Chickens...

So I know it's been a super dooper long time since I last wrote, and I know blogging rule #1 - don't comment on how long it's been since you last wrote, but oh well, I think it needs to be noted - so I sorry for all of you die-hard fans that have been WAITING and keeping up with my blog all this time, and I haven't written anything!

Yikes!

So I have chickens now.... Never thought I would have chickens, but I always sort of liked the idea of living out in the country on a farm!  So when I Evan and I were starting to talk about marriage, we ended up talking about pets.  We got on the subject - because I thought it would be neat to have a cow and have fresh dairy products!!!! but alas, we don't have enough land for livestock.

As we talk about what animals we could have, chickens came up, and Evan actually sort of liked the idea.  He spent a lot of time at his grandpa's when he was growing up and liked being out in the country on a farm.  His grandpa had chickens for a while, so I think that helped him to be more into the idea!  So in the spring when Rural King has their chicks..... wait, what?!?  Ok, so for all you city folk, who have no idea about country living (Like me!)  at least here in Indiana there is a store called Rural King that is a super store for farming type stuff.  So in the spring time, around March or so until June they have chicks in the store that you can buy!  SO CUTE!  It's really hard to look at them and pick them up and pet them, and NOT want to bring them home with you right away - which is what plenty of people probably do with all the chickens you see on Criagslist or in shelters around here.

Anyway, we gazed at chickens for a while and finally decided to get them one day!  When we went into the store though, they had pretty much sold out! (they had a sale? the day before - a sale on baby chicks? weird!)  So we ended up researching a little, and then ordered some chickens.  Before we knew it they were in!  So this spring and summer has been a frenzy to raise the chicks, without them getting eaten by hawks, cats, or other predators, and building a coup and getting everything set up.

Then we needed a shed to sell the eggs from, so Evan built that as well, and then while we're at it, we needed hay to line the bottom of the coup with throughout the year, so Evan made a homemade Hay-baler.  So we now grow our grass long and bale it!  WOW!  I guess we are farmers!

Anyway so the reason I'm writing this post - I feel like I am updating on Facebook too often about too many things, so this morning I picked up some worms(dead and alive)  I saw along my walk this morning.  When I went to give the worms to the chickens, I hear a lot of clucking coming from the coup, like someone was about to lay an egg.  So I went to check it out.  Based on our breeds, it's easy to count the numbers of chickens quickly, and I knew there should be two chickens in the coup.

When I looked in there I only saw one, and was a little worried ( we had a kitten get in the coup yesterday and we were moving things, so I was worried, maybe one of the chickens got away and I didn't realize it!)  So I went in the coup to check it out, and all I could see is this one lady standing on the edge of the nesting boxes, making lots of noise.  I looked and looked for the other chicken (there isn't many places it could be)  Then I tried to see if I could get the hen that was standing making noise to move into a box and lay her egg already.  Then I saw it!  The other hen was behind her already sitting in the nest.  and apparently, out of the 8 nests the noisy girl could lay in, she wanted the one that was already taken - no wonder I couldn't find the other hen!

So that's all.  I just wanted to share my chicken story - here's a fun video about the hazards of backyards chickens - TOTALLY me! and some pics! Enjoy!

The coup and pen (the keep the hawks away)

Charlie and his angels (we named the rooster Charlie) :-)