And then there were three…

Thought I’d give an update on my journey with the chickens!  After a series of unfortunate events, I find myself going from six chicks to three.

My Three Girls

As I wrote before, a predator managed to get a hold of one of the Rhode Island Reds.  I had to “baby” the other one as the older chicks were not accepting it.  Imagine my disappointment when I realized that my RR was a rooster!  One of my black stars ended up being a roo a well.  That one was my fault – I totally missed a tiny white feather on its head when I got the day-old chicks.   Living in a suburban neighborhood precludes my having roosters, so they both had to go – especially when one of them woke us up crowing a couple weeks ago!  Thankfully, I have a country friend with a neighbor who was happy to take both birds off my hands.

The girls are doing fine – I’m hoping to have eggs soon.  My dear husband continues to remind me just how expensive those eggs will be   As the rainy season has come back to us down here, I’ve found there’s a bit more odor and a few more flies than I had anticipated.  Thankfully I was able to get some good advice at the Backyard  Chickens website, so we’ll be cleaning out the “downstairs” run, adding pine shavings and diatomaceous earth.

I never imagined how much I would enjoy having chickens.  We can’t let them free range, but I do try to let them out to forage around the yard in the evening after dinner.  I will sometimes take a book and cup of tea outside for some quiet moments.  It never fails that the book doesn’t get read because I’m too busy watching the girls!  My husband just shakes his head when he peeks out and finds me sitting there grinning from ear to ear.  I guess if watching fish swim in an aquarium can lower blood pressure, why can’t watching chickens run around the back yard do the same?!?