Anne,
Wife of Fred for 23 years
Mom of:
Patrick (17)
James (17)
Rosie (14)
Bella(14)
Julie (14)
Daniel (12)
My children around the world:
Milly in Taiwan
Eun Hae in South Korea
Felice in Hong Kong
Nadya in Germany
Obrin in New York
And our critters Blue, Sunny, Cindy-Lou, Annabelle, Fiona, and Sophie; Mamfy, Mali, Milky and Punkin; Nick; Frog 1; Charlie and Dizzy; Minnie and Alice; Elfie, Frex, Crope, Tibbett and Ozzy; Genevieve, Pippin, and Finnegan; and a dozen or so chooks.
I'd like to ask God why He allows
hunger, poverty, and injustice
in the world,but I'd be afraid
He'd ask me the same thing ...
Are my chickens.
At this point, I have written about them ad nauseum, but here's a quick review of their history:
I took receipt of my 14 peeps a year ago March. They were day old fluffball chicks back then, and we set them up in Rosie's bathtub for their temporary quarters.
In no time, it seemed, they had graduated from bathtub to Chick Shack, and then from Chick Shack to Hen House.
Just before they made that final move, one of our hens came out and declared himself a rooster. We wanted no roos, but that's how life plays out sometimes, isn't it?
And he turned into a nasty sumbit**, that one.
Anyway, towards the end of that summer they gave us our first egg. Small and brown and perfect.
And soon after that, they started giving us LOTS of eggs. To the tune of six or seven dozen a week. For the most part, we keep up with them, but we have given a few dozen away here and there. And over the winter? They slowed down. Some days we got none, but for the most part we ended up with two or three dozen a week, so not too shabby.
For the most part, they've been pretty healthy, but I did have a problem with one of the hens. Well, it wasn't a REAL problem, but in the mind of this newbie chicken keeper it was. I thought she was egg-bound, when really all she was was broody. I tried to, errr, fix her. My apologies, my dear hen.
Also, with chickens, disgustingly enough, has come rats. And we have had to deal with them. There is no refined way of dealing with rats, let me just tell you that. We've made but a small dent in the population, but I am ever optimistic, I am.
Overall, we've learned quite a bit in our year plus of chicken keeping. I love 'em, HI.
Oh, I forgot to give you their names...
When they were chicks, I lovingly picked out individual names for them, but the harsh reality of it is, I don't know one from t'other.
Well. That's not entirely true.
I have three Buff Orpingtons, which I refer to as the Buffs. Technically, one is Big Mama, one is Goldie, and one is Puddin'. I just can't tell you which is which.
I have three Silver-Laced Wyandottes, which I call, you guessed it, the Wyandottes (WINduts). Originally, they were to be Ting, Mamin, and some other clever and significant name I can no longer recall.
There are two Black Austrolorps. They were to be Elizabeth and someone else. They are the Blacks.
There are three that I don't even know what they are. One of them is cute and a bit smaller, and she's the only hen I know of the whole flock. She is Nugget.
The two whitish ones are the Americaunas. They're the ones that lay greenish blue eggs. I should name them Sam I Am and Dr. Seuss, but the truth of it is, they, too, are nameless.
And then there is Big Daddy, the accidental roo. Nuff already said about that evil creation.
And that's it! I've made it to the end of my Social Sundays, which I started, I think, over a year ago. Whew!
Taking suggestions on what to do from now on on Sundays....
Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon. I'm here every day, rain or shine.
Anne~
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Don't forget, I will love you forever if you throw me a couple votes:
Circle of Moms: click the pink badge, scroll down to my blog, and click the thumbs-up button to vote. You can vote every day till June 20th!
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Thanks!
Arg..I can’t vote this morning...it must be once every 24 hours. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to it. I love how people who raise chickens eventually give up on the names and the flock becomes “the girls”. With the exception of your big bad boy. In Oxfordshire, behind our cottage, the neighbour has installed some chickens in a lovely free range pen. I’m looking forward to meeting them in a month. Robert says they’re charming and run to him squawking when they see him. I think it’s because he saved them from a stoat last week... at 2am.
ReplyDeleteVeronica, yes, it's once in a 24 hour period that you can vote. Thanks so much for all your support!
ReplyDeleteAs to the chickens, I absolutely LOVE when they come waddling over when they see me coming. Always raises my self esteem a notch or two (how pathetic am I?).