Mother Hen

For Mother's Day, the kids told me to stay in bed in the morning, so I was served "breakfast" in bed (a hawaiian roll with a chunk of butter inside) and greeted by all three of my daughters JUMPING on my bed.  It was SO FUN!  And they made me a "MOM" superhero cape with some leftover fabric which I might just have to keep forever. ;-)


But the part of this year's Mother's Day that will be most memorable, will be that WE ADOPTED SIX MORE GIRLS!  Hens, that is.  We had talked about the possibility of chickens one day, but but we jumped into this kind of suddenly.  Mrs. Carrie had previously offered to sell us her chickens and coop when she moved, and we were going to go look at it one day and decide if it was something we could manage, but that day never came and that week they got a nice offer on their house so all the sudden we had to commit or not.

On Saturday we transported the Coop Carrie's husband Tom had custom built in their backyard. It was HEAVY!  This is not a little coop you throw in the back of a pick up truck...this is a 5' x 8' floor with 6' height so an adult can walk in, built with plywood for strength.  It took 6-8 adults to get it up on the flatbed trailer (borrowed from my folks--thank you), and just as many to get it off the trailer and into place on our property (thank goodness we found a spot to put it close to the driveway; I don't think we could have gotten in up behind the house like we were originally thinking).

Then on Sunday we gathered with family for Mother's Day at OUR house so we could have some more helping hands to built the play pen area around the coop so the chickens would have space to
roam and stretch their legs and feathers outside without fear of them wandering away and to protect them from predators (hawks/coyotes).  Once that was set up, Carrie was comfortable letting
us get her hens.  We borrowed dog kennel (thank you Kriebels) to transfer the 6 chickens to our house.  Good thing we only live 5-10 minutes away; I'm sure it was a strange trip for them.  Carrie misses her "girls" but they recognized their home and seem to have adapted well.  They laid 6 eggs on Monday, and about 4 per day every day since.

Aside from chickens, Mother's day was an enjoyable day with family working and relaxing together.   Chris got up n' attem, shopping at three stores AND to church on time, which impressed his mother very much.  Our lunch plan was put together late the night before, so his efforts helped make the day pleasant.  The kids played on the playset, the men worked hard on the chicken pen (we women worked too, but the men worked harder), and the ladies took turns holding baby Megan.  And then Chris and I soaked in the jacuzzi that night (Chris worked a little too hard and pulled some muscles).

Addisyn and Piper LOVE their new pets.  The girls had a picnic dinner (scrambled eggs) down in the yard so they could be with the chickens the first night.  They love to be the ones to deliver their food (*crumble*) and snacks (*scratch* or food scraps such as apple cores and stale cereal).  And for a whole week, they raced to get up and dressed each morning so they could let the chickens out of the coop for the day.  (They still love doing it but the morning energy has since dwindled.)  The chickens will eat out the the scooper-cup the girls use to carry the food, and they'll even eat out of their hands, but that's hard to do because their beaks nip the palm of your hand while they try to grab the food.  We didn't allow the kids to touch the chickens for a few days while they adjusted, but if they are gentle, the hens will sometimes allow the girls to pet their feathers.

We have collected over two dozen eggs and the girls made their first sale when Grammy bought a dozen for $2.  We discussed any money made going into the chicken fund to buy more food and supplies for them, but Addisyn and Piper said they should get a cut as a sales commission, so $1 goes into the chicken fund, and the girls each get 50 cents.  As long as they keep taking care of the chickens like they have been, I'm good with that payout.  As a pet, chickens take more work to attend to than our pond fish, and I am glad for the opportunity for our kids to learn how to be responsible
for another living thing.

Now we are focused on keeping our shoes and hands clean to make sure we don't get sick from chicken manure.  We are practicing wiping our shoes really well or wearing "chicken shoes" (shoes that don't go inside the house), and washing our hands after every time we go tend to the chickens.

Names and breeds of our chickens:

• "Stripey" is a Barred Rock breed--black and white stripes
• "Astra" is an Australorp mix--black with a blue shimmer in the sunlight)
• "Henri" (Henrietta) is a Buff Orpington--yellow
• "Ginger" is a Red Star (mix of two breeds)--auburn redish 
• "Blacky" is a Black Star (also a mix of two breeds)--black with some brown feather tips
• "Brownie" is an Ameraucana/Americana--brown with black head--this one lays green eggs

They are all about 2yrs old and healthy, so we should have good egg production for a while
before we need to consider bringing in any new chicks.