Chickens on the Brain

I read somewhere that a chicken lays an egg every day. That seems like a lot of work to me. I mean, I can't imagine shoving a baby out every day.

Anyway, that got me to thinking that if our 4 chickens lay an egg a day, my punks will collect 1460 eggs a year. That's a lot of eggs for a family of four.

And that got me thinking about how we got in this crazy chicken business in the first place and the life lessons we've learned along the way. One fine day in 2007, the Dairy Farmer showed up with 2 chickens "for the kids." Look how little my punks were. Little T was 9 and Little A was only 6....gosh, that seems so long ago.

 

The kids were beyond excited to have their very own chickens and quickly picked theirs out and named them. Little T called her's Angelina Ballerina and Little A....well, his was Spiderman. That's a hint as to what was important in their lives at the time.   

Life lesson #1: egg laying chickens are girls (Spiderman quickly became Spidergirl)

Life lesson #2: chickens poop out eggs they do NOT cough them up (Little A was very proud to fill us in on that fact when our hens started laying)

Life lesson #3:  chicken butt fresh eggs DO indeed taste better than grocery store eggs. 

Life lesson #4: you can donate a dozen eggs from your backyard chickens to your punks school's silent auction fundraiser and make some big bucks! (over $60.00 in fact!)

Life lesson #5:  an egg stand at the side of the road is a decent idea (and egg salad stand- not so much)

Life lesson #6: when your hens become eggbound, don't be surprised if your husband shoves a finger up their bum and helps them out (all the while chatting on the phone.)

Life lesson #7: yes.....hawks do eat chickens. This was realized in the wee morning hours when I heard a terrible noise coming from the distressed ladies.....fortunately, the hawk was unsuccessful that night, but the girls did get to sleep in the house until we got a top on their yard.

Life lesson #8: not everyone has chickens in their basement in the winter and they will look at you funny when you tell them you do.

Life lesson #9: chickens do not live very long. This was realized when Angelina just died one day. We had a proper burial and shed a few tears. Spidergirl gave up and became a pet chicken and never laid an egg again.

Life lesson #10:  it's amazing how attached you can become to a chicken (we found this out when Spidergirl passed away while we were on vacation and my father in law disposed of her body in the manure pit AND THEN TOLD MY SON!)  Many tears were shed that day.

Needless to say- the replacements came in June.  We welcomed Omlette, Benedict, Sunny Side and Dippy.  They are doing a fine job providing us with butt fresh eggs for ourselves, friends and family, but you will never fill the hole left in your heart by your very first chicken.