My first experience with chickens happened last summer.  My 9 year old son and I were heading to the farm for eight weeks to supervise the building of a workshop and to plant an orchard.  There was no reason in my mind why we couldn’t learn about chickens, too.

We headed to the feed store first to see if they had baby chicks.  It was early in the summer and there was a slim chance they still had some, but as it turned out, they didn’t.  I spoke to the manager of the store to see if she knew of anyone selling laying hens.  Yes, it happened that she had quite a few she could part with for $5 per bird.  We immediately laid our money down for 6 hens to be picked up at her farm the following week, and then drove back to the farm to build a coop.

By the end of the first week of chicken ownership, I was in love with chickens. Nothing was more entertaining than watching them scour the grass for bugs, and pick fresh raspberries off the canes with their beaks.  They had quickly and  firmly defined their pecking order, having come from a much larger flock to this new coop with only 6 hen friends and one very young rooster.  The poor rooster was most decidedly at the bottom of that order.

In addition to their layers rations, which got the benefit of a cup of warm milk added in the morning, they were fed all the left over salad and vegetarian dishes we had.  We did our grocery shopping at the farmers market every Thursday morning and had veggies, fruit, fresh bread and antibiotic free grass fed beef for the week.  The chickens sampled everything but the beef.  You have never seen funny until  you have seen a chicken eating spaghetti with fresh tomato and basil sauce!  They rewarded us promptly with six eggs every morning before noon so omelette’s, frittata’s and quiche were welcome additions to our menu’s that summer.

At the end of our eight weeks at the farm I had made arrangements for the chickens to be picked up and taken to another loving home.  Turns out that chickens can be as charming for pets as bunnies to a little girl inclined to see them that way.  I miss them, though.

Emily and Winchester