Our Fowl Introduction

Yaks was at nursery today and was excitedly telling his teachers about his "chickees" that live in his backyard. They said, "Well, maybe your grandma has chickens in her backyard, but you don't have chickens in your backyard!" Poor buddy. I can just imagine his crestfallen face after being corrected on something that is factual. I figure it's time to come out of the coop and share our new additions with all of you.

We have chickens.

Six of 'em.

We call them "Cheekies".

I was skeptical at first when Josh brought up the idea. My mom welcomed all kinds of animals into our home growing up, and at any given time we had a dog, cat, lizard, snapping turtle, crawdads, and a jar of black widow spiders dwelling at our residence. I'm not my mom though, and I don't really share her love of all things furry and in our case "feathered" dwelling in or around my house.

Backyard "Urban" Chickens are really growing in popularity. They are relatively easy to care for, they don't need to be groomed, walked, entertained or babysat. They take up very little space, their waste makes excellent compost and they take care of bugs in your lawns and gardens! Our cheekies are being used for their eggs alone (organic, fresh and free). We eat eggs almost every morning for breakfast and we go through two dozen a week! It's also strangely comforting knowing that if times really got rough, we could have a chicken in our pot for dinner on any given night.  

After sharing a few of my concerns, mainly not infuriating our awesome neighbors and building a coop that wouldn't "junkify" our yard, Josh got to work. He spoke with our neighbors and then got going on the coop. Our cheekies arrived via airmail and they lived comfortably in a brooding box in our basement bathroom under a heating lamp until they were old enough to move outside. I've got to admit, they've really started growing on me. I still can't pick them up. Their feet are just too "lizardy" for me, but they are so entertaining to watch. So, allow me to introduce you to our cheekies!

This is Dr. Evil/Popeye. 

He won't be with us for long. He's a Plymouth Rock rooster (it's impossible to tell the gender of chicks), and as entertaining as it is to watch him catch worms and eat mosquitos right out of the air, I don't want to hear cockadoodle doo at all hours of morning, noon and night. He doesn't respect personal space and gets "up in my grill" and stares at me with his chicken eye - it's creepy. He has nipped at my fingers, thinking they are worms. (shudder) We'll give him away to someone who would like a rooster. The kids have learned to deal with him by either clapping their hands or picking up their leg to shoo him away, as demonstrated here:

Fast One/ Spot. 

Before we learned that chickens actually put themselves to bed, once they have an established home, we had to corral and catch all six of the chickens after letting them out in our yard to "play". This one is impossible to catch. She's fast and sneaky and will hide and sit very still, blending into the bushes and shrubs hoping we'll miss her. Usually when all of the chicks are together, the lone rangers miss their friends and will start to chirp and cry and eventually find their way back to the flock. It's quite cute. Not Spot. She dudn't care. She's not being caught no matter what you have to offer. Now life is good and they just roam back to their coop as soon as the sun goes down!  Wouldn't that be cool if our kids did that?

The antithesis of Dr. Evil is Polkadot. 

Oh, dear Polkadot, if we could clone you, we would. You are so dainty and small and kind. We don't even know what breed you are!  The kids named her polkadot because her markings around her eyes look like dots (more like leopard spots). She's gonna be beautiful once she gets past this ugly pre-teen phase that they are all currently in.

The Girls. 

We have three brown chicks (their breed is called Rhode Island Red) and they are a little cliquey. I can't tell them apart, so we just call them "girls" or "brown ones" - I know, we're so original! They are always found together, gossiping and strutting around. It flashes me back to Jr. High all over again!

Josh built the coop/chicken run, which is actually a refurbished wooden dog house. Isn't it something? It's got a false bottom that slides out like a drawer to easily remove their droppings, roosting sticks, shady spots, a ramp and latches to keep them nice and safe. The kids and Josh worked on this for several weeks! 

Here's Yaks putting up "Christmas Lights". He said their house needed decorations. And what house doesn't, I ask you! Boo concerns herself with giving them enough food. She's constantly chasing them around with handfuls of feed, sprinkling it around saying, "breakfast time, everybody up, hurry, hurry!" (Can you name that film, Disney Princess fans?) She even saved popcorn kernels from a party at Nana's to give to her cheekies. Too cute.

So, here's to our little hobby/experiment! Will you all still speak to me? You don't think we're crazy, do you? We'll give it a try and see how it all works out.