I Didn't Want Chickens, I Just Wanted Their Eggs

After a lovely time in South Dakota we returned home and it was time to get to work unpacking and learning all about our new surroundings. Did I mention that when we bought our house it also came with about 40-50 chickens? I still don't really know how many chickens we actually have.

If you know me then you've probably heard that I've wanted chickens for a long time, but our previous home didn't have the space and our HOA didn't permit it. Well, I've finally got my chickens, but did I ever mention that I know nothing about chickens or really any pet or animal for that matter? What have I gotten myself into? I even mentioned to my husband that I really didn't want chickens, but I just wanted their eggs. He had a good laugh while I began researching chickens like crazy by checking books out at the library, and Google has been a great help too. We not only have hens, but we have a few roosters too! What do you do with roosters? The previous owner, whom we still speak to often, told us to leave eggs in the nesting boxes and we'll have baby chicks in 21 days. What? We've contemplated getting rid of them. That was until a very large bird swooped down and tried to attack our chickens. The rooster, that the children name Saruman, fought the bird off. He has since been renamed Gandalf, for protecting his flock. We're keeping the roosters for now. The previous owner let the chickens out all over the property, so we've done the same thing with a little hesitation. How do we get them all back into the coop at night? We don't. We've learned that they just know where to go when it starts to get dark outside. We don't have to do anything. The roosters pretty much herd their hens back to the coop, which the children have recently named The Shire.

We have a large open field in the back of our house with a massive wall that still needs to be finished. When we moved in the weeds were waist high and now we've been told that we need to get some goats to keep the weeds down. What? I don't even know what I'm doing with chickens. That little green mower works just fine in the field, don't you think? If anyone out there is looking to do a little labor putting up a stone wall let me know. We have all the materials and I'll feed you!

          

We were told that our recently inherited flock of chickens were pretty old. Not all of the chickens are even laying eggs anymore. The previous owner suggested that we grow our flock by, guess what? Yeah, these kids talked me into buying baby chicks when we returned home from South Dakota. AHH!!

I have to admit that they're pretty darn cute and they're growing on me, but I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing.  We'll see how many make it through the winter. Stick around for more to come on our little urban farm?