stuff going on right now to be raising chickens. Our house remains under construction and that in itself is enough to keep Allen busy forever. But I could not delay much longer. Last Friday, I was out sick and Allen stopped by a place that sells chickens when he got off work from his part-time job. When he came home, he told me that he had looked at some chickens and wanted to get some on Monday. These chickens, he said, were "fancy" chickens and they would be good for Corbin. I suppose he thought adding in the whole idea that these would be Corbin's chickens would convince me that we would get them. It did.

So all weekend, I pondered what we were going to do with chickens, since we don't have a chicken coop yet. That is on Allen's list of things to do. But on Monday, Allen and I, and Corbin, went to the little store and got two chickens, a boy and a girl. Allen took them home, put them in a box and put the box in a dog kennel. All week the dog kennel, and the chickens, have been in my living room. And in case you are wondering, chickens do not smell pleasant. Allen claims he is building a chicken coop this weekend and the chickens will not be inside anymore.

The chickens are quite little things. They are yellow and when they get big, they'll be white with feathers on their feet. These "fancy" chickens are sort of like show chickens, at least that's what Allen said and though they will produce eggs, they aren't as big as other chickens eggs. I'm not sure what that means really but I think it's Allen telling me that more not-so-fancy chickens are in our near future.

Now, I'm a country girl and having some farm animals doesn't bother me. But we have 3 inside cats, 2 dogs and then one mean outside cat. The chickens have survived inside with our animals. The cats are too lazy to mess with any type of food that moves. And any interest the cats initially had went away when Abby, my dog, decided that the chickens were hers and it was her job to protect them. So even when the cats tried to come near, Abby would push them away. Our outside cat is a different story. He is a giant, man kitty. He eats things bigger than himself. My dogs, who are pit bulls, are terrified of him. So I can't imagine chickens will survive in our yard, even in a chicken coop. I am willing to bet this cat will find his way into our chicken coop, once Allen builds it. That will be pretty devastating.

But anyway, the chickens are just the start to our little farm. Allen also wants some ducks and a turkey and I myself, want a rabbit and a pig. And there's no telling what Corbin will want once he's bigger but I can guarantee he'll probably get it!